FILM ROOM: McElwain Reclaimation Project Continues

Part 5

Like most Florida Gators fans, I expected a hard fought, competitive game with the Rebels. I thought we matched up well with them with the exception of our offensive line against their defensive line. A 38-10 drubbing of a legitimately good Ole Miss Rebels team was about the furthest thing from what I would have imagined. What was fully evident after watching the film was a coach in Hugh Freeze who perhaps expected to come in and win on talent alone, and another in Jim McElwain who had a clear plan to put his players in a position to win. The former ran the same plays they had been running all year with few wrinkles and the clear expectation that they would just work due to a talent disparity. The latter used formations and personnel packages to put his players in the best possible position to succeed, hiding the Gators’ weaknesses and giving his quarterbacks answers with playmakers.

Indeed, Jim McElwain was quoted as saying that his quarterbacks have “been given the answer.” Looking at how quarterback Will Grier played against Ole Miss, that couldn’t be more patently obvious. Grier’s dump off to Brandon Powell on a shallow cross leading to a long 2nd quarter touchdown was perhaps the prime example as Grier anticipated and picked up Ole Miss’ safety blitz and took advantage of Mac and Nuss’ built-in hot route in the pattern with the shallow. Credit to Powell for also recognizing the blitz and getting his head around and looking for the ball in a hurry. Let’s take a look at how it developed.

Grier did a really nice job of being decisive, reading up the blitz, and immediately understanding how it fit in with the pattern the staff had called. He scrapped his progression and looked to the correct outlet receiver and got the ball out on time in a location that Powell could do something with it. Powell did the rest, slipping a couple of defenders and beating everyone to the end zone, showing that big plays don’t always come off of deep balls and max protection, but often from a well-placed, on time ball given to a playmaker, something that has been sorely lacking the last few years.

Also of note is that this was another play from the John L. Smith/Petrino coaching tree. Take a look below from Petrino’s 2005 Louisville Playbook, called Derby Right Cross, with the outside receivers running bench routes and the tight end and slot receivers running a high/low on the linebackers. Normally the progression would be to pick a side and look at the out first, then read high to low, with the shallow clearing for the dig in zone and the shallow coming open against man. Again, though, with the hot read the progression is scrapped.

filmroom100815

Another notable from the game against Ole Miss was Jim McElwain’s use of highly effective play action on a couple of daggers to DeMarcus Robinson and Jake McGee. Going back to his time at Alabama, Coach Mac’s offense was at its most effective when the running game was effective on early downs leading to play action calls that would produce big gains and touchdowns. We saw two such effective uses against Ole Miss on the Gators’ first two scoring drives.

The first was the scoring strike to Robinson on the second drive of the game. Coach Mac called this play out of a formation and motion that the Gators have typically run well out of, and obviously would have been seen on film by Ole Miss. Ole Miss was rolling their nickel coverage towards Robinson, showing a zone look that put someone both over and under him with safety help over the top. None of that mattered, though, as all that help was neutralized by the play action.

It’s also worth pointing out how well coached Will Grier is at running this play. He completely sells the fake, but gets his head around as quickly as possible and spots his key, the free safety. Noting the Safety is headed the wrong direction and (due to freezing on the play action) way too shallow to cover Robinson’s post effectively, Grier lets it fly for the TD.

Note also in that play how Kelvin Taylor has stepped up in protection. With a 4 man slide protection to the right side of the line and a man protection on the defensive end to the left side, Kelvin is tasked with picking up the first thing that comes through the left side B-gap. That happens to be the blitzing middle linebacker and Taylor completely stands him up. That kind of play will get you noticed at the next level, and it is just one more piece of evidence of Coach McElwain’s reclaimation of this team into a cohesive and accountable unit.

Tom Furland
Tom Furland holds a BSBA in Decision and Information Sciences and an MBA from the University of Florida and is still proud to say it is the only school he has ever applied to. A lifelong Gator fan and a long-time X’s and O’s junkie, Tom got his start with Gator Country back in 2008. Tom then moved on to the now-defunct Gator Gurus along with David “PD” Parker, where Tom quickly became known as one of the foremost technical experts in the Gator Football community. After taking some time away from writing to complete grad school, Tom is proud to be back at Gator Country and bringing you the best Gator-centric X’s and O’s on the web.