When Brent Pease left Boise State for Florida this year, he went from coaching one of the country’s most prolific passing attacks to guiding an offense that bruises its way through the line of scrimmage to grind out enough points to win.
The Gators don’t have the right pieces to fire away in the passing game, not with a first-year starting quarterback, a work-in-progress offensive line and a group of wide receivers without a downfield threat. As the new offensive coordinator, Pease was prudent enough to see that and flexible enough to embrace it.
“That’s what good coaches do,” Gators head coach Will Muschamp said. “They identify, ‘OK, this is who we are.’ In the coaching world, the guys who make the biggest mistake do not identify who you are.”
No. 7 Florida is rarely as flashy as Boise State, but the Gators are fourth in the SEC and 36th nationally in rushing as they prepare for Saturday’s game against Louisiana-Lafayette.
“You’ve got to learn to adjust,” Pease said. “I’ve done that here, as well as at a certain time in my career when I was pass happy. I always wanted to grow and make sure I became a balanced person. I like running the ball and doing what’s best for the team.”
The Gators lost offensive coordinator Charlie Weis a year ago when he took the head job at Kansas. They paid him $865,000, the most ever for a UF assistant, and received similar results or declines in most categories compared to the previous season.
Pease, 48, has produced improvements — some slight, some substantial — in most areas and done so for $600,000. After struggling badly on offense in 2011, Florida is scoring 3.7 more points and rushing for an additional 49.7 yards per game while committing about half as many turnovers.
The key dropoffs are passing yards (down 45.6 per game) and sacks allowed (1.1 more per game), both of which seem natural with sophomore Jeff Driskel in his first year as a starting quarterback.
The offense’s numbers are skewed by Florida (8-1, 7-1 SEC) playing against conference foes for eight of its first nine games. They should get better as the Gators face ULL (5-3, 2-3 Sun Belt) and Jacksonville State the next two weeks.
Regardless, Pease transformed the offense from miserable to at least serviceable. At times it looked spectacular, like in the 37-20 blowout win at Tennessee, but mostly it has been good enough to capitalize on UF’s exceptional defense and special teams.
“We’re not scoring 60 points a game, so obviously we’re all upset,” Muschamp said, perhaps sarcastically. “I want to score 60, too, but I want to win first of all. That’s really what’s important.”
Pease helped accomplish that goal by establishing the ground attack, which averages 192.7 yards per game. Driskel has 547 rushing yards this year, not counting sacks, and running back Mike Gillislee is on track to be Florida’s first 1,000-yard rusher since 2004. The Gators’ average possession time is 33:11, first in the SEC.
The only downside is that Pease might quickly become a head-coaching candidate elsewhere.
“Should be,” Muschamp said. “I endorse him 100 percent.”
He already is linked to Kentucky, which announced that coach Joker Phillips will not be back. Pease was the offensive coordinator there in 2001 and ’02 and speaks highly of the program.
If the Wildcats are interested, he will listen after the season. That possibility is far from his mind now.
“That situation is out of the question right now because I haven’t heard anything,” he said. “I’m focused on here. I’ve only been here one year. I’ve made a commitment to be here, especially with my family, and I’ll move on if the situation arises. I can’t comment on a ghost story right now.”
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