Clark: Pop the champagne! Travis leads 'Noles to first win of the season
I had what I thought was a great opening line for this column.
It was sarcastic (can you believe it?) and snarky, but I thought it was funny and I wanted it to lead my column after Florida State's first victory of the 2021 season.
I decided against it, mainly because I think Jordan Travis -- and Ryan Fitzgerald for that matter -- deserve to be celebrated for what they did on Saturday night in Doak Campbell Stadium.
Now, will the 1973 Florida State football team be popping champagne tonight because they're still the only winless team in FSU history? I don't know. But you're not going to read a lead like that here, folks. No chance.
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Instead, you'll read a lot about Travis. And why his performance in FSU's 33-30 win, even though we know it's not going to kickstart some incredible turnaround, was something all Florida State fans should appreciate.
He wasn't able to play last weekend.
He wasn't able to practice early this week.
It didn't seem like there was any real chance he'd be available for this game.
And yet all he did was account for 244 yards, two touchdowns and a last-minute drive that got FSU into Fitzgerald range for the game-winner.
He's not healthy. It doesn't appear Jordan Travis will ever be fully healthy as a college football player.
But on Saturday night, he ran for 58 yards on that final drive to set up a game-winning score. He's the sometimes starting quarterback on a bad (but improving!) football team. He's banged up. Perpetually.
And yet, when it mattered most on Saturday night, and with his team seemingly on its way to another last-second loss, the quarterback not named McKenzie Milton, the quarterback who isn't the fan favorite or the feel-good national story, went out there and won the game for Florida State.
"Everything I do is for the team and for this university," Travis said. "I'll do anything for this team. ... Sitting on the sidelines and watching my team play and not be able to be out there is the hardest thing I've ever had to go through.
"I'm just thankful I was able to be out there today."
So is Mike Norvell.
Consider this. The second-year head coach has won four games so far at Florida State. All four were won because of Jordan Travis.
The other three quarterbacks on the roster -- Chubba Purdy, Tate Rodemaker and Milton -- have all started and played for the Seminoles at some point in their careers.
And yet the only guy on the roster who has actually contributed to a win is the guy that everybody wanted to replace for Milton after a couple of drives against Notre Dame.
So, yes, I'm genuinely excited that Jordan Travis got a moment like that, a drive like that. It's not going to make anyone forget Jameis vs. Auburn or Elway vs. the Browns in the AFC Championship Game. I don't think it's going to be forever known as, "The Drive," in FSU lore.
But it was an important moment. For him. For the head coach.
And, by God, let's hope for this football team.
Because it needs all the good feeling it can get.
There were still some serious issues on Saturday. Crossing routes are apparently impossible to cover. The big, physical QB from Syracuse torched the FSU defense with his legs. And the special teams, before the kick by Fitzgerald at the end, were terrible for most of the game. (I mean, seriously, is Ja'Khi Douglas the only kick returner in the country that jogs out of the end zone? He almost comes to a complete stop. He didn't return a ball past the 20. Certainly there is a better option than that on kick returns. Like maybe fair catching it at this point?)
And then, of course, there was the Pokey Wilson fumble on the punt return. That was the moment, for me, that I thought Florida State was going to lose.
The Seminoles were up 10. Getting the ball back in decent field position. And then one of the most experienced players on the team just drops the ball. It's inexplicable. And as I tweeted about afterward: How do you coach THAT out of a football team?
We've seen it for five years around here. Any time this team gets some momentum, has a chance to really take control of a game, it does something like that. It doesn't recover a fumble against Boise. It has a bad snap against Notre Dame. It fumbles setting up the game-winning field goal against Louisville and Lamar Jackson or in a bowl game against Arizona State.
It completely whiffs on a block on a wide receiver screen pass to allow an interception by a Syracuse defender.
Those are the plays that lose games. And Florida State once again made enough to lose.
But unlike some other Saturdays, it made enough to win, too.
After the Wilson muff, FSU's defense actually got its first goal-line stand I think since the Kansas game in '93.
And after the missed block by Camm McDonald (who had a nice game catching the ball) led to Travis' interception, the FSU defense had another stand inside the 10-yard line to force a field goal. And then got another third-down stop to set up the heroics of Travis and Fitzgerald in the final minute.
"They finished," Norvell said of his team. "We've seen response. We've seen hard play and effort there even when adversity showed up, but we hadn't finished yet. ... I think it's going to be a great boost for us.
"We needed to get a win. It was a wonderful feeling to step in that locker room and seeing those smiles, seeing the joy of just the investment that went into this week but also all the weeks priors. Because these guys aren't going to stop working."
After Monday's four-minute Knute Rockne-like speech, in which Norvell stared daggers at me the entire time, it was imperative that the Seminoles won this game on Saturday.
Im. Per. A. Tive.
Because if they had found a way to lose, if they had snatched another defeat out of the jaws of victory, all the goodwill he earned with that passionate response would have melted away into nothing. And 0-5 would have felt like 0-50.
But his team DID win.
The defense, when it wasn't confused, played respectably well.
The offense was, you know, the offense. It sputtered a lot. It threw a bunch of passes for very little yardage, but it also scored four touchdowns in the red zone. One of which came on a beautifully designed play in which Wilson dropped a lateral, and then deflected it enough so it snuck past two Syracuse defenders right into Andrew Parchment's hands for a walk-in TD. Old Dillingham pulled out all the stops for this one!
And in truth, FSU was due a little luck.
It got some on Saturday. Sure. Including an official not throwing a flag on what looked like a hold by Darius Washington on Travis' 25-yard run that set up the game-winning field goal.
But it also made plays when it mattered. Fitzgerald missed an extra point in the game. He also missed a go-ahead field goal in overtime in the season opener. And yet, in the biggest moment of his career to date, he drilled the 34-yarder.
That could be important down the road.
The team also got to build off last week's impressive second half with an actual win the following Saturday. We'll see. But that could be important down the road, too.
And Jordan Travis, the sometimes-maligned sophomore quarterback who is always playing in pain, ripped off the two biggest runs of the season when his team, coach and fanbase absolutely had to have it.
He got to feel what it was like to lead a last-minute, game-winning drive.
He got to smile after a game. They all did. Finally.
Good for them.
"On Thursday, we made the decision we were going with Jordan," Norvell said. "It was his game to go play and it was his game to go win. ... Some of those runs, it was incredible. It's fun to be able to celebrate with him after that game.
"It was really special."
Said Travis: "It still doesn't feel real to me right now. I'm so excited. Happy for the guys. We can go home and sleep well, wake up with a smile on our face. ...
"I'm thankful."
Trust me, Jordan.
We all are.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council