FSU Football: 5 reasons to be excited about 2019 season

FSU football has been at the bottom after its worst season in four decades. Let’s take a look at five reasons to be excited for 2019.

FSU football went through the lowest of lows in 2018. The expectations of competing for a ACC title and national championship looked at least five years away.

There is a lot of blame to go around on both sides of the ball. Some blame on the current staff and a lot of blame on the old staff.

There was lackluster play from the QB position and the offensive line was among the worst in all the country.

The offense hampered the defense and special teams seemed to give that anemic offense the worst field position almost every time.

Nevertheless, that season has brought us to where we are now with three new coaches that will be imperative to the rebound of the FSU football program.

The fan base’s morale is arguably at an all time low, but sometimes that frame of mind allows one to be excited easier than if you’re consistently high.

There’s certainly a wait and see approach from the fans and it’s certainly fair considering the product they witnessed last season.

However, I believe the product will take a noticeable step forward in 2019. Let’s take a look at five reasons that should be the case.

Kendal Briles Offense

The 2017 was a cluster you know what on both sides of the ball, but the offense struggled mightily most of the year and put the defense in terrible positions by turning the ball over constantly.

Some hiccups were expected making the change from pro-style to uptempo, but sometimes it had to be asked what in the world are they trying to do offensively?

The offense was the biggest liability for this program aside from having some bad apples in the fold making it difficult to change a toxic culture.

The good news is the coaches with complete control over the offense have worked together for years and had major success at every stop.

What’s better? This is arguably the most talent(aside from the offensive line) they’ve had to work with in their careers.

Kendal Briles’ offenses routinely average 30 or more points per game. What’s crazy is if FSU football averages that in 2019 it would be nearly a 37 percent increase. I would bet a large sum of money barring major injuries the offense will average 30 points per game or more in 2019.

Lots of Talent Returning

There’s a lot of talent on the roster even if some of those players have not lived up to their lofty recruiting rankings coming out of high school.

The secondary returns a bevy of talent along with more experience at linebacker. The defensive line returns a lot of experience in Marvin Wilson and Cory Durden.

Tre McKitty, Tamorrion Terry, Keyshawn Helton and DJ Matthews should all be huge contributors on offense in their junior season.

The QB position will likely feature James Blackman who will be an upgrade over Deondre Francois by quite a bit.

Cam Akers, Khalan Laborn and Anthony Grant feature a ton of talent and what could be a three-headed monster in the backfield.

The biggest question marks on this team continue to be the offensive line and the defensive ends.

Experience At QB

One of the biggest concerns we wrote about last season was Deondre Francois being named the starter even though he missed all of spring and summer camp rehabbing his knee injury.

In fact, I still have no idea why James Blackman didn’t get more snaps last season when Francois was stinking it up. He shined when he did get the opportunity to play.

Which brings us to why the QB position should see an upgrade in play over last season.

This is James Blackman’s second season getting reps in an offense that either borrowed from the Briles’ offense or is actually the Briles offense.

Blackman received most of the reps when Francois was out in the spring and summer. That experience should prove invaluable in working with Kendal Briles this year.

Briles likes to attack vertically through the air and Blackman has an excellent deep ball. His pocket presence is better than Francois’s and he moves better with his legs than folk like to give him credit for.

For those worrying if he’ll survive an entire season behind a suspect offensive line. Guess what? He did it for 12 games in 2017, got rocked A LOT and likely weighed 15-20 pounds less than now.

Improved Defense

This could be one of the things I’m looking forward to the most. I can’t tell you how many times the defense kept the Noles in games early last season but gassed because they were on the field the entire first half.

The improved offense should mean an improved defense. Not to mention the Noles have more talent and depth in the secondary and linebacker positions.

FSU defensive coordinator Harlon Barnett will be spending more time with the defensive backs and his defenses generally improve a great deal as they get experience in his scheme.

This defense will look to stop the run and force opposing quarterbacks to make good decisions in tight windows.

They’ll still give up some big plays here and there, but I think we’ll see a decrease there with an improved back seven not to mention a few of the teams they’re facing lost a lot offensively.

The Chance To Surprise Some Folk

Listen, the projected win totals for FSU football by most betting sites is around seven wins. That’s with a schedule that includes the following teams on the schedule:

• Louisiana-Monroe
• Louisville
• Wake Forest
• Alabama State

Anything can happen but that should be four no doubt wins considering how Louisville looked last season and FSU was able to beat them.

I believe the Boise State game is the most important game on the schedule. That’s the tone setter for the rest of the season for a team and fan base dying to taste success.

A win there would shoot a boost of confidence into this program like a shot of NOS on Fast and Furious. Confidence is everything and 2-0 FSU team rolling into Virginia the third game would be a dangerous bunch.

It would also give FSU nearly two weeks to prepare for Virginia with Louisiana-Monroe the week prior. It’ll be a tough road game at night against a team on the come up, but FSU is the more talented team.

The question is will the FSU offense have its footing underneath them by that point? Kendal Briles’ offense scored 90 points in the first two games last season while at Houston.

They scored 49 points the third week against a Big 12 team. The potential is there for FSU football to hit the ground running offensively if he can scheme around the weaknesses of the offensive line.

Conclusion

I don’t think a FSU football team can look any worse than they did in 2018. It was a variety of factors that attributed to the lack of success.

There was a coaching staff that was piece-milled together. A head coach, green offensive coordinator and new offensive line coach trying to run an offense borrowed a lot of concepts from another offense.

The lack of coordinating was apparent during the season and didn’t help the offensive line was terrible and injury ridden with the QB missed all of spring and summer.

That’s not to mention the culture that remained from the previous staff with players refusing to buy-in to what Coach Taggart was selling. Don’t forget he couldn’t get rid of said players because the school’s APR score was near penalty status because of the former coaches’s ineptitude.

Most of those problems should be solved going into 2019 with an easier schedule at hand. There’s clear leadership at the QB position and leaders on the defensive side of the ball with a host of young players ready to seize their opportunity.

The tweet embedded above says it all.