Florida’s performance against South Florida as a whole wasn’t especially confidence-inducing. But there’s one thing that the game made abundantly clear: Anthony Richardson can play some football.
The Gators backup outshined starter Emory Jones once more, tossing for 152 yards and two scores on a perfect 3-of-3 passing day. On the ground, he broke off 115 yards on four carries, including an 80-yard score.
Jones continues to struggle with reads, and Richardson makes eye-popping plays every time you put the ball in his hands. It seems like the decision might be obvious for coach Dan Mullen, but after the game, he reiterated that Jones is the starter.
Still, that hasn’t stopped the rest of the college football world from talking about the painfully obvious. On CBS Sports‘ list of winners and losers from Week 2, Richardson was listed among the winners.
Richardson was responsible for just seven total plays in No. 13 Florida‘s 42-20 win over USF. All he did was threw for 152 yards and two touchdowns, rush for 115 yards and a touchdown and shockingly out-gain incumbent starter Emory Jones (35 plays) in both categories. Florida coach Dan Mullen said after the game that he was sticking with Jones as starting quarterback for the Gators against No. 1 Alabama next week. But if things get sticky early, Richardson has proven he deserves his shot.
It’s basically impossible to not be impressed with what Richardson does with the ball in his hands, but it’s unclear how big of a role he’ll play against Alabama, both because of Jones and his tweaked hamstring (the status around which is currently still a mystery).
Jones could certainly still improve, but it’s hard to argue Richardson doesn’t give this team the best chance to win right now.
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