Ereck Flowers wants to play Saturday against Florida State.

The issue now is if his surgically repaired knee will respond the way he wants it to.

Wearing braces on both knees and moving gingerly, UM's starting left tackle was out with his teammates for a 60-minute practice in shorts and helmets Monday morning. The big test, coach Al Golden said, will come Tuesday when practice ramps up with real contact. Golden said he "would not bet against" Flowers being ready to play.

"I know he wants to play, has been working like crazy since two Wednesday's ago [when he had surgery]," Golden said. "Today we eased him into drills, a little bit of movement. Hopefully we don't have a setback, no swelling. But we have a long way to go."

Center Shane McDermott said Flowers is "making a miraculous comeback." McDermott said he's asked Flowers several times how much pain he's in following surgery and Flowers has told him, 'No. I'm fine. I'm good. I'm ready to go.'

"That just shows the toughness Ereck has," McDermott said. "Doesn't matter if he's hurting or not he's going to say he's fine he's good to go. So we're excited."

The Hurricanes moved veteran right tackle Jon Feliciano into Flower's spot and freshman Trevor Darling made his first career start in Feliciano's spot in the win over North Carolina two Saturdays ago.

"Trevor did a great job," McDermott said. "It's really hard for a freshman to come in and execute, especially the offensive line. It usually takes two years for a guy to develop into college speed for an offensive lineman. He just executed the best he possibly could. I'm really proud of him. He came out there, listened to us, did his job and he's getting better every single day."

Golden said Flowers will continue to work on his conditioning in a controlled environment this week to prepare for the game. Golden also noted running back Gus Edwards (ankle) was further ahead than Flowers in his comeback and believes Edwards will be ready to play against Florida State.

> Backup guard Alex Gall was held out of Monday's drills and was in a red non-contact jersey. "We're still behind with him," Golden said of Gall. "There's no update on him other than his status has not changed."

> The ACC announced it will determine a kickoff time for UM-Virginia on Nov. 22 after Saturday's game against the Seminoles.