George Henshaw, who coached for two decades in the NFL as an offensive coordinator and position coach and also worked for many years at the college level \u2014 including seven seasons under Bobby Bowden at Florida State \u2014 offers insights into Florida State football each week for Warchant.com subscribers.<\/p>\n
In this week\u2019s conversation with Warchant managing editor Ira Schoffel,\u00a0Henshaw discusses preseason camp, preparing for a season opener and a long season, evaluating newcomers, adjusting to a new starting quarterback and more.<\/p>\n
Warchant: While most college football teams are just getting started this preseason, Florida State has already been practicing for a week since they open the season in Week Zero against Georgia Tech. It\u2019s probably human nature for fans and media to want to already make judgments about the season based on the first few practices. What are the goals of a coaching staff this early in camp?<\/strong><\/p>\n Henshaw:<\/strong> At this time of year, every team is excited and every fan base is excited. Because you haven\u2019t played any games yet, and you see and hear all the good things that have happened in the offseason. Every coach around the country is going to tell you that their players have worked hard and did great during the offseason, and how prepared they are for the year.<\/p>\n But Florida State fans should definitely be excited based on the way Coach Norvell (Florida State head coach Mike Norvell<\/a><\/strong>) has gotten his team ready for season openers the last couple years. He really has done a great job with that in those games against LSU. What you want to be able to do during the preseason is push your guys hard enough so that they have to ask themselves at some point, \u201cDo I want to quit? Or do I want to keep doing this?\u201d I know that might sound crazy, but as a coach, you need to push them that hard. What you\u2019re doing is breaking them down, because that\u2019s what makes you mentally tough. So you want them to sit down at some point in camp and ask themselves how badly do they really want this.<\/p>\n At the same time, it\u2019s a fine line between doing that and practicing them too hard. Because you also have to make sure you\u2019re still fresh for that first game. And I think Coach Norvell has done an outstanding job of getting everything he wants to get accomplished during the preseason, developing that toughness, but also staying fresh. Just look at how we played in the second half of that game against LSU last year. <\/p>\n Warchant: It seems like he takes the same approach with the season too \u2014 making sure the team is as fresh as possible for the final month.<\/strong><\/p>\n Henshaw: <\/strong>Yes, he definitely does. And there\u2019s no question about what the most important games of the season are \u2014 it\u2019s that one game at the end of October (Miami) and the other one at the end of November (Florida). Those are your two most important games, and we should never forget that. And you can see the way Coach Norvell and his staff take care of their players during the season to make sure they\u2019re good for those games.<\/p>\n Just look back last season at Braden Fiske. He was a good player throughout the year. But then against Miami against Florida, and in the ACC Championship Game, he was a great player. Well, he wouldn\u2019t have been able to do that if he had been playing a ton of snaps every single game. Sometimes, we as fans want the team to be dominant in every game, and that means having the stars play the entire games. But playing the backups is so smart if you can do it, because it gets them experience, and it keeps your starters fresh. Then toward the end of the year, especially if you get any injuries, your backups aren\u2019t completely untested. And if you lose 10 guys to the NFL Draft, like we just did this year, those backups will be confident about becoming starters the next season.<\/p>\n Warchant: A lot of guys on this year\u2019s team are making that transition from backup to starter. We\u2019ll probably see it at linebacker, safety, wide receiver, tight end and maybe even running back and offensive line. Is there anything that specifically changes when a player takes on that starting role?<\/strong><\/p>\n Henshaw: <\/strong>The biggest thing is understanding that there is more expected of you now. When you come into a game as a backup, your main job is usually to do what we call, \u201cHold the rope.\u201d Just keep things stabilized. You don\u2019t have to go out there and make a bunch of plays and all that. Just don\u2019t give up big plays or make big mistakes \u2014 don\u2019t bust coverages or bust assignments. <\/p>\n Now, when you become a starter, your role changes. You can\u2019t just go out there and hold things together, you have to go make some plays. And that brings pressure with it. So it will be interesting to see how those guys handle that pressure.<\/p>\n Warchant: Florida State brought in another impressive group of transfers this off-season \u2014 a lot of big, strong and fast guys. But as a coaching staff, is it possible to really know what you have until the season kicks off?<\/strong><\/p>\n Henshaw:<\/strong> It can be difficult. From everything I hear, this team might have more athletic ability than any team we\u2019ve had under Coach Norvell. I think he has said that. Now, does that mean they\u2019re gonna be better football players? I don\u2019t know that. And none of us really know that until they start playing games.<\/p>\n Look at the wide receiver position. You might have guys out there that are fast. But can they do it when the pads come on? Can they get open? And if a ball is thrown their way, will they catch it? Can they do it in a clutch situation on third down or in the red zone? Can they do it in the fourth quarter when you have to have it? Same thing with a left guard or any other position. He might look great in practice, but it\u2019s a totally different situation when the scoreboard comes on.<\/p>\n Warchant: Another thing about Florida State\u2019s teams the last two years is they had a real toughness about them too. That\u2019s got to be hard to measure in preseason.<\/strong><\/p>\n Henshaw: <\/strong>Well, that\u2019s the thing that\u2019s been so rewarding here recently, and you anticipate that it will continue. These teams have not only been tough, but also unselfish. They were willing to put the team before themselves individually. That\u2019s a big deal when you have guys who are disciplined enough to do exactly what the coaches ask them to do, and they have the toughness to do it. Forget about football, there\u2019s not that many people in society who are willing to put the team before themselves and also have toughness and discipline. <\/p>\n You can\u2019t measure those things. You can\u2019t measure leadership. And those are things we\u2019ll need to replace this season, because those 10 guys who went in the NFL Draft? They had those qualities about them.<\/p>\n Warchant: Another big change for this team \u2014 maybe the most obvious change \u2014 is they will have a new starting quarterback in DJ Uiagalelei.<\/a> There\u2019s obviously going to be a ton of attention on him, but I\u2019m sure the coaches aren\u2019t planning to ask him to win games by throwing it 35 or 40 times a game. What do you think will be the keys to his success?<\/strong><\/p>\n Henshaw:<\/strong> I think it will be interesting to see how Coach Norvell, Alex (offensive coordinator Alex Atkins) and Tony (quarterbacks coach Tony Tokarz) adjust the offense to suit DJ compared to what they have had the last couple of years. Because that\u2019s a different skill set. And it\u2019s not that one\u2019s better than the other. It\u2019s that they\u2019re different. So what you have to do is adjust some to his skill set.<\/p>\n The other thing I\u2019m sure Coach Norvell is focusing on is making sure that the backup quarterback is developed too. Because if something happens to your starting quarterback, you want to make sure that your season doesn\u2019t go down the drain. I would think that any other position on this team, if a starter went down, your whole season is not gonna go down the drain. But quarterback is so important.<\/p>\n When I was fortunate enough to be coaching in the NFL, I heard a coach get asked who was the most important player on his team, and he said the quarterback. And when he was asked about the second-most important player, he said the backup quarterback. I think the good thing for us this year is we have backup quarterbacks who have very good skill sets. And it\u2019s up to them to be sure they are totally well-prepared if they get called upon.<\/p>\n \u2014\u2014\u2014\u2013<\/p>\n George Henshaw, whose son Matt played quarterback and tight end at Florida State in the early 2000s, has a wealth of experience at the college and pro levels. He was an assistant coach at West Virginia, his alma mater, in the early 1970s before coming to FSU with Bobby Bowden in \u201976. He later would serve as offensive line coach and offensive coordinator at Alabama in the mid-1980s before taking the head coaching position at Tulsa and then embarking upon a lengthy NFL career.<\/em><\/p>\n Henshaw coached under Dan Reeves with the Denver Broncos from 1988-\u201992 and the New York Giants from \u201993-\u201996; he then served on Jeff Fisher\u2019s staff with the Tennessee Oilers and Titans from \u201997-2005; and the New Orleans Saints from \u201906-\u201907; before wrapping up his career with the Titans in 2013.<\/em><\/p>\n Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The post Henshaw\u2019s House: Keys to preparing for season opener and a long season ahead<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" George Henshaw, who coached for two decades in the NFL as an offensive coordinator and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63504"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63532,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63504\/revisions\/63532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}