FSU coordinators talk opening win, primetime game vs. LSU

Florida State coordinators Alex Atkins, Adam Fuller, and special teams John Papuchis spoke to the media at Monday’s press conference previewing LSU, reviewing Duquesne, and talked about the improvements from the team overall after their 47-7 last Saturday. The Seminoles are 7-2 against the Tigers overall and will face a challenge heading into New Orleans this upcoming Sunday. The Tigers also have a brand new coaching staff under former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly which leads to some interesting aspects in preparation.

Offensive coordinator Alex Atkins

Atkins spoke about the matchup ahead of them and what he expects from LSU on Sunday, “You know they present problems because they're not only talented but they're long, strong guys. What we do is just study as many of their tendencies and I’m pretty sure they’re breaking us down the same way. Welcome to good college football. You play against good fronts, you play against good teams, you play against good talent.”

The team will go up against new defensive coordinator Mike House who most recently coached linebackers for the Kansas City Chiefs. Atkins mentioned the tendencies of new coaches in different situations. “Coaches mostly stick with what they’ve had success with but also they have to evaluate the personnel that's in-house. You can sit down and put a playbook down but you gotta make sure it fits the guys that are on the roster, like we all know the strength of their room the D line, and things like that.”

Atkins continued to evaluate LSU and Duquesne in his full interview which can be seen below:

Defensive coordinator Adam Fuller

Fuller mentioned the defense’s performance from Saturday’s victory and wanted to express a major takeaway that he had from the game, “I think the takeaway is its game one experience so, just live tackling, I think is a big part of college football now getting the live experience, for the most part, I think he had 49 snaps, I think we did a really good job on third down, the tackling was solid, overall it was a solid performance.”

When asked about preparing for LSU and the new staff Fuller mentioned that there are bits and pieces to put together, “With a staff change, it always goes back to who’s calling the plays and then the personnel they have so that's two-fold. Sometimes it's the same thing for returning coaches, returning players, it makes it a little more clean as far as the breakdowns, when those are different then that's when it becomes a little more of you gotta be smart at what information you’re using.” Being that there are questions at the opposing quarterback position, he said that there is no difference in preparation for the two quarterbacks. “You get ready for both quarterbacks. That's pretty much how you have to do it. Quarterbacks are quarterbacks you’re always studying the backups you’re studying the starters... There is a chance that there could be a starter that hasn't played in an LSU uniform.”

Adam Fuller’s full interview can be seen below:

Special teams coordinator John Papuchis

Kicker Ryan Fitzgerald got some reps at kick-offs on Saturday and put on a pretty good performance, Papuchis expressed his happiness with the effort he put in, “I was really happy for Ryan, pleased. I can't say I was surprised but really pleased by his performance, focus. It’s not always easy to balance both.” Also mentioning his kickoffs “His kickoffs, to have four touchbacks to have the ball placement that he had, I thought that that was really critical for us to see that from him and I think that it was a confidence builder obviously for him.”

When asked about the defensive game plan last Saturday and it was limited in terms of play calling he mentioned that they wanted to express their core identity:

“I think in opening games regardless of who you're playing against you want to see execution. And your best opportunity to have high-level execution is to rep a lot of things that you spend a lot of time practicing throughout the course of spring practice and fall camp, and everything leading up, and really that was our thought process going into this past game was that the things that were that the core of who we were and what we did is what we were going to stick to” adding that, “I thought we executed at a high level, especially up front I thought generally speaking we played with good fundamentals and technique.”

John Papuchis’ full interview can be seen below:

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