One of the most common lines about the team in the preseason — one that I signed onto, same as everyone else — was that Anthony Richardson is worth at least a couple of wins above the other quarterbacks on the roster. What we saw on Saturday confirms that it’s true.
Because, the AR we saw on Saturday is not the AR that everyone was talking about when they agreed to that trope. They were talking about the Richardson from the Utah game, the one who can use his gifts to get out of any kind of trouble and make big plays. That Richardson is worth a couple of extra wins a season over a Jack Miller and a couple more over a Jalen Kitna.
The Richardson that was on the field on Saturday played far below that level, though, and there just isn’t enough else on the offense to make up for it. Put an ordinary quarterback in charge of this offense, and it’ll win several fewer games than it will with peak performance AR.
Kentucky loaded up the box and dared him to beat them through the air. He couldn’t. In his own words after the game, Richardson said he lost his confidence after missing some early throws. He clearly never got it back.
It’s hard to put into words how bad the offensive performance was. The longest series they had all night was a 42-yard field goal drive, but Montrell Johnson’s 40-yard run was nearly all of it. After that were the 34-yard touchdown drive set up by a turnover and a 30-yard field goal drive.
Richardson’s two interceptions were just awful. They also were of different kinds. The first one was just as bad a throw and decision, but it took a terrific play from Kentucky’s Jordan Wright to turn it from an easy pass breakup to a pick. You have to give him a lot of credit on that one.
The other one, well, there are a couple of issues. On three occasions, Billy Napier has handed off to a running back twice in a row and then lined that same back up out wide. The first time was a quick pass to Trevor Etienne early against Utah. He did it again with Nay’Quan Wright late, but the throw was the quick bubble screen that Xzavier Henderson turned from a loss to a gain late in the game. Wright was over there as a blocker, though.
The third time he did it was on the sequence leading up to the pick-six against Kentucky. Wright got a couple of carries, and then he lined up widest to the right. He and Richardson were clearly not on the same page because AR threw a quick hitch or out while Wright ran a go route and looked completely puzzled that the ball was already out when he turned and looked while nine yards up the field. It might not have have mattered if Wright did run the route Richardson thought he would because the corner was sitting on a quick short throw and jumped the pass perfectly.
So it’s possible that the situation was both a first year in a new system thing and a factor of Kentucky picking up on an early tendency. It’s no secret that the running backs are collectively better than the receivers, so it’s predictable that Napier would try to use them a lot. I thought at the time that the early sequence with Etienne was a standard case of a play caller trying to feed the ball to a talented freshman who doesn’t know the full offense, but it seems to be a thing he does to use the backs.
Anyway, it seems clear that Kemore Gamble was the biggest transfer loss over the winter. I would put in a good word for Ty’Ron Hopper too since he appeared maybe 25% capable of covering a tight end in the pass game instead of the near-zero percent that the rest of the roster’s linebackers seem to be at.
But there’s clearly something missing from the offense, and I suspect that thing is a good pass-catching tight end. I’ve been nervous for months that the staff talked about Dante Zanders being their clear top tight end. It makes for a nice redemption story, but the fact of the matter is that the Mullen staff moved him to defense for good reasons. We saw one of those reasons early against Kentucky when he flat-out dropped an easy catchable pass on first down. It put the Gators behind the chains, and they couldn’t recover.
Gamble isn’t Kyle Pitts or anything, but he is far better a pass catching threat than Zanders is. There is one actual catch-first tight end in Nick Elksnis, but he missed a lot of spring after breaking a scapula. He reportedly is not picking up the offense quickly enough, so he’s not getting involved that much. Reading between the lines, I suspect that means he’s not a good enough blocker yet to play major snaps.
I said that the game was Florida’s to win or lose, and the Gators lost it. UK came by its first touchdown honestly; it wasn’t a busted coverage, Will Levis put it right on the money, and Dane Key beat Jalen Kimber for the ball. Their early field goal drive in the second half was an extended march too.
But UK got the rest of their points in some way because UF gave them to the Wildcats, and Florida got 14 points of its own without gifting. UF got its sole touchdown off of a turnover, but it was a turnover they well and truly forced. I wouldn’t set it aside just like I wouldn’t the Johnson fumble early against Utah. The Utes forced that one and earned it.
Florida can play better than they did Saturday night. We know they can, because they did it against Utah. They played terribly on offense against Kentucky, though, which is a reminder that first years in new coaching regimes are never as straightforward as you want them to be.