Florida State football, recruiting news: James Blackman is an “alpha personality”

Football

Florida State was hardly the only program affected by Hurricane Irma. ESPN’s Andrea Adelson breaks down how the cancellation decisions went down as well as the impact across college football in Florida that Irma left in its wake.

Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher decided to have all his coaches and their families, along with his players, stay overnight in the football facility inside Doak Campbell Stadium. The university also utilized a waiver from the NCAA to allow players' families from impacted areas to travel to Tallahassee and also stay in the facility.

Florida State arranged for more than 200 cots to be placed everywhere from meeting rooms to offices to lounges to the locker room. Fisher woke up every hour to check the weather reports just to make sure everything would be fine.

"You knew everyone was safe, and we felt comfortable being there," Fisher said. "It was sad the reason we had to be there because their homes and other people were going through a very treacherous time, and our thoughts and prayers were with them and other family members that weren't there. But we controlled as much as we could control and got as many people safe as we could possibly get safe. We were happy about that, and that was the role we had to play."

Safid Deen, FSU beat writer for the Orlando Sentinel, caught up with Sean Maguire, who may be able to offer some advice to Deondre Francois on overcoming injuries as a quarterback.

Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated breaks down what sets apart the true freshmen, including James Blackman, who have made strong impressions and broken into the starting lineup early in their collegiate careers.

One trait connecting the true freshmen who have cracked the lineup: an inner confidence that allowed them to claim the second-team job over the veterans who’ve chosen to stick it out. Says Ken Mastrole, a Florida-based private quarterback coach who worked with Blackman as a high schooler, “There are a lot of guys out there who act like they can play on social media. But when you really pull back all the layers, these guys have to be mature. [Blackman] is quiet. The best quarterbacks I’ve seen are quiet about how they handle their business.” That is one of the qualities Baucia saw in Hill. “Everybody wants to be 18 stars and ranked the best in the world,” Baucia says. “All he wants to do is be a good football player and a good teammate.”

Jimbo Fisher backed this up at his call-in show Wednesday night, proclaiming Blackman as an “alpha personality”. For more updates from the show, check Tomahawk Nation’s recap put together by Danny Aller.

Recruiting

2018 three-star wideout and FSU commit D’Marcus Adams announced his inclusion in the 2018 Army All-American Game Wednesday.

Alumni

Former FSU baseball player Luke Weaver continues to deal on the mound for the St. Louis Cardinals. In fact, Weaver may be the hottest pitcher in the majors right now.

Other Sports

One of the assistant FSU basketball coaches was in Virginia Wednesday to check in on a top 2018 recruit.