Change is coming to Gators offense
The Florida Gators 2020 offense was prolific. It was high flying with Kyle Trask throwing for more yards in a single season than any other quarterback in school history. It was fun. There was a seemingly unending supply of yards and points but all good things come to an end.
Kyle Trask is in California working towards the NFL and Florida's Pro Day. Kyle Pitts, Trevon Grimes, Kadarius Toney, and several other key parts that made the offense go are gone as well. It's now up to Dan Mullen to figure out how to keep the ball rolling in Gainesville without some of his best players.
That job seems hard because it is but Mullen has the track record that should put fans at ease. When Feleipe Franks went down in 2019 the Gators were forced to go with Trask, who didn't have the same mobility as Franks. That meant scrapping large parts of the playbook and adding in new things on the fly. Then, without a true offseason, Mullen and the staff put together an offense that was focused around what Trask did well.
"We’re a very quarterback-based offense. We put a lot on our quarterbacks here," Mullen said. "There are some that really don’t really put as much on the quarterback. So it’s not as critical as maybe for some systems as others. Ours, it is because we put an awful lot on the quarterback, so you gotta be ready."
That meant, at least in some part, abandoning the running game. In 2021, with Emory Jones set to take over, the process of building an offense around a new quarterback begins. Jones is an electric, athletic quarterback. He can make plays with his feet that you just can't teach to a player. He can extend plays, he can run designed plays that Florida simply wouldn't have called in 2020. His athletic ability has somewhat outshined his passing ability, which is a notion quickly dismissed by Mullen.
"He's got a cannon for an arm. I mean he's got a cannon for an arm, so I don't know who would say that, I guess," Mullen said when told about the perception that Jones isn't a great passer. "Maybe there's somebody out at practice, watching practice that's more expertise at quarterback than me that's letting you know those things, but I'm pretty confident in what he can do."
The work this spring is to find out what Jones runs well within Florida's playbook. It's not all about Jones, the Gators need to figure out how to run an efficient offense with Jones and the pieces around him, but as Mullen said, it's all about the quarterback in his offense.
A quick look at the Gators' offense in 2021 shows a bevy of running backs all more than capable of breaking out and a quarterback that can really compliment the talent in the running back room.
"With Emory you open up the offense more, you have more options, you have more opportunities to make more plays down the field and that's one thing I'm very excited to get back to," running back Dameon Pierce said. "With complimenting the run game, it's gonna do nothing but...they gonna complement each other. You know, the run game, we gonna come off Emory. If they play Emory, he gonna give us the ball."
Mullen is coy when speaking about the offense. In spring football the coaching staff will install more plays and schemes than they'll ever use in the fall. It's all about finding what works, working on those things, and ditching the rest. If you read between the lines, however, Florida should have a more balanced attack and a true dual-threat at quarterback in 2020.