Anyone who listens to Jim McElwain answer one question knows he is not a straightforward man. He rambles. He swerves. He changes topics like a figure skater changing direction. For example, here’s what he said when asked about how challenging the team’s quarterback competition must be given that two weeks from the team’s season opener, it’s still a three-man race:
“Well, here’s what I would say,” he said. “I’ve been really kind of pleased with how the guys that were here kind of accepted the challenge when Malik (Zaire) came in … You’re actually competing against yourself. Your ability to go out and perform. From a mindset standpoint, that to me is what it’s all about. You’ve got to throw all the exterior stuff away in whatever it is you’re doing and focus on what you do ... I see our kids in that quarterback room kind of figuring that out.”
Non-specific. Non-helpful. Classic McElwain.
But when it comes to the question of who UF’s quarterback should be, answers like that are pretty much the best evidence anyone outside the team has as to who should be the starter. In other words, unless you’re flying a drone over the practice facility or watching from atop the trees across the street, fans and reporters alike are at the mercy of McElwain’s words. And when it comes to being informed, that’s not a great place to be.
Granted, reporters like myself have more access than most. I’ve attended every open practice this fall, and I can tell you that it hasn’t told me much. Every day, Malik Zaire, Feleipe Franks and Luke Del Rio rotate reps with the first team, and even though McElwain has to choose one of them, I can tell you none of them look much better or much worse than the others.
Yet the very fact that Luke Del Rio is in the conversation is enough to make some fans beyond animated. To prove that, I typed his name into Twitter right before typing this sentence. The first tweet read: “Luke Del Rio, your dad raised a b***h. You’ve never thrown the ball 80 yards. You are delusional if you believe this.”
A couple tweets down was this: “I like Luke Del Rio a lot, I really do. He’s a good kid and very easy to root for in life. But boy, he’s really gotta quit trying the fans.”
Both were in reference to Del Rio’s frustration at fans saying he has a “noodle arm.” One fan went as far a photoshopping a noodle in place of Del Rio’s arm on a throw.
“I found it pretty ridiculous that fans are saying I had a noodle arm when I was throwing the ball 80 yards in the first game,” Del Rio said of the comments. “So they have the memory of a goldfish I guess.”
The fact that Del Rio had to resort to comparing fans to goldfish is appropriate not just because of memory, but because of knowledge. Goldfish are not knowledgeable. They paddle around a bowl aimlessly, eat when they’re fed and die, with little thought at all aside from wondering about that next meal.
In a similar way, fans spend their fandom wondering about significantly more trivial questions, for example, who will be UF’s starting quarterback. But then they diverge from the goldfish and speculate, without any knowledge aside from hearsay and conjecture, as to who the starter should be — something they know nothing about. And if McElwain disagrees, well, f*** him.
Why? I get it’s all in fun to a point — sports allow us to escape from our lives and talk about something trivial. But how could it get to a point where some (admittedly few) fans need to call Del Rio a b****?
Instead of holding such strong opinions about who’s gonna be the guy, trust McElwain to make the right decision. Not that he can’t be wrong, but he sure as heck knows more than you or me. So take him at his word, however meandering and unclear that word is.
Is there a front-runner right now?
“Um, you know, it’s tough to say. We’ll take a look at how they handle another opportunity where no one’s on the field. It’s you executing the calls, handling the fastballs, getting guys in right formations, understanding the snap counts, all those type of things. I think it goes back to putting in as many game-type situations as possible. Here’s one great thing here: Being able to go out and execute a practice scrimmage in The Swamp, it elevates these guys because it’s part of the reason they’re here. I always like to see the reaction as to how they elevate when they’re in a great environment.”
So you’re saying this actually is a really close race?
“Sure. Yeah. It really is. And that’s a good thing.”
Ethan Bauer is a sports writer. Look out for his next column next Tuesday.
UF coach Jim McElwain watches on during UF's Orange and Blue Debut on April 7, 2017, at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
