Monday Practice Report

• 16th-ranked Florida State practiced Monday evening in shells (helmets, should pads and shorts) for 18 periods in preparation for Thursday's 7:30 p.m. contest at NC State on ESPN.

• Game time for the Seminoles' October 14 contest at Duke was set for 1 p.m. Details concerning television coverage were not released.

• Quarterback Drew Weatherford hooked up with tight end Brandon Warren for a 70-yard touchdown pass during 11-on-11. Weatherford was 2-for-3 during the drill.

• Quarterback Xavier Lee was also 2-for-3 during 11-on-11 with a 10-yard pass to Richard Goodman.

• Neefy Moffett had a tackle for a loss during 11-on-11.

• During 8-on-8 pass skeleton, both Michael Ray Garvin and Patrick Robinson had interceptions.

• Weatherford went 6-for-8 during 8-on-8 with a 40-yard pass to De'Cody Fagg and a 30-yard strike to Warren.

• Lee was 4-for-7 with a 20-yard pass to Preston Parker.

QUOTES
Head Coach Bobby Bowden
(On practice):
"We had a little bit better practice tonight. I thought the enthusiasm picked. We had more interceptions tonight in skeleton and team passing than I've seen in a long time, which is good, we haven't been doing enough of that. It was a pretty good practice"

Quarterback Drew Weatherford
(On the improvements made since last year's NC State game):
"It was the first time defenses really started to change up from what we saw on film. Last year we didn't do a very good job of adjusting to it, me in particular, being young and not being able to adjust in the middle of the game when I studied something all week and they come out and show me something different. I feel like our team is much more mature on offense and that won't be an issue for us this year at all."

(On the importance of getting Greg Carr involved against Rice): |
"I think it was huge. He's one of our most explosive weapons and it's essential for us to get him involved in the game. He's a big play threat and he's something the defense has to worry about every time he's on the field. It really did help our offense open up a lot the fact that he came out and had a big game."

Offensive Coordinator Jeff Bowden
(On the familiarity between the two teams): "As much as Chuck is familiar with what we do, we are familiar with what he does. If you took our defense and compared it to their defense without looking at the color on the uniforms, it's almost identical. You can almost predict when you are going to get one-on-one coverage on the edges. You can line up in ways that are going to assure you one-on-one match-ups. We know what each other are doing. That's where Chuck is going to tell his team that it isn't about finesse, and they will need to win the line of scrimmage battle."

(On the progress of the receivers):
"They've had one good game, and you need to put back-to-back good games together. This is going to be one of those games where the receivers will get the opportunity. This is what you dream about, one-on-one coverage, whether it's zone or man, it's still single coverage. I'm hoping that they just relax and make plays like they are capable of."

Defensive Coordinator Mickey Andrews
(On injuries):
"We're a different defense than we started out the season with against Miami, which is an understatement. We lost our starting nose guard, and then we lost our starting safety in the third game. Then we lost three starters in our fourth game. We didn't just lose a player that started on one team, they started on four different teams. Some kids start on a base defense, some on long yardage and then some on goal line. So we've had to shift some players around. We've had some problems, but everything will kick off on Thursday night at 8 o'clock and we'll put eleven players out there on the field and we'll do the best we can."

(On coaching against Chuck Amato):
"I think that the only time that it's shown up was the second year that we played them. In the first game, we beat them soundly. We went up there the second year, and we've got them on their own twenty, and we called a punt block. They picked up our signal and called a fake, and it worked. That probably was the one thing that stands out the most. It all comes down to getting the call in and having the kids line up on the football. We've changed a lot since he was here. We don't do a lot of things now that we did when he was here. And he doesn't do a lot of things the same from his first year to now. He may convince his kids that it makes a difference. But I think it boils down to whether our kids play sound, and finish plays."