I’m not sure I’d say that Florida closed out the year strong in beating FSU 24-21. However, I’m definitely of the generation for whom any win over the Seminoles is a good win. They’re my most hated rival, as I grew up on Spurrier football in the ’90s when Georgia was no threat and Tennessee was putting the U and T in citrus. Also with no FBS wins since Vandy on October 9 and none against a team with a pulse since Tennessee back in September, it’s good to beat a team that would’ve gone to a bowl had the outcome been reversed.
Nothing about the game was surprising. If you showed me the team stats and box score before the game, I’d have said it looked about right. The only question I had was whether Florida would show up with energy. They had plenty, much of it poorly focused, so we ended up in the fat part of the bell curve for what was possible.
There really is only one takeaway from the game: Florida is not that far away, and FSU still has a long way to go.
The Gators do have speed almost everywhere. When the guys on the lines were motivated and paying attention to what they were doing, they had the advantage. They were undisciplined as all get out, which was hardly a shock. They lacked discipline even before UF started firing coaches, and no one acts better for the substitute teacher.
FSU, meanwhile, was almost a disaster. The only reason the Seminoles were able to stay in the game was the Gator defense leaving receivers wide open, as they’ve been wont to do, and because they let Jordan Travis run freely too much. Travis was the only real consistent generator of big plays, but he’s a scrambler who’s terrible at throwing to contested receivers. If FSU didn’t have a handful of circus catches, I don’t know if they get to double digits.
And if Emory Jones doesn’t throw three picks, Florida might’ve touched 40. They easily could’ve gotten the touchdown they needed to hit 30 as it was with a good spot on Anthony Richardson’s short yardage run with 4:19 to go.
The great irony of the end of the Dan Mullen era is that the team is so poorly refined. The thing about Mullen and his staff is that they were supposed to be good developers, which was supposed to make up for the recruiting shortcomings. But in the end, what ended his tenure was having a reasonably talented team that lacked the discipline and skills that are synonymous with development in football.
The quarterback situation is also emblematic of Mullen’s downfall.
Jones just didn’t develop into an above-average player. I remember a quote from Mullen during preseason camp when he said he wished Jones wouldn’t try to read as much. He wanted him doing more of a 1-2-go approach. Without taking any easy and obvious swipes at the quarterback here, he didn’t even read defenses well enough to make sure throws to the first option was a good idea.
The pick where he was going left sideline all the way without noticing the linebacker drifting into the throwing lane was probably the most representative of this. It’s one thing for him to make that throw early in the season as he’s settling into the starting role. It’s another to do it at the end of the year with nearly 300 pass attempts under his belt before the opening kickoff.
Richardson probably would’ve gotten more of a chance without his injuries, and especially without things like hurting himself dancing in a hotel. I want these players to have fun and I don’t know how exactly that went down. However it certainly wasn’t going to endear him to a coach who is loathe to trust to anyone without an inordinate amount of time earning it.
Beyond that, the more he plays the more you can see how raw he is. His ceiling is certainly higher than Jones’s is, and he would’ve benefitted from more real game action. However it’s also clear that he didn’t come in like one of those quarterbacks who go to a million camps and get loads of private coaching before college. I don’t really follow high school football, but I know enough to know that Eastside doesn’t pump out a bunch of college-ready prospects. You can see how he could’ve excelled on physical talent alone the way he clowned FAU and USF defenders. According to Garrick McGee, Richardson’s own mother said this month that he needs to “grow up”.
Richardson should be the top option going forward. As Andy Hutchins at Alligator Army pointed out, Jones is probably at the point Jeff Driskel got to in 2014 where it’s just not good for the team or player to have him continue on playing. Jones needs a fresh start, and a lot of Gator fans need to move on from their negativity toward him. It will be up to the new staff to make the final decisions, but it’s hard to see any other outcome.
But again, the good news is that Billy Napier and the new staff will almost certainly have someone with the talent Richardson has to work with. Imagine going through this rough a season and having your best options for next year to be either Travis or a true freshman.
There are some glaring issues like, once again, defensive tackle that’ll need to be addressed through the portal. However there are a lot of good pieces around that’ll look better with more focus and discipline. Provided the new regime can provide that, UF should bounce back quickly from this disappointing season like it did following 2017.
I can’t say the same thing for FSU. Pity.