FSU QB’s: In 2015, There Will Be No Winners

There may not be a less enviable job in all of college football next season than the next starting QB at FSU.

Depending on where you were sitting for Florida State’s annual Garnet and Gold Spring Game, the FSU QB situation falls somewhere between “work in progress” and (if you’re inclined towards the dramatic) “potential disaster.”

Some walked away saying Sean Maguire showed flashes of what the Seminoles will need out of their next starting QB. Others were far more critical of the redshirt junior who appears poised to take over next year.

Either way, at the end of Spring practice, the starting QB job is still Sean Maguire’s to lose.

And that is the appropriate way to put it — it’s someone’s to lose — because there will be no winners in this year’s quarterback competition.

Not when you’re replacing the greatest QB in Florida State history, Jameis Winston. And not when the potential next great FSU QB — the nation’s top quarterback prospect, Malik Henry — has already announced he will enroll early at Florida State next Spring.

Don’t get me wrong, being the starting QB at Florida State — a school with plenty of history at the position and one of the foremost minds in the game coaching it — was never going to be an easy gig to hold down anyway. A lot is asked of the QB’s at FSU. It’s tough sledding in any given year.

But next year? Watch out. Expectations are going to be almost untenably high.

This is a program that has lost one game in the past two seasons, three games in the last three. The last four starting quarterbacks in Jimbo Fisher’s system will all have gone in the first round of the NFL Draft by the time FSU’s next starter take his first snap.

That’s already a lot to live up to.

And that last guy? Winston. He effectively eliminates the margin for error typically given to new QB’s under the guise of “growing pains.” That’s because Jameis Winston basically had none on the football field. No growing pains.

He went 25/27 for 356 yards and four TD’s in his first game and never looked back. He won a Heisman Trophy and a BCS Championship in his first season as the starter.

Off-field issues aside, the biggest critique you could throw at Winston during his first year was that he didn’t take check-downs enough.

How could anyone ever hope to compare?

Granted, most fans will acknowledge that what Winston did was once-in-a-lifetime type of stuff, and they’ll give the next FSU QB the benefit of the doubt. But the contrast will still be a stark reminder to everyone just how not-Jameis Winston that next quarterback will be.

And then there’s Malik Henry. A two-sport phenom who already — fairly or not — reminds people a lot of that Winston fellow.

He’ll be ready to compete next Spring.

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Unfortunately, no matter how solid next year’s quarterback is– to many fans he’s just keeping the seat warm for Henry.

That’s a lot to contend with — beyond just a full ACC schedule and a year-end trip to Gainesville — for any first-year starting quarterback.

This may not be a nice thought, it may seem unduly harsh– but it’s a lot closer to the truth than most fans would care to admit:

Next season, for FSU’s new starting QB, there’s not a whole lot of room for success, but there’s a ton of room for failure.

This QB competition probably isn’t going to have any winners.