The Florida quarterback room is going to look quite a bit different at the first meeting this spring. With Kyle Trask and former quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson are both off to chase NFL dreams, the Gators have some work to do in filling the holes.
Emory Jones or Anthony Richardson probably aren’t going to throw for 4,000-plus yards next season as Kyle Trask did in 2020. They don’t need to.
The key for the offense this spring and moving forward will be to adapt to the new skill set of either quarterback. And Dan Mullen might be as good as anyone at setting up an offensive scheme specifically designed for the players on his roster.
Florida’s lack of ability to run the ball last season continues to come up, but Mullen refuted that point. He said that the Gators were plenty capable of running the ball well in 2020, but chose not to.
They chose to build the offense around the pass, and he said he can just as easily return to a more balanced or run-centered attack.
“We have the flexibility to go throw for 400-yards a game last year,” Mullen said. “We have the flexibility to go back and be 50-50 balanced. We can be a run ball control team and control the clock. We can be up-tempo or slow tempo, whatever is going to fit the program or team as a whole within the framework of our offense.”
Mullen said the beauty of his playbook is that it is huge, but only a small chunk of it has to be used in any given season. The Gators will take out a new chunk in 2021, and this one has potential to be even more fun to watch than the one built around Trask.
“All of a sudden, the field is spread,” Mullen said. “I think we saw even a couple glimpses of it in the bowl game, that the field is spread out and someone loses a rush lane. That turns into a 20-, 30-, 40-yard play with those guys on the field. With Kyle, it might not have been.”
With Garrick McGee moving up from his analyst role and taking over quarterback coaching duties, Mullen is confident in a smooth transition with a seasoned coach who is familiar with the program.
“The nice thing about Garrick McGee is you have a very veteran coach,” Mullen said. “He’s been a head coach, he’s been a coordinator, a long-time quarterback coach at the highest of levels, coached great players.”
Still, the loss of Johnson is a tough one for the program. He came in with the original staff, recruited as well as anyone and helped develop Trask from a career backup to a Heisman Trophy finalist.
In Johnson, the Gators lost an exceptional offensive coordinator as well. But it is important to remember that no matter who fills that role, Mullen is always the one running the show within this offense.
Johnson took over a bit more of the play calling responsibilities than others have in the past, but Mullen’s offense worked before him, and he expects it to work after him as well.
“Obviously, you hate losing him and the relationship he has in the room,” he said. “But we have a core group of guys. A lot of our guys have been [with us]. Brian wasn’t always the quarterback coach for us. A lot of years he wasn’t. How we do things doesn’t really change.”
While the approach remains the same, changes are coming at quarterback for the Gators. This can be a scary thing for Florida faithful after years of despair at the position.
The Gators finally have a good thing going. Only time will tell if that continues.