Louisville Football: 3 bold predictions vs. Florida State in Week 8

2. James Blackman will continue to improve

During the first game of the season, Florida State lost its star quarterback, Deondre Francois, to a knee injury. Even with a loss to Alabama, many believed that Florida State would stick around and be a real threat in the ACC and maybe even the College Football Playoff.

The injury to Francois put a halt to those hopes, but no one knew what to expect from talented freshman James Blackman because his number was called sooner than expected.

So far, he has been solid but not spectacular. You can see the growth as he almost led his team to a victory over Miami but Malik Rosier thumped Blackman with a game-winning drive. He has led the Seminoles to a 2-2 record during his four games as the lead signal-caller.

The freshman’s stats read as follows: 68-for-108 with 799 yards, five touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s coming off of arguably his best game of his career against Duke where he was 18-for-21 with 197 yards, a touchdown and two interceptions. He only had three incompletions and two of them where interceptions, so technically only one was dropped (hits drum for joke).

Louisville is a very friendly defense, so I expect the freshman to throw over 200 yards and get at least three touchdowns on Saturday.