Charting the Gators: AR Flirting With Rarified UF Draft Air

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — It’s a statistic that many an orange-and-blue-blooded fan might find astounding. 

Steve Spurrier was coach at Florida for seven years before he had an offensive player taken in the first round of the NFL draft. 

It’s true. Spurrier’s first season with the Gators was 1990. The drafts from ’91-96 included 31 UF players. Twelve were offensive players, five of them offensive linemen. Before wide receiver Ike Hilliard was taken with the No. 7 overall pick by the New York Giants in the ’97 draft (with fellow All-America wideout Reidel Anthony going nine picks later to Tampa Bay at No. 16), a mere two offensive skill-position players under Spurrier — wideout Ernie Mills went to Pittsburgh in the ’91 third round; tailback Errict Rhett in Round 2 to Tampa Bay in ’94 — heard their names called in the first three rounds.

In fact, none of Spurrier’s 12 UF teams produced an offensive player taken in the top five, with the highest Spurrier-coached quarterback ever drafted being Rex Grossman at No. 22 by Chicago in 2004. Grossman’s selection came two years after Spurrier had bolted Florida for the NFL, so, technically, he was Ron Zook’s draft pick (I know, I know, but don’t shoot the messenger).

Which brings us to Anthony Richardson, whose polarizing, wild-card status will be one of the biggest storylines of Thursday night’s opening round of the 2023 NFL Draft in Kansas City. The Carolina Panthers are expected to take Alabama quarterback and ’21 Heisman Trophy winner Bryce Young with the first overall pick. After that, Houston (picking second), Indianapolis (fourth), Seattle (fifth), Atlanta (eighth), Tennessee (11th) and Washington (16th) are long-term quarterback-needy teams — and that’s just in the first half of the first round. 

Note: Peter King, of NBC’s Football Morning In America, has Richardson falling all the way to Minnesota at No. 23.

During the pre-draft process, starting with an eye-popping sequence of test results at the combine, Richardson received rave reviews for his workouts and interview sessions, thus tossing him into a quarterback-heavy draft conversation along with Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud and Kentucky’s Will Levis; this despite a 2022 season when Richardson’s statistics showed a…