Written by Kayla Castleman
It was an unexpected bye week for No. 18 Florida, but there is a new tiger in town Saturday as the Gators host Missouri in the Swamp with kickoff at 4:00 ET. Florida’s starting quarterback Luke Del Rio will return to the field alongside his teammates for the first time since he suffered a knee injury against North Texas four weeks ago.
He sprained his left knee in the third quarter of that game after a questionable low blow from North Texas defensive lineman Joshua Wheeler. Coach Jim McElwain confirmed Wednesday that Del Rio will start on Saturday against Missouri. Gator fans are thrilled to have their quarterback back for the upcoming SEC stretch and thankful the injury wasn’t season ending. For the Gators, it’s been all about finally returning to normalcy this week.
Florida is 4-1 and 2nd in the East this season looking to be 5-1 and wanting to be able to control their own destiny in the East after Saturday. Florida would need a victory over Mizzou and Alabama to beat Tennessee in order for this to come true. Del Rio and company had an extra week to prepare and get healthy hoping it will pay off on gameday. In addition to playing Mizzou, Florida will face Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, and the LSU make-up game on the road Nov.19. These core SEC matchups of the season will be played over the next month.
Having an available starting quarterback is crucial for McElwain according to his previous record. The Gators are undefeated with their starting quarterback, but 5-5 when forced to play with a backup. Luckily for the Gators, Del Rio has only missed two scheduled games. The good news is that he didn’t tear his ACL, and is healthy again to play. However, for Del Rio even missing just one game was difficult to relinquish the starting job that he had been fighting for over four years and two transfers.
Although it was assumed that Luke would remain the starter when he was healthy again, there are reasons to believe that the Gators’ decision wasn’t as easy as we might of thought. Both Del Rio and Austin Appleby were made available to reporters this week. As of Monday, Appleby didn’t know who was going to be taking the snaps Saturday. His statistics are comparable to Del Rio’s and both have completed 61% of their passes. Del Rio won the starting job in the first place for a reason though. For one, he understands the system better. He has emerged as a leader of this team and his teammates respect him. Del Rio has been compared to a general who has everybody in command by some of his teammates and that he is extremely competitive.
“Be there for your teammates. Be there for the guys who are playing so that they can go out and play the best they can play.” Del Rio said.
Del Rio has done this for the past two games as his knee healed and now he is ready to go for Saturday. The Gators had to quickly change their focus from hurricanes and rescheduling games to facing a different SEC opponent. Mizzou is 2-3 and 6th in the East this season coming off a big loss to the LSU Tigers and a bye week. Florida is favored by 10 or more points by most. Del Rio returned to full practices last week. McElwain said coaches will have to remind Del Rio of what has made him successful to make sure he keeps composure on the field come game-time Saturday.
He sprained his left knee in the third quarter of that game after a questionable low blow from North Texas defensive lineman Joshua Wheeler. Coach Jim McElwain confirmed Wednesday that Del Rio will start on Saturday against Missouri. Gator fans are thrilled to have their quarterback back for the upcoming SEC stretch and thankful the injury wasn’t season ending. For the Gators, it’s been all about finally returning to normalcy this week.
Florida is 4-1 and 2nd in the East this season looking to be 5-1 and wanting to be able to control their own destiny in the East after Saturday. Florida would need a victory over Mizzou and Alabama to beat Tennessee in order for this to come true. Del Rio and company had an extra week to prepare and get healthy hoping it will pay off on gameday. In addition to playing Mizzou, Florida will face Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, and the LSU make-up game on the road Nov.19. These core SEC matchups of the season will be played over the next month.
Having an available starting quarterback is crucial for McElwain according to his previous record. The Gators are undefeated with their starting quarterback, but 5-5 when forced to play with a backup. Luckily for the Gators, Del Rio has only missed two scheduled games. The good news is that he didn’t tear his ACL, and is healthy again to play. However, for Del Rio even missing just one game was difficult to relinquish the starting job that he had been fighting for over four years and two transfers.
Although it was assumed that Luke would remain the starter when he was healthy again, there are reasons to believe that the Gators’ decision wasn’t as easy as we might of thought. Both Del Rio and Austin Appleby were made available to reporters this week. As of Monday, Appleby didn’t know who was going to be taking the snaps Saturday. His statistics are comparable to Del Rio’s and both have completed 61% of their passes. Del Rio won the starting job in the first place for a reason though. For one, he understands the system better. He has emerged as a leader of this team and his teammates respect him. Del Rio has been compared to a general who has everybody in command by some of his teammates and that he is extremely competitive.
“Be there for your teammates. Be there for the guys who are playing so that they can go out and play the best they can play.” Del Rio said.
Del Rio has done this for the past two games as his knee healed and now he is ready to go for Saturday. The Gators had to quickly change their focus from hurricanes and rescheduling games to facing a different SEC opponent. Mizzou is 2-3 and 6th in the East this season coming off a big loss to the LSU Tigers and a bye week. Florida is favored by 10 or more points by most. Del Rio returned to full practices last week. McElwain said coaches will have to remind Del Rio of what has made him successful to make sure he keeps composure on the field come game-time Saturday.