How it started, how it's going: FSU QBs heading into Norvell's second year

Florida State had only two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster when Mike Norvell arrived last December, and he quickly bolstered that depth chart by flipping a pair of quarterback recruits from other schools.

First, he convinced Valdosta, Ga., three-star prospect Tate Rodemaker to switch his commitment from USF, and then he convinced four-star Arizona signal-caller Chubba Purdy to flip from his pledge to Louisville. Those were viewed as huge early wins for Norvell, especially since his predecessor, Willie Taggart, had failed two sign a high school quarterback in either of his two classes.

While those additions were important, a variety of circumstances prevented them from paying major dividends for the Seminoles in 2020.

Rodemaker enrolled early with the hopes of getting a head start on learning Norvell's offense and participating in a month's worth of spring practices with his new college teammates. That went sideways, of course, due to the coronavirus pandemic, as FSU's spring was scrapped after just three practices. The Georgia product benefitted to some degree from his two-plus months on campus -- participating in workouts and meetings -- but it wasn't quite the boost he expected for his young college career.

Purdy arrived in the summer and showed promise in early preseason practices, but then his progress was stunted by a broken collarbone sustained in the Seminoles' first August scrimmage. The injury prevented Purdy competing for the starting job, and he wouldn't make his college debut until Oct. 24 at Louisville.

With one of FSU's returning scholarship quarterbacks, sophomore Jordan Travis, also nursing an injury in the preseason, that left veteran James Blackman as the only viable candidate to be Norvell's starting quarterback in the 2020 season opener against Georgia Tech. That lasted just two games, as Blackman struggled both in the opener and the following game at Miami; he would make only two more brief appearances all year and eventually left the team before the season was complete.

With Blackman clearly not the answer, Norvell and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham gave each of the other three quarterbacks plenty of opportunities to show what they could do. Rodemaker played in four games, starting one, and seemed to make some improvement as the season progressed. He finished the year completing 17 of 29 passes for 130 yards with three interceptions and should benefit from a full year in FSU's strength and conditioning program.

Purdy only played in three games before his freshman season was cut short when doctors had to perform another surgery on his broken collarbone, but he showed some promise in his limited action -- particularly in his final game against N.C. State. Though the Arizona product completed just 27 of 53 passes for 219 yards in his rookie campaign, he did throw for two touchdowns with one interception. In that final appearance at Raleigh, N.C. -- his only start -- Purdy completed 15 of 23 passes for 181 yards with two scores; he also ran 12 times for 54 yards.