Anthony Richardson’s High School Football coach.

Covering him in college is one thing, right? But what about being there at the beginning? So let's talk to the guy who coached him in high school. So for that we turn to former Gainesville Eastside High School coach Cedric Daniels. So what was it like to be there at the beginning of it all?

It was pretty good. I always tell people it wasn't like the fanfare he has now and all the hype. Then he was just a kid playing quarterback, having fun with his teammates and having fun with his homeboys. So we didn't look into it as in, man, like, you know, growing up, you know, early, we didn't look at it as, man, we got a star in our hands.

I don't think it was probably his 11th grade year. We realized how special he was, you know, and other teams would hit us up, you know, asking for advice, you know, what to do with players that they have kind of similar to him, you know. And, you know, you deal with the situation, man, you love it, and then you embrace it. You know, we had a lot of folks that would try to, you know, boost him up, you know, like coach, and we're glad, we hate to play you guys with him. We wish, you know, we wish we had him on our team.

You know, that's when we realized we had something special. How did he handle the attention? Because when you start popping like that and recruiters start coming around and the media starts talking, how did he handle that?

He did a very good job of it because he never let it affect him. I think his biggest regret, honestly, was, you know, the quarterback position is so different when it comes to recruiting. And when you're in a small city and University of Florida here, it's kind of hard to, you know, want to get noticed, especially the quarterback spot.

And if you're not traveling and doing all those, those, those tours and circuits, you know, for quarterbacks, you know, your rankings aren't going to be as high. So everything you have to get is based off of film and, and, you know, God given talent. But, you know, when it started happening, I think when he started like getting like the bigger offers, I think he was like, coach, why me?

Why, why is it happening now? And he kind of enjoyed it. Well, I hope he did.

It sounds to me like he's handled all of that really well. When, when he first did become the, I hate to use the word star because I don't feel like he felt like he was a star. But when he started to become the known commodity, what did you see from him as a player? How did he take that a step further? He started honestly, man. He's a, he's a student of the game. You know, he started really honing in and trying to get better at little things, spending lots of time in the QB room, sitting out with his coach, having his tablet and asking questions. Like he, he really has a knack of trying to be perfect. And he puts that kind of pressure on himself.

Probably more than I've ever seen out of a lot of guys I've coached. And he never let the outside noise, you know, affect them as far as, Hey man, you're, you're great. You're this. My advice to him early on in his career was, you know, take social media with a grain of salt, you know, and try to ignore everything you see on social media. Also, also be careful with, with social media because there are people that are designed to boost you up. And then there's also with the, with the same compliments you get, you're going to get the equal amount of criticism.

So you have to, you have to like really not care what people say and only focus on you. You know, and I say that to him a lot. We're talking with Cedric Daniels, the former head football coach at Eastside High School at coach underscore Daniels, 58 on Twitter. He coached Anthony Richardson in high school. What have you seen from his development at the University of Florida that makes you believe he can be the first pick in the draft? Oh man, just, just, just, you know, cause when you get to the college ranks, man, they have a lot more resources than, you know, obviously you do all in and in high school and can spend a lot more time with him. His knowledge of the game has expanded and, um, he's been able to, you know, just honestly showcase his talent. You know, I think when he and I sat down and talked about what school to go to, you know, University of Florida in my house was perfect compared to all the offers he had just because of, you know, the head coach that was there and the system that were running that would benefit him. And you look early on in this career, he had a lot of success running that true spread offense and being able to move and showcasing, you know, natural ability, right. Um, coming from, you know, Eastside high school, you know, you're not naturally known. So for him to be on that, on that level, man, it really showcase everything he had done in high school.

You know, it gave people around the country something to look at. Who do you think he emulated as a, uh, as a player growing up? I know he mentioned Cam Newton at the combine, but, uh, was it a Cam Newton type? He, because of his body, man, honestly, cause you gotta understand, you know, when he was coming up, Cam Newton and him were like almost ideal, you know, all the way through high school up into college. So Cam was that guy. He was, he was an athletic quarterback and Anthony was an athletic quarterback and both of them can move and both of them had freakishly big arms. Um, so that was his guy to look up to, you know, um, to that type of style of football. He was a football player. He was, I mean, that ain't a rock that there's nothing wrong with looking up to Cam Newton. Cam Newton has been great in every possible way. I wish he hadn't gotten hurt.

We've got about 60 seconds left. You have a Anthony Richardson. I remember when he did this moment in a game. Yeah, man, I got a few.

Like, and I'll be fast. I remember as a freshman, I had him at wide receiver his first game. He went, uh, viral. He made a one-handed catch. He's in the air diving backwards and makes this catch and goes, uh, viral and like the number two player of the year. Or the week or whatever.

Um, that's one. And then two, we had this catapult GPS systems on our chest and, um, guys just want to know how fast they were. And he dropped back to pass. Nobody to go from kind of similar to the LSU game. And, uh, he turned the corner around the sideline and we tracked him. He went 67 yards on a play. We clocked him at 21 miles an hour.

Top speed. Oh my gosh. Oh man. Uh, Cedric Daniels, former East side high school football coach.

He coached Anthony Richardson in high school. Uh, I hope, look, I hope he has a great career. Thank you very much for the time. Appreciate it. Hey, thank you. Thank you. Here.

Imagine playing at the university of Florida after starring in high school. Also engaged. Yeah. Got to get out of town.

I know explore this. Don't, don't be drafted by Tampa. Got to get out of town. I've said this before. I realized that everybody is putting CJ Stroud on the, uh, on the Panthers. I'm not going to argue with it. Um, he was a wonderful quarterback at Ohio state. To me, the best quarterback is Bryce Young. But the only other player I would consider at number one is Anthony Richardson because the payoff could be enormous.

All depends on how you want to, want to run your office. It's a gamble. They're all gambled. There isn't a can't miss the draft, which is why trading up might not have been a good idea to begin with, but that's what they did. Now you've got to make the right pick. And I understand Frank Reich said, well, I think all four will be good. Okay, Frank.

Well, he is only saying that because they really didn't know who they would draft. I know. The odds say this. One will be really good.

One will be okay. And two will be busts. That's what the odds tell you.

Doesn't mean the odds work, work out that way every year. I'm sure nobody thought when quarterbacks went one, three, seven, and 10 in, what was it? 2017 Baker, Mayfield, Sam Darnell, Josh Allen, Josh Rosen. Nobody thought that year, who might've been 18, that most of those quarterbacks would flame out. Josh Rosen's out of the league, I believe. He might be on somebody's practice squad. Darnell and Mayfield are trying to pick up the pieces of something. Allen, of course, is good. And I believe the quarterback taken 32nd that year. Lamar Jackson might not have a place to play this year, but of course that is only about a contract.