Treon Harris transfers after two rough years with Florida Gators

By Adam Silverstein
July 25, 2016
Treon Harris transfers after two rough years with Florida Gators
Football

Image Credit: ESPN Images

Junior Treon Harris, a former four-star quarterback who would have entered the 2016 season at wide receiver, has been granted a scholarship release and will transfer from the Florida Gators, the team confirmed Monday afternoon.

Harris has been suspended by Florida since the spring but just recently began taking classes and working out with the team as terms of his suspension had been eased by the school.

Last week, while seemingly confirming that Harris’s future was at receiver and not quarterback for the Gators during a conversation with ESPN‘s Ivan Maisel, head coach Jim McElwain gave a hint that Harris may not be long at Florida.

“He kind of knows [he needs to move] a little bit, too. You got to look at the fit. It’s nothing he did. The guys around him didn’t play great either now. I’ll never put that on a player,” he said.

“Everybody has freedom, doesn’t have to stay [here]. At the end of the day, look, we’re in this — not here to hurt anybody’s feelings. But at the same time, it is what it is. We got four [quarterbacks] I’m really proud of. The room is really good, and I’m excited about it.”

One of two highly-recruited four-star quarterbacks in the Gators’ Class of 2014, Harris joins Will Grier as signal callers that have left the program since the conclusion of the 2015 season.

Whereas Grier transferred to West Virginia after a stellar six games in 2015 due to a failed NCAA drug test that is keeping him out of action 365 days, Harris has been in constant trouble since arriving UF and was unable to perform well on the field.

After starting 6-0 and averaging 32.2 points per game under Grier last season, Florida finished 4-4 under Harris and scored 16.5 points on average, including three games in single digits.

“In playing effective quarterback, it’s not necessarily being the guy with the strongest arm or the best feet — obviously those are things that help you play the position. But the key to playing winning football at that position is making the other 10 guys around you play at a higher level because of who you are,” McElwain said in that same interview. “A lot of times we just look at the tangibles. The intangibles, to me, are what the great quarterbacks have had and always will have. That’s the ability to get the ball to playmakers but everybody that’s out there plays better because of who’s on the field.”

Harris marks the fourth quarterback rated as a four-star prospect or better to transfer from the Gators over the last few years, joining Grier, Jeff Driskel (Louisiana Tech) and Jacoby Brissett (NC State). Driskel and Brissett were both signed as part of the Class of 2011, and all four players were recruited by former head coach Will Muschamp.

He is also the seventh player to leave or transfer from Florida this offseason.

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