FAYETTEVILLE, Ark — Florida Gators fans had lost confidence in starting quarterback Luke Del Rio weeks ago. On Saturday so did Del Rio’s head coach.
“Yeah, yeah we did,” McElwain confirmed when asked if the coaching staff thought about pulling Del Rio on Saturday. “You know, just didn’t do it, but yeah it crossed our minds.”
McElwain added that it isn’t too late in the season for freshmen Kyle Trask or Feleipe Franks to be considered to start. That move would burn the redshirt status that the two still have available to them.
Del Rio looked like the answer to Florida’s quarterback woes. He completed 29-of-44 (65.9%) with two scores in the season opener. He threw four more touchdowns on 19-of-32 (59.4%) in a 45-7 win over Kentucky in the second game of the season before a slight step back against North Texas in the third game. Del Rio completed 62-of-101 (61.4%) pass attempts with six touchdowns and one interception before his injury.
He hasn’t been the same quarterback since.
In three games since returning, with a bulky brace that he looks less than comfortable with, Del Rio has completed just 52-of-100 (52%) and has six interceptions to two touchdowns.
“You know, guys obviously when you lose, that’s part of playing the position of quarterback. I mean, everybody’s ready to put you on your shoulders when you win and when you don’t play great as a team, it’s usually the place that’s pointed to,” McElwain said of Del Rio. “That’s also part of playing the spot. That’s why we chose to play that position is to take the responsibility.”
Del Rio won the starting quarterback job because of his familiarity of the offense. He’s a smart quarterback that can pick up what the defense is doing at the line of scrimmage, makes checks at the line and someone you should be able to trust to not turn the ball over. His first pass against Arkansas was forced into a tight window, bobbled by freshman receiver Tyrie Cleveland, intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
“It was kind of a man-zone read. They came out and played man and played man most of the game. You know, I probably should have gotten off of him,” Del Rio said. “They had good coverage. Guy made a good play breaking it up, safety made a really good play catching the tipped ball and returning it. It’s on me.”
Del Rio threw another interception in the first half, giving him eight touchdowns and eight interceptions on the season. Six of those have come in the last three games and Florida’s offense has mustered up just threw up a goose egg against a team that gave up 56 points and 632 yards of offense their last timeout.
Jim McElwain sat at the podium at a loss for words. He looked tired, frustrated and defeated. He didn’t pull Del Rio because the Gators were about to get into their two-minute offense late in the game. By that time the game was all but over with the score at 31-10. Too late to change the game, but not too late to make a statement.
Del Rio was emotional in his postgame press conference, especially when he began talking about senior day next week and playing for the senior class
“Senior day against South Carolina next. Really excited for it, really excited for an opportunity to play for the seniors,” he said. “They’ve dedicated so much to the program.”
The Gators will play South Carolina next week, the question leading up to the game is will Del Rio be the one to lead them?
Most coaches kind of fumble the QB situation miserably. We’ll see what Mac does. At a minimum having a truly open competition would be ideal.
Nick,
Before yesterday LDR had tied Treon’s INT total from last year, now he leads by 2 (objective fact) despite facing weaker defenses. Yes, I consider last year’s LSU, UGA, Vandy, FSU, Bama, and Michigan defenses superior (I assume that’s an objective fact if those defenses are lined up against this year’s UMass, UK, North Texas, Mizzou, UGA, and Arky). I’ve not looked it up, but I know that as of pre-game he had a lower yards per attempt (6.9) than Treon last year (7.1). And I’d say that this years line is in general deeper and more experienced than the one we had down the stretch last year when Dillard went out.
Lasts year, no pundit on this site or other Gator sites talked about how Treon needed more help from the running game (seriously, look at how bad KT was against the defenses listed above), but I’m willing to bet we will hear it this week as an apology for LDR. We will hear how big of a role an injury played in all these INT’s, except when you watch the film, they are mostly, if not all mental errors like this week’s or last week’s. Man, even LDR says that the defender hit the ball on the first INT, but this article makes it seems like it hit Cleveland in the numbers, bounced off his pads, untouched by the D, and found its way for a pick six.
I’m not here to justify Treon, but to show that LDR is playing measurably worse against lesser teams with, in my opinion, better talent around him. I’m just writing to ask for some integrity in following the situation this week. Last year, there was no defense of Treon, even after a 271 yard, 2 TD, 0 INT performance at night in Death Valley with only 35 yards rushing from the team if you subtract his scrambles. Don’t play with kid gloves for a guy whose been in the system for well over a year, in college for 4, when you wouldn’t do it for a true sophomore behind a banged up line, with a running game that couldn’t get the job done against most good defenses. Be consistent, show integrity, that’s what Gator Nation deserves this week, not excuses or shifted blame.
At this point in the season, I don’t see any upside in sticking with LDR. He looks scared and confused back there. He can’t scramble effectively, was no threat to run the ball when healthy let alone now, and has lost any downfield vision he had at the beginning of the year. In the first few games he hit some big passes and missed some, but the misses weren’t massively off like they are now. Treon for all of his awfulness could use his legs to get some yardage. I don’t think Appleby is the answer either, I would give a solid look at the two freshman and think real hard about pulling a redshirt. I just don’t put much faith in a clearly shaken LDR or a washed up Perdue transfer.
Gatortruth…good post. Although, without bringing Treon back into the conversation it is pretty easy to see that Luke just isn’t the answer and I’m not sure he has the upside to compete at a satisfactory level in the SEC and certainly not here at Florida. All of his transfers are starting to make sense. Our offensive numbers show that our coaches still haven’t figured it out. It is boring, and uncreative for the most part. I mean you can watch practically any saturday college game on TV and very few offences are as inept as ours. In the 90’s Florida was a model offense, with Meyer we were a model offence. for the past 6 years we’ve been pretty horrific.
Additionally, once we leave the Swamp we are listless and ineffective. Gotta be able to win on the road with some regularity especially against lesser teams. I know this is easy for me to say being a fan, but many coaches are doing more with much less. We need to play inspired football. I’m waiting for a fan to run up to Mac during a game and peel at his ear and suddenly have a mask come off his face and see it’s been Muschamp the whole time! Yikes. Scary newsflash: SCe is coming to town and their offense is better than ours…Question: what is worse than losing to a lesser conference team on Homecoming? Losing to SCe on Senior day. Burn some redshirts. If we lose it will at least make sense and we’ll be working towards the future. I don’t doubt Luke’s team spirit and desire, Mac’s either. It’s the results that bother most of us. I often wonder what’s being said at halftime. Coaches get paid to coach, right? Our offensive mediocrity is so 1970’s. The mental preparedness of this team could use a shot of positive mojo…is it recruiting, coaching, mental preparedness, lack of leadership-all the above? Maybe it’s just me being overly critical. I guess we’ll soon learn. It’s just weird when it’s more exciting watching Kentucky and Vandy this year. I’m a Gator and bleed orange and blue but I won’t deny my frustration.
Go Gators.
Del Rio is 5’11” , about 200lbs…He’s NOT an SEC QB. Avg arm, NO MOBILITY, and no confidence right now. Start Appleby, and play Franks if needed next week..Felipe Franks hopefully is our future QB; 4 star, 6’5″ , 225 lbs with a rocket arm that can move…Plain and simple….need to play Franks sooner rather than wait and continue to lose games…2 coaching staffs, and 7 yrs later we have 0 QB’s produced…pathetic…
clearly he’s not the same player, whether he’s healthy or not does not change the fact that something needs to be done. we are in a position to do something and salvage a season that proves we have moved forward from our previous tenure. i like the kid and he is a leader but when you are missing guys wide open on touch passes, something is wrong
put Trask in, can’t get any worse. at least teams won’t know what to expect for at least a few quarters anyway
Simply stated “UF is boring on Offense”
Yeah, something needs to change… Del Rio never was our long term QB so we might as well make a switch now. Appleby has stronger arm, but in the thought of long term planning we might as well use Trask or Franks at this point and see what happens. If they work, then we have better planning for next year with some experience.
At this point, does anyone really want to squeak into the SECG and then get obliterated, for all time int he record books, AGAIN by Alabama? I don’t. Getting there means nothing if you are destroyed and add fuel to the West is Best. Just look at all the times Florida destroyed a team from the West in the SECG… no one remembers the reasons, just the final score.