Gator Gridiron
Roger Franklin Williams
In the first days of spring practice, as Gator fans continue to digest the dizzying changes to the Florida football program that have taken place over the past 4 to 16 months--
shocking resignations by the same Head Coach on 2 different occasions, the reconstructed, "Coach Meyer Lite" who came back to the program last season, the ugly, bizarre 3-headed QB monster that emerged from the Meyer-Addazio brain trust, the destruction of one time can't miss QB prospect John Brantley by the coaching staff, the dissapointing performance of the highly touted team last fall, the final, and in retrospect merciful, second resignation of CM, the out-of-left-field hiring of 39 year-old career assistant coach Will Muschamp as new Head Coach and the surprising hiring of respected NFL offensive mind/former Notre Dame Head Coach Charlie Weis to lead the Gator offense--
a sense of new found optimism seems to be emerging across Gator Nation.
A closer examination of the addition of Weis to lead the Gator offense inspires a more positive outlook for this Gator, and I suspect many others as well. First and most obvious in the tangible track record of success that Weis has had at all levels of coaching. While the 4 Super Bowl rings are an obvious tangible symbol of what Weis can do, the NFL Championships represent just the top of a long list of accomplishments for the new OC. The fact that, under Weis direction as OC of the New England Patriots, an unknown 6th round draft choice flourished into a QB who is now mentioned as one of the greatest of all-time (Tom Brady) is an excellent credential, even further accented by the fact that Matt Cassel, another unheralded signal caller who wasn't even a starter in college at USC, thrived under Weis' leadership as well as backup to Brady and last season as QB at Kansas City where Weis served as OC last season. Don't forget, also, that the offense at Notre Dame was consistently very good and was outstanding in Weis' first 2 years as HC; also that Weis QB Brady Quinn and WR Jeff Samardzija emerged as one of Notre Dames' all-time great passing combinations under Weis and that both of his starting QB's--Quinn and Jimmy Clausen--were high round NFL draft choices.
So after a couple of weeks of Spring a new look Gator offense is taking shape....a traditional, drop back. passing QB and a healthy stable of under utilized WR's are at the top of the depth chart, Jordan Reed has the look of a big-time receiving TE on the scale of Aaron Hernandez/Ben Troupe/C I Ingram and the guy drawing up schemes and dialing up the ball plays is one of the top, if not THE top, offensive coordinator in the game today. All which are indicators of a brighter, more familiar Gator offense for 2011.
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