Feleipe Franks just finished a game with no touchdowns and one interception but his head coach continues to sing his praises and for good reason.
Franks already has more touchdown passes this season (12) than he did in all of 2017 (9). He’s on pace to throw fewer interceptions and complete a higher percentage of passes in 2018 as well.
Mullen sees that progress. When Franks threw an interception, with the team trailing, he didn’t panic or start to press. He remained composed and kept Florida in the game.
Franks earned praise from his teammates, most notably his roommate Trevon Grimes, for his film study habits. That’s something new Franks has added to his game this season.
“It helps out a lot,” Franks said. “I don’t think I was that into it when I first got here.”
Mullen has seen that growth in the short 10 months he’s been in Gainesville and sees continued growth and maturity.
“I think one of the areas he’s grown the most is understanding the game plan from week to week because it changes. Even running the same play, we might run it a little bit differently from one week to the next, and I think he has grown in starting to understand that,” Mullen said of Franks. “This is how we want to run this play against this look and this is where we’re going on how they’re playing us. He’s worked and understood that, what the game plan is, what we’re trying to do and what we’re trying to accomplish.”
That was an issue for Franks. As a redshirt freshman in 2017 Franks wanted to be the reason the Gators won games. He would try to extend plays and hold on to the ball too long. He would try to force passes into windows that weren’t there. This year he’s taking what the defense is giving him and what the gameplan calls for. It may not seem like much but it’s a big step in every young quarterback’s development.
Mullen has a long history of developing quarterbacks. Franks is just the next on that long list. Franks has been improving, and Mullen is quick to sing his praises, but there is still work to be done.
“The biggest one like any quarterback ever, is getting through multiple progressions while standing in the pocket. That’s a process, now,” Mullen said. “Not just going from one to two but from one to two to three and then if you get really good, 1,2,3,4 to 5. Usually guys that can do that and are very accurate get paid an awful lot of money and they don’t play on Saturdays. They play on Sundays.”
The next step in that development comes Saturday against the best defense that Florida has faced this season. Right now LSU is second in the SEC with seven interceptions and fifth with 13 sacks. Franks was a one-time LSU commit, so this game means a little bit more to him. He’s playing his most confident football right now and Florida will need him to continue that upward trend Saturday.