As he slowly recovered from arthroscopic knee surgery, Florida State senior defensive tackle Justin Mincey could have opted to use a medical redshirt and return for a fifth and final season in 2010.

“I thought about it a lot,” he said. “A whole lot. Every day, I was just praying about the situation and I let God take over and he pointed me in the right direction.”

That his time was now and not later.

Mincey played for the first time last week at North Carolina and his statistics (one tackle) belied his impact for the Seminoles (3-4, 1-3), who host North Carolina State on Saturday.

“I felt real good,” he said.

“He was a little rough, naturally because he hadn’t practiced in six or eight weeks, maybe more,” added defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews. “But he came back and had a good week’s work last week and did very well for the first game. We need him to play big like that and he did.”

Read more in Thursday's St. Petersburg Times.