Jeff Driskel's Struggles Raise Questions About Florida's Lost Quarterbacks
Remember when the University of Florida was known as a school that turned out Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks and innovative offensive schemes?
Those days are gone. And, as a result, the Gators have become an afterthought in the national polls and the SEC.
A year ago, the Gators tumbled to a stunning 4-8 mark, which was even grimmer when you looked at numbers: Florida ranked 12th or lower in four of the SEC's leading offensive statistical markers—total offense, scoring offense, passing offense and rushing offense
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This season has been only moderately better. After a cakewalk over Eastern Michigan, the Gators needed three overtimes at home to beat Kentucky and then watched starting quarterback Jeff Driskel complete only nine of 28 passes for a total of 93 yards and throw two interceptions in a 42-21 loss to Alabama.
On Saturday, the pain was less direct, but perhaps just as acute. Just two weeks after former Florida QB Tyler Murphy engineered an upset of then-No. 9 USC for Boston College, another former Gators quarterback, North Carolina State's Jacoby Brissett, threw for three scores and 359 yards against Florida State in playing Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston to a virtual dead heat in a wild shootout.
That both Brissett and Murphy are former Gators has left coach Will Muschamp and his quarterback little cover from a growing barrage of criticism, even on a week when the Gators had a bye as they prepare for this week's SEC battle at Tennessee.
The displeasure has even been growing from inside the program, as former Gators running back Emmitt Smith expressed his feelings after the loss to Alabama.
"Put Driskel on the bench, please, I've seen enough."
Smith later apologized to Driskel and Muschamp, but the unhappiness remains. Muschamp's future has become tentative at best, and more and more people are now questioning his evaluation process in a allowing two clearly talented quarterbacks to escape while sticking with the struggling Driskel.
That could ultimately prove fatal to Muschamp's future in Gainesville. But it was Muschamp who recruited Driskel, a consensus No. 1 QB prospect as well as the Maxwell Football Club High School Player of the Year and the Gatorade Florida Player of the Year. And it was Muschamp who chose Driskel over Brissett and Murphy.
"Jeff gives us the best opportunity to win right now," said Muschamp in a press briefing last week.
It hasn't worked out that way; Driskel has connected on a total of only 19 touchdown passes in three-and-a-half years with the Gators and was slowed down by the broken leg he suffered last season. This year, he has thrown three picks in his last two games and guides an aerial attack that is 106th in the country in total passing yards.
Things could get worse soon, as Florida faces a gauntlet of upper-tier SEC teams following the matchup with the Volunteers, starting with LSU and then Missouri and then Georgia.
For now, though, Driskel is running the show, but should he be?
Like Driskel, Jacoby Brissett came to Florida with blue-chip credentials, ranked by Rivals as a 4-star recruit. He started two games in his freshman year and competed with Driskel for the starting job in his sophomore season in 2012.
Driskel won the job and guided the Gators to a 11-2 record and a Sugar Bowl berth, which prompted Muschamp to set up a spring depth chart that had Driskel ahead of Brissett. Soon, NC State had a new quarterback-in-waiting, as Brissett sat out last season after transferring to the school.
"Driskel won the job and [Brissett] wanted to play," wrote The Gainesville Sun columnist Pat Dooley in a text message to a Bleacher Report.
Second-year Wolfpack coach Dave Doeren knew right away that Brissett, voted NC State's Scout Team Player of the Year, was the best quarterback he had on his roster even when Brissett was sitting out.
After watching Brissett take apart his defense, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher, who recruited Brissett out of high school in Florida, saw a comparison. "He's a lot like the guy (Winston) we got," Fisher told reporters after the game. "He's big and strong-armed and can make plays."
The former Gator has NC State off to a 4-1 start and has emerged as the ACC leader in total offense.
Murphy also has made a mark in the ACC, leading BC to a 3-2 start while tallying the second-most rushing yards in the conference and ranking third in total offense.
Although his fourth-quarter interception didn't help matters in the Eagles' loss to Colorado State on Saturday, Murphy has been a star on the rise, particularly in BC's 37-31 upset of USC. Murphy didn't do it all, but it seemed like it at times as he ran for a 191 yards and scored a game-preserving fourth-quarter, 66-yard touchdown.
"It was just a good situation," said BC coach Steve Addazio, explaining Murphy's arrival at the school. "It was a good fit. It gave him a chance to run the reigns of his own program."
Murphy had that only briefly at Florida a year ago when he moved into the starting job after Driskel broke his right leg and was finished for the season. In seven games with Murphy under center, the Gators went 3-4, as Murphy threw for 1,216 yards and six touchdowns.
But Murphy injured his right shoulder and missed Florida's final three games. Muschamp said there would be competition in the spring, but Driskel looked like the front-runner. Or at least it seemed that way to Murphy.
"[Murphy] was told after last year that the position was open but he felt Driskel would be favored," wrote Dooley to Bleacher Report.
The fact that Murphy, Brissett and Driskel all were on the Florida campus at the same time may show that Muschamp knows how to lure talent, but there are lingering questions about how that talent was used and developed or squandered, which may be a key factor in whether Muschamp keeps his job.
Muschamp, well aware of his seemingly tenuous hold on his job, dumped offensive coordinator Brent Pease in the offseason and replaced him with Kurt Roper.
What has encouraged some Gators fans is that there may be more talent in the QB system. Will Grier, Parade magazine's 2014 Player of the Year, and redshirt sophomore Skyler Mornhinweg (son of New York Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg) are on call, but the immediate future would seem to be in the hands of another freshman, Treon Harris, who is listed at No. 2 on the depth chart.
"I see talent," said Roper before the season began when asked to evaluate his quarterbacks. "It takes a little bit of time to pick up [the new system]. But I see talented players."
Time is a luxury Muschamp and his staff may not have. Last week, Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley told reporters that Muschamp will coach for the entire 2014 season, but that he will be judged on the evaluation of the entire season.
If that's the case, it is doubtful Driskel will get that much longer to prove that he can be the Gators quarterback of the present, much less the future.
If the Gators lose to Tennessee on Saturday or Driskel has another ineffective game, Harris could get the call, a move Muschamp told The Gainesville Sun he's already considered.
"I thought about it," Muschamp said of the possibility to switching to Harris late in the Gators' loss to Alabama. "Especially late in the game, from that situation."
And the worse that situation gets, the more likely that switch becomes.
Mark Blaudschun covers college football as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. He has more than three decades of experience covering sports at a variety of newspapers in New Jersey, The Dallas Morning News and The Boston Globe. Follow him on Twitter @blauds.
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