FSU Spring Practice Report: Day 9

FSU Sports Information Excerpts:

After the longest scrimmage of the spring season this past Saturday, the Florida State football team had a fairly relaxed practice on Monday. The squad practiced for 16 periods in shorts and it was the last practice in shorts for the semester. The full pads come out once again this Wednesday as the Seminoles will hold another ½ scrimmage.

PRACTICE HIGHLIGHTS

Monday began with position group work and then broke into scout teams.

In ½ skel the defensive backs set a tone that started in Saturday's scrimmage and continued throughout Monday's session. Dionte Allen broke up two passes, Jamie Robinson broke up a pass and Roosevelt Lawson and Rod Roberts combined on a PBU.

Patrick Robinson picked off a pass. The offensive highlights came on a D'Vontrey Richardson to Bert Reed completion and Christian Ponder hooking up with Richard Goodman and going deep to Rod Owens.

In skeleton Tony Carter broke up a pass and Patrick Robinson broke up two. One was picked off on the deflection by Kendall Smith. The offense did look better as Richardson connected with Greg Carr twice, Jonathan Hannah once and on a deep TD with Lewis Givens. Ponder also had a deep TD pass this one to Greg Carr. He also had completions to Taiwan Easterling, Caz Piurowski and three to Owens. One of the Owens passes went for a big gain due to a nice run after the catch.

In 11-on-11 the defense continued to fluster the Seminole offense. Everette Brown, Kendall Smith and Craig Yarborough had sacks. Yarborough also had a QB hurry. Korey Mangum had a tackle for loss when Antone Smith was forced to try and make something out of a busted play. Darius McClure had a nice break-up leaping over Piurowski's shoulder to get to the ball. Allen had the lone interception.

Practice wrapped-up with work in the 2:00 drill. With 1:30 on the clock the first team offense was unable to get much going. Ponder had a completion to Easterling but pass break-ups by Mangum and Jamie Robinson stifled the drive. The second team offense seemed to be on a similar path but Richardson and the two's found ways to convert third and fourth downs. Owens picked up a first on a third down and Brandon Paul bailed Richardson out on a busted play as he flared out of the back field for a nice gain. Givens caught a couple short passes but the drive ended with the Richard Goodman show. He converted a fourth-and-short and then scored a TD on another fourth down.