Del Rio set to start for Florida against Missouri
WEDNESDAY UPDATE: Although he basically hinted at the fact Monday, Jim McElwain confirmed Wednesday during the SEC teleconference that quarterback Luke Del Rio would start against Missouri. McElwain said that Del Rio is "juiced up and excited to get back on the field."
"Yeah, he was ready last week," McElwain said. "Obviously, the swelling comes and goes, but that's normal with a lot of those injuries. He'll be ready to go. I know he's excited to get out there. Austin's had a good week as well as far as preparation goes, but we're going to move forward with Luke and see how he handles it. His recovery after every practice has been better every day, and that's a good thing."
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Three weeks after suffering a sprained MCL in his left knee late in the third quarter against North Texas on Sept. 17, redshirt sophomore quarterback Luke Del Rio geared himself with the mindset that he'd be playing against LSU this past weekend. Florida was prepared to play Del Rio, after watching how his injury responded to practicing last week.
But now with the Florida-LSU game indefinitely postponed and the Gators getting a "mini-bye week," as Del Rio coined it, he'll be available for No. 18 Florida when it hosts Missouri on Saturday during homecoming weekend.
“We’re excited about that. Luke is excited and itching to go," Jim McElwain said. “It swelled up a little bit, if I’ll be straight up, on Wednesday. But we were assured that that was kinda normal. He worked fine on Wednesday, we were good to see where it was on Thursday and he was ready to take the majority of the first-team reps."
Del Rio admits that he's tried everything he could in order to play each weekend while he was injured. "It was painful, but it wasn't even about pain," he added. "It was about functionality. Could the knee handle it? I was at the point last week where it could."
Being ready to play against LSU was his goal, although Del Rio said he wanted to play against Tennessee a couple weeks ago but wasn't ready at the time.
"I would have been able to play last week. We're all obviously upset that we didn't get to play," Del Rio said. "We came here to play teams like LSU, but it was bigger than a game last weekend. It wasn't about a football game. It was about the safety and the health of my teammates' families and families of Floridians and everybody across the east coast really, down in Haiti. Football seems so trivial when you look at the big picture and you see people are dying. Football can come after that."
For Del Rio, this has been the first time in his football career that he's missed a period of time with an injury. In high school, Del Rio said he broke his arm but played wearing a club.
"It's tough, but injuries are part of football and the training staff did such a tremendous job of getting me back quickly," Del Rio said. "We really attacked this thing with constant rehab and constant treatment. They did a tremendous job."
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MCELWAIN UPDATES MORE INJURED GATORS
McElwain anticipates left tackle David Sharpe (shoulder) being able to play this weekend against Missouri. "Yeah, he was good to go," McElwain said of Sharpe heading into the LSU game.
Meanwhile, linebacker Daniel McMillian (neck/trap) is "still kind of questionable," while freshman linebacker Jeremiah Moon (thumb) may be allowed to practice soon.
"Jeremiah Moon will be allowed to possibly practice with that pin out," McElwain said of Moon. "That’s yet to be determined. He hasn’t practiced in about four weeks."
Defensive end Jordan Sherit (knee) and nose tackle Joey Ivie (thumb) will remain sidelined this weekend for the Missouri game. Defensive end Justus Reed (unspecified injury) may soon return to the mix, while wide receiver Chris Thompson is dealing with some tightness in his hamstring. "We’ll see how that is throughout the week as we move forward," McElwain added on Thompson.
Linebacker Jarrad Davis is dealing with some soreness, but McElwain doesn't see him not playing. "It just means so much to him."
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