Advertisement

QB Treon Harris will start season opener for Florida

Sophomore quarterback Treon Harris will start Florida’s season opener against New Mexico State, coach John McElwain announced following Wednesday’s practice.

However, McElwain said redshirt freshman Will Grier also will play.

"As we said, someone starts, someone comes in, both of them I feel deserving of it," McElwain said. "Both of them had a really good spring and fall and we're excited about seeing those guys play. So we'll go ahead and do it that way. So Treon will go out and take the first snap, and then whether it's three or four series, they'll both have like we kind of talked about, they'll both have their set of first eight (scripted plays) and move it kind of that way as we work forward. We'll work "Perfect Thursday" in that fashion as well."

Harris started six games last season and threw for 1,019 yards, nine touchdowns and four interceptions. He also rushed for 338 yards and three scores.

Harris and Grier have been in a tight battle for the starting role and even last week, McElwain said that he was going to play two quarterbacks. Grier is more of a pocket passer while Harris is a dual threat.

"It was really close," McElwain said. "From a coaching standpoint you've got to feel good about that because you've got two real good quarterbacks who are going to be able to go in and play the game. As you know in this business, you're rather have it that way than the other way. We just felt that (Treon's) going to go start and Will is going to play and we'll play it out from there."

For more Florida news, visit InsideTheGators.com.

-----

Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!

And don’t forget to keep up with all of Graham’s thoughts, witty comments and college football discussions on Facebook