The Veteran: Luke Del Rio
Luke Del Rio probably isn’t the favorite.
He’s not Florida’s tallest quarterback. He’s not the most athletic. He doesn’t have the strongest arm.
But the redshirt junior is relying on a different attribute to win the Gators’ quarterback competition this season.
“Consistency,” Del Rio said Thursday. “I wouldn’t have come back if I didn’t want to play.”
In a similar situation last year, competing against graduate transfer Austin Appleby, Del Rio played well enough in camp to convince coach Jim McElwain to award him the starting spot.
What followed was an overwhelmingly average campaign under center: six games, eight touchdowns, eight interceptions and a 56.7-percent completion percentage.
But instead of focusing on physical measurements and passing statistics, Del Rio and McElwain often point to the Gators’ 5-1 record under Del Rio last season.
“I’ve never been 6-foot-6,” said Del Rio, who is 6-foot-1. “I found that quarterbacking is a lot more than just what you look like, how hard you can throw, how far you can throw.”
Del Rio is the only quarterback on Florida’s roster who has played in a game for UF and in McElwain’s offense. He also feels confident entering his third year at Florida as the oldest member of the three-man quarterback race and possibly the one with the most reasonable argument on paper.
For McElwain and his coaching staff, Del Rio is the safe choice. He is the most familiar one. He is the only quarterback who allows coaches to know exactly what to expect. But he’s also the choice that would most likely frustrate an expectation-riddled fan base that is growing impatient of losing to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, as UF has done the last two seasons.
Del Rio thinks fans have no reason to worry.
“I found it pretty ridiculous that fans are saying I had a noodle arm when I was throwing the ball 80 yards in the first game,” said Del Rio, in reference to his deep throw to receiver Antonio Callaway on the first play of last year’s season-opening win against Massachusetts.
“I’ve never had a ridiculous arm … but I’ve been able to make every throw on time.”
The Gunslinger: Feleipe Franks
Feleipe Franks isn’t afraid to admit it.
His first year in Gainesville as a member of UF’s football team was far from a cake walk. It was the complete opposite of a cake walk, in fact.
The 6-foot-5 quarterback from Crawfordville, Florida, arrived on campus with the Gators in January 2016 as an early enrollee out of Wakulla High School.
His first performance in front of UF fans couldn’t have gone much worse: a 5-for-11 passing day with one touchdown and three interceptions at the team’s spring game on April 8, 2016.
Franks then spent the entire regular season on the sidelines, watching Luke Del Rio and Austin Appleby lead Florida to an SEC East title while he struggled to adjust to the college game and earn confidence from his teammates.
“Last year, it was troubling for me to … break it down and keep it simple for myself,” Franks said. “When you don’t know what you’re doing, the offense doesn’t know if you’re going to make the right reads, stuff like that.”
But now, after a full year learning under head coach Jim McElwain and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier, the redshirt freshman says the difference between last season and this season is “night and day.”
“They gave me a lot of steps to get to where I wanted to be,” he said. “Every day just getting a little extra film work, working on technique, working on chemistry with receivers, running backs and the line, things like that.”
Franks' improvement from year one to year two was evident in this spring’s Orange and Blue Debut. The right-hander started with the first-team offense and completed 8-of-14 passes for 119 yards and one touchdown.
He was decreed “ahead” of the rest of the quarterback competition by coach Jim McElwain following the performance, but with Malik Zaire’s transfer to Florida and Del Rio’s recovery from shoulder surgery, the race for the starting job has once again become neck-and-neck.
“All of us are really good quarterbacks and we’re all doing our best with the team,” Franks said. “It’s going good so far, and I think it’s going to continue to go well.”
The Wild Card: Malik Zaire
Malik Zaire’s transfer to Florida was the surprise of the summer.
It almost seemed too good to be true. Frustrated fans have been hungry for a quality quarterback since Tim Tebow left campus. And Zaire, a dual threat coming from one of the nation's most esteemed college football programs, looks like he could be the answer.
After going 3-0 as a starter at the University of Notre Dame, Zaire was instantly a top name in the Gators’ search for starter.
Zaire spent a lot of his time with the Fighting Irish locked out of the starting slot because of injuries and other QB competition — like when he lost the starting job last year to DeShone Kizer, who has a chance to become the Cleveland Browns' starter under center as a rookie.
Now Zaire’s in Gainesville.
And what’s been his biggest challenge since he got here?
“Adjusting to that heat,” he said. He was talking about the Florida weather, but he might as well have been talking about the competition he’s getting from Feleipe Franks and Luke Del Rio for the starting role.
Despite all that, Zaire’s still got confidence. More importantly, he has the experience to justify it.
When Franks was in high school, Zaire was winning MVP honors in the 2014 Music City Bowl for Notre Dame with a 31-28 victory against LSU.
“I feel like I can do my job better than anybody else,” Zaire said Friday, undeterred by the pressure Franks and Del Rio trying to beat him out.
“It’s nothing new for me,” he said. “I’m always competing with somebody. I feel like that’s been my theme since I’ve been in college, but I’m trying to change that.”
This will be his chance, and he’s got his sights set high.
“My focus is on beating everybody,” Zaire said. “It’s not just the guys that are competing for this job, but it’s the guys in the whole SEC, it’s the guys in the whole country.”
He mentioned winning a national championship four times on Friday.
“That’s what I came here to do.”
After Luke Del Rio (pictured) went 5-1 as Florida's starter in 2016, he's battling to keep his starting job against redshirt freshman Feleipe Franks and Notre Dame transfer Malik Zaire.
