Will FSU quarterback Deondre Francois miss more time than expected?

The day after Florida State quarterback Deondre Francois left the Seminoles’ 2017 opener against Alabama with a knee injury, it was announced that he’d require patellar tendon surgery, which occurred later that week. In addressing the procedure, FSU Head Coach Jimbo Fisher gave an initial recovery timetable of 4-7 months.

Thinking that seemed a bit rushed for this type of surgery, I consulted a couple of doctors I know, both of whom concurred that that window sounded rather optimistic. And, unfortunately for Francois, that may in fact be the case, according to a recent tweet from the AP’s Gary Fineout. Fineout relays a response from Florida State Athletic Director Stan Wilcox in which the latter says that the Seminoles “‘suspect’ [Francois will] be back by next summer.”

This would place the emphasis much more on the higher ranges of the aforementioned recovery time— although that term “suspect” conveys even more uncertainty.