GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Normally, 31st-round draft picks don't make headlines when they sign. Then again,
Feleipe Franks is not your typical late-round pick in the MLB amateur draft.
And that has nothing to do with Franks having not played organized baseball since his junior year at Wakulla High. Gators fans are accustomed to seeing Franks unleash the clout in his right arm as Florida's starting quarterback, not as a power pitcher with a 90-plus mph fastball.
Still, during what has been an under-the-radar summer for Franks, the internet buzzed in June when the Boston Red Sox took a flyer on the 6-foot-6, 240-pound Franks in the draft. The buzz returned Friday when
the Red Sox announced they had signed Franks, who is set to join teammates
Jabari Zuniga and
Lamical Perine on Monday at the SEC Football Media Days in Hoover, Ala.
The move makes sense for both parties: Boston utilizing a low-risk maneuver on an intriguing prospect, and Franks taking advantage of an opportunity should he ever decide to pursue baseball as a professional.
"I haven't played like in five years, but it was great,'' Franks said. "They gave me the opportunity to play baseball for a great organization. It's just a great opportunity I have that maybe I could lean my shoulder on one day, once football is over with. It's something that just happened."
While most were surprised when Boston drafted Franks, he said it was not a "super shocker" since he had talked to a couple of Red Sox representatives leading up to the draft. The two sides came to terms on Friday, the deadline for teams to reach agreements with members of the 2019 draft class.
Meanwhile, football is what Franks has been consumed by this summer. A fourth-year junior, Franks is coming off a breakout season in which he threw for 2,457 yards, 24 touchdowns and only six interceptions. Franks' development under
Dan Mullen and quarterbacks coach
Brian Johnson was paramount in Florida's turnaround from 4-7 to 10-3 in Mullen's first season.
"He matured. He became a leader of this team that people look up to," Perine said. "He's not a guy who has to sit in the back and look to
Luke Del Rio and
Austin Appleby to make calls for him. He's the guy. He's our quarterback. Everybody is behind him and he's got a lot of people's back as well."
In the aftermath of the Gators' dominant victory over Michigan in the Chick-fil-A Bowl in December, Franks revealed the obvious to anyone who had watched him closely in his two seasons as the team's starting quarterback: he had rebuilt the confidence that was shattered by a tumultuous 2017 season, his first as the team's primary starter.
In addition to preparing with his teammates for the upcoming season, Franks hunkered down in Gainesville this summer with his brother, Cincinnati Bengals tight end Jordan Franks. Jordan moved in with Feleipe for a month and the two went to work the way they used to on the family property in Wakulla, located in the Florida Panhandle about 20 miles south of Tallahassee.
Both chased dreams amidst the sweat.
"I got to train with him. That's always fun for me, because that's who I think I learned my work ethic from,'' Feleipe said. "When he gets a break from the Bengals, I think it's always good for me to push my limits. That's always my ultimate goal, to get where he's at.
"That's what I have been focused on, doing my job here and being the best I can be, being the best teammate I can be, being the best leader, the best quarterback that this team needs me to be, and not being selfish and not just being about me, going to have fun and all this other stuff. There are things that I do that are for bigger purposes than me."
Franks is the first UF quarterback to make the trip to the league's annual media bonanza since Jeff Driskel five years ago. Coincidentally, now a teammate of Jordan's with the Bengals, Driskel is also the last UF quarterback to get drafted in the MLB amateur draft.
Here is our Q&A with Franks:
Q: What does it mean to you to be selected to go to SEC Media Days?
A: I think it's a good opportunity for everybody that's going. For me, it just puts me on a platform to express how the team has been working out and how hard they have been grinding going into the season, this last phase of summer and into fall camp. I think it's a great opportunity for me and the other guys to get out there and speak on everybody's behalf.
Q: How would you describe the optimism around the team coming off last season?
A: We know we have potential. We know we have guys who can go make plays. It's more that we want to keep on the right mindset and not fall off from what we already built from last year. We know we have all the players. We have a really deep receiving corps. We always have a good defense. We have a good O-line. We have good tight ends. Everything is there to click. We just have to keep the train rolling per say. You don't want to have a good year, get complacent and just fall off. You want to keep the thing going and I think that's more of the challenge this summer.
Q: How important could last season end up being for you in your career?
A: I think super important, just for my confidence. Coach Mullen hadn't stop believing in me. Coach Johnson did a great job of just coaching me every day, all the quarterbacks. And then, all the quarterbacks just did a great job of just pushing me every day. I haven't gone into one game week like, 'OK, you're secure in the job.' You have to compete for everything you have. I think last year was just a stamping point for me, a confidence booster that I want to build off of this season.
Q: Why such an uptick in offensive production (522.8 yards, 45 points per game) those last four games?
A: I don't think we were really doing anything different. It was the same offense. Nothing really changed. We scheme up for every game the same offense. I think it was just more the confidence. We just have to keep our confidence up and play like the team we know we are. We have really good players. We have young guys who can really make big impacts and we have older guys who have already made big impacts. It's just going out there with the mindset of attacking every play and not taking a play off. We have to go into next season like that as well.
Q: What have you seen from the offensive line considering that seems to be the biggest question mark?
A: Just continuous work. Everyone says offensive line this, that and the other, but at the same time, I don't see anybody here in the indoor [facility] when they are working their butts off. You can have young guys who are really good players but nobody knows. They just assume that because that you're young, you have a lot to learn, which is true, but that doesn't mean you're not a really good player. Yes, we have a young offensive line, but we also have veteran offensive linemen who have played a lot of snaps and can help the younger guys get acclimated quicker and be ready to play the season. I think we have a really good offensive line, guys who work super hard. I think we'll just be fine at that position like every other position. They push each other every day.
Q: What do you consider your best day as a player at Florida?
A: I can say a couple of different ones. The [2017] Tennessee game is one that pokes out to me, but I'd say one that means more to me – when you know your hard work pays off and you work so hard for something – just being named a starting QB at a big university like this when I've had to battle over and over again for starting spots and I've came out on top each time. I think that just shows my perseverance and hard work paying off. I just keep on trying to build the ladder, keep on trying to get better each and every season and each and every offseason. I think that's one of the proudest moments I've had.
