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Life after the Florida Gators is pretty good for Jeff Driskel
Fairy tales are supposed to have happy endings.
Jeff Driskel was Maxwell Football Club's National High School Player of the Year in 2010 and was ranked as the best quarterback in his recruiting class.
He accepted a scholarship from Florida, a university only a couple of hours from his hometown.
He led the Gators to a 11-2 record his sophomore season.
After an injury in the third game of the next season, a little of the magic seemed to have been lost. Whether it was Driskel's fault didn't seem to matter to some fans.
He was Florida's "scapegoat," at least according to Driskel's current coach, Skip Holtz of Louisiana Tech.
"I think at a big-time program when things aren't going well," Driskel told FOX Sports this week, "somebody is going to always get the blame. In football, it's going to be the head coach and it's going to be the quarterback. Some of the blame was warranted, some maybe wasn't, but at the end of the day, you can't control outside perceptions. You try to block out as much as you can."
Now playing out his last year eligibility with the Bulldogs as a fifth-year senior, Driskel is finding success again.
Averaging more than 300 passing yards a game, he's one of the top 10 quarterbacks in the country in total passing yards. After the ups and downs with the Gators, Driskel appears to have regained his stride.
"I didn't really know what to expect," Driskel said about entering this season. "I always expect to play well. [Statistics have] never been anything that I've put high on my priority list. It's more playing well enough to give your team a chance to win at the end of the day. That's really what football is all about. If you play well, the numbers are going to come. I'm just going to keep working hard and keep playing better and better."
If he is feeling any extra pressure to prove himself, he's not letting it show.
"I think the pressure that I feel is pressure from myself to play well," he said. "That's what you've got to focus on. You've got to focus on motivating yourself and not worrying what outside people say, whether it's positive or negative."
The Bulldogs are sitting atop Conference USA's West Division with a 6-3 record.
"Our goals are in front of us, so if we handle our business, all our goals are attainable," he said.
More than anything, Driskel is having fun playing football again.
"It's like anything else in life: If you do the same thing over and over again, it can get overly repetitive," he said. "And when you get in a new setting, things are just fresher. ... The guys on the team here didn't know what to expect, so I came in and worked hard and showed that I can play well for this team and be the leader that they need."
"It's just fun playing. It's fun playing well, and it's fun winning. Everything kind of worked out real nice."
And while some may consider going from playing in front of SEC crowds that could exceed 100,00 to playing in front of one around 18,000 (as he did last week during LA Tech's road win over Rice) a step backward, Driskel isn't fazed.
"At the end of the day, football is football, and if you are worried about the fans or the attendance, then your mind is in the wrong place," he said.
And football is what he wants to do, for as long as he can.
"The goal has always been to play pro ball," he said. "So we'll see where everything shakes out at the end of the year."
Despite his current success and his rocky past with the Gators, Driskel doesn't regret a thing about his time in Gainesville.
"When you come in as a freshman, you make a pretty tight bond with that group of guys," he said. "Three or four of the guys that are going to be in my wedding this summer are former teammates of mine at UF. I have some great bonds there, some great memories. It's four years that I wouldn't want to ever be replaced."
"Those years were really special to me," he continued. "And I think they help me grow as a man and as a player as well. ... It's two totally different experiences, and they're both experiences that I wouldn't trade for the world."
So, maybe this fairy tale has a happy ending after all.
