LEXINGTON, Ky.-- Florida football was trailing 21-10 late in the third quarter on the road at Kentucky.

The offense was not firing on all cylinders, while the defense was not managing to stop the Wildcats. Then it happened.

With over three minutes left to play in the third quarter, Gators head coach Dan Mullen decided to go for it on fourth-and-1 at the Kentucky 38-yard line. Feleipe Franks pushed and tried to keep the drive alive but was only met by more Kentucky defenders.

The Florida quarterback was hit at an awkward angle and a defensive lineman collapsed on top of his leg. Franks did not get up and was in visible pain. Kroger Field went silent.

Soon Florida wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland was at Franks' side, followed by the entire team and of course the head coach himself.

"I went out there. I was with him and told him I love him and that we are there for him," recounted the Gators head coach. "I told him that it will be alright. I think it shows what he means to the team. What the team thinks of him as a leader, thats the type of guy he is. How hard he has worked. It shows a lot about him and it shows the respect that the team has for his leadership and the love that they have for him. It’s a pretty close team. He has to work hard for these things"

According to Mullen, Franks is likely set to miss the rest of the season," they feel pretty certain there was a break and some dislocations."

"It was sad," defensive end Jonathan Greenard told reporters after the game about Franks' injury. "I mean how he went out, him trying to get that first down and I respected that so much more. I respected him so much more because he's laying it all out there on the line for us. Just to see him go down like that, in that fashion, we had to go out and put everything we had into that game to come out victorious and make him happy."

"We just wanted to make sure we told him that we had him," said wide receiver Josh Hammond. "Right then and there, you had Freddie (Swain) yelling, Kyree Campbell Jon Greenard all yelling like, 'C'mon, it's time to go!' 'We've got to come out with a win for him.'"

With Franks out, Kyle Trask was forced to step up under center.

"When he went down, you could see there was something wrong with his leg, obviously," Trask said. "Mullen prepares three starters. That's his thing. So I was expected to go out there and produce. I was expected to go out there and win the game. It was nothing new. Our whole team, we expect ourselves to finish like that."

Trask came under center and put on a show. Not only was he flawless on his first drive, the signal caller would go 9-of-13 for 126 yards to help Florida score 19 unanswered points.

"It was pretty emotional for our whole team at the moment," Trask said. "But at the end of the day I'm just proud of our team's resiliency to come back and come together and just finish till the last whistle."

Franks showed his own resiliency after the game.

He may be out for the year, but the Gators quarterback is still Florida's leader.

"He sung the fight song with us," Hammond said. "Obviously he's down from being hurt, but he's all about the team. He just told us make sure we stay together, don't take anything for granted, just be ready to play your plays because you never know."

"He's still in high hopes. He understands what's going on," added Greenard. "We’re going to continue to play. Next man up. We've got Kyle Trask who is going to be really good. Emory is going to be another guy for us. We've already seen it in practice. I'm not worried it's just sad for him to go down."