GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The Gators are more than a week into preseason camp and the quarterback battle between
Luke Del Rio,
Feleipe Franks and
Malik Zaire has not changed much in the view of head coach
Jim McElwain.
That view could change a lot on Friday night when the Gators hold their first preseason scrimmage.
"The quarterbacks will roll, the three of them will roll in the move-the-field stuff kind of at the same pace, or same rep count,'' McElwain said. "Some of that is the team's got to move when you're in there. So a guy with less rep count means he didn't move the team. When you look at it from that standpoint, that kind of shows you what's going on."
McElwain said the plan is to get in around 110 snaps in the scrimmage in a variety of real-game situations. While the quarterbacks are under the spotlight due to their ongoing competition, the Gators will be without other key players.
"We're going to hold a few guys who would normally go, so don't read anything into it. But guys that are definitely out," McElwain said.
Tight end
C'yontai Lewis, defensive lineman
Elijah Conliffe, offensive lineman
Kadeem Telfort, linebacker
Kylan Johnson, defensive back
Quincy Lenton and defensive lineman
Jordan Sherit are nursing nagging injuries or recovering from an injury. McElwain said most of the group is expected back Sunday, as is defensive back
C.J. McWilliams, who has missed time due to an undisclosed injury.
Meanwhile, offensive linemen
Kavaris Harkless and
Antonio Riles are expected to participate. McElwain added that walk-on safety
Garrett Stephens injured a knee and his status is uncertain.
While there has been little said by McElwain to distinguish any true separation in the quarterback battle, he credited the way Franks, a redshirt freshman and atop the depth chart after spring camp, has responded.
"[His confidence] is way higher than it was,'' McElwain said. "That elevation of the competition, I've really seen those guys [Franks and Del Rio] say, 'you know what, I've got to go.' That's a good thing."
The quarterback trio enters a new phase in the competition in tonight's scrimmage. The head coach will be watching closely.
"I'm looking forward to putting them in stressful situations,'' McElwain said. "We'll do some specific situational work outside of just the normal movement of the scrimmage. I really want to see how we handle in-the-game situations. I want to see how we handle overtime and before-the-half situations. Those will be things that we'll be evaluating heavily in at that position, but like I said, it'll be pretty balanced as we go through there."
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