Former QB turned tight end, now special teams “juice guy.”

In 2018, Franks was subbed in for current Tampa Bay Buccaneers backup quarterback Kyle Trask after a poor game. However, before Trask could start a game, he suffered a foot injury in practice. Franks took over this week and led a comeback win against South Carolina, driven largely by a desire to prove everyone wrong.

In 2019, an established and popular starter at this point, Franks was struck down with a season-ending broken ankle early in the season. Trask took over permanently and Franks finished his final year at Arkansas. That 2020 season, he helped lead the Razorbacks to their first SEC win in 20 games, capping a career that helped lead two Division I programs, according to then-Gators coach Dan Mullen save.

All those years of searching for victories in every possible way shaped Frank’s mindset and, in turn, his career. This season was best illustrated by an opening tackle against the Chargers. A flag as a face mask overshadowed the big play on the field, but the first tackle stood out on the tape, an example of the energy Canales and Smith want from their special teams players.

“On this particular play, he comes from behind and it just takes an incredible amount of effort and effort to make the play,” Jansen explained. “He catches a facemask and that’s a penalty. But this is such an aggressive game. This is absolute effort. We’ll live with it all day.”

“No one even bats an eyelid because sometimes it’s pure chance how the game works. But he was really, really good for us. He brought more intensity to the group efforts.”

“Stuff like that that gets you fired up, man,” Scott said of the play. “If you look at that play, it’s like he did it just because he wanted to. That’s what I’m talking about. If you have that attitude every time you go out, people will feel you, and Feleipe has that.”

Getting the hits is still something new for Franks, who has avoided them as a quarterback for years. However, in some ways, Smith said, experience at the quarterback position helps a player make the transition to a special teams player. At quarterback, Smith explained, spatial awareness is key, and in the full-go, open-field aspect of special teams, understanding where all 11 players are can be the difference between making a play or not .

“What I’ve learned so far is that with tight ends, special teams and all that, it doesn’t really matter how strong you are,” Franks explained. “It’s all about the leverage, especially the technology. That’s actually just the problem I’m trying to overcome. As well as fine-tuning my technique, because that’s what gains blocks, not really strength and power.”

“You talk to some of the quarterbacks about how they envision things, you want spacing, you want to see the difference in spacing. So it’s a clear picture, but yes, I feel like it helps me; “It definitely helps me to have one.” I feel where I need to be when I need to be there on offense or special teams.

“So I think if I have to keep the leverage on my left shoulder then I can do anything right in this game, but if I don’t keep the leverage then I’m done.”

If he had tried for years to make that tackle — or any other tackle — he probably would have been finished.

“One-on-one on the field with a guy who’s supposed to make a quarterback miss 10 out of 10 times,” Hekker laughed. “But Feleipe has turned into an athlete, you know, turned into a guy who can contribute to our team in so many different ways and just did his best and put up a great one-on-one tackle laid down in an open field and, you know, aside from the face mask, he had a lot of us cheering on the sidelines.