Florida Gators football offensive coordinator Brent Pease met with the media on Tuesday afternoon to discuss how he felt the offense performed against Kentucky, taking the quarterbacks on a nature walk, and previewed some of the things they’re preparing for against Arkansas this Saturday.
Running Backs
- They have no plans to redshirt Kelvin Taylor. Pease said that Brian White has a pretty good handle on who has the “hot hand” during games; that with three quality running backs and only one football it’s tough to get everyone involved each week.
“I think coach White has a good feel on how he controls those guys and how the game flow is going and where we’ve got to pick our spots. It’s hard with one ball, three players. They’re all capable. They’re all very good. A couple of them have experience. We spot guys in certain packages to use at certain times. We’ve got to continue. The good thing about it is they’ve all been very unselfish and they’ve all grown and continued to practice real well.”
- There’s no controversy at running back. Matt Jones ran well against Kentucky and carried the ball more than Mack Brown. Pease believes Brown would have given the same production as Jones if given the same carries.
- Pease also challenged Matt Jones prior to the Kentucky game, telling him “it’s time to break out.”
Tyler Murphy
- Murphy was given credit for his preparation. Pease said he doesn’t notice a change in Tyler’s preparation because he prepared as a starter while a third string quarterback.
“He’s a kid that prepares. He has got a good attitude, always has. He comes to work every day. It’s the same thing when he was the No. 3 guy. He hit the line, he was running. He went into practice and he worked hard when he was the guy at … When he was No. 2, he hit the line, he was running every day at practice. When he started fall camp and he was, when Jeff was down he hit the line, he was running. You wouldn’t know where he was on the depth chart is my point.”
- Having Murphy on the field is like having another coach on the field. Pease has talked to Murphy about getting into coaching when his playing days are over.
- There’s nothing to be fixed or changed in Murphy so far, according to Pease.
“I don’t want him to fix anything, just keep playing. What I’ve said to him is, ‘Keep just being yourself. Don’t all of a sudden change on me that you’ve got to be this guy that’s carrying the team because right now everybody’s doing their job. Just go out, execute and have a scope of what you’re controlling.’”
- Pease didn’t cringe when he saw Murphy making a touchdown saving tackle after his interception but joked that he didn’t want to know what he did. Quarterbacks don’t traditionally work on tackling in practice, but Pease credited Murphy for preventing a touchdown.
- Murphy has been making a lot of pre-snap checks and reads. Pease feels comfortable letting Murphy make those judgment calls on the field.
On the nature walk with the quarterbacks on in Kentucky
- On Monday, Murphy mentioned that Pease took the quarterbacks on a nature walk around a golf course in Kentucky.
- Pease says he has taken his quarterbacks on these kind of walks at other coaching stops but this was the first time he did it at Florida.
“I’ve done them before a lot of times with guys. I’ve done them in Louisiana with kids from Idaho. You just go out. You see different parts. You talk about things. Some kids are smart. You never realize that a kid from Florida understands that the bark on a Birch tree sheds. A kid from Connecticut did not know that. He did not know there are pine needles that fall off Pine trees. He didn’t realize that.”
- The quarterbacks were thankful for their mini field trip last Saturday and said that it was nice to get away, relax, and clear their minds before the game.
Arkansas pass rush
- The Razorbacks lead the SEC in sacks and have the individual league leader in sacks. Pease believes the offense has their hands full with their line.
- The offensive line will need to be on their game this week. Pease said that the Razorbacks defensive line shifts a lot, standing up pre-snap and moving around. The line will need to bring their “A” game.
Offensive line
- Pease believes the offensive line is much better this year and improved with the return of Jon Halapio.
“I think we’re better in one-on-ones and just doing a good job of keeping the pocket, and I think scheme wise we’re doing some things that help them out and don’t put them on islands as much. I think last year I went to our certain man protection way too much and now we’re trying to do some things to help them out and keep them more off balance.”
- Pease credited Kyle Koehne’s ability to play multiple positions. Koehne moved back to tackle with Halapio coming back but he can play all five positions on the line.
- Max Garcia graded out very high after the Kentucky game and Pease said he didn’t miss an assignment the entire game.
- Jon Harrison had his best game as far as being able to pull across the line and lead block; it really helped the running game.
“We cut the defense. you get a guy around the edge and especially, you know, Jon being able to run gives him angles to get the guy instead of trying to get through sometimes, you know, on what we call a ‘straight call’ or something where he’s gotta get through the line to get up to the ‘backer. If you get around and just get angles to the blocking, and then at that time they have an opportunity to cut also.”