JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – An improved offense was the expectation as No. 17 Florida opened their season against No. 11 Michigan on Saturday. Instead the Gators offense looked overmatched by the Wolverines defense. In the loss Florida had just 192 of offense and the final score of 33-17 wouldn’t have been that close if not for two touchdowns by the Gators defense.
In his first career start quarterback Feleipe Franks completed 5 of 9 passes for 75 yards. The redshirt freshman also fumbled twice and was sacked once. McElwain benched him early in the third quarter in favor of Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire.
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However Jim McElwain said that the Gators will stick with Franks when they host Northern Colorado (0-1) on Saturday night.
"We'll go back with Feleipe," McElwain said on Monday. "That was kind of the plan. I think both guys did some (good) things, some things they'd like back."
Zaire completed 9 of 17 passes for 106 yards and was sacked five times.
"We just felt he gave us an opportunity there to maybe get out of some of the trouble that we were in," McElwain said. "But, no, this is going to be one of those things that we go and we get better at, and looking forward to getting back home and playing this one."