FSU football: Why Alex Hornibrook playing against Louisville is slick

FSU football has a huge game against Louisville Saturday in a must-win situation. Why playing Alex Hornibrook would be slicker than a wet bar of soap.

A lot of folk don’t give FSU football coach Willie Taggart enough credit when it comes to making calculated decisions.

I talk all the time about how he works in recruiting, commitments usually come in bunches which creates huge momentum on the trails.

The news FSU has some packages for backup quarterback Alex Hornibrook caught me by surprise I must say. It’s not like James Blackman is the reason the Noles are 1-2.

In fact, his level of play is far superior to what the Noles had at the position a year ago. However, he is coming off a game in which he missed some critical wide open throws.

It’s true he made some awesome plays too and helped the offensive line by having good pocket awareness and moving to get throws off a number of times.

If James Blackman isn’t the problem then why would Alex Hornibrook have some packages in the Louisville game?

Here’s what Willie Taggart said in his interview prior to Thursday’s practice:

"“We have some plays and things where we want to be able to get Alex in and let him run some of those plays. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to do that.”"

Thoughts

I think this is very calculating and smart because he leaves the possibility of Hornibrook NOT playing open. If Hornibrook doesn’t play, he can simply say something like the flow of the game didn’t allow it or Blackman was playing so well we didn’t want to disturb the rhythm of the offense.

If Hornibrook DOES play it sends a message to the program. James Blackman is the leader and probably the most well liked player on the team.

If he is getting snaps taken away it’s the ultimate signal that you have to perform well to stay on the field.

In the event Hornibrook plays well, obviously that helps the team and everyone wins in the end. If Hornibrook stinks it up?

Well, he can simply put James Blackman back in the game and everyone will realize there’s no need to second guess playing Blackman over Hornibrook again which solves the problem of a segment of the fan base calling for Hornibrook to get snaps.

Well played Willie, well-played.