Colorado University Athletics
Buffs DT Franke Has Solid Debut In Trenches
September 08, 2015 | Football, Neill Woelk
BOULDER — Colorado defensive line coach Jim Jeffcoat doesn't make life too complicated for his players.
Show up early, pay attention, work hard and do what you're told. Follow those simple rules, and you'll likely get your chance to play. Take advantage of those opportunities when they arise, and you'll likely get more playing time.
It's a simple equation — and one that CU redshirt freshman Jase Franke has been doing his best to follow since he arrived on the CU campus.
Franke spent his true freshman year on CU's scout team, working against the No. 1 offense every day. He lifted weights, changed his diet, soaked up as much of the playbook as possible and worked his tail off at every opportunity possible.
As a result, Franke had a strong spring and a solid fall camp, thus earning some quality playing time at defensive tackle in CU's season opener last week in Hawai'i.
He responded by recording five tackles — second best among CU's defensive linemen, despite playing just 23 snaps — and a quarterback sack that resulted in a fumble and very nearly a CU touchdown.
Top 5 plays from the Hawaii game. Jase Franke gets a sack-forced fumble inside the 5. #GoBuffs https://t.co/pmP07YR1Fi
— Colorado Buffaloes (@cubuffs) September 8, 2015
It's a safe bet that Franke will be seeing more playing time in the future.
"He made some really tremendous plays," Jeffcoat said after Sunday's practice. "He made the sack and he made some plays in the run game. That's just from effort. That's the kind of player Jase is. A lot of what he does is just great effort."
Franke isn't CU's biggest defensive lineman. At 6-foot-3, 270 pounds, the California native in the average range for an interior linemen.
But after being named the most improved defensive lineman for CU during spring drills, and after a fall camp when he just seemed to be consistently in the middle of things, he's making a strong case for moving into the starting lineup — or at least earning more playing time.
"I honestly just want to contribute as much as I can," Franke said earlier this week. "I watched us last year have a rough season and decided I wanted to do whatever I could to change that around. We just need to come out and win some games."
Franke came within a hair of producing a game-changing play early in the second quarter in the loss at Hawai'i. On a second-and-five from UH 17, Franke burst through the line and chased down Hawaii quarterback Max Wittek, finally corralling him near the goal line. As Wittek went down, the ball bounced loose — but before any Buffs could pounce on the loose ball, Hawaii's DeJon Allen recovered it at the 1-yard line.
"All I could think about was to getting to him," Franke said. "I looked up saw the ball loose and thought maybe we'd get a touchdown … It was just one of those things that didn't quite bounce our way."
Franke played just 23 snaps in the game, meaning he was in on a tackle roughly once every five snaps. The only interior lineman in the game with more tackles for CU was Jordan Carrell, who had six tackles in 51 snaps.
Franke credits his redshirt year as playing a major role in his development, including a change in diet. While he hasn't gained a great deal of weight since arriving on campus, he's shifted much of it to more of the right places. As a freshman, his body-fat measurement came in at 25 percent; now, his body fat measures out at about 15 percent.
"You carry all that fat on you, it's like wearing a weight vest," Franke said. "At the same time, Coach (Dave) Forman (CU director of sports performance) really helped me improve my strength. It's made a big difference."
But Franke's biggest asset may still be his mental approach and work ethic.
"It comes down to effort, how bad you want it," he said. "It's about lining up, playing assignment football and playing your butt off."
That attitude has caught the attention of the coaches.
"Jase is the kind of kid that wants to be good and he'll do whatever he has to do to make that happen," Jeffcoat said.
Asked whether that could translate into more playing time, Jeffcoat said, ""No question. He'll continue to get better because as he gets more comfortable in playing the scheme he'll continue to improve."
But despite his solid debut, Franke came away from Hawai'i with plenty of regrets.
"We're better than that," he said. "That's a team we knew we should've beaten and we made too many mistakes. That's going to change."
The Buffs will get the chance to change directions Saturday, when they play host to UMass in a noon game at Folsom Field.
"Assignment football," Franke said. "If you play assignment football, everything will fall into place. You have to be patient and everything will come to you. If we play assignment football, we'll come out OK."
Contact: Neill.Woelk@Colorado.edu
