Urban Meyer hears it often on the recruiting trail. Versatile kids that can run pass routes as well as sap the will out of a defense as a tailback want to be Gators and they want to play the “Percy position.” The Percy position only came into existence in 2006, the year that Percy Harvin became a Florida Gator. Since then Harvin has become the most dynamic breakaway threat in all of college football, a do-it-all hybrid that is a sometime running back, sometime wide receiver and all the time nightmare for opposing defensive coordinators.
The Percy position requires a player with the talent, speed and elusiveness to be effective whether lined up in the backfield, the slot or on the outside. Any time Harvin is in the game, he is every bit as much a threat to run a streak route down the sideline from the X receiver position as he is to run a little drag or out pattern from the slot or line up in the backfield as the tailback where he can take handoffs or pitchouts.
Harvin, Chris Rainey, Brandon James and Jeff Demps all fall into that hybrid category. They are capable of playing the Percy position and their versatility alters game plans and personnel decisions for opposing defensive coordinators. It has also altered Meyer’s offensive scheming and his recruiting. On the recruiting trail Meyer is finding more and more talented, versatile players who not only want to be Gators but want to play the same position and do the same things as Harvin.
“I think that’s one of the coverts out there when you can go out there and recruit that guy that can do both and he’s a dynamic football player,” said Meyer Friday morning at Florida’s media day.
Before Harvin, the Gators were a rather pedestrian offense. The Gators of 2005 — Meyer’s first year at Florida and the introduction of the spread option offense — struggled offensively, largely because of injuries to the two fastest and most versatile playmakers on the team, Bubba Caldwell and Chad Jackson. Caldwell broke his leg in game three against Tennessee and Jackson was never completely healthy the entire season.
That lack of playmakers with speed and the capability of doing a number of things not only made the Florida offense rather predictable, but it was boring, too.
“When we got here I don’t think we had the depth of the personnel we have here now,” said offensive coordinator Dan Mullen. “We had a couple of good guys that could make plays and we guys who had to learn into and buy into our system. We never were completely healthy and by the time all our guys figured out what we were doing, the season was over. The second year we had guys who bought into what we were doing and they knew the offense. And we added some speed.”
The infusion of Harvin and the return of Caldwell took the pressure off Dallas Baker, who became Florida’s go-to receiver. Harvin and Caldwell commanded extra attention and with only one-on-one coverage most of the time, Baker caught 60 passes for 920 yards and 10 touchdowns.
“Like anything if one guy draws attention the more it takes from someone else,” said Mullen. “The more one-on-one matchups you get, the easier it is for all our other guys.”
In the evolution of the Florida spread option offense, Percy Harvin is the missing link. He has changed the way the Gators scheme their offense, everything from the way they run their pass routes to the way they block on the offensive line to the plays they call.
In terms of the way the Gators are defensed, his versatility forces teams to think twice about every personnel decision.
“The base of the offense is for us to find advantageous matchups,” said Mullen.
When Harvin, Rainey or James is in the game — and now that rotation can also include Demps, who recently broke the world record for 18 year olds in the 100 meters (10.01) — opponents have to be aware that where they line up doesn’t necessarily indicate what they might do. For example, Harvin can line up in the slot in a five-wide set but motion backward and become the tailback. Again, he can be in the slot and go in motion before the snap and suddenly he is the pitch man on the option. He can also run pass routes, anything from a go route that sends him streaking down the field or an underneath route that allows him to take a five-yard pass and turn it into a big gainer.
This is the dilemma for a defensive coordinator. A linebacker can help against the run but can’t cover Harvin, Rainey or James in the passing game. A corner can perhaps cover against the pass plays but he gives up plenty if it’s an off tackle or slant play from the tailback position.
Now compound the dilemma by having Harvin in the slot with Rainey at tailback. Imagine Harvin goes in motion … or he shifts to tailback and Rainey shifts to the slot. The combinations are as endless as the headaches they can create for a defensive coordinator.
“They need someone who can cover them in the pass game but they better have someone who can stop the run,” said Mullen. “Chris Rainey or Percy Harvin, if they line up as a tailback, the defense wants to have a linebacker in there to stop the run, but all of a sudden they motion out and they’re mismatches on those players in the pass game. For us, the more things you can do, the more valuable you are in the offense because we have a better chance of creating mismatches with you.”
The Meyer offense has always been designed to create balance between passing and running but only when Harvin arrived did the Gators have that X-factor. His combination of speed and versatility gave the Gators the ability to stretch the field both vertically and horizontally, which has always been the goal.
“We’re looking for balance — run and pass balance — and also we’re looking for the ability to work the whole field and make them cover the whole field horizontally and vertically,” said offensive line coach Steve Addazio. “The schemes that we have are designed run and pass to stretch the whole field and make them defend all areas of the field.”
In 2005, Meyer remembers looking down his list of plays and playmakers. He had plays galore. He was pretty much out of playmakers due to injuries. He added Harvin to the mix in 2006 and that certainly paid off with an improved offense that hung 41 points on the mighty Ohio State Buckeyes in the BCS National Championship Game in Arizona.
Harvin had 427 rushing yards and 428 pass receiving yards in 2006 but he was injured most of the season (high ankle sprain suffered against Tennessee). The games that are the tell-tale of his impact on the game are Florida State, Arkansas and Ohio State.
Against FSU, Harvin had 86 yards rushing and 86 receiving before he left the game with a concussion in the third quarter. He had a 41-yard touchdown run off a direct snap. In the SEC Championship Game against Arkansas a week later, Harvin was the MVP. He rushed for 105 yards and caught passes for 62. He had a 37-yard touchdown reception of a Chris Leak pass and a 67-yard touchdown run late in the game that sealed Florida’s win and berth in the national championship game. Against Ohio State he had 22 rushing yards on five carried (one touchdown) and nine receptions for 60 yards. The numbers only tell a little bit of his impact. Watch the tape and take a look at where the Ohio State safeties lined up — 30 yards off the ball. That was a testament to the healthy respect the Buckeyes had for Harvin. They weren’t about to let him get behind their safeties, so instead, the Gators went underneath and carved them up all night.
In 2007, Harvin’s numbers nearly doubled even though he struggled throughout the season with Achilles tendonitis as well as migraine headaches that forced him to miss the South Carolina and Florida Atlantic games altogether. Harvin finished the season with 83 carries for 764 yards (9.2 per carry; six touchdowns) and 59 catches for 858 yards (14.5 per catch; four touchdowns). He became the first player in Florida history to have a 100/100 game against Vanderbilt when he rushed for 113 yards and caught passes for 110. Against Tennessee, Harvin ran for 75 yards and caught passes for 120. Against FSU he had 157 rushing and 67 receiving and against Michigan in the Capital One Bowl, Harvin rushed for 165 yards and caught passes for 77.
For his career, Harvin has rushed the ball 124 times for 1,192 yards (9.6 per carry; nine touchdowns) and caught 93 passes for 1,285 yards (13.8 per catch; six touchdowns). That’s 2,417 yards of offense on 217 touches for 15 touchdowns and 11.4 yards every time he touches the ball.
Last season, Harvin was helped out by the addition of a few more playmakers into the offense. James, the nation’s most feared punt and kick returner, saw his role expand to become a hybrid back like Harvin, a role that will be further expanded this season.
Now the Gators add Rainey and Demps into the mix. Rainey has the fastest 40 time on the Gators (4.24) and he beat FSU legend and US Olympian Walter Dix head to head on the first leg of the 4X100 relay at the NCAA track championships. Rainey was the breakaway runner for three straight Lakeland state championship teams in high school. Demps is the fastest player in all of college football and the fastest 18-year-old the world has ever seen. He is a true freshman that Meyer says is going to see the field this year.
“Obviously I think Chris Rainey kind of falls into that a little bit and I’m hoping Jeff Demps, too,” said Meyer. “Demps has had an excellent four days so far. The concern was is he a track guy playing football? No, he’s a football player. He’s tough and he’s not as polished as those other guys yet but he will.”
That gives the Gators four true field stretchers that can slice and dice from outside, the slot or at tailback. They help an offense that is led by Heisman Trophy quarterback Tim Tebow and lightning fast wide receivers like Louis Murphy, 4.27 in the 40 and Florida’s best deep threat, and redshirt freshman Deonte Thompson, who has run 100 meters in 10.3 seconds.
Florida averaged a touchdown every other possession in 2007. That offense figures to be even better in 2008 with additions of more playmakers with world class speed to go with healthy measures of elusiveness. The Gators have a chance to put up some outrageous offensive numbers and the Florida offense figures to be as good as any in the nation.
That great offense has a chance to get the Gators to a national championship game. It is also acting like a magnet on the recruiting trail where fast, versatile players are letting Meyer know they want to play the “Percy position.”
“Has it helped us with recruiting?” Meyer asked rhetorically. “I think so.”
Has it helped with stretching opposing defenses and creating any number of mismatches all over the field?
“Any time you have players that can do a lot of things and do them with the kind of speed that a Percy Harvin brings, you force your opponent to reconsider how he defends you … everything from the personnel he’s got on the field to the number of linemen and linebackers to how many corners,” said Mullen. “You have to choose who to double and that means someone else has single coverage and perhaps a real mismatch.”
If it works like it’s supposed to this season, it could be called pick your poison.