The Florida Gators enter their final game of the season this Saturday with the nation’s 111th ranked offense, averaging only 19.9 points-per-game. Compare that the No. 2 ranked Florida State Seminoles, who are averaging 55.2 points per game, the only team in the country to have scored more than 600 points this season.
Florida and Florida State players and fans grow up around each other and watching Florida State have so much success this season has served the purpose of rubbing the collective nose of the Gator Nation in the ground as their offense continues to sputter.
An offense that sputters all too often is why offensive coordinator Brent Pease is the subject of more negative than positive conversations. Does Pease deserve to keep his job? Can he be the person to fix what appears to be a broken offense?
When asked if he believed he would return to Florida next season Pease came off as a guy who knew what his fate would be and one that had come to terms with that.
“I mean, I would hope so,” Pease said. “But I mean, I’ll kind of direct that at that time later on after this game.”
He still believes that he’s the man for the job and that he deserves an opportunity to be at Florida.
“I think, you know, you look at the first year and some of the situations and knowing the body of work and not just one, a game-to-game basis and situations we’ve been under,” he said. “I hope any evaluations are looked at that way. But, you know, I understand things, too. It’s not like, I know you’ve got to win and have success. If it’s not meant to be … I came into this with friends, and I’m walking out of it with friends.”
It’s those relationships that he has with the coaching staff at Florida that led him to Gainesville. It wasn’t too long ago when Pease was the hot coaching name in the offseason and had both Nick Saban and Muschamp trying to procure his services. Pease chose Florida and while he occasionally thinks back to that decision, it’s not one that he would change.
“I mean, yeah you think about it, but you look back on it and I know why I came here,” Pease said. “And I know what sold me on the fact. So you can’t look back at something like that. I mean, that’s a situation of what if. And I still did the right thing for me and my family and the reasons I did it. And you’ve got to continue to go from there and build.”
Asked if he felt like he was being used as a scapegoat for the struggles this season Pease replied, “I don’t know. That’s a tough question to answer.
“I mean, right now I’d say no. I mean, you can always address that question later.”
Pease can address that question later but it may not be as a member of Florida’s coaching staff.