Immediately after Florida State’s 29-13 loss to Clemson two weeks ago, head coach Mike Norvell made a pretty surprising admission.
When reflecting on quarterback Brock Glenn’s first start of the season and third career start that night, Norvell said there had been a plan to get true freshman quarterback Luke Kromenhoek some action in the Clemson game that did not come to pass.
“Obviously the game, how it played and the sequence, I elected not to (play Kromenhoek) for this one,” Norvell said in his press conference after the Clemson loss.
The information within Norvell’s admission on its own isn’t surprising. Had Glenn struggled in that game, it would have made sense to see if the true freshman signal caller could give the offense a boost. Even if Glenn didn’t struggle, you may as well use the four games Kromenhoek can play while remaining eligible for a redshirt to see what you have in him entering the likely position battle between the two this offseason.
Admitting this plan when it didn’t happen, though, is a bit surprising. Because it now opens the line of thinking that Kromenhoek is likely to see the field sooner rather than later. Having not played in any of FSU’s first six games this season, Kromenhoek can play in as many of four of FSU’s final six games while not burning a year of eligibility.
A four-star quarterback ranked by Rivals as the No. 96 overall prospect and No. 7 pro-style quarterback in the 2024 class, it may be a blessing in disguise that the situation didn’t present itself for Kromenhoek to make his FSU debut vs. Clemson. Because there are a number of games down the back half of the season that would seem to present as better opportunities to set the freshman up for success.
Could the first of those come Friday night (7 p.m. on ESPN2) when the Seminoles (1-5, 1-4 in ACC) hit the road to take on Duke (5-1, 1-1)?
"We'll see where that goes,” Norvell said Tuesday when asked if Kromenhoek could make his debut in a two-quarterback system with Glenn this weekend. “Obviously going into it, everything that we do is trying to put ourselves in the best position to be successful, making sure we're putting our guys in the best position for them to be successful. So that's something that we'll see how everything plays out."
While Duke hasn’t played a particularly tough schedule through six games this season, its defense has performed well and ranks considerably well in a number of statistics. The Blue Devils’ 58 tackles for loss this season rank second nationally and Duke’s defense also ranks third nationally in yards per pass attempt allowed (4.9) with six touchdown passes allowed and four interceptions.
Glenn performed pretty well in his first start of the season. Facing the best defense FSU has gone against through six games, he threw for 228 yards — nearly as many as the 229 he had in five 2023 games combined — and the first two touchdown passes of his career. Were it not for a few costly drops, the redshirt freshman’s passing numbers from the Clemson game would look even better.
Glenn may again perform well vs. Duke after providing a spark in the Clemson game. And yet, a plan could be devised to give Kromenhoek an opportunity to get his feet wet vs. Duke without it being a slight against Glenn.
We’ve seen a two-quarterback system work for Florida this season, although that’s not the same situation whatsoever with veteran Graham Mertz in his last year of eligibility splitting time with true freshman DJ Lagway before Mertz suffered a season-ending injury last week at Tennessee.
But still, UF’s offense managed to balance time between those two effectively without disrupting the offensive flow. At some point in the next six games, FSU needs to get Kromenhoek some game action so Norvell has a better idea of where each of the two quarterbacks are at entering a pivotal offseason where they are likely to battle it out for the starting job in 2025.
It’s possible this weekend will be the start of that plan.
"You're still splitting the reps. There are still certain things we want to showcase, but if both of them are splitting the reps, that gets the competition going. Also, they have a good relationship,” FSU offensive coordinator Alex Atkins said. “I think that was the plan (vs. Clemson), but then Brock kind of got rolling pretty good, which is always going to be the case when you're playing two QBs. It just shows our belief in (Luke) that we're not scared to put him in when the situation calls for it."
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