Starting quarterback Emory Jones will look to learn and grow for his uneven performance in the second start of his career Saturday on the road against South Florida.
QB Talk Rolls on as Gators Roll into Tide Week
Monday, September 13, 2021 | Football, Chris Harry
Share:
By: Chris Harry, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Take a wild guess what the hot topic of discussion was for Florida's coach and players during Monday's media Zoom opportunity?
Hint: The upcoming opponent, No. 1 and reigning national-champion Alabama, checked in second.
Fan buzz, social media, regular media, message boards, you name it. The fallout of the weekend's 42-20 win over South Florida in Tampa only threw gasoline on the fire that Anthony Richardson ignited in the season-opening defeat of Florida Atlantic the weekend before. After rushing for 160 yards on just seven carries against the Owls, Richardson took 11 snaps over four series against the Bulls. Here's how they (the plays) and he (the kid known as "AR15") went:
6 plays, 80-yard TD drive, with 1 rush for 18 yards, plus a 41-yard TD pass to Copeland.
3 plays, runs of 9 and 8 yards, then a 36-yard completion to Copeland.
1 play, 80-yard touchdown run.
After the game, Mullen fended off a barrage of questions about any quarterback controversy, defending starter Emory Jones, the fourth-year junior who had a long TD pass and run but also threw a pair of interceptions for the second straight week, and tempering expectations for Richardson, the 6-foot-4, 236-pound redshirt freshman freight train. The UF coach made clear he understood all the external attention, but reminded everyone that, for now, there were 10 other non-QBs on the field that merited his attention, before throwing in a veiled (maybe for fun) reference to a two-quarterback offense he has yet to show.
Who knows? Maybe this week. Maybe for the mighty Crimson Tide.
Either way, the outside noise — and all the free advice on the radio waves and websites — won't be a determining factor.
"I'll be honest with you, I don't listen to many suggestions," Mullen said. "If you're in our staff meeting I'm going to listen to your suggestion, [but] I don't run down to Shands Hospital and say, 'Boy, I think you should really do that procedure this way.' I think those guys probably got that under control, you know? So, they're the people, they're the experts who are doing it."
And he's in charge of the Florida quarterbacks, both of whom are going to play. For now, Jones is the starter. As for Richardson, who hobbled off the field following his 80-yard dash after tweaking his hamstring, Mullen said he was doing "good," still had some tightness, but was expected to practice and be closely monitored this week as the Gators (2-0), up to No. 11 in the Associated Press poll, bee-line for Saturday's showdown against the top-ranked Tide (2-0) in what's being billed as the biggest game at Spurrier/Florida Field in more than a decade.
Alabama will be the first AP No. 1 opponent to come to the "Swamp" since Miami in 2002. The Gators are 15-point underdogs on their home field.
Backup quarterback Anthony Richardson, who is averaging 25.0 yards on 15 carries through the first two games, appears to be grimacing and reach for the right hamstring he tweaked at the end of his 80-yard touchdown run Saturday against USF.
"We've been talking about this game for a long time, all offseason," said senior defensive end Zachary Carter, who leads the team in sacks (3) and tackles for loss (5.5). "Obviously, it's one of the most anticipated games this year. It's a big game, but we just have to play our game. We can't let the stage be too big. This is why you come to Florida; to play in games like this."
Alabama, meanwhile, plays games like this every time it goes on the road. The Tide were ranked No. 1 when the met the Gators in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game last Dec. 19 in Atlanta in what turned out to be a wild offensive shootout. In a game that featured nearly a hundred points and more than a thousand yards, Bama prevailed 52-46 — the Tide's only single-digit victory in a perfect 13-0 pandemic year campaign — then went on to crush No. 4 Notre Dame and No. 3 Ohio State to win the sixth national title in Coach Nick Saban's 14 seasons.
His 15th season started with a 44-13 demolition of 14th-ranked Miami in Atlanta, followed by Saturday's 48-14 home over FCS opponent Mercer. The date with the Gators will mark the SEC opener for both teams.
"We're looking forward to the challenge of playing on the road in a difficult place to play," Saban told reporters Monday in Tuscaloosa. "All around [Florida] is a very good team, and it'll be a challenging game for us. We need to have great focus and great preparation."
Saban would disagree, of course, but the Gators will need greater focus and greater preparation.
Regarding the latter, it's safe to assume that what Florida has voluntarily shown relative to scheme through two games they entered as 24- and 29-point favorites, respectively, has been pretty basic. Mullen, in fact, was asked Monday how much of his playbook had yet to be revealed.
"A lot," he said. "We've kept it pretty simple the first two weeks. I think as you go, the different personnel and utilizing different personnel in different ways, is something we'll look at throughout the course of the year that we get into."
Here's betting the opponents had something to do with it, as well. OK, so maybe the Gators won't roll out a two-quarterback offense, as Mullen referenced, but his reputation as one of the best offensive play-callers in the country is well deserved. It'll need to be against a program that plays with the discipline demanded by Saban.
"Everybody's saying this and that about us in the first two games, but they haven't seen everything," said Copeland, the junior wideout who hauled in five passes for 175 yards and the two touchdowns Saturday. "We haven't showed so much because we're like, 'You can't expose your hand like that before you see Saban.' He'll build off that and it's over. I feel like, now, they don't see too much. I feel like we're going to come out at practice this week and execute well and just do what we do."
Which begs the question: Will Jones bounce back from a second uneven performance and execute better with a more creative game plan?
Through the two games, Jones has completed 31 of his 49 passes (63.3 percent) for 264 yards, two touchdowns and four interceptions. He's also rushed 23 times for 155 yards (6.7 per) and a score. Richardson is six of 11 through the air with a pair of scores and no picks. He's rushed 11 times for a SEC-leading 275 yards — a mere 25.0 per attempt — and two touchdowns in his limited series.
The Richardson wow factor has been undeniable, but it hasn't always gone according to script, as Mullen explained when asked for an example of an "AR15" mistake.
"An easy one would be if you go back a couple games," Mullen said. "He drops back, misses a protection check, then misses the 'hot' throw, then misses the primary read, and then scrambles around and runs someone over and everybody thinks, 'What a spectacular play!' "
From the bleachers or from the living room it's easy to react with, "OK, but so what?" But the outcome of that "spectacular" play against FAU or USF could look very different against Alabama; and not necessarily in a good way.
In the first two games, Richardson has entered on UF's third possession. Assuming the hamstring is good to go, what about Saturday?
"Well, we'll see. We kind of go in with a plan depending on the game, and we kind of schedule the plan off of each," Mullen said. "There are some circumstances maybe that would change that, but I mean everybody is kind of on plan going into the game that, 'Hey, you're going to play the third series.' You know, we have that going in and we know what we're going to do. Now, there are circumstances that could affect that, and there were Saturday circumstances that would affect if he went in and when he went in. So that's always up there changing."
The level of competition increases exponentially for Zachary Carter(6) and the Gators' defense this week.
On the Alabama side, sophomore Bryce Young, out of Pasadena, Calif., has pretty much picked up where Mac Jones, a first-round draft pick and All-SEC quarterback last season, left off. He's completed 70.8 percent of his passes for 571 yard and seven touchdowns without an interception.
"I see how relaxed he is in the pocket and he has good pocket presence and awareness, so I feel like this week we have to do a good job with our rush lanes and just keeping in mind, trying to cage him in the pocket," Carter said of going up against Young. "He's a pretty elusive guy."
The Tide's top two rushers, Brian Robinson Jr. and Trey Sanders, are averaging 5.9 and 4.7 per game for a unit that checks in fifth-best in the league at 462.5 yards game.
For what it's worth, Florida ranks first in the SEC in total offense 609.5 yards per game and first in the nation in rushing at 381.5 per, thanks to Richardson. The difference, of course, is that instead of two- and three-star defenders, like FAU and USF, the Gators will be up against a bevy of five-star and future first-round draft picks (the Tide had six this year). Alabama currently rates fourth in the league in total defense at 241.0 yards surrendered per game — and just 67.0 on the ground.
"Anytime you get the opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the country it is a great, great deal.," said Mullen, who is 0-10 for his career against Bama, with nine of those losses during his nine seasons at Mississippi State. "I think it'll be great for this team to see where we're are this point of the season. Obviously it's a long year. The outcome of this game certainly is not going to define the season either way. There's a lot of football to still be played throughout the course of the year, but it'll be a good measuring stick to where we're at at this point of the season with this team."
