FSU 'glad to get back to practice' after Hurricane Irma layoff

— -- The Florida State Seminoles have returned to practice after a five-day layoff due to Hurricane Irma.

Coach Jimbo Fisher said on the ACC coaches call that his team practiced Tuesday and would continue to practice through Friday.

The Seminoles had their game against Louisiana-Monroe canceled last week. Their game against rival Miami, originally set for this weekend, has been rescheduled for Oct. 7.

Fisher said all players and their families were safe in the wake of the massive hurricane that enveloped the state over the weekend. Tallahassee had widespread power outages, and the university has canceled classes for the week.

"I was glad to get back to practice," Fisher said. "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."

Though there are no classes this week, Fisher hasn't altered the routine as the team is able to practice on campus. To keep things as normal as possible, film study and practice times remain the same. In practice, the team always goes first-team defense against first-team offense even during game week, so he hopes that will keep his players game-ready despite the long layoff.

He also is faced with the task with prepping true freshman James Blackman to take over as quarterback after? Deondre Francois?suffered a season-ending left patellar tendon?injury on Sept. 2 against Alabama.

"The big thing is try to teach what we do," Fisher said. "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."

In South Florida, Miami has been unable to resume practice and there is no timetable for a return. Large swaths of the area remain without power, and the university is still closed as emergency crews assess the damage and determine when it is safe to return to campus.