The "dark" period for college football ended Thursday, which means new Florida Gators head coach Jim McElwain can hit the ground running on the recruiting trail.

The Gators brought in McElwain in the hopes that he would be the right man to jumpstart an offense that had stagnated under previous coach Will Muschamp. McElwain and his new offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier have both said finding a quarterback is the first, essential step in revitalizing the Gators' offense.

Florida Coaches Expect QB Competition for 2015

Rising sophomore Treon Harris will compete for the starting job against the redshirt Will Grier. However, if McElwain has his way, the team's quarterback competition will be a troika.

According to Sport Illustrated's FanSided.com, McElwain is planning to aggressively pitch his program to two four-star quarterback prospects, Deondre Francois and Lamar Jackson. If he can bring one of those two blue chippers aboard, a position that was once a weakness for UF might now be a major positive moving forward.

Florida Coach Hopes To Win The In-State Recruiting Battle

Offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier agrees with his boss.

“When you look at creating opportunity, when you look at our depth chart, it’s not a deep depth chart at quarterback. We don’t have a lot of numbers there. So the opportunity to come in and compete is the thing that you can sell to anyone."