The Florida Gators will start Purdue graduate transfer Austin Appleby this Saturday against the South Carolina Gamecocks. True freshman Feleipe Franks will back up Appleby and could play on Saturday, burning the redshirt that is still available to him.
“Austin will jump out there and take the starts,” McElwain said on the SEC Teleconference Wednesday. “Feleipe has been getting a bunch of reps, and Kyle’s been getting probably less, so we’ll go with Austin and Feleipe and with Kyle [Trask] kind of in the bullpen.”
Appleby has started two games this season, completing 42-of-67 (63%) of his pass attempts in those starts with three touchdowns and one interception. On the season he is 44-of-72 (61.1%). Appleby played well in the first half against Tennessee; his first start at Florida, tossing three touchdown passes. Appleby and the rest of the Gators defense struggled in the second half against Tennessee and then the following week against Vanderbilt. To be fair, the Commodores have given up just two passing touchdowns to conference opponents all season.
Appleby will get the start and Franks will be ready to come in. McElwain was ambiguous if Franks would play for certain regardless of score or situation, just that he would be the backup.
“You know, that has yet to be kind of, we’ll see. But I know this, we’re not afraid at any point of him playing,” McElwain said. “Austin is going to take those first snaps. We’ll see where that piece goes as we move forward. We need a spark and you know Feleipe could be that guy. Who knows?”
Franks had a poor showing in the Orange and Blue Debut completing just 5-of-11 pass attempts with one touchdown and three interceptions. The freshman from Crawfordville has come a long way since the spring to get to this point and has secured the backup job this week in practice.
“Well, he’s really done a good job of learning how to play the position from the standpoint of he wasn’t one of these guys groomed in these year-round quarterback schools and that kind of stuff,” McElwain said of Franks. “He’s a multi-sport guy, obviously spent the summer playing baseball, obviously played basketball and did kind of a year-round deal which I think his upside is huge. He’s knowing where to go with it more and more and more comfortable verbiage wise and things like that and obviously has a heck of an arm.”