Tony White raised a few eyebrows this spring when he said “he is him” about Florida State rover Earl Little Jr. But the defensive coordinator had seen more than enough in practice.
And on Saturday, Little turned in the best game of his career. The redshirt sophomore had nine tackles and a tackle for loss in Florida State’s upset of No. 8 Alabama — the school where he began his college career in 2022 and played for two seasons before transferring to Tallahassee.
“You got a DB there who is 190 pounds and he is running, trying to hit somebody’s soul out of their body, you know what I mean?" White said. "Every single time. He’s trying to run over there and knock you out. That’s a DB now.”
Little had 15 tackles as a reserve at FSU in 2024, primarily playing nickel corner before moving to safety midseason. It's not an easy shift during the year, but he had six tackles in the loss at Miami and there was a sense he was a better fit at safety compared to corner.
And in White's defense, Little absorbed a new scheme in a safety-like position of rover.
"We found a spot for him," White said. "We put that belief in him and behind him. We let him go out there and just showcase what he could do. It was fun to watch."
In the offseason, Little impressed FSU's coaches. Coach Mike Norvell also selected Little to attend ACC Kickoff, a sign that he's a leader, too.
Little graded the best of any FSU defensive player, earning a team-best 81.8 grade and an 80.7 coverage grade.
For Little, it represents a wild shift. A few years ago, he was playing at Alabama. But in 2024, he joined an FSU team that struggled from the start and won just two games. And on Saturday he leads a massive upset.
"It's definitely a surreal feeling for the guys and I," Little said. "Knowing the work that we in all offseason and where people had us in their minds from the end of last season up until this point now before the game. We had a lot of doubters, a lot of people that didn't believe in us. We probably flipped the script now. But we're going to remain humble, stay 10 toes down and we're going to continue to push."
White feels there's still plenty of areas for improvement from FSU's defense after week 1, even if the difficulty of the schedule is less with an FCS opponent coming up in East Texas A&M on Saturday. But to White, it is players like Little who are emblematic of what he wants the Seminoles to be.
"There ain’t no excuse why we can’t be one of the more physical defenses in the country if our DBs are going to go out there doing that stuff," White said. "I’m glad that he was able to put himself in positions to make those plays."
Early thoughts on FSU's defense
Aside from the opening drive, where Alabama marched 75 yards in 16 plays, FSU's defense played quite well and held the Crimson Tide under 100 rushing yards.
White was critical of the big picture, including communication from himself to the assistant coaches to the players. "It can get better," White said.
Some of that can also be chalked up to first-game issues with new assistants and so many first-year players on defense in the game (as well as rotating in from the sideline). White mentioned busted coverages and a few times when people weren't on the same page, but he also stated those issues "will be cleaned up."
"That was a good first step," White said. "There’s always things to improve on. But the thing that I saw was that at all of the levels, the defensive front, the linebackers, the secondary, they wanted to be aggressive and they wanted to be physical. That’s a really good first step. But there’s a lot of stuff to clean up. "
Celebrate Saturday, return to work Sunday
White said he wanted the Seminoles to enjoy the fruits of their labor on Saturday night but refocus on Sunday's practice at how the team can improve.
"They should have celebrated their tails off last night. But you work too darn hard to not celebrate victories. Especially that one. Family, friends, recruits, it was awesome," White said. "But we call this reflection day. This is a day where if we do it right, and we watch the film the correct way instead of patting ourselves on the back, we say, ‘Yo, I could have, should have done this better. And I will do this better.’ Then we just got 1 percent better today. We improved today."
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