FSU Football: Website Ranks Deondre Francois at No. 13 Overall
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU football quarterback Deondre Francois won the ACC Freshman of the Year in 2016. Now, one website has him at No. 13 overall in the country.
Related Story: Would You Take Deondre Francois Over Lamar Jackson?
We recently wrote that one website had FSU football quarterback Deondre Francois at the No. 2 quarterback behind Louisville’s Lamar Jackson.
Some FSU fans balked at the notion, but Francois actually had a better freshman year than Lamar Jackson, although Francois was a redshirt freshman.
Athlon Sports ranked the top 130 quarterbacks in the nation, and had Deondre Francois checking in at No. 13:
"The Seminoles will be looking for Francois to take the next step in his development in 2017. As a redshirt freshman last fall, Francois completed 58.8 percent of his throws for 20 scores and added 196 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. After taking several monster hits, there’s no question about Francois’ toughness or willingness to stand in the pocket and deliver a strike. However, head coach Jimbo Fisher would like to see Francois get rid of the ball quicker and improve his accuracy this spring."
Thoughts
No question Francois needs to improve his accuracy and not holding on to the ball too long. We’ve covered that extensively. However, I’m not sure some of the guys on the lists should be ahead of Francois.
He’s in a pro-style system making calls and having to make throws that require anticipation unlike the spread systems a lot of the quarterbacks listed play in.
Francois’s numbers were comparable or better as a redshirt freshman than JT Barrett(No. 4) as a junior last season. I’d have Francois over USF’s Quinton Flowers (No. 6) too as the Bulls didn’t play the tough schedule the ‘Noles played.
Also, I’d definitely have Francois ahead of Bama’s Jalen Hurts who came it at No. 11. Francois isn’t the most accurate QB, but he’s better than Hurts in my opinion.
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So I’d at least have Francois around No. 9 or 10. If he makes big improvements in the accuracy category, he’ll be much higher than that come next season.