Interviews: Maurice Smith and Akeem Dent talk LSU win, moving forward after practice

Florida State players safety Akeem Dent and center Maurice Smith spoke with the media after Wednesday’s practice following a shocking 23-24 win last weekend against the LSU Tigers. Both players played major roles in that victory and look to continue their growth moving forward. They spoke about injuries, the taste of victory, and more.

Akeem Dent

Dent finished the LSU game last weekend with five solo tackles and two pass breakups which made him a major contributor to the defense's dominance for most of the game. When asked about his concerns with being 2-0, Dent said, “I ain’t too much focused on that little 2-0. Honestly, I just want to keep winning, just keep the ball rolling just keep winning.” adding that locker room as a whole felt the same way, “All of us do, even coach Norvell do. We ain’t settling for 2-0, we’re trying to go for it all honestly”

When asked about head coach Mike Norvell saying that he thought the practice today was average and how to respond to success Dent said Norvell knows what it takes and that they have to come back out tomorrow and respond.

“It’s hard. It ain’t hard you just gotta know what you gotta do. Especially, he just gotta know what you gotta do, he know what it looked like so he called it what he called it today, just got to come back out respond, just how he said, we gotta respond tomorrow, just got to bring a championship mindset tomorrow.”

Akeem Dent’s full interview can be seen below:

Maurice Smith

Smith took 73 snaps in Sunday's win and graded out at 61.1 overall according to pff.com against a defensive line that was supposed to be one of the best in the country. He wasn’t originally supposed to play last weekend and said that he pushed hard to get the opportunity. “I pushed. Going to treatment three times a day just pushing myself you know, I wanted so bad to be out there and it came true.”

In a practice earlier in the season, the team went down to Jacksonville, FL. Maurice Smith was injured and in limbo on when he was expected to return. When asked about that experience he said, “I was really scared. I thought I tore my ACL or something but luckily it was just a sprain.” Saying that his support group helped him a lot in his recovery, “My teammates are always a positive mindset and everybody gave me positive vibes and just told me to just keep pushing myself you know? I had to just motivate myself and just to push because LSU is a big game and I had to be out there.”

Smith’s full interview can be seen below: