8/8: Pease on Gators’ QB battle, team’s progress

By Adam Silverstein
August 8, 2012

Florida Gators offensive coordinator Brent Pease had plenty to say after the first few days of fall practice and did exactly that on Wednesday afternoon. Pease discussed the quarterback situation, specific players and some of his general philosophies.

TWO MEN ENTER, NO ONE LEAVES?

Asked how difficult it would be to tell either of his sophomore quarterbacks that they will not be starting for the Gators, Pease admitted that it would not be an easy thing to do but noted that he has plenty of experience and perspective handling such situations.

“It’s hard because kids take things so negatively that it’s like you’re saying they’re not good enough. That’s not the case. I really believe we got two or three kids here that we can win football games with,” he said. “You hopefully develop more depth and you can believe in all your quarterbacks. Some of it is experience with a freshman kid coming in.

“It’s hard. I’ve been in that role. I’ve been told that situation and that’s probably how I took it not understanding that my day will come. For whatever reason, whoever it is, the other guy has got to always be ready. He’s going to be the most popular guy in town anyway. You never know when your opportunity is.”

One thing Pease is not worried about is whether Jacoby Brissett or Jeff Driskel would transfer out of Florida if they do not win the job on day one.

“I don’t handle that,” he said. “If that’s what they want to do, they do it. I’ll tell you this: These kids are competitive. They’ve worked hard. They want to go out and play. They’re about this team; they’re about this university. I sense none of that.

“If they find out that’s the situation that doesn’t work for them, then I’m for them because they’re good kids and I’ll do anything to help them as well as Coach [Will] Muschamp would.”

That is assuming, of course, that one of them does win the job and the Gators do not use two quarterbacks in 2012, something that Pease did not discount whatsoever.

“If their role is good enough to fit into what we can do and [we can] use them in multiple situations [then we will],” he said. “Whatever they can do to help the team and make more weapons on the field or make more situations that defenses have to defend.”

Read the rest of what Pease had to say about the offense on Wednesday…

QUARTERBACKS STILL ADJUSTING TO THE SYSTEM

Though the Gators played in a pro-style offense in 2011, the team is still adjusting from six years of spread offense under the previous regime. Pease said that he is extremely confident in his system’s ability to develop signal callers for the pros.

“This is still a pro-style quarterback [system]. I think quarterbacks in this system can be developed for the next level provided they’ve got the skills and abilities and what the NFL people are looking for,” he said.

And while Brissett and Driskel are showing plenty of progress already, Pease cautioned that he does not expect either to be experts in his system right away, noting that it even took Boise State’s Kellen More a few years to get things down pat.

“I know the growing pains with it of learning kind of all the gymnastics that are going on around you before actually the play’s being run,” he said. “I know what the kids here now are dealing with, too, and there’s definitely a learning curve.

“I think they probably get tired of me showing Kellen Moore clips, talking about Kellen Moore…but they can grow from it, learn from it. And I got to be patient with the fact that Kellen, he made mistakes early, too. We all remember Kellen what he was from his senior and junior year, but as a freshman and sophomore we limited him to what he was successful with.

“As a football coach, whatever position it is, you’re not throwing kids out there to be unsuccessful. You got to know what they can do and use their strengths.”

NOTES AND QUOTES

» On the resignation of wide receivers coach Aubrey Hill: “Aubrey had some personal issues. Aubrey’s a good friend of mine. Aubrey’s a good coach that I worked with. I would thoroughly enjoy it if he was out there with me right now.”

» On how the team is doing getting out of the huddle and up to the line of scrimmage: “We got to be good with getting in and out of the huddle and some of that is on me to get the plays in early. And the guys have to be dialed in to who we’re substituting and who we’re getting on the field because there is some changing of players at that time.”

» Pease said he was very pleased with the summer his players had from a retention and personal practice standpoint. He also credited the strength and conditioning staff for all of their hard work. “I’m just ecstatic with where they are at with that,” he said. “And then what they did on their own with the recognition of how much they’ve carried over from spring and the things they’ve practiced, you can just see a big difference in them, their confidence and how fast they’re really playing the game right now.”

» On senior running back Mike Gillislee: “He’s a good running back. He’s got good hands. He’s smart. He understands recognition and protection factors, which makes him a well-rounded player that way. He runs physical but yet he’s got great vision and balance for more zone schemes.”

» On redshirt junior guard Jon Halapio and his leadership: “Jon’s a great leader for us. He works hard every day. He grinds. He never complains. He’s consistent in his play; he’s consistent in his effort. He’s tough. I’ve got a lot of respect for him.”

» On if Driskel was hurt in practice recently: “He’s fine. They all get dinged up. Quarterbacks got red jerseys on and they don’t get tackled or bumped. If they get bumped up by somebody, it’s like a shocker. They’re just not used to that because we protect them a little bit right now.”

» On the depth chart: “The depth chart is constantly changing on a play-to-play basis.”

Photo Credit: UF Communications

25 Comments

  1. Joe says:

    When asked about how quaterback Tyler Murphy was progressing, Pease responded “Who?”

  2. Fuller says:

    All this copy and no nuggets? I’m dying here!

  3. Jrbishop31 says:

    Adam, you really do a great job! I live in Mississippi and I check this site everyday for news! I cannot wait for the season to begin! I am just ready to see year 2 with Muschamp.

  4. Fuller says:

    No reflection on you, its the best gator site out there. Pease just said a lot without saying anything.

  5. Matt Mitchell says:

    Do you think Pease will have trouble emplimenting his offense from Boise against SEC defenses and making it effective? Lets face it, Boise played cupcakes on defense. How do you think he will adjust?

  6. walt p says:

    Hopefully neither trans-fer and we have the running backs to compete…

  7. Matt Mitchell says:

    True, Do you think he will still be successful? I personally believe he will, fundamentals of offense are the same no matter where you go. But i wonder how many growing pains he will have to overcome to adjust playing speedy defenses like LSU, UGA, Bama etc…. Any thoughts?

  8. Jimbo says:

    Pease played an SEC defense last year…one of the best in fact in Georgia. Boise did pretty well.

  9. Matt Mitchell says:

    Jimbo, Very true… although it was the first game for UGA. Not an excuse, but their defense expanded and got much much better after that. Im no NGU fan, but i saw them make strides after that game. Ill be curious to see how it turns out. I hope he does very well! Im a huge Florida fan and hope he makes it with us long term.

  10. gatorhippy says:

    Lots of coach-speak…

  11. Ufgator1212 says:

    I don’t like how he talks about Moore so much cause if he played defenses all year half as good as the defenses in the sec that pease will face this year we would not even know his name. I am terrified pease is going to run the exact offense he did at Boise here cause that bullshit that works against highschool teams all year at Boise st will never work against the big boys we play every year. At least we know the D will be nasty but I have serious doubts about the offense if he runs Boise st offense against real defenses we will be laughed at.

  12. Ufgator1212 says:

    And yes it did well against uga last year in the first game of the year when as always a few of their best players were suspended. It will not work all year no way no how this is no WAC conference this is a championship conference

  13. Joe says:

    And everybody said Urban Meyer’s spread won’t work agaist SEC defenses either. I’ll think I will wait and see.

  14. Deuce-Five says:

    Well that was his most recent qb that had to learn and mature at qb to run the system well just like ours will have to do

  15. Kyle says:

    There was nothing fancy about Boise offense. THEY EXECUTED AT A VERY HIGH RATE!! You will see the 5 delay of games and the 5 false starts dwindle to a near ZERO! And WM said himself he is a very talented playcaller referring to his days at UK

  16. AnObfuscator says:

    How will Boise’s offense work against SEC defenses? Hmm… might want to ask UGA about that one.

  17. Ufgator1212 says:

    Hey I hoPe it does work I bleed orange and blue and don’t want our boys to lose so I prey it does work. But u gotta look past tht uga game they had key players suspended and it was the first game of the year. Around game 3-4 when uga had their players back it was a different team and Boise would not beat that team. But hey I hope n prey the offense kicks ass I do I just don’t see it workin to well but it can’t be worse than the fatass did haha

  18. Matt says:

    Didn’t Saban try and get Pease to be his OC at the last minute before he came to Florida? I guess Saban thinks his offense can work in the SEC too….just sayin.

  19. Gator John says:

    Same thing was being said about Meyer’s offense from Utah. You run a similar offense with better players, you get better results.

  20. gatorboy says:

    Pease’s offense at Boise wasn’t some gimmick offense and they executed it very well. They had a stud RB last year, Doug Martin, who pounded the rock out of I-Form and Single Back. Both are SEC formations.

    Motions and movement in the backfield is nothing new, particurlarly at UF after the Urban spread. Downfield passing game too which is something that we have missed since Louis Murphy and Riley Cooper.

    Excited to see what Pease can do with this offense.

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