Florida Football 100 For 100, No. 43: The Jeff Driskel And Jacoby Brissett Backup Plans

There are three days until Florida's September 1 opener with Bowling Green. There are 43 entries left in the 100 For 100 series. "43 is the smallest prime that is not a Chen prime." Now you know!

The quarterback competition between Jacoby Brissett and Jeff Driskel is seemingly going to outlast the whole of humanity itself, but the question of what the two QBs would do if they found themselves in second place is still unanswered. While the logical, obvious, and probable answer is that either Driskel or Brissett would keep working toward the starting role, it's way more fun to speculate wildly.

That's why Brissett got asked about basketball again this week, telling The Gainesville Sun's Kevin Brockway that giving up basketball was "a big sacrifice" but that football "is what I see in my future, so I just have to tough it out." Brockway also royally screws up how ESPN adjudged him as a basketball player.

A former high school basketball standout, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Brissett was rated a two-star prospect by ESPN.com at shooting guard, good enough to play at the Division I level. ESPN.com rated Brissett as the 85th overall prospect in the Class of 2011 and 23rd best shooting guard.

Not so much.

ESPN rated Brissett as an 85 by their "Scout Grade," as the 97th-best shooting guard in the country, and as the 25th-best shooting guard in Florida. I looked back at ESPN's ratings for players since 2006: The only three lesser-regarded American Gators (yes, that's the Nimrod Tishman exception) that Billy Donovan's signed are Will Yeguete, who has vastly outperformed his rating; Walter Pitchford, who barely played; and Adam Allen, who barely played.

And with the glut of guards on Donovan's roster right now, it's doubtful that Brissett would even see the court if he did decide to switch sports.

But Driskel's got a spot in Kevin O'Sullivan's lineup waiting for him if he wants it, I suspect. He was the 124th-ranked baseball prospect in the Class of 2011 according to Perfect Game, and said he wanted to try baseball before he enrolled; he'd also be the sort of player O'Sullivan would love to have in an outfield that is looking pretty bare, thanks to the departures of Preston Tucker, Daniel Pigott, and Tyler Thompson from the Florida outfield.

Will either of these things happen? Nah. I think there's a much better chance that the loser of the battle transfers immediately than there is that Brissett or Driskel dons a Gators jersey that isn't the football top, and I really don't think the loser's going to transfer immediately. People won't stop talking about these things until they don't happen, though.