McElwain thinks Luke Del Rio’s mistakes are correctable

Luke Del Rio’s return to action was highly anticipated by Gator fans following a dismal six quarters of offense, but Del Rio’s performance didn’t live up to the expectations.

The redshirt sophomore quarterback completed 18-of-38 pass attempts, a season low 47.4 completion percentage, for 236 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions.

“I played terrible,” Del Rio said after the game Saturday night. “I didn’t take care of the ball. It’s my responsibility to take care of the ball.”

Del Rio missed two games following after a low hit left him with a sprained MCL in a win over North Texas. Since the injury he has worn a bulky brace on his left knee — something that has taken time to get used to. Del Rio walked stiffly on the brace when he traveled with the team to Tennessee the week following the injury but has grown more comfortable with it and said his knee felt great on Saturday. Del Rio wouldn’t blame his injury or the weather on his career-high three-interception day.

“Brett Favre said playing injured or hurt is not an excuse for playing poorly. Knee didn’t affect me at all,” he said. “It was just bad decisions, bad throws. The field didn’t have anything to do with it.”

McElwain ripped Del Rio on Saturday for the poor decisions, “He got on me pretty good,” De Rio said. “But yeah, I don’t blame him.”

McElwain was more forgiving on Wednesday during a press conference, however.

“Oh absolutely, 100 percent. I think the biggest thing is don’t try to do too much. And I think he was, you know, he took the plan, he knew the plan and yet he got himself into trouble,” said McElwain. “I like to refer to it sometimes when you’re playing that position as seeing ghosts rather than just taking what’s real and doing it. And I think he saw that when he watched the video.”

Del Rio’s interceptions were all forced into tight coverage or overthrown. The first came on a second-and-one in the second quarter, right after Florida’s defense forced a three-and-out. Jalen Tabor picked up him up one play later with a pick six. Quincy Wilson padded the Florida lead to 20-0 with a pick six of his own but Del Rio was picked off again just before the half. Del Rio’s second attempt of the second half was intercepted but the Gators offense was able to get the ground game going and put up more than 500 yards of offense for the second time this season.

Ultimately, as Jim McElwain always says, you can’t get opportunities back. Once the ball leaves Del Rio’s hand there’s nothing he can do about it. McElwain is confident that his quarterback will learn from his mistakes but is encouraged by how the offense was able to function with Del Rio back at the helm.

“There was a sense of, you know we’ll get it, we’ll get it going. And I thought we kind of did there,” McElwain said. “So, there’s some throws that he wants back, but here’s the good thing here, the one thing he’s got to realize here is you never get it back. But what do you learn from it. And he’s one of those guys.”

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC