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Years in the making, Emory Jones ready to prove the wait was worth it at Florida
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On Day 2 of the Dan Mullen era, Mullen and then-quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson made their first in-person recruiting trip. The first target? A tall, lanky rocket-armed quarterback from the Atlanta area named Emory Jones. When Florida visited, Jones was committed to play at Ohio State for Mullen’s mentor, Urban Meyer. But Mullen and Johnson had a longtime connection with Jones, having offered the young quarterback his first Power 5 scholarship when they were at Mississippi State. Now, handed the keys to a premier program at Florida, they figured they would take one more shot at landing Jones. At a televised signing day ceremony, the gamble paid off, as Jones pivoted to the Gators, becoming the highest-rated quarterback recruit to sign for Mullen.
One of the crown jewels of Mullen’s transitional recruiting class, few suspected Jones to wait long to play. On paper, he was a better fit than returning quarterback Feleipe Franks or backup Kyle Trask for Mullen’s preferred offense, a run-dominant spread where the quarterback stresses defenses with his arm and legs. Mullen arrived at a time when the Gators were also at the nadir of their nearly decade-long post-Tebow era of suffering, with the program coming off a 4-7 campaign and a mess culturally.
History suggested Mullen wouldn’t throw a young quarterback to the wolves — Dak Prescott and Alex Smith, 3-star Mullen pupils, all waited their turn. So did Tebow, a 5-star. Still, Florida’s position at rock bottom upon Mullen’s arrival suggested Jones may be different, a pattern breaker. With Franks’ confidence flatlined and Trask mostly viewed as an afterthought, why not give an immensely talented young quarterback like Jones the ball?
It didn’t work that way, of course, but few could have expected it would be 4 seasons until Jones entered a Florida camp as the starting quarterback.
For one thing, Jones’ substantial talent weighed heavily against such a long wait.
While today, many outside the program — fans, analysts and writers alike — wonder if Jones is a capable passer at the Power 5 level, no one in football circles shared those concerns when Jones was a recruit in the Class of 2018. Jones carried offers from all but two Power 5 programs when he signed with Florida, and his arm was never considered a weakness, even as scouts watched him working out with fellow Atlanta-area Class of 2018 products like Trevor Lawrence and Justin Fields. It’s only been at Florida, where Jones has primarily been utilized as a running option to complement the pocket-passing Trask and provide the Gators balance, that questions have circulated about Jones’ accuracy and ability to throw at the college level.
The transfer portal has also changed college football and made it rare to see a player as highly-coveted as Jones wait 4 seasons to become a starter. Most players move on, as Justin Fields did after a season at Georgia or Kyler Murray did after a season at Texas A&M. Even LSU legend Joe Burrow left after 3 seasons at Ohio State, electing not to stick around a 4th season, as Jones has done in Gainesville.
“Some of that is about (Mullen’s) culture at Florida,” an offensive coordinator at a SEC rival of Florida’s told me last week. “Kids at that position understand when Dan recruits them that they will have to wait to play. But it’s also a testament to (Jones). Not many kids have the patience Emory has shown. And he would have had suitors anywhere, with his natural talent.”
Florida’s culture could be part of it.
It would have been easy for Franks to leave after a disastrous freshman season saw him booed by Florida’s fans and Jim McElwain, the head coach that recruited him, fired. Instead, he stayed, learned a new offense and led Florida to 10 wins, earning Peach Bowl MVP honors in the process.
Trask’s story is well-known by now — the 2-star quarterback turned 3-star signee who waited years for his opportunity, then seized it when Franks was injured against Kentucky in 2019. “Stories like Kyle Trask, guys who stick it out when they could leave and go elsewhere to have the chance to play, that’s unusual in this world of transfers in college football,” Mullen told the media before the Heisman ceremony last fall, where Trask was a finalist.
Mullen isn’t wrong, but Trask didn’t exactly have high-profile programs beating down the door for him before the 2019 season. He deserves praise for his patience, but it was a bit easier for Trask to stay at Florida knowing the grass wasn’t necessarily going to be greener elsewhere.
Emory Jones would have had suitors and elected to stay in Gainesville anyway. That he stayed even after Johnson, the position coach who was so instrumental in recruiting him, left this offseason, is another testament to how bought in Jones is into the development process and opportunity Mullen has sold him. A bought-in blue-chip who has spent 3 full seasons learning the same offense and improving in areas the staff emphasized as areas that needed improvement? If that’s a question mark — there are worse problems to have.
Never one to shy away from criticizing his quarterback or their limitations, Mullen praised Jones when asked about his readiness last week.
“I think Emory has grown a great deal as a player and developed as a player. He’s also learned a great deal in the maturity of how to handle himself,” Mullen said. “How to prepare, how to be ready for your moment. I expect great things out of him this year.”
Will Jones light the world on fire in the passing game the way Trask did?
No — but he’s a different type of football player, playing for an offense that will value different things in 2021. He’s also a capable enough thrower to where this won’t be a Nick Fitzgerald type situation. Jones isn’t going to have a completion percentage that hovers around Fitzgerald’s career 54% mark. He should hover around the Dak Prescott 58.4% first-year starter range — numbers that, together with Jones’ dynamic running ability and a stable of talented running backs — should help Florida stay ahead of the chains consistently in 2021.
“We have the chance to be ruthlessly efficient on offense, even if it looks different than it did a year ago from an explosiveness standpoint” a Florida assistant texted me this week.
Ruthlessly efficient? If Florida is that — a ball-control, run-dominant spread offense with the ability to be multiple in the passing game — the Gators may not let go of their grasp on the SEC East as easily as many national analysts anticipate.
A ball-control, run-dominant offense that can move the sticks and also be multiple in the ways it stresses defenses should also help keep Florida’s much-maligned defense fresh, offering respite for a group that was often gassed in the fourth quarter a season ago.
Jones doesn’t have to be Trask. In fact, Mullen doesn’t want him to be. Mullen wants Emory to be Emory, the player so important he recruited him on his first recruiting trip four seasons ago.
“Emory is a dynamic player,” Mullen told the media last week. “He’s going to miss some things here and there, but he’s going to make some explosive things on the other side of it. There’s other things he can do that are so electric, that he can create, that you don’t want to kind of box him in.”
Years in the making, Emory Jones era at Florida begins Saturday night in The Swamp. Jones waited for it and bet on himself, when leaving would have been the easier path. Now he’ll get the chance to prove to Florida fans who waited for Jones too that the wait was worth it.
Neil Blackmon covers Florida football and the SEC for SaturdayDownSouth.com. An attorney, he is also a member of the Football and Basketball Writers Associations of America. He also coaches basketball.
