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Johnson: Gators QB race is 'close'

GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The message is clear for Florida's quarterbacks this year, the standard is high.

“Our expectations of the quarterback room are extremely, extremely high," said quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson. "First and foremost you have to understand playing that position you are held to a higher standard than everybody. Everyone is going to look to you and you’re going to set the standard on what’s acceptable in our program."

Johnson is no stranger to Dan Mullen's boot camp for signal callers. The quarterbacks coach first became acquainted with the Gators head coach as a 16-year old. Johnson played for Mullen at Utah before joining Mullen's staff at Mississippi State.

"Dan is a great coach and he’s a great motivator and he understands exactly what it takes to be successful on this level," said Johnson. "Obviously I don’t think there’s a guy around in terms of quarterback play that probably has as good of a resumé as he does coaching quarterbacks."

Johnson himself has a great resume. The Florida assistant was the youngest NCAA FBS offensive coordinator in the nation at age 24 at Utah, before joining Mullen and his staff at Mississippi State. The two men hope their joint experience can help Kyle Trask, Feleipe Franks, and Emory Jones make strides in their careers.

"Our guys got to do a great job of continuing to develop," said Johnson. "Obviously it’s a process, it takes time. They got to continue making steps in the right direction as we move forward.”

'It's a process.' Those are the same words uttered by Mullen just a few days earlier in his post-practice presser on Monday. According to the Gators head coach, it could be a summer or two before a signal caller 'gets it.'

"Obviously you come out here and you try to give them as much as you can and really, really stress them mentally, stress them physically and put them in as many adverse situations as possible," explained Johnson. "The whole goal of training camp is to try to get you ready for the season, get you prepared for the season.

"Obviously we’ll try to take a step back and try to be more specific in terms of who is doing what in terms of rep counts and things of that nature. But the first couple of training camp is about getting as much in as a possible and seeing how much they can handle. And then you go back and re-evaluate and adjust from there.”

The staff has the additional challenge of not having a true veteran quarterback to lean on.

“That’s obviously the biggest challenge: it’s all brand new to them," said Johnson. "he complete cycle of a year in the program is completely new, so every aspect that they’re stepping into is something that is brand new for them. I think obviously once they go through it for a season, the next cycle around those guys will be much capable of putting themselves in the position to come out there and exceed the standard of the program.”

According to Johnson, experience will really be the key for the Florida quarterbacks.

"Part of playing this position is you got to play and you got to go through some ups and downs and some peaks and valleys," he said. "Our thing is we have to minimize that and accelerate that as much as possible, with not as many practices as you normally would have in a training camp. But those guys are up for the challenge, they’re competing, they’re working hard and we have to time to make sure we get them right.”

The Gators have yet to name a starter and as the Gators take the field for their sixth practice on Wednesday, there is no clear cut leader.

“It’s close," said Johnson about the race between the quarterbacks. "All those guys are competing and doing a good job. Obviously we haven’t had very many practices. This is the fourth or fifth practices we’ve had. We haven’t a practice. We have to continue to keep working and keep moving forward.”




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