Florida State football most important player countdown: No. 26

Curt Weiler, Tallahassee Democrat

June 24, 2022 at 12:26 PM·4 min read

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The countdown to the 2022 Florida State football season is underway.

Mike Norvell's third season atop the Seminoles will be a critical one to his long-term chances in Tallahassee. The roster continues to be shaped more in his desired image as he looks to guide FSU to a bowl for the first time in his tenure.

To begin that look ahead to the upcoming season, it's time for the Democrat's annual list of the 40 most important FSU football players, continuing today with No. 27.

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Our list of the 40 most important FSU football players was compiled on June 9 by aggregating the rankings submitted by beat writers Curt Weiler and Carter Karels. Any players added to the roster after that date were not considered for this list. All ties were broken by discussion.

No. 26: Redshirt sophomore quarterback Tate Rodemaker

The state of a quarterback room at this point in the offseason has a large impact on how the most important position on the team is viewed in a countdown like this.

For instance, in last year's top 40 countdown ahead of the 2021 FSU season, quarterbacks occupied two of the top three spots on the list as there was a position battle raging between McKenzie Milton and Jordan Travis.

This year, however, there's been no battle for the starting job at all. Travis will be FSU's quarterback so long as he's healthy, inflating his importance and deflating every other FSU quarterback's.

But there's definitely still the need for a second quarterback on this list, and that's where Rodemaker comes in. Travis hasn't yet played an entire season without missing time due to an injury. Were he to again go down, Rodemaker would likely be called upon to replace him. True freshman AJ Duffy hasn't shown enough consistency to warrant an in-game opportunity.

Third-year FSU quarterback Tate Rodemaker is expected to be the Seminoles' backup behind Jordan Travis entering the 2022 season.

The Valdosta, Ga. native was the first player to commit to FSU after Norvell's arrival in December of 2019, ranking as the No. 12 pro-style quarterback in the 2020 class according to 247Sports.

He was thrown into action in the second game of his career as a true freshman and started the third game of the 2020 season. That first start didn't go well for him, as he was pulled after putting FSU in an early hole against Jacksonville State with a poor interception that was returned for a touchdown.

In all, he finished his first season with one start and four games played, completing 17 of 29 passes (58.6%) with no touchdowns and three interceptions.

He played far less in 2021, appearing in just three games and attempting just two passes as he got the developmental year he missed out on as a true freshman.

Early returns on that development were positive this spring as Rodemaker has looked as good as he has throughout his FSU tenure this offseason. There were quite a few days where Rodemaker performed about as well as Travis. He performed well enough that Norvell had to be asked if there was any sort of quarterback battle going on.

That didn't exactly carry over into FSU's spring game, where Rodemaker completed 5 of 11 passes (45.5%) for 64 yards and a touchdown, but it seems that he is at least somewhat more prepared to take over the starting job this season if need be.

However, many FSU fans likely won't believe that until they see it for themselves based on his public track record.