Gators confident Harris is up for the challenge ahead

GAINESVILLE – Florida ran all over Georgia for 418 yards in last Saturday's 38-20 win and it's a good bet the Gators will keep trying to do the same thing the rest of the season.

But common sense tells you that sooner or later Treon Harris, who got his first start against the Bulldogs, will have to complete big passes. Offensive coordinator Kurt Roper is confident in the true freshman.

“I still think, obviously, we’ve got some work to do in the passing game and we’ve got to grow and, obviously, it’s got to be a dimension we have in our offense to be able to stay successful and make plays and those type of things,” Roper said on Tuesday. “But I didn’t look at it as disappointment. It’s such a game-to-game opportunity, a focus. That’s what it was in that game.”

Harris attempted just six passes and completed three for 27 yards. Florida, however, ran the ball so well against UGA it wasn't necessary to throw more.

“He’s ready for me to call more plays than we called, whether we’re successful with them or not is a whole different discussion,” Roper said. “He has been repping a lot more plays and it doesn’t matter if its a drop back, moving pocket or play action, he has repped a lot of our offense. Knowing what the play is and then applying it successfully against the defense are two different things.”

Roper thinks mentally Harris is getting better.

“He’s got a good understanding. I think there’s two different ways of answering that question. Handling it and knowing what we’re doing, yes he can handle a lot more, but with all the things a defense can throw at you or if all of a sudden the play is not a good play call into a certain look, does he do a good job taking care of the football and minimizing the negative?” Roper said. “All those things are what you learn from a quarterback as you're going forward. You know, you practice a lot in fall camp and still all the way through every week and try to put them in as many tough situations as you can. You know, you get into a fall scrimmage and you get in a red zone situation where you know he can hand off inside zone, but how's he going to handle a drop-back pass on first down or third down or things like that?

“You get those situations as much as you can in fall camp where an interception doesn't beat you on a day when you're scrimmaging. So we know some things, and we know he can handle some things as far as what we're doing mentally our side of the ball, but there's two sides of the ball that you have to handle. So he's going to have to do more. We're going to ask him to do more. He's going to have to make plays in the passing game, but we all learn on Saturday.”

Roper led a Duke offense that set numerous records before coming to UF but said he never had a tandem like Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor, who combined for 197 and 192 yards, in one game.

“Last year we had a 358 yard rushing game, but I can’t remember all the individual stats in that game against Miami, but I think it was four guys spread out over 358 yards. So this was obviously different,” Roper said.

But if Harris has to make a play with his arm to win a game?

“I'm always confident. I've never gone into a situation and didn't think we would be successful. So obviously I'm confident in it,” Roper said. “Our focus right now offensively and the discussions we've talked about, if we don't get better at turning the ball over, it doesn't matter what we do. We want to be a team that is playing smart, taking care of the football and growing. But there's no doubt Treon is going to have to be a playmaker in the passing game. (He is) going (to) have to be.”