Florida State Seminoles return to practice after Irma layoff

The 11th-ranked Florida State Seminoles returned to practice after a five-day layoff due to Hurricane Irma.

Coach Jimbo Fisher's team came back Tuesday and will continue practice through Friday with no game scheduled this week. The Seminoles will have to wait until Sept. 23 to take on N.C. State for their home opener.

The Seminoles' game in Tallahassee, Fla., against Louisiana-Monroe that was scheduled for last Saturday was canceled because of the impact from Irma. FSU's home game against rival Miami, originally set for Saturday, was rescheduled for Oct. 7.

Tallahassee had widespread power outages and the university canceled classes for the week.

Fisher said Wednesday that all players and their families were safe in the wake of the hurricane that swept through the state of Florida on Sunday and Monday.

"I was glad to get back to practice," Fisher said during the ACC coaches call. "It was good for the kids ... just to get back to the normality of things and get ready for a game. Unfortunately we don't get to play this week. We'd love to play, but we understand that's where we're at as a state and you have to adhere to everything there and help everyone in-state as much as you can."

Fisher wants to keep his players game-ready despite the long layoff and needs to spend more time with true freshman James Blackman, who takes over as quarterback after Deondre Francois suffered a season-ending left patellar tendon injury in the 24-7 loss on Sept. 2 against No. 1 Alabama.

"The big thing is try to teach what we do," Fisher said Wednesday. "You read your reads on run plays, pass plays, blitzes, checks, just try to get more reps of that as possible. We do good on good. We always do that even on game week to keep the game speed, so we'll do that and try to keep them as game-ready as we possibly can."

Meanwhile, No. 17 Miami has been unable to resume practice as large parts of the area remain without power in South Florida. The university is still closed. Miami's scheduled game at Arkansas State last week also was canceled.