Florida State’s Dalvin Cook at ACC Media Day

Q. Adversity off the field, on the field. Just how you've grown as a person and as a player. High expectations for you on the field. How have you grown through the adversity?

DALVIN COOK: I think Florida State prepare you for everything that you going to face in college. The coaching staff we got, the head coach that we have, he do a good job in preparing us as a man to face adversity.

Some of the injuries and some of the things that I faced through college, you know, I commend Coach Fisher for putting me in the position to be where I'm at, to help me fight through some of the stuff I face.

Q. How much does the loss to Oregon in the Rose Bowl game and the loss to Houston in the Peach Bowl, how much does that simmer in your mind? Do you use that as motivation as you go into the season?

DALVIN COOK: Every loss that we take, you know, is motivation, okay? It's just a teaching tool that we need to keep working. We be inches away from winning the game, a play or two away from winning the game. Like coach say, you never know what play dictate the game. We can't take no plays off. That just proves that we got to take every play in practice serious.

I see the guys over this summer and this spring is taking everything serious, not taking it lightly. So, you know, it's a good mindset.

Q. Talk about your hamstring. Everything ready to go for this season? How are you going to keep that from not happening again this year?

DALVIN COOK: Just got to take care of my body. Last year taught me a lesson. Trying to work on the little muscles you got. I got a good relationship with my trainers, good relationship with my strength coaches. They do a good job of monitoring me, take care of my body.

That's a thing I take pride in, taking care of my body. I got a good job with the people at school and they do a good job of taking care of me.

Q. According to the media guide, you have all 11 starters back on offense. That's really, really rare. How much farther ahead, how much more explosive is this offense going to be because of this continuity?

DALVIN COOK: The maturity level, I can say that. We just got to be more consistent. I think we lacked that last year. We just got to be more consistent, like I say. We working towards that. I see guys stepping up and taking roles. We did return all 11 on offense. It could be a plus and it could be a minus.

But we working towards it to be a plus. We having a good off-season.

Q. What is the next step in your evolution as a player?

DALVIN COOK: Just to keep working on my game and being a good team player. I know those guys look up to me as a leader. There's a lot of stuff I got to work on in my game, a lot of stuff I got to work on in leading these guys the right way. That's what I got to work on.

I got to keep pushing these guys to be the guys I know they can be, to be the team I know we can be. Got to keep working on these guys and pushing them the right way.

Transcript via ASAP Sports