Over the next couple of days, Inside the Gators will review how each position on Florida's roster has performed up to this point in the 2016 season with a matchup against Iowa in the Outback Bowl on Jan. 2 on the horizon. Today, we start with the quarterbacks.
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OVERVIEW: During the offseason, the Florida fan base held reserved optimism about the future of the quarterback position. With Will Grier transferring last December following his PEDs suspension - and Treon Harris eventually transferring eight months later after significant time away from the team in the wake of a Title IX investigation - Florida entered the fall with four new faces in the mix at quarterback. Throughout spring practices and the months leading up to fall training camp, we heard continuous praise from Jim McElwain about how much he loved his quarterback room.
Luke Del Rio, a former walk-on who redshirted in 2015 per NCAA transfer rules following his departure from Oregon State, eventually beat out Purdue graduate transfer Austin Appleby in fall camp for the starting job. Meanwhile, freshmen Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask battled it out for third-string reps.
However, neither of Florida's stopgap options at quarterback in Del Rio and Appleby have been the answer for a quarterback position that has been a revolving door of woes since Tim Tebow's departure in 2009.
Del Rio started off the year on the right footing, especially with a performance of 320 yards and four touchdowns against one pick on 19-of-32 passing against Kentucky in week two, but the redshirt sophomore brought some doubt to the table with his first three performances. Sometimes he'd struggle with reads and miss his receivers, and other times he'd display poor footwork and a lack of pocket awareness. Then, Del Rio's season took an unfortunate turn when he suffered a sprained MCL in his left knee on a low hit against North Texas.
Appleby jumped in as the starter for two games as the starter at Tennessee and Vanderbilt but experienced plenty of ups and downs in those two contests. Outside of a stellar first half against the Volunteers, the Gators offense couldn't move the chains too frequently under his leadership. Once Del Rio returned to the mix against Missouri, however, he performed much worse and still looked hampered by his knee injury. Eventually, Del Rio suffered a shoulder injury - and in the Arkansas game Del Rio clearly looked affected by it, under-throwing a number of balls and tossing two picks in a 31-10 road loss. Florida would shut him down for the next four games, but Del Rio is on track now is be available to serve as a backup in the bowl game against Iowa.
Suddenly, the offense was Appleby's to run again. After leading the Gators to two victories against South Carolina and at LSU (while clinching a second consecutive trip to Atlanta in the process), Appleby struggled mightily at FSU and also had a difficult time against Alabama. While the 6-foot-4, 240-pound Appleby was a marked improvement, as far as arm strength and mobility goes, over the 6-foot-1, 211-pound Del Rio, the graduate transfer often struggled with overthrowing targets, missing open receivers on reads and making risky decisions.
Although Appleby led Florida to two touchdown drives against Alabama in the SEC Championship Game - something not many teams have accomplished this year - many of Appleby's aforementioned problems were on display in that contest. He tossed three interceptions, including a pick-six, against the Crimson Tide, but not all of them were his fault.
Now, Appleby is set to start for the Gators in his final collegiate contest, against Iowa in the Outback Bowl in Tampa. McElwain's explanation last Thursday for not turning to the future and choosing to burn a redshirt of one of the two freshmen was straightforward - not only did he not want to burn one for just one game of action, but "sometimes you hold them back because maybe they’re not ready."
THE STANDOUT: Considering both Del Rio and Appleby have been subpar this year - and we haven't seen what Franks or Trask are capable of yet at UF outside of a controlled scrimmage environment - you can't really pick out a player from this group to call them the standout. Del Rio and Appleby have each started six games for the Gators this year, and both signal-callers have been underwhelming statistically.
While Del Rio has thrown for 1,358 yards and eight touchdowns against eight interceptions on 56.7% passing (114-of-201) in his six appearances, Appleby has recorded 1,225 yards and eight touchdowns against five interceptions on 61.4% passing (113-of-184) this season.
BIGGEST SURPRISE: There have been a couple of surprises when considering the quarterback position this year. Although it's not incredibly surprising that two transfer quarterbacks who couldn't win starting jobs at Oregon State and Purdue haven't significantly improved the Florida offense, the fact that the offense this year has actually slightly regressed from a year ago is certainly an eye-opener.
The majority of fans figured it couldn't get much worse on offense when Harris started Florida's final eight games last year, but the Gators finished 112th nationally in total offense, 100th in scoring offense and 86th in passing offense in 2015. This year? Florida is 115th, 110th and 84th in those respective categories with Del Rio and Appleby leading the way.
However, Franks' growth from the spring to now is definitely a positive surprise. After a rough spring game outing where Franks tossed three interceptions, the 2016 four-star signee has made strides as far as tightening his throwing motion, improving his footwork and learning the playbook. When Del Rio went down twice this year, Franks was the choice over Trask, who looked more polished as a passer in the spring than Franks, to be Appleby's primary backup.
Plenty of fans have called for Franks to get a shot this year - considering the current climate in the conference that has seen a number of SEC squads turn to true freshmen signal-callers - but we likely won't see Franks under center until at least the start of next season.
OUTLOOK FOR 2017: Quarterback is certainly one of the position groups on this roster surrounded with the most uncertainty heading into the offseason. With Appleby on the way out - and coveted Baylor transfer Jarrett Stidham picking Auburn over Florida - the Gators are likely to enter the 2017 season-opener against Michigan in Dallas with Del Rio as their only signal-caller on the roster with any prior playing experience at the college level (unless they were to add another transfer).
Franks, Trask, Del Rio and 2017 commit Jake Allen, who is expected to arrive in the summer, will all compete for reps this offseason. It still remains to be seen whether Florida will add another quarterback to its 2017 recruiting class, with a month and a half left to go.
One thing's for certain: We're going to see an open competition once again at quarterback this offseason. And McElwain needs to get the position on the right track in 2017, or he'll potentially be on the hot seat by season's end.
“Absolutely, I mean every year it is," McElwain said of it being an open competition this offseason. "That doesn’t change. And that would be going through spring and you know summer and obviously fall.”
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