It was such a telling answer Mike Norvell gave when he was asked if he's had many days where his quarterbacks and receivers "have thrown it and caught it" as well as they did during Thursday's FSU football practice.

"In my career?" Norvell asked with a bit of a smile.

No. Not for his total career. After all, he had some dudes who put up big numbers during his time at Memphis.

But at Florida State, was what we saw on Thursday afternoon the best he had ever seen his receivers and quarterbacks collectively play?

He didn't quite answer the question, but you could tell he was impressed with what he witnessed.

"It was a good day," Norvell said. "You could see the timing, the rhythm, the quarterbacks, guys going and making plays when they had the opportunity to. When you put in that kind of work, you see the confidence start to really develop.

"And that's what we need, that's what we expected. Some of the young guys are really developing and coming on. Some of the older guys are becoming more consistent. Obviously, some of the newcomers have shown they're here for a reason."

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One of those newcomers had by far his best day of spring practice.

Oregon transfer Mycah Pittman made a handful of really difficult, contested catches on Thursday -- the last of which went for a touchdown on the final play of the practice. And it was thrown by Tate Rodemaker, who once again was excellent throughout.

Pittman and sophomore Malik McClain both had breakout days on Thursday. It's not as if Pittman had been having a bad camp or anything; he just wasn't necessarily making a ton of, "Wow!" plays. He might have been saving them all up for Thursday.

Pittman had three touchdown catches on the day, and none of them were easy. He caught one while being held, and another diving toward the sideline but still keeping his body inbounds to make the catch.

He also had a sensational, 29-yard catch in 7-on-7 drills in which he simply out-fought the defensive back for the ball.

Pittman has already shown a unique ability to make contested catches despite not being all that big; he's listed at 5-11, 201 pounds. On Thursday, he took it to another level. He also had two runs in which he showed some special elusiveness.

In totality, it was just an extraordinary day for the Oregon transfer. Not saying the dude is going to be an All-American, so don't come back at me with this column in seven months. But on a Thursday in late March, he was a sensational college receiver. And he showed a real glimpse of what kind of impact player he could be.

So did Malik McClain.

The second-year receiver hadn't really done a whole lot so far this spring. It wasn't like he was dropping a bunch of passes or anything; we just hadn't noticed him much at all. Period.

That changed on Thursday.

The 6-foot-4 sophomore had, by my count, three touchdowns on the day -- one in one-on-one drills on a 50-yard score in which he made a great catch on a ball just a tiny bit out in front.

And in his final drive of the day, working with Jordan Travis, he sped past cornerback Greedy Vance and hauled in a perfectly thrown TD pass.

McClain also had another 30-ish-yard catch earlier in the practice as well. He was really good.

It wasn't just those two receivers who had big days. But, to me, they were the highlights of a day in which the Florida State offense threw the ball better than at any point since Norvell arrived in Tallahassee.

And now let's close by focusing on the guys doing the throwing.

Stop me if you've read this before (too late!), but Tate Rodemaker was once again just tremendous. I don't know if this is the real thing or not, but the guy was really good on Thursday.

I broke down the stats from the Seminoles' 7-on-7 drills and the 11-on-11s. Keep in mind, they had multiple periods where they were doing red-zone drills -- so if you see a bunch of touchdowns, just know that many of those drives started inside the 25-yard line.

At any rate, here's what I had for the three quarterbacks completion-wise with a rough estimation of the yardage:

Jordan Travis was 14-of-18 for 277 yards and four touchdowns. He threw an interception in a 3-on-3 drill to Shyheim Brown early in practice; it seemed to be a miscommunication between quarterback and receiver.

Tate Rodemaker was 16-of-20 for 266 yards and three touchdowns. He did not throw an interception in any drill.

A.J. Duffy was 7-of-10 for 80 yards. He threw an interception in the end zone to Sam McCall. He didn't have as many attempts of Travis or Rodemaker because his plays were blown dead due to sacks and scrambles much more often.

While I didn't think Travis was sensational the whole day, he made some ridiculously good throws down the sideline. He has become lethal at those passes. He made multiple throws to "Pokey" Wilson, in particular, down the sideline that were absolutely on the money.

As far as Rodemaker goes, again, the guy just looks like he's taken an enormous leap.

There were stretches yet again on Thursday where I thought he was the best quarterback. Not on the team -- just for that period. Travis is the starter. But man, Rodemaker continues to impress.

I think Saturday's scrimmage will be very big for him to see if he can build on these practices and play that well in more of a game setting.

When you look at those numbers from all three quarterbacks though -- 37 of 48 passes for 623 yards and seven touchdowns -- you can see in black and white what Norvell is talking about when he says that the passing offense is getting into a rhythm.

And it needs one. FSU had one of the worst passing attacks in the country last year, so this was an improvement that had to be made. And while I'm not suggesting Travis is going to throw for 400 against LSU, I am suggesting he has a whole lot more to work with at wideout.

Before I wrap this up, I do want to emphasize that in many of these drills -- specifically 7-on-7 -- the defense is at a distinct disadvantage. There is no tackling and no pass rush during that portion. So don't think the defense looked like it was 2020 vs. N.C. State again.

Some of this stuff is really weighted toward the offense.

But just know this: They ran the same drills last year during the spring, and the passing game never, ever, ever looked like this.

So there's hope!

And isn't that what spring is for anyway?

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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council