College Football Bowls 2016: 10 potential breakout players

Not many people give Deondre Francois the respect he deserves. While he’s the ACC’s best freshman, the dual-threat really showed poise throughout the season, but especially early on.

In the first game of his career, he led Florida State back from a double-digit first-half deficit to beat and Ole Miss team that was ranked at the time. On a big stage early in the season, that helped vault Florida State all the way to No. 2 in the AP Poll before Louisville knocked them out emphatically.

For most young quarterbacks, a 63-20 loss in the third game of their career would be a crushing blow to confidence, but not for Francois. He came back and showed Jameis Winston-like poise, leading the Seminoles to a 20-point win the next week.

Francois finished the season with 3,128 yards and 18 touchdowns with only six interceptions to go along with 189 rushing yards and four more scores. Those rushing numbers don’t seem very good, but he has the ability to tuck, run and make guys miss.

Playing the vaunted Michigan defense in the Orange Bowl might seem like a lose-lose for Francois, but he’s the type of leader to view this as an opportunity to get better against an elite unit.

Michigan does a good job of containing mobile quarterbacks, so expect Francois to do most of his damage through the air.