Florida State offensive coordinator Tim Harris Jr. and defensive coordinator Tony White met with local media Monday to recap Saturday’s 34-17 win over New Mexico State and start the week toward SMU.
Harris said that the biggest takeaway was that “we did get an opportunity to see our guys play.”
“We had a chance to feel some highs and some lows in the game the other night,” he said, “and that’s gonna help us in being able to understand the areas that we gotta continue to grow and get better. And that’s the number
one focus for us moving to this next game.”
Asked about the offensive line, Harris said that “for a first game, I thought they did a really solid job. New Mexico State, they did a good job of their own of jumping up the front a little bit in the run game. They ran a lot of twists in the middle of the defense, which is where we were pushing a lot of our runs. So you know, a couple series early on, it took us just some talking on the sideline of how we wanted to, you know, tag things and all that. And our guys responded.”
Quarterback Ashton Daniels went 17-for-27 for 202 yards, one passing touchdown, one rushing touchdown and one interception.
“Ashton did a good job when it came to the timing throws of what we were calling at the time,” Harris Jr. said. “When he had to move out of the pocket, I think the one really bad decision that we’d all like him to have back is the interception, but he threw the ball away when he had to…he got the ball to the checkdowns when they were there. And all of our timing routes that we did run, I thought he did a good job of getting our guys the ball on time.”
He hopes that his players knowing how the game played out and seeing it on tape will emphasize the need for consistent execution and growth.
“We did some really good things, but then you know the areas that you have to grow, and our guys being able to see that on tape with the game kind of being one of those back and forth, you got to gut it out at a certain point,” Harris Jr. said. “They are excited now to realize when you get coached hard and when you get pushed in certain areas…yesterday’s practice, you felt that from our guys, and not only just the offense, but you felt it from our defense, too. So that was exciting to see as a coach.”
On defense, White pointed at communication as a major focus for Florida State to refine in the week ahead, especially in the sub packages on third down, where New Mexico State was 10-for-17 with two touchdowns through the air.
“You put one new guy in there, and now all of a sudden, like, and you see it on film.” he said. “You see guys turn around and like, what’s going on? What’s this? What’s the check? What’s this? And then he’s taking out a mouthpiece, and the ball snapped. And now you know you got one half of the guys playing one thing, and another side playing nothing. So again, a lot of things to clean up, especially in those sub packages.”
White said he didn’t sleep well after the game, but once he saw film, he thought he saw “a ton of good things,” specifically pointing to the Seminoles’ ability to shut down New Mexico State’s run and screen plays.
“You can go back and look and there’s a ton of positives in there. And then you go back and say, ‘Okay, what the hell do we need to fix first?’ And again, it’s those, it’s those sub packages and third downs.”
Florida State opens ACC play next Monday against No. 19 SMU (ESPN, 7:30 p.m.)
