The differences in the 2008 and 2009 Florida Gators offenses have been dissected for months now. The 2009 Gators are taking longer and scoring less than the 2008 Gators who became college football’s version of Gen. George Patton’s Third Army.
Offensive coordinator Steve Addazio sees the differences and embraces them.
“This is a different team with a different identity,” Addazio said after Tuesday’s practice. “That’s not necessarily a bad thing. There are things we need to clean up, like red zone production. But to say this year’s team is last year’s team or last year’s team is the 2006 team, it’s hard to do. It’s a different deal. I hear that a lot, and you’ve got to accentuate who your guys are. We’re a good rushing team because we’ve got really good backs. Hernandez, Cooper and Demps have a tremendous amount of explosives.
“When your backs become your guys, they take on a different life. Percy Harvin is a different life. He’s going to run by somebody and it could be an 80-yard deal. At the end of the day, you’re fighting to make sure you have the best play within your structure. You want to be comfortable in your skin. What does that mean? We’ve got a pretty good run game. It’s the number one run offense in this conference right now. How do we find ways to keep that at a high level?”
The departure of Louis Murphy and Harvin to the NFL didn’t only take two of Florida’s most potent playmakers away. It also changed the dynamic of the offense. With Harvin in the slot and Murphy split out wide last season, the Gators had the playmaking ability at wide receiver to move the football quickly down the field.
Their departure leaves some of Florida’s key playmakers at the running back position. Jeff Demps, Chris Rainey and Emmanuel Moody have proven this season to have the ability to create explosive plays (defined by the Florida staff as a play over 20 yards) anytime they touch the football. That is what has changed the Florida offense this season. They simply have too much talent in the backfield to throw the ball more than what keeps the defense honest.
The Florida coaches will maintain their continued desire for offensive balance. But with that comes having to take the ball out of the hands of the running backs, giving less touches to the most explosive players on offense.
“We’re striving for more balance now,” Addazio said. “That means less touches (for running backs). The amount of touches is less and now you’re dividing them three ways. In one breath it’s ‘throw, throw, balance, balance’ and in the next breath it’s ‘where are the runs?’ It’s all in there. There is a reason why statistically we’re pretty good in every category in the conference.”
It may surprise those who follow Florida football, but the offense is actually just as explosive this season as it was through nine games in 2008. The only reason it doesn’t seem like it on the field is because it has come in a different way.
So far this season, the Gators have had 25 rushes of 20 yards or more. Through nine games in 2008, the Gators only had 15 rushes of 20 yards or more.
The statistics aren’t the same in the passing game, but they’re a lot closer than most would imagine. Through nine games this season, the Florida offense has only three fewer receptions of 20 or more yards than in 2008. They do, however, have the same amount of touchdown receptions over 20 yards.
The perception is not always reality.
So what is the difference in the offense this year? Last year, playmakers such as Harvin and Murphy had the ability to go the distance every time they touched the football. Sometimes they did just that. The plays of 20 yards or more during the 2008 season had a much higher average because of the long gains those playmakers brought to the table.
This season, the Gators’ big plays are just falling short. Whether it’s a missed block or a misread, something seemingly always goes wrong to avoid the ball carrier from breaking a long touchdown run or catch.
“We did a study on big plays, and we’re exactly where we were one year ago with big plays,” Addazio said. “You wouldn’t think that, would you? Me either. It’s a very deceptive deal right now. There are a lot of big plays happening. It’s a really negligible difference (from last year), but you’re feeling like we’re not having as many big plays. The appearance is we had more big play strikes a year ago. We didn’t have more big plays (last year), but we might have had longer ones. With Percy (Harvin) and (Louis) Murphy, we had a few of those extended ones that might have gone 80 (yards). Those things create momentum and they pop games. That’s what we haven’t been able to do.”
The key for Addazio and the offensive staff actually comes on the defensive side of the ball. Florida’s 11 Strong (as in defensive coordinator Charlie Strong) ranks second in the country in total defense (232.4 yards per game allowed), second in passing defense (134 yards per game) and number one in pass efficiency defense (85.86 rating allowed).
It’s a defense that allows the Florida staff to hold their cards close to the vest, not calling any plays that might risk a turnover because that risk isn’t necessary. If the offense stalls, they are content to hand the ball to punter Chas Henry and the eighth-ranked net punting unit in the country (40 yards per punt) to pin the other team deep and force them to go the length of the field against the defense.
Going along with the great running game comes a huge advantage in time of possession. The Gators rank 11th in the country in time of possession, averaging 32:46 per game this season. When the other team doesn’t have the ball, the chances of the other team scoring are much, much fewer.
“What I love about what we’re doing now is we have great time of possession,” Addazio said. “That feeds directly in with great defense. We drive the ball and hold the ball. That’s a good thing. When you score compare, we drove more effectively this year against Georgia than last year. We just happened to have the ball in short field and made a couple big plays a year ago. Does anybody want to talk about time of possession? I know it’s boring. But guess what time of possession means? The other guys aren’t on the field as much. We’ve got a great defense. These are all positives. There’s a reason we’re 9-0. We just didn’t fall off the pickle boat and all of a sudden show up 9-0. We’re 19-0 (over two years) because we’ve done a good job of managing our people. If you try to be someone you’re not, sometimes that fails. You’ve got to be careful.”
Grinding out games in the SEC is something the Florida staff will gladly do if it guarantees victory. The talk before the Tennessee game earlier in the year was about a Florida offense that was destined to blow the Volunteers out of the stadium, but the Florida coaches didn’t buy the hype. The risk wasn’t worth the reward.
A few games later, the Gators stumbled into Baton Rouge with a quarterback fresh off a concussion. Instead of trying to outscore the Bayou Bengals, the Gators managed the clock and came out victorious.
“We went into the Tennessee game with that mindset,” Addazio said. “I know people don’t want to hear that, but that’s OK. We beat LSU at LSU with that mindset. How many wins did they have in a row in that stadium? (32) People talk about comparing it to LSU a year ago, but we didn’t play LSU a year ago at LSU. At LSU, what we did was work hand-in-hand with our defense. We controlled the clock. Charlie (Strong) said (the LSU offense) ran 47 plays at LSU, but nobody talked about that. That was a big event. We have a great defense and a coaching staff that has really gelled well together.
“We have one objective,” Addazio said as he drew a W with his finger. “Win. Along the way, don’t stick your head in the sand. If you’ve got a problem, fix the problem.”
It’s all a part of Urban Meyer’s Plan to Win. Play great defense, control the clock and win the field-position and special-teams battles. It’s not the glamorous offense that some fans desire, and it’s not the team that is going to blow SEC teams out.
But it is a team that is winning and undefeated. They’re doing it with a style that shouldn’t seem so new to Florida fans after the 2006 team, and it’s working as it works to get better.