Missouri Football: Can James Franklin Be the Next Star Quarterback at Mizzou?

Missouri sophomore QB James Franklin already has a lot of pressure on him to succeed this season, even before he will take his first snap as the next starting QB for Mizzou.

Franklin will be taking over for former Tiger Blaine Gabbert, who was taken in the first round of April's NFL draft.

Gabbert, like the two other quarterbacks before him, succeeded under Gary Pinkel's offensive system known as the spread attack.

The other two signal callers, Chase Daniel and Brad Smith, have since gone on to the NFL.

Daniel is the backup QB to Drew Brees in New Orleans, while Brad Smith has been a wide receiver throughout the entirety of his pro football career.

With all three signal callers that Pinkel has used during his tenure at Missouri going to the NFL, what can we expect from his next quarterback, Franklin?

Franklin has been described as a Brad Smith-type QB, except he doesn't possess as much speed as the former Missouri star.

He is a four-star recruit out of Texas, a state that Missouri has been recruiting very well in during the Pinkel era.

He has good size, standing at 6'2" and 225 lbs, and has a cannon for an arm.

I'm not expecting Franklin to have near as good of a career as Smith, Daniel or Gabbert, but I could see him surprising many people and really becoming a solid QB for this team going forward.

The star potential is definitely there for Franklin, but it will likely be up to the offensive genius Pinkel to help bring it out of this kid.

If there is anyone that knows how to evaluate offensive talent, it's Pinkel and his staff.

They helped turn two little known high school players from Texas in Danario Alexander and Michael Egnew into All-Americans over the last two seasons.

Who's to say that they can't do the same thing with Franklin?

As always, time will tell.