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When John Franklin III signed with Auburn out of East Mississippi Community College in December, the hope among Tigers fans was that he could be another Nick Marshall.
If that's the case, Franklin will have to gain about 35 pounds.
According to Auburn's official spring football roster, Franklin is listed at 6-foot-1 and 174 pounds, a stunningly light weight for someone hoping to be an SEC quarterback. Marshall played for the Tigers at 6-1, 210.
(Auburn also hedges its bet by listing Franklin as an "athlete" rather than a quarterback, a designation you rarely see outside of recruiting rankings. Most dual-threat quarterbacks are listed as such, even if they are more "athlete" than quarterback).
There's a possibility Franklin could gain 15 pounds or so by the fall. At 190, he'd still be below average for an SEC quarterback, but not an outlier like he is now.
However, you wonder if gaining weight would rob Franklin of some of the elite speed that led him to be a member of the track and field team at Florida State. Speed is a big part of his game, so I'm not sure you'd want to mess with that.
At any rate, that got me to thinking about whether or not someone as small as Franklin had played quarterback at a high level in college football in recent years. (We had a similar discussion Wednesday on WNSP's "Sports Drive," which I co-host weekdays in Mobile from 3-6 p.m).
You'd have to go back a long way to find an SEC starting quarterback who weighed less than 180 pounds. The smallest of recent vintage was probably Mississippi State's Michael Henig, who checked in at 6-feet, 185 when he was the Bulldogs' starter in 2007.
Auburn has had successful smallish quarterbacks in the past. Randy Campbell was listed at 5-11, 175, as was Lloyd Nix. Phil Gargis was 6-1, 185.
But Campbell and Gargis ran the wishbone and Nix played nearly 60 years ago. Not sure they're apt comparisons. (For the record, Pat Sullivan was listed at 6-foot, 198 as a player, while Dameyune Craig was 6-0, 186. And neither was the runner Franklin is purported to be).
Indiana's Antwaan Randle-El (5-11, 180) had great success as a small, dual-threat quarterback in the Big Ten from 1998-2001 before going on to a solid career as an NFL wide receiver. But again, we're talking about more than 15 years ago.
The best current example might be Georgia Tech's Justin Thomas, who checks in at 5-11, 179. However, he's an option quarterback who passes the ball maybe 15 times a game. (When Marshall was Auburn's first-year starter in 2013, the Tigers averaged 20 passing attempts per game).
West Virginia has had success in recent years with a couple of smaller quarterbacks, Pat White (6-1, 192) and Clint Trickett (6-2, 186). But White was still nearly 20 pounds heavier than Franklin. And the Big East (in White's time) and the Big 12 (in Trickett's) are not the SEC.
Randall Cobb was just 5-11, 191 at Kentucky. He also wasn't a full-time quarterback, but more of a situational player. Perhaps that's what Franklin will be for Auburn.
The all-time example of a small-but-successful quarterback is probably Doug Flutie, who was a pocket passer at Boston College despite being just 5-10 and 180 pounds. But that was more than 30 years ago, and comparing anyone to an all-time great like Flutie isn't really fair.
All of this is not to say that John Franklin can't be a successful SEC quarterback at 174 pounds. But if he was, he'd be exceptional in more ways than one.
So what do you think? Is Franklin too small to succeed at quarterback in the SEC, or will he have to put on some weight?
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