John Brantley Injury: Can Jeff Driskel Make Florida the SEC Favorite for 2012?

Sacrificing the present for the future is never anything that any competitive athletic team ever wants to do, but sometimes, it’s simply something that’s in their best interests.

Now that starting QB John Brantley has been placed on the shelf with an injury, Florida coach Will Muschamp has to decide whether or not it’s time to officially kick off the Jeff Driskel era at Florida.

Driskel, a former 5-star recruit out of Florida’s Hagerty High School, will replace Brantley for the upcoming game at LSU, however, no timetable has been set for Brantley’s return from what is believed to be a high ankle sprain.

The young freshman signal-caller took over at quarterback after Brantley left the game in the second quarter of a 38-10 blowout loss to Alabama last Saturday night, but the offense stalled and failed to score in the second half against a strong Tide defense.

Driskel will once again get a taste of another top-tier SEC defense when the Gators head to Baton Rouge for a showdown with No. 1 LSU on Saturday.

He’ll have a great stage to make a strong impression in his first career start but the Tigers will certainly be clawing at him all game long.

If Brantley is out for multiple weeks and if Driskel comes in and performs well, Coach Muschamp may have to think about the possibility of keeping the freshman in and letting him work out the kinks this season before taking over in 2012.

Maybe it would be wise to give him a taste of what it's like to sit in the driver's seat, so he knows how to handle the road.

Sure, that wouldn’t be very fair to his senior starter, who was enjoying a comeback campaign, but you would have to weigh the importance of putting Brantley in try to win the SEC East this year versus putting in Driskel, seeing what he can do and then taking it from there.

It’s a risk that has both its pros and cons.

If all of the underclassmen players return, Florida is shaping up to be one of the conference favorites in 2012 and it wouldn’t hurt to have a quarterback with some experience, however, we’ll have to wait and see if Driskel is the real deal or not.

There have been plenty of big-name quarterback recruits who have failed to live up to the hype in recent years.

Just ask Dayne Crist and Garrett Gilbert.

It would be a shame if John Brantley’s legacy at Florida goes down as just Brantley being the stopgap between Tim Tebow and Jeff Driskel, but it’s a reality he might have to face.

If Driskel comes in and shines, Florida fans could fall for him and it wouldn’t be surprising to see Muschamp and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis join them.

The potential is there for Driskel to come in and make a difference right away.

If he does that, Florida will not only make a run at a division title this year, the Gators will be set up to be the dominant team in the SEC East for years to come.