Dan Mullen updates Florida quarterback situation ahead of Missouri game

Florida head coach Dan Mullen provided an update on the quarterback situation for the Gators as they prepare to travel to Missouri and play the Tigers. The Gators continued to use quarterback Emory Jones against Samford last week, as Anthony Richardson appeared to still need time to heal from injuring himself at the team hotel before they played South Carolina.

Florida’s quarterback against Missouri

During his Monday press conference, Mullen was asked about the status of Anthony Richardson coming into the new week.

“Hopefully Anthony — He’s healthy,” Mullen explained before shifting to who would be starting at quarterback this week against Missouri. “He’s like back 100 percent healthy right now. It was still up and down last week. But he’s 100 percent. As far as I know at Monday at 1:30, so he’s available to go play this week.

“But I mean, Emory’s been playing really well. So I’m not gonna say we might not have a quick package or something to get Anthony in there. Still putting a plan together but hopefully he’s fully available.”

Mullen’s comments seem to indicate that even if Richardson is ready to go, Florida may continue to rely on Jones as their starter.

Having both quarterbacks available to go this week against Missouri should help the Gators close out a disappointing season so far. Florida is currently 5-5 after losing three of their past four games. Near the bottom of the SEC East this year, Florida is 2-5 against conference opponents.

However, with a Tennessee loss this week and by beating Missouri, the Gators could jump to third in their division.

Mullen has been the coach in Gainesville since 2018, with 34-14 record in that time frame. He led the Gators to a first-place finish in the SEC East division in 2020, but lost to Alabama in the conference title game. It is his only appearance in the SEC championship game with Florida.

Anthony Richardson’s bizarre dancing injury

Richardson wasn’t available to play for Dan Mullen and the Gators on Saturday versus South Carolina. It was recently revealed by Mullen on Monday that the real reason Richardson wasn’t available was because he had injured his knee while dancing in the team hotel on Friday.

Richardson sustained a concussion in the third quarter of Florida’s game against Georgia and wasn’t able to practice on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday of last week. Richardson was cleared to practice on Thursday but was limited. He was fully cleared to play on Saturday before injuring himself in the hotel.

“His MRI came back clean,” Mullen said on Monday of Richardson’s prognosis. “He’s fine. He got cleared to practice Thursday for the concussion. So he only practiced Thursday then somehow he hurt his knee dancing Friday night. Then he did treatment all day Saturday but was fine to go play, could have played Saturday but having not practiced, coming off a concussion, and with that, he was going to emergency-only situation. Then he was gimping around earlier today, so we’ll see.”

Sophomore quarterback Emory Jones got the start versus the Gamecocks instead and the Gators went down in an embarrassing fashion. Jones went 17-for-30 with 238 passing yards, two scores and an interception. The Gators had a net of 82 rushing yards in the 40-17 loss.

Anthony Richardson has 474 passing yards, five touchdowns and five interceptions on the year. He’s also added 347 rushing yards and three more scores on the ground.