Noles Second Practice Cut Short By Lightning

Excerpts From FSU Sports Information:

Florida State's evening practice was cut down to just eight periods after the team spent about an hour and a half waiting out lightning in the area. The Seminole football team will attend the kickoff luncheon at the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Center tomorrow and then practice for 18 periods beginning at 4:00 p.m.

The Seminoles barely got started before they got chased inside by lightning. The team did get in some work in specialty before heading indoors and waiting for about an hour and a half.

When the team returned to the field they moved right into period 11 and skeleton drills. Weatherford opened skel by connecting with Preston Parker on the sideline and then hitting De'Cody Fagg twice. Xavier Lee completed passes to Chase Walker and Joslin Shaw. For the defense Roger Williams, Kenny Ingram and Patrick Robinson broke up passes.

In pass rush the offensive line got off to a great start. David Overmyer won back-to-back battles and Caz Piurowski picked up a couple wins. Antwane Greenlee, Daron Rose and Rodney Hudson got victories as well. On the other side Letroy Guion got to the passer three times, Budd Thacker, Andre Fluellen, Craig Yarborough and Dustin Tremellen also won battles.

11-on-11 was situational once again. Weatherford completed a couple passes to Parker, one to Smith, one to Josh Dobbie and also mixed in a nice scramble. Lee connected with Russell Ball. For the defense Geno Hayes picked a pass and took it back for a TD, Everette Brown had a sack, Williams broke up a pass and Derek Nicholson swatted away a ball in the backfield.

The practice ended with the 1:00 drill. The first team offense was unable to produce points and ended their turn giving up points on a safety. Weatherford started out by hitting Joslin Shaw on the sideline. Brown then recorded another sack. Weatherford and the offense looked to be back in business on a nice pitch and catch with Greg Carr but a holding penalty pinned the O back deep. That's when Neefy Moffett ended the drive with a sack in the endzone. The two's did a better job and generated some points. It started with a big scramble by Lee. After a pass break up by Toddrick Verdell, Lee hit Shaw underneath. Russell Ball mixed in a nice run but Verdell broke up another pass on the following play. That brought Gary Cismesia in to the game and the kicker connected on a long field goal to end practice.

Florida State Offensive Coordinator Jimbo Fisher
"The starter for the first game will be Drew Weatherford. They (Drew and Xavier Lee) both had good camps. They both played well and I still think we have two fine quarterbacks. I still have two great young quarterbacks also on this team. The starter we decided on for the first game will be Drew. I think the main thing we were looking for is consistency; a little more consistency in practice on an every day basis and in scrimmages and in practice every day. Just a little bit more consistency but I still think Xavier is playing well. I still think he is doing some good things and he made some real good plays out there today."