CBS provides Anthony Richardson injury update before Florida-Tennessee game

No. 20 Florida is set to take on No. 11 Tennessee in a pivotal SEC East showdown on Saturday, and the main question for Gators fans is what version of injured Anthony Richardson will show up.

Richardson clearly hasn’t been himself the last two weeks, hesitant to run and use his natural ability as an athlete to challenge defenses.

Prior to Saturday’s kickoff against Tennessee, CBS sideline reporter Jenny Dell provided an Anthony Richardson injury update.

“There’s been so many questions about Richardson, so I talked to him, I asked, ‘On a scale of 1-10, 10 being the healthiest you can be, how are you feeling?'” Dell reported live on air. “He said, ‘Right now, I’m a 7.5.’

“Now, he did nick up his ankle a little in that Week 2 loss against Kentucky, but he said it’s actually his hamstring that’s been bothering him. Now this hamstring injury, this dates back to spring ball a year and a half ago, but it’s shown back up.”

Richardson was electric in the team’s upset of then-No. 7 Utah in the season opener, going 17-of-24 passing for 168 yards without an interception. He also added 11 carries for 106 yards and three touchdowns on the ground.

In the last two weeks? Richardson is just 24-of-53 passing for 255 yards with no touchdowns and four interceptions. He has run for just 28 yards on 13 carries.

Injured Anthony Richardson nursing hamstring strain

The hamstring injury Anthony Richardson is dealing with is something that plagued him in 2021 as a redshirt freshman. He pulled up hurt on a long touchdown run against USF in Week 2 and never fully recovered from the injury.

Richardson also underwent an offseason knee operation to fix a lingering issue from high school.

But he’s now still dealing with the nagging hamstring strain.

“He’s been working towards rehabbing it every single day,” Dell said. “We can expect to see him on the sideline stretching in between series. Guys, he said he’s been holding himself back from running, but understands the value that it brings to this offense, especially in a game like this.”

Florida was hopeful backup quarterback Jack Miller could return this week following a thumb surgery that sidelined him for the second half of fall camp and the first three games of the season.

Miller, however, was listed as out for the contest according to Gainesville Sun reporter Kevin Brockway. Florida’s emergency backup behind Richardson would be either freshman Jalen Kitna or walk-on Kyle Engel.