Because the Florida State football team hasn't enjoyed many convincing victories in recent years, the Seminoles haven't gotten a lot of opportunities to give their youngest players chances to compete on game day.

That changed in the second half Saturday, after the Seminoles stormed to a 35-point lead at the break. And not only did the backups maintain the team's dominance over UMass, they actually extended the lead and helped FSU roll to a 59-3 victory.

“That was big,” FSU head coach Mike Norvell said. “Sometimes when you get different combinations of people, just the communication and maybe the lack of reps that they’ve had shows up, but I thought our guys did a nice job of executing.”

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Perhaps the highlight of FSU's second-half youth movement was that both of the young quarterbacks from Norvell's first recruiting class in 2020, redshirt freshmen Chubba Purdy and Tate Rodemaker, were able to take snaps behind center.

Purdy even got one drive with the first-team offense and tossed the third touchdown pass of his career to tight end Camm McDonald. The Arizona product ended up leading FSU on three drives (all ending with touchdowns), and finished 5-of-5 for 92 yards and two scores.

Not all the reserves seeing action were younger players, either. Fourth-year wideout Jordan Young caught Purdy’s second touchdown.

“It was good to see Chubba come in and be able to get a couple drives and a couple touchdown passes," Norvell said. "I think he was almost perfect on his passes. But he seemed very in-control. He’s getting better and he’s continuing to work away. It was good to see him translate that into a game situation.”

Purdy got forced into action last fall as a true freshman despite missing several weeks in preseason camp and the early portion of the season due to injury. In parts of three games, he completed 27 of 53 passes for 219 yards.

Now that he has had another year in Norvell's system, the young quarterback appeared to be more poised and polished when operating the offense.

“This year, I felt way more comfortable today getting in there," Purdy said. "I knew the game plan way better, because going through the week, all the quarterbacks are always asking each other questions making sure we’re locked in. I feel like this year I’m just more locked in. I’ve matured more.”