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We now know for a fact that new Florida coach Jim McElwain plans to play both quarterbacks Will Grier and Treon Harris when the Gators host New Mexico State on Sept. 5.
We can infer the rest.
“It will play itself out,” the coach said Thursday of his quarterback situation, according to the Gainesville Sun. “Like I’ve said, and I mean this, you [media] keep pushing for this, but there isn’t a timetable. The timetable is figure out a way to win the football game with whoever is moving the team at that position and getting the right parts at the other positions as well.
“And by no means I am displeased with what they’re doing, but we still need to see in live action the people around them … how much they elevate the play of the people around them.”
The reality is that no football coach anywhere ever chooses to start a season with uncertainty at any position, let alone at quarterback. So for McElwain to do so can lead us to believe that his decision was more a direct result of Grier’s failure to clearly win the job outright at this point than anything on Harris’ part.
A redshirt freshman who was a Parade National Player of the Year coming out of high school in 2013, Grier not only entered the preseason with a slight edge over Harris, but appears a much more natural fit for the kind of sophisticated pro-style offense that McElwain prefers.
Grier’s size advantage at 6-foot-2, 215 pounds and much stronger arm make him much more apt to be able to consistently make all the throws necessary in McElwain’s offense to spread the ball over the field to different players.
The fact that Grier is an exceptional athlete as well who rushed for 2,955 yards and 31 touchdowns while in high school should have only played further in his favor.
But there’s no substitute for experience, especially at the most critical — and most scrutinized — position on the field. Grier ran the scout team while redshirting last fall, but has yet to take a college snap.
On the other hand, Harris (5-foot-11, 195 pounds) started six games as a true freshman in place of an ineffective Jeff Driskel last season, completing 55 of 111 passes for 1,019 yards with nine TDs and four interceptions.
Harris went 4-2 as the Gators starter, engineering a 38-20 upset of then- ninth-ranked Georgia before enjoying his best game of 215 passing yards in a win over Vanderbilt.
Harris struggled in later games, completing no better than 45.5 percent of his passes in his final four starts as the Gators’ vertical passing game virtually disappeared.
It’s likely that McElwain and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier will have to make some adjustments to their offense if Harris wins the job. Expect to see more zone reads to capitalize on his athleticism and more designed rollouts that will allow him to see the field better.
The problem, however, is the handcuffs the possible changes would slap on the Gators offense by limiting the amount of field available to it. It would hardly resemble the high-powered offenses that McElwain previously authored up while serving as the head coach at Colorado State or as Alabama’s offensive coordinator.
Grier was supposed to be the answer for a Florida fan base weary of suspect quarterback play in the years following the Tim Tebow era in Gainesville. Gators fans beaten down by the offensive challenges of recent years consoled themselves this past offseason with the knowledge that relief in the form of Grier was just around the corner.
Only it hasn’t quite turned out way. So far.
McElwain has remained very close to the vest in the preseason, declining to give specifics about either of the two team scrimmages that were closed to the public.
There were several interceptions returned for touchdowns by the defense, but McElwain declined to say which of his quarterbacks were responsible.
Both quarterbacks will get their shot against the Aggies and McElwain will want to see how they move the team and how their teammates respond to them.
The job is Grier’s to lose. Always has been really.
John Hollis is a contributing writer for Saturday Down South. He covers Georgia and Florida.
