Florida State coordinators reflect on "dominate" versus Southern Miss, look toward Boston College

Florida State football coordinators are moving on from a successful Week 2 victory over Southern Miss, 66-13, the most points the Seminoles have scored in a game in six seasons.

Offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and special teams coordinator John Papuchis highlighted what helped the Seminoles succeed against the Golden Eagles.

Here are four major points highlighted by FSU's coordinators in Monday's press conference.

Adam Fuller shares experience working in New York during 9/11

Monday was the 22nd anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks that occurred in 2001 at the World Trade Center in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and aboard United Flight 93, which crashed in a field outside of Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

On 9/11, Fuller was working as a co-defensive coordinator at Wagner University - a Division III program located on Staten Island in New York City. It was Fuller's second coaching job and was there from 1999 to 2004.

His mother called him that morning telling him that there was a plane crash and asked him if he knew about it. To his own curiosity, Fuller took a jog out to get a closer look at what was happening.

"I was going to go for a jog and I jogged up because you could see the scene from Wagner’s Stadium across the harbor right into Manhattan," Fuller said. "I went into the stands and I looked across and both towers were on fire. You could see it. I had no idea because I was by myself jogging."

We he arrived back to campus people were hiding under desks and F-14 fighter jets were flying overhead. His wife worked at P.S. 15, which is located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and he could not get in contact with her.

To add to the chaos, Wagner's head coach was unable to get across the bridge to Staten Island, leaving Fuller in charge of the team.

"I kind of had to try to gather everybody together," Fuller said. We had a lot of players with a lot of family involved in downtown Manhattan at that time. Nobody will ever forget that day. It was an unbelievable event. I can still taste the soot when we went down there."

The majority of FSU's roster was not alive, or very young, when the terrorist attacks occurred. Fuller said that there is an importance in educating players on this kind of event.

"It takes days like this unfortunately to talk about it. I found myself sharing my events with our staff at times because you were there," Fuller said. "It was so close. I think it’s our job to educate these guys that weren’t there because it’s all part of our history. I don’t know how it affects them or how they think about it."

Darius Washington, offensive line receives praise

FSU combined for an impressive 554 yards of offense against Southern Miss, averaging eight yards per play. A lot of that credit goes to the offensive line, which dominated on the night and was headed by the versatility of Darius Washington.

The veteran offensive lineman made the switch to center on Saturday and it paid off in big ways according to Atkins.

“Darius has been our Swiss Army Knife. We can plug him in wherever we need to go," Atkins said. "Got in there at center, had one [snap] where we got on him because his hand was wet, and I said ‘Well that’s your responsibility to keep your hand dry.’ It was like an epiphany moment like ‘Oh yeah, you’re right.’

"Put a towel on and he was fine after that. Little things like that, but I’m very comfortable with Darius playing all five positions. And he gives us a little security blanket because he can go in there and do it at a high level.”

D’Mitri Emmanuel also had a big night, earning ACC Co-offensive Lineman of the Week honors based on his performance. In his seventh year, Emmanuel has played a critical depth role on the offensive line and it showed Saturday.

With there being so much depth, Atkins said that the guys on the line have had to earn their place. FSU played 102 players against Southern Miss, and a few offensive linemen who "earned their place" were Jaylen Early and Julian Armella.

“It’s still earned time where those guys have to earn their time to be out there and be able to perform," Atkins said. "You still have to trust them to go perform at a level because it’s not like the quarterback is going to have on a green jersey."

"They’re still live so you still have to keep people out there who are going to keep them upright and keep them healthy. And we’re responsible for the health of our backs and quarterbacks. So those guys earn that time to go out there and do it and trust them to do it at a high level."

Blake Nichelson makes most out of playing time

More than 40 newcomers made their FSU debuts on Saturday. While the majority logged participation minutes, a few players had breakout performances, introducing themselves to Seminole fans.

One of the players who had a big impact was linebacker Blake Nichelson.

The 4-star recruit from Ripon, California recorded five tackles and a PBU late in the game. It's exactly what FSU wants to see in possibly using its younger linebackers more this season.

"Blake, early on, summer workouts, you saw the athletic ability, but you've got to remember Blake was a running back, a safety, a corner (in high school)," Fuller said. "He looked like that when he was first here. It was just trying to go through it, I don't know if he's going to be ready to help, but still the traits are there so maybe a special teams role."

"But really since we got back from Jacksonville, I think Randy (Shannon) has done a really good job with him of simplifying it, teaching him. Some of the questions Blake would ask me, I'd give him the answer, walk away and be like, 'Oh boy, this could be awhile.' Now, I'll say, 'Blake, you're playing a lot faster,' and he'll say the reasons why."

The defense limited Southern Miss to just 13 points, recording only eight first downs, 258 yards of combined offense and only one touchdown. Fuller said there are a handful of things that the Seminoles want to clean up before Boston College, but outside of a few blips, the defense was dominant.

"I thought we were dominant," Fuller said. "There were a lot of three-and-outs in there. Even the one field-goal drive, were two costly mistakes. It was third-and-14, we got a roughing the passer call. We were over-aggressive on a bubble, gave up a 30-yard throw. Other than those two events, I thought we were pretty dominant."

Attacking mindset of special teams

FSU took a handful of risks against Southern Miss, going for it on fourth down five separate times and attempting an onside kick. By the end of the game, the Seminoles had failed to convert on only one fourth-down attempt and had a successful onside kick recovery.

Papuchis said after watching film on Southern Miss, he believed that attempting a successful onside kick was something that the special teams unit was capable of executing.

“Watching their first game, we saw some things on tape that would lead us to believe that it would be there if we executed well," Papuchis said. You need to verify and see if any adjustments have been made from week one to week two, which we were able to do on the first kickoff."

"The opportunity was still there and we had discussed earlier in the day that if it presented itself we were going to take advantage of it."

The Seminoles were a 31-point favorite to win and are a 27.5-point favorite against Boston College. However, Papuchis said that he wants the special teams unit to be "attacking" no matter who the opponent is.

"I think the consistent messaging here in the program is always that it's about us and our ability to execute our ability to perform to our highest level," Papuchis said. "We’ve always since we've been here, want special teams with an attacking mindset."

"We're going to attack and take advantage of opportunities when they're there regardless of the situation."

Jack Williams covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @jackgwilliams.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida State coordinators reflect on full-roster victory over Southern Miss