Third-year sophomore Luke Del Rio had a near-perfect Orange & Blue Debut.
Del Rio, Pineiro Spring Into Action at Orange & Blue Debut
Friday, April 8, 2016 | Football, Chris Harry
Share:
The new QB and kicker were the stars of first prime-time spring game in UF history
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Some new Florida football faces put some big smiles on Florida fans' faces Friday night.
Third-year sophomore quarterback Luke Del Rio showed why he's established himself as the leader in a race among four players who have never thrown a pass at UF. Del Rio, who sat out last season after transferring from Oregon State, completed 10 of 11 passes for 176 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions to lead the Blue team to a 44-6 rout in the annual Orange & Blue Debut before an estimated crowd of 46,000 in the first UF spring game ever held at night.
For Del Rio, it was a nice way to culminate a spring season when he wasn't always as sharp as he'd like.
"I was pressing a little bit [early in the spring], not letting the offense work for me," he said. "They do a great job of installing plays, putting guys open for us. I just kind of let the offensive line do what they do, let the receivers do what they do and I just went through the progressions. It's easier that way. The coaches are right. Run the offense, it works."
Del Rio fired touchdown passes of 15 yards to tight end DeAndre Goolsby and 19 to junior wide receiver Dre Massey. The Blue also got a 26-yard touchdown from junior running back Mark Thompson and a 20-yard interception return by junior safety Duke Dawson, who had two picks on the night.
And just for kicks (pardon the pun), freshman Eddy Pineiro went 3-for-5 on field-goal attempts, nailing boots from 52, 46 and 56 yards out, with his lone misses coming from 54 and 52. He also was good on all five of his extra points and was roundly applauded by a crowd that watched the Gators struggle mightily -- 7-for-17 on field goals -- to convert a kick during the 2015 season.
"It's a little bit of a relief for us, as a staff," Coach Jim McElwain said after seeing Pineiro, a soccer player in high school, kick field goals for the first time in a competitive environment with fans in the stands. "We wanted to see how he would do coming into the stadium and I thought he answered the bell pretty darn good."
For what it's worth, no one booed when Pineiro pushed his two (long) misses wide right.
Worth noting: Pineiro, Thompson and Massey -- who room together -- are all JuCo transfers and certainly made their mark and presence known to their new faithful.
"We're making a pretty good impact, from what I've seen so far," Thompson said.
JuCo transfer running back Mark Thompson takes off on his 26-yard touchdown run in the first quarter. He finished with five carries for 46 yards and the score.
Del Rio's best competition mostly came from Austin Appleby, the Purdue transfer who took snaps for both teams and combined to go 8-for-11 for 80 yards. The other two QBs in the hunt, true freshmen Kyle Trask and Feleipe Franks, had their moments. Trask hit four of seven throws for 63 yards. Franks had good and bad moments, with three of his first four passes intercepted, including the TD return by Dawson. On the game's final play, though, Franks found tight end C'yontai Lewis, who missed a portion of last season with a broken hand, for a 16-yard touchdown as time expired.
Overall, the Orange squad had a tough night, gaining just 153 yards of total offense (on just 33 plays), in large part because of a Blue defense that got a big night from redshirt freshman Kylan Johnson, a safety-turned-linebacker who had eight tackles (six solo) and an interception.
On the Blue offensive side, Del Rio didn't appear to do anything to change the pecking order heading into the offseason. McElwain, no surprise, wasn't ready to anoint anyone as the QB with five months to go before the 2016 season opener Sept. 3 against Massachusetts.
"Any time you do something like this, any scrimmage you have, when one team does good, there's something on the other side the needs fixed," McElwain said. "Early in the spring, he was trying to press and I thought was somewhat out of character of how he has to play to be successufl. [This game], he did a good job of sliding in the pocket and taking his eyes where he needed to with the pressure. I thought he was pretty good."
From the start. The Blue team wasted no time getting things going, with Del Rio needing just four plays to march his unit 75 yards, hitting junior wideout C.J. Worton for a nice completion down the middle, with Worton breaking a tackle and going 46 yards. Two plays later, Del Rio threw a nice touch pass over a linebacker to Goolsby for the first score of the spring game. Kicker Eddie Pineiro (15) celebrates one of his three field goals Friday. Pineiro drilled the point-after and drew a louder round of applause than the TD.
"I don't know too much about football," he said. "I just kick the ball and it goes in."
On the very next series, Piniero was called on again. One of several players who alternated teams, Piniero lined up to attempt a 52-yard field goal for the Orange squad and bombed the kick into the middle of the netting with yards to spare, drawing an even louder ovation, and making the score 7-3.
Del Rio answered with a five-play, 75-yard drive that was capped by running back Thompson's 26-yard touchdown run to push the Blue in front 14-3. Thompson is a 6-foot-2, 242-pound JuCo transfer from Pennsylvania who figures prominently in the UF backfield plans.
Enter Pineiro again. This time he finished off a stalled drive for the Orange by piping a 45-yarder to make the score 14-6.
The first half ended with Franks getting his first series as a Gator, but it ended with an interception by Dawson.
Franks then threw another pick on the opening series of the second half and Del Rio and the Blue went right to work. He hit senior wideout Chris Thompson, wide open across the middle, for 21 yards to the 8-yard line. On first down from there, Mark Thompson fumbled at the 5-yard line, but the ball squirmed loose into the open field, where Worton scooped it up and ran into the end zone to push the Blue ahead 21-6.
After giving way to Appleby for a series, Del Rio returned to the lineup for the Blue late in the third quarter and early in the fourth and roped a 19-yard touchdown strike to Massey, a former prep superstar quarterback in South Carolina, to push his team to a 28-6 lead.
It quickly became 35-6 when Franks threw his third interception of the night (on his fourth attempt), with Dawson taking it back 20 yards for a touchdown.
With just under five minutes left in the game, Pineiro made another appearance. This was a 56-yard attempt. Guess what.
