Oh, man! After reading this, I have 2 comments. 1). THANK GOD that Foley didn't promote from within to replace Meyer.
2). I'm actually getting stoked for this upcoming season just over the possibilities. I was originally feeling like it would at least be the Spring game before I even wanted to look at a football. Now, I cant wait!!! GO GATORS!!! 53 Days till the O&B Spring Game!!!! Shane Ford Sent from my iPhone Go Gators! & Skol Vikes! On Feb 15, 2011, at 1:02 PM, "Adam Cumming" <gatorb...@att.net> wrote: > Originally Published: February 15, 2011 Brantley's passing skills and Charlie > Weis' offense could lead a Gators turnaround By KC Joyner ESPN Insider > Archive Kim Klement/US Presswire John Brantley has the passing skills to have > a breakout season in 2011 under Charlie Weis. One of the secrets to Steve > Spurrier's success during his days as the Florida Gators head coach was that > he spent as much time coaching up the receiving corps as he did the > quarterbacks. Spurrier understood that while having a field general with > superb accuracy, toughness and the ability to read defenses was extremely > valuable, all of those skills could effectively be rendered useless if the > pass-catchers weren't where they were supposed to be when they were supposed > to be there. (This is a rarely discussed aspect in the discussion of why some > Florida quarterbacks did less in the NFL than expected.) The Ol' Ball Coach > may no longer be patrolling the sidelines in Gainesville, but his methodology > regarding pass-catchers is one of many changes that new Florida offensive > coordinator Charlie Weis can implement to help senior quarterback John > Brantley become one of the best passers in college football this season. > After reading that last sentence, many readers may feel the need to do a > double take. Brantley as one of the best passers in college football? The > same Brantley whose 116.4 passer rating ranked him 97th among all FBS > quarterbacks in that category last season? The guy who threw more > interceptions (10) than touchdown passes (9) and nearly transferred to > another school this offseason? It may sound incredible, but the game tape and > metrics review of three of the Gators' toughest contests last season (at the > Tennessee Volunteers, at home against the LSU Tigers and at the Alabama > Crimson Tide, all teams that placed in the top 31 in the FBS in passer rating > allowed) show that Brantley had very little to do with the terrible state of > the Florida offense last season. His composite passer rating in those > contests was an abysmal 112.2, but Brantley actually played quite well in > those games. Really. Start with his performance on medium-depth passes (those > thrown 11-19 yards downfield). Brantley had 19 completions or defensive pass > interference penalties in 24 attempts for 347 yards, one touchdown and zero > interceptions. That equates to 14.5 yards per attempt (YPA) and a > ridiculously high 214.4 passer rating. Those are simply phenomenal numbers on > their own, but considering that they came on medium-depth throws (some of the > hardest completions to make) and against three tough pass defenses they are > even more incredible. Those weren't the only statistics in which Brantley > impressed. He had only two bad decisions in 82 dropbacks, for a bad decision > rate of 2.5 percent. (A bad decision being defined as when a quarterback > makes a mistake with the ball that leads either to a turnover or a near > turnover.) That means he made an error of this nature only once every 40 > passes. That is a Peyton Manning-like rate. Of course, statements like this > lead to two obvious questions: 1. If Brantley wasn't the cause of the > problems for the passing game, then what were the causes? 2. Can Weis fix > them? The first cause was dropped passes. Gators pass-catchers let seven > on-target throws slip through their hands in those games. Drops are always > going to happen, but a drop rate of 8.5 percent is simply unacceptable from > an overall perspective, and is doubly unacceptable when considering that all > of those drops were on catchable passes. Another prospective area of > improvement will be on tipped passes. Brantley had eight passes tipped in > those games. Two of them led to interceptions and two others were nearly > picked off. Some of the progress in this area will be on Brantley's > shoulders, as he will need to do a better job of finding passing lanes on the > line of scrimmage. But a lot of the advancement here can be achieved via > better pass-blocking. It is often believed that effective pass-blocking only > consists of an offensive lineman being able to absorb hit after hit without > letting the defender get past him, but in reality, good pass-blocking has an > aggressive element. A rush end or linebacker may want to get his hands in the > air to tip a pass, but if he is having to fight being hit in the chest he > will be more apt to keep his arms out of the passing lanes. That isn't the > only place in which improved protection can help Brantley reach his > potential. For example, in the aforementioned three-game sample, the Gators > gave up five sacks. Two of the sacks were of the one-on-one variety, meaning > that a defender got past a blocker in a one-on-one matchup and tackled the > quarterback in the pocket within three seconds of the snap. Those are the > types of sacks that disrupt a pass play before it has had enough time to > develop, so immediate improvement here will be critical. Defending against > those kinds of sacks may require a talent upgrade (although the Gators' > recent recruiting success would suggest that, in theory, they have plenty of > talent throughout the roster to step in if necessary). But two of the other > sacks came as a result of an unblocked blitzer and a third was the after > effect of an unblocked blitz (another defender got the sack after the blitzer > missed the tackle). Those types of sacks are a matter of either poor play > calling by the coach and/ or poor blitz pickup calls by the players and they > can be prevented without having to do any upgrading of talent along the > offensive line. Getting receivers to run crisper routes will be high on Weis' > priority list. In the Tennessee game alone, Gators wideouts had one play in > which two receivers ended up in the same area (a definite no-no) and another > in which a receiver didn't look for a pass, even though he was wide open. > Errors such as that one are something that should be easily correctable with > effective coaching. Weis has done that sort of thing before (witness Matt > Cassel's turnaround, coupled with Dwayne Bowe's breakout performance, with > the Kansas City Chiefs this past season). In addition, it seems logical to > assume that the switch to Weis' pro-style attack will better cater to > Brantley's strengths as a downfield, pocket passer than Urban Meyer and Steve > Addazio's spread offense and three-QB rotation was last season. If Weis can > effectively coach up the receiving corps and offensive line and get his QB in > a Cassel-or Jimmy Clausen-like comfort zone to take advantage of his > considerable downfield-passing skills, Brantley could be able to engineer a > serious turnaround in the Swamp this season > > Sent from myTouch 4G > > -- > GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! > 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions > 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions > 2008 National Football Champions | > Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), > Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us
