Orange and Blue Debut '11: Conservative look at the 2011 Gators

[Escambia94]

Blue (Brantley) 13, Orange (Murphy) 10

Highlights
10 Tyler Murphy (Wethersfield, Conn.) went 7-for-11 for 68 yards with a long of 22 yards to lead all passers. Murphy connected on a 10-yard pass to sophomore running back 37 Ben Sams (St. Petersburg, Fla.) for the game’s first touchdown and put the Orange team up, 10-6.

Sophomore running back (originally defensive back) 20 Malcolm Jones(Fleming Island, Fla.) led the Gators in rushing with 13 carries for 68 yards.

Sophomore quarterback 17 Christian Provancha (Cocoa, Fla.) threw a 39-yard touchdown pass to sophomore wide receiver 7 Robert Clark (Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.). The 7-play, 72-yard drive was the longest drive of the game.

To open the third quarter, freshman quarterback 16 Jeff Driskel (Oviedo, Fla.) led the Blue team down the field setting up a 33-yard field goal by 19 Caleb Sturgis (St. Augustine, Fla.) to put the Blue team back in the lead, 6-3. Driskel shows great lateral movement and great zip on short to medium passes. He needs to work on the deep ball. Perhaps he is too strong.

Play-by-play notes:
1st pass wobbly from 12 John Brantley IV (Ocala, Fla.) to 84 Quentin Dunbar (Miami, Fla.). Should have been caught.

3 Chris Rainey (Lakeland, Fla.) brought down early despite great vision with deep handoff. I like the new running back launch point.

Pass by JB4 deflected. Brantley needs to move in the pocket, step up into the lane, or drop back more.

Great punt by 41 Kyle Christy (Brownsburg, Ind.). Yeah, we do miss Chaz Henry, but we will be fine.

Good run by Tyler Murphy. He sure looks good throwing on the run or evading the defensive onrush. Note: Brantley had better pick up on this if the offensive line continues to struggle.

Overall, defense looks a lot stronger than offense, even with the vanilla package. 58 Dominique Easley (Staten Island, NY) 73 Shariff Floyd (Philadelphia, Pa.) and 7 Ronald Powell (Moreno Valley, Calif.) are definitely going to be in beast mode this year!

Rainey accelerates around the corner for 8 yards.

Power trap inside run Rainey 1 yard. Believe it or not, this is nearly identical to a play that Urban Meyer and Steve Addazio used in 2010. The difference is either a better o-line, or more acceleration from the deeper launch point. This may go to show that just the little things that make the difference.

No timing from deep pass by JB4.

Pass batted down by Floyd. Come on, Brantley!

Missed wide open pass to 85 Frankie Hammond, Jr. (Hollywood, Fla.)

Good pocket presence by JB4. He has more mobility when he is not worried about pitching the ball last minute and taking a hit.

Murphy hits 81 A.C. Leonard (Jacksonville, Fla.) on the run. Again, this seems like a necessity based on the porous o-line. Or, maybe our defense is that good.

Toss sweep left by Malcolm Jones. Remember, he is a walk-on and former DB.

Nice pass broken up by 9 Josh Shaw (Palmdale, Calif.) (slightly behind and slow).

Murphy’s laser caught by 89 Steven Alli (Toronto, Ontario).
Draw play Jones 2 yards. Hmmm. Play-action. What a concept.

Timeout: Summary – Murphy looks sharp on the run, but needs to set his feet and fire when in the pocket. Rainey looks sharp without traffic.

Jones runs through blitz 3 yards.

Murphy avoids sack and gains 2. Smart movement in the pocket.

AC Leonard 1st down catch with flanker screen, or was that just two receivers too close together? We will find out later if that was intentional or not.

Should have been a sack, but quick thinking by Murphy again saved the play.

Jones slashes left behind WR block.

Jones 2 yards up the gut.

Jump toss by Murphy, loss of 1 yard.

Welcome back Sturgis! 40-ish yarder splits the uprights.

Reed barrels over defender for the first down. Note: he does look lost on complex plays.

Rainey rips left 1st down for JB4 first completion of the day.

Rainey swing pass zero gain.

Rainey swing pass 6 yards.

JB4 misses post in the end zone.

Tebow catches missed pass.

Sturgis again makes FG.

Moses Jenkins almost intercepts due to late delivery from Murphy.

Robert Clark minimal gain outlet pass.

Murphy 2 minute drill 1st down.

96 William Green (Hoover, Ala.) sack. It’s about time!

Steven Alli crossing route with great pass from Murphy, 10 yards plus 6 YAC.

31 Cody Riggs (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) picks off tipped pass.
Wow. JB4 can run! 8 yard scramble plus evasion.

JB4 flushed right, holding on offense.

Dunbar nice reel after low snap on JB4. Brantley is the expert on reeling in bad snaps.

Ugly jump ball takes us to half time.

Halftime summary: Brantley still struggling with new offense, but surprisingly better on the move. Rainey looks sharp. Great push from defense. 2nd team outshining 1st team. Great to see PK Sturgis come back. PK Christy looks okay at kickoff and punts.

Halftime ceremony honoring Heisman ’66 Spurrier, ’96 Wuerffel, and ’07 Tebow Statues show the players as they looked in their respective years.

1st look at 16 Jeff Driskel, zips short pass to Dunbar, 20 YAC after breaking tackles.

JD runs like Tebow, covers for 5.

Zip to Hammond, dropped. Good anticipation and zip, bad catch attempt.

JD breaks left, whistled dead. Good escape from pocket. I like how QB is given control of the play, not sideline.

Shariff Floyd TFL on Jones.

JD pass sails high intended for Frankie Hammond.

Dunbar peelback block on Kitchens for JD.

JD fires 10 yards at 86 Josh Postel (Atlanta, Ga.)

JD overthrows Hammond, but safe incompletion. By “safe incompletion”, I mean that he is throwing the ball where only the receiver can catch it but not where it can be intercepted.

Floyd and Easley crush entire backfield.

JD too high back corner to Dunbar. Just take a bit of mustard off that one and it would be a touchdown.

Sturgis 3/3 on FGs.

Draw play Jones 4 yards.

28 RB Deandre Goins (Dunedin, Fla.) stuffed by 99 Omar Hunter (Buford, Ga.)

Postel across the middle 1st down.

Murphy ugly run, but saved the sack.

Goins long run popped up the middle.

Goins through traffic minimal gain.

Jump pass to walk on 37 Ben Sams after block from Postel.

Botched reverse with penalty and injured Easley.

66 James Wilson (St. Augustine) back to back penalty.

JD too deep to Dunbar, but smooth delivery. Needs to lead WR away from safety Jones run left out of bounds, chased by 51 Michael Taylor (Atlanta, Ga.).

17 Christian Provancha at QB. Lots of handoffs so far, no gain.

Provancha misses Schoonover, but receiver should have turned and burned. Nice lead and delivery.

18 Ryan Parrish walk-on QB. 5 yard run by Jones.

Deep pass broken up. Slow delivery by Parrish.

Provancha 50 yard TD to 7 Robert Clark. Best drive of the day.

 

[UltraGator]

Spring game showed UF has A few new play makers of whom they may not have none before. With lots of starters on the
injury sideline some of the back ups had a chance to shine!
Defense way ahead of offense at this point! Passing game appears to
be off but nothing that early morning sessions playing pitch N catch
in the next few months can't correct! Will be interesting to see the
Gator's true offensive and defensive sceams when the leashes are taken away! Nice article by Gator Envy which has A very good insight into
whats going on in Gator Nation.....

 

[DRU2012]

Folks in the media can try to put a nice face on it, but far as I can see JB has "picked up where he left off" last year--and remember, he finished off that last more-than-half-season at a 3 TD, 9 INT "pace". In fact, for a guy who earned his reputation for being a "practice and garbage-time star", showing skills only when it didn't count, you'd have to say he seems to have regressed: this year we got to see a continued display of that "deer in the headlights"-look we all became so familiar with last season--the one that made the "3-headed monster" seem like a good idea to some folks, including some of our then-coaches.
Now, people who were at the game insist #12 "appeared more comfortable" in the new pro-style system, and if anyone can do something with him it's Weis, AND there's no doubt that going into the start of the season our best chance for early and sustained success lies with Brantley stepping up and shining as the first-string QB--so I'm hoping along with everyone else that the positive pronouncements and various supposed "silver linings" (eg. "He's hitting near 70% of his passes over the course of Spring practice..." Geez, if THAT doesn't sound like an effort to find SOMETHING to grab onto in an otherwise mediocre display and disappointing body of work!) are based on real confidence and substantial evidence we haven't seen, and he really does end up coming through.
However, I'm just as hopeful that this regime is too sharp and coldly realistic to "beat a dead horse", that if he isn't DAZZLING them by Summer they begin finding out which of our talented-but-green young QB studs might be the closest to fazing in.
While we're thin in a few places, with some luck and help from the injury-and-healing gods this will be an otherwise dangerous offense come Fall, and that "D" is almost "there" already even BEFORE getting everyone in place, so this team has a chance to do some damage in the SEC East, at least...how far we'll go there and beyond will depend in large part on the above Q's at QB.

 

[Escambia94]

If Brantley is comfortable in the new system, then why is his deep ball wobbling in flight? Check out any video footage of his deep ball from his time as a backup to his time as a starter. His long passes are coming out more wobbly. His short to medium passes are getting batted down. I am not a professional QB coach by any means, but I see some mechanical issues going on. In '09 we could see that Loeffler tweaked Tebow's mechanics slightly. You could see it during practice and warm-up, but Tebow would revert to his natural style in a game. Fast forward to '10 and we see that Brantley's tight spirals and sweet delivery have degraded. Again fast forward to this one data point we have, the '11 spring game, and we see his fundamental passing mechanics are horrible and nobody notices it. What has changed in Brantley's passing fundamentals, regardless of the style of offense, that is making him look so bad even with a red jersey on? If he does not fix the fundamentals, he will have no hope in fixing anything else.

Check out Tyler Murphy--pretty good mechanics, and a great feel for the collapsing pocket. When the pocket collapses, he slides or rolls. When the pocket is shaky, but holding long enough to squeeze a pass, he steps up into the pocket and fires. I would have been okay with a 4-for-11 passing day from Brantley if he at least looked like Murphy with the fundamentals. Murphy is not the prototypical passer from a mechanics standpoint, but he is clearly ahead of the purebred QB Brantley. How about that laser that Murphy fired while rolling right? He rolled out when the center was planted on his duff (that's a good sign of a collapsing pocket), set his feet, and fired a laser to the right sideline, caught by Alli.

Check out Jeff Driskel--perfect mechanics, but too much oomph in the medium and long passes. All of his incompletions were safe incompletions--into the back of the endzone. It looks to me like Driskel is not accustomed to red zone passing, because in high school he would have just run the ball in from red zone distance (check out his highlights). When he was out of the red zone, his short-to-medium passes were spot on. Provancha looked the best in limited action. Parrish established his spot as the scout team QB.

All this tells me that the named starter is not the best QB on the team from a mechanics and game management point of view, given what little data we have. I put stock in Brantley's spring game, because I am comparing just his mechanics and decision making, regardless of offensive style or whether the game is live or scrimmage. In that regard, comparing Brantley to his previous four years of work, he gets a downgrade. He is not growing--he is digressing. His first live game of the season had better prove that the spring game was a fluke and that he really did complete 70% in spring practice. Right now, I do not believe that garbage.