MIAMI GARDENS - Brock Glenn is ready for his moment.

But that doesn't mean the true freshman Florida State football quarterback is not shocked by his circumstances to how he rose to the starting quarterback role in the Orange Bowl for No. 5 FSU (13-0) against No. 6 Georgia (12-1) at 4 p.m. Saturday at here at Hard Rock Stadium.

In late November, starting quarterback Jordan Travis went down with a broken leg against North Alabama. Tate Rodemaker started against rival Florida but suffered a concussion during the game and missed the ACC Championship Game, paving the door for Glenn's first career start.

Rodemaker was expected to reclaim the starting role for the Orange Bowl, but he decided to opt out and enter the NCAA Transfer Portal on Christmas Day Monday.

Glenn will now make his second career start in the bowl game, against the two-time defending champion Georgia.

“When I first started, if you would have told me this is what happened to this story, I wouldn't have believed you,” Glenn said at his availability ahead of the game Wednesday at Le Méridien Dania Beach at Fort Lauderdale Airport.

“It's God's plan and his process and I trust the process and am excited about the opportunity.”

Gameday updates: FSU football plays for undefeated season vs. Georgia in Orange Bowl

Despite the change in quarterbacks and some struggles in his first career start, Glenn has earned the trust of his teammates.

"Man, Brock has been a worker since he got here. He's come in and worked hard," offensive lineman D'Mitri Emmanuel said. "Even when Jordan was here. Brock used to sit behind Jordan ready to study and to see how you see it is on the field, even off the field. Ultimate confidence in him and that he's going to go out there and do his thing."

Georgia players are aware of the quarterback dynamics for FSU. But they aren't ready to discount the Seminoles.

The Bulldogs have the 10th-best defense in the country, allowing an average of 295.2 yards per game and 4.83 yards per play. They are ready to challenge Glenn.

"We feel that every player is playing is a great player from no they don't get to that position for no reason," Georgia linebacker Jalon Walker said. "So we don't really take who's playing and this is a freshman playing as a big concern. We just care about the winning goal of winning, so I feel like every player that's playing in this game deserves to play.

Missed time due to injury

The 6-foot-2, four-star prospect was the No. 13 quarterback nationally and the No. 7 overall prospect in Tennessee by 247Sports in the 2023 recruiting class. He flipped to FSU after being an Ohio State commit.

Glenn competed with Rodemaker during the spring and fall camps for the backup role behind Travis. During the preseason, his coaches constantly praised how the true freshman's maturity made his transition to college smooth.

During his first career appearance against Southern Miss, Glenn did not attempt a pass and came out after just one series due to a thumb injury for which he required surgery.

Glenn proceeded to miss the next six weeks and lost development time, as a result.

"Oh, yeah, there's there's definitely an effect to some point," Glenn said if the injury impacted his development. "Just not getting the physical reps for about six weeks or so.

"But during that whole time I was I was staying locked down mentally. So I was able to take my mental game to the next level when that happened. Although I didn't get the physical reps helped me mentally for sure."

Offensive coordinator Alex Atkins agreed with Glenn about the development of his mental game.

He credited Glenn for being ahead when he arrived in Tallahassee.

"Most of the time you get young quarterbacks, especially him, like they have a pattern of how they kind of prepare they have like a unique like, almost like kickers, they have their little system," Atkins said.

"But what I liked about Brock was he came in understanding that whatever my system is, I got to amp it up 100,000 times. So he didn't wait. He wasn't waiting for his turn. He was trying to keep the door down and make sure when it was time, we actually even considered him to be a guy who could lead us in the future."

Learning from the Louisville game

His first career start did not go how Glenn expected.

He completed 8 of 21 passes for 55 yards, was sacked four times and finished with a 12.8 QB rating in the ACC Championship Game.

"There's a lot to learn from. And I think that's what football is all about. You'll never be perfect in football and there's always a way to get better," Glenn said.

"There's always stuff you can do to improve. So just going back and watching the game film and seeing what I could have done differently and how I read this and has helped tremendously.

Glenn quickly learned that 'game speed' and 'practice speed' are two different things.

"Yes, it's a lot different. It's a it's a little faster, for sure. But practice does a great job of preparing us. The coaches do a great job then I mean, I think we have some of the best coaches in the country especially preparing us for a game day," Glenn said.

This time around, Glenn will be without his top offensive weapons, with running backs Trey Benson and Lawrance Toafili, as well as wide receivers Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson and tight end Jaheim Bell all opting out or out due to injury.

His teammates have seen enough in practice to know what he is capable of.

They feel confident he can help them finish the season perfect at 14-0.

"It's a ton of growth this year and especially in the past few weeks," tight end Kyle Morlock said of Glenn. "For him to get out there and play and then the Louisville game was huge for him, I think to get the first game jitters out and to just get comfortable back there, but the past few weeks have been really huge for him.

Luke Kromenhoek practicing

Luke Kromenhoek - a 4-star recruit in the 2024 class - signed with FSU last Wednesday. For the two Orange Bowl practices open to the media on Tuesday and Wednesday, he was among the QBs taking snaps for the Seminoles.

Kromenhoek has been committed to FSU since March 26, 2022. Since committing, he has made at least 15 trips to Tallahassee and just one to another school [Penn State on April 7], even while offers from other schools continued to pour in and he rose in recruiting rankings.

"The recruiting hype finally kind of goes away and that was what are you going to do now and I think that moment for those players is always exciting because I always tell them, those those those those retweets don't hit it the same once you get on the roster," Atkins said

"It was as a recruit, they go a little bit crazier than I want you to get on the roster. Now people talk about how small you look and do you know what you're doing. So I think that I'm excited because we believed in Luke before he started any high school game. He was committed to Florida State before he started his first game so we knew what he was going to become.

"So that credits the evaluation, but it was awesome to see him out there with us."

Glenn, who was in Kromenhoek's shoes last season, is ready to show the freshman the ropes, as Travis did for him.

"He fits our quarterback room exceptionally well," Glenn said of Kromenhoek.

"He's a great guy, likes to have fun, but he's going to get serious when it's time to get serious. And that's how we all are in the quarterback room. We'd like to have a good time joking around and playing with each other. But when it's time to get serious we get serious and that's exactly how it is.

"I'm excited to I want to do the best that I can [to help him], how Jordan helped me and help him with the offense as well."

HOW TO WATCH ORANGE BOWL

Who: No. 5 FSU (13-0) vs. No. 6 Georgia (12-1)

When/where: 4 p.m., Saturday, Hard Rock Stadium, Miami Gardens

TV/Radio: ESPN/94.9 FM

Live game updates: www.Tallahassee.com; @Ehsan_Kassim, @jackgwilliams and @JimHenryTALLY on X, formerly Twitter

Reach Ehsan Kassim at ekassim@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim. You can also follow our coverage on Facebook (NoleSports), Instagram (tlhnolesports) and YouTube channel (NoleSportsTD).

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Brock Glenn is ready to take over as FSU football's starting QB vs. UGA