After the injury to Jordan Travis against North Alabama, the Florida State Seminoles turned to Tate Rodemaker as the team’s starting quarterback.
Who is Rodemaker? Can he keep Florida State’s Playoff and national championship hopes alive?
Not Tate Rodemaker’s First Rodeo
While Rodemaker has been at Florida State for four years, he hasn’t played all that much. In his last start against Jacksonville State in 2020, Rodemaker was benched in favor of Jordan Travis.
However, Rodemaker has appeared in relief of Travis beforehand. Last season against Louisville, whom Florida State will face in the ACC Championship Game, Rodemaker completed six-of-10 passes for 109 yards with two touchdowns and an interception to lead a comeback victory for the Seminoles.
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Rodemaker was a three-star quarterback recruit according to the 247sports Composite ranking in the 2020 recruiting class. In fact, Rodemaker was head coach Mike Norvell’s first commit at Florida State.
Rodemaker was initially committed to South Florida but flipped over with Norvell taking over Florida State. Rodemaker became the first high school quarterback to sign with Florida State in three years after former coach Willie Taggart leaned heavily on the transfer portal to stock his QB room.
Rodemaker will be expected to keep Florida State’s success rolling, something that Norvell believes he is capable of.
“He has been preparing all season. You talk about it. A few weeks ago in my office we had a one-on-one just talking about being prepared in case the moment ever calls for you. Tate does a great job in his preparation. He’s a wonderful teammate. Our guys have a lot of confidence in Tate because they watch him practice every day. They know the talent. They know the ability.”
When asked about how Rodemaker can keep the Seminoles in the hunt for a national championship, Norvell echoed his confidence in him.
“He just needs to be him. Just because you’re not a starter, which Tate, obviously he’s behind one of the best quarterbacks in the country, but that doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been pushing and leading and doing everything that he could to show his teammates that if his number was going to be called that he was going to be ready. We’ve got to do a better job of helping him out, I think we had too many dropped balls.”
Rodemaker is expected to be among the favorites to replace Travis in 2024 along with Brock Glenn, a former four-star Ohio State commit. He’ll have an opportunity to earn that job here if he can lead Florida State to success as the starter.
In his career, Rodemaker is 56-of-93 passing for 767 yards, seven touchdowns, and five interceptions.