FAYETTEVILLE — Arkansas first-year offensive coordinator Kendal Briles had to wait and wait some more before getting an up-close-and-personal look at Feleipe Franks throwing the football.
To this point, approaching the start of preseason practice Monday, Briles has not been disappointed by what he’s seen from the Florida graduate transfer. Watching Franks on film, Briles figured he would have a live arm.
“He does,” Briles said Friday during a Zoom conference with reporters. “The thing I’ve been impressed with is how he’s been able to get the ball out of his hand and just really consistent with all his throws.
“Not a lot of wobble in the ball.”
Briles and Arkansas coach Sam Pittman have been adamant that Franks, the projected starter, is not going to simply be handed the starting job. But he certainly does have a leg up given his experience with the Gators.
Franks started 24 of the 27 games he appeared in at Florida and threw for more than 4,500 yards and 38 touchdowns. Briles expects him to be sharp and precise when the Razorbacks hit the field Monday.
“Hopefully Feleipe will be what we think he is,” Briles said. “There’s still going to be competition, but I would say it’s going to be his job to lose.”
Pittman said last week that Franks has been working in team activities like a quarterback who has been a starter in the SEC for two-plus seasons. He is also a fan of Franks’ maturity.
“He’s a grown man,” Pittman said. “He’s approaching it like he’s been there before. I think that’s very important for us, especially because we didn’t have spring ball. We have a guy on our football team that’s played a lot of football at quarterback and won a New Year’s Day bowl as the starting quarterback.
“We have a veteran guy and I think that’s important. We’re awful glad that he’s on our football team.”
KJ Jefferson, following a freshman season in which he played in three games and earned a start at No. 1 LSU in November, is expected to be Franks’ greatest competition for playing time. The former four-star prospect from Mississippi passed for 197 yards and rushed for 58 more and a pair of touchdowns.
Jefferson was plagued by a shoulder injury late last season, but he is now healthy and full-go after rehabbing back home during the time players could not train in team facilities. Pittman has been pleased with how Jefferson has picked up the offense so far.
“He has said that his shoulder hasn’t bothered him at all,” Briles said. “It feels really good. All of his movement skills appear to be really good.
“His throwing motion has not impaired him at all in that way.”
True freshman Malik Hornsby is likely third in the pecking order of quarterbacks entering camp. A top dual-threat quarterback in the class of 2020 out of Missouri City, Texas, Hornsby’s head has been spinning since late last month.
But that is by design.
“We’ve put quite a bit on him,” said Briles, who estimated that 75 percent of the Razorbacks’ offense has been installed. “We wanted to, basically, make him fail. We wanted to put a lot of information on him, that way they’d seen it. Then once we bring the information back up, schematically, then at least they’d seen it.
“His want-to is there, so that’s a big part of it.”
It will likely take Arkansas’ staff a couple of weeks of preseason practice to determine which quarterback can efficiently and effectively lead the offense. That timeframe is not set in stone, however.
“I think it’s a feel – a feel with myself and Coach Pittman, and frankly the entire staff,” Briles said. “Everybody’s got to have a feel for the guy who’s going to be touching the ball every single play. I’m not going to sit here and say I’m going to be the person who makes that decision.
“I want us all to feel good about it. But I feel like I’m going to have probably a pretty strong opinion.”