Florida State football opened spring practice Tuesday, and a familiar face turned heads.

Former FSU and NFL linebacker Ernie Sims attended the Seminoles' session.

Head coach Mike Norvell said he couldn't make an official announcement on Sims' status.

Sims attended FSU from 2003 to 2005, and was the nation's top recruit out of North Florida Christian. He selected FSU over Florida on National Signing Day in 2003.

Sims has been coaching in college since 2018 and was the linebackers coach at Central Florida last season.

At FSU, Sims accumulated 200 tackles, seven sacks, 19 QB hurries and 11 pass breakups over 37 games. Sims was also named First-team All-American in 2004.

He was selected ninth overall in the 2006 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions.

He spent eight seasons in the NFL from 2006 to 2014 with the Lions, Eagles, Cowboys and Cardinals. He recorded 420 tackles, 5.5 sacks, 12 pass deflections, six forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries over 109 games.

Sims joined the Cardinals as a practice squad member in 2014 and eventually was released.

Sims started coaching college football in 2018, joining Florida Atlantic's staff as the assistant strength and conditioning coordinator. He also held the role of director of football operations before leaving for South Florida in 2020.

Sims held multiple roles at USF from 2020 to 2022, ranging from defensive quality control analyst, linebackers coach and interim defensive coordinator.

He was most recently the linebackers coach at UCF.

Sims also owns the Big HITS Foundation and has hosted the Big HITS Charity Weekend in Tallahassee every summer over the last 16 years.

After wrapping up the first day of practice, Norvell said he was impressed by how everything in the offseason has carried over to the practice field.

"I really thought the guys came out with good energy," Norvell said.

"I was really pleased with a lot of carryover from our meetings and with some of the walkthroughs. What that allows us to do is to push and implement on day one."

Observations from FSU football's first day of spring practice

• Hykeem Williams nice one-handed grab off a pass from Brock Glenn.

• Hykeem William getting a lot of praise from Mike Norvell. He has made some of the better grabs early on.

• Mike Norvell is heavy on the sprinting effort during kickoff drills. The drills are on-air without a football.

• Ryan Fitzgerald is good from 38-yards (twice) and 32 yards.

• Azareye’h Thomas had a good pass break-up, almost a tackle on Kentron Poitier in 1v1 passing drills.

• Greedy Vance picks off Brock Glenn intended for Ja’Kahi Douglas.

• Fentrell Cypress picks off Darion Williamson off a pass that bounces off Williamson.

• Quindarrius Jones makes a picks-off DJ Uiagalelei intended for Hykeem Williams.

• Ja’Bril Rawls breaks up a DJ Uiagalelei pass intended for Deuce Spann.

• Cai Bates swats a pass down from Luke Kromenhoek intended for Jalen Brown.

• Landen Thomas had a nice grab with heavy pressure from Kj Kirkland. It was almost a tackle on the PBU.

• DJ Uiagalelei good pass location to Jerrale Powers but the pass is dropped to start 7-on-7.

• DJ Uiagalelei makes a long pass to Destyn Hill and he turns on the jets to beat out defenders.

• Jerrale Powers made a nice diving grab off a DJ Uiagalelei pass.

• Laden Thomas nice grab from Luke Kromenhoek to keep the ball inbounds, tip-toeing along the sidelines

• A nice pass from Brock Glenn is dropped from Ja’Khi Douglas. Mike Norvell tells Douglas he can do better.

• Ashlynd Barker had nice coverage on Hykeem Williams for a pass breakup.

• Ja’Khi Douglas grabbed a tight pass from DJ Uiagalelei. Mike Norvell came up to Douglas and said he did a little too much on the route.

• Brock Glenn nice pas to Vandrevius Jacobs right up the middle of the field.

• Jaylin Lucas had a very impressive run down the far sidelines. Really flexed his speed.

Jack Williams covers Florida State athletics for Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at jwilliams@tallahassee.com or on X @jackgwilliams. 

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Ernie Sims attends 1st day of FSU football spring practice | The NoleBook