Quarterback at the University of Florida can one of the marquee jobs in college sports. So it's no surprise that Gators passer Feleipe Franks is focused on football these days, even if a possible Tim Tebow-like career change could be in the cards some ways down the road.
Heading into his fourth season on campus in Gainesville, Franks is coming off a campaign in which he played in 13 games, completing 58.4 percent of his passes for 2,457 yards with 24 touchdowns and just six interceptions.
But like seemingly so many other quarterbacks – Heisman-winner Tebow is playing for the Mets AAA affiliate, Tom Brady was drafted as a catcher by the Expos, Kyler Murray just turned down life as a top-10 pick centerfielder for the A's to become the Cardinals No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft, the list really does go on and on – Franks also has skills throwing a baseball.
Even though he hadn't played baseball since his junior year in high school, the Red Sox drafted Franks as a pitcher in the 31st round of last month's 2018 MLB Draft. The selection apparently came after Franks threw 94 mph in a workout for Boston.
For now, though, Franks heads toward the fall thinking about throwing touchdowns for Florida and not potential future strikeouts for the Red Sox.
"My career is football," Franks said Monday at SEC media day, via ESPN.com. "My main focus is football [in] college, then hopefully a career in the NFL. Then [baseball] is kind of like a backup plan, backup job."
Beyond impressing the Red Sox enough to earn a late draft pick, Franks surprised himself with how well he threw in the workout for Boston.
"I haven't thrown in a while, so I wasn't perfect, but I was in the strike zone," Franks said. "I threw 88, 89 [in high school]. I threw harder [for the Red Sox], but I don't know how. I really haven't picked up a baseball in four or five years. I don't know -- it just came natural."
After watching Franks lead the Gators to a 10-3 record a year ago and a preseason top-10 ranking this summer, Florida coach Dan Mullen looks forward to seeing what his quarterback can accomplish this fall. But, the coach also wouldn't mind seeing what Franks could do for the Red Sox somewhere down the line.
"Maybe when football is done, maybe [Franks] has a future in baseball," Mullen said Monday. "I'd be really excited for him and really happy for him. I'm glad it was the Red Sox. I'm a big Red Sox fan."
