Mike Norvell praises freshman Amaree Williams for how he bounced back from tough scrimmage

Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell praised freshman edge rusher Amaree Williams for the way that he bounced back after struggling in the team’s first scrimmage.

Williams reclassified from the 2025 recruiting cycle to the 2024 recruiting cycle, helping to explain his early struggles with the team in his first scrimmage. Still, more important than the fact he had a tough scrimmage is how he responded.

“Amaree had a good day today,” Mike Norvell said. “Saturday and for the scrimmage was probably his toughest day. That’s the thing that you remind him about, you remind coaches, everybody, that he should be going into his senior year of high school and he was in Doak Campbell Stadium. We try to put as much emphasis on that. There were probably nerves and all the things like that to go through.”

A four-star recruit in the Class of 2024, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, Williams was the 24th-ranked edge rusher in that class despite being a year younger than the majority of players in it. He also, notably, is coming into Florida State with hopes of being a two-platoon player who also plays tight end on the offense

“There were some areas that he knows, just from seeing the scrimmage and living it in the moment when coaches aren’t there on the field. Having to go out there and the communication, the alignment, the execution, the finer details, and then just the speed that accelerates in those type of live opportunities. It was something that I think was a learning process and experience for him, and he came back today and I thought he had a really good day. So, I’m definitely excited,” Norvell said.

“And he has to understand that – we all want to just look and see that he’s big and he can catch and he can run and all these things, and he has to trust the process of growth just as we have to as well.”

On the defensive side of the ball, Florida State is expected to use Williams as a pass rushing threat off the edge. As for the offensive side of the ball, he’ll be used as a flex y-type tight end. Still, he’s young and raw in terms of his talent and like all freshmen is going to take time to develop. Growing pains along the way, like a bad scrimmage, are to be expected.

“But I’m very excited with what I saw,” Norvell said. “And today was big because I wanted to see how he would bounce back from his first scrimmage experience, and I thought he did an outstanding job.”