FSU football freshman quarterback Chubba Purdy was already turning heads in his short time in Tallahassee. A broken collarbone will delay things for now.
One of the biggest questions for FSU football going into the 2020 season is who’s going to be the starting quarterback.
It’s a question that’s been pertinent every year since Jameis Winston left after the 2014 season to become the No. 1 overall draft pick of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
It’s a four-man race between redshirt junior James Blackman, redshirt sophomore Jordan Travis, true freshman Tate Rodemaker, and true freshman Chubba Purdy.
It’s now a three-man race after Purdy was injured during the first scrimmage of fall camp Saturday night.
Mike Norvell has a philosophy of allowing true freshmen to play live reps(allowed to be tackled), and Purdy broke his collarbone according to his mom’s post on her Facebook account:
It looks as though the doctors have already provided a prognosis regarding recovery time. Most broken collarbones take 6-8 weeks to heal, but we’re talking about a well-conditioned athlete with access to treatment around the clock.
A lot of FSU football fans expected Purdy to compete for the starting job. Let’s look at how the injury will impact the QB competition.
Development Delay
This injury is going to hamper Purdy’s ability to develop during the next six weeks.
There will be valuable snaps going to the other three quarterbacks as he’s relegated to mental reps.
Six weeks from now will hopefully be three games into the season, and that’s IF he heals in six weeks.
Purdy’s a smart kid, and he spent a couple of months this summer working out with his brother that started as a true freshman at Iowa State. That’s a valuable time to prepare for what he was going to encounter once he got to FSU.
He’s not the average true freshman that didn’t early enroll, however, expecting him to start in game one was probably stretching it a bit by some FSU fans.
Who knows, we may not even get to see three football games this fall with COVID-19 still wreaking havoc. The worst-case scenario is Purdy gets healed up, redshirts, and gets ready for the 2021 season while FSU football plays MAYBE 6-8 games of their 11 game schedule?
Other 3 QB’s
FSU offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham said all of the quarterbacks would start out getting an equal number of reps in practice.
The number of reps they would get after that would be based on their performance at practice.
The better they practiced, the more reps they would receive and vice versa. Now that this is a three-man race, they’ll be more reps to go around regardless of how everyone is performing.
At the very least, a player that may have had a bad day the day before could get more of a chance to redeem himself the following day.
James Blackman and Tate Rodemaker are similar style QBs with Blackman having a little more mobility than Rodemaker. However, neither can attack a defense with their legs the way Jordan Travis can.
On the flipside, Travis isn’t as good of a passer as either of those guys, so it’ll be interesting to see what the coaching staff values most.
They want production, and both styles have their pros and cons.
Final Thoughts
It sucks any time a player is injured and has to miss time away from the game. However, at least it’s an injury to his non-throwing shoulder and one where recovery is relatively quick.
I know Mike Norvell said the young players were not too far behind in learning the playbook, but I always thought it was a stretch for Purdy to come in and win the starting job.
I’ve stated that several times on social media and the uncertainty of the season taking place means there’s no reason for him to rush back.
I know he’s a competitor and will do everything he can to get back on the field this fall. He could play in some games later in this season if it gets to that point.
After all, he can play in up to four games and still receive a redshirt. However, if the season isn’t completed or he doesn’t find his way on the field, it’s not the end of the world.
He can redshirt and get ready to compete for the starting job in 2021.