Feb. 28 marks the beginning of spring football for Florida as Jim McElwain enters his third season as UF’s head coach. As practices are soon approaching, Inside the Gators will take a position-by-position look at Florida's roster. Today, we cap off our positional previews with a look at the Gators’ backfield.

THE MAIN PARTICIPANTS AT QUARTERBACK

-- Feleipe Franks (redshirt freshman; 6-6, 219)

-- Kyle Trask (redshirt freshman; 6-4, 238)

-- Kadarius Toney (freshman early enrollee; 5-11, 180)

Sidelined for the spring: Luke Del Rio (redshirt junior; 6-1, 211; shoulder surgery)

Does not arrive until the summer: Jake Allen (freshman; 6-3, 200)

Departures: Austin Appleby (graduated)

THE MAIN PARTICIPANTS AT RUNNING BACK

-- Jordan Scarlett (junior; 5-10, 213)

-- Lamical Perine (sophomore; 5-11, 221)

-- Mark Thompson (redshirt senior; 6-2, 237)

Do not arrive until the summer semesters: Malik Davis (freshman; 5-11, 190), Adarius Lemons (freshman; 6-1, 195)

Departures: Jordan Cronkrite (transferring), Mark Herndon (graduated)

LAST YEAR: After Will Grier transferred and Treon Harris left the team in the wake of a Title IX investigation, Florida essentially experienced an overhaul at the quarterback. With Del Rio finally eligible after sitting out a year, he was joined by Appleby, a Purdue graduate transfer, and 2016 signees Franks and Trask.

Del Rio and Appleby battled throughout the offseason in a close competition, but ultimately Del Rio won the starting job through two weeks of fall camp - benefitting from an extra year of familiarity with Jim McElwain and Doug Nussmeier's offense. He would go on to start Florida's first three games, performing well against UMass and Kentucky but suffering a sprained MCL against North Texas after taking a low hit from a UNT pass rusher.

In those first three games, Del Rio combined for 762 passing yards and six touchdowns against two interceptions on 61.4% passing. Appleby took over for the next two games at Tennessee and Vanderbilt, shining in the first half against the Vols but failing to get much going offensively for his next three halves of action.