Florida Gators Game Preview: Franks Returns, With a Ball-Hawking Defense

A coming home party in the Swamp.

Fresh off their landscape-altering victory over the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville, the Florida Gators are set to return home to Ben Hill Griffin Stadium to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks Saturday at 7:00 PM.

However, the spotlight of this matchup will not be on that of the returning Gators.

Instead, that focus will be turned to another returnee to a place he once called home, former Gators signal-caller and current starting quarterback for the Arkansas Razorbacks Feleipe Franks.

Having lined up as the starting QB for the Gators from the time of his arrival as a part of the 2016 recruiting class, Franks received the unrivaled reins of the offense in the early portion of Dan Mullen’s tenure at UF.

In the only full year under Mullen, Franks posted the best numbers of his collegiate career—2,457 yards, 24 touchdowns, and six interceptions—stats he’d be on pace to break this season if the regular twelve game schedule was taking place.

After returning for the 2019 season, Franks only played in three games before his life took an unfortunate turn when suffering a broken leg against Kentucky, effectively ending his career in orange and blue.

Since that point last season, a lot has changed.

Franks has excelled in his new role with Arkansas, on pace to surpass his career-high in yards, touchdowns thrown, and tie his low in interceptions in a twelve game format.

His success isn’t going unnoticed by members of his former team, either.

"He's having a great year, really proud of him. Feleipe is like family to me. I love him to death," said Gators offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson about Franks when speaking to media earlier this week.

“I think Feleipe's done a great job with what he's doing with their system. He's running it really well,” Gators defensive Todd Grantham stated.

On the flip side, the Gators have climbed back to prominence within college football with Kyle Trask at the helm, and now the two former teammates and “great friends” will go head to head in a battle of SEC foe.

So far, the Hogs have looked promising under the first-year tutelage of former Georgia offensive line coach Sam Pittman—who will be absent from the field on Saturday night due to being confirmed positive for COVID-19.

That marks the question: What do the Hogs bring to the table that could give the Gators some unwanted trouble off an emotional victory?

Equipped with the one-two punch of Trelon Smith and Rakeem Boyd in the backfield, each seeing 70 carries each on the year, the Kendal Briles-led Hogs look to establish themselves in the running game to open up the pass to convert on scoring opportunities.

As a result, this Arkansas offense isn’t great, but it isn’t necessarily bad either for a work in progress. Despite running the football just over 56% of the time, the Hogs have only found pay dirt twice on the ground all season, with Boyd scoring both times.

Showing flashes of excellence at times throughout the year, the Razorbacks offense has brought big plays through the air and long, balanced scoring drives throughout the season.

With four receiving options averaging over 10 yards per reception and three of which having longs of over 50 yards, the Arkansas offense's explosiveness factor is one to sweat over.

However, loads of inconsistency has reigned as the major takeaway from a unit still growing into its own. Facing the Gators 59th ranked defense in week eleven, they will have opportunities down the field if Franks can connect on the deep ball.

Last week, Florida benefited from the Georgia quarterbacks failing to hit open receivers streaking down the field. This Saturday, they may not be so lucky.

Defensively, Arkansas ranks 58th—one spot above Florida—in the nation, allowing 401.5 yards per game to this point. With Florida’s offense looking better than it has in the past decade this season, the yardage total of opponents against Arkansas looks to be favorable.

However, the Razorbacks tend to excel in a different category defensively: Creating turnovers.

Led by defensive coordinator and now interim head coach Barry Odom, the Razorbacks have forced 15 turnovers in six games this season, tied for third-most amongst qualified FBS schools.

With the Gators proving that there is no stopping their offensive attack last week, Arkansas presents little threat to the rolling offensive attack in terms of yardage.

The fact that Trask has thrown a pick-six in back to back weeks, on the other hand, could prove crucial for an Arkansas’ defense with 12 interceptions on the year, keeping the game close.

Having eight players with at least one takeaway and three pick-sixes by linebacker Grant Morgan, as well as defensive backs Jalen Catalon and Greg Brooks Jr., turning mistakes into points has been the units forte.

The contest shouldn’t be relatively close, but it has the makings to be the definition of Florida’s 2020 trap game.

As the Gators control their own destiny towards their quest to seize an SEC Championship, Arkansas is not the Razorbacks of the past few years and cannot afford to be taken lightly.

Franks will look lift the Razorbacks to a major upset over the nation's sixth-ranked team and hush the Gators crowd—this time under different circumstances—yet again on November 14th.