Last Wednesday in front of an auditorium full of high school students and teachers Anthony Richardson signed a National Letter of Intent to play football for the Florida Gators.
It’s a dream for every kid that straps on a helmet and plays high school football. The opportunity to play at the next level, while earning a college education — especially at a top-10 public university less than 10 minutes from your home. What made this day different is that Richardson was already living out his dream even before he put pen to paper.
Richardson graduated a semester early and enrolled at Florida in time to participate in the Gators’ bowl prep. Enrolling early is becoming more commonplace — Florida expects to have nine early entrants this spring — but getting on campus before the actual spring semester isn’t common. Richardson has already been through four practices with his team, he won’t be eligible to play in the bowl game but he will get a head start on the rest of the freshman class.
Mullen had, to his recollection, one quarterback enroll this early before. Nick Fitzgerald did so at Mississippi State and it helped his career. The first few practices are a lot to handle for any young player, even more so a quarterback.
“You kind of laugh it up, like, ‘Hey, we’ve got to teach him how to just stay the cadence to snap the ball.’ Like Brian and John, they’re kind of coaching them what to do as they’re breaking the huddle,” Mullen said. “They do it. I think somebody did it for us, too. It’s kind of fun. They get some individual work, they get to hear some terminology and do it. It seems like they’re having a good time.”
The first day you’re swimming in a sea of new information, anxious, and nervous but then your physical ability takes over. At 6-4 and 233 pounds, Richardson has all the physical ability in the world and that was immediately apparent to one of the guys he’s following in practice.
“Yeah, he is a stud,” starting quarterback Kyle Trask said. “He is going to be great for this university as well. He has only been here a couple of days so I can’t say too much, but my first impression is that he is really athletic and he has a very strong arm. He is a very talented kid.”
Richardson is the future at quarterback for the Gators. With Feleipe Franks’ decision to leave after he graduated this semester the Gators’ quarterback room was left with just Trask and Emory Jones until Richardson’s enrollment. Trask has one year of eligibility remaining and Jones will have three but Richardson, with his size, speed, arm talent and ability is the future.
That was also apparent to a guy that has made a living this year of getting after quarterbacks.
“He’s got some zip. The way he throws the ball. I’ve seen him just throwing it around, tossing it around – he’s got an arm. He’s got good size. He’s very mature coming in so far, kind of jelling with the older guys and young guys really well. Still trying to find himself a little bit on the team. But he’s going to be really good,” Greenard said of Richardson. “I talk to him every day, laugh with him, joke with him. Obviously, I’ve seen the picture with the jersey, the oversized jersey. I told him he’ll grow into it. But for what I’ve seen the past couple of days, he can throw it, now. So, be on the lookout for him, with the right coach, and obviously with Coach Mullen he’s the guru with molding quarterbacks. I expect nothing but great things from him. He’s going to be really good.”
With Trask and Jones coming back it’s likely that Richardson is heading for a redshirt in 2020. He can, of course, play in four games his freshman season and still maintain that status, but he’s already turning heads and impressing people making them wonder what the future will look like with him playing quarterback for Dan Mullen.