When Ron Zook replaced Steve Spurrier as head football coach of the Florida Gators in 2002, he inherited such passing-game components as quarterback Rex Grossman, tackle Max Starks and receivers Taylor Jacobs, Kelvin Kight and Carlos Perez.
Zook was out three years later, but he left Urban Meyer with the aerial arsenal of quarterback Chris Leak, center Mike Degory and receivers Dallas Baker, Andre Caldwell and Chad Jackson.
A dazzling run of Florida quarterbacks had ended when Meyer turned the reins over to Will Muschamp in 2011, and Muschamp has left new coach Jim McElwain with quarterback concerns and a ravaged offensive front. If redshirt senior Trip Thurman, a 10-game starter at guard last year, can’t overcome a nagging shoulder injury within the next several weeks, the 2015 Gators will have 12 linemen without any starts at the college level.
Florida coach Jim McElwain, left, gives Florida’s Vernon Hargreaves III a encouragement during the second half of Florida’s Spring Orange-Blue college football game in Gainesville, Fla. Saturday, April, 11, 2015. The Orange team defeated the Blue team 31-6. (AP Photo/Phil Sandlin)FALLING FLORIDA
Since winning the BCS title in 2008 and the Sugar Bowl in 2009, the Florida Gators have been mostly mediocre: Florida has not averaged more than 186 passing yards per game for a season since Tim Tebow’s last year (’09): The Gators have been outscored by Missouri 78-30 the past two seasons. Florida has lost three of four to Georgia after losing just three of 21 to the Bulldogs from 1990 to 2010. The Gators have lost eight of their last 11 games against SEC West opposition. Florida can win an 11th straight game over Tennessee this season, which would match Alabama’s 1971-81 ownership of the Volunteers.
Not that McElwain is expecting any sympathy cards amid a Southeastern Conference landscape that contains LSU and Ole Miss as cross-divisional opponents in addition to the annual rivalry with Atlantic Coast Conference power Florida State.