Florida football: Questions about the Gators without Feleipe Franks

The news is out that Florida football quarterback Feleipe Franks is out for the season after suffering an injury Saturday night at Kentucky, but there are still a lot of questions.

It hurts to replay it over in my head, but I can’t imagine how it feels for Florida football quarterback Feleipe Franks.

Franks suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the third quarter of Florida’s 29-21 win at Kentucky Saturday night.

As an aside, despite the awful announcing by Brian Griese of ESPN, I have to give credit to the mothership for not running Franks’ injury on a continuous loop as other networks would have likely done.

With all of that said, I have fielded a lot of questions in the last two days about Franks, the Gators and what’s next.

So, I’ll try to answer the best I can:

What will happen to the Florida offense?

The short answer is that Kyle Trask and Emory Jones will have the quarterback focus squarely on their shoulders.

I would imagine Trask is the starter heading into Saturday’s home game with Tennessee, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jones make an appearance.

Trask showed a lot of poise in a difficult situation as he led the Gators to 19 straight points after Franks went down. He made good decisions with his throws and didn’t try to force too much where nothing existed.

As for Jones, we all know what the youngster is capable of, not to mention we’d all like to see it.

But have patience Gator Nation. I suspect Jones will have more than just a passing shot to show his goods in the coming weeks.

What really happened to Franks?

The Gators were facing a fourth-and-short in the third quarter.

Trailing, head coach Dan Mullen elected to go for it. I mean, it was just two yards.

Easy, right?

So, Franks took the snap and, instead of handing off to Lamical Perine to barrel up the middle, danced around the pocket looking for an opening.

Not finding one, he charged ahead and was brought down short of the first down.

In the midst of being taken down, a player (and, I don’t know who) landed on Franks’ ankle, dislocating it.

That’s about the long and short. And, no, I’m not posting a video replaying it either.

Does Tennessee have a better shot to upset the Gators this week?

I actually saw this question posed in some fashion by the Knoxville News Sentinel.

The answer here is, no.

Tennessee has no better chance of upsetting the Gators at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium now than before Franks was injured.

Franks wasn’t really the lynchpin for the Gators against the Volunteers.

The key thing here is Tennessee’s offense has put up decent numbers, but they haven’t faced the caliber of defense the Gators bring to the table.

Also remember, Tennessee’s defense can’t stop running water, let alone a running game.

If Trask and/or Jones can be patient and make smart decisions, Florida shouldn’t have much of a problem.

Of course, the key here is “if.”

What about the offensive line?

To be honest, it was the lack of faith in the offensive line that put us in the predicament to begin with.

But, we all knew it was a young, untested line that had to come together quickly.

Kentucky exploited a lot of weaknesses, but Kentucky may have one of the best offensive lines in the Southeastern Conference.

Both Trask and Jones and move, which should take the pressure off the offensive line, but those guys up front have to make a hole for Perine and the running game to get something.

Because, let’s be honest, our running game hasn’t been where it needs to be … at all.

Does Franks being out change the Gators’ prospects this season?

I certainly don’t think it changes them in a negative way.

I don’t believe Florida football will lose more games because Franks isn’t the quarterback. Trask and Jones are capable and with Dan Mullen coaching, I expect good things almost immediately.

I will put this out there:

"I think the Gators will actually rally around the injury to Franks and do better than some expected."

Florida is projected to lose to LSU and Georgia with potential losses to Auburn and Missouri. But, if this team is in the right mindset, I think they can beat either LSU on the road or Georgia in Jacksonville … or both.

I also think, coming off the Towson game, Florida can do some damage to Auburn at The Swamp on Oct. 5.

Perhaps that makes me an eternal optimist, but I’ll take that.

I hate to see a kid like Franks injured and out, but I don’t think it hurts Florida football this year.

In fact, I think this team rallies and surprises a lot of pundits.