Johnny Brantley had that look of a gunslinger Saturday morning. Even behind a patchwork offensive line that sometimes leaked, he had that cool, confident demeanor of a quarterback in complete command. Not only did he make the right decisions but he also made all the right throws.
“Johnny Brantley had his best day as a Gator,” Florida coach Urban Meyer said after a scrimmage in which Brantley hooked up with Carl Moore and Deonte Thompson for touchdowns and also hit Thompson with a 60-yard pass play.
Meyer described Brantley as “on fire” and that was a welcome sight after a week of practice in which the offense has struggled against the defense. Saturday, Meyer rested some of his key defensive players such as All-America middle linebacker Brandon Spikes, defensive end Carlos Dunlap and safety Ahmad Black and he let Brantley handle the bulk of the quarterbacking while Tim Tebow watched.
Brantley was at his best when he was looking downfield and finding Moore and Thompson, who both had their best practices of the spring.
“The offense has been non-functional … dead in the water like it was our first year for about four games when we didn’t have a playmaker at receiver,” Meyer said.
Moore got behind Adrian Bushell to catch a 35-yard touchdown pass from Brantley and Thompson caught a 25-yard touchdown pass from Brantley, outleaping Markihe Anderson for the ball.
It was the second straight practice that Moore has been a dependable playmaker. He ran good routes and got separation from the defenders. For Thompson, it was his first practice since tweaking a hamstring last Saturday. He looked fluid running his routes and even ran a couple of plays that Percy Harvin used to run, moving from the slot to the backfield where he took a handoff and ran a jet sweep.
Meyer said he’s starting to get confidence in Moore, who had 14 catches and one touchdown last year.
“I need to get more confidence in him,” Meyer said. “There’s only one way to get it and he made some plays today. Same with Deonte.”
It was also a big day for tailback Chris Rainey, who had three scoring runs, all behind right tackle Carl Johnson.
“I call Carl Johnson ‘The Beast’ because he’s so big and he just knocks people off the ball,” Rainey said.
But the day belonged to Brantley.
“Today he looked like a Florida quarterback,” Meyer said. “I was impressed.”
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While Meyer was impressed with the offense coming to life, he was less than impressed with the way the defense played. It was obvious that the Gators were missing Spikes in the middle and the defensive line play was erratic at best without Dunlap to provide constant pressure.
“Defensively we kept some guys out,” Meyer said. “I’m not pleased with the backups and not pleased with some of the guys who’ve been here that don’t play. You take some out of the guys didn’t scrimmage very much and you could see the dropoff.”
Early on, nose tackle Omar Hunter got pressure on both Tebow and Brantley, splitting double teams, but later in the practice when Hunter got tired, his play dropped off, causing defensive line coach Dan McCarney to get in his face.
“You gotta think if you’re gonna play this game!” McCarney shouted at Hunter. “You’re better than that. Make plays! Now get in there and do what you’re supposed to do!”
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Joe Haden and Janoris Jenkins are Florida’s top two corners, but Meyer has confidence in his backups. The Gators will have quality depth in the fall, something they haven’t had the past four years.
“The good thing is we’re developing depth,” Meyer said. “(Adrian) Bushell has impressed a lot of the coaches. He got burned out here a couple of times today. The guy that might be as good as all of them is Jeremy Brown. He hasn’t practiced but we’re getting a little depth at corner but the problem is we lose some next year, too. We lose Wondy (Pierre-Louis) and Markihe (Anderson).”
Both Pierre-Louis and Anderson have had solid springs and both have worked in the nickel and dime packages.
Meyer hopes that Brown, who has missed the spring with disc problems in his back, will return for some practices next week.
“I’m hoping next week,” Meyer said. “They did some new treatments for him but it’s been positive. We just have to get him back.”
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With T.J. Pridemore sidelined with a concussion, both Steve Wilks and Rick Burgess turned in good scrimmages from the fullback position. Wilks caught six passes, including one that he turned into a 25-30-yard gain, while Burgess might have had the hit of the day when he lowered his shoulder and ran over Miguel Carodine. Burgess gained another 8-10 yards after the hit.
“Fullbacks are getting better,” Meyer said. “Brian White’s doing a fine job with those guys.”
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With the emergence of Moore and Thompson as consistent playmakers, the Gators will have a solid group of five receivers when two-a-days begin in August. Meyer has confidence in his five first tier guys but he’s still hoping to find some backups.
“Our first tier receivers right now are going to be Riley Cooper, David Nelson, Deonte, Carl (Moore) and Aaron Hernandez,” Meyer said. “Behind them, who’s the next tier? I’m not sure. Frankie Hammond is the next one right now.”
Of the second group of receivers, redshirt freshman Frankie Hammond has had some very good days this spring while T.J. Lawrence had a couple of very good days before he was hurt Friday. Freshman tight end Desmond Parks is out the rest of the spring with a dislocated kneecap while redshirt freshman Omarius Hines has missed the entire spring with torn quad muscles in both legs.
Fourth year junior Justin Williams and third year sophomore Paul Wilson have begun making plays lately in practice, but Meyer said they have to do more and become more consistent.
“They both have the ability,” Meyer said. “They are good people. They just have to get better.”
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It was a day off for sophomore offensive lineman David Young, who spent the day watching from the sideline while leaning on crutches. Young, who had both kneecaps broken during his senior year in high school, doesn’t have a serious injury, just soreness in his kneecaps so he was held out as a precautionary measure.
With Young out, that opened the door for sophomore Matt Patchan to get extended action at left tackle with the second unit offensive line. Although Patchan has been injured much of the spring and his weight is below 270, he showed that he has the ability to pass protect Saturday and he was physical enough to be effective in the running game.
“He looked real good,” Meyer said. “It’s good to see him back. He’s still got a long way to go. He’s a tough guy. We’re counting on him to play a lot next year.”
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Meyer said that tailback Emmanuel Moody had two screws inserted into his broken hand on Thursday.
“He won’t practice Monday,” Meyer said. “Wednesday he’ll be ready to go.