DAILY MAIL SPORTSWRITER
GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Physically Byron Leftwich is likely the mostimposing quarterback Florida will face this season.
The concern for Marshall University fans is whether the shouldersof Leftwich's 6-foot-6, 240-pound frame are big enough to carry theThundering Herd against the top-ranked Gators.
He's already shown he can thread the needle against Mid-AmericanConference competition.
"Physically he's a lot like Quincy Carter," Florida DefensiveCoordinator Jon Hoke said, comparing Leftwich to the Dallas Cowboyquarterback.
"He's athletic. He'll run the football. He doesn't option asmuch, but to me he's a lot like Quincy Carter."
Leftwich has been getting a special player's share of attentionthis week. Monday he participated in an ESPN.com chat room on line.Tuesday he spoke via telephone at Florida's media luncheon.
"The attention is the fun part," said Leftwich, who'll take thefield in Gainesville at 7:15 p.m. today when the Herd and Gatorsbattle in an ESPN2 game. "It's the first game for them, it's ourfirst game. Everybody loves college football and wants something totalk about. I'm just having fun with it. I'm happy to be playingagainst another team."
Another team, and at least for now, the team chosen as the bestin the country by both the coaches and the media. Leftwich has beenpreparing since January for this opener, according to OffensiveCoordinator Ed Zaunbrecher.
"Byron has been preparing well," Zaunbrecher said. "From themiddle of last season till now he's just gotten better and better.I'm pleased with the way he's been working, leading, and doing thethings a quarterback is supposed to do."
Last season Leftwich hit 279 of his 457 passes (.611) for 3,358yards, 21 touchdowns and nine interceptions, despite spending muchof MU's first four games on his back.
He averaged 279.8 passing yards per game. In his first six, hethrew for 1,504, an average of 250. In the final six, he added 1,854for an average of 309.
Can Marshall and Leftwich be productive against Florida'sdefense?
"They have the kind of athletes who you can have blocked and havethe angle on them and they can get off blocks and go make theplays," Zaunbrecher said. "That's why they have such a good defense,they have the athletes to go do it."
Leftwich doesn't see a big gap in the Gators' athletes versus theHerd's.
"They're kind of similar. You look at their speed and our guys'speed on film and you don't see too much of a difference," Leftwichsaid. "That's what our defense goes on is speed, and I see thatevery day. I should be able to go against those guys (today)."
"We just need to run our plays as well as we can," Zaunbrechersaid. "When you play a defense like that, if you try to do too muchyou just mess yourself up. So you do the things you do the best. Ifyou do that well enough, you should be able to move the football.
"When you play against a good team, they're always going to makesome plays. You just have to minimize what they do and the amount ofdamage they do when they do make a play.
"If they get in there and get penetration, we want to avoidturnovers. We want to kick the ball at the end of the series. Ifthat's the case, we should be OK."
Leftwich agreed, adding, "My attitude is we just need to executeour offense. If a guy is open, I've got to hit them. No matter wherehe's at, no matter if he has pressure. If a guy is open, and I canget rid of the ball, I should hit him every time."
Confidence will help Leftwich stand tall in the pocket,experience will help him get rid of the football when he needs to.MU's receiving corps is not yet blessed with as much gameexperience.
But Leftwich believes in them.
"Those guys are going to do a great job," he said. "They're inthe situation now I was in last year. People don't know about JoshDavis. People know about Curtis Jones, but he hasn't played thatmuch.
"They don't know about Denero Marriott or Chris Martin. Thoseguys were behind four receivers last year that were pretty good. Twoof them are in the NFL. They just had to wait their turn. Now istheir time to shine. I know they're going to step up, face thechallenge and do real good for us."
Zaunbrecher expects five to seven receivers to play in thefootball game, whether NCAA punishment will have a hand in it is asyet unknown, though Leftwich is uninvolved. Those impact receiversare Darius Watts, Jones, Davis, Martin, Marriott, Chris Ray, BradBates and Demetrius Doss.
"They've all been working with the first two groups," Zaunbrechersaid. "Hopefully they'll be able to go in there and know whatthey're doing and they'll be able to go in there and play. Most ofthem know more than one position so that gives you more depth."
While Davis was the step-up guy this spring, Marriott hasasserted himself this August.
"Marriott has really worked hard to make himself a receiver,"Zaunbrecher said. "When he first moved over there (from thesecondary), he wasn't a natural at the position. But he's workedhard and developed by taking to the coaching and putting in extratime."
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