Florida QB Feleipe Franks’ past LSU commitment a noteworthy subplot as teams meet

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida didn’t make quarterback Feleipe Franks available for interviews this week as a way to lighten his load and take pressure off the redshirt freshman.

Because there would have been plenty of questions with LSU coming to The Swamp to take on the Gators.

Franks was committed to LSU for 18 months before changing his mind in November 2015, less than two months before he was planning to enroll in the university. He instead flipped to Florida and will now face the Tigers on the field for the first time Saturday.

He couldn’t escape the topic entirely, as the question came up in his postgame media session after the Gators’ win over Vanderbilt on Saturday, but he wasn’t biting.

“I think it’s the most important game because it’s the next game, like Coach Mac says,” Franks said. “I think it’s just another game. I know a lot of the guys over there, but at the end of the day it’s the next game. So you’re going to prepare like every other game we have this year. We’re going to go out there and work our tails off this week so we can have fun on Saturday. That’s really about it.”

Nothing? No added significance? None?

“No, nothing at all. I don’t think any special feelings, man. You definitely want to go out there and get the W. That’s pretty much it,” he said.

Franks, who is from Crawfordville, Fla., was rated a 4-star prospect and the No. 5 pro-style quarterback in the 2016 signing class, according to the 247Sports composite.

He was a major recruiting win for coach Jim McElwain, who had just completed his first season with the Gators, and remains the biggest QB recruit this coaching staff has signed through three classes. Matt Corral would join the list if he sticks with his current pledge.

But McElwain was even less interested this week in revisiting Franks’ late flip from LSU to Florida.

“I haven’t even thought about that. I mean, he’s a Florida Gator. He gets a chance to get to go play in The Swamp against a really good team,” McElwain said. “You know, until you brought it up. … You guys bring stuff up sometimes, I don’t know. I mean, I love it. Keep digging. The ol’ useless information piece.”

Meanwhile, Franks’ recruiting background is a bigger story line on the other side of this matchup.

A detailed story by The Advocate’s Ross Dellenger this week painted the picture of how solid Franks’ commitment to the Tigers once seemed. How he and his family were frequent visitors to Baton Rouge, how he was so entwined with the program that he was calling out plays from LSU’s playbook during a camp in the summer of 2015. And how the Tigers had no backup plan at quarterback in that recruiting class, not expecting to need one.

The Advocate quoted former Tigers coach Les Miles suggesting the Florida coaching staff used his tenuous job status as leverage to swing Franks’ commitment. Miles would indeed get fired during the middle of last season.

“Somebody calls you and says, ‘Listen, I just got the head coaching job at Florida. I want you to come be my quarterback, and I’m not going to be fired,’” Miles told the newspaper. “‘That Miles guy, he’s going to be fired. Handwriting is on the wall.’”

That’s the way recruiting works, though.

Florida has had to combat the same tactics from rival schools, especially as the scrutiny on offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier intensified earlier this fall.

McElwain said Florida offered Franks an attractive opportunity with the state of its quarterback depth chart.

“Well, he was obviously a target when we got here. He was one of the best players in the state of Florida. At the time, I think more than anything for him probably opportunity wise we didn’t have a lot on the roster, so I think it was a pretty good fit for him,” he said.

Franks, meanwhile, explained his decision at the time as choosing the program he felt gave him the best opportunity to develop his skills.

“I’m going to go where I really want to go and really feel is the best for me and the best [opportunity] to get developed at my position. I think that Florida’s going to be that best place,” he told SEC Country’s Zach Abolverdi in December of 2015.

After redshirting last year, Franks won Florida’s preseason quarterback competition and has has started three of the first four games. He gave way to veteran Luke Del Rio last week, but he has again taken the reins of the offense in the wake of Del Rio’s season-ending collarbone injury.

It hasn’t been the smoothest of beginnings this fall, as Franks has been pulled out of two of his first three starts, but nonetheless he is the quarterback for a 3-1 Gators team riding a three-game winning streak in SEC play and hoping to earn a return to the SEC Championship Game.

A win over the Tigers would be a big step in that direction, and big for Franks on some level.

Whether he wants to say it or not.

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