Gators or 'Bama will hire Boise State's Pease; Gators lose to Vols

[travisduncan]

Update: Tuesday 9:47 p.m. ET ESPN is reporting that Pease will be named Florida's new offensive coordinator on Wednesday.

Update Monday 10:26 p.m. ET: Scout.com reports, as well as FoxSports.com are reporting that Pease is the guy and an announcement will be made either Tuesday or the coming days.

Boise State offensive coordinator Brent Pease is the favorite to become the next offensive coordinator at Florida, according to a source as reported by The Idaho Statesmen.

The Gainesville Sun reports that Pease will take the job with the Gators, and that he was in Gainesville Friday with his wife to speak with UF officials.

However, according to other reports, Pease will interview with the Alabama Crimson Tide on Tuesday after the National Championship game for its open position.

Further reports indicate that the Gators have made the offer but Pease will meet with Alabama before accepting the UF job.

Pease is in his first season as the Broncos' OC, having previously served as the school's wide receivers coach from 2006-2010.

Pease's only real tie to the SEC or UF would be his time at the University of Kentucky from 2001-2002 as the school's offensive coordinator and QB coach.

The odd thing is that last time we checked Boise State runs the spread offense and Muschamp said the Gators will stick with Weis' pro-style offense.

We'll see.

-Meanwhile the Gators picked up a significant commitment for the 2012 class this week. 6"4 255 lb defensive end Jonathan Bullard committed out of Shelby Crest high school in North Carolina to become the 19th in the 2012 class to give their verbal to the Gators. Bullard is ranked among the Top 5 defensive ends in the nation for this year's class and among the Top 100 players according to Rivals.

Bullard picked the Gators over South Carolina and Crimson to name a few.

The expectation is that Bullard will see playing time as a pass rusher next season.

-The No. 14 ranked Gators basketball team dropped a road loss Saturday in Knoxville to the Vols 67-56. The Gators came into the game averaging 85.4 points per game, 5th in the nation but the offensive and the mojo wasn't there on Saturday.

Despite the offensive struggles, coach Billy Donavan said "I’m more disappointed in our defense than anything else in the game."

“Playing on the road, for me, is a mentality you have to have,” Donovan said. “Anytime you play on the road it’s a difficult challenge and [we’ve] got to learn what to do to put ourselves in position to win the game.”

All four losses for the Gators this season have been on the road. The Gators play Tuesday night at p.m. ET against Georgia at the O-Dome on ESPN or ESPN3.com

 

[DRU2012]

Well, I "wished" for an "adventurous surprise" at OC--but I also said something about him having vision, imagination and drive--and I can't say we know enough about Peace to even KNOW if this is that guy, let alone get excited about the idea. I DO tend to trust Escambia94's assessments in such matters, when in doubt, and HE is less-than-thrilled with the prospect. For myself, I have been as impressed as anyone with Boise State's sustained success at offense over the last five years or so, through several different player-combinations on the field, but am unaware of how big a part Peace played in that rise and/or consistency...One thing that DOES concern me is whether this business of "going to interview at 'Bama first" indicates a mercenary approach, rather than the emotional commitment I think we deserve from a young coach "stepping up to the Bigs". I'd feel a lot better about it if he simply WANTED TO BE A GATOR, and jumped at the chance, if offered.

 

[Escambia94]

I am on a couple message boards, and I am glad that this one does not go overboard with the rumor mill. As a matter fact, I am ecstatic that Gator Envy is the only message board I have encountered that reported the story correctly--"Gators or Alabama will hire Boise State's Pease". That is a fact. The rumor is that the University of Florida flew Pease out to make an offer. That is crap. Muschamp, Weis, and Quinn were not flown out for Foley to make an offer.

The difference here is that Foley and Muschamp do not know who they want as the offensive coordinator. If they did, they would have flown to that man's city, visited him at home or in his office at that university and made an offer. Or... Foley has confused the media once again and knows who he wants and does not want the rest of the world to know. Rewind to a year ago. Nobody on earth saw it coming. Not one supposedly reliable media source predicted that Will Muschamp, the heir apparent to the most profitable, arguably best head coaching position in the galaxy, was coming to the University of Florida. Not one. Go do the Google rewind and find one article or message board that predicted that hire. Same with Charlie Weis. Same with Dan Quinn. If you rewind to last year, everyone had Chris Petersen (Boise State), Bryan Harsin (Boise State), and others...and they were wrong.

I hope we do not get Pease. I hope that was disinformation thrown out there to confuse the media. I hope that Alabama hires the guy. This has nothing to do with his competence, or his ties to Kentucky. Pease is a mercenary in the same vein as Urban Meyer. For me, that is fine. I like Urban Meyer. For most other Gators that is not fine. Call me a weirdo.

As for the new Gator commit, Jonathan Bullard. I am not surprised. Quick, somebody name another US Army All-American Bowl defensive player out of Shelby, North Carolina that came to Gainesville and had a great career. Brandon Spikes! Different high school, but same neighborhood. This is not on any message board or any news source, but it is possible that Bullard looked up to Spikes. Thank you, Urban Meyer, for stretching Florida's recruiting base up the Atlantic Coast.

 

[Escambia94]

So far the rumor mill has Florida signing Brent Pease as the offensive coordinator du jour. Pease is reported to have a pay raise--$500K per year for three years. Pease almost left BSU to become the Indiana OC, but Texas's hiring of Bryan Harsin forced Chris Petersen to bring back Pease with a pay raise. Hey, look at the bright side. Last year, we wanted Chris Petersen as our head coach, and he would not have even needed to change his wardrobe (orange and blue versus blue and orange...there is a difference). Now, we may get Pease, who would not need to change his wardrobe, and will get paid less than Weis, but more than he did at BSU.

Supposedly BSU's offensive style is to not have a style.

Boise was the Seinfeld of college football — their lack of identity is their identity.

Wednesday we should find out how accurate the rumor mill is, and we can pretend to be excited until the Orange and Blue Debut.

 

[DRU2012]

As I noted on the thread where it is reported here that Pease IS to be our OC, effective tomorrow (Wed., Jan.11), I have been looking into this hire, the man and his work history the last 5 yrs. or so--and how that has manifested in terms of effectiveness on the field--and I am actually going to give this a hopeful, if conditional, "thumbs-up". I see a certain practical flexibility, a sometimes daring "hybrid" (there's that word again) approach to the "pro-style" that E- has already well-described the various versions of: I think he has shown a sharp sense of "going with what you've got" in mixing and matching all 5 of the different "types" E- has outlined. That could serve this Gator offense well over the next couple of seasons--but E-'s right, we won't really have any idea before the first "unveiling" come the spring.
I think he DOES add to our recruiting effort on a number of levels, not the least of which is the timing (quick and decisive, right after the last Bowl game) AND how the idea of this young, high-profile guy from a successful "pro-style but gunslinger"-offense (that is apparently his image among some of the kids who have been asked about this "rumored hiring"--for eg., WR Diggs) will play among the various fence-sitting, not-yet-committed offensive playmakers that we're still after.
Finally, among the other reasons I have for being more and more optimistic about this hire, is this simple fact, if it comes to pass: Pease was also offered the OC job by Saban at Alabama; he could have ascended to running the offense at the freshly crowned National Champion and budding "dynasty" (according to some, at least)--and he chose to be a Gator instead. This is no small thing, in my view. It is a clear choice, one where he put passion, how he felt about a place, its people and players and program, ahead of "the smart, safe, sure-thing"-move.
"OK, man: you chose to be a Gator...We've got your back."

 

[Escambia94]

Look at the bright side. He does kinda sorta maybe fit the mold of younger coordinators and coaches on the Gator staff that can still get on the field and show these kids how to be NFL players and college players. I know nothing of his recruiting skill. What I know of BSU is that the offense and defense are molded around the available players, and that Chris Petersen is the evil mastermind behind the BSU success. I am not convinced that Pease gets a lot of the credit for last year's high-octane Boise offense. He inherited a lot of Bryan Harsin players, used the same playbook, and was part of the ongoing Petersen legacy since 2005 as the WR coach.

Muschamp stated that he wants to use the same Weis playbook. If that is indeed the case, Pease will have to convince the boss to let him run the offense he wants to run, an offense molded around the talent they have on the Gators next year. If the Boise offense can work in with 2 and 3 star players, it theoretically should work with 4 and 5 star talent. Steve Spurrier used 2 and 3 star, some 4 stars, to build the Fun N Gun juggernaut. Maybe Pease has some ideas to extend the Boise offense and use some parts of the Weis New England offense (if he needs to).

 

[DRU2012]

Look at the bright side. He does kinda sorta maybe fit the mold of younger coordinators and coaches on the Gator staff that can still get on the field and show these kids how to be NFL players and college players. I know nothing of his recruiting skill. What I know of BSU is that the offense and defense are molded around the available players, and that Chris Petersen is the evil mastermind behind the BSU success. I am not convinced that Pease gets a lot of the credit for last year's high-octane Boise offense. He inherited a lot of Bryan Harsin players, used the same playbook, and was part of the ongoing Petersen legacy since 2005 as the WR coach.

Muschamp stated that he wants to use the same Weis playbook. If that is indeed the case, Pease will have to convince the boss to let him run the offense he wants to run, an offense molded around the talent they have on the Gators next year. If the Boise offense can work in with 2 and 3 star players, it theoretically should work with 4 and 5 star talent. Steve Spurrier used 2 and 3 star, some 4 stars, to build the Fun N Gun juggernaut. Maybe Pease has some ideas to extend the Boise offense and use some parts of the Weis New England offense (if he needs to).

Don't worry, E-, Weis HIMSELF didn't use much of "the Weis playbook" this past season! I mean, he got the rep he HAD ("Offense-Mastermind", "Daring innovator", "Developer of young QBs", etc.--remember?) as a result of what everyone saw out on the field in his previous (especially EARLY) jobs--but the last time we really saw ANY of that on display was with the QBs he resurrected at Notre Dame--that, and his "explanations" for what happened when interviewed later, helped him build this "image"--and frankly, as far as we could tell based on the evidence of our own eyes (and ears--his vague and excuse-riddled post-mortems this past season were amazingly devoid of any real insight), Weis had no idea of why things weren't working, nor what he could be expected to DO about any of it).
Meanwhile, that "Weis-playbook", to judge by the various squads and programs he and the people under him have presided over through the years, is quite a thick book, one that includes virtually every facet of the five different "pro-style"-forms you so well-laid-out in your analysis of this very topic last week...so that statement by Muschamp (in addition to reassuring both prospective-recruits, and ones we've already got who might otherwise worry about Weis' departure, that things will continue in an orderly fashion here at UF) is a message to one and all that there is consistency and stability here--the new guy isn't going to suddenly change our tune, leaving you in the wrong program for your skills.
I have a feeling Pease will stay with developing a hard-running power-game (we appear to be on track in building a STRONG O-line), but open up the passing game, too--both "run to set up the pass" AND the other way around, at times--with reliable receivers and a strong inside-running-game, switching things up that way could really break down some of those tough SEC defenses--and blow OUT everyone else!
(Yeah, I know I'm getting carried away now, at LEAST "getting ahead of myself", but I AM excited at the possibilities: the idea that we may now suddenly start actually trying to do some of the things it has been SO frustrating watching our team not even appearing to have even considered including in our offensive scheme this past season or so, makes me want to laugh with this feeling--I can't quite recognize or put my finger on it, but I've felt it before, some years back...you know, if I'm not mistaken, I think it's called "HOPE"...)

 

[Escambia94]

Weis did use the New England Offense. It's not just the execution you see, but the way the team practices, the players that will be recruited, the long hours of memorizing play books, etc. An example might be an iso running play. Demps would be the isolated running back in "1 ride 32", a power I (1), right side strong (ride), handoff to the tailback (30), open up the 2-gap between the center and RG (2)." That same play under Boise becomes "C 28 near right reach fake fly 27". We as the fans may not understand what the big deal is. We may be able to identify an iso, and we can identify that Demps ran between the tackles and was squashed at the line. Was that Weis' fault for calling a run off tackle using a 180 pound back that was injured all season and that only gained yardage against under 290 pound linemen? Weis did not recruit a 180 pound running back to run that play. He was looking for a kid that played like Demps, but weighed 190. He also needed a right guard that could block moving backwards in an arc to the right in a reverse sumo dance. His right guard this year tried to zone block, as he did under the Urban Offense. Fast forward to next year. When Brissett or Driskel line up under center, which play will be in their head? "1 ride 32"? Or "C 28 near right reach fake fly 27"? Assuming he does not mess up the call at the line, will Gillislee think he is "30" under the Weis offense, or "20" under the Pease offense? Will the offensive line open up a hole to the right (ride or reach), or zone out when he does not hear "ride" as he did for a year under Weis?

These are the little nuances we do not see on TV, the part about memorizing play books, practicing plays, knowing what your number is, what to do after hearing certain words, and not confusing terminology from last year.

 

[DRU2012]

Sorry, E, but Weis' BIGGEST failing (and "failing" is the only way I can fairly describe it, in retrospect) was in not only misusing the tools that he had, which I think it was clear frpm early on that he was doing (especially by the time they started "dropping like flies"--if the 19 times Demps or Rainey were stopped for no gain didn't already outweigh the ONE where either burst into the secondary for a big gain), but in not adapting accordingly BEFORE they got so hobbled...then he COMPOUNDED this strange blindness by stubbornly continuing to send them out there at 70%, or whatever, and running THE SAME DAMN PLAYS! (You know what they say about "the definition of insanity", right? DID he expect a different result?) Now, even on that rarer and rarer occasion when one DID break past the line, he no longer had that "extra gear" that yielded long TDs. Meanwhile, there were Gilissley, Joyer, and (possibly--we just don't know) Brown over on the sidelines, mentioned each week BEFORE the games as "having a larger role", but never getting it. We won't even get INTO his invisible demonstration of the supposed "Quarterback Redemptor and Mentor/Mastermind"-reputation he was supposed to be bringing to the table--since it never DID materialize.
I appreciate your tight and erudite breakdown/overview of the details of basic pro-set formations and the plays that are run from them, and your points regarding the things that WERE "beyond Weis control" are well-taken--but there is enough "fault" in some of the most basic decisions that he made, in the fundamental things that were MISSING in our offense from the word "Go", before even getting INTO the subtle details, to wonder at how committed to (or even engaged WITH) Weis was with getting the job DONE here at UF, and whether his head and/or heart were ever IN this "gig", or if "gig" is all it was--a stepping stone towards a way back to HEAD coach status. If the latter, then maybe Kansas is about all the level of "status" he earned in the process, know what I mean?

 

[Escambia94]

We shall see. If the new Kansas offense magically improves in one year, then we should look back and shift some of the blame off Weis. Sure, a good coach will do well with whatever talent he has, but there is only so much he can do. The toughest part of this is facing the realization that maybe the professionals just are not telling us why players like Gillislee and Joyer did not get more carries throughout the year. I did like Brian White lining Gillislee and Joyer in the power I, and it did gain 5 yards early in the game and made me wonder why Weis was too stupid to try that same thing all year...then the Buckeyes stopped Joyer, our biggest back. Then they slowed down our entire running game and outgunned our running game. That tells me that our running game was doomed to some degree no matter who was the OC. Not even the former BSU OC Bryan Harsin could turnaround 4 and 5 star offense players at Texas without extensive use of trick plays. When former BSU OC Brent Pease gets to Gainesville, do not expect miracles overnight. Look at Texas, from 5-7 to 8-5, but the offense only marginally improved.

 

[DRU2012]

We shall see. If the new Kansas offense magically improves in one year, then we should look back and shift some of the blame off Weis. Sure, a good coach will do well with whatever talent he has, but there is only so much he can do. The toughest part of this is facing the realization that maybe the professionals just are not telling us why players like Gillislee and Joyer did not get more carries throughout the year. I did like Brian White lining Gillislee and Joyer in the power I, and it did gain 5 yards early in the game and made me wonder why Weis was too stupid to try that same thing all year...then the Buckeyes stopped Joyer, our biggest back. Then they slowed down our entire running game and outgunned our running game. That tells me that our running game was doomed to some degree no matter who was the OC. Not even the former BSU OC Bryan Harsin could turnaround 4 and 5 star offense players at Texas without extensive use of trick plays. When former BSU OC Brent Pease gets to Gainesville, do not expect miracles overnight. Look at Texas, from 5-7 to 8-5, but the offense only marginally improved.

Again: points well-taken--certainly our depth and cohesion issues on the line kept compounding the problem as the season wore on. Even after that month's supposed "healing-period" before the Bowl-game, not enough changed there to really help (including our luck: one O-line starter re-aggravated his injury during practice the week of, and another early in the game itself). You're right about the question marks in our bigger backs' abilities, too--maybe they DON'T have "it", the power, strength and drive that can make "pretty good speed" more-than-enough, once they get into the secondary (Exhibit A: Emmit wasn't that outright fast, stopwatch-wise--but he was elusive AND had those "quick-twitch"-muscle-moves that were dazzling on a football field, with guys trying to catch-and-flatten him, but coming up with air instead--not that there's an "EMMIT" hiding on our roster!). We just don't KNOW--and , in Brown's case, we know even LESS. Are they sh*t? Is that the sad secret that no one wanted to say? That POSSIBILITY is sure as hell the reason some of us have been expecting/pressing for another power-RB prospect or two--if the COACHES aren't sure, then you'd figure they'd go out and get some "insurance"; so far, by their level-of-interest, you'd have to conclude that they haven't appeared all that concerned, not like the way they've been collecting linemen (going BOTH ways) at ALL. We all know that reflects a clear need that must and is getting filled; our outlook at running back is less clear and, so far at least, nothing in the recruiting process has done ANYTHING to clarify it.
If we are to "stand pat", whatever the reason, then presumably the plan is to do more with what we've got than has even been TRIED so far. One of the damning things about White's performance as "interim OC" for the Gator Bowl was that he appeared to try NOTHING, made no adjustments to take advantage of some of the things Weis seemed to ignore or overlook...and it was all that "ignoring and overlooking" that made Weis a "good-riddance"-memory after one over-matched season with the Gators. Kansas is so bad, at an ebb so low right now, that ANY kind of attention from a half-way competent coach, not to mention a couple of better-than-mediocre recruiting moves that a famous former-pro and major-college-football coach might well be able to bring in, should be able to bring SOME improvement: a couple more wins next season, maybe a .500 record in a couple of years, and he's in solid there. A little different level-of-expectation here at UF.
Nothing but the best, no excuses--THAT is where we aim for, and expect our coaches to expect nothing less themselves. For better or worse, I guess that's more a young man's challenge--and natural temperment, in some cases. That sure describes the guy we've got as our Head Coach now, and I think he's learned that he and everyone else here is better off with like-minded people around him on his staff.
So. No miracles. Unless there's a hidden gem out there that they uncover and bring in at the end, our running game THIS season will be dependent on the system and the play of the line as it establishes itself--and we'll finally learn whether the guys we've got at RB can thrive, or are to be merely "placeholders", hopefully (if barely) getting the job done behind what SHOULD (with hard work, repetition and some better luck injury-wise) eventually be a strong O-line as the season goes on.
IF we get some immediate help from the new WRs, IF the "athlete's" we'll have lining up at TE and the at least one REALLY promising one we're bringing in come through, and above all, IF at least one of our young sophomore QBs seizes the job and begins to come into his own, then, with everything else (cross your fingers) going fairly smoothly, MAYBE we have an offense that can hold up enough of ITS end of things to complement what should be a TOUGH defense, rounding into form, by the time we begin Conference play against Tennessee in late-September.
It'll be in the DETAILS , in getting the line working as a cohesive unit, opening up the passing game to enhance the "system"-running-attack and vice-versa, and working WITH the QBs personally (something we HEARD Weis was great at, but, according to sources inside the Gator program, manifested as routine meetings in the film room, and very little on-field work applying the ideas presented--something that IS a part of Pease's style, by all accounts) that our new OC will stress and, with this staff, may well be able to make a real difference, compared to this past season. As you say: We shall see.