FSU Practice Report: Thursday 9/25

After a closed practice yesterday, Florida State was back at it again on Thursday, here’s ChopChat’s FSU Practice Report for Thursday, September 25th.

It’s looking more and more like starting DE Mario Edwards will not be playing this weekend when Florida State travels to Raleigh, NC to face NC State. Edwards, once again, did not participate in the Seminoles’ practice on Thursday. He has now missed the entire week as he recovers from a concussion. We’re hearing that Edwards likely won’t be back until Wake Forest, at the earliest.

Mario Pender also appears likely to miss this weekend’s game as well. He was not in pads either, though he was out on the field taking mental reps while his teammates practiced.

As Florida State puts the final touches on its preparation for NC State, here’s today’s FSU Practice Report:

• The linebackers were practicing pass coverage in the early stages of FSU’s practice today. One player would mimic a tight end running down the seam while the other would turn and run with him. Ukeme Eligwe looked solid in the drill but it was clear that he’s still favoring his foot a bit. Eligwe is yet to play this season and Jimbo Fisher has said the team is taking it day-to-day in its evaluation of him.
• In the offensive line drills, Austin Barron was once again back at center, Cam Erving at LT and Bobby Hart at RT. The Seminoles were practicing with a six-man line at times, bringing Chad Mavety in and lining him up alongside Hart on the right side of the line. There’s two ways to read this. Either FSU is considering going with a jumbo set to jump-start its run game– or this was an elaborate smoke screen. We likely won’t know for sure until Saturday.
• Once again, Lorenzo Featherston was getting some one on one time with DE coach Sal Sunseri. If you feel like you’ve read that before in the FSU practice report, you have. Featherston — who is 6-7 and weighs 220 — seems to be Sunseri’s pet project this season. And considering some of the other guys Sunseri has mentored (Julius Peppers comes to mind), that’s likely good news for Featherston– and FSU.
• The receivers started practice by working on catching low throws as they come across the middle. Lawrence Dawsey, the WR coach, continued to emphasize that regardless of whether the catch was made, the receivers couldn’t let the ball get through.
• The receivers then moved over with the quarterbacks and worked on adjusting to long balls that were thrown over their other shoulder. The QB’s would throw a ball after the receiver broke on way that required him to adjust, look over his other shoulder and bring it in. Winston’s arm looked the liveliest, but true freshman JJ Cosentino made some impressive throws too.
• Freshman WR Ja’Vonn Harrison was in a blue no-contact jersey.
• Mavin Saunders got in a little extra work catching the football in the receiver group during the first period before moving back with the tight ends in period two.
• And, finally, the Seminoles have pumped in crowd noise in preparation for the atmosphere at Carter-Finley all week.