Corey Clark: The good, the bad and the freaky from Florida State’s spring game/showcase

The best news of all is that nobody got hurt.

When you have the expectations that the 2023 Florida State football team has, the last thing you need is a serious injury from a non-serious football “game.” And the Seminoles appear to have avoided that on Saturday, which was very important.

Now, to be sure, there were a number of big-time players who were either limited or didn’t play at all, most notably receivers Johnny Wilson, Mycah Pittman, offensive tackle Robert Scott and linebacker Tatum Bethune. And guys like Fabien Lovett and Jared Verse didn’t get a ton of reps either, because why would they?

You know what you have there.

Verse showcased that in just one series when he was credited for sacks in back-to-back plays against freshman quarterback Brock Glenn (more on him in a moment).

But let’s focus on who did play and how they looked.

We all know it’s not the easiest to gauge how well an offense is playing, how well a line is blocking, when the top two running backs are wearing green, and the dual-threat quarterback is, too. But overall, I’m going to give the advantage to the first-team defensive line on Saturday.

Verse was mostly unblockable — although right tackle Darius Washington did a very good job against him on one rep in particular early on in the game — and Darrell Jackson had a few flash moments early on as well.

So did Patrick Payton.

Those guys are good. Duh.

As for the back-ups on the defense, Byron Turner Jr. had himself sacks on back-to-back plays. That was good to see, because as we have written and talked about quite a bit over the spring, the depth at defensive end might be a little lacking with the loss of Derrick McLendon.

Maybe Turner becomes a guy. We’ll find out. But those two sacks, especially the second one, where he sprinted into Glenn right after the snap, was really good to see.

“That kid is a freak of nature,” Verse said of Turner. “He’s something special. Seeing him grow from last year to this year … now, Byron is a whole different thing.”

If Verse is talking about a defensive end and calling him a “freak of nature,” well, it takes one to know one. And that’s a pretty strong endorsement.

As for other players who I thought shined on Saturday, let’s start with receiver Kentron Poitier.

He had a great 29-yard catch on a third-down throw from A.J. Duffy, a one-handed snag down the sideline, just a great play overall. He then had a block to help spring Lawrance Toafili on a 23-yard touchdown run later in the half that prompted head coach Mike Norvell to sprint toward him and celebrate.

Which came moments after Poitier hauled in a 21-yard TD catch on a great route and a great throw from Jordan Travis in the corner of the end zone. All told, Poitier had three grabs for 63 yards and that score. And he might have — we’ll see, of course — taken hold of that No. 2 receiver spot opposite of Johnny Wilson.

He was the most consistent receiver for the Seminoles this spring, and he then had a terrific spring game/showcase. That’s great news for Florida State.

As for the other receiver that I was the most interested in on Saturday, freshman Vandrevius Jacobs didn’t do a whole lot for the majority of the game. He had a couple of runs on end-arounds, some for positive yards, some for negative.

But on what turned out to be his last drive of the day, Florida State fans got to see what we’ve seen all spring.

On a third-down play, he made a contested catch, on a ball thrown by Glenn down the sideline. The grab was impressive enough, because it wasn’t an easy one. He had to make an adjustment. With a defender on him.

But it’s what he did after the catch that was equally as special. Maybe more so.

He shrugged off one tackle, sprinted toward the end zone, cut right, cut back left, showed off the speed and the wiggle and then was finally tracked down at the 6-yard line.

In one play — his only real positive play — Jacobs showed a glimpse of just what kind of ceiling he has for this football team. Can’t wait to see how much better he gets.

Now, let’s wrap this bad boy up with the quarterback discussion.

Travis threw one interception — on a nice play by linebacker Kalen Deloach, who had two potential defensive touchdowns on Saturday — but overall, he looked like typical Jordan Travis. He had multiple first-down runs, including one that might have been a 40- or 50-yard scamper, and he seemed to make all the right reads overall.

His throw to Poitier was a thing of beauty. He also made a nice throw over the middle to tight end Jaheim Bell in that drive as well. But I mean, let’s be honest: Nothing Travis did on Saturday was going to change our opinion of who he is.

But the other three?

Well, sure. Getting to see them on a stage, in front of fans, even in a scrimmage, can tell us at least a little bit of what they are and how good they can be.

I didn’t love what I saw from Tate Rodemaker. He had a couple of really nice passes to tight end Preston Daniel, and a perfect throw on the aforementioned TD pass to Rodney Hill, but he also made some poor throws even when he wasn’t being pressured.

Still. Tate is Tate. He’s in Year 4 now. And while all of us, in every walk of life, are trying to improve every day and get better, I think we know what Rodemaker is. A guy that can make some exceptional throws and has a cannon of an arm – and likes to show it off – and a guy that can make you shake your head with some decisions every now and again.

Solid backup. For sure. And definitely had a chance to be the starter in 2024. But again, I’m not sure we learned anything about Rodemaker we didn’t already know.

Glenn and Duffy were the ones we wanted to see, right?

They’re the unknowns. A true freshman and a redshirt freshman.

I thought Duffy, by far, looked better than he had all spring. Maybe had the best day I’ve ever seen him have here in Tallahassee. He converted six third downs during his time on the field, some were tough throws and some showed off his athleticism as he scrambled for first downs, and overall he was having a solid afternoon. Showing off some real skill.

Then, after one of those third-down conversions, he threw a terrible pick on first down, right to Quindarrius Jones, to end the drive.

He’s just a redshirt freshman. Way, way too early to make declarations on who he will be. But that was a disappointing end to what had been a mostly positive afternoon.

And then there was Glenn.

I thought it was really interesting – and maybe a bit sadistic – for Norvell to have Glenn’s first reps in front of FSU fans in Doak Campbell Stadium – be with the second-team offense vs. the first-team defense. That did not go well.

Verse introduced himself to the freshman repeatedly. Welcome to college football, Brock.

And then there was another drive, right after halftime (at least I think it was halftime, who can really know with these things?) where he had three bad throws in a row, all three in the direction of Hykeem Williams. None were completed. None were really close.

The bad news was that that they were incomplete, of course.

The good news is, it seemed, that Glenn at least was seeing who he should be throwing to. Williams WAS open on two of the plays. And he let it rip. He just missed the throws.

So, with that in mind, I was happy that he hit Kyle Morlock for a 24-yard gain near the end of practice and then find Jacobs for that 44-yard gain a few minutes later. Right after that he hit Williams for a 6-yard TD.

Glenn got sacked four times. Maybe five. But just like he has all spring, I didn’t think he looked rattled or overwhelmed and the response – what Norvell always talks about – was impressive.

So, all in all, I thought it was a solid day for the quarterbacks.

And in my mind, I feel the exact same about all of them as I did before Saturday.

And that goes for this team as well.

I still expect it to be very good come this fall. There is a whole lot of talent. And none of it, it should be pointed out again, got hurt on Saturday. And that was the best news of all.

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.

The post Corey Clark: The good, the bad and the freaky from Florida State’s spring game/showcase appeared first on On3.