GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Just what the debut of the Florida Gators under Dan Mullen truly revealed Saturday to a fanbase starved for anything that resembles excitement will play out over the course of the 2018 season. There's no arguing, though, that one statistic shouted "LOOK AT ME!" louder than any other in UF's 53-6 bludgeoning of FCS-classed Charleston Southern in the season opener for both teams. 

Feleipe Franks threw five touchdown passes in the first half. 

The Gators threw 10 as a team during the entire 2017 season under the previous coaching staff. 

Translation: Progress. 

Franks, the redshirt sophomore whose rookie season starting eight games was defined mostly by inconsistency (and three-and-outs), completed 16 of 24 passes for 219 yards, with scoring strikes of 34, 6, 6, 3 and 3 yards to four different wide receivers before exiting the game at halftime with his team up 38-0. One of Franks' touchdown throws, by the way, was a jump pass that harkened back to the days when Mullen was offensive coordinator and quarterback coach calling plays for you-know-who. 

The Gators (1-0) totaled 444 yards of offense, all but 90 coming in the first half with Franks in charge, while the UF defense limited the Buccaneers' triple option attack to 225 yards, only three by way of the pass. 

It was a good night in the "Swamp." An encouraging regarding where might be headed, even given the obvious lopsided nature of the opponent, and especially where they were last year. 

"It's not just me," Franks said. "It's the whole team."
 
Obviously, it starts at the top. 

"That was a lot of fun for our team. We got a lot of good work in," said Mullen, who went 69-46 the last nine seasons at Mississippi State before replacing Jim McElwain last Nov. 27. "I thought our guys, in the first half, did a good job of working the game and getting used to what we were doing offensively, defensively, all around. I thought we played well. We got to play a lot of players in the second half, and we still have a long way to go. But some young guys got some experience tonight. They got snaps in the 'Swamp' they can build off of." 

One of them was redshirt freshman and backup defensive end Zachary Carter.

"You could feel the intensity from the crowd from the moment we ran out," he said. "I feel like we need the fans and the atmosphere to continue to be like that, to continue the team and get our guys going."

UF scored six of the first seven times it had the ball, including touchdown throws from Franks on its last four possessions of the first half. 

The home crowd's first look at a Mullen-led offense produced a 75-yard, eight-play, no-huddle march. It began when Franks flared a pass to wideout Josh Hammond on the first snap from scrimmage for 11 yards, then scrambled up the middle for four yards on the second, with Buccaneers linebacker Edward King finishing the play with a helmet-to-helmet hit on the UF quarterback. King, by rule, was ejected after a replay confirmed the "targeting" infraction.

Five plays later, Franks fired a quick-hitter to wideout Trevon Grimes on the right sideline. Former walk-on tight end R.J. Raymond, awarded a scholarship just two weeks ago, had a great seal block on the outside, taking out two defenders, as Grimes, who transferred to UF from Ohio State last offseason, sprinted untouched up the sideline for a 34-yard catch, run and score. 

True freshman Evan McPherson's PAT made it 7-0 just 2:20 into the game. 

On UF's next possession, Franks found wideout Freddie Swain for a 46-yard gain on a beautifully thrown crossing route that Swain took to the CSU 7. The drive stalled, however, and McPherson's came in and booted his first career field goal, a 21-yarder. 

That's how the first quarter ended, with UF up 10-0. It also ended with Charleston Southern at zero yards of offense. 

That trend continued a while longer.
 
After a Buccaneers' three-and-out deep in minus territory, the Gators went 43 yards in six plays, with Franks hitting Van Jefferson, the transfer from Ole Miss, on a 6-yard score, his first of two on the night, less than two minutes into the second period to make it 17-0. Jefferson led UF with four receptions for 38 yards and a couple TDs.

"It was expected," Jefferson said of Franks' breakout night. "Feleipe has worked his tail off all summer and he's had an excellent camp, so I knew he was going to come in and do great. His confidence right now is through the roof. He went out and played well and we all went out and played well." 

On CSU's next possession, the Buccaneers gambled and went for a fourth-and-1 from their own 29. A quarterback keeper by London Johnson hit a wall made up of defensive lineman Jachai Polite and linebacker Rayshad Jackson. No gain. It took UF just four plays to go 29 yards, with Franks lofting a nice touch pass to Hammond in the left corner of the end zone on third-and-goal at the 9:51 mark.

After the Buccaneers' sixth possession without a first down, Franks marched the Gators 70 yards in seven plays, with the big-hitter a 30-yard completion to tight end Lucas Krull, a junior college transfer who arrived this summer. On the next snap, Franks play-faked into the line, took a step and a half forward, then stuck a pretty ball into the chest of Tyrie Cleveland crossing from the right side. That made it 31-zip. 

Franks' 3-yard scoring toss to Jefferson capped a five-play, 65-yard drive and made it 38-0 with 1:38 to go before the break. 

"We've got a bunch of guys who can really play, but we're just scratching the surface of what we can be as a team," said Franks, who became the first Florida quarterback to throw at least five TDs in a game since Chris Leak did so against South Carolina in 2004. "We have a long way to go."

On second play of Charleston Southern's next possession, tailback Ronnie Harris broke through the defense for a 70-yard run all the way to the UF 8, giving the Buccaneers their first first down of the game with just 36 left in the first half. Their first scoring opportunity, too. The Gators, though, rose to the challenge and made CSU coach Mark Tucker settle for a field-goal attempt with four seconds remaining. 

Tyler Tekac's 22-yarder was blocked by Carter, preserving the UF shutout attempt, at least temporarily. 

"Coach Mullen always preaches special teams first; that that is what is going to win the game," Jackson said. "I had never noticed the game within the game with special teams, but when we make plays on special teams it's a great feeling."  

By the time the Buccaneers finally broke through early in the fourth quarter, UF led 51-0, Franks and most of the starters were long done for the evening. Backup quarterback and third-year sophomore Kyle Trask got his first collegiate action and scored on a 12-yard run. 
 
CSU churned out an 11-play 75-yard drive that was capped when tailback Terrell Wilson broke free and dragged a few UF defenders into the end zone on a 22-yard touchdown run with just under 14 minutes remaining. The point-after, though, was blocked by Jeremiah Moon and returned the distance for a Florida two-point conversion by redshirt freshman Austin Perry that turned out to be the final points of the night.

A good portion of fans, however, stayed to support their team despite the big lead, a development that did not go lost on Mullen. 

"A lot of people were here still cheering us on in a game that was pretty much in hand," he said. 

Clearly, what Mullen has done in his short time has not gone lost on the UF fan base, either.