After its bowl streak ended last season, FSU’s spring football opens without music
After suffering a painful 2018 season that yielded the first losing campaign and season without a bowl game since the 1970s, Florida State’s football team entered the offseason with several questions that needed answering.
On Monday, fans were allowed to see just what the Seminoles could look like when the 2019 season begins in the fall with the first spring practice staying open to the public.
And there was a notable difference from the outset as the second year of the Willie Taggart era in Tallahassee gets going.
There wasn’t any music blaring during the beginning of practice when players arrived on the field. That’s a contrast to the previous season.
Without signing a quarterback in either of the last two recruiting cycles, the Seminoles are pretty bare at the position. That became even thinner when FSU dismissed starting quarterback Deondre Francois for an alleged domestic violence incident.
James Blackman is the definitive first-string quarterback now, especially after Monday’s practice where Louisville transfer Jordan Travis struggled, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
The outlet reported Blackman made some good throws, but was also inaccurate at times and didn’t have much time to make a play during 11-on-11 drills with the defensive line dominating the offensive line.
The offensive line play was poor last season and is an area that needs fixing for FSU to escape a repeat of 2018.
Aside from those areas, here’s another note from FSU’s first spring practice:
▪ The NCAA denied FSU’s waiver to move assistant coach David Kelly to an off-field role, according to 247 Sports. That means Kelly will count as one of the Seminoles’ 10 assistant coaches, 247 Sports reported. He will have a recruiting coordinator title after spending 2018 as the team’s receivers coach. Ron Dugans, who was hired in the offseason, is FSU’s receivers coach for 2019. “We tried to get a waiver with Coach Kelly and unfortunately the waiver didn’t come through for us moving him off the field,” Taggart told reporters Monday. “If that happens then a couple of our players will be ineligible. That’s one of those unintended consequences and we thought we’d get the waiver, considering the fact Coach Kelly has been with me at two other spots, not just out out of high school.”
