GAINESVILLE — As the state of Florida slowly starts the rebuilding process in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, assessing damage and pulling together for the hard work ahead, it’s easy to forget there’s an enormous football game to be played in The Swamp this Saturday when No. 23 Florida takes on No. 24 Tennessee.

The stakes are immense for Jim McElwain’s Florida program, which opened the summer promising to “kick the door down in Atlanta” but closed the summer with a rash of suspensions and opened the season with an embarrassing 33-17 loss to Michigan. Florida needs a win, plain and simple. A win over rival Tennessee would keep the 2017 season on track, provide a needed modicum of joy to Gators fans suffering in the aftermath of a vicious hurricane and help reassure the faithful that this is the staff that can turn things around in Gainesville.

"Franks should be ready. ... This is another opportunity." - Jim McElwain

Indeed, for the first time in McElwain’s tenure, there’s the detectable chirping in Gator Nation that Ron Zook used to call “noise in the system.” And once the noise gets going, it’s tough to stop. Ask Zook or Will Muschamp.

Despite two SEC East titles, the natives are growing restless with Florida’s struggles on offense and beginning to turn up the volume on McElwain, Doug Nussmeier and the rest of the Florida coaches. Gators fans spent decades starved for a winner of any kind in the pre-Steve Spurrier era. But some (too many?) grew entitled and dissatisfied toward the end of Spurrier’s tenure, prompting the ball coach to note that winning no longer felt joyful.

“Now it’s a disgrace every time we lose,” Spurrier lamented following a crushing loss to Tennessee in 2001, a month before his departure. “It used to be so fun to win. Now it is more a relief than anything.”

Fair or no, the expectation in Gainesville is that a new coach should win immediately. Florida fans don’t have the patience of say, the Clemson faithful, who allowed Dabo Swinney to suffer multiple defeats to a rival and a 6-7 campaign in year three because they believed in what he was building. That makes Saturday’s result immense for McElwain and his staff. Start 0-2, and it will be awfully tough to silence the noise, even if it doesn’t cost McElwain his job this year.

The natives haven’t always been so restless.

In McElwain’s first year, the Gators played a quality opponent at home in No. 3 Ole Miss, with many wondering whether the team had a chance to compete. The Gators steamrolled the Rebels 38-10 behind a swarming defense and steady quarterback play from freshmen Will Grier. The formula McElwain used to help win so many football games with Nick Saban at Alabama, and to turn a woeful Colorado State program into a 10-game winner in only three years, appeared to be sound. Then Grier was suspended for using PEDs and Florida unraveled, dropping four of its final nine games with Treon Harris under center.

Last season was little better, whether it was Luke Del Rio or Austin Appleby under center. While both Del Rio and Appleby were a bit more accurate than Harris, neither improved much on Harris’s 118 QB rating. In fact, Florida’s offense averaged fewer yards per attempt under both Del Rio (6.8) and Appleby (6.9) than under Harris (7.1). All told, McElwain and Nussmeier’s offense regressed, finishing 116th in yards per game in 2016 after finishing 112th in 2015, and finishing 100th in efficiency in 2016 after slotting in at 58th the year prior. Making matters worse, Florida ranked 72nd in explosive plays in 2016, after being 56th in McElwain’s first year. The lack of a quarterback who could effectively threaten a defense down the field was a huge reason for the decline.

Florida’s offense woes are an object lesson in collective failure.

Play-calling has been poor or too conservative. The line has been miserable. Recruiting lagged in the late Muschamp years, as the Gators stockpiled defensive talent but repeatedly missed on playmakers while cycling through offensive coordinators. The running game has been unreliable. But more than anything, save a few games from Will Grier before he got himself suspended for a year for cheating, the largest problem in Gainesville has been the lack of leadership and production from the quarterback position.

Beyond Will Grier, McElwain has developed and won with young quarterbacks before.  At Alabama, he coaxed exceptional production from first-year starter Greg McElroy in 2009 (2508 yards, 61%, 7.7 per attempt, 17 TDs, 4 INTs, 140.5 rating) and was even more masterful with sophomore AJ McCarron in 2011 (2,634 yards, 66.8%, 8.0 per attempt, 16 TDs, 5 INTs, 147 rating). Those offenses finished 7th and 3rd in America in efficiency. The staff can produce.

That’s why, for the program’s sake, Saturday has to be Feleipe Franks’ day. Saturday. Not next week at Kentucky. Not in Jacksonville against Georgia. Now.

It’s time for Franks to seize the moment.

It’s time, as my SDS colleague Corey Long wrote last month, for the UF coaches to trust the player they recruited and have had 18 months to develop, and open up the offense to the 6’6″ former US Army All-American from Wakulla County, Fla. Yes, highly-touted QB Matt Corral is coming in January. But Florida’s season in 2017 is still a story to be written. What happens over the next three months depends on whether Franks can handle this moment.

Sure, Franks didn’t get the Northern Colorado game reps and touchdown passes to build confidence. But isn’t that what the summer is for? Didn’t the coaches praise Franks’ work-ethic, attitude and play throughout camp? Isn’t being ready for this type of game why you come to Florida?

Jim McElwain thinks so.

“Franks should be ready,” McElwain said. “It’s the reason you come to the University of Florida, to play in games like this. This is another opportunity.”

It’s an opportunity for McElwain and Nussmeier, too. Show the kid you believe. Show him you trust him. He was 5-for-9 for 75 yards against Michigan. In a vacuum, that’s not bad. Now, you are playing at home against a less formidable defensive front. Open up the playbook. Let the kid with the arm strength and tools to move your offense for the first time since Grier’s suspension make the throws. If you fail, fail on your terms.

The noise in the system will be insufferable if you don’t.