Florida plays designed to showcase QB Tebow’s talents
For understandable reasons, most of the attention on Florida’s offense this season revolves around jumbo-sized quarterback Tim Tebow and the eye-popping numbers he has piled up in five games as the Gators starter.
As good as the 6-foot-2, 235-pound Tebow has been, though, it’s natural to wonder if the offense’s success is because of Tebow or is Tebow a star because of the offense?
The ninth-ranked Gators enter today’s showdown with No. 1 LSU (7:28 p.m., CBS) averaging 476.6 total yards a game, and Tebow accounts for 346 per contest himself.
“He’s a heck of a player and it’s a very well-thought out offense,” LSU defensive coordinator Bo Pelini said. “It gives you a lot of problems.
“He’s big, he can run and he throws the ball really well, but he also has very good guys around him. They’ve done a tremendous job of designing an offense that suits him. Him having those kinds of talents, that size and that ability wouldn’t do any good if the coaches didn’t design an offense that fit him.”
Custom-fitting an offense to a talented quarterback is nothing new to Gators coach Urban Meyer.
In his seven years as a head coach, Meyer has consistently had success with a wide range of quarterbacks.
At Bowling Green, Meyer had a big quarterback similar to Tebow in Josh Harris (6-3, 238). In three years as a starter, Harris passed for 7,503 yards and 55 touchdowns and rushed for 2,473 yards and 43 scores.
When Meyer got to Utah, he inherited Alex Smith. Two years later, Smith was the first pick in the 2005 NFL draft after he threw for 5,203 yards and 47 touchdowns.
Chris Leak was Florida’s starting QB in Meyer’s first two years, and was smaller (6-0, 207) than others who had flourished in Meyer’s system. Yet Chris Leak passed for 5,581 yards and 43 TDs his last two seasons, and more importantly, helped lead the Gators to the 2006 national championship.
“The first thing we look for is leadership and being a competitor,” Meyer said of the different quarterbacks he’s succeeded with. “We don’t have a set offense. It’s set based on the personnel we have.”
Still, the prevailing notion when Tebow signed with the Gators in 2006 was that he was Meyer’s handpicked trigger man, and the numbers Tebow has produced so far this season back that up.
He has thrown for 1,297 yards and 11 touchdowns and is Florida’s leading rusher with 433 yards. His eight rushing scores lead the SEC.
“With Tim back there, we do a lot more different things than we did with Chris Leak,” Florida center Drew Miller said. “We have to spread ball around and put in our playmaker’s hands because we have so many.
Added Gators receiver Andre Caldwell, “Tim is a lot better runner than Chris Leak was and because of that we can attack down the field a lot more. It helps us a lot that on every play, he’s got the ball in his hands is a threat to run. That opens up the passing game.”
But is Tebow a prototype for Meyer? Not necessarily.
Florida’s backup, Cameron Newton, is actually bigger than Tebow. But freshman John Brantley weighs in under 200 pounds and is considered more of a pro-style QB.
“I do like athletic quarterbacks,” Meyer said. “Are you going to find a 235-pound guy who is one of your best running backs and is competitive? No. There’s probably not many of those out there. So we try to adapt to the talents of our quarterback.”
That adaptation this season has resulted in more designed quarterback runs — probably more than Meyer would prefer. Tebow ran 27 times for 166 yards in a 30-24 triumph over Ole Miss, the most rushes by a Division I quarterback this season. That number shrank to 19 carries against Auburn last week, but Tebow still has 33 more totes than starting tailback Kestahn Moore.
“We’re trying to scale him back,” Meyer said. “A lot of those are not designed runs, but because of some injuries we have up front on our offensive line, some of those runs are reactions to either pressure or coverage pressure where we’re covered down the field and he’s trying to make something happen with his legs.”
Not that being an effective runner makes Tebow unique.
Both of LSU’s primary quarterbacks are dual threats, and Tigers fullback Jacob Hester said he thinks Matt Flynn or Ryan Perrilloux would fit well in Florida’s offense.
Matt Flynn said he doesn’t see Tebow as the model for the quarterback of the future and isn’t sold that offenses will always be able to rely on a QB who is the primary ball carrier.
“In most offenses, it’s not going to work to have a quarterback be the main runner and also be effective throwing the ball,” he said.
For now, though, the Florida system is working. Tebow has completed eight pass plays of 40 yards or more — the Gators had five all of last season — and is holding up to the beating he’s absorbed.
As Tebow evolves, Pelini thinks the Gators will only become more dangerous. One thing leads to another and vice versa.
“You always see aspects of this kind of offense,” Pelini said. “It’s unique that a guy can take the beating he’s taken and still hold up. The offense has a lot of great features to it and you’ve got to have the right guy at the (quarterback) position and guys like him don’t come around every day.”
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