Florida football coach Jim McElwain made an announcement Wednesday that the entire Gators fan base has been patiently waiting for.
“We’ll start Feleipe (Franks),” McElwain said in a press room packed with unsuspecting reporters.
The quarterback decision is a crowd-friendly one for sure. Fans have been clamoring for a new face to the offense since Luke Del Rio’s performance didn’t live up to high expectations in 2016. The decision also is a smart football move. Franks showed off the huge strides he’s made since his redshirt season in the Orange and Blue Debut in spring, when he had an efficient 8-for-14 performance without giving up any turnovers. It’s also a smart long-term decision. Instead of handing the team over to an older QB like Del Rio or Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire, giving the starting job to Franks sets up a stable future at the team’s most important position.
The decision answers a lot of questions about how the team will look heading into McElwain’s third season. But there’s one question still unanswered: How will starting Franks help to halt the world’s leading terrorist organization?
At first glance, it’s unclear how starting the redshirt freshman will stomp out the tens of thousands of soldiers who’ve pledged support to the destruction of the West. But fans need to have faith in McElwain for this one. For as long as most fans can remember, Florida has been a defense-oriented team that picks up points by capitalizing on the mistakes of its opponents. But the choice to put Franks under center shows that McElwain isn’t afraid to go on the offensive in the battle against the endless hordes of fundamentalist militants. In the past, Franks has been singled out for his gunslinger mentality, a mindset that comes with its positives and negatives on the gridiron — positives being big-play potential and negatives being risk of turnovers — but when it comes to defeating cross-continental jihadists set on establishing a worldwide caliphate, a gunslinger mentality is really the only way to go.
Franks’ big-man-on-campus reputation has already seemed to intimidate ISIS. The group known for their extensive social media presence has yet to even comment on the developments in Gainesville and has been relatively quiet in terms of proliferating death and destruction to infidels since McElwain’s news conference. Will it last? That’s harder to answer.
We won’t know until kickoff Saturday if Franks has a chance to send the collective personification of evil back to the depths of hell. But I for one will be eagerly waiting to see if the first-time starter can handle the pressure of a daunting Michigan defense and bringing peace to a turbulent Middle East.
You can follow Matt Brannon on Twitter @MattB_727, and contact him at mbrannon@alligator.org.
Feleipe Franks stands under center during UF's Orange and Blue Debut on April 7, 2017, at McKethan Stadium.
