After months of preparation and watching film on how to use it, the Florida offense broke out a no-huddle, hurry-up offense Saturday night in the 2009 season opener against Charleston Southern in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
There are still kinks to work out and more plays to put in, but Gators wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales liked what he saw in a 62-3 victory over the Buccaneers. The Gators totaled 624 yards in total offense, 369 on the ground and 255 through the air.
“It’s extremely up-tempo,” Gonzales said. “You have to practice it because if you don’t, it can cause consternation for yourself. We used it the other day, and the best snap was when the defense had 13 men on the field. They didn’t call a penalty, but they had two guys running off, the chains hadn’t got set yet and the first-down marker hadn’t got set yet. That’s the tempo we want. We want to put pressure on them.”
That tempo doesn’t come without long hours of work to make sure the finite details of the offense were in stride.
Whenever the Gators used it Saturday night, it was to their advantage. It found the Charleston Southern defense off-balance and unsettled before the snap. After a first quarter 68-yard reception by Riley Cooper that put the Florida offense down to the Charleston Southern eight-yard line, the Gators rushed to the line of scrimmage and caught the defense off-guard, allowing Jeff Demps to scamper into the end zone for the first touchdown of the season.
But Gonzales hesitates to say it will be the focal point of the Florida offense. Oklahoma used the hurry-up offense as much as possible last season, but the Gators only plan to use it where they see fit.
“I think it’s a little of both,” Gonzales said. “The biggest thing is we want to make it part of our offense. Oklahoma did a good job against us last year using it and we watched a lot of their film. We’ve watched a lot of teams that used that type of no-huddle package in certain situations. We stressed that it’s our offense. It’s what we do. In order to be good at it, we have to go full speed with it.”
The starting four wide receivers for Florida are pretty well set in stone. Seniors Riley Cooper, Brandon James and David Nelson line up next to redshirt sophomore Deonte Thompson to give Gonzales a corps that is consistent. It may be missing the superstar player who is the quality of Percy Harvin or Louis Murphy, but the starting four players offer consistency across the board. Junior tight end Aaron Hernandez also gives the Gators a reliable pass catcher.
Behind them, it gets dicey. There are three redshirt freshmen that watched last season from the sidelines. Frankie Hammond, Omarius Hines and TJ Lawrence weren’t counted on much last season because the bulk of the receptions went to Murphy or Harvin and Cooper and Nelson.
But the three redshirt freshmen know they are one injury away from having to battle for a starting position. The scary thing is that they played their first collegiate down on Saturday night. The depth may not be at the wide receiver position right now like it has in the past, but the talent surely is.
“(They have) a lot of mistakes right now,” Gonzales said about his second-team wide receivers. “The biggest thing is I want them to execute. I reviewed with one of my players today who didn’t grade out a winner, but I put his film on and said, ‘Listen, I want to compare you to Riley, David (Nelson), Brandon (James) and Deonte (Thompson).’ I said that either his play is the exact same or it’s not good enough. We’ve got a standard. We set the bar up here and that’s the standard. If it’s not happening, then you need to change what you do to get to that level. It wasn’t so much mistakes as it was the finished product at the end of the play.”
While the trio of redshirt freshmen learn the ins and outs of being a contributing wide receiver in the SEC, they have leaders in the upper classes to teach them.
Everyone affiliated with the Florida program couldn’t be happer with the return of Cooper. If he had only signed with the Texas Rangers instead of negotiating a clause that allowed him to play his senior football season in Gainesville, the question marks at wide receiver would be even deeper. Cooper gives the position a player who has been effective on the big stage. James has been a kick returner for most of his career and now is becoming a large part of the offense as a senior. Nelson only emerged halfway through last season as a consistent player, and Thompson showed flashes last season but still hasn’t shown the consistency of performing at the SEC level.
Cooper is the one who has done it on the big stage. He caught the game-clinching pass of the SEC Championship Game last December on a critical third-down play. He torched Tennessee back in 2007 for a 30-yard reception that started the blowout. Cooper has made the big catches at key moments throughout his career.
After five catches for 105 yards Saturday, Cooper may have emerged as the Gators’ top receiving threat.
“He’s as fast as any of the guys,” Gonzales said. “He may not be too quick out of the box, but I always tell our guys that I’ll take Coop in a 60 (yard sprint). He’s one of those strong runners. He gets faster the farther the distance that he goes. He can move and has always been one of the fastest guys on the team. The biggest thing for Coop is that Coop plays fast. Coop had a hell of a game … I mean a hell of a game for me this week. I was really excited to see him out there and watch him run around.”
It’s more than Cooper’s ability to stretch the field that makes him a fan favorite. It’s his tenacity when blocking a defender.
That was no more evident than Saturday night. During James’ first kickoff return of the season, Cooper made a key block to spring him, and then Cooper turned on the jets to catch James racing down the sideline to keep him untouched on his way into the end zone. The persistency of his blocking is something that has been developed since Cooper got to campus, but his relentless attitude has always been there.
“He brings a certain element,” Gonzales said. “He lost his helmet and was still blocking down the field. That’s something you can not replace. The kickoff return he came through for Brandon (James). He hit a guy and actually came up and almost passed (James). I made fun of (James) saying, “Hey, he’s faster than you.” He passed him up. He just brings a certain attitude with him that’s essential to this team.”
The key disappointment in the play of the wide receivers came in a drop by Thompson. He was streaking down the middle of the field with three yards between himself and the closest defender when Tim Tebow dropped in a perfect throw over his shoulder. The ball hit off Thompson’s left hand and was bobbled a few more times before it hit the ground, wasting a sure touchdown.
The frustration in Thompson was evident as he jogged back to the sideline. He was ready to show up as the next big receiving target in Gainesville and blew his first opportunity to announce his arrival.
“I was disappointed,” Gonzales said. “I visited with him and DT was disappointed in himself. That’s the biggest thing. We’re not going to scream, rant and rave over it. He knows as well as I do that he has to make those plays if we’re going to be successful. We’re going to be playing against some teams where we’re going to need that play to win the game. Alabama I go back to Louis Murphy. He got singled up on the perimeter and had one-on-one coverage and it was the same kind of route. That was as key to that game as there was.”
Gonzales noted that he stayed after practice with Thompson on Sunday night to get extra repetitions and work in on making those receptions on deeper routes. Thompson and the rest certainly have done their share blocking.