Florida State University Athletics
Practice Report: HOFers Dungy, Brooks Inspire Noles In Bradenton
8/14/2019 5:34:53 PM | Football
BRADENTON, Fla. – No one on the Florida State football team planned to spend their Wednesday morning indoors.
But some of the most memorable moments can happen when things go off-script.
Pro Football Hall-of-Famers Tony Dungy and Derrick Brooks attended Florida State’s Wednesday practice, intending to check out the Seminoles and catch up with head coach Willie Taggart.
Then, when thunderstorms in the area forced FSU off the practice fields for two hours, the Seminoles spent that time rubbing shoulders with two of their sport’s icons.
Dungy, a Super Bowl winner as a player and a coach, first delivered a message about the makings of a special team.
When he finished, Brooks, the former FSU and Tampa Bay Buccaneers legend, joined him front and center for an extended Q&A session.
Not a bad way to pass the time.
“It’s great having two influential people come talk to our football team,” Taggart said. “Anywhere you go, everyone knows who they are and how special they are. They did something. They’re winners and Hall-of-Famers, and having them talk to our team is special.”
Dungy’s relationship with Florida State goes back several decades, with coach Bobby Bowden’s example of faith and football success encouraging Dungy as he began his coaching career in the early 1980s.
And when Dungy later built his best Tampa Bay Buccaneers teams in the 1990s, two former FSU great – Brooks and Warrick Dunn – were part of his foundation.
“It was a lot of fun for me,” said Dungy, who coached in Tampa Bay from 1996-2001 and in Indianapolis from 2002-2008.
“There’s so much history here at Florida State, and Coach Bowden was such an inspiration to me when I was a young coach. To come back and visit with them and share with them was really special.”
Dungy’s speech centered on building a championship culture, which is undoubtedly one of his areas of expertise.
As a player, he won a Super Bowl with coach Chuck Noll and the Pittsburgh Steelers during their dynasty run in the 1970s.
Then, as a coach, Dungy enjoyed a 15-year career as an assistant before being handed the reins in Tampa Bay. He guided that franchise out of the league’s basement and molded it one of top teams of its era.
A few years later, Dungy claimed his second Super Bowl when he and the Peyton Manning-led Colts beat Chicago in Super Bowl 41.
He retired after the 2008 season and was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2016.
“Really just what makes a special group and how do you build a championship culture,” Dungy said about his message to the Seminoles. “Things I learned from Coach Noll and tried to pass on to my players and Derrick’s group.
“Really about bonding together, about being sold out to what the coaches want and being sold out to your teammates.”
Brooks saw that with Dungy in Tampa Bay, and he sees signs of it budding in the Florida State locker room.
Alongside his former coach, Brooks told the Seminoles – a group which includes his son, sophomore DeCalon Brooks – to create their own legacies at Florida State, and not just try to live up to the memories of previous eras.
“It’s not about trying to sustain a culture that we had in the late-90s or mid-90s,” Brooks said. “It’s about establishing their culture moving forward.
“And we have the ingredients to be a championship-culture program.”
Dungy and Brooks both agree on that.
Dungy first met Taggart in 2012, when Taggart interviewed for the head coaching job at South Florida and Dungy served on the USF interview committee.
“I was really, really impressed with him,” Dungy said.
The two have kept in touch ever since. Dungy’s son, Eric, played for Taggart at USF, and the two coaches spoke again when Taggart left USF for Oregon in 2016.
When Dungy looks at Taggart, he sees all the things that he believes makes coaches and their teams successful.
“I think he emphasizes the right things,” Dungy said. “Fundamental football, doing things the right way, being the right type of person. Winning culture.
“Just all the things I believe in, I think he really emphasizes.”
Wood opens up about injury: In the moment, Cedric Wood didn’t just fear for his football career.
The FSU defensive tackle was worried for his life.
About a year ago, an off-field injury to Wood’s right hand severed an artery, cut into tendons and damaged nerves.
Wood’s season was over before it got started. But things could have been so much worse.
“It could have been a life-ending injury, honestly,” said Wood, a Tallahassee native who attended nearby Godby High. “Thank God I’m still here. I still have full use of my hand.”
That’s not to say that things came easily.
Wood’s injury was painful, and while weekly physical therapy helped him to make a full recovery, it also wasn’t especially pleasant.
And being stuck on the sidelines, wishing he could help his teammates, only made things worse.
“There were just days I didn’t want to do it,” Wood said. “I was injured, (but) I still had to attend practice, attend meetings, stuff like that.
“But being that I was hurt, I didn’t want to be around it.”
And were it not for Odell Haggins, Wood might no longer be around it.
But FSU’s longtime defensive tackles coach stayed on top of Wood throughout his rehabilitation. If Wood ever got too down, Haggins would pick him back up.
“He kept pushing me and pushing me and pushing me,” Wood said. “And telling me, ‘Hey, if you let yourself spiral down, it’s going to be even harder to pick it back up.’”
Midway through fall camp, Wood’s injury is feeling like a thing of the past.
He’s healthy and, even better, contributing to an FSU defensive line that’s been without star Marvin Wilson for a week.
Wilson isn’t expected to be out for long, but, even when he does return, teammates say Wood has done enough to be counted on as a reliable member of his position group.
“He’s definitely stepped up,” fellow defensive tackle Cory Durden said. “I like the stuff we’re seeing from him. We’re going to need him, so it’s good to see him step up.”