Spring game offers first look at 2022 Seminoles

FLORIDA STATE — Today marked the retirement of Seminole legend Gene “The Voice” Deckeroff as his voice rang throughout the stadium for Saturday’s Garnet and Gold Game and his last game inside of Doak Campbell.

Saturday's contest was a non-traditional one as the team wasn’t split up into two separate groups — only offense and defense.

Interceptions were the name of the game starting out from the goal line. Sam McCall, Kevin Knowles, and Amari Gainer all came down with one in the opening drills. Two came from quarterbacks Tate Rodemaker and AJ Duffy the other from Jordan Travis.

A pair of touchdowns, one from Travis rushing to the sidelines, and the other, a bubble screen to receiver Micah Pittman from Tate Rodemaker seemed to pick up the offense. After the two-point conversion, Pittman went to the locker room with what seemed to be a shoulder injury but would later return.

They then switched to special teams gauntlet drills and after a few warm-ups, the clock started and the game was on.

The Seminole defense was dominant throughout holding the offense to three first-down conversions on 15 attempts. On offense, Trey Benson shined bright with explosive plays throughout finishing as the lead rusher with 7 carries for 77 yards (11 yards per carry) averaging as much as 12.5 yards per carry in the middle of the first quarter. Behind Benson were C.J. Campbell and Lawrence Toafili with 46 and 43 yards.

Some receivers made plays but the offense stuck to their identity running the ball effectively averaging 4.7 yards per carry. The offense also had four different running backs with 20+ yard runs (Benson, Toafili, Williams, Campbell).

The defensive line was very disruptive with Jared Verse leading the way for 2 sacks, 2 tackles for loss, and a blocked field goal. Verse and McLendon have been dominant through spring practices but it was Verse who put on a show on Saturday. The defense finished with 7 sacks on the day.

Linebacker Steven Dix Jr. finished the game with 6 tackles tying with defensive back Jayden Floyd for the lead. The defensive backs did a good job keeping the plays in front of them for the most part aside from a few missed tackles Sam McCall showcased why he was a 5-star coming out of high school stopping the two big runs from Benson going the distance.

Total attendance for today was 30,184 fans.