FSU Seminoles

From the impending quarterback competition to finding replacements for departing juniors, Jimbo Fisher will have his work cut out for him during the next few months as he lays the groundwork for 2013.

With that in mind, we're going position by position looking at Florida State's strengths and weaknesses as the Seminoles prepare for the start of spring practice.

Previous entries can be found here.

Next up: Offensive Line

2012 recap: If success is determined as a matter of perspective, then 2012 was a tremendous accomplishment for the Florida State offensive line. It's not that the unit was dominant -- though at times, it was exceptional -- but rather that it came so far from the unmitigated disaster of 2011. Only center Bryan Stork was a holdover from the previous season's regular starters, while guards Tre Jackson and Josue Matias built on the foundation they laid in the 2011 bowl game. But it was the arrival of right tackle Menelik Watson and left tackle Cameron Erving that made the biggest impact. Overall, the line helped FSU to nearly double its rushing total from the previous season while trimming the number of sacks allowed from an ACC-worst 40 to a much more respectable 26.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Tre Jackson delivered the first block, and Chris Thompson didn't need much more help.

The tailback burst through the line of scrimmage and shot down the sideline for the first of two long touchdowns, the highlights of another blowout win for Florida State.

"That's the best feeling as an offensive lineman you can have, when you set the block, open up the hole, and you see your running back bust through," Jackson said. "You're just running behind him cheering him on."

Florida State's offensive line was dominant in the running game on Saturday, as the Seminoles racked up nearly 400 yards on the ground, dismantling a Wake Forest defensive front that had no answers.

In the passing game, things weren't quite so pretty.

EJ Manuel was under pressure throughout the game. Manuel was sacked three times, forced out of the pocket far more often, and by halftime, FSU had completed just five passes.

Given the myriad questions regarding the inexperienced offensive line entering the season, the struggles in pass protection against Wake Forest are reason for some concern.

"It wasn't perfect," fullback Lonnie Pryor said. "It may look good watching, but it wasn't perfect. We had some good plays and we had some bad plays. We still need to work on pass blocking and be more focused and do things right."

Wake Forest didn't make things easy.

The Demon Deacons routinely threw a five-man front at Florida State, forcing the line to adjust, the backs and tight ends to pick up blitzes, and forcing Manuel to make quick decisions. It took one full half before Florida State adjusted to those things.

Moreover, Wake’s base 3-4 defense was further complicated when Jimbo Fisher was forced to use backup Daniel Glauser at right tackle after starter Menelik Watson missed two practices -- and a bulk of the preparation for the Deacon's defense.

"It was a little different," Jackson said. "I believe we were coached well on it during the week. Our coaches got us some good looks with the scout team and we were well prepared for it."

Still, there were missed assignments on the line. There were backs that failed to pick up blocks. There were receivers that broke off routes too soon and times when Manuel held the ball too long, left the pocket too soon or simply delivered a throw that was off the mark.

After two straight weeks in which Florida State was simply far more physical and athletic than the opposition, Wake Forest at least provided a test, and the grades weren't quite as high as Fisher might have liked.

"We've still got a lot of things we've got to clean up, still have a lot of sloppiness in a lot of areas," Fisher said.

Even in the running game, things weren't perfect.

Late in the second quarter, a 20-yard screen pass and a 10-yard run set up what appeared to be another easy scoring chance for Florida State, but Pryor and James Wilder Jr. failed to find the end zone on three straight tries from inside the 2-yard line.

A year ago, pass protection and short yardage doomed the Florida State offense. On Saturday, there was no slowing the Seminoles, but those problems haven’t disappeared.

Still, Manuel insists progress has been made, and the steps Florida State needs to take to iron the remaining flaws aren't major.

“Nothing out of the ordinary, but just to be more consistent," Manuel said. "I think that there are some throws that I missed and then some catches that they usually don’t miss, but just as an offense we have to be more detailed.”

That's how Fisher sees things, too.

Criticism is tough to come by after winning three games by a score of 176-3, but Fisher knows there is work to be done.

And yet, there's no ignoring the outcomes, regardless of the level of competition or the handful of flaws that managed to surface anyway. For now, at least, he'll measure progress by how far FSU's line has come rather than how much further they have to go.

"We're head and shoulders above where we were," Fisher said. "Are we where we want to be? No, we're not close. But we're making a lot of progress."

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Jimbo Fisher could list the ugly plays from memory.

EJ Manuel missed a sideline route to Rodney Smith. He overthrew Lonnie Pryor on a route that Pryor gave up on too soon. He had hands in his face too often throughout the game. There were a few drops by receivers, too.

It was a 52-0 win, but Fisher knows his offense could've played better.

"I've got it on the quarterback, I've got it on our protection, and I've got it on our receivers," Fisher said. "I think all three phases could do a better job."

Complaining about missed assignments and dropped balls are a luxury for a team that is now 3-0 for the first time since 2005 and has outscored its opposition 176-3 thus far.

But the task gets tougher this week with Clemson looming on the horizon, and Fisher aims to iron out any flaws in the offense.

Some of the problems were caused by Wake Forest's 3-4 scheme, which offered few surprises but still managed to prove a bit complex for Florida State's blockers. Right tackle Daniel Glauser looked bad on a number of plays in his first start of the season, while fullbacks and tight ends failed to pick up blitzes on several others, Fisher said.

"It was a little different," guard Tre Jackson said. "All we really came out trying to do was not mess it up. We continue to work and get better."

Glauser was in the lineup because starting right tackle Menelik Watson missed three practices this week with an ankle injury. Watson played in the second half, but Fisher said he was wary of giving the junior college transfer a lot of work against the unique Wake defense without the proper preparation.

The rest of the offensive line looked a bit perplexed at times, too, and at halftime, Manuel was just 5-of-11 passing for 75 yards. His production improved in the third quarter, but he was under duress throughout. The Florida State line allowed its first three sacks of the season.

But while the offensive line struggled at time in pass protection, the run blocking was stellar.

Florida State racked up 385 yards rushing Saturday, led by two long touchdown runs for Chris Thompson. Both runs went to the right side, with Jackson opening up the holes.

So while there remains work to be done on the line, Jackson said, it's tough not to celebrate the line's performance against Wake Forest.

"That's the best feeling as an offensive lineman you can have, when you set the block, open up the hole, and you see your running back bust through," he said. "You're just running behind him cheering him on."

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Menelik Watson used to be a boxer, and it shows.

He's 6-foot-6 and tops 320 pounds, but he moves with the ease of someone half his size -- his feet quick, his body graceful.

At the point of contact, however, Watson is fierce. His hands are powerful, punishing.

"I feel it, and it hurts man," said defensive end Cornelius Carradine, who has wrestled repeatedly in the trenches with Watson during fall practice. "I have to give him an arm or bull him so he won't grab me. Because if he grabs you, pushes you, punches you -- it's impossible."

On the other side of the line, Cameron Erving is an equally formidable adversary.

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One day after arriving to practice with his right arm in a sling, James Wilder Jr. was absent from early workouts Saturday.

Turns out, however, it was little more than a hefty dose of NyQuil that had Wilder sidelined this time.

The sophomore running back suffered a mild shoulder strain in Thursday's scrimmage, but the injury is causing Wilder more problems at night than it is during practice.

"He took some NyQuil to help him sleep and reduce the pain a little bit, and he overslept," head coach Jimbo Fisher said. "We had to send somebody [to wake him up]."

Wilder slept through his alarm, but he still managed to make it to practice in time for the bulk of the day's workouts with few problems.

When he arrived about 25 minutes late, the sling was gone, but Wilder was wearing a blue non-contact jersey. It was simply a precaution following a particularly grueling scrimmage two days earlier, Fisher said.

"He got out here to practice and took every rep, we just kept him in a blue jersey so he wasn't getting contact," Fisher said. "But that was just from how he ran [Thursday]."

Upon further review

After reviewing the tape of Thursday's scrimmage, Fisher said he was even more pleased with the performance of his offensive line than he'd been watching the workouts live.

The starting unit of Cameron Erving, Josue Matias, Bryan Stork, Tre' Jackson and Menelik Watson opened good running lanes and provided solid pass protection during the scrimmage, with the tape showing the group winning a majority of the battles against FSU's starting defensive line.

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It has been a revolving door at right tackle since Florida State wrapped up a bowl win over Notre Dame nine months ago, with junior college transfer Menelik Watson being the latest lineman to get his turn.

Watson spent much of the first week of fall practice working with the second-team offense, but in the last two Florida State practices he has taken the bulk of the reps with the ones.

Watson has only been playing football for the past few years, having grown up in England. His fundamentals are still a bit raw, but at 6-foot-6 and 320 pounds his physical stature makes him an imposing force.

"He's raw, but when he gets his hands on you, no one's going anywhere," said QB Clint Trickett, who has worked with Watson in the second-team offense through much of fall practice. "I saw him handle (Brandon Jenkins) a couple times."

Watson's first-team reps come at the expense of fellow juco transfer Daniel Glauser, who spent Wednesday's early workouts with the No. 2 unit.

While Bobby Hart had been the starter at right tackle during the final two months of the 2011 season and Bryan Stork appeared to have a handle on the job at the end of spring, head coach Jimbo Fisher said he now sees it as a two-man battle between the two transfers.

"Those two guys are playing right now at right tackle, and they're doing some really good things," Fisher said.

The rest of the line appears somewhat settled with Stork in the middle, Josue Matias and Tre Jackson at the guard spots and Cameron Erving looking exceptional at left tackle.

"Cam Erving's been the most impressive to me," Trickett said. "Cam looks like he's a three-year All-American out there."

Ready to rumble: Wednesday's practice was the last for Florida State before its first scrimmage.

For a bulk of the presumed starters there's not much to prove, but for a number of the highly touted youngsters, Thursday's scrimmage will be a first look at how they perform at game speed.

"It's going to be pretty exciting to see what the young guys do when they get up against each other," safety Lamarcus Joyner said. "We'll see if they go with the flow when the game gets a little bit faster out there. That's the part we're waiting for."

That might be particularly true of freshman corner Ronald Darby, who has earned positive reviews during early practices and could stake his claim to the starting field corner job now held by Nick Waisome.

"We've been rotating there at corner with a couple different guys," Fisher said. "(Darby) is doing a really good job. He's learning."

Keelin Smith and Colin Blake, the other top options at corner, have both been limited during practice. Blake has been in a non-contact jersey for the past week, while Smith has been sidelined with a knee injury.

Meanwhile, senior Chris Thompson has looked strong since returning from a broken back, and he has gotten the majority of the reps with the No. 1 offense. Thursday's scrimmage should provide the veteran with his biggest test yet.

"I'm looking forward to seeing how Thompson will perform after coming back from that injury," Joyner said.

Extra points: Florida State's kick return drills included a bevy of potential options, including Darby, Joyner, Marvin Bracy, Karlos Williams and Rashad Greene. … Safety Terrence Brooks continues to wear a blue non-contact jersey during practice but has not appeared limited during workouts. … Greg Dent is still in a non-contact jersey following an offseason knee injury, too, but he continues to earn raves from coaches and teammates for his improved play so far. "You would think that he had some magic potion or something," Trickett said. "He's been playing his butt off."

Defensive tackle Anthony McCloud will miss at least the next two weeks of practice after suffering a small pectoral tear during workouts Friday.

McCloud, a third-year starter, was participating in board drills -- one-on-one blocking drills against another lineman -- when the tear occurred.

"He tried to give an umph and there was a big guy on the other end, too," coach Jimbo Fisher said.

More serious tears can require surgery and sideline a player for months, with USC defensive end Devon Kennard a recent example. But Fisher downplayed the severity of McCloud's injury, calling it just a small tear. Fisher said he believes McCloud will be ready for the Seminoles' opener Sept. 1 against Murray State.

With McCloud out, sophomore Timmy Jernigan will pick up some of the slack at defensive tackle, while freshman Eddie Goldman could get some extra looks, too.

Senior Jacobbi McDaniel, who is recovering from an ugly ankle injury, isn't ready to push his way into the mix, however. He's been relegated to individual drills exclusively, and Fisher said the team is in no rush to get McDaniel into full practices.

"We're bringing him along slowly," Fisher said.

Glauser gets work

Daniel Glauser continues to get the bulk of the first-team reps at right tackle, as Fisher looks to find an answer at a position that's seen the depth chart change rapidly since the start of spring practice.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- A healthy dose of August hype is nothing new for Florida State, which once again finds itself as the ACC's preseason favorite and a chic pick to win a national championship.

This year's lofty expectations come with a foreboding caveat, however.

Yes, Florida State can win a title -- if the offensive line improves.

It's become a familiar refrain for a team with established stars all over the field, but five huge question marks lining up in the trenches.

“We really don’t listen to the media stuff," said Bryan Stork, a junior who is likely to serve as the veteran of a group likely to include four sophomore starters. "But we know what we’ve got to do, and we’re going to do it.”

Given the talent on the offensive line, Stork's confidence doesn't appear misplaced, but the job of transforming last year's biggest weakness into a potential strength isn't an easy one. Consider:

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