For a minute or 30, it looked like Florida’s offense hadn’t improved much following a stagnant 2011 season, as the Gators entered the locker room at halftime with just a 7-0 score. Then the fourth quarter started, and 34 of the 41 total points in UF’s Orange-Blue game followed.
The suddenly explosive offenses were led by Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett, both of whom have been in a dead heat QB battle since the start of spring. Driskel went 10-of-11 for 133 yards while Brissett was 8-of-11 for 149 yards and two touchdowns with the Orange squad. Brisset also went 1-5 for 52 yards with the Blue team.
This should be a battle that goes neck-and-neck into fall camp, and perhaps, the start of the season.
Once each quarterback started throwing the ball more than 10 yards down the field, everything began to open up. Trey Burton, who played some quarterback for the Gators last year, had a good day receiving at tight end -- as did Omarius Hines, who reeled in five catches.
If you’re interested, here’s the box score with all the official stats.
It’s pretty much established that Mike Gillislee is going to be the running back for UF this fall barring any injury, but one player who got rave reviews across the board was Chris Johnson. He finished the day with 13 carries for 50 yards. The offensive line looks much improved as well, so if the Gators can begin running the ball North and South like coach Will Muschamp wants, that’s going to help out whoever ends up with the starting QB job.
Overall, the offense just finished stronger. Sometimes it’s hard to tell if that’s a tribute to adjustments or vanilla defensive schemes -- it is spring game after all -- but the important thing is for Florida to keep building off a 21-20 game today (in favor of Blue team, for what it’s worth).
Defense was still a little inconsistent at times -- again, that’s to be expected -- and linebacker/defensive end Ronald Powell had to leave with what is said to be a sprained knee. Powell had been having a solid spring. Linebacker David Campbell had the only interception of the day for the Orange team.