FSU Football: Willie Taggart happy with QB progress ahead of 2018 season

FSU football will have its pick of a talented quarterback when head coach Willie Taggart finally makes a decision who will start the opener.

Across the country, college football teams are busy at this point figuring out depth charts heading into spring practice, with some wondering if they have even one person who can play the quarterback position well enough to win games. For FSU football, that couldn’t be the furthest thing from an issue as the Seminoles have a plentiful amount of signal callers.

There is the man who started most of the games last season, James Blackman – someone who as a true freshman led the Noles to seven wins, including a bowl victory, while throwing for nearly 2,000 yards and showing growth at almost every point in the season.

Blackman stepped in after an injury sidelined Deondre Francois in the opener, one season when D12 threw for over 3,300 yards and 20 touchdowns in a 10 win redshirt freshman season that included victories over Miami, Florida, Michigan in the Orange Bowl all while being knocked around and earning respect for his toughness.

Don’t forget about Bailey Hockman, a highly touted lefty who came in with Blackman last season and redshirted before getting a chance to get reps through the spring with Francois still recovering and showing he can sling it around during the spring game.

For FSU football head coach Willie Taggart, the position of picking who will start the opener against Virginia Tech won’t be an easy one. But, as he told Chop Chat during a sit down interview this week during his booster tour near Fort Lauderdale, he likes what he has seen from all involved.

"“James, he’s such a competitor. He’s a kid that wants to do everything the right way. Same with Bailey, I think they both have the skills when it comes to playing quarterback.I was impressed with both of them and how they were able to catch on to the offense and being able to operate it being as it was only a couple of weeks.”"

As for Francois, Taggart made it very clear he knows what he can get out of the rising redshirt junior after seeing him first hand when leading the South Florida Bulls in the 2016 season – when D12 had 244 combined yards and two touchdowns in helping to lead the Seminoles to a 55-35 victory in Tampa that season.

The jury is still out on who will lead FSU football on offense during the Labor Day opener against Virginia Tech – will it be Francois, who showed plenty in 2016 and was among the top QB’s entering last season before getting hurt?

Will it be Blackman, who Taggart said has gained weight and grew as a signal caller? Can Hockman shock everyone and be the fifth different starter since the opener of the 2015 season?

Next: Willie Taggart sits down for interview with Chop Chat

FSU football is in a position that many FBS and FCS programs would love to be in – having three quarterbacks who, at this moment, could legit play for almost all the programs in the top level of college football.