FSU head coach Mike Norvell talks first day of Florida State football practice

Florida State football returned to the practice field for the first time in 2025 on Wednesday, kicking off spring camp and the process of acclimating the team — which includes 32 newcomers — to a new offensive and defensive scheme.

“I thought the guys really did a nice job of understanding the structure of what we want practice to look like,” head coach Mike Norvell said. “Great speed, energy, being able to move around from place to place.

“I thought the coaches did a good job preparing the players and what to expect. And obviously new installation. We’ve tried to maximize the walk-through time, the meeting time that we’ve had leading up to this. And I thought the guys did a good job for that to translate out to the field.”

With practice closed to the media, the program has opted to share clips from the day with the media:

2025 FSU football spring notes- Florida State enters spring practice with 32 newcomers, including 19 transfers and 13 true freshmen.- Of the 19 transfers, 16 come from Division I programs.- Included in the transfer group is quarterback Tommy Castellanos, wide receivers Duce Robinson and Squirrel White, and linebackers Elijah Herring, Stefon Thompson, and Caleb LaVallee.- Four transfer offensive linemen — Gunnar Hansen from Vanderbilt, Adrian Medley from UCF, Luke Petitbon from Wake Forest, and Micah Pettus from Ole Miss — have combined to play in 131 career games with 105 starts.- In total, FSU added 15 newcomers on the offensive and defensive lines.- Florida State’s 16 Division I transfers have appeared in 489 games with 244 starts prior to their time at FSU, bringing:— 297 completions for 3,689 yards and 33 passing touchdowns— 1,438 rushing yards and 15 rushing touchdowns— 249 receptions for 3,361 yards and 20 receiving touchdowns— 573 tackles, 69.5 tackles for loss for 345 yards— 39.0 sacks for 269 yards— 13 pass breakups, three interceptions, nine forced fumbles, and three fumble recoveries— 11 punt returns for 155 yards to Tallahassee- FSU’s transfer class was ranked 5th nationally and 1st in the ACC by 247Sports.- 247Sports ranked Florida State’s overall class (signees and transfers) 2nd in the conference.- Florida State hired six new assistant coaches this offseason, including offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and defensive coordinator Tony White, along with new position coaches: OL coach Herb Hand, passing game coordinator and WR coach Tim Harris Jr., DL coach Terrance Knighton, and safeties coach Evan Cooper.- Malzahn (head coach) and Hand (OL) were both at UCF from 2021-24 and produced a top-10 rushing offense and top-20 total offense each of their last three years together; UCF had the nation’s 3rd-highest cumulative rushing total from 2021-24 behind only Air Force and Army.- Malzahn’s offenses have averaged 447.7 yards per game in his 19 seasons as an offensive coordinator or head coach.- White has produced a top-25 defense each of the last four seasons at two different programs (Syracuse and Nebraska); in the last two seasons (24 games), his defense held opponents to 20 points or fewer 15 times.- His 2024 defense was the first in the country since 2021 to not allow a rushing touchdown at home.- At Tulsa in 2007 — the first year Mike Norvell, Malzahn, and Hand were on the same coaching staff — they produced the only season in NCAA history with a 5,000-yard passer, three 1,000-yard receivers, and a 1,000-yard rusher.- Norvell has coached 114 all-conference players and 14 All-Americans and ranks 4th among active head coaches with four conference championship game appearances.- Castellanos, who spent his freshman season at UCF under Malzahn, comes to Florida State after accounting for 4,921 yards of total offense in 21 games played during the 2023 and 2024 seasons at Boston College.

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