Florida QB Feleipe Franks Transfers to Arkansas
Now former Florida Gators quarterback Feleipe Franks has transferred to Arkansas, per his Instagram.
Franks will be a redshirt senior at Arkansas, and should be immediately eligible to play as a graduate transfer.
This comes after a lost season where Franks dislocated his ankle against Kentucky in Week 3, ending his promising second season as Florida's starting quarterback under head coach Dan Mullen. Kyle Trask took over the starting role and threw for 2941 yards, 25 touchdowns, and only seven interceptions in Franks' place.
The rest was history at that point. Franks entered the NCAA transfer portal the day after Florida's regular season finale against Florida State.
Throughout his month and a half in the portal, Franks officially visited Kansas and Arkansas, and there was a rumored connection to Mike Leach at Washington State before Leach took Mississippi State's head coaching gig.
During his four year career at Florida, Franks compiled 4593 passing yards, 38 touchdowns, and 17 interceptions, with 438 yards and eight touchdowns on the ground.
Franks will likely be remembered as inconsistent, which might be unfair but given the nature of his injury, that's just the way it will be.
After struggling early in his career after being thrown into action before he was ready under Jim McElwain. However, after further development under Mullen, Franks ended his 2018 season on a hot-streak, completing 65% of his passes for 862 yards, eight touchdown, and no interceptions amidst a four-game win streak, with 177 yards and four touchdowns rushing.
Florida beat Michigan in the Peach Bowl to cap off Franks' impressive play, and he carried that momentum into the offseason, quickly securing QB1 status and looking to build upon his 2018 performance with a strong redshirt junior season.
Now, Franks will have a chance to rebound at Arkansas. Following a 2-10 season for the Razorbacks, the addition of Franks is huge for the future of their program. With inconsistency at the position in 2019, Franks has a good shot to be the Razorbacks starting quarterback when their season begins against Kent State on September 5th.
With the departure of Nick Starkel and Ben Hicks from the program, Arkansas will go into next season without a quarterback with much experience in the system. This gives Franks an upper hand on the competition going into Spring practice in Fayetteville as he has had success in the SEC before.
