After the loss to Florida State, Anthony Richardson said something interesting in his postgame press availability when asked about his brief departure from the game: “it was my ankle, I’ve been battling that all year.”
It was a rare admission that AR was not 100% for much of the season. He did look about as healthy as he ever has in the opener against Utah, and the results were terrific. However on the second play of the game against Kentucky, he went down awkwardly while being tackled and came up hobbled. He rarely looked as he did in the Utah game from then on.
Billy Napier played coy with Richardson’s health status all season, which is par for the course in major college football these days. He is more forthcoming than some recent UF head coaches about some matters, but like most everyone, he treats injury information like it’s the formula to Coca-Cola or something. I almost feel lucky that we get “upper body” and “lower body” guidance for why players miss games.
Napier both addressed and tried to shrug off questions about a relative lack of designed runs for Richardson against Kentucky and USF. He noted “our situation at quarterback”, a reference to Jack Miller being out with a thumb injury at the time and no other backups except for freshmen and a walk on. He also said, “I think each game and each week is a little bit different relative to the concepts that are called, how the team’s defending you.” Which is true as far as it goes, but UK and USF don’t have Georgia-like athletes who can corral a healthy Richardson all game.
After the awkward tackle against the Wildcats, Richardson had five non-sack runs in 63 offensive plays. That’s fewer than half of the 11 rushes in 63 plays against the Utes the week before.
Richardson had a healthy four carries in the first 25 plays (excluding kneel-downs) against South Florida as UF built an 11-point halftime lead. Unfortunately, the 25th play was a scramble early in the third quarter where a Bulls defender accidentally stepped on AR’s foot while he slid to avoid contact. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess. Richardson came up hobbling again, and he had just two carries in the remaining 20 plays of the game (excluding kneel downs again) despite the lead evaporating.
The following week as an underdog on the road to a then-11th ranked Tennessee team, Richardson had his most non-sack carries of the season with 16. This, despite him telling CBS before the game that he was about a 7.5 out of 10 health-wise with his hamstring problem from 2021 having returned. His ankles seemed fine, however.
Prior to the UT game, Napier praised Jalen Kitna’s development a mere two days after mentioning the “situation at quarterback”. Kitna’s very recent progress had apparently made Napier more comfortable with having Richardson run the ball more, and a highly ranked rival’s stadium is a better venue for higher risk QB running than a contest that was supposed to be a tune-up game.
The following game understandably had no real plan for Richardson to run with it being against Eastern Washington. He had one 45-yard run early on a scramble, but he never turned on the jets and went out of bounds well in advance of getting hit. Whether the lack of his top gear was a lingering hamstring effect or simple prudence, we’ll never know because that question was never asked.
It wasn’t top of mind when it came to AR’s health because he left the game after a diving EWU defender grabbed a hold of his ankle. Richardson completed a pass on the play but went to the medical tent before returning on the next series.
And despite Kitna’s play against EWU generating more positive remarks from Napier, Richardson didn’t run much the next week against Missouri. He had four non-sack carries among a mere 46 offensive plays, which was a closer run rate (8.7%) to the Kentucky game (7.7%) than to even the USF game (12.5%).
Perhaps due to opponent, or maybe due to better health, Richardson ran early and often against LSU. He led the team in rushing thanks to an 81-yard touchdown carry.
It was back to bad luck after the bye week, though. On the first play against Georgia, Richardson’s cleats appeared to catch in the turf on the sideline after a kinda late but still legal hit in bounds as he was trying to get out. He carried the ball just one more time before halftime as Georgia ran up a large lead. Without the threat of AR running, UGA’s defense teed off on the more limited offense. Things freed up in the second half as Richardson ran four times across the third quarter’s first two drives, but it proved to be too little, too late.
Richardson ran well against Texas A&M and prolifically against South Carolina. After the latter contest, Napier reiterated the idea that Kitna’s progression helped free him up in calling the offense for AR.
Nevertheless, Napier called the next game like he was trying to protect AR’s health again. The signal caller ran just four times in 64 plays in the loss to Vandy. With nothing else left to save for a future date following the FSU game, Richardson went back up to nine non-sack carries in 73 plays against the School Out West.
Add it up, and there were a couple of patterns. One is that Richardson visibly got hurt in a few games, and his rushing rate plummeted afterwards.
The other is that the game plans against most of the lesser opponents — EWU, Missouri, Vanderbilt — minimized quarterback rushing. Again, that strategy is totally understandable, but there wasn’t a pivot to using Richardson more when a couple of those games ended up closer than expected.
And even though Napier praised Kitna’s development at times, he only had the backup throw passes against an FCS opponent and on the last drive of the South Carolina blowout. When pressed into service briefly in the first quarter against FSU, Kitna only handed off or ran the ball himself. The run was working well on that drive, so there wasn’t a dire need to throw in that situation, but Napier didn’t even try a play action pass to try to catch the defense off guard.
Perhaps Kitna’s progress really did make Napier feel like he could run AR more, but there was a definite limit to that effect. AR didn’t run much even when the Gators were in big trouble in the second half at Vandy, and Kitna didn’t throw the ball at all in his one chance in non-garbage time against an FBS opponent.
In the end, all signs point to Richardson’s health being the primary factor in how the Gator offense ran in 2022. The offense in general worked better the more he ran, as his mobility put defenses in conflict and allowed his superior athletic traits to win out. When he wasn’t 100%, or when Napier’s game plans appeared to prioritize preserving Richardson, the offense worked much less well. Richardson’s health was the skeleton key to unlocking the major mysteries of the 2022 offense.