FSU Football: What does Bailey Hockman transferring mean for Noles?

FSU football will go into the 2018 season with just two scholarship quarterbacks.

FSU football had the best of both worlds just a couple of days ago. It looked as if they would be going into the 2018 season with three capable quarterbacks.

We pointed out the lack of quarterback depth as a huge concern going into the 2017 season, and that issue came back to bite FSU in the tale when Deondre Francois was injured in the first game.

FSU isn’t in such a precarious position as last year, but the news of Bailey Hockman deciding to transfer certainly makes things more interesting.

The good news is FSU will have two quarterbacks with a year of starting experience under their belts in Deondre Francois and James Blackman.

Thoughts

There are pros and cons to Hockman deciding to transfer. QB depth is the first thing that comes to mind.

Francois hasn’t been hit on his surgically repaired knee yet and one has to wonder how he’ll hold up after coming back from a year off.

James Blackman proved to be as tough as they come in 2017 and FSU was quite lucky he wasn’t injured with some of the hits he absorbed.

That’s where the value of having a Bailey Hockman on the team showed. If both of those guys went down FSU would still have a player capable of running the offense without a major drop-off.

However, Hockman had to think about competing with those two quarterbacks the next year or so because both are only sophomores on the field. What were his chances of supplanting them not to mention four-star FSU commit Sam Howell will enter the picture next summer.

Also, Hockman wasn’t recruited by Coach Taggart while he was at USF, so that’s another factor.

I think FSU was going to lose a QB no matter who won the competition. If Francois wasn’t named the starter I think he would have left as well.

The pros are FSU will have a scholarship to open up for the 2019 recruiting class. They are in the mix for several blue chip players and are trying to be selective about each recruit they sign.

Good luck to Bailey Hockman, by all accounts he worked extremely hard on and off the field and has the potential to be successful where ever he ends up.