Florida's QB Position in Jeopardy with Will Grier Set to Transfer

Will Grier's time with the Florida Gators has come to an end with the redshirt freshman quarterback set to transfer, confirmed by the team's Twitter account, and leave the Gators with more questions than answers at quarterback. 

Grier, of course, jump-started the Gators to a 6-0 start while throwing for 1,204 yards and 10 touchdowns before it was announced that he'd serve a yearlong suspension for PEDs. 

According to Nick de la Torre of GatorCountry.com, Grier cannot serve his suspension if he's sitting out due to transfer rules. 

Regardless of where Grier ends up, the biggest impact is the hole he leaves under center in Gainesville. 

After Grier was suspended, the Gators lost their first tilt with Treon Harris at quarterback. While the Gators still had a resurgent year under first-year head coach Jim McElwain, all three of Florida's losses were with Harris. That included an embarrassing 27-2 defeat to Florida State prior to the SEC Championship Game loss to Alabama. 

Harris finished the year with 1,530 yards through the air and nine touchdowns. While described as a dual-threat quarterback, Harris averaged just 2.2 yards on 85 carries this season. 

The consensus regarding Harris was that, while he has potential, the quarterback simply isn't dynamic enough to make lemonade when the opposing defense throws lemons. 

As De la Torre pointed out, Harris threw away a higher percentage of passes than anybody else in college football this season. 

Barring the Gators taking in any graduate transfers that can make an immediate impact, Harris will be the top option at Florida for now. 

But next fall brings the arrival of highly touted gunslinger recruit Feleipe Franks, who played in the Army All-American Bowl and is rated as the 37th-best overall player and third-best quarterback in the 2016 class per 247sports.

According to MaxPreps, Franks threw for 35 touchdowns and 2,766 yards through the air while only adding two interceptions this past season at Wakulla High School in Crawfordville, Fla. 

McElwain announced on Twitter on Dec. 15 that Franks will join the program as a midyear enrollee, meaning he'll play in the spring game. 

While that might expedite Franks' acclimation to the college game, how willing McElwain is to roll the dice on a true freshman remains unclear. 

The Gators don't have anybody cultivating in a hangar, as the team didn't sign a quarterback in the 2015 recruiting class. 

Everybody saw how much the Gators, who hung 35 points against a dastardly Ole Miss defense with Grier at the helm but not a single one against archrival FSU toward the end of Harris' season, sputtered when Grier was suspended. 

And now, there's no Week 7 for Grier to come back and for the Gators to essentially hit the reset button. 

Instead, it appears that either Harris—who was at the helm of the collapse of the Gators offense this year—or Franks, a wide-eyed freshman, will be quarterbacking Florida in 2016.