Impact Analysis: QB James Blackman brings versatility Fisher likes

Florida State football coach Jimbo Fisher isn’t one to hesitate when he sees a quarterback he likes.

Throughout his coaching career, Fisher has on several occasions offered a scholarship to a quarterback prospect based on one strong camp performance. He did it with Jacob Coker in 2010, and he did it just a couple weeks ago with James Blackman.

Blackman, a 6-foot-4 dual-threat quarterback from Belle Glade, Fla., had only a handful of offers from Power 5 conference schools when he arrived at the Fisher Camp in mid-July. But after a dazzling performance on the FSU practice fields, Blackman quickly earned Fisher’s seal of approval and grabbed an offer to join the Seminoles.

“He said I knocked his socks off,” Blackman said of Fisher. “I felt like I went out there and did what I had to do and put on a great show for Coach Fisher.”

Like Coker, who didn’t have one scholarship offer the month before he camped at FSU, Blackman had been flying under the national recruiting radar before the Fisher camp. He had offers from Louisville, West Virginia and about a dozen other schools, but he had just a three-star rating from Rivals.

That could change in the near future.

Rob Cassidy, Southeast recruiting analyst for Rivals, was in attendance at the Fisher camp when Blackman delivered his impressive performance. And like the FSU coaching staff, Cassidy said he was blown away by what he saw from the Glades Central star.

“I think people know he exists -- he's not a totally off-the-radar guy, obviously,” Cassidy said. “But he's a guy that a lot of people haven't seen [in person] yet. He's a very regional kid for right now. We'll see if that changes this year.”

After returning home with his FSU offer, Blackman needed just a couple weeks to make his decision to commit to the Seminoles. And shortly after he announced that choice on Wednesday night, Blackman reflected on his whirlwind recruiting process.

“It helped me a lot,” Blackman said of attending the Fisher Camp. “Before I came up there, they didn't know anything about me really. ... I showed them I knew the game of football. And they felt like I was the one for them.”