Tate Rodemaker not expected to start ACC Championship vs. Louisville
Florida State is likely set to be without Tate Rodemaker in Saturday’s ACC Championship against Louisville. It has been reported by Warchant that freshman Brock Glenn is expected to start for the Seminoles.
Rodemaker left last week’s game against Florida after taking a nasty hit from two Gators defenders, but later returned to the game — a 24-15 Seminoles victory. In the time since, though, it appears he took a turn for the worse and will now miss the ACC title game.
On Friday, news broke that Rodemaker would be a “game-time decision,” and Mike Norvell said things took a turn Sunday even though he went back in the game on Saturday.
“Coming out of the game last week, you know, Tate obviously had the big hit there in the fourth quarter. Went over, was able to go through all of our sideline evaluations and was able to pass that to go back in the game for the last play that we had offensively,” Norvell said. “Came in Sunday, had a few symptoms of things. We started our process then and worked through it throughout the course of the week.
“He has been able to practice throughout the week in limited spots. But that’s something that’s going to go up until game day and we’ll continue on with our process of evaluation and see where it goes from there.”
For FSU, it means yet another quarterback change. The Seminoles already lost Jordan Travis to a season-ending injury, which means Brock Glenn could be in line to get the start on the big stage.
Rodemaker did the job last week against Florida, completing 12 of 25 passes for 134 yards as FSU rode the running game and strong defense to the rivalry victory. On the season, Rodemaker has thrown for 510 yards and five touchdowns across nine appearances behind Travis.
How Florida State could shake up the College Football Playoff picture in the ACC Championship
Florida State enters Saturday’s game with an undefeated record, one of five teams entering their conference championships at 12-0. A victory would surely help the Seminoles’ chances of making the College Football Playoff, but some argue they might not be a certainty to make the four-team field.
CFP selection committee chairman Boo Corrigan said this week that Florida State, of course, is a different team without Travis and Tate Rodemaker in at quarterback. That’s part of the consideration when the group meets to put the rankings together, and that adds to the intrigue of Saturday’s game.
The CFP conversation gets even murkier depending on what happens with other conference championships. The sense is the winner of the Pac-12 Championship between undefeated Washington and one-loss Oregon would be in by virtue of head-to-head. But Texas could also make a case if it wins the Big 12 Championship, despite having one loss on the year.
Then, Alabama enters the equation. If the one-loss Crimson Tide can beat Georgia in the SEC Championship, that adds another layer to the discussion. For Florida State, that means there would be even more questions about what the committee will do. No undefeated conference champion has ever missed the CFP in its 10-year history.
Regardless, FSU and Louisville will square off Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC in the ACC Championship.