JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Florida Gators scored early and often in route to Saturday's 61-13 win over New Mexico State. The 61 points in Jim McElwain's debut were the most points Florida has scored in their first game under a new head coach.
The Gators two quarterback system of Treon Harris and Will Grier couldn't have worked any better as Florida racked up 606 yards of offense.
"I thought both quarterbacks had moments that were really good," said McElwain. "I thought Treon showed some escape-ability and created big plays down the field and extended plays. I think that's a real positive. I thought what Will did was come in with that two-minute drive right there before half, which actually was really big, and what I mean by that is we gave up a score and we answered. And what that shows me is a little bit of resolve. We overcame some negative plays."
Harris, a sophomore, played most of the first and fourth quarters. He completed 14 of his 19 passes for 215 yards and two touchdowns. Greir, a redshirt freshman, entered the game in the second quarter and then started the second half. He threw for 164 yards on 15-17 passes and two scores. Greir is known for being a more classic drop back quarterback, but he also showed off his legs running for 43 yards and a score.
Those numbers were posted against a New Mexico State team that went just 2-10 and ranked 113th in total defense and 118th in scoring defense last season. Next on the schedule for the Gators is a home match-up against East Carolina. Florida squeaked by with a 28-20 win when these two teams last met in the Birmingham Bowl back in January.
McElwain said he's considering flipping his quarterback rotation this week. In that scenario Grier would start with Harris coming off the bench.
"It's something we talked about, maybe looking at it," said McElwain. "I think both guys played well, both guys had mistakes. But that's part of playing, that's part of learning. And yet here's the good thing, they're all correctable mistakes, they're not fatal flaws, as we like to call them in our industry, and both guys do a good job, both guys moved the team. We'll kind of look at that and I'll let you know, like I did, but we'll play both like we did next week as far as how we'll do it. I'm sure it will be similar."