GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Feleipe Franks is officially out for the season. Gators head coach Dan Mullen confirmed the news during his press conference on Monday.
"He had a dislocated ankle with a fracture in there," Mullen said. "It’s a tragic deal to happen to anybody."
Franks dislocated the ankle during Saturday's win against Kentucky. The redshirt junior suffered the injury in the third quarter when his body bucked backward with his foot trapped under him on an attempt to convert a fourth-and-1 play.
Trainers immediately rushed to the field when they saw Franks in pain. He was carted off the field.
"I think you look at somebody that’s a great leader on our team, who has worked really hard to put himself in this position," said Mullen.
"He’s a young kid that’s worked his tail off to do something that he loves and has seen great improvement and then you have it yanked out because of an injury. It’s really a hard deal," added the head coach. "But he was at the team meeting this morning. I told him to stay at home, but he was still at the team meeting this morning as positive as you can be in that situation.”
"I wished he was getting treatment but it all helps," said Gators linebacker David Reese about Franks being in the team meeting Monday morning. "You know, thats our leader of our team. A guy that really loves this game. He has a competitive spirit and I know he is going to help Trask have the best transition possible."
Franks is set to have surgery on his ankle next Monday and is looking at a six month long recovery, according to Mullen.
Florida will turn to redshirt junior quarterback Kyle Trask and redshirt freshman Emory Jones. Trask finished the game on Saturday for Franks, helping the Gators rally for the win by going 9-of-13 for 126 yards, and rushing for a four-yard touchdown.
Although sidelined, Franks continues to help behind the scenes.
"Me and him have spoken a lot — a lot — in the past few days," said Trask. "He’s been really supportive. I’m sure he’s going to be there with everybody in the quarterback room and the whole preparation process.He’s been really supportive. It’s good to have a good friend like that around.”
Other injury notes
The good news is that the Gators are expected to have a few more guys back this weekend with Tennessee in town.
"At this point, we’re hoping to get, Amari Burney should be back this weekend for us. CJ, we feel it’s going to be on the edge whether CJ Henderson is ready to play. We feel pretty good about it," explained Mullen. "The nice thing with him being a veteran player is I don’t expect him to practice much this week at all. We have five more days, six more days or whatever to get him healthy, to get ready to go play in the game. Zuniga will be in that same kind of category for us."
Jonathan Greenard, who was seen wearing a boot after the game agains the Wildcats, is also expected to be "good to go" for Saturday.
