I think one of this coaching staff's biggest strengths is aligning the offense with the players we have - not the ones we wished we had. Pease seems to follow this philosophy, and it's worked out pretty good so far.Discussing Florida’s offense on Tuesday, Pease cautioned that the team’s low yardage numbers (especially in the passing game over the last three weeks) are not indicative of how productive the team has been on that side of the ball. To his point, the Gators have scored 75 combined points in the last two games including 44 against a South Carolina defense that ranks as one of the best in the country.
“I’m not worried about yards. We’re not going to win any statistical wars this year, and I don’t think we’re trying to,” he said. “I don’t think we’re set up that way yet, especially [as a] coordinator in his first year with a new quarterback. We’re definitely not going to be like West Virginia and those teams where we’re throwing for all these yards.”
Pease insists that his top priority has been calling running an offense that plays to the strengths of Florida’s playmakers. That includes giving senior running back Mike Gillislee plenty of touches and allowing sophomore quarterback Jeff Driskel to use his legs in addition to his arm. So while the Gators may not be putting up the same numbers that his Boise State offenses have in the past, the system is not much different.
“We are running the Boise State offense,” he said, “other than probably Kellen Moore couldn’t do some of the runs that Jeff can do. If you go back and look, we had a kid named Grant Hedrick that ran those runs rather than Kellen Moore, just doing the same thing that Jeff does.
“Did you see them as much? No, because Jeff’s in there every play. Grant wasn’t in there every play. We still have the system in place. Now, are you seeing as many throws? No, because Kellen Moore probably isn’t back there until [Driskel] grows into Kellen Moore or a good-throwing quarterback.”
While Florida may not be airing it out in 2012, that is certainly not off the table.
“I’m not saying we can’t down the road but you got to be built a little differently and that’s just not our deal,” Pease said. “It’s all a flow. It’s a game flow of special teams, where you to get the ball and playing off your defense sometimes.”
A good example of doing the opposite: back in the 1990s, Bill Curry used to run an option offense at Kentucky. Who'd he put in as a quarterback to run it? Tim Couch - who as we later found out, was a tremendous traditional drop-back passer. Here is Curry with this great player to build an offense around, and what does he do? Shoehorns him into a scheme where he doesn't really fit and isn't really comfortable. The result is a Kentucky team that stunk up the field every time the played. I guess that's really no different than normal for Kentucky, but still...
