FSU Football: Why Deondre Francois should remain the starting QB

FSU football suffered the worst home loss in program history on Saturday, but it wasn’t because of the play of their redshirt junior quarterback.

As the final seconds mercifully ticked off the clocks inside Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday afternoon, it did so with the original starting quarterback for FSU football on the day – redshirt junior Deondre Francois – being on the bench after getting helped off the field following another hit suffered from the Clemson defense.

As he was being attended to in the locker room, D12 watched as his backup signal caller – sophomore James Blackman – threw a 73 yard touchdown pass with under five minutes to go to give the Seminoles basically their only highlight in the final three quarters of the 59-10 loss at the hands of the Tigers.

Florida State Seminoles Football

That one play, though, set off a segment of the FSU football fan base and some former players into a firestorm of saying that it was time for Blackman to become the starter again and retake the job he had for 12 games last season.

For those who believe that – and you are perfectly entitled to your option on this subject – I have just one word: stop.

The notion that having Blackman in there as a starting quarterback for any of the games this season – especially the four losses – would have changed the outcome of those games is ludicrous…and not because he doesn’t have the ability, but because the factors surrounding this season.

First off, Blackman is getting credit for rolling out of the pocket and finding Keyshawn Helton wide open for a 20 yard or so pass that the receiver ran the rest of the way – against Clemson defensive players that were second, and some cases third, string on the depth chart.

Look what he did last season against the first string for the Tigers: 208 yards on 13 completions that included a 60 yard touchdown pass and a 39 yard completion – take those out of the equation and he went for less than 10 yards a completion while being sacked five times and throwing one pick, the same number of sacks Francois suffered and number of picks thrown.

Second, while James Blackman does deserve some credit for helping FSU football win seven games last season, what big wins does he have on his resume? He only won three games last year against teams with winning records (Wake, Duke and Southern Miss) while Francois defeated ranked teams like Ole Miss, Miami, Florida and Michigan in 2016 and almost beat ranked Miami this season before a second half collapse.

While the quarterback gets too much of the credit sometimes, they also can get too much of the blame. Francois is not main reason FSU football has the 109th ranked offense in the country – he’s  getting no help from a horrendous offensive line, a disgusting rush game averaging 83 yards a contest and receivers like Nyqwan Murray and Keith Gavin, among others who either run the wrong route, don’t stretch for the ball or are too busy getting tossed out of games.

The odds are that Francois will leave the program after this season and try his hand at the NFL – if that is the case, let the season play out and don’t throw Blackman into the fire with four games left in the regular season that include three ranked teams at this point. You will lose both his confidence if the team gets slaughtered and you lose D12 for the year if you tell him it’s his fault.