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The Florida State Seminoles are one victory away from an undefeated regular season, an ACC Championship, and a likely spot in the College Football Playoff.
But if they’re going to accomplish all of those things, they may need to do so without both starting quarterback Jordan Travis and backup Tate Rodemaker.
Rodemaker stepped into for Travis after the Florida State star signal caller suffered a gruesome leg injury on Nov. 18 against North Alabama. He then started the Seminoles’ final game of the regular season against rival Florida before being knocked out of the game by Gators corner Jaydon Hill.
That left his status for Saturday’s ACC title game against Louisville up in the air. It also caused the line to shift significantly in the favor of the Cardinals.
The Seminoles haven’t said whether Rodemaker will be good to go on Saturday night.
But the FSU quarterback’s father isn’t playing things as close to the vest.
Rodemaker’s father, Alan, joined Lance Medow of Mad Dog Radio Sports Saturday and updated the status of his son.
“I would say right now it’s a 50/50 deal,” Alan told the radio show Saturday morning.
“They didn’t want to make a call on it last night. I spent all night talking to the training staff last night. They did not want to make a final call until this afternoon.”
Rodemaker’s father did confirm that his son suffered a concussion on the play, which was ruled targeting on Hill.
“He threw it really good, but the problem is just the timeframe stuff with all the protocols they have to go through,” Alan said. “He did have a concussion. He was fine Saturday night after the game.
“Sunday, they run all the players who played through a series of tests with the training staff. That’s pretty common across Division-I athletics. Some of the things they were concerned about Sunday, Monday and Tuesday did say that he had a concussion there last week.
“Throughout the week, he practiced every day and progressively got better and better. It’s just a timeframe issue now. They are going to make a call on that today (Saturday). We’ll know something more today. I can’t give you a final on that until after lunch today, after walkthroughs, the head doctor is going to give me a call.”
Will Rodemaker play?
We’ll have the answer in a matter of hours. But if not, everything the Seminoles have worked for to this point could well go up in flames.