I got to thinking this evening about our dire situation at QB, about pinning all this hope on a freshman, and so I went to the memory bank. Remarkably enough, it didn't let me down.
- 1980, Wayne Peace, a raw freshman, took the majority of the snaps and an 0-10-1 Florida team turned it around to 8-4 and a bowl game
- 1984, Kerwin Bell, a walk-on redshirt freshman, led UF to one of its best seasons ever, 9-1-1 and a finish atop the SEC, though sanctions stripped us of the title
- 1990, Shane Matthews, after a freshman year on the bench, was tabbed as the starter by new UF coach Steve Spurrier and led UF to the first SEC Championship Game
- Let's speed this up.
- 1993, Danny Wuerffel, redshirt freshman
- 2000, Rex Grossman, redshirt freshman
- 2003, Chris Leak, freshman
- 2006, Tim Tebow, freshman, obviously with mucho help from Leak and an OC named Mullen
- 2015, Will Grier, redshirt freshman
- Let's not talk about redshirt Driskel or Brissett, okay?
- Who am I forgetting, Law or Okee Joe?
The point is, playing and/or relying on a freshman, isn't something you necessarily want to plan for, but it's not exactly the end of the world as we know it. 2018 is a transitional year anyway. We aren't competing for a championship.
Why not now?