South Florida fans may reasonably ask why Green, Gold and Bold is using an image of quarterback Luke Kromenhoek in a Florida State uniform to illustrate a story about the successful game he had Saturday in USF’s 30-10 win over UAB.
Fair enough.
Kromenhoek is a poster boy for persistence and resilience, and it started at Florida State. He was a 4-star recruit coming out of high school and it probably seemed like a good idea at the time to sign with the Seminoles. They were 13-0 in the regular season before he signed there in time for the 2024 season, but that turned out to be the equivalent of swimming out to meet the Titanic.
The 2024 Seminoles disintegrated to a 2-10 record — Kromenhoek, a true freshman, got one of those in throwing three touchdowns against Charleston Southern in his first collegiate start — and that earned him a second start the following week against the rival Florida Gators.
It was a tough day. He was sacked eight times in that game and, with the Seminoles program collapsing, he decided after the season to transfer to Mississippi State. He barely saw the field there, which led to a second transfer — this time to USF after last season.
There was a spirited battle between Kromenhoek and Michael Van Buren, Jr. for the starting job, but Van Buren won. That meant more standing on the sideline for Kromenhoek and, honestly, in this era of college football — where players seem to treat transferring as something routine — something encouraging happened out of that disappointment.
Kromenhoek didn’t pout. He didn’t complain. He and Van Buren became BFFs. And Kromenhoek did the work required of a backup. He prepared to be ready when/if his chance came.
On Saturday against UAB, Van Buren went down with an undisclosed injury early in the second quarter and Kromenhoek was ready. The Bulls trailed 10-0 when he went in but went on to win 30-10.
He gained 92 yards rushing to lead the team. He quarterbacked with poise and execution. He spent his time on the sidelines leading up to this game preparing, not pouting.
”I’m just really happy for Luke,” head coach Brian Hartline said. “We’re going to try to find more ways to throw the ball. We’ve got to protect him on the edge, which is why we weren’t necessarily throwing the ball.
”His ability to throw the ball is real and his ability to run the ball is real. That’s why there was a lot of completion. Obviously his legs were huge today and we’ll build on that, but we’ll also build on everything else he can do.”
Read into that what you will. We don’t know the severity of Van Buren’s injury or his availability for Friday’s game at East Carolina.
That’s a decision for Hartline and the coaching staff.
But we saw what Kromenhoek can do when given the chance, and after weeks of floundering offensive shows by USF, Saturday’s game was nice to see.
He didn’t let the Florida State experience beat him down. He din’t give up after things didn’t work at Mississippi State. And after USF told him to take a seat for now, but to be ready, he was.
That’s how winners work.
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