Analyzing Brent Pease past year one

Florida Gators offensive coordinator Brent Pease enters his second year in command of the Florida offense and many Gator fans are expecting big things.

After have the 104th best offense in the country last season, many Gators were frustrated with the play of the Gators offense, especially with some of the play calling. Some fans said that Brent Pease did not have the tools to work with to be a successful offensive coordinator in 2012, while some looked at his past history and wondered if Brent Pease was really the right man for the job. Ultimately, it was too soon to judge.

George Santayana famously stated, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

While the following analysis is not proof of, really anything, it does show the past history. Brent Pease really only has one direction but up from the 103rd ranked offense, but what does history say?

A quick timeline of Brent Pease’s coaching career is below:

2012-13- Florida (Offensive Coordinator)

2011 – Boise State (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)

2007-10 – Boise State (Assistant Head Coach/Wide Receivers)

2006 – Boise State (Wide Receivers)

2003-05 – Baylor (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)

2001-02 – Kentucky (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)

1999-2000 – Northern Arizona (Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)

1996-98 – Montana (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)

1995-98- Montana (Offensive Backs/Wide Receivers)

1991-94 – Montana (Running Backs/Wide Receivers)

For this analysis, we are only going to look from 2001 to present. It is unreasonable to look back to his FCS days and they do not help clear up, an already nebulous subject.

Brent Pease’s FBS offensive coordinator days started at Kentucky, a rather poor team, but had Jared Lorenzen at the quarterback position, so not totally a train wreck. During his first season, Kentucky averaged 23.55 points per game, good for 80th nationally, with a passing attack that ranked 19th and rushing attack that ranked 100th, good for a total offensive ranking of 56th. Not too bad. In Pease’s second season, still with Lorenzen, the team struggled. While their points per game went up to 32.08 per game, good for 23rd in the country, his total offense dropped to 87th overall, with a 70th ranked passing attack and 57th ranked rushing attack. Not a horrible dip necessarily, with only a 35 yard per game drop in total offense. However, Kentucky was expected to be more potent with an experienced Jared Lorenzen and Shane Boyd, a more experienced wide receiving group, five returning starters on the offensive line, and a more potent backfield.

After the 2002 season, Pease took his talents over to Waco, TX. Baylor was a struggling team and had hired Gus Morriss from Kentucky to be their new Head Coach. Baylor had not had a winning season since 1995 and not much was expected. As anticipated, under Morriss and Pease, Baylor struggled in year one, ranking 110th in points per game (15.92) with the 114th ranked offense. Pease struggled in year two, ranking 100th in scoring, 102nd in total offense, although their passing attack improved from 98th to 61st. In 2005, Pease again failed to muster much at Baylor, ranking 91st in total scoring and 97th in total offense. One could argue that Baylor was not a good team and did not have the talent, and that certainly merits some warrant, but still over three years Baylor failed to be ranked higher than 91st in total scoring or 97th in total offense.

Those numbers led Pease to take a step down and become the wide receivers coach at the offensive juggernaut, Boise State University. Pease spent five seasons as the wide receivers coach and took over the reigns of the offense in 2011 from Bryan Harsin. While Pease was listed as the offensive coordinator, ultimately it was head coach Chris Petersen’s offensive system, in place since 2001 when Petersen was the offensive coordinator. Led by one of the most prolific passers in FBS history (Kellen Moore), Pease’s offense ranked 5th in the country in scoring and 10th in total offense. Comparatively, Boise State ranked 2nd in the country and 2nd in total offense the previous season.

Looking at his time at Florida, Pease has struggled. Pease did improve the Gators offense from 105th in the country in 2011, to 104th in 2012, but the scoring offense dropped from 71st to 78th overall. All in all, there is not much difference in the numbers from 2011 to 2012, although at times it did look a bit more intact.

None of this is to say that Brent Pease cannot be successful, but there is some truth in numbers. The pressure is on Brent Pease next season to have the Gators firing on all cylinders under second year starter Jeff Driskel and a vastly improved offensive line. We know that Will Muschamp and Jeremy Foley have enough faith in Pease to give him a $100,000 raise, but if the offense does not improve in 2013, is it a pattern or a result of a lack of offensive playmakers? You decide.

Daniel Thompson
Dan Thompson is a 2010 graduate of the University Florida, graduating with a degree in Economics and a degree in Political Science. During this time at UF, Dan worked three years for the Florida Gator Football team as a recruiting ambassador. Dan dealt daily with prospects, NCAA guidelines, and coaching staff. Dan was also involved in Florida Blue Key, Student Government and Greek Life. Currently, Dan oversees the IT consulting practice of a Tampa-based company. Dan enjoys golfing, country music, bourbon, travel, oysters, and a medium-rare steak. Dan can be found on Twitter at @DK_Thompson.

1 COMMENT

  1. A nice piece Dan and a fair question to end it with. I’m sick of the “not enough talent at WR….or…..the cupboard was bare” comments from others. We have had very good to stellar recruiting classes over the last 4-5 years and there are simply no excuses anymore. I gave Muschamp a pass in year 1 because he was new……then he came back and exceeded what I thought we would do in year 2 with a very impressive defensive. If our offense sucks again this year, with all the talent we’ve recruited then it falls on leadership.