Deondre Francois (born February 12, 1997) is an American football

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

Orlando Guardians The Orlando Guardians are a professional American football team based in Orlando, Florida. The team was founded by Vince McMahon's Alpha Entertainment and is an owned-and-operated member of the XFL. The Guardians played their home games at MetLif ...

of the

XFL XFL may refer to: Sports * XFL (2001), a defunct American football league that played its only season in 2001 * XFL (2020), a professional American football league Vehicles * Bell XFL Airabonita, a 1940 U.S. Navy experimental interceptor aircra ...

. He played college football for

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

and

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

Early life and background

When Francois was a young child, he moved numerous times bouncing back and forth from Miami to Orlando. His mother Janice moved him and his family from

Little Haiti Little Haiti (french: La Petite Haïti, ht, Ti Ayiti), is a neighborhood of Miami, Florida, United States. It is known historically as Lemon City, Little River and Edison. It is home to Haitian immigrant residents, as well as residents from the ...

, a neighborhood of Miami, to Orlando for a better life around the 4th grade where he first started playing football at the age of nine for the Orlando Outlaws with his godfather, Barry White. Francois attended Olympia High School in

Orlando, Florida Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County, Florida, Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Greater Orlando, Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, acco ...

his first three years of high school and transferred to

IMG Academy IMG Academy is a preparatory boarding school and sports training destination in Bradenton, Florida, United States. IMG Academy is set across over 600 acres and features programs consisting of sport camps for youth athletes, adult camps, a board ...

Bradenton, Florida Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698. History Late 18th and early 19th centuries ...

his senior year. From 2012 to 2013 at Olympia, he passed for 3,162 yards and 28

touchdowns A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Whether Rush (gridiron football), running, Forward pass, passing, returning a Kickoff (gridiron football), kickoff or Punt (gridiron football), punt, or recovering a Turno ...

for the

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

team. As a senior, he passed for 1,488 yards with 18 touchdowns. Francois was considered a four-star recruit and committed to

to play college football.

College career

Francois redshirted his first year at Florida State in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. Francois competed with Sean Maguire for the starting quarterback job in 2016. After Maguire suffered an injury, Francois was considered the favorite to start the season opener. On September 5, 2016, Francois made his first collegiate start against the

Ole Miss Rebels The Ole Miss Rebels are the 18 men's and women's intercollegiate athletic teams that are funded by and represent the University of Mississippi, located in Oxford. The first was the football team, which began play in 1893. Originally known as th ...

. Francois passed for 419 yards and two touchdowns, leading the way on a 22-point comeback victory, the largest comeback in Florida State football history. He would be the quarterback for the rest of the season. The Seminoles finished the season 10–3, 5–3 in

ACC ACC most often refers to: * Atlantic Coast Conference, an NCAA Division I collegiate athletic conference located in the US *American College of Cardiology, A US-based nonprofit medical association that bestows credentials upon cardiovascular spec ...

play, to finish in second place in the Atlantic Division. They were invited to the

2016 Orange Bowl The 2016 Orange Bowl was a college football bowl game played on December 30, 2016 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, played between the Michigan Wolverines of the Big Ten Conference against the Florida State Seminoles of the Atlant ...

, where they defeated the Michigan Wolverines. On September 2, 2017, in the Seminoles first game of the year, Francois injured his patellar tendon and missed the remainder of the 2017 season. Francois returned to the starting role in 2018. On February 3, 2019, it was announced that Francois had been removed from the Florida State football program after a video of a domestic dispute between him and his girlfriend surfaced on social media. On May 20, 2019, it was announced that Francois would attempt to walk-on at Florida Atlantic, however this "never materialized." On August 2, 2019, it was announced that Francois had completed a graduate transfer to

Hampton Hampton may refer to: Places Australia *Hampton bioregion, an IBRA biogeographic region in Western Australia *Hampton, New South Wales *Hampton, Queensland, a town in the Toowoomba Region * Hampton, Victoria Canada * Hampton, New Brunswick *Ha ...

and would be immediately eligible for the upcoming season.

Professional career

In December 2020, Francois signed with

Fan Controlled Football Fan Controlled Football (FCF) is a professional 7-on-7 Indoor football league created in 2017 as the first sports league controlled by fans. All games are played at the Pullman Yards in Atlanta, Georgia and broadcast on Twitch, NBCLX, DAZN, ...

. Originally a member of the Glacier Boyz, Francois joined the depth chart as the backup QB behind former UConn QB, David Pindell and played in the first game of the season, completing 3 passes on 5 attempts for 36 yards and one TD with 9 yards rushing. The following week, Francois was drafted to the Wild Aces and made his debut against the Beasts, starting in front of QB Ed Couch. Francois threw only two passes the entire game, both ending in touchdowns for 40 yards in the 30–28 loss against the Beasts. In Week Four, Francois was drafted once again back to the Glacier Boyz and started against his former team, the Wild Aces, where he threw for a FCF-career high 88 yards on 6 completions and two touchdowns in the 52–56 loss. He also rushed for one touchdown. In his first FCF playoff appearance, Francois threw for 5–8 on 91 yards for four touchdowns and rushing on two attempts for 37 yards and one touchdown for a total of 5 touchdowns, leading the Glacier Boyz to the first ever People's Championship in a 38–20 loss. In 2021 Francois began his career in The Spring League, developmental football league of 8 teams, as the starting quarterback of the Blues of the South Division. Francois was signed by the FCF in 2022 and was drafted by the Bored Ape Football Club as the first pick of the Fan Controlled Football's "Season 2.0" inaugural draft. He started week one against the Knights of Degen, throwing 4–9 for 60 yards with a 44% completion rate and one touchdown and one interception. Francois was franchise tagged for week two by the Bored Ape Football Club. Francois was identified among nine quarterbacks training with

Jordan Palmer Jordan William Palmer (born May 30, 1984) is a former American football quarterback and the current director of quarterback development for the XFL. He was selected by the Washington Redskins in the sixth round of the 2007 NFL Draft. He played ...

for a potential quarterback position in the

in September 2022. On September 29, 2022, XFL Reporter Mike Mitchell reported that 8 quarterbacks that worked with

have reportedly signed with each team. Francois was signed to the

Career statistics

References

External links

Florida State Seminoles bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Francois, Deondre Living people Players of American football from Orlando, Florida American football quarterbacks Florida State Seminoles football players American sportspeople of Haitian descent 1997 births Hampton Pirates football players African-American players of American football Fan Controlled Football players 21st-century African-American sportspeople