FSU's John Papuchis reflects on wild night of special teams in dramatic win over LSU
John Papuchis was running toward the middle of the field Sunday night to celebrate with Florida State’s players and coaches when he felt something — someone, actually — on his back.
It turned out to be Florida State head football coach Mike Norvell, who was looking for anyone to hug after his team’s dramatic 24-23 victory over LSU.
It was fitting that he found the Seminoles’ special teams coordinator. Because it was the special teams — most notably, the field-goal block unit — that saved the game for FSU when Shyheim Brown came off the edge and made a diving deflection of the potential game-tying point-after attempt.
“It was a great team moment,” Papuchis said. “We needed it. The guys work extremely hard to prepare themselves for the moment, and I’m just excited in that situation, in that time, we were able to execute and get it done.”
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It was the second block of the night for that unit. Jared Verse blocked a short field goal attempt in the first half of the game as well.
Papuchis said the first one actually led to Brown’s block at the end, because every time LSU lined up for a kick after the Verse block, the tight end made sure he closed down the inside gap to avoid giving up interior penetration.
That opened the door for one of the most memorable point-after blocks in FSU history.
“It ultimately opened up the gap for Shyheim coming off the edge,” Papuchis said. “All of those things kind of tied together in terms of how it worked. … More than anything, it provided a great example for all of our players and everyone in the program.”
Combine those two plays with two terrific punts by Alex Mastromanno, both of which were muffed by LSU and recovered by the Seminoles, and it was mostly a banner night for the Florida State special teams.
“I think our guys did a really nice job in coverage,” Papuchis said. “One of the things we emphasize, especially with Alex as our punter because sometimes those Aussie-style punts sometimes have a weird knuckle to them, is expect the ball to come out. And if doesn’t, it doesn’t — you’re in position to go make the tackle on the play. When it does, we need to capitalize on those opportunities.
“Guys really buy into that and believe in it.”
After a subpar year of special teams in 2021, it was a welcome sight for Papuchis and the rest of the coaching staff.
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*ALSO SEE: Ira Schoffel: Observations and notes from much-improved Thursday FSU football practice
It wasn’t all great, though.
Placekicker Ryan Fitzgerald started the game with a kickoff that went way out of bounds. He kicked another one out of bounds later, each time giving the LSU offense the ball at the 35-yard line. He also missed a 47-yard field goal attempt.
So even though it was a good night overall — a game-saving night, in fact — it wasn’t a perfect one for the Florida State kicking game.
“When the first (kick out of bounds) happened, I thought it was being just a little bit overexcited,” Papuchis said. “There’s a lot of adrenaline, a lot of emotion, coming out of the tunnel and leading up to the kickoff. I thought maybe he tried to hit it too hard. And I think once that happens, if you start to press at all, it becomes a little bit more difficult.
“The thing I was proud of him about was you’ve got to be able to bounce back from those situations. And obviously that couldn’t have been a worse start for him. But as the game rocked along, obviously he settled in and was able to finish nicely.”
After the early miscues, Fitzgerald made his one field goal attempt and three extra points and kept all his kicks inbounds, helping set the stage for the special-teams heroics at the end.
“We can dominate and win games with that third unit, that special-teams phase,” Papuchis said. “And it’s critical for us to be able to do that moving forward.”
Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.
