Clark column: Did Taggart tip his hand on QB competition?

This is just a hunch. Nothing more. So, don’t hold me to it if I turn out to be completely wrong (how’s that for an all-time great cop-out?).

But listening to Willie Taggart talk on Thursday during ACC Kickoff in Charlotte, I think he believes Deondre Francois is his best option at quarterback.

He certainly didn’t say that. Obviously, no coach would declare a legitimate QB competition over before preseason practice even begins -- and, in fact, Taggart repeatedly brought up redshirt freshman Bailey Hockman as a potential starter as well.

So, in July at least, he’s selling it a three-horse race at quarterback.

But I think most of us believe it's between the two guys on the roster who both have a full season of starting experience. And this column is about how I felt walking out of the Westin Charlotte hotel late Thursday afternoon.

Walking in one day earlier, I was on record thinking Francois was a 51-49 percent favorite to win the job over returning starter James Blackman.

When I left, that 51 had risen to 65 or 70.

And it wasn’t because I got some knowing wink from Taggart when talking about Francois (that would be a weird thing for Taggart to do anyway -- guys don’t wink at each other, do they?).

It’s because the head coach seemed to be going out of his way to say positive things about the 2016 starter, Francois. And not about anything he’s done on the field -- though he did say he was 100 percent healthy and ready to go for camp.

Taggart talked about how much Francois has grown up, matured, become a better teammate.

He seemed genuinely excited when talking about the redshirt junior.

“He’s one of those guys that’s going to feel you out and see if you’re true to who you are and what you’re doing,” Taggart said. “I think trust is really important to him. … It’s not easy (for him) to trust. But you can sense that from him in being around him and how quiet he is and just how he observes everything.

"But he and I have had plenty of one-on-one meetings, which tells me that he’s a good kid that really wants to do well. He’s probably been misunderstood at times because he’s such a quiet kid or by himself. That doesn’t make him a bad kid; he just goes about doing things totally differently.”