Franks takes a seat in debacle
But not even benching Franks rescues Gators
Bianchi: UF’s performance in 38-17 loss to Missouri unacceptable.
It’s official now: Besides UCF’s McKenzie Milton, we don’t have a legitimate starting quarterback in the entire state of Florida — college or pro.
Feleipe Franks, take your seat on the bench beside Jameis Winston, Blake Bortles, Ryan Tannehill, Deondre Francois, Malik Rosier and N’Kosi Perry.
Much to the delight of many Gators fans, Franks — the muchmaligned UF quarterback — was benched in favor of Kyle Trask during Florida’s dreadful 38-17 homecoming loss to Missouri on Saturday.
Before last season, former UF receiver Lee McGriff, now the radio color analyst for UF football games, told me Trask was the best quarterback on the roster. Now here we are 18 months, two head coaches, two offensive coordinators and yet another Franks benching later, and maybe McGriff was right all along.
Trask’s performance in leading the Gators to a relatively meaningless touchdown on his first drive of the game briefly ignited the home crowd and was the only redeeming quality in Saturday’s dismal defeat to a Missouri team that was previously winless in the SEC. Trask finished 10-of-18 for 126 yards and a touchdown, with every successful pass cheered raucously as if he’d just completed the game-winner against Alabama.
In all other respects, Florida’s performance was abysmal and embarrassing.
UF’s offense scored just 17 points on a defense that was ranked 86th in the nation.
Florida’s defense has been shredded for 900 yards and 74 points the past two weeks.
The UF program has been destroyed by Missouri — a sub-par SEC team — by a combined score of 83-33 the last two seasons.
What in the name of Jim McElwain has happened to this team?
Florida was ranked No. 9 in the country before last week’s loss to Georgia and there was talk that perhaps the Gators had an outside chance at getting into the College Football Playoff. Eight days later, they might not even be as good as FSU.
“This is harsh reality for us as a team,” Gators coach Dan Mullen said.
When asked what his struggling team still has left to play for, Mullen became animated and agitated.
“They keep score; someone wins and someone loses,” he said. “I don’t care what we’re doing. You want to thumb-wrestle me right now, I’m going to kick your ass. You want to go run stadiums, I’ll kick your ass. If you’re going to keep score and someone is going to win and lose, I want to beat your ass. If we don’t have that attitude in the locker room, you’ve got a problem.”
Obviously, the Gators have many problems now, and it’s up to Mullen to fix them.
He was hired to breathe life into a comatose offense.
He was hired to make Florida football fun again.
He said he was going to make Saturdays at the Swamp a roaring, rollicking mixture of a football game, a state fair, a rock concert and a Broadway show all rolled into the one.
If this was a Broadway show, it should have been called Phantom of the Offense.
The Swamp was a postHalloween Homecoming House of Horrors, and Franks was the master of ceremonies. The boos for him started in the first half as he continued his penchant for sailing passes over the heads of his receivers.
Boos are not exactly what you want to hear on homecoming, but then again Franks is accustomed to it. He has been getting ravaged on social media by Gators fans since last season, and the student newspaper called for his benching just two games into this season.
There was hope that Mullen, the quarterback whisperer, could work his magic on Franks, who was a hot mess under McElwain last season. Franks, although far from dazzling, seemed to be getting incrementally better each game until last week’s loss to Georgia when he was a pedestrian 13-of-21 passing for 105 yards with a costly fumble and a ghastly interception.
Mullen said Saturday he hasn’t given up on Franks, probably because Franks looks the part of a phenomenal quarterback. At 6-foot-6, 240 pounds, he’s big, strong and surprisingly mobile for a QB of his size. And his arm strength is unquestioned. He can throw the ball a mile, but the problem is he has a hard time completing 10-yard passes.
The difference between Franks (9-of-22 passing for 84 yards and no touchdowns) and Missouri’s Drew Lock (24-of-32 passing for 250 yards and three touchdowns) Saturday was like the difference between Tom Brady and Jameis Winston. Franks truly is the college version of Winston and Bortles in that he is immensely talented but wildly inaccurate.
Mullen said he isn’t sure yet whether Franks or Trask will start next week against former Gators coach Will Muschamp and his South Carolina Gamecocks. Ironically, Muschamp was fired at UF, in part, because he never really found a quarterback he could count on.
Four years and three head coaches later, the search continues.