Feleipe Franks has digested the 2017 season. He watched the film, took what he could from it and moved on.
Monday Franks was named the starting quarterback over Kyle Trask and Emory Jones. It was a vote of confidence from his head coach after a hard fought battle that lasted through both spring and fall camps.
Before fall camp ended Franks said he hadn’t thought much about who Mullen would name the starting quarterback. The quote hit twitter and fans ran with it. They questioned if he wanted it, if he was the right guy for the job and if he even cared.
It wasn’t what he meant at all.
All offseason Franks has been a catalyst for work.
“He’s always in the film room. I would come in the house and he’d be on his IPad watching practice and coach me up,” Van Jefferson said. “He’d call me and be like, ‘why didn’t you catch that skinny (post)? Why didn’t you catch that fade?’ I’ll be like, my bad. He’s always looking for the upper edge to get better.”
Franks has grown up. When he said he hadn’t thought about who Mullen would name the starter he followed it up by explaining he was more concerned about winning. In 2017 he wanted to win, but he wanted to be the reason the Gators won.
“One thing I reflected on is I’ve got to get better at and I got better at it is being more of a team player, wanting our team to do good,” Franks said. “You guys are asking me if I’m worried about starting. It doesn’t really matter. It’s more about I want our team to win. I don’t want to go through a 4-7 season again. I’m more about just winning.”
That attitude and that quote is a far cry from how it was perceived on social media. Hearing his teammates speak about him paints a different picture as well. Franks routinely was the reason that players would meet on the football field or in the indoor practice facility to get extra work in. Trevon Grimes and Van Jefferson both have told similar stories of Franks calling in the middle of the night to talk about a play he was watching on his own time and to work on things with his receivers.
It’s not just the offense either.
“Leadership. When we’re doing stadiums or runs he’s the first one done. He’s the first one to a lot of things. He has that leadership role. He competes with a lot of guys,” defensive lineman Antonneous Clayton said. “Not only does he compete with the quarterbacks but he competes with the linebackers, the d-line, like ‘hey, I bet I can beat you in this sprint.’ Ever since he’s got here he’s matured every single year. He’s a great guy to be around, a great guy to look up to. He’s a great leader.”
Brett Heggie, one of the hardest working and most hard-nosed players on the team echoed the sentiment.
He really stepped into that leadership role, worked extremely hard throughout the offseason, always first to practice. When we did player-run practices, he was
always staying after and doing stuff with the guys. He just works extremely hard,” said Heggie.
Mullen said it was Franks’ ability to create when a play breaks down that gave him the ultimate edge and nod to start. That may be one reason but it’s clear that Franks has taken a new role this offseason. He’s earned the respect of his teammates and the starting job.
It’s a new season and a clean slate.
“The determination I’ve had all summer and all fall camp has just led up to this moment now,” he said. “I have to continue to keep on growing like I said. It’s not over yet. Just winning this spot, it’s not over. You have to keep on going and continuing to keep growing to get wins.”