Notebook: McElwain shares expectations for quarterbacks this spring
Without Luke Del Rio (shoulder) available during spring practices, the Gators will give practically all of the snaps at quarterback this spring to two redshirt freshmen and a freshman early enrollee.
Redshirt freshmen Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask will be two of the favorites to compete for first-team reps this spring, but freshman Kadarius Toney will also work at quarterback. Although Toney, listed as an athlete on most recruiting services, is a dual-threat quarterback who may be better suited for a spread system rather than a pro-style offense, Florida plans to test him at signal-caller this spring.
Asked about whether Franks and Trask were close in the quarterback battle, McElwain quipped on Thursday, "They're close. They're real close. There's probably about a half-inch difference between them, I think. I don't know. Kadarius is smaller, though."
However, McElwain was more serious in his response when he was asked what he was looking for out of his quarterbacks this spring.
"You know, I think the biggest piece we're looking for first and foremost is somebody to step up and say, 'You know what, I'm going to take this and I'm going to lead this team and help the parts around me play better,’” explained McElwain.
“Now with that, it can't be forced - it's got to be natural. And really the understanding of how and what we need to do is really what we're looking for. As always, every drill is graded, everything that you do there is no such thing as a ... whether it's routes on air, the accuracy of the throws and where it needs to be and all those type of things and understanding the importance of every moment means something, take advantage of it."
When Del Rio went down with injuries this past season, Florida turned to Franks rather than Trask as the primary backup option for Austin Appleby. However, both Franks and Trask ended up redshirting in 2016 after arriving at UF as early enrollees before last spring.
“Their understanding and really the respect of the team piece as far as how they go about their business has been great,” McElwain said. “Not to be overshadowed there is Luke's involvement in helping them prepare to be a starter."
Asked about Franks’ progression from a shaky outing in the last spring game to now, McElwain said Thursday that he has definitely seen growth in the former four-star recruit.
“I think the biggest thing there is just understanding that it doesn’t happen automatically, you know?” McElwain said. "That there’s a learning curve, and there’s a lot that can be learned from when things don’t go well and how do you deal with that. But more than that, how do I learn from it to get myself out of it to get better? And I’ve seen that from him.”
As far as experimenting with Toney at quarterback, McElwain admitted that the Gators will try to incorporate more of a running element with that position this year.
"Yeah, and it's something we did a little bit with Austin," he said, "and yet this gives us a little bit more as we move forward."
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MCELWAIN DISCUSSES MEMBERS OF THE OFFENSIVE LINE
How much progress Florida’s offensive line makes in year three will be one of the biggest storylines surrounding the Gators football team this offseason. On Thursday, McElwain singled out a number of players from that position group and discussed his expectations for the upcoming season.
“I think the big thing, Tyler Jordan really needs to take another step forward in both his conditioning and his overall understanding of the play,” McElwain said. “He’s had two years of it now so we need some big improvement, big steps and improvements there. Nick Buchannan’s a guy that I think is ready to step in and really be productive. … [Brett] Heggie at both center and at guard is going to be huge for us.”
McElwain also had praise to offer to redshirt sophomore center T.J. McCoy.
“I think T.J. McCoy’s a guy that, you know, when he came in it’s like, ‘Oh, jeez, we’re down to our third,’ but probably found our best guy at that position,” explained McElwain. “I’m excited about that. Really, we have those guys communicate and obviously with a new O-line coach, seeing how they adapt to that as well.”
SPRING PRACTICE ROUTINE
With an important matchup looming against Michigan in Dallas on Sept. 2, McElwain admits that there’s a sense of urgency among his team this offseason as it prepares for the 2017 campaign.
In what he describes as a “six-phase program” for 2017 – bowl preparation, Swamp Life workouts, spring, the time between the conclusion of spring camp and the start of summer, summer workouts, and then fall camp – McElwain has seen excitement from his players now a third of the way through it.
“That sense of urgency about, ‘no, it isn’t a warm up game’ and then we get into the SEC season, or something like that. You need to get going right off the bat,” McElwain said. “I think that helps in all six phases as far as your ability to get ready to go. In this case I could see, well we’re young too, but just see that energy in those first two phases and spring ball now we gotta get ready. Throughout practice, there will be certain periods even now that we work on certain opponents, things that give you trouble. As we get to practice 8, 9 and 10, there will be periods that will actually focus on opponents, so it isn’t brand new when we get into prep week next year.
Florida will get an early start on spring practices this year, kicking off next Tuesday. After practicing twice before spring break, the Gators will take the week off and then return to practices once school resumes.
"For us doing it the way we're doing it this year, we tried to take, we're going to take those two practices before we go to spring break, come back, hit 13 more practices, get ready for our Friday night game that'll culminate in that Orange & Blue game. I'm excited about that piece,” McElwain said.
“We'll also try to do a couple of the Saturdays as normal. We'll practice what we do if we have a noon tipoff, practice what we do if we have a CBS national 3:30 game which we will, and then obviously teach how we go about a night game, which we'll get that with the spring game.”
FRESHMAN NUMBERS
On Thursday, Florida released the jersey numbers for its five early enrollees: quarterback Kadarius Toney (#17), linebacker James Houston (#41), defensive tackle Kyree Campbell (#55), offensive tackle Kadeem Telfort (#76) and tight end Kemore Gamble (#88).