Treon Harris beats Will Grier for Florida Gators starting QB job

Treon Harris will start the season opener for the Florida Gators but Will Grier will still play as Jim McElwain continues the quarterback competition into the season.

Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain is tasked with rebuilding the once-dominant offense in Gainesville that disappeared during Will Muschamp’s tenure.

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Step 1 in that rebuild is finding a quarterback who can run his offense that was so productive when he was the head coach at Colorado State and he may be somewhat closer to finding that person in sophomore Treon Harris.

McElwain named Harris the starter for the opener against New Mexico St on Saturday. McElwain did say Grier will play. Edgar Thompson of the Orlando Sentinel shares more from McElwain’s Wednesday press conference and what we should read into his decision to start Harris and play Grier.

Mac said #Gators will start Treon Harris at QB. 'Someone starts, someone comes in. Both are deserving of it.'
— Edgar Thompson (@osgators) September 2, 2015

Mac said, 'It was really close. You have two good quarterbacks to go in and play.'
— Edgar Thompson (@osgators) September 2, 2015

Mac on QBs: "I wouldn't read that much into. It's a painting in progress."
— Edgar Thompson (@osgators) September 2, 2015

Harris replaced Jeff Driskel as the starting quarterback in the middle of last year and with Driskel transferring to Louisiana Tech in the offseason the job was between he and Grier, but it looked like Grier held a slight lead after spring practice.

Grier was able to take what was perceived to be a “lead” after Harris missed a few days of practice to return home for a funeral, and many, including myself, believed Grier would be more of a natural fit for McElwain’s style of offense.

But Harris has the experience over Grier, but his biggest asset is his confidence and leadership abilities that you can’t coach and is a fit in any type of offense. Harris completed 49.5 percent of his passes for 1,019 yards, nine touchdowns, four interceptions and 332 yards and three touchdowns. Grier was the No. 48 overall recruit and No. 2 pro-style quarterback recruit, according to the 247Sports Composite Rankings and redshirted last year.

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