FSU football: Fans react to James Blackman being named QB1

FSU football has its starting quarterback for the 2019 season. Redshirt sophomore James Blackman will lead the Noles against Boise State.

FSU football will have an experienced QB leading the way when they take the field against Boise State Saturday night.

Redshirt sophomore James Blackman was announced as the starter Sunday night by Willie Taggart in a press release.

Blackman started 12 games in 2017 for the Noles as a true freshman in the absence of an injured Deondre Francois.

He led the Noles to a bowl game with a 7-6 finish while throwing 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Fan Reaction

As you can see, FSU football fans are extremely happy to hear this news.

Thoughts

This was the right move as I wrote Friday why James Blackman should be named the starting quarterback. A lot of folk were saying graduate transfer Alex Hornibrook was making it a close competition.

However, I just found it hard to believe he’d be able to learn the offense quick enough to win the starting job. Not to mention Blackman is the more talented quarterback.

Blackman has great leadership ability and his teammates will play hard for him as he has a great way of keeping players engaged.

Blackman throws a beautiful deep ball and can get some yards with his legs when he needs to. He’s put on some good weight since 2017 and should be able to handle hits better even though he didn’t miss any time that season.

The biggest thing he’ll need to continue working on is getting rid of the ball quicker and hitting his check down targets. The latter is something he improved on as the season went on in 2017.

The Noles are in excellent hands with an experienced backup quarterback in Hornibrook and redshirt freshman Jordan Travis should Blackman go down.

I thought Blackman should have started over Francois in 2018 before the season began. It’s great to finally see him get his real shot after having a full offseason to prepare.