Will Muschamp said on the first day of spring practice that Florida’s preliminary depth chart was worth as much as the sheet of paper it was printed on. Three weeks later, the value has not gone up — at least not for the quarterbacks.
“If we started the season today, John Brantley would be our starter,” Muschamp said after Saturday’s spring game.
Based on the tiny sliver the team showed, you should be happy the season isn’t starting today. Despite the hype about a new offense being a natural fit for Brantley, the end result looked eerily similar to the team’s 2010 performance.
Muschamp said Brantley completed almost 70 percent of his passes during practices this spring, but in the first half Saturday, the only time we could see him, Brantley completed just 4 of 14 passes for 45 yards.
Several players said after the game the passing attack did not look much different than it had during closed practices, and not everyone is sold on Brantley starting next year.
“Tyler Murphy, I like him the best,” receiver Robert Clark said. “He came a long way. Last year, he was pretty good, but I guess he wasn’t as comfortable. This year, he stepped up a lot.”
Murphy was barely better than Brantley on Saturday, finishing 7 of 11 for 68 yards, a touchdown and an interception.
But he was better, making the quarterback competition more muddled than Muschamp indicated.
Granted, this was not an actual game; it was simply a scrimmage with fans watching. Perhaps we just caught Brantley on a bad day, but based on everything we have seen in the past year, there is no reason for him to have the starting job locked down.
Muschamp and others on the team blamed the struggles on a lack of protection. UF only used seven offensive linemen Saturday because of injuries, throwing the whole offense out of sync. Two of Brantley’s first four passes were batted down by defensive linemen.
But Murphy was working with the same patchwork line, and the passing game looked slightly better with him under center. Receiver Stephen Alli said Murphy has been more accurate this spring than he was last semester — his first on campus. He is also more confident and now takes command in the huddle.
For his part, Murphy talked about the mental errors he needs to clean up. On fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line, he dumped the ball into the flats. During a two-minute drill, he took a sack. Two plays later, he was intercepted after underthrowing Malcolm Jones on a crossing route.
Murphy did not play well enough to leap to No. 1 on the depth chart, but at the same time, Brantley did nothing to separate himself. And this might not even be a two-horse race.
Jeff Driskel or Jacoby Brissett could step up. Heck, the biggest pass of the day came from the arm of Christian Provancha.
But for now, with everything else seemingly equal, Brantley’s experience has served as the trump card.
“John is the leader of the team,” Murphy said. “He’s been here, and he has experience. We go as he goes, and he has been working really hard this offseason. He’s the guy.”
But if playing time is accompanied with nothing but disappointment, how valuable is that experience?
About as valuable as that depth chart.
Quarterback Tyler Murphy gets ready to throw a pass during Florida's annual Orange and Blue Game in 2011. With Jeff Driskel (appendectomy) out, Murphy practiced with the first-team offense during Day 1 of fall camp on Friday.
