Born to Bleed Purple and Gold: Alix Franklin Wants to Help Shape LSU Softball’s Next Chapter

Alix Franklin grew up knowing what LSU softball was supposed to feel like. She remembers the players who carried themselves with toughness, the teams that seemed comfortable in difficult moments and the pride that came with wearing LSU across the chest. Those memories mattered to her long before she ever put on the uniform herself, and now, entering her junior season, Franklin finds herself in a very different position. She is no longer the Louisiana girl watching LSU from the outside. She is one of the players people around the program mention when they talk about who could help shape what this team becomes next.

That responsibility means something to her, especially when she considers how quickly her own story changed. Franklin barely saw the field as a freshman, but a year later she started 56 games, earned Second-Team All-SEC honors and became one of LSU’s most productive everyday players. In 57 games, Franklin hit .287 with a .392 on-base percentage and a .515 slugging percentage, producing 48 hits, eight doubles, six triples, six home runs and 37 RBI while finishing with a .907 OPS.

Yet when Franklin talks about the value she hopes to bring this season, she does not begin with batting average, home runs or postseason honors.

“Bryce has told me multiple times, like, the Lord has given me certain personality and character traits that help bring a team together,” Franklin said. “Not just my athletic abilities that brings the team value. It’s just like my personality, my work ethic, the way that I see people and care for people. I love how that’s how I bring value to the program as well.”

That perspective is rooted in something that has always been central to Franklin’s life: her faith. She does not view softball as the thing that defines her, but rather as one of the platforms she has been given to connect with people. She talks regularly with teammates about faith, shares scriptures and tries to keep perspective when the emotions and pressure of college athletics begin to take over. “We always circle back every conversation to that this is where the Lord has us and we’re blessed,” Franklin said. “We’re going to choose gratitude over how we feel and what we see.”

That mindset became especially important during Franklin’s freshman season, when opportunities were limited and confidence was difficult to hold onto. She admitted there were moments when she began questioning whether she was still good enough to play at this level. Those doubts did not disappear immediately when her sophomore season began, but one weekend in Clearwater changed the way she viewed herself.

Facing a field filled with national powers, Franklin went 0-for-4 with four strikeouts against Oklahoma State. The next day, LSU played Duke, and Franklin hit the first home run of her college career off Cassidy Curd. For Franklin, the swing became more than a statistical milestone. It became proof that she belonged.

“I just doubted myself a little bit because it’s like, we’re playing against UCLA, Oklahoma State, Nebraska,” Franklin said. “I’m like, ‘Oh my God, these are like the top dogs that make it to the World Series. Can I handle this?’” The home run gave her an answer. “That’s what kind of solidified it for me,” Franklin said. “It was like, ‘No, I am 100 percent capable of doing this.’”

Franklin would go on to earn All-SEC recognition, but when she reflects on the season, she sounds almost more proud of how she learned to handle adversity than anything she accomplished statistically. She became more comfortable in the outfield, a position she had never played before arriving at LSU, and she learned how to process failure without allowing one difficult moment to become several.

“I may freak out a little bit. I may cry a little bit in my own time,” Franklin said. “But the way that I just self-reflect and I have a growth mindset through it all, like I’m not one to crash out.”

As productive as Franklin was during her sophomore season, she does not view that year as the finished version of herself offensively. In fact, one of her biggest offseason priorities has been reconnecting with something that was once one of the defining characteristics of her game: power.

Before arriving at LSU, Franklin was known as a hitter pitchers often tried to avoid. Between her junior and senior seasons of high school, she hit more than 40 home runs and was walked close to 100 times, production that helps put into perspective what she means when she talks about wanting to become more dangerous again.

That has shaped the way she approached this offseason, with the goal of putting herself in a better position to drive the ball and bring more of that power back into her game.

“I gained 15 pounds over the summer to put myself in a better position to hit the long ball because that’s what I was known for, and I want to get back to who I am,” Franklin said.

The goal is not to replace what made her successful last season. Franklin already proved she could handle everyday SEC pitching, reach base consistently and produce extra-base hits. What she wants now is to add another layer to that game, pairing the consistency that made her an All-SEC player with the kind of power that once forced opposing teams to pitch around her.

That same desire for growth now extends beyond her own performance. Franklin wants to help shape the kind of team LSU becomes, and her vision is rooted in the teams she grew up watching.

She remembers Sandra Simmons (Moton), Constance Quinn, Savannah Jaquish, Carly Hoover and the players who helped make LSU a fixture in Oklahoma City. Having Moton back around the program as a coach has given Franklin a daily connection to that era and to many of the qualities she admired as a young player.

“I love that we have her as coach because she reminds me every single day of what the program used to be,” Franklin said. “It was just like they worked hard. Whatever coach told them to do, they just did it.” For Franklin, the lesson is not about trying to recreate another era of college softball. The sport has changed, and LSU has changed with it. What she wants to preserve are the qualities that can survive every era: accountability, competitiveness and pride in representing the university.

Franklin once asked the father of former LSU All-American Bailey Landry what made those LSU teams so dangerous when games became difficult. His answer stayed with her. “Every single player in the lineup, every single player on the bench, even if they weren’t good enough to start, they wanted the at-bat in the big moments,” Franklin recalled. “They wanted the ball hit to them when the game was on the line.”

That is the competitive identity Franklin wants this LSU team to continue developing. She wants a group that does not become intimidated when the opponent across the field is equally talented, and she wants players who understand that difficult moments are part of why they came to compete in the SEC in the first place. “If it’s hard, good. So what?” Franklin said.

Franklin believes LSU is already taking meaningful steps in that direction. One of the clearest came during the team’s first conversations this year, when the standard was stated plainly. “The first day of us being together, coach mentioned national championship,” Franklin said. Franklin knows how difficult reaching Oklahoma City is, much less winning there. She is not treating a championship as something that can simply be spoken into existence. What stood out to her was the expectation behind the message and the idea that LSU should approach every day believing that level of success is what it is building toward.

“This program deserves to win a national championship, and every day we’re gonna work to win a national championship,” Franklin said. “Just the switch in the mindset from the coaching staff is already a step forward.”

Franklin is also encouraged by the younger players entering the program. She has already found herself becoming the veteran that freshmen approach for help, something that still feels a little strange after how recently she was the player trying to find her own footing.

Karmen Vazquez has spent time around her. Addie Rackley has asked her to come to the field and help. Other freshmen have impressed Franklin with the questions they ask, how much information they want to absorb and their understanding that nothing will simply be handed to them.

Franklin laughs when she realizes she is now the junior in those conversations, but she embraces the opportunity. She remembers how much uncertainty can come with being a freshman, and she now has the chance to make that transition easier for someone else while reinforcing the kind of work ethic she believes LSU will need.

The most personal part of Franklin’s vision for the program, however, may have developed away from the field.

During the summer, Franklin and fellow Louisiana native Cali Deal began talking about LSU itself. They discussed the university’s history, traditions and what it means to represent a place that has been part of their lives since childhood. Franklin began learning more about LSU’s history, while Deal reached out to alumni, former students and others connected to the university and asked them to share what LSU meant to them. “We’re just thinking about ideas to teach the people what it means to wear the letters across your chest,” Franklin said.

For Franklin and Deal, that connection has always been deeply personal. They grew up in Louisiana. Purple and gold were part of home long before either became an LSU softball player. But Franklin has also developed an appreciation for teammates who came from across the country and made the decision to leave home because they wanted to become part of LSU.

That distinction led to one of the most emotional moments of the conversation.

“Cali Deal and I were born to bleed purple and gold,” Franklin said. When speaking of the transfers and incoming freshman she says “They know what it means to leave home to choose to bleed purple and gold. To me, that makes me have chills thinking about that.”

That may be the best explanation of what Franklin hopes LSU softball becomes. She wants players from different states, different backgrounds and different recruiting paths to eventually arrive at the same understanding: representing LSU means something, and the responsibility attached to those letters should show itself when games become difficult.

She wants fans to feel that when they watch this team. More importantly, she wants opponents to feel it. “I want people in the stands to be like, ‘Oh yeah, LSU is down right now, but that doesn’t matter,’” Franklin said. “At any point they could always flip the script.”

What excites her is the direction she sees: a coaching staff talking openly about championships, talented freshmen arriving eager to learn and returning players beginning to understand the responsibility they have in helping shape the program.

“The program is trending in the right direction,” Franklin said.

Franklin knows that better than most because her own career is proof that meaningful change rarely happens instantly. She went from barely seeing the field to becoming an All-SEC player because she kept showing up, kept believing and kept working through the moments that made her question herself. Now she wants to help LSU carry that same mentality forward, with a team that embraces difficult moments, takes pride in representing the university and understands why wearing those letters across the chest matters.

For Franklin, that is the LSU softball she grew up watching. Now she has a chance to help shape what the next generation remembers.