I shook my head and smiled.

Oh, I assumed you asked me the question, “how did you react to seeing Anthony Richardson pump fake 2 defenders out of their shoes, only to regroup and find a wide-open receiver in the corner of the end zone to convert the 2-point attempt?”

Yeah, that’s what you do when you watch someone make plays that are superhuman. Or when a dude casually rips off a 45-yard touchdown run because the defense played man coverage and failed to spy him, shaking one’s head and smiling is standard protocol for that, too. Get used to it. As long as Richardson is in a Florida uniform, he’s a viral play waiting to happen.

Richardson wasn’t just must-see TV in his debut in Billy Napier’s system. The Florida signal-caller was poised and prepared. Those are advantageous attributes to boast for a player with Richardson’s physical traits, which are already being likened to the likes of Vince Young and Cam Newton (miss me on any comparison to Newton). Napier claimed that Richardson was so good that his wife could call plays for the Gators quarterback.

Richardson watched his Heisman odds go from +4000 all the way up to +1900. Depending where you look, he went from barely in the preseason top 15 in odds all the way up to No. 4 behind the likes of Bryce Young, CJ Stroud and Caleb Williams.

All aboard the Richardson hype train? Buddy, it left the station sometime during Richardson’s breakout game on Saturday night. It’ll ramp up even more if Richardson takes down another ranked foe when Kentucky comes to town Saturday.

But I won’t be the conductor of the Richardson hype train. I’m not all aboard just yet.

Don’t get it twisted. Florida fans have every right to be excited about Richardson after getting the occasional tease last year in Dan Mullen’s system. As long as Richardson is healthy, he’s QB1, no questions asked. But before we go off comparing Richardson to arguably 2 of the top 5 quarterbacks to play the position in the 21st century, let’s keep some perspective in mind.

I do think that Richardson’s turnover rate, which was 1 interception for every 13 passes, will be improved naturally with more consistent reps. I do, however, think we need to see what adjustments are made. That’s adjustments from defenses — like not turning your back on him in single coverage without a spy — and adjustments from Richardson. The book on him is still somewhat thin. Saturday marked just the 3rd such occasion in his career in which he attempted double-digit passes in a game.

We forget there are things that Richardson still hasn’t had to do. Like, starting 4 games against an SEC defense in a month’s time. He hasn’t had to lead his team back in obvious passing situations down 2 scores in the 4th quarter.

(This is the part where you, reader of this column, say “well that’s only a problem if Florida is somehow losing.” Touché.)

As brilliant as Richardson’s debut was against a solid Utah squad, we still saw a pretty conservative passing game. A 17-for-24 line for 7 yards per attempt reflected that. Richardson can still be an elite quarterback even if the passing game is more of a work in progress, but there’s certainly room for improvement.

Richardson has incredible ability when a play breaks down, which was evident even on his incompletions:

You’d rather have that ability than not, but it’s also easy for a quarterback to think he can always escape pressure and make the heroic play. I mean, anyone with Richardson’s skill set could fall into that mindset.

It’s like owning a muscle car and wanting to floor it every time rubber meets the road. Sometimes, you’re just trying to go from home to Publix. You don’t need to let the entire town hear and see you. Sometimes, you’re just trying to not fall out of field goal range on 3rd-and-13. You don’t need to try and fake out an entire 7-man pass rush.

Richardson’s decision-making will determine whether he’s still getting those comps at season’s end. Even as a non-passenger of the Richardson hype train — I reserve the right to board at a later date when it reaches a stop I’m comfortable with — I’ll still admit that his odds of that are greater than him getting Kenny Hill comps at season’s end.

It was Hill who famously broke Johnny Manziel’s single-game passing record in his debut as A&M’s starter. Hill, AKA Kenny Trill, watched his star take off. He was off the Heisman odds board entering the opener. By night’s end, he was at 20-to-1 and a few days later, he was at 12-to-1. After his second game, his odds were at +750 behind only Marcus Mariota and Todd Gurley.

Hill’s stock was propped up because of the pedigree of his predecessor (Manziel), but he quickly saw things spiral once the meat of the SEC schedule settled in. Hill was without a starting job by late-October after a 59-0 loss to Alabama. He became a cautionary tale for the early-season Heisman hype on a new starting quarterback at a high-profile program.

Would I bet on Richardson being Hill 2.0? Absolutely not. What Richardson did against Utah was more impressive than Hill’s lone game of SEC dominance, which came against a South Carolina defense in Game No. 1 without Jadeveon Clowney. But before we say Richardson is ready, let’s remember that was start No. 2 of his career. He also had 8 months to prepare, and it was in front of the home crowd.

That’s a wild thought. Richardson has yet to make a true road start because his lone 2021 start came against that historic Georgia defense, which forced him into 3 turnovers late in the first half in Jacksonville. The guy has 20 career pass attempts in true SEC road games, 19 of which came in that roller-coaster battle at LSU, which picked off 2 of his passes. That day was a microcosm for Richardson as a player, at least to that point.

I say that not in an attempt to squash the Richardson buzz. Doing the things he does, there had better be some buzz. Lord knows it doesn’t take much for a Florida quarterback to captivate the masses.

But let’s not those superhuman abilities distract us from reality. He still has plenty to prove. He still has adjustments to make. He still has SEC games to win.

Richardson is worth the price of admission until further notice. There’s no denying that.

Let’s just maybe have the hype train maintain a cruising speed and keep it on the tracks for another few weeks.