'Dream come true:' Family elated for Travis' long-awaited chance to shine
It's not an act.
The unassuming way Jordan Travis speaks with the media. How he seemingly never shows emotion. How he stays so matter-of-fact when discussing his touchdowns and jaw-dropping escapes.
It's not something Florida State's new starting quarterback reserves specifically for reporters. It's how he is in everyday life.
Travis might be one of the most exciting players in the ACC. He's just not excitable.
"I've been asked [interview] questions before," said older brother Devon, who starred as an FSU baseball player from 2010-2012 before eventually playing Major League Baseball with the Toronto Blue Jays. "And I know you guys want some meaty answers. And to be honest, Jordan is a flat-line kid. His answers are very much the same all the time. And when I ask him those same questions you guys are asking him, I get the same exact answers. ...
"I want to hear him screaming and saying, 'Yeah, I'm ready to tear it up.' And there's just not much to it. That's how he is."
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After the younger Travis led the Seminoles to a 31-28 victory over then-No. 5 North Carolina last Saturday night -- a game that featured Devon dancing in the stands on national television after Joshua Kaindoh's defensive touchdown -- the sophomore quarterback met his family in the parking lot.
They hugged. They chatted for a while. But Jordan was as calm as ever.
He was happy with the way he played, sure. But he wasn't over-the-top ecstatic.
He wasn't regaling his brother, sister and parents with details of how he ran for two touchdowns and passed for another. He didn't reflect on how he had seemingly changed the FSU offense overnight.
He acted just like he did before he was an emerging star for the Florida State Seminoles.
"Sometimes I want to hit him in the head," joked Tony Travis, his father. "Like, 'Jordan, come on! Can you get excited?' But Jordan has always been that way. He's so level-keeled. He keeps everything, his emotions, under control."
That night after the UNC victory, he just wanted to eat.
"Everyone wants to see him smile and talk about the game," Devon said. "And he just said, 'I'm hungry. Where we eating?'"
Jordan wound up getting fast food and going home, while Devon and the family went to Waffle House. That was how the Travis family's big Saturday night ended.
"I was ready to party," Devon said with a laugh.
Jordan Travis has started just two games as a Seminole; he's played extensively in three.
But those three happen to be the three best games an FSU quarterback has played back-to-back-to-back since Jameis Winston was taking snaps in Tallahassee.
After he burst onto the scene late last season with two touchdown runs against Boston College, and then got 11 more carries for 58 yards against Arizona State in the bowl game (and also caught a pass for 18 yards), it was obvious Travis was an exceptional athlete for a quarterback.
What Florida State fans rightly wondered was: Is he actually a quarterback? If he can throw the football at all, then why didn't former head coach Willie Taggart and offensive coordinator Kendal Briles ever let him?
The questions continued this week after Travis seemed to turn FSU's entire 2020 season around.
If he is this good, then why did it take James Blackman struggling, and then Tate Rodemaker playing like a true freshman in his start against Jacksonville State, for Travis to finally get his chance under first-year head coach Mike Norvell?
The answer to the second question is pretty simple: Travis wasn't healthy in preseason practice and missed a good portion of fall camp.
The answer to the first question? No one really knows.
"He has confidence, but to a certain extent, he's still a kid," Tony said. "I think he may have doubted himself sometimes. But he still continued to work hard. Because he just loves the game so much."
Tony and Devon had both watched Jordan play football his whole life -- all the way from Pop Warner and middle school to high school. They knew he could throw.
Ironically, running was something Jordan rarely did coming up. He was obviously athletic and fast, and when he did take off past the line of scrimmage, it was a sight to behold. But he just didn't do it that often, because his coaches didn't want him to.
Oh, how times have changed.
After Florida State blocked a North Carolina punt in the opening minutes Saturday, Norvell and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham had Travis run a zone-read option with tailback La'Damian Webb. After faking the handoff to Webb, who was immediately clobbered by a Tar Heels defender, Travis darted to his right, found a hole at the line of scrimmage, juked a defender in the open field and sprinted into the end zone for an early 7-0 lead.
"He just has a completely natural knack for it," Dillingham said of Travis' ability to run the zone-read so smoothly. "It's as simple as that. He's just one of those guys that gets it. Has a great feel for it, from that standpoint. It's just something that comes natural to him, and I'm glad it does."
Travis had a few other highlight-reel runs later in the game, but it's his ability to throw the football that is keeping defenses honest.
In the North Carolina game, he hit passes of 58 yards to Ontaria Wilson, 39 yards to Keyshawn Helton, 36 yards to tight end Preston Daniel and 33 yards to Warren Thompson.
Travis' high school quarterbacks coach, Eric Kresser, a former QB at Florida who played in the NFL, always thought Jordan had all the makings to be a terrific college quarterback. He has tweeted multiple times what a gifted passer Jordan is, and he has expressed his frustration publicly about the notion Jordan couldn't throw it well enough to succeed at this level.
"Number one, he can make every throw and then some," Kresser told Warchant when Travis was preparing to enroll at FSU in January 2019. "In high school, we did some things that some schools just didn't do, like roll your quarterback to the left with a right-handed QB, then backside post-corner to the other side of the field. With Jordan, we could kind of do whatever we wanted to."
His high school coach wasn't the only one confused by the narrative about Travis' throwing ability. His father also wondered what the coaches weren't seeing.
Unlike Kresser, though, he always kept those questions private.
"This is not 'Daddy Ball' here," Tony said. "You're the parent. I would never get on social media or anything and recommend a coach do anything because that's well above my pay grade. So all I could hope for at that time was that the coaches would see it eventually And give him a shot. ...
"Maybe [Taggart and Briles] just didn't trust him yet. I don't know how to explain it. And finally he got a coach that trusted him a little bit and give him an opportunity. We're so blessed for Norvell and his company and his crew for giving Jordan a shot."
The lack of faith from the previous coaching staff likely affected Jordan. How could it not?
His brother and father never heard him verbalize it necessarily, but they both think that all the questions about his throwing ability -- on social media and elsewhere -- might have made him start to question it, too.
It was obvious he could run. The Boston College game last year proved that.
But he didn't play a single snap until November, after Taggart was fired. He finished with 23 rushing attempts for 228 yards and three touchdowns. He was allowed to throw the ball just 11 times (seven against Alabama State) over those last four games. And then just once in the 2020 season-opening loss to Georgia Tech.
"I've watched my brother play since he was a kid," Devon said. "By no means am I a homer. I'll keep it pretty straight-up if I didn't think he was capable. I wouldn't have the balls to come out and tweet like I tweeted last year in saying, 'Jordan can throw!' and, 'I can't wait for 2020.' It has nothing to do with being a homer.
"I love my brother. I love FSU. And I thought it was a pretty cool match."
It was during this year's Jacksonville State game that the love connection was truly found. That's when Norvell unleashed the redshirt sophomore, and all Jordan did was lead the Seminoles on five straight scoring drives and six out of seven overall.
He then went up to South Bend, Ind., and put up 204 yards passing and another 96 yards rushing against the Notre Dame defense. Then accounted for 107 yards rushing and another 191 passing in the upset win over the Tar Heels.
He currently leads Florida State with 342 rushing yards and four touchdowns on 59 attempts.
For a kid who didn't really run the ball much growing up, Jordan has certainly proven to have a knack for it.
"He's always had that," Tony said. "It' something that's God-given. You can't teach. He's always had it. He's got good vision. It seems like he makes the right cut at the right time or he feels the pressure. It's just God-given. He's always had that. It blows me away sometimes just to look at him sometimes and see how agile he is."
The Travis brothers have a unique relationship.
Devon is 9 1/2 years older, so there wasn't any of the competitive friction that can come between siblings closer in age. By the time Jordan was proving to be a promising athlete in Pop Warner, his brother was already an All-America second baseman at Florida State.
And when Jordan was starring for The Benjamin School in West Palm Beach, Devon was playing second base for the Blue Jays.
But they're enormous fans of each other. Jordan would come up to games in Tallahassee when Devon was helping lead the Seminoles to the College World Series.
Tony laughs at the memory of Jordan meeting EJ Manuel back then, telling him that one day he could be the starting quarterback at FSU. And Devon, who is still rehabbing his knee in hopes of one more shot in the big leagues, is going to be at as many games of Jordan's as he possibly can.
"I get more nervous (watching him play) than anything I've ever done in my entire life," Devon said. "There's no game that I ever played that I wasn't nervous before, and that goes from Little League to a playoff game against Cleveland. But when he runs out of that tunnel or when he was announced as the starting quarterback the other night, it's a feeling that ... I hate it. Because I have no control over the situation.
"Now I feel bad for my Mom. I used to make fun of her when she would tell me she was so nervous. Now I get it."
Florida State didn't recruit Jordan all that hard when he was in high school, so he signed with Louisville instead. After a semester there, his head coach was fired and he was offered a spot with the Seminoles. He accepted.
Then waited his turn. And waited some more. And waited some more.
He finally got it against Jacksonville State. And now he's the starting quarterback at Florida State. Coming off the school's first Top 5 win since 2014.
A picture of perseverance and self-belief.
"He was definitely discouraged last year and the year before," Devon said. "I would say that right now that he's the exact same kid, with the exact same demeanor, with a smile on his face. ...
"With everything that he's been through, with all the good and the bad and the ugly mixed all together with the blood, sweat and tears, mixed with the opportunity that he was given, I just think you see a young kid legitimately living out his dream. He was born into the FSU family. ... That kid grew up wanting to wear garnet every single day."
Which is exactly what he'll be doing this Saturday at noon, when he leads the Seminoles into a game at Louisville, where his incredible college journey started.
Said Tony: "Three days ago, he texted me like, 'Dad, this is crazy. ... This is just like a dream come true for me.' And that almost brought a tear to my eye.
"Because it's like a dream come true for the whole family. It's unbelievable."
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