FSU football: What’s the Jordan Travis effect on this team?

FSU football got a shot in the arm when sophomore quarterback Jordan Travis entered the game against Jacksonville State. What’s his effect on the team?

FSU football fans needed a glimmer of hope, something to hold onto after getting blasted by Miami in the second game of the season.

The future looked bleak, but I wrote last week how competent QB play would change the projection of the team quicker than most FSU football fans thought.

I was thinking more so about next year because I wasn’t sure how well a true freshman would play, and Jordan Travis seemed to be used more as a limited package player.

Well, we found out Tate Rodemaker wasn’t ready yet, but we also found Jordan Travis is someone Mike Norvell can use to stop the bleeding until they can fully install the offense while giving blue-chip quarterback Chubba Purdy time to prepare and compete for the job after missing time with an injury.

Let me say I understand the performance was against Jacksonville State. First and foremost, there were plays Travis made in that game that likely would not have been successful against Clemson’s of the world.

However, he has given this team life in so many ways. Let’s look at the Jordan Travis effect.

Different Attitude/Mentality

I’ve called this football team soft for several years. It irks me to see them trying to flex or showboat when down two multiple scores or flexing after tackling someone that had an eight-yard gain.

The team had a terrible attitude to start the Jacksonville State game, which is concerning. The defensive line was getting pushed around, and offensively FSU couldn’t run the ball.

However, once Jordan Travis entered the game, and the offense started having some success, it seemed everything changed for the better. Admittedly, a couple of players still got pushed around on defense. Overall, their effort seemed to improve after the offense experienced success.

Here are a couple of plays that show me the attitude and mentality needed is starting to take shape.

What do you know? A new player, La’Damian Webb, is laying the wood to the guy he’s blocking. That’s the physicality and impose your will attitude I’ve been looking for in every aspect.

Guess what? Another young player, freshman DJ Lundy blocking his man into the dang stands! I love it!

At the tail end of this play, guess he’s blocking their man so Toafili could slide in for the touchdown? Junior Tamorrion Terry, who had not been playing like himself the past two games. I know his grandmother passed (prayers still), but he looked more engaged in this game than the first two.

Less Negative Plays

FSU only gave up a couple of sacks on the day, and those sacks were mostly on the quarterback holding the ball too long.

One attribute Jordan Travis has displayed in small sample sizes, even going back to last year, is a mental clock in his head to use his legs if he doesn’t see anything open downfield.

That alone will mean fewer sacks, which means few times the offense will be behind the chains. If they can do that, that will give the offense a higher percentage of converting third downs, which we’ll get to later.

The threat of Travis running the ball gives the offense an advantage too. It means the opposing defense has to account for everyone, so there isn’t a numbers advantage for the defense, compared to if the quarterback isn’t a running threat.

Ultimately, this means there won’t be as much hidden yardage lost and better field position overall for FSU. It also means their ability to convert on third-down should be improved.

Third Down Conversions

FSU went 10 of 16 on third downs against Jacksonville State, which equals a 62.5 percent conversion rate. Is that sustainable? Probably not, but it gives you a good understanding of what he brings to the table.

Every offense wants to have success on first and second downs to make third downs manageable.

Some of the success was likely due to the level of competition, but a large portion of it was their ability to stay in manageable down and distance on third down.

Again, they probably won’t convert those even, those manageable downs at that high of a rate against quality competition, but it does give them a realistic chance to do so more often.

If they can consistently avoid negative plays and convert on third downs, this offense will be difficult to stop. There’s a reason why Mike Norvell’s offenses have been ranked so highly in the past few years.

Memphis converted third downs 46 percent of the time in 2019 and averaged over 40 points per game.

I wrote FSU would have to outscore opponents the next couple of seasons until they can get the pieces in place for the defense to carry some of the load.

Final Thoughts

I understand FSU football is a three-touchdown underdog against Notre Dame. However, it’s OK to be excited to see how they’ll perform with Jordan Travis at quarterback.

I would say I’d go into the Notre Dame game with lower expectations than what you experienced in the Jacksonville State game.

FSU has shown the ability to move the ball against a quality defense, we saw it with Travis against Miami before he was injured and had to come out of the game.

However, don’t expect the offense to score five consecutive touchdowns or anything like that. I think what you’d want to see if what we talked about here.

FSU players giving maximum effort, not beating themselves with negative plays and turnovers while putting themselves in positions to convert on third downs.

If they do that, they’ll put a good product out on the field and won’t get embarrassed unless the defense continues to underperform.