Monday Practice Report: Preparing for Boston College

• Florida State held its normal Monday practice to start its week of preparation for Saturday's 3:30 p.m. contest vs. Boston College.

• Game time for Florida State's October 28 contest at Maryland has not been announced. ESPN/ABC declared a six-day option on the announcement. The possible game times and networks are 3:30 pm on ABC, 7 pm on ESPN2 or 7:45 pm on ESPN. ESPN/ABC will make announce their decision no later than 12 noon on Sunday, Oct. 22.

• The Seminoles worked out in shorts and helmets for ten periods on Monday evening, starting with special teams and individual position drills.

• Most of periods were spent with the offense and defense working against the scout teams.

• Quarterback Drew Weatherford complete passes of over 20 yards to Robert Hallback (two), Robert Hallback and De'Cody Fagg.

• Florida State will be back on the practice Tuesday afternoon.

QUOTES
Head Coach Bobby Bowden

(On the reserve linebackers):
"We talked about them this morning. We've still got (Rodney) Gallon, (Dekoda) Watson, (Ricardo) Wright and two or three walk-ons that played the other day. I was thinking about taking a strong safety, I mentioned it to Mickey (Andrews) about it, but he's got (Anthony) Hollis out and we've had (Darius) McClure hurt for two or three games so we don't have a enough people out there."

(On the offense carrying the team):
"I think it's hard for the offense to carry a team, the defense usually has to carry, but we sure hope we can pick up production"

(On Boston College):
"To me this is the best team we've played yet, there's no doubt in my mind. Clemson's pretty good, but they beat Clemson so I'd say this is the best team we've played. They handled Virginia Tech Thursday."

Quarterback Drew Weatherford

(On spreading the ball around) "I feel like our team is more comfortable when the team is spread out. We have our best players out there, Greg (Carr) with Chris (Davis) and De'Cody (Fagg), then Lorenzo (Booker) and Anton (Smith), and I also feel like our line does a great job too. I feel like what makes us successful is that we throw a lot of quick plays, a lot of shotgun five yard cuts and hitches; basically plays that are catching and throwing and that helps the offensive line out because the defense is frustrated when they don't have the opportunity to get a good rush on because the ball is gone so quick. You do that over and over, it discourages them. Against Virginia Tech, we threw the ball quickly so much that Taft barely got off the line he never knew if I was going to catch and throw or take a three step drop. It really puts our offense into a rhythm and keeps the defense on their heels.

(First impressions of Boston College)
"I watched a little film, but they are a really big physical football team that doesn't make a lot of mistakes. They seem to be very similar to the team that they were last year, in that they don't give up a lot of big plays. They try to keep everything in front of them. As an offense, I feel like we just need to play loose and spread the ball around. If we do that we will be successful and have a good game."

(On the black tribute uniforms)
"I love them; I'm really excited to wear something that nobody has ever worn. There has been so much history at this school, and they've always worn garnet and gold. To come out and represent the Seminole tribe, wear all black uniforms, and have all the fans wearing all black is something special and I'm happy to be a part of it."

Offensive Coordinator Jeff Bowden

(On Drew Weatherfod and pressure being relieved) "The way I feel about Drew is that he's like a shooter in basketball. The more shots he gets, the better he will be. I think that he was really excited knowing that the shots were going to be coming from play one on. He had some margin for error, it wasn't one of those games where we were going to throw it 18 times, and all downfield. He knew he was going to have a lot of opportunities to throw short, and pick and choose when to go downfield. So I think he was genuinely excited going in with the plan going in. Whether or not any other factors had anything to do with it, I couldn't tell you."

"Dad made the comment the previous week (after the NC State game) that once we had to go to three wide and had to move the ball, that we moved the ball better than being slow and methodical with the ball. I felt like it was something that he wanted to do, and you don't have to talk me into doing something like that. There wasn't much of a choice with Duke, they stopped everyone's running game. The bright side of it for us was that we were still able to have good rushing yards at the end of the day. We have to look at the whole picture and maybe look at spreading the field and making them defend with more than one player."

(On Boston College)
"Boston College is Boston College, they want to contain you and make you execute short passes, then come up and hit you and try to knock the ball out. They have given up a lot of yards in the pass game. They want to umbrella your pass game. Every now and again, you will get a throw downfield, but they don't want to give up the big play in the pass. They are stout against the run. They have a big front with the nose guard or defensive tackle that reminds me of Warren Sapp, he can just be that dominating of a player. They've got six interior players, and five on the outside that just rotate through, but they have three other 300 pounders, so you can't go in there and just knock them off the ball."

(On Florida State's "home run" running game)
"We are not a grind team; I don't think that is our personnel. I've said it all along that we have to keep giving them the at bats. I wish we were making up more chunks at times. But, you have to put the ball in Lorenzo (Booker) or Anton's (Smith) hands. Like the first play of the second half, you don't know which play is going to go for a long way, but they have the potential to do that. The flip side of it is that you can throw it, but I've been patient for pretty long"

(On Greg Carr)
"Greg is improving. I'm not going to say that he is close to his potential yet. He is still able to reach over anybody, but that's his gift, he's 6 foot 6. But he's still developing in what I call an underneath route runner. His mechanics aren't real good, his footwork is a little off, and he might be two steps short. And that is something that you can't do when you're trying to run a disciplined passing program. He is definitely getting better."

Defensive Coordinator Mickey Andrews

(On how injuries have affected the defense)
"We've had to change a lot, we haven't been able to play our 3-4 defense. We don't even have four linebackers. We get one starter hurt, and then we lose a backup at the SAM linebacker. I was hoping that we wouldn't have to play Timmons as much, but we haven't had enough guys. We've had so many linebackers hurt that we can hardly keep track. Then we've lost a starting safety and a starting corner. We started the season as a pretty good defense with the opportunity to become an outstanding defense, but I don't think there is a team in the college or pro rankings that has lost that many people. Most of them were guys that were heavily involved in the kicking game. In our mind, that's where you win your close games. It probably has more to do with winning and losing than either side of the ball, and we've had to play people that didn't even travel to Miami."

(On preparing with new personnel in the lineup):
"We will probably have to adjust a little bit for some of our guys, but we can't scale back too much, they've got to step up. We can't just use the game to get better; we've got to get better in practice. We're going to try to give some of our older guys that have bumps and bruises a little more rest and the younger guys will get a little more work. "

(On Boston College)
"Numbers tell you that they throw the ball a lot, but they will still run the ball and then burn you when you when you crowd the box. They have an accurate passer. We can't make a lot of mistakes. Against Duke, they had fewer 3 and outs. You play your best defense when you are off the field, and we have to do a better job getting off the field."

(On the lack of interceptions versus Duke)
"Turnovers and three and outs are what get you off the field. We did a good job in the takeaways, but we didn't get any intercepts. A lot of them were quick passes. But what you have to do is make the quarterback make throws he doesn't want to make."