Florida Football: Gators' 2015 Season Rests on Success at O-Line, Not QB

Jim McElwain's presence at Florida has cast a brighter spotlight on the quarterback position in Gainesville.

The new offensive-minded head coach has been tasked with helping bring the Gators attack, especially its inefficient passing game, back to championship form. The starting quarterback battle between Will Grier and Treon Harris will continue into the fall as Florida looks for major improvement at the position.

Florida has finished 12th or worse in the SEC in passing yards per game in each of the last three seasons. Gator quarterbacks haven't combined for at least 20 touchdowns through the air in a season since Tim Tebow's final collegiate campaign in 2009.

But during his first SEC media days appearance, McElwain placed the utmost importance not on the quarterback, but another unit—the offensive line.

Butch Dill/Associated Press

"Kinda how [the offensive linemen] grow is kinda how we're gonna grow," McElwain said. "We're gonna probably have to reflect back to maybe a bit of our NFL roots—get that core seven or eight guys that can maybe swap some spots."

McElwain views the offensive line as the most essential part of the entire offensive rebuilding effort at Florida this year. It's hard to win games without great play in the trenches, and the new head coach made that clear Monday.

Excellence in those trenches has been hard to come by recently for the program. Florida's offensive line didn't exactly pave the way toward success in 2014, as the offense ranked 96th nationally in total yards per game.

Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press

According to Football Outsiders' line yards statistic, the Gators were one of the worst teams in the country last season for offensive line performance on standard rushing downs.

To make things worse, four of Florida's starters on 2014's front five either graduated or left early for the NFL draft. The Gators will enter the 2015 season with the third-fewest combined offensive line starts in all of college football.

Fears grew in McElwain's first spring camp at Florida, as only eight scholarship offensive linemen were cleared for contact drills, limiting what the team could do in practices and the annual scrimmage.

But reinforcements arrived this summer in the form of seven offensive line signees from the class of 2015—including No. 2 overall recruit Martez Ivey—and two-time FCS All-American pick Mason Halter, a transfer from Fordham.

Butch Dill/Associated Press/Associated Press

That reinforced depth along the offensive line has started to turn things around for McElwain and his offensive staff this offseason.

"I'm excited about that group," McElwain said. "I think we're about 15, 16 deep right now, and they've been working their tails off. We're excited for the opportunity."

Florida's new talent along the offensive line will be thrown into the fire early in fall camp, according to McElwain, as the Gators look for that "core."

"These guys are going to have opportunities to go take reps," McElwain said. "How you learn to play is sometimes by making mistakes. But you've got to get that opportunity. They're gonna have a lot of chances."

Before taking the main-stage podium in Hoover, Alabama, on Monday afternoon, McElwain gave reporters quite a Florida metaphor when talking about the young players on the offensive line:

It's a fitting term for the line and the rest of Florida's offense. The Gators attack should be similar to a roller coaster this year with ups, downs and plenty of speed.

How exciting—and successful—the entire offensive ride is for Florida in 2015 will come down to the development of a young line.

Buckle up, Gators.

All quotes obtained from SEC Network's broadcast. All stats courtesy of cfbstats.com unless otherwise noted.

Justin Ferguson is an on-call college football writer at Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter @JFergusonBR.