Florida State may be on the verge of starting a true freshman wide receiver for the second straight season, and Jasen Lopez is making it hard for the Seminoles to look anywhere else.
Mike Norvell isn’t ready to label him that way, though. After FSU’s second scrimmage, the head coach made it clear Lopez has looked more like a veteran than a first-year player.
"He's a guy that doesn't really act like a freshman," Norvell said after FSU's second scrimmage. "I'm not going to put him as a freshman player until he shows me that's how he's going to act."
That kind of confidence doesn’t come out of nowhere. Lopez has been one of the most consistent performers in camp, taking full advantage of his opportunities while his main competition for the slot job, sophomore Jayvan Boggs, was limited to start fall camp.
His best stretch showed up during Florida State’s trip to Jacksonville last week for the annual UNF practices, where the Seminoles left Tallahassee and Doak Campbell Stadium behind and worked through two demanding sessions on an intramural field in the heat and humidity.
Those are usually the kinds of practices where coaches try to wear a team down. Lopez, instead, kept flashing.
On the first day, he bailed out redshirt freshman quarterback Kevin Sperry by pulling in a deep ball thrown into double coverage, beating out redshirt sophomore safety CJ Richard Jr. and redshirt sophomore cornerback Charles Lester III for the catch.
A day later, he came through again, this time against redshirt freshman cornerback Antonio Cromartie Jr. Sperry put the ball in the corner of the end zone, and Lopez finished the play with a one-hand grab that stood out even in a camp built for competition.
His work in Jacksonville even drew a moment with former star quarterback Jordan Travis, who dapped up the South Florida native after the sequence.
Lopez missed the Tour of Duty and part of spring practice while finishing his basketball duties, but none of that has slowed his rise on the football field. He’s shown he can handle more than just receiver work, too, and Florida State could use him at punt returner as well.
"He's still got plenty of things to be able to work on, plenty of things to grow in, but the mentality is one thing I appreciate with him," Norvell said. "We're challenging him, asking him to do a lot of different things in regards to some of the finer details.
He's definitely answered the call in a lot of ways. What we want, what we expect."
Lopez arrived with a résumé that already screamed high-end production. At Chaminade-Madonna, he played in five straight state championship games and won four of them. He finished his prep career with 313 catches for 5,211 yards and 59 touchdowns, including four straight seasons with more than 1,000 receiving yards.
Florida State’s 11th practice of preseason camp is set for Tuesday, August 11.
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