A lot of the talk surrounding the Florida Gators football program the last few months is who will be the Gators quarterback of the future after Will Grier decided to leave the program following his suspension?
The good news for Florida is that they brought in two quarterbacks as early enrollees in Kyle Trask and Feleipe Franks, with Franks being the higher ranked player of the two.
Franks is also a guy that has played with a lot of top flight receivers in the country while out at camps and GatorCountry.com asked those receivers to describe Franks to us.
First up is Miami receiver commit Sam Bruce. Bruce played with Franks out at the Opening in Oregon this past summer.
“Feleipe is a great guy and a smart quarterback,” Bruce said of Franks. “He has a long stature and a long structure to him. He’s seems as if he has his head on right and the way it seems now, they’re banking on him with [Will] Grier leaving and Treon [Harris] not doing the best right now.”
Florida Gators receiver Josh Hammond has also had the chance to get to know Franks some and he hopes that the two of them can bond this spring while on campus as early enrollees.
“It’s a great thing to have a good quarterback coming in, one of the top rated quarterbacks in the nation,” Hammond said. “Hopefully get him on the field earlier so we can get acclimated and since he’s coming in this spring we should be able to get that chemistry down.”
Receiver Keith Gavin has had the chance to play with the Florida Gators quarterback since his freshman year and he things very highly of Franks.
“Feleipe is a great quarterback and a great person,” Gavin said. “He’s one of the best quarterbacks in the nation and I wouldn’t pick nobody else over him in the country.”
Franks is a guy that is still very raw as a quarterback, but Gavin sees the quarterback as someone who’s willing to grow and get better as a player.
“I think he’s a gamer, a lot of people just be talking because they see a bad game,” Gavin said. “Feleipe is definitely one of the best quarterbacks in the nation and every year it felt like we got better and better. We started together as freshmen but this year what set it off was that the coaches let him do his thing. He had to speak his mind and say things to the team.”
Maybe the biggest question mark about Franks is his ability to read a defense, as he simply hasn’t had to do that in high school, but Gavin believes he’s a smart quarterback.
“He can get rowdy when he needs to put the team on his back,” Gavin said. “I think his strength is his IQ level, he’s good in the pocket and this year he started running outside of the pocket too. I just think he needs to put more weight on.”
After talking to all of these receivers and more prospects, one thing is for sure and that’s that they all believe Franks can be a big time quarterback for the Florida Gators.
I know some folks who live in the area and have watched Felipe Franks grow up playing high school football and if he lives up to the compliments they all give him for his talent as a quarterback, there is a chance he could start as a true freshman.
I have watched some of his film in his senior year, he has a chance to be the real deal before he leaves Florida. Barring injury, he has the arm, the confidence, and talent to be very special.