Clark: The Travis Impact for FSU Football can't be ignored anymore

I know I wrote about his impact already, following Saturday's 33-30 win over Syracuse, but I think it's worth diving into the worth of Jordan Travis again.

And it's time Florida State fans, and coaches too for that matter (if they haven't already), realize just how valuable he is to this offense and to this football team.

Mike Norvell is 4-10 as the head coach at Florida State. I truly, in my heart, believe that Travis is the reason he's not 0-14. That's how impactful the redshirt sophomore QB has been when he's been able to play and stay on the field.

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And don't misunderstand the point of this column: I'm not starting a Jordan Travis for Heisman campaign. Not yet anyway! I'm not arguing that he's the best quarterback in the country or in the conference.

But sweet Moses, he's the best quarterback Norvell currently has to work with. By a pretty substantial margin.

That is if you judge quarterbacks on things like production, scoring points, touchdowns, things of that ilk.

I know it's not always pretty. I know there are times when he might miss an open guy here or there, or make an easy pass way much harder than it should be. But there are also times, like Saturday, when he can conjure a play seemingly out of thin air, and turn a minimal gain into a game-changing 35-yard one. Just because of who he is as an athlete.

You can scoff all you want at Jordan Travis as a quarterback. Go ahead. Scoff away.

Just look at these numbers, though.

In the 14 games Norvell has been the head coach at FSU, his offense has had 173 drives (not including end-of-half kneeldowns).

Travis has been the quarterback for 94 of those drives.

The other four players who have started games at QB for FSU in that span -- James Blackman, Tate Rodemaker, Chubba Purdy and McKenzie Milton -- have been the QB for 79 of those drives.

On the 94 Travis possessions, FSU has scored 35 touchdowns and kicked seven field goals.

Of the 79 other possessions, the 'Noles have generated 11 touchdowns and 7 field goals.

Put another way: When Jordan Travis is the quarterback, FSU has scored a touchdown 37.2 percent of the time.

When anyone else not named Jordan Travis is the quarterback, FSU has scored a touchdown 13.9 percent of the time.

Read those numbers again. Let them sink in. Because they're astonishing, really.

The Seminoles are almost three times more likely to score a touchdown when No. 13 is at quarterback than when anyone else is out there.

They've averaged 2.82 points per drive when Travis is the QB.

They've averaged 1.24 points with everyone else.

Again, this isn't being written because I think Jordan Travis should have his number retired some day. But over the last month, FSU fans have been wringing their hands, wondering, arguing and debating about who the quarterback should be.

The argument should be over.

If Travis is healthy, Travis is the guy. Period.

Of course, being healthy is kind of the whole ballgame, isn't it?

"It's been a tough start to the season for Jordan," Norvell said after Saturday's game. "Just a lot of factors that go into it. He's such a great young man. And Wednesday was a big day. To see him not necessarily feeling great ... but to see him go out there and push and really put himself in a position to play, he did really well.

"It was his game to go play, and it was his game to go win. And he did that."

I know McKenzie Milton is a great story. He seems like a great teammate. And it would be awesome if he could thrive in this offense. But he can't. He's not healthy and mobile enough, and the offensive line and receivers aren't good enough.

Put Milton at Georgia, and they'd be undefeated and ranked No. 2 in the country.

But on this team, with this line, and these skill players out wide, it just doesn't fit his skillset in a way that's conducive to scoring points and winning -- two things Norvell is very fond of, I hear.

Milton has had 32 drives this year and produced six touchdowns (one of which was aided by a 25-yard run by Travis against Notre Dame; but since Milton made a couple of key throws after Travis came out of the game, I'll give him credit for that TD).

Travis has had 31 drives (30 against FBS defenses) this year and produced 10 touchdowns.

Again, not incredible numbers by any means. Scoring a touchdown on 32 percent of your drives isn't exactly 2013-esque.

But it's been better than the alternative.

And keep in mind, Travis came in and obliterated the Jacksonville State defense a year ago, but got just one series at QB in that debacle last month. Milton got 11. I have a feeling Travis would have put up more than three points in the second half against the Gamecocks, and maybe it doesn't come down to that disastrous final play.

Because whether it's pretty or not, whether it's choppy and up and down and head-shaking at times or not, Travis has proven he can produce.

When he's able to be on the field.

Of course, that's the rub.

Travis just hasn't been able to consistently stay on the field. He came out after taking a brutal shot in the Wake Forest game, wasn't available against Louisville, and didn't even practice early in the week before Syracuse.

It doesn't matter what kind of ability you have if you don't have availability (man, that''s clever, I should coin that). Travis struggled to stay on the field last year. And in three starts this year, he's been knocked out of two of them.

So, it's not like you can blame the coaches for playing other quarterbacks, when Travis' health has dictated much of that in the last 14 weeks.

And even when Travis has been available, it's not as if the offense has hummed.

But short of Patrick Mahomes or Aaron Rodgers, who exactly could make this offense hum? The offensive line is a battered mess. The receivers have been ... the receivers. There's only so many points you're going to be able to score with that supporting cast.

But Norvell and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham have tried five different QBs since they got here.

Four of them have combined to average 16.6 points per game when they get the majority of the reps.

Jordan Travis has averaged 34.4.

Again, other than this year's Jacksonville State game, I'm not blaming Norvell for not using Travis more. He just hasn't been healthy enough. But I also think he's a guy that because of the era he's playing in, and because he doesn't do it the traditional way necessarily, that his production has been overlooked and underappreciated.

It's also worth mentioning that FSU is 4-3 in games where Travis has played more than a half (and two of those losses were to Notre Dame).

When Jordan Travis doesn't play more than a half?

The Seminoles are 0-7.

That's really incredible. Maybe I will start up that Heisman campaign!

I'm just going to need you to try to stay healthy, Jordan.

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.

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