Playing quarterback at the University of Florida is a pressure cooker. The expectations for the football program — set by the head coach — and when the expectations aren't met you're going to hear about it.
As the quarterback, for better or worse, you're the face of the program. Often times quarterbacks get more praise than they deserve and shoulder more blame than they should but that goes with the territory.
Through five games, Emory Jones has been a mixed bag. On one hand, he's taken steps and made progress. He leads the team in rushing with 438 yards. On the other hand, he's thrown more interceptions (6) than touchdowns (5), and Florida was essentially (not mathematically) eliminated from SEC Championship contention on October 1.
Florida's latest loss was the most infuriating given that any Florida fan under 33 years old had never seen a Gator loss in Lexington and Mullen has now lost to the Wildcats more times in four seasons than the previous five coaches did in 31 years prior.
A lot of that anger has been directed towards Mullen but some has found its way to Emory Jones. He's heard boos and read mean tweets but is trying to not focus on outside noise or negativity.
"I see a lot of stuff," Jones said when asked if he has seen the criticisms of his play and the team. "I understand my job and my viewpoint, not just my viewpoint but the whole team and everybody in this building’s viewpoint of the offense and how things really are. I don’t really focus on too much on that.”
One of the biggest points of contention has been Mullen's playcalling and Florida's lack of downfield passing with Jones. The lack of a downfield passing attack is certainly exacerbated given the prolific nature of the passing attack in 2020 but it isn't off base.
Jones is passing for fewer yards per attempt (6.71) than Kyle Trask (9.08) or Feleipe Franks (8.03). Florida's downfield passing game has been virtually non-existent when Emory Jones is at quarterback and it may have something to do with the statistics.
Jones, Mullen, and every Gator that has been asked insists that they have the weapons and Jones has the ability to give Florida a true threat in the passing game.
"I've learned throughout the year to— I don’t always need to force things when it's not there, or it’s not given to me," Jones said Tuesday. "So I mean it’s not that we're not calling deep shots. It's not that we're not calling deep plays or passes or anything like that. Sometimes I have to work out the defense and if the defense is dropping all the way back I can't just force myself to throw a deep ball just because everybody wants me to or because we haven’t done that a lot this season. I’m just doing everything that I’m supposed to do and just trying to move the ball down the field and score touchdowns. I mean, it’s not us not calling plays or anything like that. I’m just taking what the defense is giving me.”
The numbers, and the playcalling from Mullen, would suggest otherwise. Here is a breakdown of the passing against Kentucky.
Florida attempted just 12 passes of more than 10 yards and none over 20, including during their final two drives where they were up against the clock and trailing Kentucky by 10 and seven points.
"They were playing a lot of one-high deep soft coverage," Mullen said of Kentucky. "So schematically they’re just bailing everybody really deep so you’re not going to just launch it into coverage downfield.”
This week will provide an opportunity to get back on track. Vanderbilt doesn't have the size or speed to compete with Florida. The Gators could probably just run the ball 70 times and come away with a convincing win but there is an opportunity to change the narrative that is in the fan base currently. Florida can, and should, throw the ball. if for no other reason than to get that part of the offense going.
