Richardson puts blame on himself after ugly loss to Kentucky

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GAINESVILLE — Immediately after Florida sophomore quarterback Anthony Richardson received the snap on first-and-10 from the Kentucky 39-yard line with 3:35 left in the third quarter, he pivoted to his right and began his throwing motion.

But as soon as Richardson fired off a pass in the direction of sophomore running back Nay’Quan Wright, he knew he had made a mistake. An instant after the ball left his hand, Richardson began to retreat to make a post-interception tackle.

Predictably, Richardson’s pass was picked off by Kentucky corner Keidron Smith, whose juke move was enough to get him past the defensively-positioned Richardson, who helplessly fell to the ground and watched Smith return the pass 65 yards for the Kentucky score that give it a lead it never relinquished in a 26-16 win over the Gators on Saturday night.

After moments like that and several others, Richardson said Florida’s first defeat of its season fell squarely on his shoulders.

“I feel like I let everybody down,” Richardson said. “I turned the ball over twice, three times, I fumbled the ball once. So, tough loss, I’ve got to play better for the team and the university.”

Richardson struggled tremendously against the Wildcats, missing open reads on numerous occasions, making errant throws that cost his team easy yardage and completing a measly 40 percent of his passes.

The woeful outing saw him throw for just 143 yards, two interceptions and not a single passing touchdown, something he has failed to collect through two games.

The 6-foot-4, 238-pound signal-caller was also completely bottled up in the run game. A week after he rushed 11 times for 106 yards and three scores, a historic showing against a top-10 team, Richardson picked up just four rushing yards on six attempts.

“Pretty much just took what the defense gave me, you know, tried not to force it too much,” Richardson said. “I’m a quarterback so I told myself I was going to try to pass the ball more. So, I guess that probably affected my game a little bit. Just got to do better when the time comes.”

Accuracy arguably plagued Richardson most against the Wildcats. A decent chunk of his throws missed their targets badly, including on a late-game, fourth-down conversion attempt in which he failed to connect with wideout Xzavier Henderson, who had freed himself from the Kentucky defender on an out route. Richardson’s throw had already hit the grass by the time it reached Henderson.

The third-year sophomore said a lack of confidence in himself gave him fits throughout the night.

“I missed a lot of different throws and my confidence got shot,” he said. “It affected my receivers poorly, missing them wide open so I know their confidence probably went down as well. I didn’t help my O-line, I didn’t help my running backs. I failed the team, so mentally I shot myself down a little bit.”

Florida head coach Billy Napier put much of the onus on himself rather than his quarterback.

“Anthony can do things better,” Napier said. “That starts with me. I think part of coaching is putting your players in position where they can have success. We made mistakes tonight. Anthony made mistakes. I made mistakes.”

It was a stark contrast from Richardson’s performance against Utah a week early when he completed 17-of-24 passes for 168 yards and became the first Florida quarterback since Tim Tebow in 2008 to throw for at least 150 yards and score three rushing touchdowns in the same game.

Napier said the massive gap between Richardson’s performance against the Utes versus his showing against the Wildcats can be blamed at least partially on Richardson’s inexperience as a starting quarterback at the college level, something the first-year head coach has discussed for the last several weeks.

“He’s a young player,” Napier said. “That’s his second start in The Swamp in his entire life. I think that’s the great thing about experience, he kind of started this season with very minimal experience. How many lessons does this guy learn in an actual game setting, of the game kind and I think he’s going through that, that’s part of the game of football and it’s part of life.”

While Napier said Florida’s loss to Kentucky can ultimately serve as an extremely valuable learning opportunity for Richardson, the sophomore quarterback was understandably distraught in the game’s immediate aftermath. He said there was nobody more to blame for his result than him.

“We lost, and I feel like it’s completely on me,” Richardson said. “A lot of people say it’s not, but I feel like it’s on me. I played terrible. I didn’t do anything that would’ve helped my team. I tried to lead, but I didn’t feel like I did that real well tonight. I take full responsibility for the loss.”

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