GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Be forewarned, Florida Gators fans, you are entering a no-complaining zone.
There will be no moaning, groaning, bellyaching or nitpicking in the wake of Saturday's 48-10 victory over Colorado State.
I don't want to hear how the offense looked pedestrian for much of the game.
I don't want to hear how Colorado State ran nearly twice as many plays as Florida.
I don't want to hear how much-maligned quarterback Feleipe Franks only threw for 119 yards.
And I especially don't want to hear how beating Colorado State is really nothing to get jacked up about.
In this first season of the transition from the Jim McElwain error to the Dan Mullen era, Gator Nation should celebrate any and every victory.
Florida fans should be thankful their team is at least good enough to blow out Colorado State and Charleston Southern.
Be thankful their quarterback didn't spend the entire game on his back.
Be thankful, first and foremost, their team is not Florida State.
After last week's historic loss to Kentucky, the Gators obviously are not a great team in Mullen's first season, but at least UF is not embarrassing itself as the Seminoles are under new Coach Willie Taggart. Pitifully, the Seminoles were humiliated 30-7 by Syracuse on Saturday -- the first time the Orange have beaten FSU since 1966 when Floyd Little, Larry Csonka and, yes, Tom Coughlin were in the Syracuse backfield.
Kentucky may have ended a 31-game losing streak to the Gators in the second week, but at least Mullen's team looks like it has a clue and had the resolve to get up off the deck on Saturday. The Gators routed a Colorado State team that was good enough to beat Arkansas the previous week.
Of course, some Gator fans -- as they always do -- will want to pick apart this victory and probably come to the conclusion that Franks is not the answer at quarterback. This, of course, is ridiculous rhetoric.
Franks was baked, broiled and barbecued on social media after the loss to Kentucky. The student newspaper called for his benching.
There was even a smattering of boos when Franks went 0-for-6 passing in the first quarter of Saturday's game against Colorado State.
Why there is such a clamoring for Franks to be benched is beyond me. It's inexplicable why so many UF fans and media members want the Gators to start either redshirt sophomore Kyle Trask or true freshman Emory Jones -- two quarterbacks who entered the season having never taken a college snap.
Mullen is known as a college football version of a horse whisperer. Except he is a quarterback whisperer -- a coach who can take a wild, raw, untamed quarterback, psychologically delve into the player's mind, work his mental magic and turn the quarterback into a star.
Dak Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald weren't exactly instantaneous stars in their first year starting at QB under Mullen at Mississippi State. However, those players matured and progressed under Mullen's tutelage and went on to become elite college quarterbacks -- as did Alex Smith at Utah and Tim Tebow at Florida.
Who knows, maybe Franks will never turn into a great quarterback, but doesn't he, at least, deserve more than three games to find out without getting trashed on a weekly basis? Even when he threw five touchdown passes in the first half of the opener against Charleston Southern, the common refrain was that anybody could have done that against an outmanned FCS opponent.
Give Mullen some time and patience to be the quarterback developer he's always been, and I believe he can turn the athletically gifted Franks into a quality SEC quarterback. Let's not forget the dictionary definition of "develop" is "to cause to go through the process of natural evolution from a previous or lower stage."
In other words, development is a course of action that takes time; it doesn't just happen in two or three games. Especially when that "previous or lower stage" was being stuck in McElwain's pathetic offense.
Be thankful, Gator Nation.
Your team won big on Saturday.
Your coach looks like he's got everything under control.
Most of all, you're light years ahead of Florida State.
Sports on 09/17/2018