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Chomping at Bits: The reaction to Treon Harris being named Florida's starter

This isn't total victory, and even Jim McElwain counseled not to read much into it. But human nature is what it is.

By Andy Hutchins
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

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The reaction to Treon Harris being named starter: With just over 72 hours remaining until kickoff of the first game of a season filled with promise for Florida, Gators fans can be excused for overreacting — with joy or apprehension — to Treon Harris being named the Gators' starter over Will Grier for Florida's season opener. It's even understandable for Grier's father, Davidson Day coach Chad Grier, to express his feelings with a pithy, since-deleted tweet:

Chad Grier Wow

This is the risk of having a top-tier player whose family's viral fame (father Chad has only 10,000 fewer Twitter followers than Will's 237,000, though both are understandably dwarfed by younger Griers Nash, verging on five million, and Hayes, just under three million): When someone sends an potentially newsworthy message on a social medium, it is immediately turned into A Thing. But Grier's dad did have the good sense to delete the tweet — whatever it meant, it staying up would help promulgate things that probably didn't need to be promulgated.

And Harris's less famous father and brothers — Miami running backs coach Tim "Ice" Harris, Florida International running backs coach Tim Harris, Jr., and NFL defensive back Brandon Harris — all kept their own reactions to Treon getting Saturday's start quiet, neither sending tweets nor favoriting any since its announcement. One person who did make his feelings public, though, is former Florida receiver Quinton Dunbar:

Quinton Dunbar Instagram

Dunbar, of course, went to the same high school, Booker T. Washington, that Harris did; Dunbar, some may know, was also one of the key voices in Florida's locker room agitating for Harris in 2014 and for Jacoby Brissett in 2012, though his seniority in 2014 obviously gave him a greater voice. It's no surprise that he would be rooting for his boy to win the job.

But it's interesting to note that the people treating Harris starting over Grier as a big deal, at least publicly, seem to be partisans outside Florida's program. No player spent Wednesday night subtweeting, and no one spoke to media and suggested this was the key moment of the fall. Internally, everyone knows there's still a competition on — and that the most important reactions of all are coming from Grier and Harris on Saturday.

Let's promise to react to that.

Florida fans hungry for offense: Oh, sure, when Pat Dooley comes to "Florida fans are used to a specific thing from their offense and other options don't satisfy" a year late and in a more benign tone, it's cool. (Pat Dooley, The Gainesville Sun)

Geoff Collins cross-trains Gators extensively: "We really don't care about positions" is a pretty ballsy thing for a defensive coordinator to say. It's not like Caleb Brantley's dropping as a deep safety. (Scott Carter, GatorZone)

Jake McGee is rarin' to go: Finally. Happy for this dude. (Scott Carter, GatorZone)

Why neutral-site openers are here to stay: I'll be linking this two years from now around this time. You know, assuming I'm still here. (Steven Godfrey, SB Nation)

Your Gators moment of zen:

Hey, getting creative couldn't hurt Florida's women's basketball program.

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