On3 Roundtable: Detailing how Alex Atkins has improved Florida State’s offensive line

It’s hard to win football games if you’re not solid in the trenches, and Florida State surely has its bases covered in that regard heading into the 2023 season. Their defensive line is headlined with names like Jared Verse and Fabien Lovett, but the Seminoles’ offensive line is also looking like it could be one of the biggest strengths of their team this year.

Florida State hired Alex Atkins as their offensive line coach in 2020, and offensive coordinator was added to that title in 2022. Since his arrival, he’s transformed the Seminoles up front on offense, which Warchant’s Ira Schoffel discussed with Andy Staples in a recent edition of On3 Roundtable.

“I think Alex Atkins, if we did approval ratings like in election season I think his approval rating would be just as high as Mike Norvell‘s, maybe even a little bit higher,” Schoffel admitted. “Because again it’s not just how well they played, but from where they came from. I mean as you’re well aware, Florida State’s offensive line was a punch line nationally. They would show clips of Florida State’s offensive lineman on sports broadcasts to make fun of how poorly they played and how basically they got their quarterbacks killed for several years in a row.”

The Seminoles’ offensive line is no laughing matter now, as they helped paved the way for FSU to lead the conference in rushing yards per game last season and kept quarterback Jordan Travis‘ jersey clean all season, only being sacked 15 times.

“It’s a completely different time now, he’s done it mostly through the transfer portal, but also a good bit through development. Their starting left tackle last season Robert Scott was a player that developed through the system, Maurice Smith at center same thing, Darius Washington whose played a lot of games, but then they’ve done a really good job of bringing in some transfers to kind of fill things out,” Schoffel said.

Atkins has not only played a role in the development of Florida State’s homegrown talent, but has also capitalized in the transfer portal, as the team saw plenty of production from new additions on the offensive line last season.

“Dillan Gibbons last year earned First Team All-ACC honors, transferred from Notre Dame, he wasn’t really even playing at Notre Dame, he comes in to Florida State becomes a First Team All-ACC guy,” Schoffel said. “D’Mitri Emmanuel, who he previously coached at Charlotte, comes in. He’s got his seventh year of eligibility this year and he might not even start, he started all of last season, seventh year of college football, and he might not start because they went out and got three more high-profile transfers.”

The Seminoles return plenty of production from last season up front, but that wasn’t enough for Atkins, who added a slew of even more offensive linemen from the transfer portal this offseason that will add even more competition and depth into the mix for Florida State.

Jeremiah Byers who was an all-conference player at UTEP, Casey Roddick who was a really solid, dependable offensive lineman at Colorado, and Keiondre Jones who has started at times at Auburn. So this is a group that has eight or nine guys who’ve got a lot of college experience and a lot of talented backups as well,” Schoffel said. “And one nice thing about that is in years past they didn’t have that depth, they had to play guys who were injured and have them play through those injuries. Now you’ve got a luxury, if someone gets a little banged up you might be able to actually sit him and play somebody else who also has a lot of experience.”

There’s no doubt that Seminoles are deep and dangerous on the offensive line heading into the 2023 season, which is music to the ears of FSU fans, as the expectations are as high as they’ve been in quite some time in Tallahassee with hopes of an ACC title and College Football Playoff appearance looming in the air.