Florida State coach Willie Taggart said several of his players could have suffered from dehydration in Saturday’s season-opening loss to Boise State.
The Seminoles had a 31-13 lead late in the third quarter and lost 36-31. Several players cramped up in the game, and at least one player questioned the team’s conditioning.
“I think after going through last weekend and seeing our guys going down and cramping, one thing we talked about with our medical staff is our guys got to hydrate,” Taggart said on his weekly call-in show Monday night.
“That can’t be on Friday, that can’t be on Thursday, they need to start hydrating early in the week and take care of their bodies. We can’t leave it up to our players just to do it. We’ve got to force them to hydrate and take care of themselves.
“I don’t know if we did a good job of that last weekend. One of those situations where you live and learn, and we’ll make sure that we help our guys when it comes to that.”
Boise State, which plays in the comparatively mild Northwest, looked like the home team accustomed to Florida’s late-summer heat and humidity on Saturday. To prepare, the Broncos’ staff turned up the heat in the indoor practice facility and hosed down the field.
Seminoles center Baveon Johnson said the team wasn’t ready for the conditions.
“No, we weren’t prepared,” he said. “I wasn’t prepared, we all weren’t prepared.”
“I feel like it was just conditioning overall,” he added. “That’s what we need to get better at.”
