Takeaways from Michigan Football’s win over Florida

4. Feleipe Franks struggled in his first start for the Gators

Florida needs to find some offensive consistency. On Wednesday, August 29th, Florida head coach Jim McElwain shocked the college football world by naming redshirt freshman Felipe Franks the team’s starting quarterback ahead of the week one bout against Michigan.

While most fans and pundits assumed that Notre Dame transfer quarterback Malik Zaire was a shoo-in to lead the Gator’s offense, coach McElwain instead chose to build his franchise around a young, strong armed pro-style quarterback with four years of eligibility remaining. However, Felipe Frank’s first game at Florida left much to be desired.

The Gators offense couldn’t find consistency in the first half of the team’s week one game, only recording 16 yards on the ground, 75 yards passing and four first downs in the first half. If it wasn’t for the Gators defense hauling in two crucial pick-sixes, Florida wouldn’t have even been in the game at halftime.

After struggling through a rough first half, Franks improve in the second. While scrambling with roughly 10 minutes left in the third quarter, Franks fumbled the ball at his own 37-yard line, and effectively set the Wolverines offense up for a score.

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On the Gator’s next offensive drive, McElwain finally made a change, and inserted graduate transfer Malik Zaire into the game with nine minutes to go in the third quarter. Though Zaire didn’t end up fairing much better against Michigan’s top ranked defense, he was at least able to move the ball.

If McElwain’s squad is going to rebound from their week one loss, they will need to find a spark to jump-start their stagnant offense.