By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

The college football season has been over for a few months already. This time of year, is pivotal because of spring practice.

Newer players get valuable reps and establish confidence before fall camp. One program that is taking spring very seriously is Florida State.

Former head coach Jimbo Fisher was there from 2010 through 2017. During that span, he won a national championship and had a 29-game winning streak. He also coached Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jameis Winston. Fisher left FSU to become the head coach at Texas A&M.

He was replaced by Willie Taggart in December. Taggart’s previous head coaching stops were at Western Kentucky, South Florida and Oregon. He was only at Oregon for one season and led the Ducks to a 7-5 record. He did spend four years at South Florida so he has experience recruiting Florida players.

Seminole fans were very excited for the spring game and showed up to support the team. 60,934 fans attended, which is the biggest spring game crowd in 2018. That’s more than Miami’s average attendance for home games in 2017.

“That was a very impressive crowd for a spring game. Lot of energy in there and kind of gave us a preview of what’s it going to be like that first ballgame,” FSU head coach Willie Taggart said. “I told the team in the locker room our fans showed them how much they appreciate us. Now it’s on us to take care of our business this offseason, get better so we can go out and show them how much we appreciate them.”

FSU’s spring game saw players challenging each other with a good mix of skill players. This skewed what the product on the field looked like.

There might be a quarterback controversy brewing. Deondre Francois was the starter in 2016 but he got hurt in the 2017 opener against Alabama. True freshman James Blackman stepped in and threw for 2,230 yards and 19 touchdowns. Francois is still rehabbing his knee so he did not play in the spring game.

Blackman went 16-of-32 for 259 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions. The numbers may not sound very impressive but his team only had one scholarship receiver. He seemed comfortable in the offense and showed off his strong arm.

The game’s other starter, redshirt freshman Bailey Hockman (11-of-22, 203 yards, one touchdown), improved as the game wore on but missed too many open throws.

Running back looks to be a very deep position. Redshirt freshman Khalan Laborn was a five-star recruit in the 2017 class. He ran for 140 yards, including a 91-yard touchdown run. Cam Akers led the team in rushing last season as a true freshman with 1,024 yards and 7 touchdowns. Laborn may not take the starting spot from Akers but he should contribute heavily in the run game.

Another redshirt freshman, wide receiver Tamorrion Terry had a great game. He’s 6’4 so he is a big target. He had 5 catches for 129 yards and a touchdown.

Two young players were impressive on defense. Blue-chip defensive back, Jaiden Woodbey looked like FSU’s top incoming recruit, recording a game-high nine tackles plus a sack for Gold.

Linebacker DeCalon Brooks — a Gaither High alumnus and the son of former FSU/Bucs star Derrick Brooks — had seven tackles and a sack for Garnet.

The offensive line looked like the weak link of the team, giving up 12 sacks. The caveat is at least two potential starters (Alec Eberle and Cole Minshew) were out with injuries.