Fans of the Florida Gators and Michigan Wolverines that want to know who will be their team’s starting quarterback will have to wait until Saturday. Neither Jim Harbaugh nor Jim McElwain were ready to reveal this top-secret information on Monday.
“The quarterback situation, we have a plan that’s in place,” McElwain said. “Not going to tell you what it is, so there’s no reason to ask, but we’re excited about that. We’ll leave that for them to guess as well.”
Harbaugh, too, was asked about his quarterback battle. The Wolverines have a returning starter in Wilton Speight, a transfer in John O’Korn and Brandon Peters battling for the job. Speight, from most accounts, is expected to be the starter. That didn’t stop Harbaugh from firing a shot back towards Florida.
“I have not heard Florida announce who their starting quarterback will be. We’d love to have that information,” Harbaugh said to local media on Monday. “So, no, we’re not announcing our starting quarterback. “People have made a big deal about our roster or not announcing a starting quarterback. I have not seen a starting quarterback (announced at) Florida. Never any mention of that. Very interesting.”
Last week McElwain said there were “absolutely” no mind games being played by the “non” announcement of a quarterback but admitted Monday that there is some gamesmanship involved.
“They’re going to prepare, obviously, for the read-option stuff and quarterback run stuff as well as being able to contain a guy in the pocket. At the same time, we’ve got to prepare for locking it up and letting those other guys throw ‘er down field.”
Neither coach will tip their hand until they have to trot somebody out on the field Saturday (3:30 on ABC). Dre Massey, a former high school quarterback wasn’t going to stray far from the company line, even muddying it further.
“I might be in the race, I don’t know,” he joked.