Florida State football is entering the 2018 spring game with some questions to answer. What’re the five biggest questions facing the Seminoles?
Tallahassee will be electric on Saturday for the spring game as Willie Taggart will be at the helm for the first time. He replaces Jimbo Fisher who took the Texas A&M head coaching job near the end of the 2017 season, leaving the opening for Taggart who called Florida State his dream job.
Florida State has been searching for answers since the end of the 2017 season after Odell Haggins took over as the interim coach. Taggart may help the Seminoles answer some of those this spring as he has plenty of talent returning to the depth chart for 2018.
What are the five biggest questions facing Florida State this spring?
5. Who can replace Derwin James?
The safety position became slightly less solid when Derwin James announced his intention to depart for the NFL, leaving two years of eligibility on the table.
James was one of the most talented defensive backs at the collegiate level, finishing with 84 tackles, 5.5 for loss, one sack and two interceptions in 2017, right after missing the entire 2016 season with an injury. Not many players can miss an entire year and pick up right where they left off and remain a first-round pick, but James is that good.
Who can replace him in the secondary? One option is senior A.J. Westbrook who finished with 40 tackles and six pass breakups in 2017. He’s currently the favorite to replace James at safety, but don’t sleep on incoming safety Jaiden Woodbey. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound early enrollee safety was ranked No. 4 at his position at the high school level, per 247Sports.
Keep an eye on the battle for the starting safety spot.
4. Is Nyqwan Murray ready to become the go-to target?
When Nyqwan Murray committed to Florida State a few years ago, he didn’t have the look of a future No. 1 target for the Seminoles. He wasn’t a typical five-star recruit for Jimbo Fisher being slotted to play wide receiver, but rather a mid-level three-star.
Now, Murray looks to be ‘the guy’ heading into the 2018 season, coming off a year when he led the team with 40 receptions for 604 yards and four touchdowns. He has big-play potential, but just needs more consistency, and that should come with a solidified quarterback.
Murray stands just 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds, but his slot size doesn’t matter when he has the speed to make a difference. But is he ready to become the full-on go-to target with Auden Tate now gone? Tate decided to forgo his senior year after putting up 40 catches for 548 yards and 10 touchdowns in 2017.
The senior will be looked at to be a leader in the receiving corps and needs to be a steady target for either Deondre Francois or James Blackman.
3. Will this be the year of Cam Akers?
If you’re not excited about the prospect of Cam Akers becoming a serious Heisman contender within the next year or two, you may have to turn in your Seminole fan card. The sophomore running back was impressive as a true freshman, rushing for 1,025 yards and seven touchdowns on 5.3 per touch.
Although Jacques Patrick is also returning after racking up 748 yards and seven scores as a junior, Akers has to be excited about the possibility of recording 200-plus carries and breaking 1,000 yards for the second straight season to start his college career.
There’s no doubt that Patrick will swipe some of the carries that Akers would have had if had departed following the 2017 season, but he’s good enough that he’ll take advantage of his opportunities and prove to be the lead back.
Will this be the year of Akers?
It sure seems that way and with a fresh look at head coach, the Seminoles may see more of the sophomore sensation. He has the ability to approach 2,000 yards at some point in his career, but will Willie Taggart let him loose?
2. What will the energy level be with Willie Taggart at the helm?
When a coach takes over his dream job, he usually treats it like his baby. Willie Taggart had dreams of being Florida State’s next head coach while he was at South Florida and then Oregon and, miraculously, the position opened up despite Jimbo Fisher winning the national title in 2013.
It seemed as if Fisher would be at the helm until he retired, but there was some sort of disconnect between him and the administration. The two sides didn’t quite see eye-to-eye, forcing Fisher to look elsewhere to meet his needs — Texas A&M turned out to be that next destination. Taggart jumped on the opportunity to join the Seminoles despite coaching just one year at Oregon.
Ducks fans may not be so forgiving, but if they were put in that same position, there’s a good chance they’d make the same decision with a dream job on the line.
With Taggart in town, what will the energy level be in Tallahassee? Will we see an immediate uptick in energy with a fresh face at the helm? It’ll be interesting to see what the energy will be like in Tallahassee on April 14.
1. Will there be a quarterback controversy?
When Deondre Francois went down against Alabama to start the 2017 season, Seminoles fans saw their team’s national title hopes go down the drain. That’s not a knock on freshman backup James Blackman, but it’s not often you see a first-year quarterback step in right away when he was expected to be the backup and lead his team to 10-plus wins.
Francois was coming off an Orange Bowl-winning freshman season and expectations were sky-high for his sophomore campaign and he was even looked at as a dark-horse Heisman contender.
Blackman, on the other hand, struggled early on in the starting role, but grew increasingly comfortable as the season progressed. He finished with 2,230 yards, 19 touchdowns and 11 interceptions while completing 58 percent of his throws against tough ACC defenses.
Now that Francois is healthy and Blackman has a year of experience under his belt, will there be a serious quarterback controversy or will Deondre regain his starting job with ease?
Next: NFL Mock Draft 2018: First round through Pro Days
Keep an eye on this quarterback battle this spring as it could be one of the most intriguing in college football.