With Florida State opening its first spring practice under Willie Taggart today, it's time for a new edition of the 3-2-1: Where we offer 3 things we've learned, 2 questions we're asking and 1 prediction.
Three things we've learned
1 – James Blackman already could have lead in QB competition
While the status of Deondre Francois’ knee rehab was the biggest piece of news to come out of Willie Taggart’s pre-spring press conference on Tuesday, Florida State’s first-year head coach might have subtly tipped us off to some even more important information in the Seminoles’ looming quarterback competition.
When he was asked what Francois would be able to do this spring, Taggart explained that the redshirt junior quarterback would still be limited by the torn patellar tendon that ended his 2017 season prematurely. He then said that Francois’ biggest task will be working to become a better leader and also “winning his teammates over.”
Now, it’s difficult to know exactly how much to read into Taggart’s comments since we’ve only been listening to him speak for the past few months. We don’t have nearly as much history with him as we did with Jimbo Fisher, so it could be risky to read between the lines.
But it’s certainly not a great sign that a player entering his fourth season on campus – and who has already been the starting quarterback for a full season – needs to win his teammates over.
What’s especially interesting about that comment is he made a very similar statement about redshirt freshman Bailey Hockman, who is the third quarterback in the competition. Taggart said Hockman will need to “win his teammates over” as well.
Those words aren’t nearly as surprising about Hockman, given the fact that he’s only been on campus for just over a year and he has yet to step on the field in a game situation. It’s perfectly understandable that he still needs to earn the trust of FSU’s other players.
What is revealing is the fact that Taggart never used that “winning teammates over” phrase when he spoke about Blackman. Instead, he gave the true sophomore credit for already being a good team leader, while pointing out that there is room for improvement.
“He’s been doing a good job with that,” Taggart said. ”But he’s got to continue to get better.”
Taggart also explained that those leadership skills are non-negotiable when it comes to finding the right quarterback to lead his squad. He said that player needs to be able to lead not just the offense, but the entire team.
“When you see great football teams – or teams that win championships – one thing you see is the team rallied behind the quarterback,” Taggart said.
As I said at the beginning, we probably shouldn’t get too far ahead of ourselves when it comes to parsing the words of a coach we don’t know all that well. But it certainly sounded Tuesday as if Blackman is the clear leader in the area that means the most to Taggart when selecting a quarterback.
