Les Miles Says Jim McElwain Flipped Feleipe Franks With Negative Recruiting

Feleipe Franks' name is a very familiar one among LSU circles as many fans and coaches expected the highly recruited quarterback to come to Baton Rouge and give the Tigers the elite QB they were missing for so many years.

The Crawfordville, FL native was committed to LSU for 18-months but pulled his verbal pledge in November of 2015 when Les Miles' job was in jeopardy.

Miles was eventually fired four games into the 2016 season, his 12th with the school and recently revealed to The Advocate that negative recruiting by Florida head coach Jim McElwain is the reason why Franks flipped to the Gators.

Miles also added that LSU athletic director Joe Alleva always "talking with the press," didn't help the situation either.

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“Somebody calls you and says, ‘Listen, I just got the head coaching job at Florida. I want you to come be my quarterback, and I’m not going to be fired,’” Miles said. “‘That Miles guy, he’s going to be fired. Handwriting is on the wall.’”

The instability of his job wasn’t the only reason Franks yanked his verbal pledge, Miles said. The hiring of McElwain, an offensive-minded coach, and the firing of Will Muschamp, who has a defensive background, helped too.

“They could paint a stable position, and I really … as soon as they got rid of Muschamp and went with McElwain, there was an offensive guy,” Miles said. “(The Franks family) felt like it was going to be different, and there was always a dark cloud hanging over my head as long as (athletic director) Joe Alleva was going to talk to the press.” Read more.

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Franks has played in all four of Florida's games this year, passing for 557 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. He will start at QB on Saturday vs. LSU, replacing QB Luke Del Rio who suffered a season-ending injury vs. Vanderbilt.