FSU Football's Alex Atkins Recaps Production on Offense After Second Scrimmage of Fall Camp

if you're the guy we're going out there with what is it going to look like so they earned the opportunity to go out there and and kind of compete and show what they what it would look like if they were the starters on that note how did those young guys do today handling the operation of with scrimmage I think the operation um was solid but it could be a lot better as far as the details when you get into the situational football whether it be changing from going to a third long from a third and medium from going to a fourth and short to a third and short to totally different scenarios and the mentality of the offensive line so I want to see Improvement in that but overall I was pleased with how they operated in the normal D and D the red zones and things but I think in those critical situations the communication has to be has to be better which is why you give them those opportunities because they're not afforded those opportunities a lot because in practice it's segmented it's more just hey we're in third down so their mentality goes but in the game you get to play 14 of a drive and the situation changes you got to be a to lock in mentally so just that challenge is a part of their development but also you know we got to improve want it what's up coach norell praised andreato once again uh saying he's had a big week this week what did you see from him in the scrimmage if he got more reps as one of the younger guys 's biggest character tra is his willpower I mean he's going to will himself into be a good player he's gonna he's going to meet you to death he's gonna he's going to know it he's going to challenge himself he's going to push himself to the edge I know coach talked about guys that were pushing thems to almost full body cramping in Jacksonville he was one of those guys that knew he was you know his body was fell him he just kept pushing going to celebrate with teammates um the thing that's going to help him is his versatility and how much he's learned in a short period of time I mean he's played tackle guard and now he's operating at Center he gave some one guard reps I mean I've loved his mentality and approach to it and and one the biggest compliment you can get is from the defensive line I mean I was walking from to the CER the other day and those guys were saying man I mean you know the defensive line you know starters particular like yo 's goingon to be a really good player so I think anytime those guys are complimenting the young old Lan like that as a big big big badge of honor imagine you guys have a pretty good idea of what you have with Murray Smith at Center I wondering who are some of the other guys who have performed you know well stood out to you at at the center position this uh this Camp yeah Richie Leonard uh he he took quite a bit of you know Center reps today and he did a really good job and we've given him series here I thought he's done a wonderful job Rizzy probably had his best scrimmage as a center today I I thought he was more consistent leadership and things of that nature and of course course OT Otto can jump in there and play it and he he went with the ones a little bit too today at CER which showed case his ability so that's good and we always got Darius who can jump in there who's actually played in game so my my my I have no concern about that position just because of the depth we've built with the guys we have on the roster and starters that have already played the position how did DJ handle today and in general just what do you think of his development throughout 14 practices yeah I mean DJ was giv it all man I mean there was nothing held there was no spoon feeding we put the whole the whole Playbook on him and what I've Loved about it is how he's been able to settle and then kind of making it his own where he's not learning the the Florida state offense he's learning the offense is changing into the kind of HS offense where okay now I like doing this and he can kind of put your personal stamp on it so I I like that development because of what he's comfortable with how he's now changing the play changing the cadences understanding where to go to building a relationship with the receivers it's been fun to watch because it's been it's just been a steady CL of progression and and sometimes you know we get caught up in the result of it but I we're looking at the decision making what did you saw pre- snap did you like this why'd you change this and those conversations have improved so much man I'm excited and excited to see you know as he continues to grow and kind of you know take take the offense you know with two hands following up on that is is he at the point now you know we've kind of we all talk about him as a transfer a newer guy but is he at a point now when you put out younger offensive linemen or younger skilled guys where he knows everything and and can kind of direct things the way you expect a veteran quarterback to be able to do uh he's improving I think yes I think he he definitely can do that where you can put him out there he can line guys up but also you know there's a process of your understanding and then going to tell the younger guys what to do so I think that his understanding has gotten there and he's helping those other young receivers I think that'll continue to progress if we build toward game planning certain type of game plans where it's not all um but I I I have no concern about his full knowledge of not only his position but the other positions as well throughout Camp which wide receivers have stood out to you Alex you have a decent idea of what the rotation is is going to be at this point yeah well I mean I've really enjoyed watching like Jaylen Brown emerge Elijah more those guys have kind of progressed more than I was even anticipating or gave him credit for so to see those guys like I saw Jaylen Brown makeer got a couple of guys miss today and Elijah Moore had a couple of catches those younger guys have been really impressive and I also want to give a shout out to the tight end Courtney and um and Kyle man they really did a good job this Camp of showing their contested catchability understanding the offense running some of the options and stuff that we're doing so I've enjoyed watching those guys progress but overall the receiver group I mean we got a steady group of like veterans that we know of but it was really challenging the Jaylen Browns the the Maliks the the um the the younger cam fryer all those guys man just challenging them to kind of act as if you're the starter and you're going there and you're going to be the guy so today I saw jaki here big plays today um Jaylen Brown did so I was excited about that group as far as showcasing playmaking ability and not just what's there in the offense it felt like for a variety of reasons you know the running game was so great in 2022 and then last year it felt like it wasn't quite that standard do you take that personally and how much better do you feel about the way you guys are able to run it when people know you're going to run it going into this season there's always a I mean you know that's the Telltale sign of a a good team that you just line up and run the ball whenever you want to you know there there's a reality piece of it is that you got to be strategic angles leverage all of that has to kind of tie into it but yes the goal is always to be a football team that can line up and run the ball against whatever look any situation at all and and that's what kind of gives you those games where you can close out in the fourth quarter what I was proud about in the last year's game where we didn't do a great job in 22 was was being able to finish games with the Run game when you go back and watch when you're down games can we finish games in the fourth quarter by utilizing the Run game to close game so I was proud of that from 23 I thought that improved from 22 to 23 I thought in 22 we had more rushing yardage and and production part on paper but I was glad that the Run game was able to close out and also we had some good guys on the edges that we wanted to make you know make sure they got the ball a little bit more than we did the year before so I think the challenge is is making sure that we can win obvious situations That's The Telltale sign because you can trick a team with Run game like you can call a run on third 17 and get 16 yards they got to punt the ball but the rushing stats go up so I think the goal is to be everybody in the stadium knows you passing the ball can you protect everybody in the stateum knows you're running the ball can you run the ball those were are the telltale signs of now you're going from being a good offensive line or a good offense to an elite style where you be going top two top three old lines in the country and that's kind of the mentality going in with as much experience that we have you talked about the uh the tight ends a little bit how much a guy like Kyle Morlock is that kind of the the prototypical leap you want to see a guy make from year one to year two and then I know Amari Williams coach trell said took a big jump from scrimmage one to scrimmage two I guess how impressed you been with him as a guy who should be going into senior year high school coming in well it's just overall rep count you know I mean it's many reps like that's why you do things like today and give those the opportunities to be a to go showcase their ability and showcase their learning so I think just the Reps put in you should see the progress you should see the leaps and also C's got a lot of game reps under his belt too so it's not just practice reps but it's also them finding themselves in the offense because when you first come you're just learning it you're just learning it you're doing what it said then as you get the rep count you start getting the details okay maybe I can push this a little bit more vertical maybe I can shoot this short shoot this uh sit this a little short hey they just brought the nickel I can get my eyes around quick because he'll be looking for me it's really just turn the offense instead of just routes and and and patterns to more fit to what's necessary in the actual play which comes with reps and experience and continuity of the guys that you're working with so I'm expecting those leaps as they get those rep counts and the mar a little bit different because he's still learning it his is just raw ability and his competitive nature which is showcasing his ability but as he continues to get those reps and continue to progress you'll see him Tak an on in in it of like all right now let me get those small details that make you from just a good offense of of okay I did the right thing to I adjusted and make the plays that was necessary for the success you may you mentioned earlier the defensive lineman complimenting aotto um do you sometimes find yourself at practice or when you're watching film seeing what this defense is doing particularly the defensive backs um and I know obviously all the whole defense but um just appreciating what you guys are going up against and how much fun it's going to be able to watch them on Saturdays oh absolutely one of my favorite person to talk to is shahim brown I always give him you know he's he's an active guy on defense and watching him play and watching him develop has been fun always give him you know always give him a little little smoke just because I'm like I mean mean you know we ain't changing much so you know what's coming you know he got a pretty good idea of what the Cadence is what the route's going to be who we talking to the signals in the conversation so I give him a lot of hard time but I've liked is their steady progression of competition where you know everything is contested even when it's blocked up you still got to get fight to get three or four yards that's what you want to be because if we was out there just killing them then we'd be B on defense they were just killing us we'd be like so you want some back and forth there a competition where everything's fit up now who can go finish the drive and go make plays that are contested because that's what gets us better we try to we create an environment where our hardest competition is within the team where you out there like our practice should be harder than the games is what we're trying to create here so I mean I love our defense man I've been with Adam since Chattanooga in 2012 so I'm used to seeing those guys flying around hitting and and and I mean this is this is what the standard is it's been there understand what the running game you guys have so many different types of running backs do you have an idea of like how many you could use really reasonably throughout a game I guess what's the The Balancing Act there of how you can use the running backs we don't say really how many some of it is situational um but I mean there's no there's no cap on it I mean we've been in games and we we we've had some games where we had five guys touched the football so it's more of just what the situation calls for um you know who's running you know the hardest and things like that plus we have really multiple backs we got guys that can line up at different positions and line up at receiver and catch routs out the backfield catch screens and and protect and so it's a little bit situational but I would say we don't have an ideal number of distance the amount of running backs we want to rotate throughout the game but I would say the average is probably about three is where we get to three and then that fourth one being situational just probably how it averages out but there's no plan of saying hey we're gonna play this many backs if we got good backs that can go we'll rotate them all they all you know there's no drop off thank y'all