With the team preparing for its eighth game of the season, a 3:30 p.m. neutral site game against the No. 10 Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville, FL, No. 2 Florida Gators offensive coordinator Brent Pease met with the media Tuesday to discuss his unit’s recent production and significant improvement on the field.
BOISE STATE OFFENSE, SEC-STYLE
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.”
NOTES AND QUOTES
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On the importance of taking care of the ball: “If there’s one stat you really want to chart every week, it’s ball security. Outside of winning, there’s really one goal board that we have that we really look at and it’s our turnover margin. We stress to kids that we want to be in the top 10 of the nation. It is evident, if you’re in the top 10 of the nation, you’re probably going to be a team with a winning record. […] If you look at the top 10 teams, they’re usually the ones that got the plus category. It takes both sides of the ball. It takes our defense and our special teams getting them, much like last weekend, and then it takes us taking care of it.”
» On Georgia linebacker Jarvis Jones: “When we were at Boise State last year, we played him the first game. That kid…going in I don’t think we knew enough about him. We knew he transferred and was probably a good player. After going against him and just watching how fast he played the game, the strength he played with, how they used him, he is definitely an impact player. He can cause fumbles. He’s all over the field. They move him. He’s in coverage. He’s rushing. He’s got an extreme talent and plays the game extremely well.”
» On redshirt senior tight end Omarius Hines seeing his role expand in the offense: “He’s worked hard. He’s done good things with the ball. It’s just a matter of us putting him in position to get the ball specifically. You can see – he makes a catch like that. He’s unique because he’s got great size for wherever we put him with great speed. He can get on the edge. He can go down the middle. He can catch it, and he can run it. He’s a guy that, once again, causes problems wherever we put him [for defenses].”
» On redshirt sophomore QB Tyler Murphy lining up at wide receiver in the WildGator package: “It wasn’t necessarily a receiver position. It was where we aligned the quarterback at the time.”
» On not running a pass-happy offense in the SEC: “What we faced in the WAC last year is a little different than what we face every week here. You got to always have a game plan that you’re going to be able to handle the Clowneys and the Montgomerys and the Mingos and the Jones, those kind of people.”
On leaving Boise State for Florida: “I wasn’t really ever considering any other jobs because I was happy at Boise State. This opportunity came up and another opportunity [Alabama] came up.”
On the team’s attitude and energy: “Kids are kids. They’re loose and having fun. Coaches are probably tighter. I’m not understanding them all yet. I’m probably a little bit more intense than I need to be sometimes.”
Tags: Brent Pease, Georgia Bulldogs, Jarvis Jones, Jeff Driskel, Mike Gillislee, Omarius Hines, Tyler Murphy
