Success with FSU football will be dependent upon the play of Deondre Francois in 2017.
FSU football quarterback Deondre Francois finished second in the ACC Preseason Player of the Year voting behind Heisman Trophy winner Lamar Jackson last week.
In many ways I expect Francois to take a similar leap in 2018. Jackson and Francois had extremely similar numbers their first year as starters even though Francois is much more of a pocket passer than Jackson.
I don’t expect Francois to win the Heisman, but this will be his third year at FSU and the results should bear that fruit.
Some fans are not believers in Francois although he led the ‘Noles to a 10-3 record last season, including a huge Orange Bowl victory over Michigan.
In fact, the ‘Noles easily could have finished the season 11-1 with a redshirt freshman at quarterback. The best thing I can say about Francois is FSU didn’t lose a single game because of his play last season.
How many quarterbacks could say that?
Let’s take a look at three reasons why Deondre Francois will see improvements in his game this season.
Experience in the Offense
Experience is the best teacher, and nothing could be more true than playing quarterback at a high level. Francois spoke at ACC Kickoff last week on his progress via Orlando Sentinel:
"“Obviously, I feel like I threw the ball well last year,” Francois said. “But I feel like there’s another step I can take to my game that nobody has seen yet. Once I take that next step, people will understand the hard work I put in.”"
Jimbo Fisher usually sees his quarterbacks improve from year one to year two in his system. It was evident with quarterbacks at LSU and since Fisher has been at FSU.
Francois should be no different.
Subtle things like throwing the ball away instead of taking a sack, or using his legs instead of holding onto the ball forever will be huge in 2017.
Not to mention protection calls and checks that have to be made at the line of scrimmage. The speed of the game should slow down and allow Francois to make decisions quicker in 2017.
Better Talent at WR
This is no disrespect to Travis Rudolph, Bobo Wilson and Kermit Whitfield from last season. Wilson and Whitfield should be commended for their play as they were never brought into be go-to receivers.
However, the group of wide receivers on the 2017 team are much more talented. They are arguably the most talented group of receivers Jimbo Fisher has since becoming head coach in 2010.
They offer unprecedented size with Auden Tate and Keith Gavin both over 6 feet three inches or taller. Nyqwan Murray is near six feet tall, not to mention Da’Vante Phillips is over six feet too.
That’s a sharp contrast from what Wilson or Whitfield brought to the table. They both ran good routes most of the time, but often were too small to come up with plays in one-on-one situations.
That shouldn’t be a problem in 2017. We saw Tate and Murray shine at different points in the season last year.
These larger targets could also offset some of Francois’s accuracy issues because of the larger target radius.
Jimbo Fisher
One of the most underrated aspects of the 2017 will be how Jimbo Fisher calls plays. We mentioned his quarterbacks typically see improvement from year one to year two.
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I think a big part of that will be Fisher’s understanding of what Francois is capable of doing. If Francois struggles with certain throws, it’s likely that Fisher will look to stay away from those concepts.
Think of it like pitcher in baseball. If a pitcher has an excellent fastball and slider, but struggles with his change-up and curveball, he’s likely to throw more fastballs and sliders than the latter.
Francois struggled on shorter passes on the flats or throws near the sidelines, but seemed to connect at a higher percentage on throws over the middle of the field.
I expect Fisher to fine tune his attacks based on the strengths of Francois. I don’t think he’ll run him a lot in the first four games because there’s a greater chance of injury against the physical defenses of Alabama, NC State and Miami.
However, it could be something we see later on as the season progresses which would add another dimension to the FSU offense.
Final Thoughts
We talked about the progress we saw in Francois’s game during the spring game back in April. We saw improvements there, but again, it was the spring game so we don’t to read too much into it.
However, I went back and watched the NC State game last season just to get a reminder of what the offense looked like when the running game got shut down.
That NC State defensive line is stout and held Dalvin Cook to 65 yards on 18 carries, and it was the arm of Francois that delivered on some huge plays.
He was 22 of 39 (56 percent) for 330 yards. He had some errant throws no doubt, but there were at least two or three drops.
Also, a number of the throws that were incomplete were Francois under pressure and not able to fully step into his throws because the offensive line was overwhelmed.
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When he had time to throw, more times than not he delivered balls to receivers that could be caught.
If the running game gets shut down this year(and teams will focus on that), I expect Francois to be able to make them pay more times than not.