FSU Football: Noles dealing with extreme heat during first fall practices

FSU Football has been busy beating the heat – and making sure no players fall victim to it – as they get closer to starting the 2019 season in under 3 weeks.

For those who don’t live in the state of Florida or don’t subscribe to an app that tells you the weather report, let me break it down for you: it is hot as hell in the Sunshine State this summer all the way from it living in the 90s in the Keys up to Tallahassee, where the FSU football team is trying to get ready for the opener with Boise State.

In just under three weeks, the Seminoles and Broncos are going to kick off their seasons on what should be a “warm” evening in Jacksonville – and if head coach Willie Taggart wants to keep his promise of a tougher team in 2019, they need to be prepared for a fourth quarter of heat that their foes from Idaho won’t know about.

For that, Taggart switched practices for FSU football of late from the morning to the afternoon to prepare for the heat that will come from their first two games being at 7 p.m. and 5 p.m. respectively – while at the same time, making sure that no player falls victim to the heat.

Florida State Seminoles Football

The Tallahassee Democrat wrote a piece this weekend on the new recovery box put into place at practice as a way to make sure the players stay safe – out of necessity more than anything.

"“Obviously, we don’t have a way to monitor every single person’s exact core temperature. So we have to monitor them with our eyes and our ears and watch them you know. And it’s going to obviously dehydrate you,” said head trainer Jake Pfell."

For the players – many from the state of Florida or other oppressively warm areas – the heat is just another part of their job that, quite frankly, they are used to.

"“It’s about mental toughness,” FSU wide receiver Jordan Young said to the Orlando Sentinel. “[We’re] just trying to get mentally stronger. The heat’s nothing. You don’t feel it, so it don’t matter to me.”"

With all due respect to Young and anyone else who thinks that way, when the heat index in Tallahassee on Friday was at 109 degrees and advisories are issued, that changes the dynamic of things just a little bit – whether you are just walking outside or practicing for the FSU football team.

With moments in the past in both Tallahassee and other locations where tragedy strikes during football practice, you can never be too safe.