Gators Flex QB Depth During Orange and Blue Game

DJ Lagway is the starter, but the Gators showed on Saturday that the other options show promise too

The Gators showed off what the rest of the QB room can do on Saturday | Matt Pendleton-Imagn Images

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – One thing that stood out on Saturday during the Orange and Blue game was the play from the quarterbacks. The trio of Harrison Bailey, Aidan Warner and Tramel Jones Jr. all saw the field and shared the football with their playmakers in this year’s spring game. 

“Yeah, I think it's competitive,” Gators head coach Billy Napier said about the quarterback room. “I think those guys were very capable.”

The quarterback of the day award goes to Bailey. The dialed in Louisville transfer, completing 29 of his 43 attempts for 363 yards and three scores. He did have one blemish on his resume: one interception in this contest.  

“I think Harrison maybe a little bit of a slow start,” Napier said, “the players around him, some drops. I think the protection at times could have been a little better, but in general, I was pleased.”

Warner connected with his receivers on 10 of his 23 passes for 157 yards and two touchdowns- both coming in the first half. He got his first touchdown of the day on an 8-yard pass to tight end Hayden Hansen. Warner’s second score was a 24-yard touchdown pass to Aiden Mizell. 

“I thought Aidan did a good job running his team,” Napier said. 

Jones Jr. saw limited action in this game. Throwing for the Orange squad, he only threw three total passes but completed two of them for 30 yards. One of them was a 24-yard completion to fellow freshman Dallas Wilson. 

Warner now enters his second season in Gainesville with more reps under his belt than when he entered. He played in six games last campaign and four of those came against Kentucky, Georgia, Texas and Florida State. 

Warner’s competition for the No. 2 spot on the depth chart, Bailey, has been around the block as well. Bailey is going into his sixth year of college football and has played at Tennessee, UNLV and Louisville in that span. He’s seasoned and is an older presence in the room, which is a very good blend with the youth. 

The hope for Florida, though, is that they don’t run into a similar injury situation they ran into last season. They lost Graham Mertz for the season to a sustained ACL injury against Tennessee. Then, Lagway battled a hamstring injury that was dealt to him in the Georgia contest. 

Nonetheless, Florida should be better prepared for a situation like this if it were to occur.