Francois kept making good decisions, flipping short passes to keep the chains moving and adding 59 rushing yards to convert critical third downs.
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Francois connected with Travis Rudolph for his first career touchdown in the final minute of the first half.
Just over five minutes into the second half of Monday night’s game between Florida State and Ole Miss, Kermit Whitfield caught a three-yard swing pass and ran it into the left side of the end zone for a Florida State touchdown. The freshman did not throw an interception either.
The second touchdown for the Rebels was even better.
Seminoles freshman quarterback Deondre Francois was 33-52 for 415 yards and two touchdowns in his first game as a college quarterback.
Instead, they stayed mentally engaged, made adjustments, played with ferocity in the second half and showed this is an extremely talented team. With Francois dissecting a tired Rebels’ defense, the Seminoles scored 33 unanswered points to grab a 39-28 lead with 12:09 remaining on the fourth of Ricky Aguayo’s school-record six field goals.
“I couldn’t panic because my team looks at me as a leader”, Francois said.
“His teammates believe in him, and he’s a fighter”, Fisher said of Francois. He pulled the Rebels within 39-34 early in the third quarter with his fourth TD pass of the game on a pretty 20-yard fade route to receiver Van Jefferson, but Ole Miss would never get closer. After some shaky moments early, some of which were caused by protection problems, Francois showed why the Seminoles coaches have been so high on him.
Oh, perhaps you thought it would be Dalvin Cook. People are going to hit you.
After a slow start, Francois got Florida State’s offense on a roll. The win marked Francois’ first college victory. He also rushed for 91 yards on 23 carries.
It was a disappointing loss for Ole Miss. From that point forward, Florida State scored points on every single drive, save for the one that ran the clock out at the end. FSU will have to clean up some sloppiness after committing 15 penalties for 127 yards. The true freshman had a lot to live up to because of his namesake, and all he did was go six for six, hitting 44 and 40-yarders en route to setting a Florida State school record for kicks made in a game, as well as break down barriers for kickers doing cool celebrations. His brother Roberto, a second-round pick by Tampa Bay this year. Ken Webster and Eric Swinney are two big time players that are looking at serious injuries it appears. His injury hurt the secondary because it didn’t have a defensive back to leave out on an island in coverage. He picked apart Ole Miss’ defense and led four scoring drives.
The Rebels will have to keep this up in the second half to defeat the Seminoles.
And then Florida State came charging back. Top 25 scores on Sep. 5.
The redshirt freshman seemed to get almost all of his rookie moments out of the way in the first quarter before shredding Ole Miss to the tune of 419 passing yards and 59 rushing. “We did not deserve to win the game the way we played the second half”.
The Rebels return home Saturday afternoon (Sept. 10) for their first game in the renovated and expanded Vaught-Hemingway Stadium.
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Florida State opens its home schedule next week against Charleston Southern. The Buccaneers (1-1) are coming off a 57-7 win over Kentucky State.
