FSU Football: Situation at QB puts Willie Taggart in tough position
The current FSU football QB situation puts Willie Taggart in another tough spot. How he chooses to handle will greatly influence the outcome of this season.
It’s been a rocky take-off for the Willie Taggart-era of FSU football in Tallahassee. This is no secret: a bevy of missteps on and off the field, combined with a lack-luster record, has led to an insatiable and dissatisfied fan-base.
Just to be clear, I do not think we should fire Willie. I genuinely think that anyone we would have hired would have struggled, given the mess that we were left with. It’s ludicrous to expect a second-year head coach to not have any struggles whatsoever. Also, its a fiscal improbability, given the current financial state of Florida State athletics.
That being said, Coach Taggart has not always helped himself out, when the opportunities have been there to do so. Instances like the way he handled the quarterback situation last year, the turnover backpack, “lethal simplicity”, unwarranted pre-season bravado and dehydrate-gate just to name a few.
That is why I think it is imperative that Willie handles the current situation at quarterback, correctly.
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Think about it: after such an abysmal start to his tenure, Willie really needs things to go as smooth as possible from here on out. He needs to regain fan confidence via winning football games. Obviously having the starting quarterback get injured disrupts that plan.
Fortunately, due to his prowess as a recruiter, he was able to land a very capable and experienced back-up in the senior-transfer Alex Hornibrook this past off-season. I thought this was a good sign from Willie; I thought it showed foresight as a head coach. Hornibrook also did very well last Saturday and showed that he had command of this unit and could have success within this offensive system.
Given how close the quarterback competition was this pre-season and what we saw from Hornibrook last weekend, I thought this week/game could serve as a good opportunity for Willie, the team and the fans to get a chance to see what this offense could look like with Hornibrook for a full game against N.C. State; given that James Blackman had just sustained an injury last Saturday.
But, due to recent reports and comments from players and coaches, I am not so sure Blackman is as hurt as initially believed. From all accounts, he has been a full participant in practice this week and the coaches have confirmed that if Blackman is healthy, he will be a go come Saturday against the Wolfpack.
Originally, I thought this injury to Blackman presented a good chance for Willie to give Alex Hornibrook a full game, to show what he could do. After all, he did well against Louisville last week, the status on Blackman’s knee is still uncertain, and our upcoming opponent is one that we should beat.
It would also give Blackman an additional week to heal before the bye week, where you could then evaluate who gets the nod heading into Clemson based off what is observed in practice and then we could go from there – that’s what I thought was going to happen.
Now it seems as though Blackman may play come Saturday. While I am pleased he is healthier than expected, this does change the situation substantially. With Blackman injured and presumably ruled out for the game Saturday, Taggart had a valid excuse to go with Hornibrook and see how the offense does with him at the helm for all four-quarters.
Now, if Blackman does play the whole game Saturday, or even just splits series with Hornibrook, we really aren’t left with a clear picture of what’s going to happen at quarterback, moving forward.
If Blackman is cleared to go for Saturday, I still expect to see Alex Hornibrook at some point. I just would have preferred to be cautious with Blackman, given Hornibrook a full game and take it into the bye week. Then make your decision moving forward based on what we see Saturday and in practice. To me, that seems like a win-win situation for Willie. And it still could happen. As I write this, Willie still hasn’t named the starter for Saturday’s game.
Listen, we are finally starting to see signs of hope from this team and this coaching staff. We may actually be seeing the wheels start to turn here folks. And I really think that this quarterback issue really could serve as another chance for Taggart to take another small step in helping him regain some confidence from a much beleaguered fan-base. He just has handle it the right way.
But, if he botches it like he did last season, he could easily split the fan-base, or worse yet, the team on who to play at quarterback moving forward. Good thing is, at least some of these questions will be answered on Saturday. Regardless, if Hornibrook does play well on Saturday (in any capacity), you best believe we will be in for an interesting bye-week.