Emory Jones Waited...and Waited...and Waited. Now the Florida Gators Team Is His

Emory Jones has waited his turn. Now it's his team. Photo Credit: Alex Shepherd

Walking in on Thursday felt different.

The air was a little crisper, due to the February date, the sky was darkened with rain clouds and as Emory Jones walked the familiar steps from the Florida Gators locker room, across Gale Lemerand Drive and to the practice fields, the banality of the opening acts of spring practice weighed heavier on the third year quarterback.

Walking in on Thursday felt different…and he knew why.

“I had a chip on my shoulder.”

Emory Jones has waited.

He’s bided his time. He’s watched. He’s learned. He’s been patient…

Now it’s his turn.

“It has been hard but it’s all been for a reason. That’s what I’ve realized over the past years.”

The Florida Gators quarterback—and presumed starter—has never shied away from admitting the past three years have been tough. In a world of transfer portals and QB’s who leave for greener pastures after six months on the bench, Emory Jones elected to stay. He could have started at a majority of other Power 5 programs. He could’ve been been playing at least for the past year.

But he remained a Florida Gator.

A large part of that is thanks to Kyle Trask, who Jones says he still talks with often.

While it was presumed Jones would take over as the starter after Feleipe Franks, it was Trask who took the world by storm and wrote a story fit for a fairy tale. Even if it meant Jones had to wait another year, he watched and learned a lesson that is valuable not only for him but for all of college football.

"Just how he conducts himself every day, how he walks around the building, how he takes notes in the meeting rooms, and how he translates everything from the classroom on to the field. I just really learned all that from him and then obviously it’s him being patient waiting on his time to come. I definitely learned a lot out of that just watching him,” Jones said of Trask.

Watching Trask flourish was the embodiment of everything Head Coach Dan Mullen had been telling Jones since he moved to Gainesville as a freshman.

Emory Jones starts his third spring practice, finally as the man at the top. Photo Credit: Alex Shepherd

“When I first got here the first thing he always said to me was, 'Development, development, development.'And I always tried to keep that in the back of my head. It was tough going through all the years just playing a couple plays. It definitely was tough, but just going in made me confident. So I've just been working my tail off every year just trying to get better. That's all I'm focused on.”

As Jones mentioned, he has been put in for plays here and there, sometimes to the frustration of spectators wondering aloud at the disruption in flow or process. With each play though, Jones’ found greater footing, anchoring his innate athletic ability in an understanding of the college game.

“It definitely helps me a lot,” Jones admits.

“I played in every big game, so I mean just starting from my freshman year I played in the biggest game that year, the Georgia game ,and made a couple of plays. And it helps me out now because I’ve been on the big stage, so now I’m more comfortable wherever I am.”

This culminated in the Cotton Bowl loss to Oklahoma. Jones saw his greatest amount of playing time yet…and saw the best example of the work that needs to be done.

“It really was an eye-opening experience to me, just going out there and actually getting a lot of reps. I mean, it really just showed me that me and the guys have a lot of work to do. So, I mean, that's all we're focused on right now. That's all I'm focused on.”

The best way to do your best work is to outwork the best. It’s what helped Franks and Trask and now Jones. Because right on his heels is the hometown kid Anthony Richardson; who is reportedly doing back-flips down the field during practice. Emory Jones readily admits he can’t keep up with Richardson in the gymnastic regard. But the competition in every other facet has been fierce.

Explains Jones, “it’s always a competition here. Anthony, he's been on my butt every practice. I mean, like we're all out there competing, just trying to get better…he definitely, he gets me better everyday and pushes me and I push him. Thats what we are focusing on, competing.”

Over the course of his three years, the redshirt sophomore Jones has averaged a 64% completion rate (55-86) for 613 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception. He’s added 514 yards and six touchdowns on the ground.

It’s that ability to be so balanced, while exhibiting a cannon arm, that excites teammates for 2021. The offense under Kyle Trask was special, statistically some of the best in school history, and heady to watch. It will be drastically different this fall, shaped to accommodate and highlight Jones’ skill set, but just as exciting nonetheless if Gator teammates are to believed.

“Emory and Anthony and even some of the freshman quarterbacks that came in, they’re so athletic and they’re dual-threat where they can pull it and run for 60 yards and make you fall on you knees, you know,” ponders receiver Justin Shorter.

"I feel like that’s going to be like a big part of our offense this year. So I’m pretty sure next year you guys will any of the quarterbacks pull the ball and sprint for 60 yards and then throwing it that next play.”

Adds defensive end Zachary Carter, “not to take anything away from Kyle [Trask], you know, he's a great, great player for us. I love Kyle. But Emory is, he brings a different, you know, different flavor to the offense. Athletic guy, he makes you miss.

“Basically, he keeps you on your toes, you know, you never know what the offense is going to do so. I'm excited, I'm excited with our offense, with the ball in Emory’s hands.”

It’s not just the ball in his hands that excites this staff though.

“You look at guys like Anthony and Emory with cannon arms, their ability to improvise and extend plays. All of a sudden the field is spread. I think we saw even a couple glimpse of it in the bowl game, that the field’s spread out and someone loses a rush lane. That turns into a 20-, 30-, 40-yard play with those guys on the field,” says Mullen.

“They bring a very different skillset to the table. So ours is to kind of manipulate around the strengths of what those guys are going to do well within quarterback runs, zone reads, the ability for them to scramble and improvise and even have to be more complex in the pass game because you’re multi-dimensional because some of the threats they pose to the defense.”

That’s all on the field though. It’s where Jones can shine…but there’s more to being a University of Florida quarterback. Maybe that’s what felt different too. The knowledge this is finally his team. That’s what Emory Jones has been waiting on as well.

“I have a lot of responsibility, I mean I've been waiting for this time right here. You know, I'm really just glad to be back out there for the spring and being around the guys.”