The Cardinal Countdown: 28 Days Until Kickoff

#28 Trey Franklin

Class: Sophomore

Ht/Wt: 5-10/180

Position: Defensive Back

Hometown: Robins, GA

Twitter: @trey1franklin

Thoughts: Franklin is another late add to the roster, similar to Shavarick Williams from back on Day 30, as he just verbally committed to joining the squad on July 23rd. Shout out to Franklin for the commitment, but even bigger shoutout to the athletics department getting the roster updated in that period of time. Under Petrino Franklin “may” have been added sometime within the first month of the season, but these folks are on top of it over there. Tip of the cap from one of the like five people who check the roster daily.

Franklin is a JUCO guy from Iowa Western, and if that sounds familiar to you it’s because the Cards have had some success pulling folks from the Corn Capital in the past, including Ryan Hubbell, Alphonso Carter, and Trevon Young. Franklin is another ‘small but speedy’ corner who showed last year at IWCC he could make up for some of his coverage mistakes by getting getting back in the play utilizing his quickness. How that works at this level I’m not sure but the staff in the last few weeks has really put an emphasis on adding bodies in the secondary. That may translate to “oh buy, we’re in trouble with who we got” but I think it’s more of a “wow, we are really young at this spot” overview. If I look through all the DB’s and safeties on the roster there are three “upperclassmen” (Cole, Jones, Duncan) and two of those are transfers into the program this year. On the flip side there are fourteen freshman or sophomores in that group right now. While Franklin falls into the latter category in terms of eligibility he’s been out of high school for three seasons (spending a year at Buffalo) and does bring some experience.

My gut says we don’t see Franklin get a ton of PT this year with the late arrival and some of the other talent at the spot but he may be a solid rotational player moving forward and will absolutely bring some depth on the practice field.

Sweet Tweet:

I know this is a photo from the JUCO ranks but the track around the field kills me every time. I remember growing up and watching games where the stadiums still had the track and just laughing. Of course, this is a time where Louisville had “third base” dirt around the 40 yard line with movable bleachers, so….not much room to point and snicker.

I’m not going to invest a ton of time looking but does anyone know if there are still stadiums today at the DI level that have tracks? Buffalo maybe? Ivy Leagues schools?