Franks sees the Florida Gators program on the rise

Florida Gators quarterback commit Felipe Franks (6-6, 203, Crawfordville, FL Wakulla) is the lone Gators commit at the Army All-American game in San Antonio, Texas this week.

Franks, who is enrolling early at Florida, will be forced to leave straight from San Antonio and head to Gainesville as he enrolls in school on Monday, but the quarterback has everything ready.

“I packed up all of my stuff right before I came here so I’m ready to go,” Franks said at the Army All-American game. “I’ll fly to Tallahassee after game is over on Saturday and put all of my stuff in the care and drive straight to Gainesville to start classes on Monday.”

Some prospects would be nervous about making such a big move so fast but the big time quarterback prospect is ready to take things in stride and get on the field at Florida.

“I’m not nervous at all about the move,” he said. “I’m excited and ready. I’m ready to get down there and compete in workouts and in practice.”

Franks committed to Florida back in November and was a decision that was based on a lot of things, not just football.

“Nothing really sealed the deal but I just put a lot of time and thought into my decision,” Franks said on his decision to go to Florida. “It’s close to home, it’s close to where my brother plays football. It’s a really good fit for me, there are a lot of good colleges that fit me, but everything just fit me at Florida. Family wise and everything.”

The Gators quarterback commit was committed to LSU for over a year but he says the process never got out of control because they kept the conversations close to the family.

“I kept everything between my family and me because that’s all they needed to know,” he said of the process of flipping to Florida. “We just kept all of the talks between us and we decided to take however long we needed too. We came to the decision to go to Florida for not only football but for family reasons.”

Franks is a player that has a lot of hype and pressure surrounding him as the Florida Gators are looking for a franchise quarterback, but the quarterback believes that the Gators will get better as a program.

“Florida is definitely on the rise,” Franks said. “It’s not like Florida ever fell off but they’re definitely getting better and on the rise as a program.”

This week Franks is competing against Georgia Bulldogs’ quarterback commit Jacob Eason, and the Gators quarterback expects the two guys to have a lot of good games in the future.

“I think we’re going to be competing for a lot of SEC championships,” Franks said. “With Jacob [Eason] going to Georgia, we’re going to have some good match-ups with each other. It will be an intense rivalry for the next few years between us. We get a long with each other though.”

Andrew Spivey
Andrew always knew he wanted to be involved with sports in some capacity. He began by coaching high school football for six years before deciding to pursue a career in journalism. While coaching, he was a part of two state semifinal teams in the state of Alabama. Given his past coaching experience, he figured covering recruiting would be a perfect fit. He began his career as an intern for Rivals.com, covering University of Florida football recruiting. After interning with Rivals for six months, he joined the Gator Country family as a recruiting analyst. Andrew enjoys spending his free time on the golf course and watching his beloved Atlanta Braves. Follow him on Twitter at @AndrewSpiveyGC.