Gators to face familiar QB issue
Florida will soon head into another offffseason and eventually another fall not knowing what its future looks like at quarterback.
There is no greater source of frustration for the fan base and no more important issue for coach Jim McElwain and his staff to solve after the Jan. 2 Outback Bowl game against Iowa.
“That’s something we’ve got to do, we’ve got to make sure it happens sooner than later. That’s my responsibility, and it will get done,” McElwain said after the SEC Championship game. But how? Who? When? These are questions that loom over the Gators’ future, the reason some fans look at back-to-back SEC title game appearances and still feel dissatisfified with the direction of the program.
Unfortunately, 2016 — like 2015, 2014, 2013 and so on — was ultimately a lost year in regard to finding a cornerstone piece at the most important position.
To be fair to Luke Del Rio, who will return in 2017, he never really got a chance to develop through the season. There’s simply no way to know at this point what he might have been this season if not for that knee injury he sustained in Week 3. Even though he sat out nearly a month to let it heal, he never looked fully recovered upon his return. He lacked oomph on his deep throws, threw six interceptions in three games after coming back and then returned to the sideline with a shoulder injury.
M e a n w h i l e , A u s t i n Appleby is gone after this season. The graduate transfer from Purdue got far more pl ayi ng t i me — s i x s t ar t s already and one more coming in the Outback Bowl — than anyone expected in his lone season at Florida.
Collec tively, it was just another frustrating season for the Florida offffffffffffense.
Nol e s ’ C o o k t o p l ay: LSU’s Leonard Fournette and Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey say they will skip their bowl games to get a head start on NFL draft preparation. But Dalvin Cook will play in what could be the final colle ge game of hi s career when No. 11 Florida State faces No. 6 Michigan on Friday in the Orange Bowl.
Coach Jimbo Fisher nodded when asked if he would b e “s t u n n e d” i f C o o k , a junior, wanted to sit out. “Actually, I would be,” Fisher said. “I would be.”