GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- A quarterback throwing for 300 yards used to be a regular occurrence at Florida.
It started when Steve Spurrier arrived in 1990 and it continued with Ron Zook and Urban Meyer. Quarterbacks surpassed the 300-yard mark 71 times under those three coaches, including a school-record 17 by Rex Grossman.
Tim Tebow did it five times and his final game is the best in school history: 482 yards in the Gators’ 51-24 victory over Cincinnati in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1, 2010.
Since then, however, Gators quarterbacks haven’t exactly been lighting things up. Only once in the past 39 games has a UF QB thrown for more than 300 yards: John Brantley had 329 yards against Furman in 2011.
Offensive coordinator Brent Pease believes Jeff Driskel could be next.
“I think he has the ability to do it,” Pease said. “He has the ability to do it in this system. He has the ability to do it off his skills.”
The biggest reason why Driskel hasn’t done it and Brantley only did it once is a lack of explosiveness in the offense. The Gators had 67 pass plays of 20 or more yards in Brantley’s two seasons as a starter -- but only 22 were 30 yards or longer. UF had 27 pass plays of 20 or more yards last season, which was Driskel’s first as the starter, but only 11 were longer than 30 yards.
The blame for the lack of explosiveness is shared by the offensive line (poor pass protection), the quarterback (holding onto the ball too long, not reading the defense correctly, or being inaccurate) and the receivers (not getting separation). However, Pease believes all three positions have improved enough in the second year of his system that the offense will produce more big plays in the passing game.
"I think they’re going to have more of an impact," Pease said. "I think some of it is on me. I have to be willing to pull the trigger and let them perform. But I’m confident on that.
"It’s more throwing the ball over the top, just stretching the field vertically, which we need to do. That’s route running, accuracy with the ball, protection at times and there’s a lot that becomes involved in it. I think with the respect that our running game has gained that when people start to stack the box, we’ve got to be able to do that."
The biggest key to more explosive plays, though, will be the improvement of the receivers. The position has really struggled since the 2009 season ended but the players should be helped by the hiring of former Kentucky head coach Joker Phillips, who has 18 years of experience as a receivers coach and helped Randall Cobb and Steve Johnson reach the NFL. Pease said the group has been better than last season, when they were coached by graduate assistant Bush Hamdan after receivers coach Aubrey Hill abruptly resigned the day before preseason practices began.
That’s also partly because they’re more comfortable in their second season in the offense, Pease said.
"The kids are playing confident," Pease said. "There’s most instinct with what they’re doing. They understand the calls. They’re not thinking. It’s more reactionary now."