Jim Nagy marvels at how Jordan Travis has grown at Florida State

Florida State quarterback Jordan Travis has gotten better every season that he’s played in Tallahassee. Now he enters his sixth college season with some Heisman Trophy buzz and showed why in leading the Seminoles to a 45-24 win against LSU in the season opener.

When Travis first arrived at Florida State in 2019, however, it wasn’t even certain that he would play quarterback. The Seminoles staff at that time considered moving him to receiver, but based on how things turned out, it’s clear they made the right choice in keeping him at QB.

Senior Bowl director Jim Nagy joined On3‘s Andy Staples on Monday and praised Travis for his evolution into a potential NFL-caliber player.

“Talking to guys on staff there, there was some thoughts of making him a wide receiver a couple of years ago,” Nagy said. “Like, ‘What is this guy?’ What I was looking for coming into the year was some mechanical improvements. He’s still not a guy that really incorporates his lower half a lot. I still think there’s upside in his arm. The things you like, he’s hard to get on the ground. LSU had a lot of pressure on him. They couldn’t get to him. He finds an escape path. He had a couple of really nice touch throws rolling to his left, which are really difficult for a righty.”

Travis took a little bit to get going in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Tigers. He went 14-of-21 passing for 174 yards and a pair of touchdowns, but also threw a costly interception as the Seminoles trailed 17-14 at halftime.

However, he dominated the second half of action to go 9-of-10 for 168 yards and a couple more scores as Florida State outscored LSU 31-7 to go on to win. He also finished second on the team with 38 yards rushing and a touchdown. Nagy came away impressed with Travis’ composure to come out of the locker room and deliver after making a couple of mistakes to start out.

“I gotta give him credit,” he said. “LSU had him rattled. He had two really ill-advised kind of pressure-driven mistakes. One was a pick, the other one was a dropped pick. It was right there backed up to his end zone. It could’ve been really costly.

“But then he came out. He really settled down in that second half and played point guard. To me, that’s his game. That’s what Jordan is. To be a distributor on that offense that has so many players like (Trey) Benson, like (Johnny) Wilson, like (Jaheim) Bell and like (Keon) Coleman, my God.”

Those playmakers give Travis and Florida State a chance to do something special this season as they aim to compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Three of his four touchdown passes were to Coleman, as he and Wilson each finished with more than 100 yards receiving.

But while Florida State’s offense is loaded, Travis is the player keeping it all going. Following his strong performance in Week 1, he’ll aim to keep making a case to be invited to the Senior Bowl and potentially finish the year among the top quarterback prospects in the NFL Draft.

“He moves his team,” Nagy said. “There were some spotty plays early. He misfired on a couple of throws he should’ve had. But one thing I like about him, when you’ve got a guy like Jonny Wilson and Keon Coleman (and) even going back to last year’s tape, he’s a guy that trusts his playmakers to make plays.

“He is not afraid to put the ball up and let his guys go get it, which when you’ve got guys to do it, that’s a great trait. It’ll be interesting to keep watching him, but at the end of the day, he moves that football team.”