Alex Atkins' coaching style, new culture rebuilt Florida State’s offensive line

From being a glaring weakness early in Mike Norvell’s tenure to now being a deep and experienced group, perhaps even a strength for Florida State, it’s been a long road for the offensive line room in Tallahassee. And plenty of the credit belongs to offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins.

Atkins, who took over the offensive line coach duties in 2020 and added the coordinator role last season, has shepherded in a new era of strong line play for Florida State. Joining On3’s Andy Staples, a pair of experienced Seminole offensive linemen — Maurice Smith and D’Mitri Emmanuel — explained how Atkins engineered this change.

“Honestly, when he first got here, the room was messed up — wasn’t necessarily messed up but we had the wrong guys in the room,” Smith, a redshirt junior, said. “And he knew he had to just, take out the guys that were cancers and bring in the guys that are positives. He was still understanding. But he was more of a, trying to teach us and trying to set a culture here.”

That culture is something Emmanuel experienced as a player at Charlotte in 2019 when Atkins was an assistant coach there, serving as offensive coordinator and line coach.

Emmanuel noticed a stark difference in how he was learning and absorbing not only how to play on the line but how to work within the offense. The way Atkins focuses on teaching had really benefitted Emmanuel. It was only natural to eventually follow his former position coach to Florida State after spending a season apart.

“Well it was a pretty easy decision for me. I knew being at Charlotte, I had a new offensive line coach every single season. So that year, coach Atkins left, I had a good season and was able to gain a lot of knowledge just from his coaching style. Man when he left, I could see the transition from maybe me knowing a little bit more than the coach or trying to, ‘Hey coach, you know we used to kind of run it like this. What do you think about that?’ So it was an easy decision for me once I was trying to look for a new home in the portal. Trying to come to Florida State, it was pretty simple,” Emmanuel said.

And what makes Atkins such a good teacher, Emmanuel said, is that he’s not the type to blow up when something gets repped wrong. Staples noticed as such watching practice and asked about it.

Emmanuel said that yes, Atkins has gotten a little more lenient, if only because the room has gotten better and deeper over time.

“It was refreshing. It was refreshing because he’s still the same as he was at Charlotte. He honestly, he’s gotten a little — I ain’t going to say he’s soft, but he’s a little bit more understanding here,” Emmanuel said. “I feel like here, he’s built the room up, brought guys from high school and he’s developing them.”

But don’t mistake a more understanding Atkins for one who will let repeated and fixable mistakes go unnoticed.

“He does a lot of teaching, a lot of focus on fundamentals. Now, once he teaches it to you, you keep messing, that’s when he has a problem. So it’s a fine line,” Emmanuel said with a grin.