Florida releases uniform combination for Cocktail Party

Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators on Thursday released their uniform combinations for this week’s game against the Georgia Bulldogs, a rivalry that’s been labeled the “Cocktail Party,” and it’s not quite what you’d expect to wear to a soiree.

Nevertheless, Florida still plans to dress up for the occasion. The Gators will rock a classic look for the neutral-site game in Jacksonville, one that’s long been revered by Gators fans, which includes an orange helmet, fit with white and blue striping down the middle, and blue script lettering that says “Gators.”

Additionally, Florida will wear its traditional blue jerseys with white lettering and an orange outline to the numbers. The jersey has a Gators patch on one breast, and the classic Jordan logo on the other. Its classic white pants include orange and blue striping down the leg, consistent with the orange and white striping on the sleeves of the blue jersey.

Traditional look for Jacksonville.🐊 pic.twitter.com/RChsasTXCa

— Gators Football (@GatorsFB) October 28, 2021

The Gators will certainly dress to impress on Saturday, but it remains to be seen whether Mullen will be able to lead Florida to a performance on-par with its getup. The Gators are heavy underdogs against the No. 1 Georgia Bulldogs, a program that is currently the favorite to win the national championship.

Mullen jokes about Florida offense in Cocktail Party

Mullen has kept things close to the vest when it comes to revealing the Florida Gators offensive plan vs. Georgia.

In the SEC coaches weekly teleconference on Wednesday, Mullen had yet to name a starter at quarterback for the Cocktail Party.

A reporter asked, “just to clarify, no running back at the quarterback position, correct?”

“You never know, you never know,” Dan Mullen responded jokingly. “I mean we are coming off a bye week right here, so I don’t know, we could come out in the wishbone and just play all of those guys. So you never know how that’s going to play out.”

When Mullen was asked about the quarterback situation vs. the Bulldogs earlier in the call, the Florida head coach gave a vague, yet clearly coy response.

“We will play a quarterback on Saturday,” Mullen said sarcastically. “We’ll have a quarterback on the field.”

On Tuesday, Dan Mullen addressed his conundrum surrounding Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson this week ahead of the Florida-Georgia game.

“Both guys have to get ready to play, so we get both guys a lot of reps,” Mullen said. “It’s probably a little bit more even than a lot of places where the one gets a lot of reps and the twos get minimal reps. The quarterbacks, we try to keep them pretty even now so that they’re both ready to play. You’re a snap away from those guys getting on the field so, you kind of do that with a lot of positions across the board. You roll them through to get the reps.

“We’re going to keep planning the same way, we plan on playing both of the guys like we have.”

Dan Mullen opted to play both quarterbacks versus LSU in Week 7. They lost 49-42. Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson looked almost identical on paper. Both threw two picks, both had 19 attempts, and both averaged about 8 yards per pass.

On the year, Jones is 67.4% for 1304 yards, 10 touchdowns and 9 interceptions. Richardson, in two fewer games, is 56.8% with 392 passing yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions.

Both quarterbacks will need to have a near-perfect day versus Georgia on Saturday in Jacksonville. The Bulldogs defense is No. 2 in the country in passing defense, limiting teams to 144.9 yards through the air (and 63.4 on the ground).