FSU Football: Five Offensive Storylines to Start Fall Camp

The waiting is over as Florida State kicked off fall camp Tuesday. The Seminoles have big hopes for 2016 as they return 17 starters from a team that won 10 games and reached a New Year’s Six bowl last season.

Of those 17 returning starters, 11 are on offense which means FSU suffers no attrition on that side of the ball. As is the case every year, the 2016 season will begin with some very prominent questions and storylines to follow. Here are five concerning the offensive side of the ball:

1. Finding a Quarterback
What looked like it might be a 4-man race in spring appears to be down to two as redshirt senior Sean Maguire and redshirt freshman Deondre Francois will vie for the starting quarterback position. Maguire is 4-2 in his career as FSU’s starter which includes big wins over Clemson and Florida, but Maguire is coming off foot surgery and has limitations as an athlete. Francois can make all the throws as well as plays with his legs, but has no game experience. Though Francois had a nice overall spring, he did throw two ill-advised interceptions in April’s Garnet and Gold game.

2. FSU’s Career Rushing Record
Florida State’s Dalvin Cook is on pace to become the school’s all-time leading rusher. Heading into the season, Cook needs 1,261 yards to break Warrick Dunn’s career rushing record at Florida State. Last season, Cook obliterated his single-season record of 1,242 yards by going for 1,691 on the ground. For Cook to stand alone atop the FSU record books, the biggest thing he’ll need to do is stay healthy. If Cook can outdo his 2016 effort, he could become the first non-quarterback in Seminole history to win the Heisman Trophy.

3. Getting Dalvin Cook Some Help
As mentioned previously, Florida State running back Dalvin Cook obliterated the FSU single-season rushing record last season, going for 1,691 yards on the ground and 20 total touchdowns. Cook however, did so on a bad hamstring and with the second-most carries in FSU history. With Mario Pender gone, the onus of replacing Cook will fall on either Jacques Patrick or Ryan Green. Patrick is a big back that moves deceptively well while Green showed good versatility in the spring with his ability to catch the ball out of the backfield and to run with deceptive power. For Cook to last the entire season, Patrick, Green or both will need to be able to adequately spell the talented junior.

4. Big Receivers Emerging
Florida State returns three receivers from 2015 who had at least 600 yards receiving: Travis Rudolph, Kermit Whitfield and Jesus Wilson. Rudolph is undoubtedly FSU’s most complete receiver, but Whitfield and Wilson — though fast — are very small for the position. The Seminoles have a lot of big bodies like juniors Ermon Lane and Ja’Vonn Harrison, sophomores Da’Vante Phillips, George Campbell and Auden Tate and freshman Keith Gavin, but all are largely unproven. FSU struggled to score touchdowns in the red zone last season and the lack of a big body at receiver was a reason for that. It’ll be interesting to see if any can emerge in 2016.

5. Cohesiveness Up Front
Florida State returns all five starters from last season along the offensive line and what was a big unknown going into 2015 is expected to be a strength in 2016. Perhaps the biggest issue for FSU last season was finding cohesion up front. The Seminoles started five different combinations along the offensive line and nine different players. Left tackle Roderick Johnson looks to be the only lock, but Kareem Are and Wilson Bell are each very likely to start at the guard position. Ryan Hoefeld, Alec Eberle and Corey Martinez all started games at center for FSU last season, but Eberle enters 2016 as the favorite after starting the final six games of 2015. The right tackle spot looks to be a 3-way battle between incumbent Brock Ruble, Derrick Kelly and converted defensive end Rick Leonard.