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Feleipe Franks breaks down his turnovers in Florida-Miami game
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Florida QB Feleipe Franks’ improvement at the end of the 2018 season was brought up throughout the offseason. Many media members were convinced that the class of 2016 signee, whose college career got off to a rough start in 2017, had finally turned the corner and was starting to put it all together. Gators coach Dan Mullen added to the hype by telling reporters that he saw more improvement in Franks from January to August than he had in the 2018 season.
On Saturday night, however, many felt that the Florida quarterback looked like the same old Franks. While he was responsible for all three offensive touchdowns, he also committed three turnovers. Two of the turnovers particularly stood out. An early fumble killed momentum in the red zone, taking likely points off the board and allowing Miami to hang around.
“I was trying to throw it to [WR Trevon] Grimes,” Franks explained to reporters Tuesday.
“I tried to pull it, it just got mixed up,” Franks continued. “(RB Lamical Perine) thought I was giving it. I was trying to pull it. Things we do every day. Just clean up. The percentage of that happening again in the season is very low. First game, get all those little mistakes out of the way.”
Late in the game, Franks committed a turnover that could have been costly. With less than five minutes remaining in the game, Franks threw an interception that gave the ball back to Miami in Florida territory (inside the 30-yard line) with the Gators up only four points (24-20). Live at full-speed, it looked like a very bad decision and had many football fans on social media mocking the “improved Franks” narrative from the offseason. On Tuesday, Franks shared what he was trying to do and what went wrong on the disastrous play.
“On that play, I dropped back. Ultimately, I was trying to throw the ball away,” Franks told reporters. “Somebody was right here on me and I was trying to get the ball over him to throw the ball out of bounds. I couldn’t get enough on it. I got pretty good arm strength, I would say. I tired to get it out, but at the end of the day there wasn’t even a route right there. So I didn’t throw it to him or didn’t throw it short. I just couldn’t get enough on it to get it out of bounds. I tried to make a smarter decision right there, but couldn’t get enough on it.”
After playing in Week 0, Franks and the Gators are off in Week 1. Florida plays UT Martin in Week 2, UF’s home opener. The Gators travel to Kentucky in Week 3.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
