It has been a tough season for Florida, and it’s not just the coaches who have had to deal with criticism.

The players have as well, which was made clear when Gators quarterbacks coach Garrick McGee recently talked about some of the things that Emory Jones had had to deal with this season.

During the weekly SEC coaches teleconference on Wednesday, Florida coach Dan Mullen was asked for his thoughts on McGee’s comments and his quarterbacks.

“It shows Emory’s character and maturity how he deals with the situation, being a QB here at Florida, which comes with really high expectations,” Mullen said. “… I’ve said this a long time. Anthony is a really talented young man, but he still has a lot of growing up to do in a lot of aspects of the game. But he does the work.”

On Saturday, the 5-5 Gators will look to get bowl eligible with a road win at Missouri.

Mullen said Wednesday that if his team hopes to get the job done in Columbia, it must slow down Tigers star running back Tyler Badie, who has rushed for 1,239 yards and 12 touchdowns this season.

“They give him the ball a lot” Mullen said. “You look at their team, I don’t know that anyone else even gets the ball much in the running game. They’re going to feed the ball to him a bunch. He has a lot of power and a lot of speed as well. You can’t let him get to the second level because he has the ability to hit a home run.”

The Gators game with Missouri is set for 4 p.m. EST on Saturday and will be televised by the SEC Network.