Will Muschamp said on the first day of spring practice that
Florida’s preliminary depth chart was worth as much as the sheet of
paper it was printed on. Three weeks later, the value has not gone
up — at least not for the quarterbacks.

“If we started the season today, John Brantley would be our
starter,” Muschamp said after Saturday’s spring game.

Based on the tiny sliver the team showed, you should be happy
the season isn’t starting today. Despite the hype about a new
offense being a natural fit for Brantley, the end result looked
eerily similar to the team’s 2010 performance.

Muschamp said Brantley completed almost 70 percent of his passes
during practices this spring, but in the first half Saturday, the
only time we could see him, Brantley completed just 4 of 14 passes
for 45 yards.

Several players said after the game the passing attack did not
look much different than it had during closed practices, and not
everyone is sold on Brantley starting next year.

“Tyler Murphy, I like him the best,” receiver Robert Clark said.
“He came a long way. Last year, he was pretty good, but I guess he
wasn’t as comfortable. This year, he stepped up a lot.”

Murphy was barely better than Brantley on Saturday, finishing 7
of 11 for 68 yards, a touchdown and an interception.

But he was better, making the quarterback competition more
muddled than Muschamp indicated.

Granted, this was not an actual game; it was simply a scrimmage
with fans watching. Perhaps we just caught Brantley on a bad day,
but based on everything we have seen in the past year, there is no
reason for him to have the starting job locked down.

Muschamp and others on the team blamed the struggles on a lack
of protection. UF only used seven offensive linemen Saturday
because of injuries, throwing the whole offense out of sync. Two of
Brantley’s first four passes were batted down by defensive
linemen.

But Murphy was working with the same patchwork line, and the
passing game looked slightly better with him under center. Receiver
Stephen Alli said Murphy has been more accurate this spring than he
was last semester — his first on campus. He is also more confident
and now takes command in the huddle.

For his part, Murphy talked about the mental errors he needs to
clean up. On fourth-and-goal from the 4-yard line, he dumped the
ball into the flats. During a two-minute drill, he took a sack. Two
plays later, he was intercepted after underthrowing Malcolm Jones
on a crossing route.

Murphy did not play well enough to leap to No. 1 on the depth
chart, but at the same time, Brantley did nothing to separate
himself. And this might not even be a two-horse race.

Jeff Driskel or Jacoby Brissett could step up. Heck, the biggest
pass of the day came from the arm of Christian Provancha. 

But for now, with everything else seemingly equal, Brantley’s
experience has served as the trump card.

“John is the leader of the team,” Murphy said. “He’s been here,
and he has experience. We go as he goes, and he has been working
really hard this offseason. He’s the guy.”

But if playing time is accompanied with nothing but
disappointment, how valuable is that experience?

About as valuable as that depth chart.

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