Crimson Tide and Gators Future Quarterbacks Do Battle in Prep Season Opener

It was a glimpse into the future on Friday night, as the Florida Gators' top quarterback recruit traveled north with his team from Venice, Fla., to Chesapeake, Va., where they would take on Alabama's top quarterback recruit and the Oscar Smith Tigers.

Trey Burton is the quarterback of Venice and is widely considered by Gators fans to have a very bright future and a solid chance of being a successor to the great Timmy Tebow.

Tebow will be out of eligibility after this coming season and will either head on to play in the NFL, or will immediately go to work on finding a permanent cure for cancer.

Phillip Sims is the quarterback for Oscar Smith High in Chesapeake. He is considered to be the No. 1 quarterback prospect in the country.

Sims is also committed to play his college football at the University of Alabama. His parents are already looking to make the move to Tuscaloosa area. They want to be close to their son during his college career. 

Tennessee fans hold faint, unrealistic hopes of being able to draw him away from the Tide.

It's not going to happen.

Sims came into Friday night's game with a reputation as a great drop back passer. He has very good arm strength and is the kind of guy who can make all the throws including downfield and on the run. Perhaps his greatest strength was his reported ability to go through his progressions.

Burton came in renowned more as a multi-purpose type quarterback. He showed why during Venice's second possession. Using a spread offense, they methodically moved the ball down field after being set up inside the Oscar Smith 40 yard line on a punt return.

Venice used a nice mix of option and straight handoffs to set the Indians up inside the one, where Burton himself managed to run it in for to take a 6-0 lead.

Oscar Smith took little time in answering the Venice score when Sims drove the Tigers down the field. They scored on a 20 yard touchdown pass when Sims rolled away from pressure and threw a perfect strike toward the right pylon for the touchdown.

With the score 6-6, Oscar Smith got the ball back. Sims drove them down the field through the air allowing the Tigers to take a 13-6 lead on a 2 yard touchdown run.

The first quarter finished in a deluge. Sims still managed 108 yards on 5-of-8 passing in the rain.

Midway through the second quarter, Burton, who had still yet to throw his first pass, once again had Venice moving the ball down into Oscar Smith territory.

The majority of the drive had been engineered using the read option with Burton making the read and keeping the ball for nice gains. Oscar Smith's defense stiffened and managed to turn away the Venice offense.

Burton did get his first completion on his next possession, on an out pass that should have been picked off.

It was obvious that he lacked some strength on the out pass, which can be a big deal at the college level. However, Burton did use a nice swing pass to pick up a first down later on in the drive.

Venice got the ball down to the two yard line with just two seconds left in the first half. Burton took a snap an on second effort appeared to have gone in for the potential tying score.

The field judge however ruled that the ball did not break the plane of the end zone, and the half ended on a down note for Venice.

In the second half, Oscar Smith came out on the arm of Phillip Sims and moved right down the field where they managed to punch it in on a run out of the jumbo package.

Sims hit several nice passes, mixing his receivers and doing a nice job of progressing through his reads.

After shutting down Venice once more, Sims again took his team downfield via the pass, hitting a 42-yard bomb down the middle.

A few plays later, he hit a pass that got Oscar Smith down to the 1-yard line. The Tigers went to the run with the tailback going in for the score off the left side untouched.

The Tigers decided to go for two with Sims throwing a perfect fade to put Oscar Smith up 27-6.

Burton finally got a chance to answer and came out firing the ball. It was obvious when Burton got his shoulders squared up it helped his arm strength It was his tendency to throw off his back foot that was really damaging his effectiveness.

After leading Venice to a touchdown that left the score 27-13 Burton seemed to gain some confidence in his throwing game.

The Tigers made adjustments after giving up the scoring drive and were able to pressure Burton and shut down the Venice offense for the rest of the night.

Whether you were an Alabama fan or a Gator fan, you had to be pleased with the two quarterbacks' performances.

However, just judging from build, polish, touch, and game savvy, it was the Alabama fans who had reason to be most cheerful.

Sims looked phenomenal and appears more than ready to come in next spring and immediately push for playing time.

It is clear that once Greg McElroy's time at the Capstone is up, the Crimson Tide are set with talent at quarterback for some time to come.