Mullen offered nothing up to suggest a change at quarterback is coming
GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- The quarterback question looms in Gainesville but Florida head coach Dan Mullen offered nothing up during his Monday press conference.
"I think they graded within one point of each other," said Florida head coach Dan Mullen about Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask's performance against Missouri. ""Neither of them graded a champion. Our grades were about the same, about 71 or 72 percent."
Trask came in to relieve Franks after the redshirt sophomore had a lackluster performance against the Tigers.
"He throws a nice ball and he runs hard. He's got good size," Mullen said about Trask. "Very similar to Feleipe's, you know. Feleipe probably has a little stronger arm, probably a little more athletic. Trask might be a little more physical when he runs the ball."
Mullen denied any reports of a lock room scuffle involving Franks on Saturday night. The Gators head coach even went on to say that Florida's problems against Missouri were more than just quarterback play.
"We weren't moving the ball well as a whole offense," Mullen explained. "There were a lot of problems beside the quarterback. With that, you know, we put in a young running back as well. We rotated some linemen and we put in a different quarterback.
"(Franks) does some good things, and (Saturday), like I said, I’m certainly not here pointing the finger that he was terrible," Mullen added. "We didn’t pull him because he he was terrible, we pulled him because the offense wasn’t moving, and we wanted to see if somebody else could get it done and (we) put Kyle in. Not because of his individual personal performance.
"I’m looking, and we've got to protect an awful lot better. I watch their quarterback, we had how many sacks? Our guy, I mean on slants, he’s catching and throwing it and getting lit up. That’s not very good. You can blame the quarterback all you want for that, but there’s a lot to go around."
Although it is true, Florida as a team underperformed against the Tigers, Trask did provide a lift over the weekend. The Texas native came into the game in the third quarter and led the home side to a quick scoring drive.
But if history proves anything is that Mullen does not like changing quarterbacks late in the season.
"I don’t think, without injuries, we haven’t changed a whole lot (at quarterback this late in the year)," Mullen said. "My first year at Mississippi State, yeah, we kind of went to Chris Relf from Tyson Lee. But we had kind of played a little bit of both, too."
The reality is Trask does not have much live game experience and right or wrong that is a detriment in the argument to put him over Franks.
"I’ve always said we’ll look and see how practice goes," Mullen said. "We might play two quarterbacks, might play three. I want to see, we’re still putting the game plan together. I want to just see as we put the game plan together, we go out and practice it, who gives us the best chance to win? That’s kind of how we’ve done it all along throughout the whole year."
No matter who lines up under center, the Florida offense will be ready to go.
"I don't think it really changes much," wide receiver Josh Hammond said. "All three of those guys work with us all throughout the week of practice so we get the reps with each quarterback. And from a receiver's standpoint, we've never really like noticed who's the quarterback, so I don't think it'll make that much of a difference for the offense."