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College Football

Journeyman QB, new kicker provide highlights in Florida’s spring game

Andrew Olson

By Andrew Olson

Published:

Florida’s first Friday night edition of its annual Orange and Blue Debut drew a crowd of 46,000, including one very special visitor, former coach Steve Spurrier.

Second-year coach Jim McElwain gave the fans plenty to cheer for in Friday night’s Orange and Blue Debut, the Gators’ annual spring game. In an uneven matchup of the first-team offense (Blue) against the second-team defense (Orange), the Blue team cruised to a 44-6 win. Two players stood out as potential fixes at the 2015 Gators’ biggest problem positions – quarterback and kicker.

Walk-on journeyman QB Luke Del Rio (10-of-11, 176 yards, 2 TD) showed he has the upper hand in the competition for the starting quarterback job, hitting his first two passes for 46 yards to WR C.J. Worton and a 14-yard touchdown strike to TE DeAndre Goolsby. In the fourth quarter, Del Rio and junior college transfer WR Dre Massey connected for a 19-yard touchdown. SEC Network analyst Greg McElroy praised Del Rio’s quick decision-making, noting that some of Florida’s sack problems the previous season were due to holding onto the ball for too long.

The Orange offense, mainly second-stringers, had the tough task of playing against Florida’s first-team defense. When the Orange faced third-and-10 in Blue territory, a draw was called, perhaps to setup a field goal opportunity for Eddy Pineiro. Pineiro did not disappoint, nailing a 52-yard kick that led to quite the reaction from the crowd.

The wild cheering from Gators fans is understandable considering the longest field goal made by a Florida kicker last year was 42 yards in a season in which the kicker, Austin Hardin, went 5-of-14 on field goals.

For Pineiro, who finished with field goals made from 56, 52 and 46 yards while missing from 53 and 54 yards, simply kicking in a game-like situation is a big deal. The JUCO transfer was previously a soccer player and has never kicked a field goal in a high school or college football game. Pineiro’s lack of football experience hasn’t stopped him from showing off his big leg in videos posted on social media.

NOTEWORTHY

  • In terms of the quarterback depth chart, graduate transfer Austin Appleby (8-of-11, 80 yards) looks to be the likely backup. From the booth, McElroy described Appleby as the type of signal-caller who will work within the offense and lean on the running game. Freshman early enrollee Feleipe Franks was one of Florida’s marquee signees in the 2016 class, but had the roughest night of the four quarterbacks, throwing three interceptions, including a pick-six. Franks ended the night with a touchdown throw to TE C’yontai Lewis on the game’s final play. The lesser-hyped quarterback signee of 2016, Kyle Trask (4-of-7, 63 yards), would likely be considered the third-stringer after the game.
  • JUCO transfer RB Mark Thompson (5 carries, 46 yards, TD; 3 catches, 25 yards) showed there’s more to him than a big body (6-foot-2, 242 pounds), with his good cut and display of speed on his 26-yard touchdown run. Thompson looked like the most complete back, but fumbling issues, like Friday’s fumble inside the red zone, could lead to the coaches trusting Jordan Cronkrite (3 carries, 19 yards), Jordan Scarlett (7 carries, 5 yards) or Mark Herndon (8 carries, 21 yards).
  • The vacancy at safety left by Keanu Neal has been one of the positions to watch this spring, and Duke Dawson made a strong case to be the new starter in 2016 with his two interceptions of Franks.
  • Relatively unknown LB Kylan Johnson (8 total tackles, 6 solo, INT, QB hurry) was considered one of the night’s defensive standouts.
  • DL Jordan Sherit had one of the better nights upfront with six total tackles and a pass breakup.
  • Worton had the most receiving yards on the night. In the absence of WR Antonio Callaway, who is currently suspended, Worton has a chance to become one of Florida’s deep threats.

MCELWAIN’S THOUGHTS

 

Andrew Olson

Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.

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