- Jun 14, 2014
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Founding Member
I thought this was interesting. Nice to see some Spurrier offense in the Swamp again.
http://www.gatorcountry.com/feature/film-room-for-kentucky-game-florida-gators-football/
http://www.gatorcountry.com/feature/film-room-for-kentucky-game-florida-gators-football/
HBC: Head Ball…Consultant?
When theFlorida Gators hired Steve Spurrier to be their “Ambassador Ball Coach,” many assumed he would simply have an honorary emeritus position, primarily doing fund raising, providing support to the various coaches on campus, conducting speaking engagements, etc. Soon after he was hired, however, various outlets (usually led by the team here at Gator Country) began reporting that he started showing up to practice often, meeting regularly with Jim McElwain and Doug Nussmeier, and spending quite a bit of time watching film. Many began to wonder just how involved Spurrier was with the football team.
To what extent, though, has been the question. Spurrier himself stated during the Massachusetts broadcast that Coach McElwain will ask “’what do you think about this that or the other?’ and I just say ‘Hey, this is how we did it when I was here’ and, ‘Here’s an idea you might want to explore.’” Add in what the 2016 Gators have shown on film, though, and it becomes rather clear that Spurrier is perhaps a little more involved than maybe anyone thought. As you’ll see below, several of his concepts are finding their way into Coach McElwain’s offense with an increasing frequency, blending Spurrier’s highly effective route distributions with Mac’s structured single concept and dual concept passing plays.
This was highly evident on Luke Del Rio’s 78-yard touchdown to Antonio Callaway on play action. The concept used on that long pass play was pulled directly from the pages of Spurrier’s playbook, an aggressive concept called ‘Mills’ that Spurrier frequently used to exploit the quarters defenses his teams would often see for big gains. Take a look at the play design below from Spurrier’s 2000 Gators playbook:
Florida Gators film room for the Kentucky game- Gator Country photo taken by Tom Furland
As I wrote last year,
“Mills is designed to take a corner in quarters coverage and absolutely hang him out to dry. The deep in route will hold the safety low and draw him clear, and the corner in outside leverage will have no hope of covering the post over the top. The read is post to dig, to underneath, with the post likely against Cover 4, and the dig likely against Cover 3 as the post takes the free safety out of the play and the [slot defender] can’t cover the dig.”
Note the similarities in Mac’s patterns with Spurrier’s in the cut up below:
Mac combined this play with a curl/flat concept to the strong side for an easy high to low play action read across the field, play action to suck in the linebackers in Cover 2 for the dig, and the curl/flat to provide an easy nickel and dime against man and match with some possibility for yards after the catch.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this play is that it was, in fact, the same play called to open the season against Massachusetts that was thrown just out of Callaway’s grasp. It’s hard to believe that on the night Steve Spurrier had his name put on the field that Mac wasn’t giving the Greatest Gator a subtle nod with the use of a signature Fun and Gun concept with his first scripted play.
