Florida State quarterback Deondre Francois says he is ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation from his left knee injury, and expects to be fully recovered this summer.
"I'm feeling pretty good," Francois said before Friday's spring practice. "(Doctor) said I'm bit ahead of schedule than what he expected. That's a good thing. We're still taking it slow."
Francois _ who suffered a season-ending torn patellar tendon in last season's opener against Alabama _ has been limited to individual and 7-on-7 drills, and held out of 11-on-11 competition during spring practice.
He has also been working behind sophomore James Blackman and redshirt freshman Bailey Hockman as the third-team quarterback because of his rehabilitation.
While Francois has been able to display his accelerated process at times this spring, team doctors still want him to take a cautious approach.
"Probably over summer workouts, I should be 100 percent. Probably a month or a couple months from now," Francois said when asked when he would be fully recovered.
"We still want to take it slow. We don't want to rush it. I feel good. But the protocol that doctors told me, I'm still not where I'm supposed to be so I'm not going to rush anything."
Francois is not expected to participate in Florida State's annual Garnet and Gold spring game on April 14 at 6 p.m. in Doak Campbell Stadium.
But Francois fully expects to regain his role as FSU's starting quarterback with strong competition from Blackman and Hockman this fall.
New coach Willie Taggart said Friday he expects his quarterbacks to create separation from each other in their competition before next season.
In the meantime, Taggart wants Francois, Blackman and Hockman to grasp as much of his fast-paced, Gulf Coast offense as they can before they work on their own during summer workouts leading up to fall camp.
"They're adjusting well," Taggart said of his quarterbacks this spring. "They're running the offense and doing the things we're asking them to do.
"At times, they're looking real sharp at it. Other times, we've got some work to do."
The Seminoles are adjusting to a new tempo Taggart wants to play with, which expects to be a much faster pace than the players are accustomed to compared to former coach Jimbo Fisher's pro-style offense.
Along with the pace, the Seminoles are also learning new terminology for their offensive plays, some of which are similar to what they utilized under Fisher.
"The biggest challenge really is as an offense switching from a pro style to a spread," Francois said. "Not just me but the o-line and receivers. Getting those guys to get the terminology down, (and) getting the whole offense to be in sync as one."
Blackman, who is a fan of the faster pace, says the new play calls have shorter names, which help increase the tempo offensively.
"It keeps the defense off balance," Blackman said of the tempo. "It doesn't give them a chance to identify what we're lining up in because we're going so fast. We can just bring up a play and hit them as fast as we can."
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