Florida-Idaho had something of the feel of a spring game. It was evident within the first couple of minutes that the Vandals wouldn’t come close to competing, and the Gators romped from there.
Back during the actual UF spring game, it was clear that there was a real quarterback race. It, however, was only a two-way competition between Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask. Emory Jones looked very much the part of an early enrollee true freshman in April, and the coaches chose to bring him along at a measured pace. According to all reports from the beat writing corps, there never really was a chance of Jones competing for the starting job. We got even more confirmation of the fact once we saw there was a plan to redshirt Jones rather than give him a regular package of snaps through the season.
As befitting the spring game-like feel — and due to Trask’s bad injury luck continuing — Jones got his first extended action on Saturday. While Jones looked worlds better than he did in the Orange and Blue Debut, Franks proved that he still has a firm lead over the freshman.
The opening day starter has had a roller coaster of a year. He was great in the opener, struggled against Kentucky, was up-and-down against Colorado State, rallied against Tennessee, played better than his stats say against Mississippi State and LSU, needed the quarterbacks coach to scream at him to turn it around against Vandy, played poorly enough against Georgia and Missouri to get benched in the latter, and then came alive against South Carolina.
It was scarcely tougher than playing in practice, but Franks kept the positive momentum from the prior week going against the Vandals. Among his highlights, he used a pump fake to spring C’yontai Lewis on a nice completion, and he sort of a little bit threw Tyrie Cleveland open — to the extent he ever throws anyone open — on a deep post touchdown.
Franks was asked to do more things than Jones was in the game and did do more things. He has command of more of the playbook. With Trask out, Franks is the starter this year as long as he’s healthy.
With that said, he still showed some of his normal shortcomings. He was just able to get away with them easily because the Idaho defense was so bad.
Franks overthrew Van Jefferson on the deep ball again. He had a quick pass over the middle to the tight end that probably gets picked by a better linebacker. It was one of several middle throws that were either risky, late, or both that an SEC defense wouldn’t have allowed. His quick slant touchdown to Jefferson was behind, and a good defensive back would’ve broken it up. He still won’t throw the ball unless he sees that a receiver is open rather than throwing to a spot and trusting his target to make a play.
In other words, Franks is still Franks. He hasn’t come so far that anyone should ink him into the starter’s spot to begin next year.
After all, Jones did show some impressive things. Just like his one pass against Georgia, he showed great touch on the deep sideline pass that Kyle Pitts dropped. Unlike Franks, who often gets flustered by the threat of pressure, he was able to move the pocket when feeling the rush and hit Trevon Grimes perfectly on an intermediate out route. He later on actually threw Lucas Krull open, perfectly hitting the big tight end between two defenders.
This isn’t even mentioning Jones’s mobility, which is superior to Franks’s.
Even so, Jones still looked like a freshman. For instance, his accuracy on quick wide receiver screens isn’t there yet. The throw on the screen that Josh Hammond took for a touchdown was low, and he threw one so far behind Kadarius Toney that Toney had to kind of spin around while making the catch. Jones also fumbled a perfect shotgun snap on third down in the red zone.
In the end, the passing stats were pretty close. Franks had a better yards per attempt rate, but he also didn’t play behind the second-string line, got to throw to Jefferson and Cleveland, and didn’t have Pitts drop a long pass.
| Player | Comp. Pct. | Pass Eff. | Yards/Att | Sacks | Pass Success Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feleipe Franks | 70.4% | 192.3 | 10.1 | 0 | 59.3% |
| Emory Jones | 75.0% | 181.9 | 7.8 | 1 | 58.8% |
Which, the closeness of these stats is kind of the point.
Even after the set of bowl practices, Jones won’t be a threat to replace Franks as the starter. If all goes according to Dan Mullen’s most likely plan, Jones won’t even see the field against FSU to preserve his ability to play in the bowl without burning his redshirt.
However when spring rolls around, I expect to see a true three-way race for the starting quarterback role provided there aren’t any transfers by then.
The quality seen in Trask’s limited work against Missouri suggests he never fell all that far behind. Once his foot is back to 100%, I don’t see any reason why he wouldn’t be able to push Franks again.
But Jones has shown enough with his package against Georgia and extended play against Idaho to make me think he’ll actually be in the mix as well.
To be clear, Franks still has the inside track to the starting job. Mullen’s history shows that he has an obvious preference for experience in his signal callers, sometimes playing an older player over a more promising younger player. If Jones demonstrates himself to be a rough equal to Franks, then Franks will keep the job.
But with Jones’s advantage in the quarterback run game and apparently better touch on deep throws, he has some real edges in the race. To really have a shot, it’ll be up to him to have a great bowl practice session and really study the playbook in the winter to get ready once the spring session opens. I suspect he’ll do both.
Florida doesn’t have a quarterback controversy right now. Come March, it will.