Florida State is in the final stretch of its spring session, with just four practices remaining for the Seminoles after the team took the field on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The major talking point around the squad is who will be under center as FSU looks to name a new starting quarterback for the third time in the last three seasons. Redshirt senior Ashton Daniels, who transferred from Auburn this offseason, and redshirt freshman Kevin Sperry are currently duking it out on the practice field, trying to separate from the other as the third and final scrimmage of camp looms this Saturday.<\/p>\n
Both quarterbacks, as well as offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach Tim Harris Jr., spoke to local media after the conclusion of practice, detailing what the process has been like.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo be honest with you, it\u2019s easy [competing with Daniels], our relationship is great,\u201d Sperry said. \u201cReally the whole quarterback room since the first week, we\u2019ve been really close. And I think us as a group, the whole team feeds off our energy, which is very important to us, because I feel like the quarterback should be those guys on the field. Ashton\u2019s great, he brings a lot of experience into the room and is really easy to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniels echoed the sentiment, pointing to the standard the room has set for itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a big thing is whoever\u2019s going to go out there is going to be able to go out there and get the job done,\u201d he said. \u201cWe all know what it means to compete at a high level. And I think that\u2019s been a really big emphasis for our room \u2014 whoever\u2019s out there, they\u2019re going to go out there and get the job done. It\u2019s the iron sharpens iron mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris Jr., speaking on the competition, said the dynamic between the two quarterbacks has had a positive effect on the rest of the team. \u201cWe have two guys that our team really believes in,\u201d he said. \u201cThey come in, they show up in the building every day and they work their tails off and they\u2019ve earned the trust of their coaches, they\u2019ve earned the trust of their teammates, and you feel that with our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a quarterback competition where I\u2019ve seen some in different times in my career where you get the team kind of pulling one way or the other. Our team is really rallying behind both of these guys. And I think it all goes back to just their work ethic and what they\u2019ve earned from everyone in our building.\u201d<\/p>\n
The trio also spoke on what they\u2019ve taken away from the first two scrimmages, with Sperry and Daniels offering self-assessments and Harris Jr. speaking on the struggles seen from them in the second.<\/p>\n
Sperry said he has been pleased with his ability to lead the offense and manage communications at the line, but acknowledged there is work still to do. \u201cThings I need to improve on is definitely just my footwork in the pocket and my movement in the pocket, not escaping too early,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s really been the biggest emphasis for me throughout the offseason and spring ball so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Daniels said the scrimmages have been a useful measure of how the offense responds when things break down. \u201cSeeing how the guys respond and how I can lead in these real, game-like scenarios has been a big learning emphasis, I think, for this whole offense,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re not doing our best, how we respond. I think that\u2019s been a really big thing for us as well. And we\u2019ve seen a lot of good signs of that early on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris Jr. said while they didn\u2019t have the best showing this past Saturday, the offense showed clear improvement in practice Tuesday after reviewing film from the second scrimmage.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust overall when you look at their position, you have those moments where you just don\u2019t make good decisions, and there were a couple of those plays where that was the case,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then there were a couple that were just bad luck \u2014 it happens, a tip ball here and there, and that kind of thing happens. So it ain\u2019t all bad on decision-making from them. But I think they all looked at their scrimmage and they know there are plays they would love to have back. As we watched the film, you saw that today they did a much better job.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re calling a lot of the same concepts because we want to get really good at what we do. You just saw the decision-making look a lot different today when we were out at practice. Just knowing that guys can learn from those mistakes and continue to grow. That\u2019s a part of that position.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris Jr. also spoke on the running back room, wide receivers, tight ends and offensive line \u2014 the full availability from all three can be seen below.<\/p>\n
FSU football: Quarterback Kevin Sperry post-practice media availability, April 7<\/p>\n
FSU football: Quarterback Ashton Daniels post-practice media availability, April 7<\/p>\n
FSU football: Offensive coordinator, wide receivers coach Tim Harris Jr. post-practice media availability, April 7<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida State is in the final stretch of its spring session, with just four practices remaining for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222551,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3691,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-222550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-florida-state-football","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}