At 12:45 p.m. on Monday morning Luke Del Rio underwent surgery to repair a broken collarbone. The redshirt junior had replaced Feleipe Franks as the Florida Gators starting quarterback but suffered the injury with five minutes remaining in the first half against Vanderbilt.
This is the fifth consecutive season the Gators have had injuries force their hand at the most important position on the field and Del Rio isn’t even the first quarterback to suffer a season ending injury. Kyle Trask is still recovering from foot surgery that has him in a walking boot and McElwain said Monday that Trask is “a ways away” from being able to even return to the practice field.
With two quarterbacks out what does Florida’s depth chart look like now?
Franks, who was the starting job coming out of fall camp will be the starter and Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire will back him up. Freshman Jake Allen is set to redshirt this season
Franks has had an up and down season. He won the starting job against Michigan but was replaced in the second half in favor of Zaire. McElwain stayed with the redshirt freshman against Tennessee but yanked Franks the following week after the offense stalled on the road at Kentucky. Del Rio finished that game, leading two touchdown drives to complete a comeback victory.
What kind of leash Franks will have this week against LSU or in the future is unknown but Zaire is preparing himself to play, knowing he could be one snap away from the starting job.
“Malik prepares just as well as anybody on our team. He works extremely hard and I think if he gets put in the situation where he has to go in and play the game I’m completely comfortable with him going in and playing,” starting left guard Brett Heggie said. “He’s a great athlete, he prepares, he works hard and I think he’ll be fine too.”
In addition freshman athlete Kadarius Toney will see an expanded role. Toney has seen his role increase each week. The freshman from Alabama was a quarterback in high school and Florida has used him as a wildcat quarterback as well as a receiver. Toney completed his first pass of the season, a 50-yard bomb to Tyrie Cleveland, against Kentucky. He scored Florida’s first rushing touchdown in eight games the same night against the Wildcats.
“We’ve got to continue to grow what we’re doing with Kadarius at that position, as well,” McElwain said Monday.
After those three Florida also has true freshman Jake Allen. The first year player out of St. Thomas Aquinas High School is on track to redshirt this season and would likely only have that plan changed if both Franks and Zaire were injured at the same time.