Emory Jones doesn't need to be Kyle Trask

The Florida Gators have had three Heisman winning quarterbacks and Kyle Trask had a season good enough to almost make it four. The Florida offense was prolific in 2020, so even with Trask now working as Tom Brady's understudy in Tampa, Trask's replacement is going to be compared to him in 2021.

Emory Jones is a wildly different quarterback than Trask, but as the saying goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it. it may be the easy thing to do for a coach to just try and fit Jones into what worked last year but that is quite the opposite approach that Dan Mullen is choosing.

"I don't need Emory to ever be like Kyle. I need Emory to be like Emory and my job is to get the best Emory I can get," Mullen said. "Kind of like last year, we needed Kyle to become the best Kyle he could be and Feleipe the best Feliepe he could be."

Mullen isn't yet 50 years old but he's already been a head coach for more than a decade. He got his start early and learned the lesson about trying to fit players into a scheme that doesn't suit their skill set. One of Mullen's first quarterbacks was Alex Smith, who went on to be the No. 1 pick in the NFL Draft in 2005. Mullen, just 33 years old at the time, was feeling pretty good about himself.

"I'm a young coach coaching Alex Smith," he said. "I coached the No. 1 pick in the draft and then you're thinking, hey, I must be this unbelievable, spectacular coach, I coached this guy to be the No. 1 pick in the draft so when the next guy comes on I'm just going to coach him the same way and he'll be the No.1 pick in the draft. It doesn't work that way."

So Jones may not be as good at going through progressions as Trask was or he may not have the same anticipation but he brings things to the table that Trask couldn't. Jones is a dynamic runner, which at times in camp when quarterbacks wear non-contact jerseys, is tough to gauge or even simulate live. Jones, undoubtedly, wants to be a passer. He would have switched positions a long time ago if he didn't have aspirations of playing quarterback at the highest level. Still, Florida's offense is changing because it has to. To not utilize Jones' running ability would be criminal.

"There's times I don't want him to get through the progression. I'm on him, a lot of times in camp you have that fine line like make sure you're going to stand in the pocket, you're not allowed to run, go through the progression. Then you gotta flip it around the other way for him, which is like, 'go bruh,'" Mullen said. "If they're in this coverage, and they give you a lane, you're going to run until you get to the band. There's that aspect to it but I think if you go through the scrimmage last night I thought his decision making was really good. I think he made some really good decisions."

Mullen's track record with quarterbacks should give Florida fans comfort. The offense that ran roughshod over defenses in 2020 won't return in 2021 but that doesn't mean it can't be just as prolific with its own style and flair.