Utah sophomore defensive end John Frank doesn't worry that his swollen-and-purple bruised right hand will be a problem for him in football drills this week at Camp Carbon.
"I tape my hands up real good," he says. Last year at Camp Carbon, he almost lost the middle-fingertip on his right hand and had to have it sewn back on. "It was hanging by a thread," he says. He practiced with a big cast on the hand and says it helped him learn better technique.Frank, from Salt Lake County's Skyline High team that won the state championship in 1991, does flinch a little, though, when he thinks how an injured hand could affect his other endeavor - as saxophonist and vocalist for the Beverly Brothers jazz band that played this summer at the Manhattan Club in downtown Salt Lake City. Sax players need dexterity in both hands.
The group is named for Frank's mother, Beverly, who also sings in the band. Father Alan Frank is the keyboardist. A former radio announcer who owns an advertising agency, Alan met Beverly, a Capitol Records artist, when he hired her. They got John hooked at a tender age on classic jazz music. At about 7, John started singing around the house, like his mother. At times, he liked hard rock, ska and more rebellious music, but old jazz standards are his favorite now.
Friends play other instruments in the band. Teammate Jimmy Nolan, a defensive back, works the crowds, getting up to dance when the music starts.
Just prior to Ute training camp, the Beverly Brothers cut a demo CD. "Who knows?" says Frank, daydreaming about a burgeoning Salt Lake audience. "If I had my way, it would even go beyond," he says. "I don't think I'm good," Frank says of his saxophone playing. "I'm a better vocalist than I am on sax, although I can hold my own on sax. I just love it, and that's why I'd like to pursue it," Frank says, absently flexing the puffy hand.
At first, Frank says he hurt his hand during a play; then he admits it "could have" come from one of the many on-field scuffles the Utes have had. That's not a problem, Frank says. They're all friends again when they get to the sidelines. Frank has faith in this team, which he says is more cohesive than last year's, which underachieved at the end (1-3 in its last four games). "Last year, the defensive line and linebackers needed to be more physical," Frank says. "We're in a better situation. We have the right guys in the right slots. I feel a lot better about it."
Frank is scheduled to start at open (weak) end, but he figures he must keep proving himself because coaches are looking for speed and aggression. "They can move a lot of guys around," he says. He plans to thwart that. "It's what I've been looking forward to for so long," he says. "My goal is to be a three-year starter."
Frank signed with his parents' alma mater, Utah, out of Skyline, torn between going there and to Ricks College with his friends. "It was one of the hardest decisions I ever made," he says, but he foresaw "a seven-year plan. I had to really map out my life." He thinks he was right. His friends came back from LDS missions and didn't play any more. He came back from his mission to Spain, redshirted, played as a freshman and is now the starter.
Except for a brief time, Frank has liked football best of all the sports he played, including tennis and golf, which he finds unusual games for a 6-foot-5, 248-pounder. At one point, he quit football. "Maybe I thought it was too hard and time-consuming," he says. "I didn't think it was for me. I could have damaged my future. I owe this one to my mom. She talked me into playing."
The Franks (there's a brother at Johns Hopkins majoring in political theory and a sister who's married with three children and living in Salt Lake City) are a close family. John, referred to in the Utah media guide as the defense's strongest, fastest defensive lineman, is close enough to his parents that he's not embarrassed about still living in their basement at age 23 and that he'd like to spend some of his life after football making music with them.