Jordan Travis after Florida State's first loss: 'Losing sucks'

Florida State suffered their first loss of the season Saturday falling to Wake Forest 21-31. This time last year, the Seminoles were just securing their first win of the season, as their week 5 win over Syracuse broke a four-game losing streak and put them at 1-4. This year they’ve turned things around with their 4-1 start, but quarterback Jordan Travis and his team are more focused on their recent loss.

“Yeah it sucks, losing sucks, but I told all the guys we’ll learn from this right here,” Travis said. “We don’t wanna feel this again, so we’re gonna come back.”

Travis had himself a game against the Demon Deacons, throwing for 281 yards and three touchdowns. But despite his performance, the Seminoles could not overcome Wake’s offensive attack that scored 28 unanswered points during a stretch between the first and third quarters.

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The Seminoles also struggled to establish the run game that’s been effective for them all season, as they were held to just 112 yards on the ground, 91 fewer yards than their current average. Despite suffering their first loss and having some areas of their game to clean up, Travis is confident that his team will bounce back.

“The guys, we’re gonna respond well, this is a very good football team, we’re very close, it’s like a family. So we’ll respond this week, we’ll come back to work tomorrow,” Travis said.

Hopefully the Seminoles have a response, as their matchup against Wake Forest was just the first of three consecutive games against ranked, conference opponents. FSU takes on No. 14 NC State next week, followed by a home matchup with No. 5 Clemson the following week, and they will definitely have to play some of their best football against some of the nation’s best teams if they want to get the bad taste of losing out of their mouths.

Mike Norvell explains Florida State’s next man up mentality

Florida State had some new players on their injury report following their win over Louisville, including quarterback Jordan Travis and defensive lineman Jared Verse. Both of their backups had to finish the game for them and helped lead the Seminoles to a win, the epitome of the next man up mentality preached throughout all levels of football. Head coach Mike Norvell talked about this mentality within his own team, and how it’s mainly centered around competition.

“I think it’s a competition aspect of it, you never know when your number’s gonna be called and there’s a few positions where there’s just one guy that plays majority of the reps,” Norvell explained. “But there’s other positions that you’re gonna see guys roll, we try to prepare them to be put in different spots and we want that competition.”

Norvell elaborated on the importance of competition within his own team, and how it benefits players in both starting and backup roles.

“We want competition at every spot because you never know when your role might change, it’s just like going from last year to this year. There’s guys that played last year, but this year they’re in more of a showcase role, and they have to perform at an elite level because so much of what we’re doing is working through them, but that takes a step,” Norvell said.

Being a backup isn’t the most fun or glamorous job on any team, but Norvell spoke on how the preparation and vision of someone in that reserve role can pay off.

“And it’s just like when somebody goes down, you have to be prepared, but how you prepare through practice if you’re willing to make that type of investment, if you’re willing to truly see yourself even better than the role that you might be in, regardless of whether you’re a starter or not, I think that puts you in the best position to achieve success when it shows up on game day,” Norvell explained.