Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain has been on an offseason speaking tour, greeting Gator clubs around the country. That tour took him to New York to meet with the Gotham City Gator Club, but first a trip to the Sports Illustrated offices.
Speaking with the managing editor of SI Now, Ryan Hunt, McElwain touched on a variety of topics, most interestingly is confidence in the quarterback position. Redshirt sophomore Luke Del Rio and graduate transfer Austin Appleby split the first team reps in the spring. Appleby brings years of experience, having played and started at Purdue, and Del Rio brings the knowledge of Florida’s system after spending a year in it.
McElwain’s inaugural season in Gainesville was a tale of two halves. The Gators started the season 6-0 with Will Grier at quarterback and limped to a disappointing finish when Treon Harris took over the job, following Grier’s suspension for performance enhancing drugs. Throughout the final seven games McElwain commented that the 10 players around the quarterback needed to play better, something he believes the team has accomplished after spring practice.
“We highly upgraded competition at a lot of the positions and that usually helps you become a really good football team,” McElwain said in the interview that was broadcast on Facebook.
That’s all well and good, but the Gators need to find a quarterback. McElwain never truly named a starting quarterback in 2015, at least vocally. It took three weeks before the reps really showed that Grier was the starter. It didn’t hurt the team, but McElwain hopes to have a final decision made sooner than that in 2016.
“Luke [Del Rio] had a good spring game, and yet Austin [Appleby] did some good things in the situational stuff we did,” McElwain said. “So they’ll be battling it out over the summer. Hope to get something maybe nailed down a couple of weeks before that first game.”
Florida has a quartet of quarterbacks in the fold. Feleipe Franks appears to be the one with the most to work on, while fellow freshman Kyle Trask impressed with his poise, accurate arm and mechanics. It is, however, really a two man race between Appleby and Del Rio, with the latter looking the most capable of leading the team this fall.
It would be easy for a room where four players sit together knowing that only one of them will get meaningful reps to become contentious but that hasn’t been the case. In the spring Appleby complimented Del Rio for helping him wade through and memorize a new system and both veterans have taken the freshmen under their wing.
“First and foremost, it’s a fun room. Coaches will tell you, those position rooms, they kind of take on a feeling of their own. And having strong position rooms really helps your football team,” McElwain said of the quarterbacks. “In this case, having a quarterback room with a couple guys who understand what it is to be successful, what it is to study a game plan, an install, and how to go about your business, that’s a big piece of being a quarterback.”
The additions of the 12 early enrollees and the rest of the recruiting class that will join next month have McElwain feeling good about his team. Most preseason polls have Florida ranked in the 20s; Athlon Sports has Florida ranked as the sixth best team in the SEC, third best in the East, the same division they won a year ago. McElwain’s a master motivator and probably enjoys that most national pundits are down on his team. He isn’t.
“We’ve got a team now that can stretch the ball vertically. We’ve got good arms. In some cases, we’ve got a couple of elite arms. That’s fun to see,” he said. “I think being able to attack the way that our offense is designed is something we’re excited about.”