The Florida Gators finished the instillation portion of fall camp with a scrimmage on Sunday night. Florida head coach Dan Mullen met with the media to discuss how the scrimmage went and to update where the team stands less than three weeks from kicking off the 2021 season.

How do you gauge the success of a scrimmage? If the defensive line is racking up sacks is that good for the defense, or does it concern you about your offensive line? If the secondary comes away with interceptions is that a unit that struggled in 2020 taking a step, or did the quarterback make a mistake? In football you're always going to have winners and losers on every play, but when you're playing against yourself how do you evaluate the team?

“I don’t view anybody winning. I know people get into that. I just view in performance, were we executing? What were we trying to get out of it? Because you’re not going in, we’re 0-0, we had a scrimmage last night, the team’s still 0-0, Mullen said. "After next Sunday’s scrimmage, we’ll still be 0-0. As a coaching staff that’s what’s important to it. There’s certain things we’re trying to get in. I’m less concerned about the offense and defense winning a scrimmage or are we getting what we need out of it and the evaluation of the players, the coaches and within our execution and what did we want to see, what did we want to work on? That type of deal. If you sit there and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to run the quarterback to make sure we’re going to win the scrimmage.’ Or, ‘We’re going to run this blitz and we’re going to blitz and do this and do that.’ That’s just to try to win a scrimmage. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about the complete development and evaluation of the team.”

The talk all offseason has been about Emory Jones, who is expected and projected to be the Gators' next starting quarterback. How is Jones progressing? Is he running through progressions? Can he lead the Gators to a National Championship? Is he a Heisman contender?

Meanwhile, Anthony Richardson continues to develop himself and push Jones.

“He had a huge night last night. Did really well, made a lot of great decisions. Very accurate. I think he threw three touchdown passes. Obviously is a dynamic runner as well, making good decisions. I feel very comfortable with both guys, which is a good thing. It helps in a way that they have similar skill sets even though they’re a little different in their sets and what they do well. But they’re are similarities in their ability to create, both with great arm talent and their arm talent to create and extend plays with their legs. It allows you, you don’t have to have one package or this package, and you can kind of coach in a similar style where if you see this look don’t be afraid to take off running. If they give you this, take it, right away. If they give us this look we want to take this play every time because this is a problem for them and both of them have that skillset that they can execute.”

So, while Jones is still the presumed starter, Richardson is doing enough to earn the trust of Mullen and the coaching staff.

Anytime you scrimmage and go into live situations injuries will be a concern. It was this time last year, the first scrimmage of fall camp, when Ethan White sustained a knee injury that would sideline him for more than half the season. The Gators have already had one presumed starter, Jaydon Hill, sustain an injury that will keep him sidelined in 2021.

Fortunately for the Gators, they made it out of the first scrimmage with no significant injuries.

The offense will look drastically different in 2021, Mullen has said so himself. With two presumed starters on the outside at receiver in Justin Shorter and Xzavier Henderson we were left wondering who could fill in at the third position in the slot. Mullen thinks there will be a wide array of players, with very different skill sets filling the role.

“Well, you’ve got all kinds of different people. We’re going to move some tight ends, will do some more slot stuff, more than last year when we kind of played them more on the outside singled up. You have Jacob Copeland in the slot, Rick Wells in the slot, running backs can go into the slot. Trent Whittemore goes into the slot," he said. "You know, a lot of different type of deals creating the matchups where last year, you had some guys on the outside you’re creating 1-on-1s for if they wanted to leave them 1-on-1, or if they wanted to roll that, your slot was Kadarius Toney to create some mismatches that way. We’re kind of moving a lot more different pieces around.”