Besides being the first of Florida’s long line of quarterback greats, Steve Spurrier produced his share of them.
Spurrier would have welcomed a chance to develop Anthony Richardson into the next one.
“I tell people all the time, I would have loved to have coached him,” Spurrier told the Orlando Sentinel. “But that didn’t work out.”
Instead, Richardson had three coaches in three seasons while never fully capitalizing on his considerable physical tools.
“I had to learn a new offense in six months,” Richardson wrote during an April 13 contribution on The Player’s Tribune. “Even though I didn’t always get the result I wanted … I never gave up.”
The question ‘what could have been’ will hang over Richardson’s college career.
On Thursday night, NFL decision-makers will ask themselves, what could be?
Richardson will be among the first quarterbacks drafted, a decision based on his sublime athletic ability and vast potential rather than his haphazard production or deficiencies as a passer.
Spurrier and two of his most successful quarterbacks, Danny Wuerffel and Shane Matthews, are eager to see how Richardson’s future unfolds.
“Both the physical stature, the power and agility, combined with great arm talent is clearly what has all these teams — or at least most of them — really interested in what he can be,” Wuerffel said. “He has an incredibly high ceiling, and you just don’t get that type of player very often. The challenge is it hasn’t developed yet into being a refined, productive quarterback.
“That’s sort of the opportunity that teams are going to have to work with … just so much possibility.”
No prospect exemplifies the draft’s risk-reward nature more than Richardson. No position does, either.
“It’s always a risk anytime you take a quarterback, regardless of who it is,” Matthews said. “You just never know how they’re going to pan out. He’s extremely gifted. It just hasn’t translated at a high level on the field on a consistent basis. A lot of people think, if that’s his job and he trains year round, learns from other guys, that potential may become reality.
“Only time will tell. He’s a gifted kid, but it’s a different animal in the National Football League.”
Matthews was Spurrier’s first star quarterback, a two-time SEC Player of the Year who went on to a long NFL career primarily as a backup. During three seasons at Florida (1990-92), he completed 60% of his passes and ended his career with an SEC-record 74 touchdown throws since eclipsed by 16 players, four of them Gators.
Listed at 6-foot-3 and 196 pounds, Matthews wonders what he could have done with Richardson’s size (6-4, 244), speed (4.43 seconds in the 40) and the arm strength able to produce effortless 75-yard throws.
“If I’d had his tools, I’d have been the No. 1 pick in the draft,” he quipped. “I would have made so much money and played longer than I probably did. I would have had an unbelievable career.
“Put it this way: I didn’t last 14 years because of my physical ability.”
Richardson’s athletic gifts produced NFL Scouting Combine records and will garner NFL millions. Those unique measurables and a franchise’s sizable investment will allow him every chance to succeed or fail.
Richardson plans to do whatever it takes to fulfill his promise.
“Everybody’s not coachable,” he said following the Gators’ Pro Day last month. “Everybody doesn’t want to be great. Everybody doesn’t want to work. So, I definitely take pride in that.
“I always want to grow.”
The sky’s the limit with Richardson, who turns 21 on May 22. Yet, his floor raises red flags.
Richardson closed his career 9-of-27 passing during a 45-38 loss at Florida State to end last season with 53.8% completion accuracy, the lowest by a Florida player since Treon Harris in 2015.
The performance perplexed even Richardson, who said, “That’s just crazy to me.”
The effort culminated a season rife with inconsistency and inexplicable moments.
After his season-opening, 3-touchdown performance against Utah in the Swamp thrust him into the Heisman Trophy conversation, Richardson displayed spotty decision-making during a 10-point loss at home to Kentucky.
Richardson threw a pair of ill-advised interceptions, including a pick-six to a Kentucky defender with no UF receiver in the vicinity — a gaffe reminiscent of another pick-six against Georgia during his first career start in 2021.
“After our Utah game, we were all saying he runs like Lamar Jackson and passes like Tom Brady,” Spurrier said. “Then we’re all saying what in the heck is going on? Why’d you do that?”
Richardson’s toughness also came into question against the Wildcats. A hit to his right ankle early in the game as he scrambled sent Richardson into a shell. He ended with 4 rushing yards after tallying 106 against Utah.
A reluctance to run the ball in traffic or take on smaller tacklers became a pattern.
“He can run over guys, he can juke them, he can do it all,” Spurrier said. “Then sometimes he’ll just run out of bounds when he’s bigger and stronger than those little DBs. The coaches may tell him to run out of bounds. I don’t know.”
Richardson could not get past his inconsistency.
During 12 starts, he threw for 400 yards twice and rushed for 100 yards twice, but also had 25 rushing yards or fewer three times and fewer than 150 passing yards four times.
“That’s part of the concern: just overall mental and passing consistency,” said Wuerffel, the 1996 Heisman winner and a six-year NFL veteran. “Will that improve and catch up with the incredible talent? Or will that be something that kind of sticks with him?
“That’s the thing that all these teams are trying to sort through right now.”
In a profession judged by wins and losses, Richardson’s 6-7 record as a starter will only add to the list of concerns.
But Richardson’s youth and inexperience, the Gators’ coaching instability and underwhelming supporting cast, and his generational athleticism at his position will be too tempting to pass up for a franchise with looming quarterback needs.
“He certainly had some unusual challenges and he’s still a young person,” Wuerffel said. “He’s just got so much talent. A lot will depend on if he gets in a good situation … that would give him the time to really develop and grow.”
While analysts expect teams to select Ohio State’s CJ Stroud and Alabama’s Bryce Young before Richardson, predictions where he will land range from Indianapolis at No. 4 and Seattle at No. 5 to Minnesota at No. 23, per esteemed NFL writer Peter King.
Wherever Richardson ends up, he will have a captive audience. At Florida, the former Gainesville high school star was as apt to make a highlight-reel play as a head-scratching one.
No one who watched him, though, wondered whether he had the talent to succeed.
“Everybody knows he runs 4.43, does the backflips, can throw, can run, can do it all,” Spurrier said. “And then you say, well, the last two years at Florida they were 6-7. So is it bad coaching? Is it bad players around him? What is it?
“He’ll go to the NFL and we’ll find out … see if the coaches up there can bring him to an elite quarterback. We all believe he can be an elite quarterback.”
This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Edgar Thompson at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osgators.
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