Gators Head Coach says three QBs still in running for starting spot - ESPN

Donate To GopherHole
Iceland12

Iceland12

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 12, 2008
Messages
24,451
Reaction score
2,285
Points
113
Florida coach Jim McElwain is testing THREE Quarterbacks! Maybe more! Put a fork in Florida. They're done huh? ;)

GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Florida coach Jim McElwain hasn't settled on a starting quarterback. He hasn't even pared down the three-man competition.

McElwain said Wednesday that fourth-year junior Luke Del Rio, redshirt freshman Feleipe Franks and graduate transfer Malik Zaire will play this season, maybe even in next week's season opener against No. 11 Michigan.

"You're going to see a bunch of them in there playing," McElwain said. "The three guys have done a really good job. I think there's some things that they all bring to the table that are really good. Now the key to us is putting them in those positions, you know, that play to their strengths.

"Will all play? I don't know yet. Will a couple of them play? I don't know yet. I know we will have somebody at the position."

McElwain insisted he's not playing games with the Wolverines or trying to gain a game-planning advantage. He simply suggested that none of the three has become a clear-cut choice for the 17th-ranked Gators.

"Ultimately the guy that the team moves with the best," he said. "The guys that create positive plays on third down and get the ball in the end zone. That's kind of where we're at."..

http://www.espn.com/college-footbal...ttled-qb-coach-jim-mcelwain-play-three-opener
 

And So Is Michigan - ESPN

One of Jim Harbaugh's very first directives to his new players when he arrived at Michigan was to seek a "battle rhythm." Like many coaches, Harbaugh wanted his players to develop routines that made the grinding demands of college football into daily habits.

"Basically just eat, sleep, football, school, repeat," junior quarterback Wilton Speight said. "It gets repetitive to where your body builds a callus to it, and you get really good at becoming numb to the pain of it."

Speight left out at least one element of the rhythm that he and his fellow quarterbacks especially have developed in the past three years. One that, under the close supervision of their head coach, has become ingrained or implied enough in their daily lives not to really register anymore: constant pressure.

"That’s Coach Harbaugh’s mission, I think," Speight said. "To make sure we feel uncomfortable at all times."

Speight is in the midst of his third preseason quarterback battle under Harbaugh. He was an afterthought in the first, before moving up the depth chart enough to secure a backup position behind Jake Rudock. He was a surprise front-runner alongside John O'Korn the second time through -- ultimately winning the job and his first nine starts in 2016 before a shoulder injury precipitated the Wolverines’ 1-3 finish in their final four games.

This time around O’Korn is the surprise contender. The fifth-year senior has moved past promising youngster Brandon Peters as the primary competition for Speight, according to the only update Harbaugh plans to give before the week of Michigan’s season opener. O’Korn said he has no idea when the coach will declare a winner in this August’s QB competition rematch. At both the macro level of depth chart determinations and the micro level of blitzes and obstacles during passing drills, there aren't many opportunities for either to relax. For now, he and Speight have both seemingly found their bearings while operating in a system designed to keep them guessing.

O’Korn’s college career started far from discomfort. As a true freshman at Houston in 2013, he threw for 3,117 yards and 25 touchdowns en route to winning his league’s Freshman of the Year award. He thrived with the confidence that comes alongside security. The following summer his name landed on lists and in conversations about the sport’s top honors.

Five weeks into his sophomore year, though, he found himself out of the Cougars' lineup and searching for a new home.

“You’re getting talked about for the Heisman Trophy, Davey O’Brien [Award] and a few weeks later you’re benched,” he said. “I felt at times like I was a scapegoat at Houston for a lot of things that were going on in that program. That’ll shake an 18-year-old kid.”

In a season-and-a-half at Michigan -- the first as a scout team transfer and assumed heir to the quarterbacking throne and the second as Speight’s backup -- O’Korn says he rehabbed his confidence. Enough so that he saw Speight’s injury in November as a shot at his Cardale Jones moment, the more contemporary version of the classic Wally Pipp scenario. While O’Korn made a couple of big plays to help Michigan beat Indiana, it was hardly the bombs-away performance Jones had while taking the baton in the final leg of Ohio State’s 2014 national championship season.

Speight took back the reins the following week, and in the spring O’Korn looked to be a distant third on the quarterback depth chart.

“In the spring game I was wondering if I was going to get a chance or not,” he said. “... It was what it was.”

http://www.espn.com/blog/bigten/post/_/id/142631/michigan-qbs-getting-comfortable-with-discomfort
 

Omg that obviously means they are a failure;)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

PJ should run with this and play 4.
 

One of them is Malik Zaire. So they must have 3 pretty good options to choose from.

Do we?
 


CentralGopher said:
Omg that obviously means they are a failure;)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

First or 2nd question to Fleck was about the QB situation. He prefaced his answer with "Florida is looking at 3 of them". :cool:
 

John Galt said:
One of them is Malik Zaire. So they must have 3 pretty good options to choose from.
Click to expand...

My first thought when reading this article was that Zaire should have chosen his transfer school more carefully.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

They open with Michigan... I think this is just misdirection.
 

Spoofin said:
My first thought when reading this article was that Zaire should have chosen his transfer school more carefully.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

We might be happy he chose Florida over Wisc....
 



You must log in or register to reply here.



Top Bottom