College Football Quarterback Power Rankings: Week 7

One guy who has been impressive in his first season as a collegiate quarterback has been Florida State’s Deondre Francois. I’ll admit, before the season, his name wasn’t even on my radar and I had no idea if he would even last as the start with talented true freshman Malik Henry breathing down his neck.

However, the redshirt freshman has blown me away with his skill set and it’s not tough to see why Jimbo Fisher went with him at the start of the year. The Orlando-native isn’t quite at the same level as Jameis Winston was during his redshirt freshman campaign, but he has shown flashes of the former Florida State quarterback.

Francois, though, has more of a dual-threat ability than Winston did. The similarities I’m seeing are with confidence, leadership and they both had an incredibly strong, and accurate, arm. Francois has commanded his team’s respect as a freshman, which isn’t easy to do. The offense has confidence in him, and the leadership is evident.

For the second time this year, Francois has led his team out of the locker room at halftime, trailing a ranked opponent, and has engineered a comeback victory. Falling behind in-state rival Miami, on the road, 13-3 at halftime last week, Francois shook off the nerves and came out of the locker room firing. He finished with 234 yards and two scores on 20-of-31 passing.

This kid is going to be special for years to come.