Florida Gators X-factor lies with Powell & Massey

Coach Herman Boone, portrayed by Denzel Washington in Remember the Titans, taught us that offense doesn’t need to be complicated in order to be effective.

“I run six plays, split veer. It’s like Novocain. Just give it time, always works.”

Jim McElwain’s playbook won’t feature any split veer and it certainly has more than six plays but, at its core, the offense is simple. Where McElwain separates himself is how he uses window dressing in the way of motion, personnel groupings, formations, you name it.

“He tries to trick you with your eyes,” safety Nick Washington said. “He’ll have a guy in the slot and motion him over or he’ll line out the X and leave a big space for the slot to have a lot of room to work with.”

McElwain’s deception in the way he lines up, shifts and motions forces the defense to react, communicate and, McElwain hopes, play a tick slower because of it. All the while, Mac is just trying to get the ball into his best payer’s hands.

Alabama, 2010, no disrespect to Marquis Maze, but Julio Jones was a baller. Jones led the Tide with 78 catches more than double that of Maze. 2011 saw Maze double the receptions of the next closest receiver on Alabama’s roster and McElwain continued the trend with Rashard Higgins. As a freshman and sophomore, Higgins hauled in more than a quarter of all the receptions the Rams had. In 2013 alone, Higgins was responsible for 34% of the Rams’ receptions. Get the ball into the hands of your best players.

In 2016 McElwain will have the ability to take both of these philosophies and combine them with Dre Massey and Brandon Powell.

Powell as Massey have similar skill sets. Both are among the fastest on the team, even though Dre will claim the title of fastest on the team.

“I went to a camp at Alabama and a camp at Ole Miss,” Massey recalled. “I ran a 4.3 at Ole Miss and a 4.4 at Bama. That was like last summer.”

Both players’ have speed to burn and are a problem with the ball in their hands. Gator fans will recall Powell taking off with Ole Miss defenders and Ahmad Fulwood trailing, “If he’s even, he’s leaving.” But how do you get both of these players, so similar in skill set, on the field at the same time?

Powell, when healthy, has been a lightning rod. He averages 12.2 yards per catch and 8.3 yards per touch when factoring in his rushing yards and carries.

“[Massey] can run it, and with he and Brandon [Powell], a year ago we used Brandon before he kind of got dinged up in a lot of those multi-personnel things,” McElwain said. Now it gives us two guys that we can do a lot of things with now.”

Massey was a high school quarterback. He accounted for 11 touchdowns in a single game during his senior year. He’s also punted before, although Johnny Townsend shouldn’t have to worry about his job security there. McElwain is sure to mention Massey’s past position publically though? Why? More window-dressing or does he actually play to have Massey rear back and throw a pass this season? You don’t know, but every coach Florida faces this year will spend some amount of time during the week leading up to playing against Florida thinking about and preparing for the possibility.

Having Massey and Powell on the field at the same time gives McElwain an endless amount of possibilities from a schematic standpoint and should create headaches for opposing coaches in 2016.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC

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