FSU Football: 3 reasons James Blackman should start against NC State

James Blackman Can Play

That was with an offensive line that was just about as terrible as the 2018 group. Not to mention those stats were achieved as a true freshman that didn’t early enroll.

His numbers were on par and even better in some areas than Deondre Francois’s who had a redshirt season under his belt when he was the starter in 2016.

Francois also benefited from having the best running back in FSU football history in the backfield in Dalvin Cook who accounted about nearly 30 percent of the offense that season.

Blackman had the same completion percentage overall, but was more accurate on short passes Francois struggled with.

The opening pass in the Wake Forest game from Francois to Jacques Patrick is a prime example of how his inaccuracy inhibits the offense at times.

He has one less touchdown (19) on the season on over 100 less attempts, but did have four more interceptions (11). However, at least two of those were tipped balls or the receiver just has the ball taken away by the defensive back.

Blackman seems to have better pocket presence and doesn’t hold on to the ball quite as long which puts more pressure on the offensive line.

Blackman was asked to do less as a true freshmen, but he may have had better numbers than Francois overall has he been asked to attempt 400 passes on the season( he had 297).