FSU football: Day one 2021 fall camp observations

FSU football began fall camp Saturday, and the words confidence and familiarity come to mind when I listen to Mike Norvell and the players.

I’ve mentioned it several times over the offseason, especially for the crowd that wanted to fire everybody because the team only won three games last year.

The team not having an offseason because of COVID was a huge factor in their performance last year. The coaches didn’t have an ample opportunity to assess what each player could do.

The players didn’t have an opportunity to build trust in their new coaches. Neither entity got valuable practice reps, and we saw the result of that.

Think about it, FSU started four different quarterbacks last year, and three of them had little to no college experience. They started a freshman at linebacker, and a freshman like Sydney Williams played in seven games and had more tackles than Marvin Wilson and Robert Cooper.

That’s no disrespect to Williams, but he was not expected to be a contributor in year one. He had to play, and that became the norm with several young players last year.

The team having spring camp and summer workouts has provided confidence heading into fall camp. The coaches have had a chance to evaluate over a real sample size.

I think there’s a general understanding of the schemes on both sides of the ball. Now, the key for the coaching staff is finding which role fits each player the best.

It was day one without pads, so there’s no sense in dissecting a couple of plays here and there. The key for success is who’s going to do their job? When we hear the same names over and over?

That’s when we’ll know who’s separating themselves and who we expect to be major contributors in 2021.