Feleipe Franks earned a trophy after his game-winning touchdown pass against Tennessee.
It wasn’t given to him by the NCAA or the SEC, it was a class trophy students get for asking good questions in class, handed to him Monday by his U.S. history professor, Dr. Steven Noll.
“He just gave me the trophy out of nowhere today to start the class and told me ‘good throw,’” Franks said. “(I got) a couple of stares. It was kind of awkward.”
Florida’s redshirt freshman quarterback has already begun to adjust to campus stardom. He said a few students came up to him in between classes to comment on his last-second throw in the No. 20 Gators’ 26-20 win against the Volunteers.
But Franks can’t afford to spend too much time reminiscing about his first game in The Swamp because his first SEC road trip is coming up Saturday when UF (1-1, 1-0 SEC) faces the Wildcats (3-0, 1-0 SEC) in Lexington, Kentucky.
“That’s in the past now,” he said. “We’re focusing on this week versus Kentucky on the road. That’s really the most important thing right now.”
Franks is coming off a performance Saturday where he completed 18 of 28 passes for 212 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, a significant increase in volume compared to his 5-of-9 outing for 75 yards against Michigan.
But despite gained experience from his first SEC win, Gators coach Jim McElwain says Franks still has areas to improve upon. Florida’s third-year coach said his quarterback had a habit of picking who he wants to throw to before letting the play unfold, causing Franks to force the ball into coverage on a few plays Saturday.
“Obviously, the interception, we should have gone somewhere else,” McElwain said. “Those (are) things that you can’t predetermine.”
Decision-making will be especially important for Franks in Lexington. McElwain said Kentucky’s coaching staff plays freshman quarterbacks differently than veterans, and that the Wildcats will do things on defense to try to confuse Franks.
“They do an outstanding job of disguising,” McElwain said.
Another issue he mentioned was third-down conversions. Florida sits dead last in the SEC with a 33 percent conversion rate, well below the conference median at 43 percent.
“We’ve got to win on third downs,” McElwain said. “It’s not going to be easy, especially in that environment.”
Kentucky sits at third in the conference in third-down defense, allowing opponents to move the chains on just 30 percent of third downs.
McElwain said UF will try to simplify its offense to help Franks navigate the Wildcats defense, cutting down on shifts and motions before the ball is snapped.
Limiting mistakes means limiting turnovers against a Kentucky team that has forced the second-most turnovers in the SEC. The Gators lead the SEC in turnovers lost per game, averaging three.
“That’s what wins and loses games, you try to prevent those as much as possible,” Franks said. “We obviously we had a couple this past game and also a couple versus Michigan, so we’re definitely going to try to cut down.”
But Franks knows what he has to do to improve and will try to put his mistakes against Tennessee behind him.
“There’s a couple throws here and there I should have completed, should have been easy throws. But I try not to dwell on the past,” Franks said. “We got the win, and we’ll just go from there and try to improve going throughout the week, preparing for Kentucky on the road.”
You can follow Matt Brannon on Twitter @MattB_727, and contact him at mbrannon@alligator.org.
UF quarterback Feleipe Franks throws the ball during Florida's 26-20 win against Tennessee on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
