Let me start by saying these are not my words. I got it off another UF Facebook page I am a member of. Some of the guys who post on the page have some solid sources, so, without knowing who actually wrote this, I can say with confidence it's someone who knows what's going on with the team. I will be the first to admit that my in-game takes were not so hot. It's hard not to want to see AR take the reigns when you see the talent level he possesses, but this take puts it all in the proper perspective. Post below:
"Hearing a lot of unnecessary chatter over who our starting QB is. From a X’s and O’s perspective, I figured I’d offer some insight based solely on the game film we were provided last night against FAU.
First, Emory looked excellent in script. First two drives are gonna be designed plays for EJ, things we’ve ran through in practice for weeks. He managed those starter plays really well and led to 14 points early. To be expected. All night, in my opinion, I thought his pre-snap reads were excellent. Got us into the right play early and often, as evidenced by the success of our option game all night with 5 at the helm. That’s a mark of growth and comfortability for sure, especially during script.
Once we got into the depth of the playbook, EJ clearly lacked some confidence, which only comes from experience. A couple of mistimed throws, a few bad in play reads, and a few bad communication errors. The easiest way to fix these mistakes is to get more reps. However, as we got into the playbook I was impressed with Emory’s pre-snap reads and checks at the line. He got us into the right play frequently, sometimes lacking in execution in-play. Again, this is fixed by more reps. The one bad call on the goal line was not on EJ, rather on the entire offensive side of the ball. Bad sideline communication confused the check for EJ. You saw it when he came back to the sideline, he was motioning to Mullen like y’all told me to check to this. Wrong call on the sideline combined with a QB who needs experience in those situations led to a play call mistake that no one would’ve discussed if it ends with 6 points.
To Anthony. I thought AR showed promise, especially in the run game, but I would rate this performance a tad lower than the average fan. From a pure football perspective, I saw a young QB with incredible athletic talent, with a watered down playbook. It was obvious based on the plays we were running that we had a set number of calls specifically for AR and we were not going to deviate from those looks. This is a smart move from Mullen to throw the book at EJ for experience, but tailor to AR for meaningful reps. To me, AR looked panic-y. He had two speeds all day: throw the deep hot route or run out of the pocket for yards. This won’t work in the SEC, against real front 7s. Those are big loss plays. But against FAU’s 1s and 2s, those can be big gains. Don’t expect to see the same thing against an opponent like Tennessee or Kentucky.
Emory is the starter. He’s the guy. Mullen’s made that much clear. We will see chunks of AR for sure. He’s too talented to sit all game on the sidelines with the headset. This is how Mullen develops his guys. EJ came in just like this last year behind Trask. Guys will get reps that count, and learn by experience. Mullen is a developer. Expect to see continued development. For EJ, more experience being the starter will lead to more consistency. If we saw that week 1, he would be 3x further along than I would’ve expected. I would call week 1 par for the course, with continued development and meaningful reps being the highlights in the QB room this week. A Mullen spread option offense has consistently averaged between 30-42 points a game between the Tebow era and his time with Dak at State. Save the two dumb turnovers, which will go away with more experience, and we would’ve easily bested the average. We were all blessed last year to have an experienced, developed, Heisman candidate at QB. That’s not the case this year. We’re a different offense, it’s gonna play and look different. But, our offense is now in Mullen’s wheelhouse. This is what we brought him here to do and this is how we will look offensively moving forward. The spread option is not a pass heavy offense. It’s get the ball to playmakers in space, as often as possible, which was exactly what we got last night. Expect a more confident and more fluid QB room next week. Rookie mistakes will still happen, but it will look cleaner on the road at USF next weekend." #gatorstandard
"Hearing a lot of unnecessary chatter over who our starting QB is. From a X’s and O’s perspective, I figured I’d offer some insight based solely on the game film we were provided last night against FAU.
First, Emory looked excellent in script. First two drives are gonna be designed plays for EJ, things we’ve ran through in practice for weeks. He managed those starter plays really well and led to 14 points early. To be expected. All night, in my opinion, I thought his pre-snap reads were excellent. Got us into the right play early and often, as evidenced by the success of our option game all night with 5 at the helm. That’s a mark of growth and comfortability for sure, especially during script.
Once we got into the depth of the playbook, EJ clearly lacked some confidence, which only comes from experience. A couple of mistimed throws, a few bad in play reads, and a few bad communication errors. The easiest way to fix these mistakes is to get more reps. However, as we got into the playbook I was impressed with Emory’s pre-snap reads and checks at the line. He got us into the right play frequently, sometimes lacking in execution in-play. Again, this is fixed by more reps. The one bad call on the goal line was not on EJ, rather on the entire offensive side of the ball. Bad sideline communication confused the check for EJ. You saw it when he came back to the sideline, he was motioning to Mullen like y’all told me to check to this. Wrong call on the sideline combined with a QB who needs experience in those situations led to a play call mistake that no one would’ve discussed if it ends with 6 points.
To Anthony. I thought AR showed promise, especially in the run game, but I would rate this performance a tad lower than the average fan. From a pure football perspective, I saw a young QB with incredible athletic talent, with a watered down playbook. It was obvious based on the plays we were running that we had a set number of calls specifically for AR and we were not going to deviate from those looks. This is a smart move from Mullen to throw the book at EJ for experience, but tailor to AR for meaningful reps. To me, AR looked panic-y. He had two speeds all day: throw the deep hot route or run out of the pocket for yards. This won’t work in the SEC, against real front 7s. Those are big loss plays. But against FAU’s 1s and 2s, those can be big gains. Don’t expect to see the same thing against an opponent like Tennessee or Kentucky.
Emory is the starter. He’s the guy. Mullen’s made that much clear. We will see chunks of AR for sure. He’s too talented to sit all game on the sidelines with the headset. This is how Mullen develops his guys. EJ came in just like this last year behind Trask. Guys will get reps that count, and learn by experience. Mullen is a developer. Expect to see continued development. For EJ, more experience being the starter will lead to more consistency. If we saw that week 1, he would be 3x further along than I would’ve expected. I would call week 1 par for the course, with continued development and meaningful reps being the highlights in the QB room this week. A Mullen spread option offense has consistently averaged between 30-42 points a game between the Tebow era and his time with Dak at State. Save the two dumb turnovers, which will go away with more experience, and we would’ve easily bested the average. We were all blessed last year to have an experienced, developed, Heisman candidate at QB. That’s not the case this year. We’re a different offense, it’s gonna play and look different. But, our offense is now in Mullen’s wheelhouse. This is what we brought him here to do and this is how we will look offensively moving forward. The spread option is not a pass heavy offense. It’s get the ball to playmakers in space, as often as possible, which was exactly what we got last night. Expect a more confident and more fluid QB room next week. Rookie mistakes will still happen, but it will look cleaner on the road at USF next weekend." #gatorstandard
