Missouri Football: What Happens If QB James Franklin Isn't Ready by September?

The Missouri Tigers received the worst possible news, and it even got worse when they discovered the key to their offense went down.

Quarterback James Franklin injured his shoulder in spring practice and will undergo surgery later this week to repair it. Now before Tiger fans give up on the season, he is expected to make a speedy recovery and should be able to start by the time the regular season kicks off in September. 

"James has an outstanding work ethic, and he'll be able to get past this setback just fine," Mizzou coach Gary Pinkel said. "We expect him to be 100 percent and ready to go for the season. Until then, our younger guys will benefit from more reps and more work with the No. 1 offense, and we'll look at that as a positive."

But what if he's not ready to go by the time the season starts? After all, how many people believed Peyton Manning would miss the entire season last year? It was expected to be just one surgery, which ended up turning into four, and nobody is sure if he's even healthy to this day.

Now this injury is likely not that severe, but still, nobody can be so sure when it comes to going under the knife.

If Franklin isn't healthy by September, the Tigers are in big trouble to put it simply. Seriously, they might as well pack up and call it a season, and just hope for better luck next year. It was going to be tough for Franklin to run the show, but with an inexperienced quarterback, forget about it.

Redshirt freshman Corbin Berkstresser would become the starter for the Tigers, and he hasn't yet shown much in his very short career. We do know that he's a big kid with great size at 6'3", 218 pounds, has a very strong arm and is mobile enough to make plays with his feet. But we also know that he's struggled to get a grasp of the playbook at times as well.

So a freshman quarterback would take the field against SEC defenses. I can already see defensive coordinators licking their chops. Keep in mind that the Tigers play Georgia, LSU and South Carolina this season, three teams that finished the year with at least 30 sacks. Did I also forget to mention that Missouri has offensive line problems considering they're missing three starters from a year ago?

This would not be a great welcome party for Missouri or the young quarterback from Lees Summit, MO.

I'm sure the Tigers will try to run the ball and play the time management game to protect their quarterback, and just try to survive in college football's toughest conference. That sounds good, until you see that seven teams in the SEC last season allowed less than four yards a carry—the Tigers are playing five of those teams.

The Tigers offense is extremely talented and could cause damage in their new conference when healthy. But it's going to take time to adjust to the speed of the defenses in the SEC because it's a whole different ball game down south. You can't win games with a one-dimensional offense, and freshman quarterbacks get chewed up and spit out in this conference.

This should provide great experience for Berkstresser getting majority of the reps in practice and will only help him grow as he moves on with his career. But hopefully Franklin will be healthy by the time September rolls around because things could get ugly for the new team in the SEC if he isn't.