Florida Football: Feleipe Franks receiving a ton of criticism for Week 0 showing

After an up-and-down performance in a win over Miami, Florida football’s Feleipe Franks is receiving a ton of criticism. Is it warranted?

Feleipe Franks did just enough on Saturday night to open the 2019 season to lead Florida to its first win of the year. He turned the ball over twice on inexcusable passes to the Hurricanes’ secondary, but he scored three touchdowns — two through the air and one on the ground.

But despite the win, fans have been quick to dub Franks “overrated” and “not worthy of Heisman consideration” in 2019. The latter distinction isn’t all that surprising because he’s not on the same level as Tua Tagovailoa or Trevor Lawrence, but all the talk before the season was that Dan Mullen was going to turn him into an elite passer.

After rushing for the go-ahead touchdown in the second half, Franks was fired up and fans from around the country were not pleased.

Was he deserving of this kind of hate after the game? He did turn the ball over a few times and looked shaky with his decision making, but his numbers weren’t all that bad and he stayed calm down the stretch to help lead the Gators to a big Week 0 win.

In fact, he completed 63 percent of his passes for 254 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 9.4 yards per attempt. If he keeps this pace, his numbers will blow last year’s out of the water.

But the fact that he’s still making questionable decisions while putting the ball in the hands of defenders during crucial drives is concerning. Is he deserving of the type of hate he’s getting? Probably not, but he has a long way to go to prove himself.

Miami has one of the best defenses in the country and he passed for over 250 yards with two touchdowns on only 27 attempts. Fans need to pump the breaks before denouncing his performance and calling him “trash” because he just led his team to a huge win.