Florida Football: Is Feleipe Franks a Heisman-caliber quarterback?

Feleipe Franks has lofty goals and one of those is becoming the fourth Heisman-winning quarterback to play Florida football in program history.

There are three statues that carry a lot of meaning outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel and Tim Tebow each have statues outside the stadium in Gainesville for one common reason: they’re each Heisman-winning quarterbacks.

Florida has a rich tradition and those three Heisman winners are revered, but Feleipe Franks has lofty goals and said that he wants to be the fourth statue erected outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium before his career is over, per Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports.

"“I want a fourth statue,” Franks said Monday at the 2019 SEC Media Days."

Is this goal completely out of reach? Right now it seems that way just because Franks is just two years removed from having just one more touchdown than interceptions to go along with a 54 percent completion rate. There were some who questioned his ability to hold a starting job after the 2017 season, but then Dan Mullen came to town.

Things changed quickly.

Franks turned his career around immediately, passing for 2,457 yards and 24 touchdowns with six interceptions and a 58 percent completion rate. And that was with only one year of work under Mullen.

If there’s any coach who could turn Franks into a Heisman contender, it’s Mullen but that isn’t going to happen until maybe 2020. Is he Heisman-caliber right now? No, but he’s on the brink of becoming a dark-horse.

As for the fourth statue outside of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Franks has his work cut out because he needs another year of learning and molding under Mullen. The potential is there, though.