FSU Football: What Sam Howell flipping to UNC means for Noles

FSU football lost the one quarterback commit in the 2019 class when the North Carolina native decided to stay home and play for the Tar Heels.

While the first day of the early signing process for college football recruits has been a decent success for the FSU football team – who saw their standing skyrocket to No. 14 according to 247 Sports after flipping several commits – the world of #Tribe19 did take an admitted hit in the afternoon when a long time commit decided to take his talents elsewhere.

Sam Howell, a four star prospect from the state of North Carolina, announced that he was signing with the flagship university of that state.

It was not a move that was unexpected in the coming weeks considering that his primary recruiter had been former offensive coordinator Walt Bell – now the head coach at UMass – and he took a recent visit to Chapel Hill despite denying that such a visit was taking place.

Needless to say, this move happening on signing day has put the Seminoles in quite a position with just two scholarship quarterbacks on the roster – James Blackman and Deondre Francois, with no word on whether Francois will stay or leave for another school as a grad transfer or test the waters of the NFL draft.

Here are the three things that it does mean for FSU football at this point.

FSU Football now will be joining the field of schools looking for a solid transfer quarterback

Even before the early signing day process began, people across the country and around Tallahassee had started the sweepstakes for players that may leave or potentially depart their current programs for the world of better playing time at a new spot.

Of course, the sexiest name at this point would be now former Georgia quarterback Justin Fields – a name that FSU football fans are all over because of his flirtation with the Seminoles for a while before staying in state with the Bulldogs.

With him and James Blackman both having three years or eligibility left, one has to wonder if Fields choosing the Seminoles over other rumored spots like Oklahoma and Ohio State would be enough force Blackman and Deondre Francois to transfer out and leaving Fields with the same spot Blackman would be in if D12 leaves now.

Of course, there are rumored rental options like Alabama’s Jalen Hurts or Arizona’s Khalil Tate – but after the whole Everett Golson experiment in 2015, there are plenty in the Seminoles nation who would not want to see that option take place ever again.

Keep Deondre Francois from transferring or leaving until you know exactly what is going to take place

I wrote about this on Tuesday and got plenty of pushback from parts of FSU football nation who still have a hard time with D12 being under center for most of this season – not realizing that Blackman’s big game still came in a 19 point loss and Tom Brady would’ve looked bad behind that God awful offensive line.

The fact of the matter is that if the Seminoles can not bring in one of the man quarterback transfers that some in the fan base think are shoe ins to come to Tallahassee, you can ill afford to watch someone who started almost two full seasons walk away and leave just Blackman and three walk on quarterbacks take the position.

Like I wrote, if the Noles are able to get someone in for a long term run and not just a one year rental, I would be for the idea and letting Francois go and do what is best for him – but just like with any coaching search, it’s not best to fire a coach before you absolutely know you are going to get an upgrade in return.

FSU football needs to sign a quarterback in this class during the February signing period

One of the mistakes in this year’s recruiting class – and there weren’t many for the Seminoles – was only having one quarterback option in the commit category knowing full well that this might have been the last season Francois was around and the backup situation behind James Blackman.

So now, the Noles have to go back to square one when it comes to getting someone in. According to 247 Sports as of Wednesday afternoon, the top quarterbacks that have not signed with a school are four star No. 11 Lance LeGendre from Louisiana and three star No. 53 David Baldwin from IMG Academy.

Both players do have offers from FSU football and you can be willing to bet that Taggart and company are going to put a full court press on both of them to get a flip from their current favorites (LSU and Arizona respectively).

The clock is still ticking on the recruiting process and anything can change over the course of the next few weeks – but the quarterback spot just became the most important thing in the world of #Tribe19 until the start of February.