By Will Miles
FAU win
Last year, one of my most popular refrains when Florida won by 2 touchdowns in a game they should have won by 4 was, “a win is a win.”
In some ways, the victory over FAU falls into that category as well. While a 35-14 win certainly beats the alternative, it also isn’t nearly as comforting as some of those wins last year where it felt like the team just coasted after getting ahead. There was definitely a switch to the offense last season, and while that switch might be there this year, we need to see it first to believe.
After all, this is an FAU team that got beat by Georgia Southern last year 20-3. It also is an FAU team with a new QB (competent, yet unspectacular N’Kosi Perry) and a defense that rated in the top-25 last season, so perhaps I’m being too hard on the Gators.
At the end of the day, it was an unspectacular win. But a win is a win. It certainly beats the alternative.
QB Controversy?
The thing I did not have on my Florida Gators bingo card after an opener against FAU was a QB controversy.
That’s not because I didn’t think Anthony Richardson would play well. We saw enough last year to know that he would do a good job against an inferior opponent. The surprise is how utterly pedestrian Emory Jones looked, throwing two interceptions, nearly a third on a dropped pick-six to open up the third quarter, and multiple game management mistakes.
During the telecast, the announcers said that Dan Mullen acknowledged that Jones wasn’t going to be able to do many of the things that Kyle Trask did last year. The bounced passes from time-to-time, making receivers adjust to balls thrown slightly off and not going through full progressions should all be expected. What I didn’t expect was the multiple delay of game penalties, the turnovers in the red zone and running the wrong plays on fourth down.
Much of that is correctable. But those sorts of things – with his experience in the Mullen system – are the advantages that we expected to see play out with Jones. Instead, he looked to have the same weaknesses as a younger player (i.e. Richardson) would have, which is why they were already talking about a controversy on the telecast as well.
Emory Jones attitude
One thing that will happen to all QBs from time-to-time is they will get humbled. Whether it’s a team with a ferocious pass rush, making a mistake late in enemy territory or just not having it on a particular day, anyone who plays the position will have a bad game.
How you handle that bad game says a lot about you and your character, and Emory Jones passed that test with flying colors.
He was the first player interviewed on the ESPN telecast and didn’t shy away from things he could improve on or to give Richardson praise. And based on their interaction on social media after the game, it looks like these two have a good relationship off the field as well.
A lot of that is probably attributable to Jones, who I’m sure wants to succeed as badly as anyone out there on the field. Perhaps that’s why we saw some uncharacteristic play from him in the game as well. Maybe he was just pressing.
The backup QB is always the most popular guy in the room. Jones knows this, as he has been immensely popular for much of his tenure at UF. But now as the starter, he’s only going to be popular if he produces.
The good news is that instead of holding his head down and sulking after a poor performance, he held it high and supported his teammates. That’s going to serve him well, not just for 2021 but in life. And also, if he plays well against Alabama, nobody is going to care that he looked shaky against FAU.
Mullen softens his stance
Dan Mullen was incredulous that anyone would think anybody other than Emory Jones would be his starter after the game. That stance softened in his Monday press conference, where he admitted that Richardson graded out better than Jones.
Mullen said that is was the explosives for Richardson that pushed him over the top, but that’s sort of like saying it was the chocolate that made the chocolate meringue pie delicious. Explosives are the life blood of any good offense, and Richardson delivered with 5 of them on 15 touches (8 throws, 7 runs). Jones had one on 37 touches (10 runs, 27 passes).
Some of that is a penalty to Jones, as Malik Davis likely had his big runs (2 explosives) in part because of the threat that Jones provides. But when you average 23 yards per rush as a QB like Richardson did, it isn’t just because you hit one big play. Four of Richardson’s seven runs were explosive plays. He averaged 9.5 yards per rush on the two that weren’t 20+ yards.
Some of it is also a penalty to Jones because he was likely being asked to take on more of the offense than Richardson was being asked to do. That means that Richardson was able to run plays designed to his strengths while Jones was being asked to run plays that might be difficult for him but play to his teammates’ strengths.
Regardless, there’s no doubt that the offense felt different when Richardson was on the field, and it was good to hear Mullen at least acknowledge that.
A new sheriff in town
I loved that Anthony Richardson changed his number to 15 during the offseason. Granted, AR15 is a fantastic nickname and will provide some significant NIL opportunities, but number 15 at Florida comes with it some significant expectations.
The fact that Richardson has embraced those expectations and decided to forge his path in that number does say something about his attitude at the position. One thing fans certainly noticed – even for passes that missed – was that Richardson took a bunch of shots down the field. Some of that was because he was trying to get the ball to Kahleil Jackson late. But completing a 36-yard pass on fourth-and-4 shows he isn’t just going to try and complete a pass to the sticks when the defense gives him something more.
That’s part of the appeal of Richardson too. One of his more impressive runs was in the red zone when he got outside and decided to lower his shoulder (and head) and run over a defender. Likely it would be better if he didn’t deliver those sorts of blows and preserved himself, but that was the most “Tebow” moment of the Richardson experience on Saturday night.
Tebow wasn’t just beloved because he was an excellent football player. He was beloved because every Florida fan knew he would be tough when it was necessary to get that extra yardage.
Richardson showed that same quality on Saturday against the Owls.
Defensive intensity
My initial impression was that the defensive performance against FAU wasn’t very good.
Upon rewatching the game and looking for some specific things, I do actually agree with Todd Grantham that some of the mistakes in the first half were rectified in the second half, particularly the third quarter when the Gators shut down the Owls.
But the issue I still have is that the fourth quarter was a real let down. I get that Florida was up by 28 and cruising. But giving up those two touchdowns late – along with a big drive that ended in an unforced fumble by FAU – suggests an attitude that I just can’t grasp.
A prevent defense is supposed to prevent big plays. Florida gave up 5 in the fourth quarter. A prevent defense is supposed to run clock, but the two touchdown drives took a little bit under 5 minutes. Both drives were aided by personal foul penalties.
This is a defense that was embarrassed in 2020. They had an opportunity for a shutout and to send a message to their fans, the opposition and themselves that 2021 is going to be different. Am I being too critical? Maybe.
But I also watched last year’s defense and what I saw against the Owls reminded me a lot of what we saw against South Carolina in 2020: a defense that was inconsistent against an inferior opponent. We all saw what happened when that defense faced somebody good.
Offensive line improvement
All offseason there have been rumblings of discontent with John Hevesy. Late last season – and for much of the offseason – there has been enormous criticism leveled at Jean Delance, and to a lesser extent, Stewart Reese.
So I think it’s incumbent upon us to praise Hevesy, Reese and Delance – as well as the entire offensive line – for the job they did against FAU.
Last year’s Gators wouldn’t have been able to run the ball against the Owls. This year’s team ran for 400 yards and averaged over 8 yards per attempt. In fact, because of the struggles throwing the ball, running the ball was a more efficient way for Florida to move the ball down the field.
If you are going to name the best player on the field from Saturday night, you’d probably pick Richardson. But I think you can make a case that Stewart Reese was the best player on the field, especially considering how many of the plays he was out there.
Multiple times, Reese was the pulling guard leading the way for a Malik Davis run. Multiple times he was able to get to the second level to make sure that Davis had a running head start against an FAU safety one-on-one. That’s a matchup Malik Davis is going to win a lot.
Delance didn’t jump out on the film (to me) but did an excellent job of doing his job. This was a big reason I was high on him coming into this season, as he was much better as a run blocker than as a pass blocker last season.
Winning up-front was one of the things I really wanted to see coming into this game. At least on the offensive side of the ball, that mission was completely accomplished.
Wide receivers?
Lots of ire has been directed at Emory Jones. Some of that is deserved. But some of that is also a function of his receivers needing to help him out.
There has been wide-spread criticism of Jones not coming off of his primary read. But you can’t tell me that on 27 drop backs, that the primary receiver wasn’t open once. Yes, sometimes the defense takes away what you want to do and you need to move on. But sometimes you get one-on-one coverage and your receiver has to win. Sometimes you get double-covered and your receiver is good enough to win despite it.
I don’t have the All-22 film so I can’t see every play, but I didn’t see a ton of winning at the receiver position down the field. Should Jones have pulled the trigger and given his guys a chance? Perhaps.
But I do think one thing to watch this week is whether Jones gives his guys some shots he didn’t in the first game, and then whether his receivers can win some of those battles down the field.
USF this week
USF isn’t a good team.
They ranked 106th in offensive yards per play and 100th in defensive yards per play allowed in 2020. That doesn’t appear to have been corrected after opening up with a 45-0 loss to NC State.
FAU had a similar offense in 2020 but a much better (top-25) defense. We really saw that play out in the Gators opener as the defense was able to shut down N’Kosi Perry at times while the offense did struggle at times as well. There just isn’t any excuse this week against USF.
If you’re someone who criticizes Emory Jones, what would you do with USF’s quarterbacks? Chad Fortin was the starter against the Wolfpack and put up a stat line of 7-20 for 41 yards and an INT. That’s about as bad of a stat line as you’ll ever see from a QB.
His backup – Timmy McClain – was better, putting up 7-13 for 126 yards. That’s an elite yards per attempt number but McClain also threw 2 interceptions and was replaced by Fortin late.
The point is that I was expecting a shutout from the defense against FAU. I expect the same against USF. Obviously, this might be an opportunity to get some younger guys experience, but it should also be an opportunity to set expectations. USF isn’t very good.
You’re supposed to make it a laugher quickly when you play a team like this.
Areas to watch
Just because USF isn’t very good doesn’t mean there aren’t areas to watch, but those areas are different than last week. For example, I’m not sure we’re going to learn a whole lot about the offensive line. I expect them to push USF around and for UF to be able to run the ball again.
But I do think that the places to focus are the secondary on defense and the intermediate passing game on offense.
The Gators defensive line was pretty good against FAU. I suspect they’re going to get better as Da’quan Newkirk, Antonio Valentino and Tyrone Truesdell get more comfortable in Todd Grantham’s defense. But Grantham stated this week that he wants to play press coverage and that he expects to play a lot of press coverage. Well, we didn’t see a lot of it against FAU but if that’s going to be the identity of this team, we probably need to see it before we play Alabama.
As for the offense, we saw enough screen passes and deep shots to know what Florida is going to be on those sorts of throws. What we didn’t see was a lot of attempts in the intermediate passing game. How often did Emory Jones or Anthony Richardson attempt a throw over a corner and under a safety to the outside of a cover-2? How often did the QB look off a safety to be able to hit a tight end going down the middle of the field? How often did they hit a drag route going across the formation in front of linebackers who dropped into a zone?
The answer is not very often, if at all. If all you have is deep throws and screen passes, the defensive game play becomes pretty easy. Nick Saban isn’t going to be scared by screen passes and will have a plan to address the QB running threat. The way to offset that is to get better in the intermediate passing game.
We’ll see whether that shows up against USF.