Gators fans can be very fickle when it comes to the quarterback position. One minute, a quarterback represents hope for the program’s future, and, a minute later, the fans are calling for him to be benched and never seen or heard from again.
That’s the way it is at a bunch of Power Five programs, but that’s especially true for fans of a program that has produced three Heisman Trophy winners and a couple of more near-winners. Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel, Tim Tebow, Kyle Trask, Rex Grossman and co. have set the bar incredibly high.
Fair or not, fans want to see the next great Gators quarterback when they file into the Swamp. When the level of play doesn’t match those expectations and there’s a talented young quarterback who hasn’t messed up in front of them yet sitting on the bench, fans can get impatient.
Emory Jones has been on both sides of that equation. As Dan Mullen’s first quarterback signee at Florida, there was a vocal portion of the fan base that wanted him to start over Feleipe Franks as a freshman in 2018. When Mullen opted to go with Trask after Franks’ season-ending injury in 2019, some fans were adamant that Mullen had made the wrong decision.
And then there’s been the rollercoaster that has been the 2021 season for Jones. After he threw four interceptions in the first two games against Florida Atlantic and South Florida, fans began calling for Anthony Richardson to replace him as the starter.
Then, after he nearly led the Gators to an upset of Alabama and won the SEC Player of the Week award for his performance against Tennessee, the fans loved him again.
When he struggled and got benched against LSU, he fell out of favor again.
Quarterbacks coach Garrick McGee said that he’s been impressed with the way that Jones has handled the ups and downs this season. He hasn’t let the way that fans view him change the way that he approaches practices and games.
“Emory has been through this situation on both sides, and so, his maturity of understanding emotionally how to handle it I think really helped,” McGee said. “For him to just keep grinding and keep playing, he would say, ‘I’m not worried. I’m fine. I’m going to just keep trying to get better every single day and give us the best opportunity to win.’”
Unfortunately, though, Jones wasn’t the only one who had to deal with the early-season criticism. Times got rough for a little while for his mother, Trina Jones.
“There was a time in the season, early in the season, where it was hard for his mom to even come to the games,” McGee said. “It was hard for her to sit in the stands during the games because people were saying things to her about her son that probably wasn’t fair, and he had to deal with that while he was out on the field trying to execute and worried about his mom who’s in the stands, and those types of things are something nobody talks about.
“We would have these deep conversations, me and him, him and his mother about how we’re going to withstand this and keep battling through this. So, me and his mom ended up developing a really good relationship, and then the kid just kept grinding.”
McGee said that he tells his players to not let anything the fans say affect how they go about their daily business, whether positive or negative. You’re always one game away from being the hero and one game away from being looked at as a problem when you play major college football.
“Fans are fans,” he said. “They want everything to be right. They’re going to come to the stadium, they’re going to scream their lungs out for us. They want things to go right, and, when things are not going right, they tend to let that go also, and so, we can’t expect them to come to the stadium and really scream for us and yell for us and then not get on us when things aren’t going well. So, it’s a part of it. It’s a part of playing this position at this level.”
When you look at the stats, turnovers are really the only major flaw in the way that Jones has performed this season. He’s completed 68.5 percent of his passes and has averaged more than 225 passing yards in his nine starts. He has accounted for 22 touchdowns.
You can win a lot of games with that kind of production from your quarterback. However, his 10 interceptions are tied for the second-most in the SEC, and he also lost a fumble against South Carolina.
He has shown signs of improvement lately, though, with only five interceptions in the last seven games.
McGee said that the key to his continued improvement is to gain a better understanding of the focus that you have to have on every play at this level. It only takes one or two bad plays to turn a fantastic game into a bad one.
“There were times early in the season where I believe, one of those early games, he played 60 snaps in the game,” he said. “He had six really bad plays and 54 really good plays, but he had to learn that those six bad plays are all that anybody cares about, including us. As the guys that’ve got to get it corrected, those six plays are what’s going to cost us games, and those types of things I think he learned during the season and just what it’s like to be a starting quarterback. It’s hard.
“He really understands defenses. He knows where to go with the football. It’s just, he’s running down the field at South Carolina in a critical moment in the game – we were backed up in our own endzone — and he cuts back inside, and he knows the defensive linemen are going to chase and retrace once they rush, and he has one hand on the ball, and they nail him. He comes back the next day and said, ‘Yep, you said it was going to get me, and it got me.’ It’s just those types of moments in critical moments that you have to be disciplined and you have to do what you’re coached to do. I think he’s learning and growing.”
This has been an up and down season for Jones. He’s been praised, criticized, benched and promoted all within the span of two months.
Through it all, Jones’ effort and upbeat attitude have never wavered, and it paid off in a big way last week against Samford. He broke Tim Tebow’s UF record for total yards in a game (550) and tied the school record with seven total touchdowns.
There’s no way of knowing where the rest of his career will go from here, but he’ll always have that record and that memory to look back on.
“I’m so happy for Emory,” left tackle Richard Gouraige said. “He deserves it. He comes in every day [and] encourages everybody. He’s a great leader. I look up to him as one of my close friends on the team. I’d do anything for Emory. I’ll block until whenever. I would do anything just to make Emory shine the way he did. He had the hot hand Saturday, and it showed the whole world that Emory’s the guy. So, I’m just happy for his performance.”
But, as was the case when things didn’t go well for him this season, he’s not wasting any time by dwelling on the past. He’s focused on the task at hand.
“Just mainly going out there and having a great week of practice this week,” Jones said. “You just continue doing things you’re supposed to do, leading this team, doing all the right things, making all the right decisions, and we’ll be fine.”
Don’t expect Jones to change his mindset any time soon. He’s as steady as it gets.