FSU Completes First Practice Of Day

Excerpts From FSU Sports Information:

After taking a day off from the practice fields on Wednesday, Florida State is halfway through its final two-a-day of the pre-season. The Seminoles returned to the field for 24 periods in pads this morning. The team will go back out tonight for 18 periods beginning at 6:15.

The practice began as usual with special teams work Preston Parker and Bert Reed fielded punts and in field goal Gary Cismesia was 4-for-4. The field goal block team did get one on a Graham Gano attempt. After specialty the team moved into position drills and then 3-on-3. In 3-on-3 Antone Smith made his return to the drill and on his first carry breezed through the gauntlet. Marcus Sims, Pat Davis and Joche Norona all made it through multiple times. Antonio White also got to the end. On the other side Jeremy Franklin, Maurice Harris, Rod Roberts, Anthony Leon, Dekoda Watson and Myron Rolle all had tackles. Budd Thacker turned in the most impressive play as he shed his blocker at the first level and brought down the back.

In 11-on-11 Marcus Sims had a nice run to the outside. Lee and Carr connected as did Weatherford and Goodman. Andre Fluellen and Charles recorded sacks. The biggest play was turned in by Moffett as he drove his blocker into the backfield and right into the ball carrier. In goal line the first team offense scored on two of four tries. On the first two attempts the defense held tough. Recardo Wright and Letroy Guion stopped Sims on the first play and Seddrick Holloway was bottled up on the second. Sims did get in on a sweep on play three and then Weatherford hit Holloway in the endzone for another TD. The two's scored on the first of their four tries. The TD came on a Pat Davis run, which was made possible by a great Antonio White block. White was stopped up the middle the next play and Davis was taken down trying to run outside by Alexander. The drill finished with an incomplete pass into the endzone.

Associate Head Coach Mickey Andrews

"We didn't practice yesterday. We were mainly just cleaning up some things on film and trying to make some corrections. We had a bunch of kids that were banged up and gave them a little extra time to get some extra treatment and try to get well. But mostly what we were trying to do today was to take one more step in getting ready for Clemson. We've been working on our stuff as well as some of Clemson's stuff. The basic fundamentals of the offense (in today's practice) were being kept. There were way too many penalties out here. It's hard enough to beat an outstanding team when you're playing your best. Penalties and mistakes don't allow you to play your best. We weren't very sharp today; too many penalties on both offense and defense. We've got to build up a little more focus. Sometimes when you miss a day of practice and have too many distractions, it's hard to get your focus back on what you've got to do. The things we talked to them about, they didn't get to improve on them physically. We asked them to come out today and pick up and make up for what we missed and you could see them losing a little bit in terms of their concentration and focus. We've got to be more disciplined then that."