Daily briefing: On Florida’s QBs, Stanford and the ACC’s big weekend

Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:

Two QBs for Florida

Florida coach Dan Mullen said this week that he again plans to start Emory Jones and play Anthony Richardson at quarterback against No. 1 Alabama. I’m willing to bet we’ll see more of Richardson, who has outplayed Jones in the first two games of the season. Running quarterbacks have given Nick Saban’s defenses fits in his 15 seasons in Tuscaloosa. Richardson, despite sharing time with Jones, leads Florida in rushing with 275 yards on only 11 carries. Jones is second with 155 yards on 23 carries. The bigger issue for the Gators may be that five running backs between them have fewer rushing yards (333) on more carries (56) than do Richardson and Jones combined (34 carries, 430 yards).

Long time, no see

I wrote a note Thursday about Auburn going 90 years between visits to a Big Ten campus. Troy Clardy of the Pac-12 Network pointed out that Stanford’s game at Vanderbilt on Saturday will be the Cardinal’s first game against an SEC team, regular season or bowl, since the 1978 Bluebonnet Bowl against Georgia. That New Year’s Eve game is remembered fondly on the Farm because Stanford spotted Georgia a 22-0 halftime lead and came back to win 25-22. It is remembered slightly less fondly because it turned out the be the last game of second-year coach Bill Walsh, who left days later to become coach of the San Francisco 49ers. I lost track of him after that.

Opportunity looms for the ACC

Let us pause in our continual handwringing about the fate of the Big 12 to ponder the ACC, which painstakingly put together games on five consecutive nights of Labor Day weekend and then laid five eggs (not you, Virginia Tech). It didn’t get much better in Week 2. Look, losses to Alabama (Miami), Georgia (Clemson) and Notre Dame (Florida State) are understandable. Florida State losing to FCS Jacksonville State and Duke losing to Charlotte are not. The ACC can begin to right its reputation Saturday, when No. 24 Miami depends on the humidity to help sap Michigan State and No. 15 Virginia Tech plays mistake-prone West Virginia.