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Two-sport stars Danzy, Gibson juggling time as football practice begins

Micahi Danzy already has his name in FSU’s record books, the third-fastest to ever run the 400 meters (46.06). BJ Gibson embraced baseball after not playing that sport his senior season of high school, starting eight games and enjoying a .415 on-base percentage.

What they have done off the football field has impressed the FSU coaching staff.

“They've done a great job,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said. “You visit with both those guys, (Sunday) as we came back from spring break, they've been staying busy, and there's a lot of individual sacrifice that they're having to make.

“BJ is getting a chance to get out there and to play and to be able to make an impact. Really proud of him. Micahi is doing something pretty special out there on the track.”

The message from coaching staffs in three sports appears clear: An in-season sport takes priority but allows flexibility to make some time available for the athletes to learn in their second sport.

Danzy and Gibson juggled academics and athletics throughout their high school careers. The start of the football team’s spring practice on Wednesday ramps up their football on-field time after the two spent months learning in the film room as FSU installs a new scheme, one that’s a blend of Norvell’s concepts and coordinator Gus Malzahn’s philosophies.

And the travel component hits for Gibson right away as the No. 5 Seminoles travel to play Miami in a three-game series that begins on Thursday. Gibson will make the trip to Coral Gables.

“He’s playing baseball right now,” FSU baseball coach Link Jarrett said. “We’ve talked with the football staff. He’s in the equation for us. And we constantly talk about what’s right and right now him being here and engaging in this is the right thing for him.

“Now there may be a time where he needs to learn some of the installs and some of the things. You have a new offensive coordinator and a new positional coach and there’s things he clearly needs to learn over there. He’ll get to that. He’s fighting his tail off out here to compete at this. There aren’t many guys that can even think through that sort of conversation but he can.”

Danzy’s schedule for track is more manageable as the Terry Long Relays take place on March 27-28 just a sprint from FSU’s football practice fields. The FSU football team is scheduled to practice on March 27 but not the 28th, and it’s not clear which days Danzy would be running.

In just his first indoor track season, Danzy has three of the top 10 times in the 400 in school history. And he’s part of a 4x400 relay team that also has a top-10 time in FSU’s record books.

After the Terry Long Relays, Danzy could compete the following week in Gainesville and Palo Alto, Calif. Regardless, it is going to be a busy spring for Gibson and Danzy.

FSU’s new receivers coach, Tim Harris Jr., has spent the last few months working with both players. And Harris has an understanding for what Danzy has done on the track as that was his sport in college.

“You get track guys that are playing football, those are guys that go out and run the 100 meters or the 200 at best,” Harris Jr. said. “For him to be a 400-meter guy, there’s a lot that goes into it. I know it from my track background. There’s a lot of training that goes into being a 400-meter runner at this level. What he was able to do this indoor season, just right off of football, super impressed. I can only imagine he’s going to get faster and faster as the outdoor season goes.”

Gibson’s story is impressive, although through a different lens. He didn’t play baseball his senior year of high school as an early enrollee at FSU and focused on football for the majority of 2024. Gibson didn’t take part in fall baseball practices, and he only ramped up his preparation in the batting cages in December before facing live pitching in January and then starting games in February and March.

“The level of baseball that they’re playing right now, him being able to have the role that he has, it shows you what kind of player he is for them,” Harris Jr. said.

“I think right now, they’ve done a really good job with all of the classroom stuff with us. And we want to make sure we keep them on task. Whatever we can get out of them football-wise this spring, we’ll be excited. But we also want to make sure that they continue to enjoy and progress in their other sport.”

Norvell also emphasized that Danzy and Gibson have a football foundation from last fall, understanding what the preparation looks like.

“Those guys are also spending a lot of their own time, whether it's going through installations, making sure that they're putting themselves mentally in the best position so that when they do get to transition, when we do have the opportunity to balance whether it's a week or a workout or whatever that looks like we can get a little bit of both, then that they're prepared to go out and be their best in that moment,” Norvell said.

“With college football and what the summer is, I'm not really worried in either of their situations about their preparedness for what it's going to look like when it comes to the fall. Because I think both those guys, they know what to expect.”