Anthony Richardson details his thoughts on new Florida staff, envisioning himself in the offense

It’s a new era at Florida this season — in a few ways. Billy Napier is now in as head coach and Anthony Richardson looks primed to be the starting quarterback, and he talked about that transition ahead of the Manning Passing Academy, which he’s attending in Louisiana this weekend.

Richardson put on a show in the Gators’ spring game this offseason as he makes a strong case to replace Emory Jones, who transferred to Arizona State. That means he not only has to adjust to starters’ reps, but he’s also getting acquainted with a new coaching staff and a new system. It sounds like everything’s going well so far — after a bit of a slow start.

“It’s been pretty good,” Richardson said. “Not many ups and downs. When they first came in, things were kind of stagnant. Things weren’t really changing. But after a week or two they got things rolling and now everybody trusts the system and trusts all the coaches.”

Anthony Richardson discusses Billy Napier’s offense at Florida

When rumors started swirling about Napier’s candidacy to replace Dan Mullen at Florida, Richardson decided to do some homework. He watched some film to see how Louisiana ran its offense with Levi Lewis under center. He liked what he saw, and thinks he’ll be a good fit into Napier’s system.

“Watching some of their games from last year, even hearing about Coach Napier and them considering him, I started watching some of the games just to see what was going to happen,” Richardson said. “And watching Levi play, that was their old quarterback, that put me in good hands because we have similar skill sets.

“I talked to coach Napier and coach Ryan O’Hara when they came in and they told me I was going to fit well in their offense. Then I went through spring, I think I do fit well in the offense so we’ll see how that goes.”

In Florida’s spring game, Richardson 18 of 24 passes for 207 yards and two touchdowns to help the Blue Team to a 34-0 victory. That led to some high praise from his new coach.

“I think Anthony’s a production of a lot of hard work,” Napier said. “I mean I can’t say it enough. His approach has been first class. When I think about a quarterback, we think about a person who represents everything the organization is about. Certainly at the highest level of football, the quarterback is the face of the organization. They set the greatest example. Their work ethic, their attention to detail, their self-discipline, their approach.”