clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

The Alligator Army Weekly Open Thread, Vol. LII

We should really work on the “weekly” part of this.

Franklin American Mortgage Music City Bowl Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images

The long-rumored, much-anticipated conclusion of the months-long dance Malik Zaire has done with the Florida Gators should come either this week or shortly after it.

Very soon, Zaire should arrive in Gainesville to stay, along the bulk of Florida’s 2017 recruiting class, which is currently en route to the mires of North Central Florida en masse. By the end of the week, Zaire and those freshmen should be ensconced in dorms or apartments and enrolled as University of Florida students, ready for next week’s beginning of Summer B classes that will make most of those future Florida football players student-athletes in whatever sense sitting in drowsy classrooms to take introductory classes does.

And Florida will probably officially comment on Zaire for the first time at some point before the end of June, marking the first time any discussion of his status has been had without a wink and/or a nod and/or a wry smile from Jim McElwain. This will be good for all of us who have had to deal with the clumsy charade that was SEC-crossed lovers Florida and Zaire clearly having mutual interest that could not be acted upon until the conference scaled back its penalties for graduate transfers not making academic progress.

I’m still not sure whether it’s good for Florida.

I am of several minds when it comes to Zaire, and will be relating those various perspectives in a series of posts this week, because y’all deserve to get one of my trademark 2,000-word deep dives in installments, just to change things up. But I want to know where you are in regards to Florida’s highest-profile transfer quarterback ever, especially with all of his potential still presumptive.

Are you a fan of Florida landing Zaire? Do you think he starts for the Gators this fall? For some of the fall, or all of it? Do you think he changes this team’s trajectory significantly? Do you think he hampers the growth of Feleipe Franks and the other quarterbacks in McElwain’s vaunted QB room?

Let’s talk about it.