GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Being so early in the 2021 season, the Florida quarterback situation is going to be a topic of conversation until … well … it isn't.
If that sounds like a cop-out, so be it. Yeah, it's only been a couple days since Saturday night's season-opening defeat of Florida Atlantic, but Gators coach
Dan Mullen was adamant that night — and said nothing to contradict that stance Monday — that fourth-year junior
Emory Jones remains UF's starting quarterback, despite the explosive-play performance put on by backup redshirt freshman
Anthony Richardson (7 carries, 160 yards, 1 TD, plus 40 yards passing) in spot duty.
"He made some great plays," Mullen said of Richardson.
All the love being showered in Richardson's direction, especially in light of Jones's admittedly so-so night (17 of 27 for 113 yards, 1 touchdown, 2 interceptions), reminded Mullen of the hype surrounding freshman Tim Tebow back in the 2006 when he'd enter the game in spot duty for then-starter Chris Leak and leave to rave reviews.
"He played about six, seven plays a game," Mullen said. "But those six, seven plays there was a lot of enthusiasm. Yeah, I've seen it before." Florida fans will see the Jones-Richardson dynamic again this weekend when the 13th-ranked Gators (1-0) head 120 miles south on Interstate-75 for a road date against South Florida (0-1) at Raymond James Stadium. The game will mark UF's first regular-season game in Tampa since playing Mississippi State there in 1989, when Emmitt Smith and friends visited old Tampa Stadium and beat the Bulldogs 21-0.
Florida has a storied history of playing regular-season games in Tampa dating to 1912, though the last five trips there have been for the Outback Bowl. This one, however, will be a true road game courtesy of a 2-for-1 agreement with USF that will bring the Bulls to Spurrier/Florida Field twice in the next five years.
Five current Gators played their prep football in Tampa (most notably, defensive end
Zachary Carter and tailback
Malik Davis) and figure to be sky-high to head home and play in the stadium that was the site of the hometown Tampa Bay Buccaneers winning Super Bowl LV last January, and also will host the NFL's annual season-opening kickoff game Thursday night when the Bucs take on the Dallas Cowboys.
It's been a big calendar year for Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, which in February became the first ballpark to have its home team play in a Super Bowl. The Buccaneers defeated Kansas City 31-19 that night and Thursday will open the 2021 NFL season here against the Dallas Cowboys, with Florida and South Florida in the house Saturday.
"You know, I haven't played a game in Tampa in about four year," said Carter, the senior defensive end who had three of UF's six sacks in the win over FAU. "I'm getting old, but I'm excited to be back in Tampa. I'm going to have a big crowd [of family and friends] there."
It's a sold-out USF home game, but expect the crowd to be tilted in the Gators' favor. Whether that matters could be evident fairly quickly, given the Bulls opened their season last Thursday night by getting pummeled 45-0 at North Carolina State.
The loss gave USF a combined record of 1-9 in two seasons under Jeff Scott, the former Clemson offensive coordinator. And yet the Gators already have some bulletin-board material after USF senior offensive lineman Brad Cecil, in a story from
The Tampa Bay Times, had this to say about the UF-USF game that was announced in 2018.
"That one's got an X on the schedule," Cecil said.
OK, so it's tame (if not harmless) as far as "trash-talk" quotes go, but Mullen did bring it up during his Zoom with the media on Monday — the Gators and Bulls have only played once, with UF winning 38-14 at home in 2010 — and made mention that NC State might be one of the best teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference this season.
"This is the biggest game they've had there and their players have been circling it for years," Mullen said. "I mean, you look at that and [also] if it's going to be a different type of team that we see this week than we saw from them last week."
There's some speculation that USF might make a quarterback change, from sophomore Cade Fortin to true freshman Timmy McClain, who helped lead Sanford Seminole to an unbeaten season and Class 7A state championship last season.
As for the Florida quarterback situation, it'll be Jones's game all the way. After the FAU game, Jones was fairly critical of his "sloppy" performance and said he was going straight home to further critique his performance. Good for him.
UF starting quarterback Emory Jones during his starting debut Saturday night against FAU.
But Richardson is definitely going to play against the Bulls and, obviously, deserves to after the show he put on, albeit in limited reps. For now, the approach with the duo will be similar, as Mullen referenced, that Leak/Tebow dynamic. Or
Kyle Trask and Jones last season.
In the meantime, the Gators are still very much trying to figure out their identity. Remember, they led the nation in passing yards per game last season, then went out and rushed for 400 yards (versus only 153 through the air) for the program's highest single-game total since 2014; the ninth-highest in school history. Richardson was the team's rushing leader, but also was just 3-for-8 passing, with incompletions on his last five attempts.
Few noticed, though, as he was dashing for a 73-yard score and leaping over a would-be tackler.
The Gators' big-picture focus against the Bulls will be sharpening all aspects of the offense. That goes for both Jones, who knows the system and is being asked to master it, and Richardson, who is being asked to apply it in live collegiate action.
"Anthony knows the offense. It's just getting the reps and the experience of the decision-making and making all the reads and checks within the offense," Mullen said. "You go watch the film. He made spectacular plays, but missed some very, very simple checks within the game plan. It's just that comfort, and then that comfort of being able to execute it within a game. … It's best when you can let guys learn it the right way and build a really solid foundation."
