McElwain: QB race ‘a true competition'
GAINESVILLE Three open practices, three starting quarterbacks.
Expect more of the same as Florida Gators coach Jim McElwain spends the coming days and weeks sorting out a QB race that so far has lived up to its billing.
“This is good, man, because there’s some guys fighting for the starting job,” McElwain said Monday. “I mean not just, ‘now it’s kind of mine.’ There’s a true competition, and that’s a good thing.”
A season ago, coaches name Luke Del Rio the starter early in preseason camp. In 2015, the two-man race between Will Grier and Treon Harris felt contrived.
McElwain and his staff hope the upcoming competition delivers a quarterback who can deliver for the Gators an entire season. It is a three-man race. Notre Dame graduate transfer Malik Zaire opened Monday’s practicer with the first-team offense. During a rollout lay on third down, Zaire flashed the mobility that could add a new dimension, but the play ended with his second straight incompletion.
On Friday, redshirt junior Luke Del Rio, who opened 2016 as the starter, worked with the first unit. A day earlier, redshirt freshman Feleipe Franks kicked of preseason practices as the team’s starter.
McElwain is giving each quarterback plenty of opportunities to separate himself.
Practices are set up so if one quarterback is running two-minute drill, for example, the others are working on routes with receivers.
“The cumulative rep count with each guy is actually a lot,” McElwain said. “And now you're able to grade every single one of them.”
Following the first day in full pads Monday, McElwain said has noticed a common and encouraging thread.
“Just technically, the guys have learned to get their feet in the ground, their cleats in the ground, and to get the ball out,” McElwain said.
McElwain said increasing confidence in the Gators’ receiving corps helps.
UF’s depth and talent at receiver led one major publication, Athlon Sports, to rank the unit No. 4 nationally, and first in the SEC.
“Everybody has different playing styles,” sophomore Tyrie Cleveland said. “I feel like personally everybody can contribute and be part of the offense in different ways.”
The 6-foot-2, 196-pound Cleveland can stretch the field while slot receivers Dre Massey and Brandon Powell are best working underneath. Junior Antonio Callaway, the unit’s star, can do both. Meanwhile, sophomores Josh Hammond and Freddie Swain are expected to build off promising moments from a season ago.
“We had a really good freshman group,” Massey said. “They came in and let everybody know they may be young but they’re ready to play.”
The wild card, first-year freshman James Robinson, arrived last Friday after the NCAA cleared him academically.
At 6-foot-4, 205 pounds, Robinson brings an element to the Gators no one else can offer.
“He’s big,” marveled.
Robinson, the highest rated offensive recruit in UF’s 2017 class, can establish position on smaller defensive back and win the ball in the air.
Robinson is a bit raw and extremely rusty, but his potential is obvious.
“Time will tell,” said. McElwain McElwain