Leading OFF
How Jordan Travis’ injury could alter course of FSU’s season
There was supposed to be a celebration at Doak Campbell Stadium on Nov. 18.
Playing in its final home game of the 2023 season against North Alabama, the Florida State football team celebrated its seniors. The class – led by quarterback Jordan Travis – had led a turnaround of the program in four years under head coach Mike Norvell.
There was also a celebration of the Seminoles’ 2013 squad that went undefeated and won the last BCS National Championship.
Yet with less than two minutes left in the first quarter, the air was sucked out of the sold-out crowd, inside the press box and throughout the country, as one of the most beloved and talented players across the nation went down.
Two game minutes before Travis was going to see former Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston and his 2013 teammates honored at the end of the first quarter, he was carted off the field, to watch the rest of the game from a hospital room.
FSU scored 58 unanswered points to win commandingly 58-13 over a lowly FCS North Alabama.
Yet the night felt like a loss.
“I can’t say that I did block it out. You go and you coach and you do everything, just like I said earlier, for the players that are out there on the field. I went to them too, but it doesn’t lessen anything of the impact of when you have any players that go down,” Norvell said of the injury postgame.
“I mean, it’s hard because this is a game that these guys, they put so much into. Like I always tell you, you’ve got to be for others what they need, and really our players, the way that they competed, the way that they fought, the way that they were responding was a lot of what I even needed at times because you see their desire to go out there and to do all they can to make sure that we finished as good as we could be.”
At one point in his career, Travis left the field to boos from the crowd during FSU’s low point during a loss to Jacksonville State. It is something he said bothered him still.
The final time he took the field at Doak Campbell, he left to applause and a chant of his name from the home crowd, as players and staff from both sides flooded the field and gathered around.
It’s a damn shame it was not a celebration of the 2023 season, one which he was in the thick of the Heisman race.
It’s a shame it was on a cart escorting him to an ambulance to end his FSU career.
Jordan Travis deserved better. Florida State football deserved better. Seminole fans deserved better.
What it means for FSU and the College Football Playoff
In his weekly Misery Index column that was published the evening of the game, USA TODAY columnist Dan Wolken addressed the elephant in the room:
How does Travis’ injury impact FSU in the eyes of the College Football Committee?
“The CFP committee has been very lucky over the years to avoid pretty much any truly tough decision. But this FSU situation could present a real conundrum when they have to weigh what’s best for the playoff with what’s fair,” Wolken wrote in his Misery Index column.
“If an injury against North Alabama is what costs the Seminoles a playoff bid that seemed so likely when they woke up Saturday morning, it has to go down as one of the unluckiest moments in the history of the sport.”
Following the release of last week’s College Football Rankings, CFP selection committee chair Boo Corrigan did not say outright but suggested the gap between FSU and Washington was very small when it came to No. 4 and No. 5.
“Washington continues to win. Really good defensive second half against Utah. But as we looked at it and evaluated it – as y’all can appreciate, the debate is getting stronger every week as we get more data points going through this – but we ended up with Florida State at 4 and Washington at 5,” Corrigan said.
The Huskies beat then-No. 11 Oregon State 22-20 last weekend in Corvallis, Oregon. They now have wins over previously ranked Southern Cal and Utah (dropped out of the US LBM Coaches poll this week) and No. 6 Oregon.
Washington has long been a team I have had ranked No. 2 behind just No. 1 Georgia. If both teams remain undefeated, the committee might just follow suit and place the Huskies over the Seminoles in the playoff rankings.
Next up for FSU will be rival Florida, a team that will be playing for bowl eligibility Nov. 25 at home in the Swamp in Year 2 of Billy Napier as head coach.
Like the Seminoles, the Gators will be without their starting quarterback, as Graham Mertz went down with a nondisplaced fracture to his collarbone.
Beating a five-win reeling UF team – albeit on the road and in a rivalry game – may not move the needle for the committee.
Following that would be No. 9 Louisville in the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 2 in Charlotte. A win in that game – in my opinion – will be the key for FSU to get into the College Football Playoff.
I can’t believe an undefeated ACC team will be left out of the CFP over a potential one-loss Michigan, Ohio State, Alabama or Georgia (if the Crimson Tide beat the Bulldogs in the SEC Championship Game).
“They’re going to respond,” Norvell said of FSU’s preparation for Florida. “We’re going to prepare to be better than what we’ve been. I believe in this team. I believe in what they’re made of. I know how they’re trained and I know what they’re asked to do.
“We have a game next Saturday night on the road, and we’re going to have everything that we can do to prepare ourselves to be the best that we can possibly be. I’ve got a lot of confidence in this team because I live with them. I see them every day and I see the way that they pour into each other.”