ATLANTA - Emory Jones still can play one more game for Florida without burning his redshirt. The Gators freshman may have that opportunity on Saturday against Michigan.
"We have really seen him grow," Gators head coach Dan Mullen told reporters in Atlanta about Jones. " We are very fortunate with the new NCAA rule, especially coming into this game as the backup, he is not going to lose a year of eligibility if he is forced to get on the field, which is one of the great things the NCAA has done for student athletes. He has had the opportunity to grow and develop and still redshirt this season."
Jones has featured in three games for Florida this year. The Georgia native went 12 of 16 passing and two touchdowns, while also netting 27 yards on the ground.
Although Jones has contributed this year, Mullen has been careful not to put too much on his plate too quickly. The Gators head coach believes Florida starting quarterback, Feleipe Franks, was put in a starting role too soon.
According to Mullen, playing a quarterback too soon can cause set backs in development.
"I think you better be really cautious if you're going to play that young of a quarterback," Mullen said back in November. "If you've kind of played too early, then you're not ready for that moment, and you start, before knowing where to go with the ball, you start getting a little gun shy."
In this day and age telling a highly touted prospect you may have to wait your turn can be a turn off, especially at the quarterback position. It is one of the reasons we see a lot of signal callers transfer from program to program.
However, Mullen has one clear message to those young playmakers: have patience.
"Take your time to develop. I think guys have such a rush to have that immediate success now. The path to success.. there is no shortcut," said Mullen. "You want to climb to the top of the mountain, you have to start climbing, scratching, clawing to get up there, and if you don't, if you just think, okay, whats the easiest way there, if I get lose, I might know my way back to the top.
"I always share with guys just to be patient and things will happen to you."
Mullen knows a thing or two about quarterback reaping rewards from being patient.
"I can call back to an experience with Dak Prescott," recounted Mullen. "When he came in he redshirted, didn't play much as a redshirt freshman, just a little bit; had a few packages as a sophomore; a guy got injured, he has an opportunity and he took advantage of it. And then he has a great junior where he is all everything."
Mullen goes on to explain that Prescott did have an opportunity to enter the NFL draft as a junior, but ultimately decided not to because he needed one more season to mature.
"If he hadn't gone through all those steps of development, he may have not be ready for that opportunity when the Dallas Cowboys said go on the field," said Mullen. "You might not have heard his name in the NFL again."
Prescott was remembered.
He won the NFL's Rookie of the Year honors.
Jones has one thing that Prescott did not as a freshman quarterback under Mullen, experience.
"I always laugh with him [Jones], 'you have better stats than he [Prescott] had as a freshman, better stats than Alex Smith had as a freshman,'" said Mullen." When you look at those things, he [Jones] has more playing experience than those guys had. They developed in a different way.
"Emory is a guy that I have never seen once not trust the process of whats going and how it is going to play out."
According to Mullen, there will always be competition at the quarterback spot, just like with any position on the Florida roster, because thats the Gator Standard. There is competition in every aspect of life, on and off the field.
This spring will prove an interesting one across the board as the Gators enter year two under Mullen and his staff.
But of course there is a matter of Michigan to get past first.
