Aug. 9, 2007

Drew Weatherford, Shannon Boatman and Everette Brown Video Interviews
| Coach Bowden Football Practice Report Podcast – August 9th

Tallahassee, Fla. – The Seminoles were back out on the practice fields at 9:20 a.m. on Thursday. For the second day in a row the team practiced as a full squad for 24 periods. The players did have on shells for the first time so the level of hitting started to increase and that will continue up to Saturday when they don full pads for the first time. Tomorrow’s practice will once again start at 9:20 and run for 24 periods.

PRACTICE HIGHLIGHTS:

• For the third straight day the Seminoles continued to work with different players on punt and kick returns. Russell Ball, Bert Reed, Preston Parker, Brandon Paul and Tony Carter all took turns working on punt returns. Michael Ray Garvin, Joslin Shaw, Brandon Paul and Dionte Allen handled kick-off returns.


• For the first time the players worked on punt block and protections before once again breaking into position groups.


• The quarterbacks and receivers had one of their best periods so far working on timing and routes earning a lot of praise from offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher. Drew Weatherford connected with Richard Goodman, Brandon Paul and De’Cody Fagg. Xavier Lee hit Shaw and Bert Reed while D’Vontrey Richardson hit Greg Carr and Rod Owens. Christian Ponder completed a nice pass to Damon McDaniel.


• The offense worked versus the scout team as well. Weatherford continued to look sharp hooking up with McDaniel and Shaw. Ponder also had a few nice completions to Carr and Parker.


• When the DB’s moved over to start covering the receivers Weatherford and Richardson had the best outings among the QB’s. Weatherford hot Reed and Fagg while Richardson connected with Shaw and Parker. On the other side, Carter, Garvin and Allen all had PBU’s.


• In ½ skel Ponder looked sharp and completed passes to Parker, Fagg (a catch over the middle and gained 25 yards after the catch) and Reed (a long 30-yard completion). Weatherford completed passes to Taiwan Easterling and Parker. Lee completed long passes to Carr (an over the shoulder catch for 35 yards) and Shaw (another over the shoulder 30-yard gain). Richardson completed a 25-yard pass to Preston Parker.  Te hit of the day was by Myron Rolle who de-cleated Antone Smith after the junior running back quickly made his way up the left sideline for a 15-yard gain.


• In 11-on-11 Lee hit Parker for a 25-yard completion. Defensively Letroy Guion recorded a tackle for minus yards.  He was nearly seven yards into the backfield and met the running back simultaneously when he received the ball from the quarterback. Garvin recorded the lone interception of the session as he picked off a pass just before practice came to an end.

QUOTES

Bobby Bowden

“Today was our first day in pads, not full pads, what we call shells. Helmets and shoulder pads and shorts. And that made you pick it up a degree physically. I thought the kids handled the heat pretty good again. That has impressed me so far. Coaches I’ve talked to around the country that are going through this heat problem–we’re all facing a heat problem. But I thought our kids have stood up pretty good the first three practices. Tomorrow we’ll go in shells again and the next day we’ll be full pads.”

On offense:

“The pass skeleton, there was too many long touchdown passes against our defensive secondary. They’re either making a mistake back there or something. There must’ve been five routes caught down there where I’m talking about, had a chance to score on. Well that’s good for the offense, but that’s not good for the defense. If it is, we’ll just throw that route every down. We just won’t throw anymore routes. But they were sharp in that category. They both did some good things. We got a long way to go, but we’re making a little progress.”

On quarterbacks:

“You nearly wish the young guys [Richardson and Ponder] could get more reps, but you can’t. You gotta get the first two [Lee and Weatherford] most of them, because that’s who’s gonna be playing in that first ball game. That’s the advantage we had when we broke our squad up in half, they got all the reps, you know. But now you can’t get it. But they’re doing some good things, I really like these two young guys.”

On Ponder:

“Ponder seems to have a good understanding of what you’re doing and he’s got mistakes down to a minimum.” (Could he push the two [Lee and Weatherford] ahead of him?) “Yeah I think he can, I think he can push. They’re just two years ahead of him on experience, but he’s still doing good enough to push a little.”

On Richardson being behind after missing spring practice:

“No doubt about it. I wish he knew what the other guys knew `cause they went through it this spring. But he’s trying to pick it up–he’s got some natural, natural talent.”

On De’Cody Fagg:

“I tell you who looks faster to me, is Fagg, De’Cody. He looks like he’s picked up a step to me.”

Christian Ponder:

“I’m just trying to stay in my number three spot and try to work up if I can, but Drew (Weatherford) and X (Xavier Lee), they’re doing well. They’re going to step up and they have the experience. I just want to get some play time, some mop-up duty or something so I get that experience. And then hopefully, the next couple of years, work my way up.”

“I think my habits, I don’t know, I just try to listen. It’s one of the toughest things to make a mistake twice, you just got to learn from your first one and if you make it again you’re not going to learn from it. If you keep making it, then it’s trouble.”

On Coach Fisher:

“It was good to get in the spring and have him here first, but you know he’s going through everything again and installing everything again–just learning to reason everything and going back through it and just helping me with my mechanics a lot, my throws.”

“He tells us to work on decision-making and accuracy, the two biggest things. Just be smart, play smart, learn from mistakes.”

“I’ve improved a lot, a lot of that’s due to Coach Fisher. Also I’ve grown to be a lot more comfortable and I can relax more and I think that’s the biggest thing is just for me to relax and make decisions.”

Anthony Leon

“I’m just doing my best, trying to work hard.”

“That’s what practice is for, learning. And Coach Andrews knows you make the best out of it.”

Paul Griffin

On getting back on the field after his injury:

“I haven’t played in so long, but I know I’m getting better and better as time goes on.  I’m really looking forward to dominating.”

On the next hurdle he feels he will face as he continues to get better:

“I would say conditioning.  All that running stuff we did over the summer has been real, real good.  It has been extremely hot lately, that really seems like the only thing right now.  But once I get my conditioning back to 100 percent then I can go out there and play every single play.”

On the strength of his knee and how long it will take to getting back in the starting line-up:

“It feels good.  I think I can go every practice.  I definitely feel I’ll be back and ready for Clemson.  I know that as time goes on and camp progresses, I will be 100 percent.” 

On Coach Haggins and his motivation directed toward him in practice:

“I think it’s because I haven’t been out here in so long.  He is pushing me a lot harder so I can get back in full game shape and to get me back in playing at that high level.”

On being able to get back and play at the level he was at last year:

“That it what they (the coaching staff) expect out of us – me, (Emmanuel) Dunbar, Marcus (Ball) and Derek (Nicholson), we were out last year.  That is our main goal to be able to get back and play at that level we were at before we got injured last year.”