Bobby Talks About The Rain As Noles Hold First Full Pad Practice

FSU Sports Information Excerpts:

The move to early morning practices was supposed to help the Seminoles avoid cancellations due to inclement weather. It sort of worked. The FSU football team was not forced inside due to lightning Tuesday morning but they did go through 12 periods of a heavy downpour that caused the offense all sorts of problems when it came to handling the football. The first 12 periods of the 24 period practice was held under ominous skies before the heavens opened up. The weather became more of a story than the first full pad practice of the pre-season.

After some work in position groups, the QB’s worked with the tight ends and then the receivers. Both units also worked versus scout teams. For the first time this pre-season the offense ran some goal line versus the scout team. In period 13 the skies opened up right as the team moved to the first set of 3-on-3’s of the pre-season.

The blocking drill was highlighted by Corey Surrency’s crushing block on Ochuko Jenije that ended up with the junior receiver being swarmed by teammates and his position coach Lawrence Dawsey. Budd Thacker had a nice stop at the first level. Dekoda Watson made two stops, Kendall Smith and Aaron Gresham also had tackles. Recardo Wright had a big hit that dislodged a slippery football and Korey Mangum had a stop at the third level. Paul, Pat Davis and Carlton Jones all turned in some nice runs making it through the gauntlet.

Head Coach Bobby Bowden:
On Tuesday’s practice:
“We got our first real practice in today. (The rain) hit us about one-third of the way through practice and really drenched us. But that was good. We got some good work. We found out we can’t handle the ball in the rain; we must have fumbled six, seven, eight times. And that’s due to the wet weather. That shows you why you need to work in it every now and then because you might end up playing in it. We were very fortunate that there was not lightning. I looked at the clouds like they were expecting lighting but we never got the warning from the weather bureau. Thank goodness we were able to get in a full practice which is very important because we can’t afford to miss any outside practices.”

On how the rain affected practice:
“When it first started raining our kids caught the ball. I was saying to myself that they were catching it better now than they were when it was dry. Once we got into 11 on 11 and pass skeleton then the drops became more frequent and the fumbles became more frequent. At least it was a good thing to show the kids that we have got to protect ourselves against that. Protection of the ball today was not very good in the rain.

“We got through our first day in pads, got a few drills going – a few live drills going and some goal line scrimmage in. But still, there, we had a hard time handling the ball. It was a good practice under the circumstances. “

Offensive Coordinator Jimbo Fisher:
On practice:
“Made some really good plays. Preston (Parker) made a couple of catches, I think Greg (Carr) made one, Corey (Surrency) seems to make one everyday. He’s making a pretty good play everyday. The young tight ends caught a couple balls and moved it around. I think they are going to be good. And two young backs made good runs, 33 and 38, Carlton Jones and Jermaine Thomas both made a couple of really good runs today. And got hit hard a couple of times and got right up, went the next and held onto the ball. You get as much out of that as you do a guy making a run. Made some plays, made some goal line runs. Deuce (Antone Smith) had a couple nice runs, Deuce is playing pretty good ball right now.”