GAINESVILLE, Fla.-- Calling plays in football entails way more than looking at a sheet and reading off some mumbo-jumbo.
Rather, play-calling is a science. It requires following patterns, scheming mismatches, and building chemistry with the players and coaches around the team.
For Florida Gators head coach Dan Mullen, coaching chemistry is the most important factor in the equation.
“We're pretty fortunate to have guys that have been around each other for a long time,” Mullen stated at media day in response to what goes through his head when calling plays.
Mullen has maintained a relatively consistent staff over the years, as offensive line coach John Hevesy further noted.
“In 25 years of being [coaches], 19 we [Mullen and Hevesy] have been together, in some form or some way,” Hevesy stated. “There’s new guys that come into the room offensively, [but] we didn’t lose anybody this year... so it's kind of one of those things.”
Hevesy said that quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson has been on the team going on 15 years - both as a player and a coach; wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales is heading into his 15th season on Mullen’s staff; while running backs coach Greg Knox is entering his 11th.
“Probably the hardest for those guys is that we'll say, ‘Hey, remember 2006 we did this,’" said Hevesy. "And four guys in the room… write it down and go on.' And [second year tight ends coach] Larry [Scott] is looking around going, ‘Well, I have no idea what they're talking about.’ So you always have to remember to go back and tell him, listen, ‘Okay, get it on film and show him.”
With the comfort of a very consistent coaching staff, Mullen trusts his team to step in and make play calls based on how they assess the situation - no questions asked.
"I remember, I think the bowl game," Mullen recalled, "...on fourth and one and we run the jet sweep to [wide receiver Kadarius] Toney, that was Brian Johnson [who] called that play. And John Hevesy and Billy Gonzalez will call plays saying, "Hey, we have them set up for this right now." Great, call it."
With 22 players on the field at all times, each coach gets an area to analyze matchups from, based on their position. Each coach relays their analysis through the headset in order to game-plan on the spot.
Hevesy laid out that ground work:
"Everyone sees something different, and on the game day we're looking at different things," confirmed the offensive line coach." So there's different things that maybe I'll say, let's do it. Brian is looking at, maybe more at the perimeter, Larry is looking at the tight edge. Billy's looking at the perimeter, 'Hey, take that shot, we can beat the corner, they substituted a corner or the safety is out, take a shot now. We can win one-on-one with [wide receivers] Van [Jefferson] or Tyrie [Cleveland],' or one of those deals."
That level of communication and field responsibility is what makes the staff mesh so well, and gives Mullen the comfort of spreading out the offense's play calling.
"I mean I think we have five guys on our offensive staff that would be pretty comfortable calling the game," Mullen pronounced.
"When you have that and when you have those guys that have worked together and know the offense that well, and that are comfortable around each other, it's really easy to make those inputs, not just between series with what we're going to call but in the middle of a series if they think we have something... they're going to step up and say, 'We should run this right now.' I think that that helps us within our play calling."
