Both starts of redshirt freshman Feleipe Franks’ career have come against ranked opponents. Both had very different results.
After a brutal first half against the Michigan Wolverines and a poor start to the second half, he was pulled from the game. A fumble was the last play of his first college start, and he watched helplessly from the sidelines as his offense was pushed around by the Wolverines’ defense.
While some players would have let that hurt their mindset, his confidence never wavered.
He worked over the next two weeks waiting for the next opportunity. After dealing with the cancellation of the Northern Colorado game due to Hurricane Irma, his focus had to shift to the SEC opener against Tennessee.
His next opportunity didn’t start out great to say the least. There were good plays here and there, but not enough strung together to make anything happen. When the Gators found a little momentum, the offense immediately stalled. Some of it was coaching, some of it was simply poor offensive play.
After three quarters without any offense to speak of from either team, Florida answered a Tennessee touchdown drive with a drive of its own. The Gators started with great field position thanks to an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty tacked onto the kickoff and a 46-yard return from Tyrie Cleveland to Tennessee’s 44-yard line.
Florida drove to the red zone and Franks threw the first touchdown pass of his career to Brandon Powell. Eight quarters into the season, the Gators got their first offensive touchdown of the 2017 under their belts and took a 20-10 lead.
It looked like the offense finally found something positive to build on, but Tennessee quickly answered with two plays to get into the end zone on a tiring Florida defense.
Franks was intercepted on the second play of the next possession and the Volunteers found themselves on Florida’s 40-yard line with less than four minutes on the clock and a chance to win the game.
Florida’s defense bended, but did not break, just how it did all night, holding Tennessee to a field goal and giving the offense one more shot before overtime.
“They did a wonderful job getting a stop on the other end of the field to give us a chance to win the game with time on the clock,” Franks said on the defense. “It was a great job by them.”
While big stops and plays by the defense were the only reason the Gators were even in the game, the defense was worn out and getting sloppy. It would not have been a good recipe for overtime.
Franks had a final shot, an unlikely chance to redeem himself and push Florida to a win in a do or die game. The first plays of the drive were typical of the majority of the night, but the final play was something that seemed to come from another world.
Franks has a huge arm, but he hadn’t aired out a pass and completed it all night. With nine seconds on the clock, he knew he had to give it a shot. He dropped back, scrambled and threw a 63-yard bomb right into the arms of Cleveland to finish the game in the most unexpected way possible.
“I didn’t go into that play looking to throw the deep ball,” Franks said. “I knew that the kicking line was about the 35 to the 38-yard line, but with nine seconds, it would be hard to get that far downfield and also get out of bounds. I was just thinking about getting the ball into a receiver’s hands.”
He did just that. And while all memories of horrific offense in the first three quarters are not forgotten, the memories are a little more distant. Watching a young quarterback come through in the most important play of his life with the final seconds on the clock ticking away is promising for the future.
Without securing that first SEC win, next week’s trip to Kentucky would have felt a lot longer. Now, the Gators have some confidence to take to Lexington.
“It’s a really big game for the players,” said Franks. “It gives us confidence going into our next game on the road at Kentucky. It was important for our players and our fans, and they deserve that the most.”
All problems on offense are not solved by any means, but there is a quarterback taking snaps who does not panic when things aren’t going his way. He will enter next week with much fonder memories of his last play on the field.