No Comparison: Gators HC Dan Mullen Talks Difference Between Trask and Jones
The Florida Gators are set to go into 2021 with a brand new quarterback in charge of the offense. Out is former Heisman candidate and Gators quarterback Kyle Trask, in is redshirt junior quarterback Emory Jones who is getting his first opportunity to start meaningful games for the Gators since signing on with the program in 2017.
There has been plenty of speculation regarding what direction Florida will go on offense due to the change at quarterback. Certainly, Florida will become more of a run-first offense due to the traits Jones provides.
A dual-threat quarterback, Jones will be able to make plays on the move far better than Trask did last season as a true pocket quarterback. Gators head coach Dan Mullen feels the differences go beyond simply the legs, though, noting how strong of an arm Jones has.
"So on certain deep balls, there’s certain deep balls he can throw because he has a stronger arm (thank Trask)," Mullen said today when asked about the differences between the two signal-callers.
"It’s not a knock on Kyle. I think everybody sees with Kyle the accuracy, I mean, obviously, Kyle’s probably a much more accurate passer. I think if you look at numbers he was close to 70 percent completions, I think (68.9%), which is one of the most accurate probably in school history."
Mullen's right, Trask has shown to have plenty of accuracy in the past. Last season, he ranked fourth in the SEC in completion percentage at 68.88. For much of the season, Trask was remarkably accurate, completing 70% or greater passing attempts in seven out of 12 of the games Florida played.
One of the knocks on Trask last season was his ability, or inability, to drive the football or complete deep passes. While the former Florida quarterback could connect on some deep balls just fine, some of the passes clearly didn't hit the mark due to an inability to drive the football downfield.
There's also a difference in how both quarterbacks make off-schedule throws, Mullen says.
"Kyle was really a pocket guy. He could slide in the pocket and make this [throw] and arm angle and change [the throw]," Mullen said off Trask.
"Emory’s a guy that’s going to extend but he can extend outside and when you extend outside and have the threat of run because he’s so dynamic out in the open field with the ball in his hand. His ability to throw on the run and make use [of] some arm talent to kind of be off-balanced when you’re running [in] one direction and be able to use the ball to flip the other direction. They’re just totally different players."
Due to the differences in skill sets between the two quarterbacks, Mullen says the offense must be molded around the player, rather than trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
"Our job is to mold it as coaches and kinda tweak around the strengths of the players. So we’ll build around the strengths of the quarterbacks that are here now, very much like the way we built around Kyle’s strengths over the last two years."
At the end of the day, Mullen feels it's not fair to compare the two quarterbacks. There's no comparison, he says.
"They’re all individuals and they all have their own strengths," Mullen continued. "It’s important for us to play to his strengths. But there’s a lot of throws that Emory can make that Kyle couldn’t make. That’ll allow us to tweak and change some things within the scheme.”
The changes within the scheme will not be as dramatic as everyone expects, Mullen said earlier in his press conference. Sure, the team will have more quarterback runs, but for the most part, the identity of the offense, in general, will be there under the direction of Jones.
"We’re not going to change who we are offensively, like I said, you’re going to see a lot of the same offense we’ve been running but what’s funny is how they run the plays within the offense are going to look differently even though it’s the same type of offense, because they’re very different talent-wise."
Florida will hope the offense can remain as explosive as it has been in the past, and perhaps even better with Jones under center.
