Will Grier and Treon Harris shared quarterback duties in the Florida Gators 61-13 season opening win over New Mexico State and that quarterback competition for the starting job will continue on into the second week of the season.
Jim McElwain gave Harris the nod to start in the opener where the sophomore completed his first seven passes and played into the second quarter before giving way to Grier, who played the middle two quarters before Harris came back in to finish the game.
McElwain was hesitant to put himself in a corner by divulging what his plan for the quarterback rotation would be prior to the game, but an organic stoppage in play allowed for Grier to get in and then when it was time for Harris to get back into the fold he inserted him in again.
“I thought both quarterbacks had moments that were really good,” McElwain said on Monday. “I thought Treon showed some escapability and created big plays down the field, extended plays. I think that’s a real positive. I thought what Will did was come in with that two-minute drive right there before half, which actually was really big, and what I mean by that is we gave up a score and we answered.”
Neither quarterback was able to create the separation needed to be named the starter moving forward. To some, the offense may have looked more efficient under Grier but there was that pesky fumble Grier had that Treon did not have.
The performance of both quarterbacks largely leaves us in the same predicament as a week ago. There is still an “OR” between the two young passers on the depth chart and McElwain is one against left to figure out a way to get both into the game in meaningful situations to continue evaluating each.
One way to help the evaluation process would be to invert the playing rotation the two had in the opener, getting Grier a start to see how he handles that pressure and letting Harris play in the middle of the game, potentially getting an opportunity to run a two-minute drill like Grier was afforded last week. It’s a scenario that McElwain is considering.
“It’s something we talked about, maybe looking at it,” he said before continuing on about the situation. “We’ll kind of look at that and I’ll let you know, like I did, but we’ll play both like we did next week as far as how we’ll do it. I’m sure it will be similar. We kind of hit it, I’m not sure the exact pitch count, it worked out a little bit, we tried to sit in kind of that three series, 12 to 15 reps, go from there, and it’s just kind of in the flow of the game how it works.”
When the question was posed to him about potentially playing both quarterbacks all season long, McElwain wouldn’t shoot it down but his track record shows a propensity to pick a guy and run with him.
With just one tune up game left before the start of conference play on the road at Kentucky, Saturday night in the Swamp might turn out to be the final audition for the starting quarterback position.