As the Florida Gators enter into the second and final bye week of their season, the prospects of a successful year are waining as Will Muschamp and his team are in a downward spiral.

At 3-3, the Gators have a lot to figure out this week and it’s no surprise that Florida fans are wondering exactly where this program is headed under this current coaching staff, among many other things.

Here are the five burning questions facing Florida right now.

Does Will Muschamp make it through the season as head coach?

More than likely, yes. The calls for his firing peaked following the Gators’ embarrassing home loss to Missouri last week, but based off the recent statement of athletic director Jeremy Foley, it appears he will let the season play out before fully evaluating Muschamp’s job.

At this point, the only other logical time for Florida to fire Muschamp before the season is over would be following the Georgia game. And barring another blowout loss where the Gators get booed for half the game or something similar to  what happened against Missouri, I doubt a simple loss to a top-10 team will be enough to force Foley’s hand in firing Muschamp in early November.

For now, Muschamp remains the head coach of the Gators and will literally be fighting for his job over these next five games (if he stays that long). Foley expects excellence out of each of his coaches and while he hasn’t made a move yet, his statement certainly proves he’s watching Muschamp intently and no viable sign of progress in the last month of the season will likely seal the fate of the fourth year head coach, if it hasn’t already.

Who should start at quarterback?

An official answer has not been provided by Muschamp or anyone on the Florida coaching staff, but based on the most recent performances of Jeff Driskel and Treon Harris, it would be foolish to not go with Harris at this point.

In what will probably amount to Driskel’s last stand, the redshirt junior signal caller turned in arguably his most dreadful performance of the season against a so-so Missouri defense at home. He completed just 6-of-19 passes for a measly 50 yards, zero touchdowns and two interceptions. Not only could he not generate any sort of rhythm on offense, but Driskel had the look of someone who had been defeated, especially after Missouri’s pick-six midway through the third quarter.

Harris didn’t exactly light the world on fire, but with how bad Driskel looked last week and how shaken his confidence must be, I don’t see how the coaching staff can’t go with Harris at this point. The Miami native led the Gators on two scoring drives in the fourth quarter, and despite a limited use of the playbook, Harris continues to make plays when he’s on the field. Perhaps the most impressive moment for Harris this past weekend came on the final drive as he drove the offense downfield on a 15-play scoring drive, ending with a three-yard run by the true freshman quarterback.

Who knows exactly what the team will get out of Harris if he’s the starter, but frankly, Muschamp has to make a change away from Driskel if he wants to even think about keeping his job.

Why have Muschamp’s recruiting classes not panned out?

Since Muschamp arrived at Florida, he and his coaching staff have assembled three top-10 recruiting classes, but so far the results on the field haven’t matched the success off the field. While last year could at least be somewhat attributed to injuries, this season there’s no such excuse to be had. And the results haven’t been good — a 3-3 record with some really bad losses as well two wins, albeit controversial victories, thanks to some play clock issues.

Simply put, players just have not developed under Muschamp’s guidance. Running back Kelvin Taylor is a perfect example of highly-touted recruit. Teams like Alabama heavily recruited him, but now Taylor is in his second year at Florida and seems to regressed, offering little impact on the this year’s offense. Obviously, Jeff Driskel is another example. Touted as the No. 1 QB in the 2011 class, Driskel peaked during his sophomore season and now he simply looks like a shell of his former self with absolutely no confidence in his abilities.

Taylor and Driskel, along with other players, have not lived up to their potential or to the hype bestowed upon them when they enrolled at Florida. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the coach’s fault, but with somewhat of a trend developing it’s hard not to assign most of the blame on the coaching staff for not developing these players well enough.

What does Florida need to improve upon to become a bowl-ready team?

A better question may be where Florida doesn’t need to improve. It certainly would merit a shorter answer.

Aside from coaching, the Gators have to make a decision at quarterback. For a team desperately needing to develop some sort of rhythm and identity on offense, a two-QB system is not going to accomplish that.

Defensive communication is another aspect that needs to improve. On several occasions this season, the Gators’ secondary gave up huge plays, particularly at times when the offense was backed into a corner in 3rd-and-long type situations. The Gators lost some NFL talent in the offseason with the departures of Jaylen Watkins, Marcus Roberson and Loucheiz Purifoy, but no one expected the secondary to struggle especially with Muschamp as the head coach.

Wide receivers also need to stop dropping passes — stop me if you’ve heard that before Florida fans. With more than 20 drops on the season, the receivers are once again significantly costing the offense serious yards and points. Most recently, it was Tevin Westbrook’s drop of a four-yard pass into the end zone that cost the Gators a win against LSU. And with how things have gone so far this season, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Westbrook’s name supplanted by another UF receiver with a crucial drop in the coming weeks.

The QB play has been horrendous this season, but when they can’t rely on the receivers to catch the ball consistently, it amplifies those issues ten-fold.

Are the Gators even worth watching the rest of the season?

Florida fans are among the most demanding fans in all of college football — and understandably so after two national titles in 2006 and 2008. Though most fans didn’t expect a championship-like season this year, I doubt many thought it would look this bad by this point in the season.

But there’s still plenty of reasons to watch your Gators over these last five games, Florida fans, even if the Gators don’t make a miraculous turnaround.

If the Gators do make a change at quarterback, you’re likely looking at the future for Florida in Treon Harris. He’ll face some tough competition against Georgia, Florida State and even two more SEC opponents in Vanderbilt and South Carolina. Signs of progress from Harris and the offense would certainly be an encouraging sign and would give fans the hope that things will be better in the future from this team.

Florida also has a great opportunity to play the role of spoiler for some of these teams. Both Georgia and Florida State are still very much alive for the College Football Playoff and I can’t imagine there would be a sweeter ending to a disappointing season for the Florida players than ruining two of their biggest rivals’ chances of obtaining a playoff spot.