An optimistic Dan Mullen hoped to know who his starting quarterback would be following the Florida Gators second scrimmage but it wasn’t it the cards.
On Monday, a day after the second scrimmage, Mullen was optimistic about the position, noting that all three scholarship quarterbacks graded out as “champion” during Sunday night’s scrimmage but he wasn’t ready to name a starter, even internally.
Mullen would like to have a starter picked out already but it’s not a decision he’ll take lightly.
“When you look at camp, we kind of get the guys a lot of the same reps. I don’t know, distancing themselves from this or that. I think we’re getting guys ready to go play right now,” he said Monday. “Then, over the next couple of days, Brian and I will really sit down and evaluate who is going to give us the best opportunity to win games.”
This isn’t the case of a cat and mouse game with Mullen and the media or fans and don’t expect to have a Steve Spurrier quarterback yo-yo situation either. Mullen fully plans to have a starting quarterback named before the first game.
Wednesday he was asked if that was the case, if he would have a concrete starting quarterback named before September 1, or if he’ll use the opener against Charleston Southern as an audition before the Gators open SEC play in week two against Kentucky.
“No,” Mullen responded. “We’ll have a starter for the first game.”
When asked if that would be “his guy” Mullen answered in the affirmative, with a small caveat.
“Unless all of a sudden, they perform differently on game day than we’d expect someone to perform or something falls off the cliff that way. I’d like to have it that this is the starter and we’re going to go and it’s their job from that point forward,” said Mullen.
The starting job will come down to Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask. Freshman Emory Jones has made strides but he has worked almost exclusively with the second and third teams in practice. Franks has worked slightly more with the first team offense than Trask but Trask had a better second scrimmage than Franks.
There’s only a little over a week left before the Gators’ first game but Mullen is determined and remains optimistic that he’ll be able to name a starting quarterback before then and that whomever he chooses will be his guy for the long haul.