Jim McElwain seeing separation in QB competition, eager to see spring game performances
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Who will be starting quarterback for the Gators in the season opener against Michigan? Not even Florida head coach Jim McElwain has the answer to the current million dollar question in Gainesville — at least, not yet.
During his Monday media availability, McElwain shared his thoughts on the ongoing quarterback competition between redshirt freshmen Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask heading into the final week of spring practice.
“Both quarterbacks had their moments of really moving the club and I thought that was good to see, especially down in the red area,” McElwain stated.
The Florida coach was very coy regarding any leader but admitted things would play out by the end of spring.
“We should know a lot. I think it stands to sort itself out,” McElwain said.
The Gators coach was then asked if there was any separation between the two?
“Yeah. We’re doing good,” McElwain continued.
While those comments seem to suggest a leader has emerged, McElwain said he will be closely evaluating how the quarterbacks perform in the upcoming Friday night spring game. Although the scheme will be admittedly ‘vanilla’ during the scrimmage, the Florida coach is still searching for answers while evaluating his quarterbacks.
“How they perform in front of people, television audience, all the things that go along with it,” McElwain said. “We’ll try and treat it, as much as we can from a preparation standpoint, as close to game-like as we can. It will be very limited, I don’t need Michigan to see what we are doing different because they will obviously be watching it.”
Regardless of whether it’s Franks or Trask that has taken the lead in the competition this spring, it sounds like they both have a chance to make headway Friday night during the final audition of the spring. The Florida spring game kicks off Friday night April, 7 in the Swamp at 7:30 p.m. ET. The game will once again feature four 12-minutes quarters.
“We’ll put some situations in there but let the guys go out and play, so that should be fun,” McElwain said.
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A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Michael Wayne Bratton oversees the news coverage for Saturday Down South. Michael previously worked for FOX Sports and NFL.com
