Right or wrong quarterbacks receive more praise than they deserve and more criticism as well. Following the Florida Gators’ 19-17 loss to Texas A&M Feleipe Franks was ready to shoulder all of the blame for the offense.
The redshirt freshman completed 65% (17-26) of his passes and added a 79-yard rush that led to a Florida. The offense ran 68 plays, held on to the ball for 33:18 and out-gained the Aggies by more than 100 yards but it wasn’t enough.
“I can do a better job in a lot of aspects. Ultimately it’s my job to get the offense moving,” Franks said. “There’s some series here and there where you want that to happen but I didn’t make that happen. Ultimately it’s on me and something to improve on.”
Franks had two critical errors. He forced a ball to Freddie Swain in the second quarter. At no point during the play was Swain open. Florida’s defense wiped that transgression clean with a Jeawon Taylor interception on the following drive but the Gators’ offense followed that up with two three-and-outs.
Franks only threw for 129 yards on the night. That drops Florida’s average to just 181.3 yards through the air per game, 12th in the SEC.
“He did some good things,” McElwain said of Franks. “I thought he was pretty good on third (down) early. He had some good throws and knew where he was going with it. I think the rush finally got to him a little bit.”
There was a play in the first quarter where Franks avoided a sack by flipping a ball to Malik Davis. There were throws that were impressive, squeezing a ball into a tight window to find DeAndre Goolsby. There are still glaring issues. Far too often Franks stares down one receiver, which leads to guys running wide open, hands waving but still unseen.
It happened on a third down in the third quarter. Brandon Powell slipped by the entire Aggie defense, Franks had a clean pocket but checked down, throwing the ball behind the sticks and brought a punt. Powell was visibly frustrated and was seen talking to Franks on the sideline right after the play.
“It’s just one of those things. I mean, I can’t see the whole field,” Franks said. “Just one of the things I missed.”
The bye week couldn’t come at a better time for an offense that scored just 33 points in the last two home games — both losses. They have a lot of things to figure out before they go play Georgia. By the way, the Dawgs hung 53 on the board in a win over Missouri on Saturday.
Franks knows he has to be better. He knows that the offense needs to improve. He showed the maturity to shoulder that blame on Saturday but now he needs to start making discernable strides to get better.
I’ve got to go back over the film first and see if there’s things I’d like to improve on. I think, like I said before, man. For me just getting comfortable. There’s times here and there where I’m just – a little bit uncomfortable,” he said. “It comes with playing the position. No really excuses. It just comes with playing experience. As I’m getting it, I’m getting better and better every game I think, and that’s really the only thing that matters.”