Florida State University Athletics
Seminoles Open Bye Week With 18 Period Practice Following Day Off
10/7/2008 12:00:00 PM | Football
Oct. 7, 2008
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – It has been three days since their emotional victory over Miami but the Seminoles finally got back out on the practice fields on Tuesday. The team spent 18 periods in uppers despite a persistent, driving rain. The Seminoles will work with one eye towards NC State and a nationally televised ESPN game.
PRACTICE HIGHLIGHTS
- In 1-on-1 E.J. Manuel hit Greg Carr deep, Corey Surrency, Avid Commack and Cameron Wade once and Taiwan Easterling twice. Drew Weatherford connected with Jarmon Fortson and Christian Ponder went deep to Bert Reed. Ochuko Jenije had a pass break-up and Dionte Allen forced a fumble.
- When 1-on-1 moved to the red zone Manuel hit Surrency and Wade for TDs and Weatherford hit Carr for six. Allen had a break-up and A.J. Alexander had one as well.
- During inside Jermaine Thomas had two nice runs, Marcus Sims had a tough run and Kenny Ingram recovered a fumble.
- Everette Brown dominated pass rush with four wins. Jamar Jackson had a couple sacks and Jeremy Johnson got to the QB. Kendrick Stewart sent the linemen into a frenzy as his second win came after he split a double team and got to the QB. For the offense Spurlock had a couple wins. Jacob Stanley, Brandon Davis, Will Furlong, Joe Tonga and Zebrie Sanders picked up wins as well.
- In 7-on-7 Tony Carter had an interception. Ponder connected on a couple underneath passes to Carlton Jones. Weatherford found Reed, twice, Commack and Fortson who had a great run following the catch.
PRACTICE QUOTES
LB Dekoda Watson:
On if the team should relax during the bye week:
“No I don’t believe we should ever relax. We need to keep that intensity up because we’ve already came this far so I don’t think we should slack it off. We can only get better from this point. Just take everything we learn this bye week and take it to the next week. I don’t think we should take any time off.”
On what the team is doing this week on the field:
“Having fun right now. I was just happy to be out here, we out here running hard, we can have a little fun beat bopping and trying to freestyle a little bit, I know I can’t do it, but just trying to have fun while we’re out here. I’m just happy to be out here with the team once again. This is what I’ve been waiting for for a long time.
K Graham Gano:
On kicking off again:
“That was actually the first time I’ve kicked off since before my surgery so I was pretty excited to get back out. It was a big adrenaline rush standing there and just seeing the whole stadium there whenever you’re kicking off. It felt pretty good.”
On having Shawn Powell punt:
“He’s doing a real good job. He’s working hard in practice. He messed up in a game once the other day but he never had his head down, he’s always kept his head up. I think that’s a good thing about him, his head is in the right place. It’s definitely a big help. The guy behind him Kevin Campbell can bomb the ball as well. He doesn’t get any attention but he can really punt the ball well.”
On how practice went today:
“It was good. Just trying to go out here and get better. If you don’t come out to the practice improved, then you’re hurting the team. So we’re just going out here and trying to get better. A bye week is great for getting healthy, working on fundamentals and improving.”
On what is making the defense so good this year:
“Well, focus and wanting to get off the field. We’ve been in situations where we’d been on the field too much. A lot of the guys playing now are veterans and know what it’s like to have long drives and stuff like that. They know it’s key to get three and outs and to stop them on third downs. We have goals: first down goals, second down goals and third down goals. We take pride in that.”
On the win over Miami last weekend:
“I feel like it was a big win. We felt like we had a good week of practice and we can out strong that week. We put up a good showing. We had a lot of mistakes, but we’ve got to come out this week and fix those mistakes and work on from there.”
On having an important role on the offense:
“It’s real important. I feel like when the coaches call my number I’ve got to just make some plays, just do what they ask me to do and just work with the offense. Try to make plays the best that I can.”