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By Safid Deen
Florida State coach Willie Taggart speaks to media on Thursday.
TALLAHASSEE — ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit will call three games during college football's opening weekend, but is most excited for one in particular.
After covering the Northwestern-Purdue game on Thursday and the Camping World Kickoff Saturday between No. 1 Alabama and Louisville in Orlando, Herbstreit will call the anticipated ACC opener between Florida State and Virginia Tech at Doak Campbell Stadium on Sept. 3.
"I'm fired up," Herbsreit said during a Friday conference call with media. "That will be my third game of the weekend, but it's easy to say that I might be the most excited to get to that game on a Monday night."
Here are three highlights from Herbstreit's time with media on new FSU coach Willie Taggart and the Seminoles.
FSU may be overlooked
While Clemson and Miami enter this season with high expectations, Herbstreit believes Florida State should earn the same consideration, too.
"I personally feel that a lot of people have almost forgotten about Florida State this year," he said. "There's such an anticipation of Clemson once again and even Miami that you talk to your average fan on a national level, and people are not expecting much of anything from Florida State. I think it's a real opportunity for them to showcase their team and their talents on national TV on a Monday night."
Herbstreit added a Florida State win in primetime over Virginia Tech will surely remind college football followers about the Seminoles.
"If they win and they look good doing it, they'll go in the blink of an eye from a team that's kind of been overlooked to a team that all of a sudden everybody's worried about after 60 minutes of football," he said.
Francois the favorite
Herbstreit expects Orlando native Deondre Francois to win the starting job over James Blackman.
"I know James Blackman played a year ago, but things I saw from Deondre Francois two years ago in '16, were as good as anything I've seen from any freshman quarterback," Herbstreit said.
"If you cover Florida State, you know the pounding he took, and he just kept getting up and kept getting up. So he's a special player, and if he's healthy, I personally can't imagine him not being the quarterback Monday when they open up with Virginia Tech."
He's high on Taggart, too
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While Herbstreit believes Taggart was "determined to get Oregon back to being an elite program," he does not fault Taggart for leaving Oregon after one season to take the Florida State opening.
"I didn't know that was his dream job -- that means something because he probably wouldn't have left Oregon to just go anywhere," Herbstreit said of Taggart. "But to have an opportunity to go to his dream school, I think you can understand that."
Herbstreit believes it will not take long for Taggart to succeed as Seminoles coach.
"I think he's going to recruit, and he's obviously [in] a tough state with a lot of great coaches that are recruiting at a pretty high level," Taggart said. "But with the resources and the tradition and the history that Florida State football has and now with a go-getter in recruiting, I'll be very, very surprised if he doesn't have success down in Florida State."
FSU Seminoles