Mike Norvell analyzes Florida State's rushing attack in spring game

Going into the 2024 season, the running game on both sides of the ball is going to be vital for the Florida State Seminoles and head coach Mike Norvell.

Following Florida State’s spring game, Norvell broke down what he saw from the rushing attack. He started by analyzing the defensive effort.

“I thought there were good moments on both sides,” Mike Norvell said. “You saw some guys that were flowing fast and fitting, creating a couple TFLs defensively. That’s something that we need to have. We need to be disruptive. We’ve got to be explosive in what we’re doing now. It starts with the defensive front and carries to the linebackers.”

In 2023, Florida State was 77th in the country in rushing yards, with an average of 150.21 yards per game on the ground. That group was led by Trey Benson, who is now on the Arizona Cardinals. So, Mike Norvell is looking for new players to step up.

“Whenever the running backs got an opportunity to get in space, and got a run seam, they took advantage. So I thought Roydell [Williams] did some nice things. You saw all the other backs. LT [Lawrance Toafili], we know what we’ve got there and we tried to be pretty smart with him just throughout the course of scrimmage and throughout the spring, but he’s done a wonderful job with opportunities that he’s had. I think Jaylin Lucas, Caziah [Holmes], Sam Singleton had a good run today. Those guys are all very capable and it’s just about the consistency.”

Despite that, Mike Norvell did see plenty to work on. That, notably, included holding onto the ball better.

“The thing I didn’t like is we had two balls that got to the ground from the running back spot. That’s an area we’ve got to get better,” Norvell said.

Last season, Florida State was 23rd in the country in fumbles lost, coughing the ball up five times. Making sure to consistently not fumble in 2024 is going to be key. However, it’s also going to be key to get guys on both sides of the ball to buy into the rushing game.

“I think collectively as a unit, offensively, the embrace and understanding of the importance of the run game is something those guys have taken a great deal of focus on. I think it’s really showed up here these last last two weeks of spring. I think they’ve really grown in that in that capacity,” Norvell said. “And, obviously, defensively, we’re going to continue to work and we want that to be one of the main characteristics of our defense. We’ve got to be able to stop the run.”