2023 Florida Football Season Preview: Quarterbacks
The college football season begins in slightly less than three weeks, which means there’s still time to break down the 2022 Florida Gators roster position-by-position. The quarterbacks are up first, and there’s a pretty clear hierarchy heading into the season.
In 2021, the quarterback position at Florida was a mess under offensive guru Dan Mullen. Emory Jones entered the year as the team’s starter, but the fans soon clamored for the freshman with the big arm and even more impressive legs, Anthony Richardson. Mullen stuck with Jones for most of the year until finally giving Richardson a shot to start against … Georgia. Talk about setting a kid up for failure.
Jones closed the year as the starter when Richardson was dealing with injuries. The two combined for 18 interceptions (and 25 touchdowns) to close a 6-7 year. Florida let Mullen go well before the lame-duck loss to UCF in the Gasparilla Bowl, and the Billy Napier Era started to take shape. Jones earned his degree from UF and transferred to Arizona State, leaving Richardson the presumed starter for 2022.
Florida also lost Carlos Del Rio-Wilson to Syracuse via the transfer portal, but Napier didn’t make any moves after that loss, signaling he was comfortable with the depth he has at the position.
Let’s go through the quarterbacks on the 2022 roster.
Check back with Gators Wire for more position-by-position breakdowns leading up to the season.
Starter: No. 15 Anthony Richardson (R-So.)
Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
Passing Stats:
YEAR | GP | CMP | ATT | INT | YDS | TD | LONG | % | AVG/P | AVG/G |
2020 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 27 | 1 | 27 | .50 | 13.5 | 6.8 |
2021 | 8 | 38 | 64 | 5 | 529 | 6 | 75 | .59 | 8.3 | 66.1 |
Total | 12 | 39 | 66 | 6 | 556 | 7 | 75 | .59 | 8.4 | 46.3 |
Rushing Stats:
YEAR | GP | ATT | YDS | TD | LONG | AVG/A | AVG/G |
2020 | 4 | 7 | 61 | 0 | 28 | 8.7 | 15.3 |
2021 | 8 | 51 | 401 | 3 | 80 | 7.9 | 50.1 |
Total | 12 | 58 | 462 | 3 | 80 | 8.0 | 38.5 |
After Jones transferred, Richardson became the presumed starter for the Gators and quickly beat Ohio State transfer Jack Miller for the job. Richardson looked like the more polished quarterback during the April Orange and Blue game, and Napier has backed his young signal-caller at every turn.
Heading into the 2022 season, some experts are projecting Richardson to reach first-round draft pick status, but he remains a relatively unproven player to this point. There’s the obvious raw arm power and running ability that raises his ceiling as a draft prospect, but the inconsistencies are too glaring to put aside.
His best game last season came against USF when he completed all three of his pass attempts for 152 yards and two touchdowns. He also broke an 80-yard rushing touchdown in that game. He only went over the century mark once more throughout the year, mostly because of Mullen’s hesitancy to move on from Jones.
His 167 yards against LSU was a season-high, but success was much tougher against the SEC. Richardson completed just 10 of 19 pass attempts. His four combined touchdowns were another bright spot, but Florida lost the game on a late interception.
Richardson will get to show his stuff all year, barring some major and immediate regression. If Napier can harness some of that potential and get Richardson to be more consistent, he just might live up to those first-round expectations.
Backup: No. 10 Jack Miller III (R-Fr.)
Matt Pendleton/The Gainesville Sun
Passing Stats:
YEAR | GP | CMP | ATT | INT | YDS | TD | LONG | % | AVG/G |
2020 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | N/A | 0.0 |
2021 | 4 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 101 | 0 | 25 | .500 | 25.3 |
Total | 6 | 7 | 14 | 0 | 101 | 0 | 25 | .500 | 25.3 |
Rushing Stats:
YEAR | GP | ATT | YDS | TD | LONG | AVG/G |
2020 | 2 | 2 | 23 | 1 | 21 | 11.5 |
2021 | 4 | 5 | -1 | 0 | 8 | -0.3 |
Total | 6 | 7 | 22 | 1 | 21 | 3.7 |
[autotag]Jack Miller III[/autotag] transferred to Florida after spending two years at Ohio State where he saw minimal in-game action. He appeared in six games over two seasons and still has four years of eligibility left after the COVID-19 year granted to each player and a redshirt season in 2021.
He’ll get to see more time on the field as Richardson’s backup, especially during the USF and Eastern Washington games. Miller will earn favor with Napier as a game manager that’s developing into a potential starter if he can handle the bigger moments.
In high school, Miller set the Arizona state record with 115 passing touchdowns and amassed nearly 10,000 yards over his 38-game career. He’s yet to see that kind of success, but Napier like his current trajectory.
“I know in the spring game he threw a couple of interceptions and all that, but he’s consistently made the right decision,” Napier said after a fall practice. “He’s very capable, he’s got arm talent. He’s accurate, and he’s a good athlete. So I think we made a really good decision there. Realize that he is a freshman, right? And he has four years to play.”
Third string: No. 11 Jalen Kitna (R-Fr.), No.17 Max Brown (Fr.)
UAA Communications/Leslie White
[autotag]Jalen Kitna[/autotag] took over the third-string role once Del Rio-Wilson left town, but there was some concern when he missed some fall practices. Napier provided an update on Kitna’s status, and it sounds like it’s minor.
“I would say Kitna is the player I saw the most growth in from spring practice,” he said. “Just to see him take another step, fundamentally, I thought he’s throwing the ball much more consistently, much more accurate. Better grasp. Had a little bit of a setback injury-wise, but we anticipate getting him back. He had a small procedure.”
Even though Kitna hasn’t played a snap of college football, the year’s worth of experience in an SEC locker room separates him from the rest of the pack. [autotag]Max Brown[/autotag] was the next name mentioned by Napier when running down the position room, and it’s clear he’s dealing with the same thing many freshmen do when moving up a level in competition.
“Max is a rookie player and he’s growing through those growing pains that most rookie quarterbacks go through,” he said. “Everyone is a little bit bigger, a little bit faster. A lot of information, a lot to process there, and he’s a reflection of most of the rookies on our team.”
He probably won’t see action over Kitna unless there’s an emergency, but Napier said there were only two quarterbacks that are ready to play winter football. He said they’re working on a third, which should be Kitna, but there’s room for Brown to leapfrog if he can mature fast enough.
Reserves: No. 13 Kyle Engel (R-So.), No. 18 Jack Anders (R-So.)
UAA Communications/Courtney Culbreath
[autotag]Kyle Engel[/autotag] also received a mention from Napier during that rundown of quarterbacks. Engel hasn’t seen action in three years as a walk-on player but has made the SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll in each of the past two years.
“Engel did good things. He’s obviously a walk-on player that got awarded a scholarship for the spring and summer semester as a result of his work and a guy that provides some depth there. Really has a good understanding, a smart, intelligent player that’s got character and brings a lot to our locker room.”
[autotag]Jack Anders[/autotag], a redshirt sophomore walk-on, is the sixth and final quarterback listed on the Gators’ fall roster. Like Engel, he joined the team in 2019 as a walk-on and has made the SEC Academic Honor Roll twice.
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