For four years the Florida Gators defense would go to practice with Feleipe Franks in an orange non-contact jersey. On Saturday, Franks will be lined up in a white jersey with “Arkansas” written in red across his chest.
And Florida’s defense will be seeing red all night.
“In practice, you cannot touch that quarterback. If you touch that quarterback you’re going to be in trouble,” linebacker James Houston said. “It’s fun hitting someone that you couldn’t lay a finger on for four years. It should be fun seeing how that D-line especially gets after it.”
Franks’ 2019 season was ended with a gruesome tackle that broke his leg against Kentucky. The quarterback decided to transfer after the season and he’s quietly putting together a very good statistical year for the Hogs. Franks has completed 123-of-183 (67.2%) pass attempts for 1,428 yards, 14 touchdowns, and three interceptions. He’s led Arkansas to an improbable 3-3 start when many pundits wondered if the Hogs would go winless in 2020.
Franks will certainly be familiar with the defense he’s facing on Saturday. Franks spent most of his time playing against a lot of Florida’s older players like Kyree Campbell, TJ Slaton, and Zach Carter — so he knows the personnel, but he’ll also know the scheme and may even be able to identify formations more easily than any other quarterback in the country can when playing against Florida. The Gators’ are downplaying that certain advantage.
“Obviously, he’s going to know our system somewhat. It’s still about players executive calls and making plays,” Florida defensive coordinator Todd Grantham said. “It’s really about Florida playing Arkansas and our ability to play to our standard and what we’ve got to do and that’s always the focus: us playing to our ability and continue to get better and make the improvements that we need to make to continue to develop ourselves as a defense and a team and that’s really what it gets down to.”
Two things Feleipe Franks has never lacked are confidence, and a willingness to let you know what he thinks. Several of Franks’ former teammates, including his former roommate Brett Heggie, have said you’d always know where Franks was on the practice field because you could hear him.
“Man, if you come at Feleipe he will chirp,” defensive lineman Zach Carter said. “I mean, it might not be on a DB-level, but it’s pretty close.”
Franks has had nothing but nice things to say about his former team and coaching staff this week. He’s, undoubtedly, excited to get to play in The Swamp again and there will be pleasantries exchanged before and after the game. But when the ball is kicked and for the next 60 minutes, the Florida defense will be on the hunt.
“He definitely had his little chirping battles with the defense over whether he would run somebody over on a certain play or not,” Houston said. “Saturday we’re going to really get to definitely see if he’s about that or if we’re about that. So, we’ll see.”