Gators Quarterback Spring Preview: Can Franks hold off Jones?
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The Florida Gators are preparing not only for a new season but a new era under head coach Dan Mullen. The Gators will begin preparations for 2018 with spring practice, which kicks off on March 16. In anticipation, Inside the Gators takes a look at every position; how they fared in 2017, who’s returning, what needs to be proven and more. We begin with the field general, quarterbacks.
Main Participants:
• Emory Jones (freshman; 6-2, 195)
• Feleipe Franks (redshirt sophomore; 6-5, 227)
• Kyle Trask (redshirt sophomore; 6-5, 239)
• Jake Allen (redshirt freshman; 6-3, 199)
Out This Spring: Allen is recovering from a late February surgery (appendectomy). However he should be recovered in time for spring practice.
Arriving This Summer: Jones is the only new face but he enrolled early and will participate in spring practice.
Departures:
• Malik Zaire (graduated)
• Luke Del Rio (graduated)
What Happened Last Year: In the Gators season opener against Michigan, Franks and Zaire traded snaps and collectively fumbled the ball five times while accumulating less than 200 total offensive yards. That really set the tone for the rest of the season. As the year wore on, McElwain desperately jumped from Franks to Zaire to Del Rio then back around again. Trask had to watch injured from the sideline while Allen took a redshirt year.
The offense could never find its groove, instead basing its identity on explosive bombs against Tennessee and last minute touchdowns versus Kentucky without ever stringing together a complete game.
Franks made an appearance in all 11 games, starting eight of them and finished his season 1,438 yards and an unbalanced nine-eight touchdown-interception ratio. His shining moment was the heave to Tyrie Cleveland to beat Tennessee at the end of regulation. Otherwise his season was marred by turnovers and benching’s. The lanky Crawfordville, Florida native is a prototypical pro-style guy but his lack of pocket awareness saw him sacked a total of 30 times during the 2017 season.
Del Rio was able to provide a bit of consistency against the Wildcats before having to head back on the sideline due to injury and Zaire provided only a change of scenery from Franks with a less powerful arm.
Key Question:
Will Mullen get through the season or build for the future?
Despite the ticker tape parade Gator fans wanted to throw when Emory Jones committed to Florida, there’s always a chance the early enrollee could redshirt his first year. The fact that he’s already on campus for spring practice makes that less likely but the situation could arise depending on Mullen’s plan for 2018. The question here is does he want to get through his first season, have another class signed and build for the next four years or does he want to make a splash right away?
The former could see him using Franks, who despite lower numbers still has SEC game experience, while molding Jones and even Allen.
The latter could see Jones immediately being implemented into Mullen’s spread offense to see what the freshman could do with hopes of replicating an Alabama and/or Georgia scenario with their recent freshman quarterback success.
All of these scenarios could become a moot point if Florida were to add a grad-transfer quarterback after spring ball.
Plenty to Prove: The obvious answer here is Franks. He came to Gainesville as one of the highest touted recruits in the country. Now he needs to prove that he’s always had the talent, but was just badly coached with the last staff. Spring practice is a short amount of time to ask that much but this staff has promised that everyone will get a clean slate. That can only benefit Franks who can use the time to prove his playbook is finally up to par with his arm strength.
He Could Surprise: Jake Allen first came on to Gators fans when he had a strong showing at Friday Night Lights in 2015. Since then his name has been in the backgrounds of the Florida program as he came in and wasn’t used, redshirting in the process. Much of the offseason talk has centered on Franks and Jones; but finally given the opportunity Allen could become the surprise of spring camp. He’s been in Gainesville for a year so even though the offense is changing, he has the benefit of time around his teammates, comfortability with them and the fresh start that every other quarterback is receiving with Mullen as well.
Keep an Eye Out For: Kadarius Toney and what his role will be in this offense as it relates to quarterback. Listed as an athlete, Toney used his high school quarterback experience to provide a spark to the Gators offense at times last season. His ability to play the wildcat could come in handy for Mullen who has shown in the past he’s comfortable using situational quarterbacks.
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