Much has been made of Florida State’s early season struggles, and as you would expect, a lot of that heat has been placed on the quarterback. That’s how it goes in the game of football- the QB is the top spot, the guy who takes the fall when things are going awry.
At Florida State that’s Deondre Francois, a QB1 who is actually statistically much better than you might think, given what’s been written and said about him. The offense has been the weaker side of the ball at Florida St. thus far in 2018, and that of course only places more pressure on the QB. However, 1.) it’s not Francois’ fault really and 2.) if you look at the numbers, he’s statistically a lot better than you might think he is.
The name Deondre Francois shows up more often in the Florida State passing record book than you might think, and when it you see it’s typically higher up the list than expected.
“In our previous games we weren’t living u to expectations on the offensive side of the ball, but those two drives showed us what we can do and what were capable of,” Francois said after the Seminoles beat NIU 37-19 last week.
The Noles went down the field and scored a touchdown their first two drives, but then didn’t find the end zone again until midway through the fourth quarter.
“It’s good to see what we’re capable of when we start fast, and there’s no excuse for us not to start like we did today, to start fast every game, and we need to continue to build from where we started.”
Francois, who finished 23-31 for 352 yards, two touchdowns and one interception, discussed how the team has taken awhile to get it together. Apparently it was not until after week three that the squad started to finally get dialed in at practice, and thus carry over how they practiced to the game.
“I’m not sure why it took three weeks, but sometimes it just takes longer than ususal when you have a new coach,” Deondre Francois added.
“Because you got to get some guys to buy in, and some guys weren’t buying in and now we’re coming together as a team and that showed today on offense when we were moving the ball and executing.”
FSU did accrue 473 yards of total offense on the day, but they missed a whole lot of opportunities. Still 37 points, against a FBS team this time, was major progress forward for the 2018 team. Maybe this is the turning point of the season? It’s hard to feel convinced of that right now, and only time will tell.
In the meantime, it’s interesting to see how Francois stacks up in the FSU record book and that really says something about his potential this season because it spotlights all that he’s already achieved. Francois joined Christian Ponder and Peter Tom Willis as the only Seminoles to accomplish a 40+ pass attempt, no interception game twice.
He just passed up Casey Weldon, an All-American, for 12th on the career passing yards list. He’s in the top 17 for career TD passes already and his stellar 2016 season places him fifth for single season passing yards and eighth in single season completions. For Francois to rank where he does in the Seminoles passing record book really says something about him, considering the school has produced three Heisman Trophy winners (Jameis Winston, Chris Weinke, Charlie Ward) at the position.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud and YouTube. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to any and all of his