Bubba Franks found something unfamiliar as he broke out of his stance with seconds left in the fourth quarter: nothing.
No defensive backs, no linebackers. Nothing but empty space between him and the goal line. Surely, by now, defenses knew better.
In the three years since the Packers selected Franks in the first round of the 2000 NFL Draft out of the University of Miami, he’d emerged as quarterback Brett Favre’s favorite red zone target. He caught 17 touchdown passes in his first three seasons, all but one in the red zone, and all but one of those 10 yards or fewer.
When the Packers sniffed the end zone, Favre looked for Franks. But on September 21, 2003, second down with seconds left in the game and the Packers down a touchdown, he didn’t.
Favre took the snap from the shotgun. Franks jumped and waved his arms as he crossed uncovered into the end zone. If Favre would just glance to his left towards a wide-open Franks, the Packers would surely tie the game. But Favre rolled right, hopped the pass incomplete, and threw a pick on the next play. The Packers lost.
Franks never found the end zone in Week 3 of the 2003 season, but four other Miami alums did.
Vinny Testaverde threw a 29-yard touchdown pass in an ill-fated comeback bid against the Patriots. Reggie Wayne had a career day as quarterback Peyton Manning’s favorite target, catching 10 of 13 targets for 141 yards and two touchdowns. And rookie Andre Johnson caught his first two NFL touchdowns. Even defensive tackle Warren Sapp found the end zone when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers trotted him out at tight end in the second quarter.
The Hurricanes were blossoming in the NFL. The players who’d shouldered the burden of the sanctions years and the rebuild that followed had emerged as central figures on their respective professional teams. They were Pro Bowlers, NFL award winners, and All-Pros.
And they were scoring touchdowns. Lots of them.
Thirteen Miami Hurricanes had scored 31 NFL touchdowns since The Streak began just six regular season weeks ago. Even defenders were scoring. Kenny Holmes in Week 1 of 2003, Phillip Buchanon and Ed Reed in Week 2, and Sapp in Week 3.
But in Week 4 2003, missed scoring opportunities were the story.
Sunday, September 28, 2003, 1:00 PM ET
Down a field goal midway through the fourth quarter, Houston Texans quarterback David Carr did what he’d quickly learned to do when he needed to move the ball: he looked for Andre Johnson.
The rookie Johnson had amassed 249 receiving yards in his first three NFL games, the second most to start a career since 1987.
And so with under eight minutes to play in Houston’s Week 4 matchup against the division-rival Jacksonville Jaguars, Carr looked for Johnson. An eight-yard completion. Then nine yards. Then 19. And four on the play after that.
The Texans were on the precipice of the red zone when running back Stacey Mack attempted a halfback pass to a double-covered Johnson near the end zone. Intercepted.
The Texans defense forced a fumble a few plays later to give the offense another shot. Six plays later, they arrived on the Jaguars four yard line. A penalty moved them to the Jacksonville two. Six feet. A body length away from the win and 30 seconds to get there.
Carr looked for Johnson in the end zone. Incomplete. But Johnson drew a defensive pass interference call. Half the distance to the goal. First down at the Jaguars one.
Only 16 seconds left now. A running play. No gain. Timeout Texans.
Nine seconds. Carr again looked for Johnson in the end zone. It bounced off his finger tips.
Two seconds. Carr snuck it in for the touchdown. Time expired. Texans win. Johnson caught eight passes for 97 yards. But no touchdowns.
MIAMI ALUMNI NFL TOUCHDOWNS IN WEEK 4 2003: ZERO
Somewhere, in some place and time, there’s a reality in which Bubba Franks is a defensive end for the Texas Longhorns.
Franks was a big, two-way high school player from West Texas in the mid-1990s who specialized in making the game unfair for the average-sized teenagers tasked with guarding him.
When he lined up at tight end, defensive backs needed “a ladder and a dad-gum net”1 to defend him. When he lined up at defensive end, offensive linemen fared no better keeping his 6’6”, 230-pound frame out of the backfield.
Franks was a unanimous all-district tight end his junior and senior seasons at Big Spring High School and a first-team defensive end his senior year.2 But few teams outside of Texas had heard of him as he began his senior season. And if you asked him, he’d probably have told you that even they didn’t truly know him.
Texas A&M wanted him to play defense. So did Texas. So he made it clear: “Tight end is my strong position.”3
For a long time, only TCU believed him. “TCU never told anyone about him,” said Dwight Butler, Franks’ coach at Big Spring. “They thought they were going to sneak away with him.”4
The Miami Hurricanes were about to believe him too. And lucky for them. Because without Franks, Miami doesn’t sign the tight ends who’d prove crucial to their next national title runs.
Sunday, September 28, 2003, 4:15 PM ET
Ed Reed timed his move perfectly.
The Baltimore Ravens defense faced a 3rd and 5 near the end of the second quarter, and the visiting Kansas City Chiefs were in the red zone.
Reed inched towards the line of scrimmage. Then a tad more. The quarterback looked away. Reed picked up his pace.
The center snapped the ball and Reed sprinted past the tackle. The running back didn’t pick him up. The quarterback didn’t see him.
Reed leveled Trent Green and jarred the ball loose. Ray Lewis raced towards the football, just daylight between him, the ball, and the end zone…
…except for Chiefs tight end Jason Dunn, who was a step closer and recovered the ball. Lewis took him down for a 12-yard loss.
The end zone was a strong possibility had Lewis beat Dunn to the ball. Sure, it was 70 yards away, but he would’ve had a couple of blockers, including fellow Miami alum Reed, who’d famously “assisted” on a fumble return for a touchdown at the University of Miami.
The Ravens lost, and the game ended without a touchdown from the duo of Hurricanes defenders.
MIAMI ALUMNI NFL TOUCHDOWNS IN WEEK 4 2003: ZERO
Miami discovered Franks completely by accident.
Sometime in 1995, Hurricanes recruiting coordinator Pete Garcia traveled to West Texas to recruit a kicker at Midland High School. As he spoke with the Midland coaches, they mentioned a kid at nearby Big Spring and convinced Garcia to take a look at him. So he did.5
He called Butler, Franks’ high school coach, from the airport and asked him to send him some of Franks’ film. As he watched the film back in Coral Gables, he was convinced he’d found another “diamond in the oil patch,” as a local paper called Franks.6
“We take a lot of pride in finding a couple of those guys every year that fell through the cracks,” Garcia said7, harkening back to the days when Miami would land overlooked players like Russell Maryland who’d turn into starters, All-Americans, first-round draft picks, and, eventually, Pro Bowlers.
Soon, Miami head coach Butch Davis flew with Garcia to West Texas, this time to meet Franks.
Franks’ wish list was clear. He wanted to play on television. He wanted to play on grass. And he wanted to play tight end.8
Miami checked all the boxes. The Hurricanes, despite facing NCAA sanctions, were a big TV draw. The Orange Bowl was grass. And the Hurricanes saw Franks as a tight end.
He visited the campus in January 1996, verbally committed two days later.9
Franks would be a Hurricane.
Sunday, September 28, 2003, 4:15 PM ET
Jets receiver Santana Moss had gotten off to a rough start. His first catch of the afternoon came just as the second quarter began, a short two-yarder from fellow Miami alum Vinny Testaverde that Moss fumbled away.
As the second quarter neared its end, the Jets lined up in a tight formation from their own 32 yard line. Moss took his spot on the outside.
As the ball snapped, he streaked down the sideline, maybe a half-step ahead of rookie defender Terrence Newman. He snatched a 38-yard pass nearly in stride, held it against his facemask to steady it before hauling it in, but stumbled as he did and fell to the ground.
A fantastic catch on a pretty touch throw from Testaverde.
Testaverde found Moss again on the very next play, a light lob that Moss had to fight off Newman to bring in. An 11-yard gain for another first down. Curtis Martin fumbled the next play, ending the Jets’ drive.
Moss hauled in just two more passes the rest of the afternoon. No touchdowns.
MIAMI ALUMNI NFL TOUCHDOWNS IN WEEK 4 2003: ZERO
“The one thing that just jumped out at you from the first day he came here were his hands,” tight ends coach Chudzinski would say of Franks a few years later.
“He had the ability to catch the ball, whether it was one-handed catches, high or low.”10 Those catches entrenched Franks in Hurricanes lore.
There was his first career touchdown reception in the back of the end zone. The one-handed catch against Ohio State. The game-tying touchdown catch against Boston College. Another one-hander against West Virginia. The touchdown grab off a tip against Syracuse.
By his junior season, the nation was fawning for the once-overlooked Franks. He was “one of 10 players the NFL wants now,” wrote Sports Illustrated.11 A “quarterback’s dream,” according to the Associated Press.12 Former NFL scout Gil Brand, then of ESPN, one-upped all of them. Franks, he said, was Hall of Famer Kellen Winslow Sr., a young Tony Gonzalez, and all the other great tight ends, “all rolled into one.”13
Franks caught 45 passes for 565 yards and five touchdowns his junior season. He was first-team All-Big East for the second year and, for the first time, a first-team All-American. And while prospects for 2000 looked good for the Hurricanes, Franks had the NFL’s attention.
He entered the 2000 NFL Draft where the Green Bay Packers selected him with the 14th pick of the first round.
Sunday, September 28, 2003, 8:15 PM ET
It didn’t take long for Peyton Manning to get going on Sunday night.
He hit running back Ricky A. Williams, who was getting more playing time with Edgerrin James out for the night, for a 17-yard touchdown just a few minutes into the game.
Colts 7, Saints 0. One touchdown for Manning. None for his favorite target from the week before, Reggie Wayne.
Then he threw two more touchdowns before the half, both to Harrison, to put Indianapolis up by three scores.
Colts 21, Saints 0. Three touchdowns for Manning. None for Wayne.
Manning kept at it, finding Dominic Rhodes, another Colts running back seeing more time with James out, for a 12-yard touchdown.
Colts 34, Saints 10. Four touchdowns for Manning. None for Wayne.
Then Manning hit Harrison again, this time for a 32-yard touchdown pass towards the end of the third quarter.
Colts 41, Saints 13. Five touchdowns for Manning. None for Wayne.
Finally, Manning hit Dallas Clark for an 11-yard touchdown with four seconds to go in the third quarter.
Colts 48, Saints 13. Six touchdowns for Manning. None for Wayne.
Wayne caught all three passes Manning threw his way that night, collecting 26 receiving yards. But none of Manning’s six touchdown passes on Sunday night - one away from an NFL record that he’d tie a decade later - went to Wayne.
MIAMI ALUMNI NFL TOUCHDOWNS IN WEEK 4 2003: ZERO
For a few months every summer, football’s currency turns to hope.
In the summer of 2000, Packers fans poured that hope into Franks. So desperate were they for a capable replacement for tight end Mark Chmura that when Franks caught a simple, nothing of a four-yard catch during training camp, all 50,000 of Packers fans who’d come out to Lambeau Field for the open practice roared in excitement.14
In the four years between 1995 and 1998, Chmura caught 17 touchdowns, went to three Pro Bowls, and helped the Packers win Super Bowl XXXI. When a neck injury ended his 1999 season, “Chewy” mulled retirement.1516 When he was arrested the following April, accused of sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl17 (he was later acquitted18), tight end became the Packers’ obvious draft day need, and Franks their obvious target.
But for all the shine given to Franks that summer, there were cracks too.
He’d blown assignments in minicamp. He made remarkable catches but dropped catchable passes too.1920 Midway through his rookie season, hope for Franks as a dependable red zone target to replace Chmura quieted to a whisper. He caught just six passes for 29 yards through his first three games and averaged 31.3 yards over the next six.
Columnists who months before had penciled Franks in as an instant starter, jubilant in their anticipation for the Favre-Franks magic to come, now lamented the pair’s lack of chemistry. They stopped short of calling him a draft bust so early in the season, but the Packers had “over-reached for Franks,” they wrote.21
So obvious was the pair’s difficulty that Favre couldn’t help dish out a little light ribbing to his rookie tight end. “See if you can run the right route for him, Bubba,” Favre shouted as George W. Bush, then running for president as the governor of Franks’ home state of Texas, tossed Franks a wobbly pass during a campaign stop.22
“See, that’s what I’ve been trying to get him to do,” Favre joked after Franks hauled in the pass.
Monday, September 29, 2003
September 28, 2003 was over. No Hurricanes touchdowns. The Streak faced its end before anybody knew it existed.
But Monday Night Football loomed. Chicago Bears vs. Green Bay Packers, and a trio of Hurricanes called Green Bay home in 2003. Franks shared the Packers roster with fellow UM alums Najeh Davenport and Nick Luchey.
The Packers selected Davenport in the fourth round of the 2002 NFL Draft. He’d have one of his most productive seasons in 2003, averaging 5.5 yards per attempt, tied with fellow Miami alum Clinton Portis for the league lead among running backs with at least 75 carries.
But a nagging hamstring injury would keep him out of the Week 4 Monday Night Football matchup.
Luchey joined the Packers in the offseason after four seasons with the Cincinnati Bengals, who selected him in the fifth round of the 1999 NFL Draft out of Miami (he was known as Nick Williams while at Miami).
Luchey had been inactive the previous two games. He was active heading into Week 4, but he wouldn’t see much time in the backfield.
It was up to Bubba Franks.
Franks’ beleaguered rookie season had shown flashes of hope.
He outperformed his competition, Davis, whose 44.4% catch percentage and 4.5 yards per target trailed Franks’ 61.8% and 6.6, respectively.
“He’s been like most rookies,” said Tom Donahoe, an ESPN analyst and former NFL general manager. “They usually catch the ball all week in practice and they can’t catch it in the games.”23
Franks’ sophomore campaign in 2001 was an entirely different story. He caught a touchdown pass in each of the Packers’ first three games, finished the year with nine, and earned his first trip to the Pro Bowl.
And his seven touchdowns the following year were tops among NFC tight ends and his 54 receptions were second (fellow Miami alum Jeremy Shockey, a rookie in 2002, led the NFC with 74 receptions). Franks even threw a 31-yard touchdown pass on his way to his second Pro Bowl season.
As training camp got underway ahead of the 2003 season, hopes were high for the Packers’ now-fourth-year tight end.
“After being named a Pro Bowl starter in each of the last two seasons, Packers tight end Bubba Franks will be looking to continue to solidify himself as one of the NFL’s premier tight ends.”24
Franks would again make the Pro Bowl in the 2003 season, but after its first three weeks, he had yet to find the end zone. It’s not that Favre wasn’t looking for him. Six targets in Week 1 became three receptions for 18 yards. Three in Week 2 became two receptions for 21 yards.
The loss in Week 3 bore more of the same frustration. Favre targeted Franks six times, including twice on the final drive that became the goal line fiasco. He caught three of them for 22 yards.
The 2003 campaign would be his lightest statistical effort since his rookie season. He’d end the year with 30 receptions on 44 targets for 241 yards, all career lows thus far.
He’d surpass only his rookie season with four touchdown receptions in 2003. But his first was a big one.
Monday Night Football, September 29, 2003, 9 PM ET
Packers-Bears is always a spectacle. But this one carried extra oomph for both sides.
The Packers hoped to avoid slipping further below .500 so early in the season. The Bears hoped their grand reveal of the renovated Soldier Field would net their first win of the season.
Running back Ahman Green put the Packers up 7-0 on a 60-yard run less than three minutes into the Monday night matchup.
A few possessions later, the Packers took over at the Bears’ 20 yard line, and Favre immediately looked for Franks. He hit him for a 14-yard gain, putting Green Bay in a first-and-goal at the six. Prime Franks territory. But the Packers ran it the next play and Green scored again.
Favre added a touchdown pass to fullback William Henderson not long before the half, sending the Packers into the locker room with a 24-6 halftime lead.
One half of football left. No Hurricanes touchdowns. The Streak, nascent and yet unknown, dangling precariously in the balance.
The Bears narrowed Green Bay’s lead to just eight points in the fourth quarter, but Favre’s touchdown pass to Javon Walker on the following drive put the Packers up two scores again.
It also removed much of Green Bay’s motivation to throw the ball. Make Chicago use its timeouts, get the win, and play spoiler to Soldier Field’s big re-reveal, right?
But this was Brett Favre. The Gunslinger. Third most passing attempts in NFL history. He was throwing.
Favre hadn’t looked Franks’ way since that 14-yard reception in the first quarter. Now, on its next possession, third and two at the Chicago 46, with absolutely no reason to throw the ball, he finally looked Franks’ way again. A 24-yard gain that put the Packers just outside the red zone. A couple Green rushes later, the Bears took their second timeout, stopping the clock with 4:31 left in the game.
Third down and six yards to go from the 18 yard line. Well within field goal range. Run the ball and you’ll either get a first down or settle for the field goal on fourth down to go up three scores. But Favre had eyes for the end zone. He lined up in the shotgun and lobbed it…
…to a double-covered Donald Driver. It fell incomplete. Fourth down. Field goal time. The Streak done for.
But then a flag. A pass interference call on cornerback Charles Tillman who seemed to barely touch Walker. “A little picky,” observed color commentator John Madden.
Now it was first down from the Chicago one yard line. With just 4:21 left, Franks again found himself wide open in the end zone. This time, Favre found him.
Favre completed his third touchdown pass of the night, an easy one-yard toss to Franks.
The final minutes of the final quarter of the final game of the week.
A 15-point lead. A third-and-six in field goal range. No incentive to throw the ball. But a pass into the end zone. Incomplete.
A questionable pass interference call makes it first and goal from the one. Still no incentive to throw. But, again, a pass.
To a once-again-inexplicatly-wide-open Franks. Touchdown. Soldier Field emptied, its re-reveal ruined. Packers win.
And The Streak lives. Just barely.
MIAMI ALUMNI NFL TOUCHDOWNS IN WEEK 4 2003: ONE
Garcia, the Hurricanes recruiting coordinator, never landed that kicker he’d gone to see in West Texas back in 1995. David Leaverton chose Tennessee25 and would win a national title with the Volunteers a few years later.
Franks left Miami a couple years shy of the Hurricanes’ fifth national title, but his legacy resonates more than two decades later.
The kid who most programs insisted play defensive end?
He invented Tight End U.
There’s more to this story. Next up: Chapter 4: Tight End U
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The Odessa American, “1995 All-District 4-4A Football Team.” November 28, 1995.
Lee, Mike. “Frankly, Big Spring Recruit Isn’t Worried About Being a No-Name.” San Angelo Standard-Times, February 8, 1996.
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The Odessa American. “Pair of Local Athletes Make Verbal Promises.” The Odessa American, January 24, 1996.
Lee, “Frankly.”
Lago, Joe. “This Bubba Belies His Size.” ESPN.com, March 20, 2000. https://a.espncdn.com/nfl/s/profile/bfranks.html
Fleming, David. “10 Players the NFL Wants Now.” Sports Illustrated, August 16, 1999.
Long, Mark. “Hurricanes Tight End Is A Quarterback’s ‘Dream.’” MiamiHurricanes.com (Associated Press), November 10, 1999. https://miamihurricanes.com/news/1999/11/10/205536443-2/.
Lago, “This Bubba.”
Wilde, Jason. “Shaky Defense No Concern.” Wisconsin State Journal, July 30, 2000.
Demovsky, Rob. “Chmura’s Injury Puzzles Team.” Green Bay Press-Gazette, September 21, 1999.
Dougherty, Pete. “Chmura Likely to Miss Season.” Green Bay Press-Gazette, September 23, 1999.
Nelesen, Andy, “DA Has a Month to Decide on Chmura Charge.” Green Bay Press-Gazette, April 11, 2000.
Associated Press. “Chmura Acquitted of All Charges.” ESPN.com (Associated Press), February 6, 2001. https://www.espn.com/nfl/news/2001/0203/1060174.html.
Dougherty, Pete. “Veteran Davis Holds Off Rookie’s Charge at TE.” Green Bay Press-Gazette, August 25, 2000.
Demovsky, Rob. “Camp Chatter: Did You Notice?” Green Bay Press-Gazette, July 25, 2000.
Havel, Chris. “Freeman, Offense Embarrassing.” The Capital Times, November 13, 2000.
Wilde, Jason. “Freeman Still Wants Ball More: Red-Zone Blues for Bubba.” Wisconsin State Journal, September 30, 2000.
Dougherty, Pete. “Experts: Pack Will Be Back.” The Sheboygan Press, December 10, 2000.
Green Bay Press-Gazette. “Packers Today: What’s New.” Green Bay Press-Gazette, July 15, 2003.
Hadorn, Christopher. “MISD Hall of Legends Inductee Leaverton Recalls Storied Kicking Career.” Midland Reporter-Telegram, October 31, 2025.