Dan Mullen addresses quarterback controversy

Dan Mullen is not budging on the Florida quarterback controversy. The Gators played both Anthony Richardson and Emory Jones again on Saturday.

With a huge matchup against Alabama looming, Mullen has no plans to change his two-quarterback system.

“Yes [Emory Jones will be the starter],” Mullen said after Florida’s 42-20 win over USF. “As I said, we have two really good quarterbacks. You’ll see both of them play every single game.”

Jones has patiently waited for his opportunity to be Florida’s starting quarterback. But he struggled last week and on Saturday against USF, he made a handful of mistakes that held the Gators back from routing the Bulls.

On the other hand, Richardson is a jump start to the Florida offense. He did that in Week One and again in Week Two. The freshman just makes big-time plays. Against the Bulls, he threw only three passes, but they went for 152 yards and two touchdowns. He threw a 75-yard scoring pass to Jacob Copeland on his first play of the game, the first play of Florida’s third possession.

“It’ll bore you actually, but I mean we’re pretty lucky,” Mullen said. We have two quarterbacks that are pretty talented guys, can make plays happen out there on the field. But there’s a lot of things. You’ve got to read, there’s a lot that the quarterback has to do, a lot of different reads that are out there on the field.”

Richardson did not stop with making plays, though. He rushed four times for 115 yards, including an 80-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter that completed the scoring for Florida. He tweaked his hamstring near the end of the run and didn’t play. The injury shouldn’t make a difference in his availability next week.

Kyle Trask was steady at quarterback last year and is now in the NFL. And while the quarterback experience isn’t a problem in nonconference, trying to switch quarterbacks in SEC play, especially against Alabama, is going to be a tall task for Mullen.

“I have great appreciation, our fans, have great appreciation of watching things and watching great athletes out there on the field,” he said. “And great guys make great plays out there on the field. We’re pretty fortunate, we have two quarterbacks right now that can make great plays out there on the field, play both of them. Both of them I thought were pretty efficient in the first half. Both of them were so-so at times with different situations in the second half with things that go on.

“It’s a long season and we have young quarterbacks that I’ve got to continue to grow and continue to develop into being really good football players.”