Florida State head coach Mike Norvell met with reporters Monday as the Seminoles (3-4, 1-3 ACC) come out of their bye week and prepare to host Clemson (4-3, 2-2 ACC) on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Doak Campbell Stadium.
Norvell opened by discussing the team’s work and approach during the bye week.
“I was really really pleased with the work I saw from our guys. … The mindset, the approach, is right where I want it to be. … There’s a lot of excitement to get back out on the field and to go show who we are
and what we’re about.”
“Got a very talented opponent coming in Saturday night and it’s going to be a great challenge but one that our guys are absolutely ready to embrace and to go play our best game and that is the expectation for us. I felt that in the way that they came to work last week. I’m proud of this team for the work that they are continuing to invest.”
“The results in the record are not where we want to be. And we’ve had close games, we’ve had opportunities, but we’ve got to go take a step as a football team. And this team, I think, is poised and ready to go do that. … I’m excited to watch them play here this week but got to have a great week of preparation.”
On Clemson’s defense:
“They’re aggressive in what they do. They blitz about 50% of the time. … Even when they don’t blitz, you feel the movements. They’re athletic. They’ve got good size across the board, the front seven.”
“One of the biggest improvements within their team is just in the defensive backfield. … Hampton’s probably the best corner that we’ve faced up to this point this year. … They’re moving him all over.”
Norvell on health and availability:
“Blake (Nichelson) is progressing. … probably won’t be available this week but … barring any setbacks I do feel that we’ll be able to have most of those guys in their linebacker room back.”
“Jordan Crutchfield is trending well to be able to get back in the secondary. … Devin Carter is coming into having an opportunity this week. … I was really pleased with Jasen Lopez, having a big catch in a Miami game … seeing his continued growth.”
On what the bye week allowed:
“Just to sit back and really see the big picture … over the course of seven games. … quality control … areas of focus as our team has developed … what are the best ways we can put guys in position to be successful? … Staying focused on the fundamentals … fighting for leverage. … setting an edge … continuing to develop the different aspects of man and zone coverage.”
“Offensively, just clean up a lot of the details within our concepts … We’ve been able to have explosive runs. We’ve been able to have explosive passes, but just the consistency of that. … Usually it’s one or two either blocks or one or two elements where we can be a little bit cleaner with spacing.”
