It’s too early to make any assumptions about the state of the Florida Gators three-way quarterback competition after one day of fall camp, but it’s not too early to make a few assessments.
Redshirt sophomores Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask split first-team reps in Friday’s practice, as expected, and that will be the plan moving forward. Head coach Dan Mullen said freshman Emory Jones will get his shot at some of those snaps as well.
During the open portion of practice, Jones showed that he could hang with the other two guys, as he did towards the end of spring. The way he’s been attacking the competition so far has caught Mullen’s eye.
“He is a freshman and I expect him to look like a freshman, and sometimes he doesn’t look like a freshman because he has had a spring and you can see he has worked hard at it,” he said. “Other days I’ll go out there, and I think the other way, where I’m like, he should look better than that. Then I’ll remember, oh, he’s a freshman.”
After spending media day only asking about Franks’ position going into fall camp, more attention came to Trask following the first practice.
Trask showed the most accuracy of the three quarterbacks in the open portion and had a quick release with good zip on the ball.
“One of the things that I do like that Kyle does is he’s very conscious about trying to do what we ask him to do,” Mullen said. “He’s got great size within the pocket. There’s a benefit to size at the quarterback position. A lot of people like it because it’s just easier to see with things. He does a great job of staying tall in the pocket and seeing what’s going on to be able to distribute the ball. He’s got a bunch of arm talent in that he can make throws at different angles on different levels and be accurate with it.”
While many have knocked Trask for not fitting the style of offense this coaching staff runs, Mullen did not seem to feel worried about that on Friday.
He has made it clear that he will adapt to whoever wins the job. But then again, if it is Trask, Mullen believes he can go in and make the plays on his feet that are expected in this offense.
“He’s not Michael Vick back there running around,” he said. “But he’s a very willing runner and he runs physical as a big guy. He’s more than capable to doing everything we need him to do to be really successful at it … I’ve always said you have to be a willing runner. The one thing he does is he’s willing and he’s physical about his style of running.”
No matter who comes out on top of this battle in the coming weeks, Mullen’s biggest expectation from a starting quarterback is consistency. He talked about it at media day on Thursday and reiterated again after the first practice that he wants his guys to be able to make the smart, but not necessarily flashy plays.
That doesn’t mean he won’t take a beautiful 70-yard touchdown pass or a 30-yard run every now and again, but those typically aren’t the plays that ultimately win football games, and he wants all three quarterbacks to understand that.
“I saw some really good things,” Mullen said. “The best play today I saw was probably Trask. They doubled an out cut, and he checked it down for six yards. That’s the best play we saw … Great quarterbacks make unspectacular plays. I want to see you consistently make the unspectacular play. That doesn’t always compute for young people.”