Florida State Football: Breaking down Seminoles’ quarterback battle

Florida State football has a new coach in Willie Taggart and he’s opened the quarterback battle to three candidates. Which of them wins the starting job?

In one moment, Florida State’s 2017 team went from dark horse national contenders to hanging on by a thread. The Noles were soundly beaten in their opening game by the eventual national champions, Alabama, and worse yet, lost their starting quarterback Deondre Francois to an injury in the fourth quarter. He’d soon be ruled out for the entire season.

FSU was already thin at quarterback, so in stepped largely unheralded true freshman James Blackman. And all things considered, Blackman did pretty well! In a messy season in Tallahassee, the young quarterback completed 58.2 percent of his passes for 2,230 yards and 19 touchdowns. It could’ve been much, much worse, and the Noles escaped total disaster by sneaking into a bowl game for the 36th-straight season.

Now Francois is back, though he’s not at full strength yet. Blackman’s got a full offseason in a college strength and conditioning program under his belt. And that’s not to mention a few other promising options who will be battling into the fall.

It’ll all be decided when August rolls around, but here’s our prediction for how the depth chart will ultimately play out.