First week of FSU spring football: Three (over)reactions with CoachAB

It’s Florida State Seminoles spring football and you know exactly what that means — lying season!

So far coming out of practice, all reports have been glowing. Best the team has looked in year, best shape of the players lives, closest the locker room has ever been — please, stop me if you’ve heard this before? Now let's talk truth. This IS the best the team has looked in years, they are #BuiltbyStorms, and this team is close.

See what I did there?

Now let's jump into my overreactions.

Tempo

This is the fastest tempo that this group has worked at during Mike Norvell’s tenure.

What does that mean exactly? Well, in short, it means that they are comfortable and confident in what’s going on. Why is that important? The short version answer is that it shows signs of growth with the program. There are a lot of new bodies in the building this spring and a roster of 90 guys would pose a problem for some programs. Norvell and his staff have things running on time and the players are operating at high efficiency for the springtime.

Evaluations

Look, there were some who questioned some of the takes in the transfer portal. There were guys passed on who were seen as better. I’m not here to tell you every one of these transfers is a home run, but wow they did a great job in their evaluation process. Johnny Wilson was supposed to be a guy that Pac-12 coaches didn’t value and he’s balling so far in spring. Mycah Pittman shows he can be a capable #2 WR. Jared Verse is as advertised and developing. Tatum Bethune is a stud (more on him later). That is just a couple of names. In short, these coaches know what they are looking for and how to find it in the transfer portal. These players will be relied upon heavily for the 2022 season.

LB Play

Oh boy, oh boy! I was excited to get to this one. If you are a listener of the Triple Option on the X’s and Noles Youtube page then you know how much I’ve despised the linebacker play as of late. It is well documented that the LB position group has hamstrung the defense and forced simplicity. Insert Kalen DeLoach in 2021 and Tatum Bethune in 2022. These two are ball players and are night and day from the play we’ve seen in the past. DJ Lundy has trimmed down and continues to learn the nuances of underneath coverage but will always be a liability of sorts in coverage. Amari Gainer is working his butt off to ensure he has a role in this defense still. It is a stark contrast to 2020 when they couldn’t cover anybody at all.

That’s all you are getting for now so don’t be greedy. I promise to return with more (over)reactions to spring ball as we move forward. With scrimmages right around the corner, there will be plenty to talk about.