FSU goes with freshman Glenn in ACC title game
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David Hale, ESPN Staff Writer
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Florida State started true freshman Brock Glenn in Saturday night’s ACC championship game against Louisville in place of Tate Rodemaker, who sustained a concussion last weekend and was ruled out.
Rodemaker was in pads and warmed up pregame, but was ultimately deemed unavailable for the clash. AJ Duffy backed up Glenn against the Cardinals.
Glenn, a former four-star recruit out of Lausanne Collegiate School in Memphis, Tennessee, had thrown just four career passes at Florida State entering the game, including an incompletion against Florida while Rodemaker was being tested for a concussion last week.
Glenn took all live reps in practice this week.
“When you see Brock and his skill set that he brings even through the week of practice,” coach Mike Norvell said Friday, “we’re all preparing to play, and it’s the same thing we faced a week ago. He knew he was going to be one play away and ultimately he had to go in and be ready for that situation, and he was. We’ve approached it the same way.”
Rodemaker sustained the concussion on a late hit in the fourth quarter of the Seminoles’ Week 13 win over Florida. Gators defender Jaydon Hill was ejected for targeting after the play, and Rodemaker retreated to the injury tent for evaluation. He returned two plays later to help cap a touchdown drive.
Norvell said Rodemaker did not have concussion symptoms during the game, but on Sunday was added to the protocol.
Rodemaker made just his second career start against Florida after FSU lost incumbent Jordan Travis to an ankle injury the previous week. Glenn becomes the third different quarterback to start for the Seminoles in as many weeks.
Norvell insisted Friday the game plan would not change dramatically, and he said Glenn brings ample talent and confidence to the role.
“He’s still young, but he’s mature beyond his age,” Norvell said. “When you step around someone and they have [confidence], and it’s real, it gives everybody around them confidence as well. He’s not going to hold back. He’s going to put all he has into it. … I’ve got a lot of confidence in what that’s going to look like.”
The last quarterback to make his first career start in a Power 5 conference title game was Ohio State’s Cardale Jones, who led the Buckeyes to a 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the 2014 Big Ten finale, then proceeded to beat Alabama and Oregon en route to a national championship.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
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