JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Quarterback. Quarterback. Quarterback.
That’s been the theme of spring practice at Florida State, Florida and Georgia. The Seminoles will hold their annual Garnet and Gold game on Saturday. Don’t expect to find a clear starter following the spring game either.
FSU head coach Willie Taggart has already stated that he doesn’t plan to make that decision until later this summer.
Making that situation even more complex is that one of the front runners for the job won’t even be playing in the spring game. Deondre Francois is still recovering from a knee injury that caused him to miss most of the 2017 season. As a red-shirt freshman in 2016 he started 13 games and was named the ACC Rookie of the Year.
Heading into last year’s season opener against Alabama it appeared that Francois would build on that freshman season and by many accounts he was easily the best quarterback on campus since Jameis Winston left Tallahassee.
Not quite a year later the now junior quarterback has yet to be fully cleared medically. So far during spring practice he’s been limited to seven-on-seven and individual drills.
Whenever Francois returns it may be as a backup.
James Blackman stepped in as a true freshman last season. As expected there was learning curve because going into the season the prevailing thought was that Blackman would hold a clipboard and learn from the sidelines for most of his freshman season.
It’s incredible that Blackman was able to stand upright for 12 games. Last year the 6’5” quarterback played at a listed 185 pounds. Since then he’s added 15 pounds of muscle and there’s still room to add more weight to that long frame.
So far he’s been getting most of the reps with the first team offense during spring practice.
Then there’s Bailey Hockman who red-shirted last year. He’s thought to be the least likely to earn the starting nod. Taggart runs a wide open spread offense but knowing the playbook isn’t the only tool he’s using to evaluate his quarterbacks.
“All those guys are talented enough to do what we ask them to do,” said Taggart to Sports Illustrated. “The most important thing for me is who is going to lead this football team? Who is going to rally the troops and get this entire football team to play for them?”