Smith And Carter Practice As Noles Continue Preparation For Terrapins

FSU Sports Information Excerpts:

Florida State got some good news on Wednesday as running back Antone Smith and cornerback Tony Carter both practiced. The two starters were injured in the Seminoles' game last Saturday against Virginia Tech. While depth is still a concern at both running back and linebacker, five of the eight players listed on Sunday's injury report participated to some extent tonight as the team went 20 periods in shells.

After a few periods of special teams work at the start of practice, the squad spent most of the day working versus the scout teams.

In pass rush Everette Brown, Emmanuel Dunbar and Alex Boston each had multiple wins versus their man. Letroy Guion, Justin Mincey and Budd Thacker also got to the QB. On the offensive line Jacky Claude led the way with three wins. Evan Bellamy had a couple stops and Rodney Hudson, Ryan McMahon, Daron Rose, Shannon Boatman, Brandon Davis and Will Furlong all recorded stops.

In skeleton the quarterbacks found a target and remained loyal. Drew Weatherford hit De'Cody Fagg three times including one deep ball. Christian Ponder connected twice with Bert Reed and Xavier Lee hit Joslin Shaw. When skel moved to red zone Weatherford hit Preston parker for a TD and Darius McClure recorded a break up.

The defense had a big day in 11-on-11. Weatherford and the offense seemed to get off to a hot start as the QB hit Greg Carr deep for a TD, but the play was called back due to offensive pass interference. Weatherford did connect with Carr on another instance and Lee found Shaw but after that it was all D. Anthony Houllis had a pass break-up as did JR Bryant. In 2:00 Brown had a sack and Guion followed by chasing Weatherford out of the pocket and out of bounds. The Seminole starter did connect with Fagg but a Tony Carter break-up and then a Jamie Robinson pick ended the drill.

Head Coach Bobby Bowden

On what the Senior Day game means to the team:
"Well it's a very important game to them. Most players in any sport really, most of their memories are of their last game here. And their families will be here."

On how important this game is:
"Well you like to win, just wanna win every game. Just take every game and win it, that's your only objective: win the next ball game. I think Maryland's fighting to get a bowl. They're not bowl eligible yet so they need to win, that's good motivation. We'll have good motivation just because we're home."