Florida football: As Gators hit the road and meat of the schedule, all eyes are on Feleipe Franks
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Even on a day Florida scored two special teams touchdowns, it didn’t take long for the conversation about Florida’s 48-10 win over Colorado State last Saturday to shift to Feleipe Franks.
The redshirt sophomore struggled at times in Florida’s win, especially in the first half, when he started the game 0-for-6, failed to convert short fields into touchdowns, picked up a silly unsportsmanlike conduct penalty and threw an interception.
As a result, Franks was very quickly the focal point of Dan Mullen’s postgame press conference, and Mullen didn’t hesitate to defend his guy.
“I think Feleipe settled down, did some good things, had some missed decisions again,” said Mullen after the game. “It’s not like bad decisions, it’s just like ‘hey you missed this read.’ It’s only his third game and I know people get on him with this narrative of, ‘oh he’s started all these games.’ Not in our system he hasn’t. It’s his third game in our system.”
Mullen reiterated that Franks was going to be his starter too, even if there are moments on the field he struggles.
“He doesn’t have a short leash,” Mullen said. “We’re going to play him. I told him this, if he goes out there and throws a bunch of picks, he throws a bunch of picks. If he pouts about it and whines about it and stops taking coaching and drops his head, I might pull him, but I’m not going to pull him for throwing picks or making mistakes.”
Mullen might not pull him, but Franks’ every move being scrutinized is part of the deal when you sign up to play quarterback at Florida. It’s a pressure cooker of a gig, but the rewards are tremendous too. Just ask the three quarterbacks with statutes out front of The Swamp about it.
Another reality?
Florida’s other two units were good enough to help the Gators dispatch of Colorado State in The Swamp, but Florida’s chances of defeating Tennessee on Saturday night in Knoxville will rely heavily on improvement from Florida’s offense.
That starts with Franks.
The good news for the Gators is Franks improved markedly last Saturday after the first half. He finished 8-for-9, tossing 2 touchdown passes and only registering an incompletion on a heady throwaway under pressure. His second-half pass to Van Jefferson, which came on a similar to concept to his interception in the first half, was a thing of beauty. Watch as he looks off the safety on the seam route and then steps into a throw to Jefferson who is easily winning a one-on-one outside.
OK, now the #Gators are just running up the score. And I love it.
It wasn’t a great day overall for Feleipe Franks, but that’s a nice job of finding Van Jefferson here for a 38 yard touchdown pass here. pic.twitter.com/1qRDg9A1Tn
— InAllKindsOfWeather.com (@AllKindsWeather) September 15, 2018
It’s also good news that as a whole, Franks has shown marked improvement in the opening three games of the Mullen era.
His completion percentage is down one percentage point, but by most metrics, he’s definitively been better, albeit against overmatched competition in two games. His adjusted quarterback rating is up 7 points to 43.9. His yards-per-attempt is a full yard better at 7.4 from 6.28 a year ago, and he’s matched his touchdown production from last season in three games, with 9 in only 77 attempts.
Even if it comes in Dr. Leo Marvin “Baby Steps,” as Dan Mullen joked in his postgame radio interview Saturday night, that’s progress.
The bad news?
It gets harder immediately, starting Saturday night on Rocky Top, even though Tennessee is led by a quarterback facing his own set of questions.
To begin with, the talent of every Florida opponent over the next three grueling weeks is better than anyone they’ve played to date. Mark Stoops has elevated the talent at Kentucky, and his program’s buy-in and culture is first-rate, but from a pure talent perspective, Florida will face more talented rosters against Tennessee, Mississippi State and LSU. All three of those opponents are in the Top 25 in talent and surprisingly, according to the 24/7 composite team talent rankings, Tennessee will be the second-most talented group of those three, behind LSU but ahead of the outstanding roster Mullen left behind in Starkville.
Second, two of Florida’s next three games will be played on the road, in frenzied, brutal SEC environments.
Jeremy Pruitt has already challenged Tennessee fans to make Neyland a difference-maker Saturday night. Given the rivalry coupled with the magnitude of the football game for both programs, it’s safe to assume it will be rocking.
Mississippi State fans can chirp all they want about how they are happy Mullen is gone and the grass is greener on the Joe Moorhead side, but the reality is Mullen’s success at Mississippi State was nearly unprecedented and the hell-on-wheels football team Moorhead coaches now is one Mullen left behind. Mullen should be cheered for that in Starkville, and perhaps one day he will be, but come next Saturday it will be clanging cowbells and jilted jeers that greet Mullen and the Gators in the Magnolia State.
Talented opposition in a tough environment. Nothing measures how far a quarterback has come or a needed culture-shift is going quite like that.
It will be an especially stern test for Franks for two reasons.
First, successful road quarterbacks manage to call out blitzes and coverages even in hostile environments, a heady challenge given the poor protection Franks has received early in the year from his offensive line, despite the competition and despite playing at home.
Florida’s line has struggled adjusting to blitz packages and some of that, like it or not, isn’t just about offensive line personnel. It’s about a quarterback comfortable in a new offense and capable of recognizing defenses and changing plays or protections.
Second, Franks has not performed well on the road in his abbreviated career and has performed even less convincingly against high-level talent.
Franks has only played three true road games as a Gator, starting two and winning one, though his only road victory (at Kentucky) came in a game where he was benched. Franks’ road completion percentage is a paltry 50 percent and in two of his road game performances, he finished with fewer than 100 yards passing.
His numbers against teams with Top 25 composite talent are even more frightening.
In six games against such opponents, Franks is 76-for-138 (55%) for 744 yards (5.4 yards per-attempt), with 5 touchdowns and 10 turnovers (7 interceptions and 3 fumbles. Those numbers feature a turnover to touchdown ration of 1:2 and a yards-per-attempt number nearly 2 yards below his career number against non-Top 25 composite talent. In other words, this is where Franks must improve if Florida is going to be successful in 2018 or any season where he’s the starting quarterback.
Franks is fighting, no question. It also can’t be emphasized enough how valuable it is for him to have a coach that has committed to his development and was willing to stick with him Saturday, even as the team stalled out for a quarter and a half. Hopefully, that pays dividends for the young quarterback from a confidence standpoint, an area where the typically guarded Franks has candidly stated he needed to improve after a tough freshman campaign.
But for Florida, the meat of the schedule begins Saturday, and after the home loss to Kentucky, there’s not much margin for error. Dan Mullen knows this, and has committed to Franks. Will the young quarterback’s performance repay his coach’s sense of belief?
Florida will begin to find out on Rocky Top Saturday night.
Neil Blackmon covers SEC football and basketball for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
