Muschamp Says Starting Spots Still Up For Grabs

Even as the Gator football team prepares for its season opener this weekend against Florida Atlantic, new head coach Will Muschamp says there is still competition for some starting positions on the team.

Muschamp talked about the offensive line a great deal in this area today. He said he has three players he considers starters at tackle in Matt Patchan, Chaz Green and Xavier Nixon but Green will not start in the first game. Jon Halapio has one guard spot nailed down but Muschamp says the other guard position is being contested by Kyle Koehne and Dan Wenger with Wenger winning the starting job. Jon Harrison is the starting center.

In the secondary, Muschamp says the corner position is hotly contested. Right now, one corner has Marcus Roberson or Jaylen Watkins or Jeremy Brown as one starter with the other having Moses Jenkins or Cody Riggs. Saunders will be the nickel back.

Muschamp said Sharif Floyd and William Green would be the starting defensive ends and that there are a number of players that could be rotated at defensive tackle like Omar Hunter, Jaye Howard, Dominique Easley, and Leon Orr among others but Easley and Howard are scheduled to start.

The starting linebackers right now are Jelani Jenkins, Jon Bostic and Lerentee McCray.

On special teams, Andre Debose or Solomon Patton or Jeff Demps will return kicks while Chris Rainey will be the primary punt returner.