Florida football begin anew with Billy Napier at the helm

Offense needs the supporting cast to step up

With Emory Jones off to Arizona State through the transfer portal, it is now Anthony Richardson’s time to take the reigns under center. He saw limited action last season, completing 59.4 percent of his passes on 64 attempts. He found the end zone six times but threw five interceptions.

The former four-star quarterback has a lot of upside and potential. However, if things go south for Richardson, waiting in the wings is Ohio State transfer Jack Miller and redshirt freshman Jalen Kitna, son of former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna. For now, it is Richardson’s job though.

In the backfield, Nay’Quan Wright was the only experienced running back left after the departures of Malik Davis and Dameon Pierce. Wright was injured in the spring and Napier brought with him from Louisiana transfer Montrell Johnson, who had 838 yards and 12 touchdowns a year ago.

The receivers will need to improve a ton this season and help out Richardson. The returning production in this group is quite pedestrian. Justin Shorter was second on the team a year ago with 550 yards and three scores. Xzavier Henderson was a highly touted recruit out of Miami two years ago but in his two seasons thus far has only three scores.

Arizona State transfer Ricky Pearsall will hopefully pick up where he left off as the Sun Devil’s leading receiver last season. The tight ends outside of Keon Zipperer have zero catches at the collegiate level.

The offensive line returns three starters from last year. It also adds guard O’Cyrus Torrence who also followed Napier from Louisiana.

Napier’s offenses were run-oriented at Louisiana. With a solid offensive line and some talent in the backfield, the Gators should have a decent but probably not great offense.