Spring Notes: Muschamp gives praise, Rainey impressive and more injuries

by FlaGators on Mar 26, 2011 12:51 AM EDT

Remember a few years ago after the basketball team won that first National Championship and immediately afterwords pointed to the football team and said "You're next!" The football team responded with the 2006 BCS National Championship and then promptly said back "Your turn." Well, the basketball team won again, the football team won another one but the timing was off.

Then as we all know, the basketball team missed some NCAA Tournaments and the football team had a down year.

Well, it seems that even though there is a new head football coach, the relationship between the two programs is still very strong.

Head football coach Will Muschamp recently recently gave praise to the basketball team after the win over BYU in the most recent Robbie Andreu piece at the Gainesville Sun.

"First of all, I want to congratulate Billy Donovan and our basketball program with a great game last night," Muschamp said of the Gators’ overtime win over Brigham Young. "It’s a great example of competing and playing defense and coming together for a common purpose.

But that wasn't all. Incoming freshman and highly touted quarterback recruit Jacoby Brissett is a very good basketball player in his own right. When asked about the prospects of Brissett playing on the basketball team next year Muschamp responded by saying...

"Not to this point," Muschamp said. "Billy has been a little busy. We haven’t had a whole lot of conversation, but in the recruiting process, that door is open for Jacoby. We’re going to let him make that decision.

"Once we get done with spring and Billy gets done winning the whole thing there, we’ll sit down and talk about it."

Now I'm not sure about y'all, but I like the way that Muschamp thinks. Figuring it out after winning the National Championship, sounds great to me. I certainly don't have a problem with him playing two sports. Gavin Dickey played baseball. John Capel ran track. Demps as we all know is an NCAA National Champion when it comes to the track team. Charlie Ward won the Heisman trophy for FSU in 1993 while also playing point guard for the basketball team. It isn't like it can't be done and I'm sure that the three men will get together and discuss it and if it is really what he wants to do, they'll find a way to make it work.

On the practice front, Chris Rainey has thus far impressed through the six practices.

Rainey is having a "phenomenal spring" Muschamp said. "He really enjoys getting the ball deeper in the backfield to have a chance for his vision. He's got great cutback ability," Muschamp said Friday. "You've got to be very gap-sound defensively when he's carrying the football. He can take the ball all the way back. I'm really pleased with his progress."

I found this quite particularly telling. Could the answer to the much documented running back struggles in the Urban Meyer era be as simple as getting them the ball deeper in the backfield?

Unfortunately though, and as usual when it comes to spring practice, there are more injuries. This time to running back Mike Gillislee and defensive end Kedric Johnson.

Mike Gillislee has a stress fracture in a foot and will be held back in practice for the time being. Kedric Johnson is more than likely out for the remainder of the spring with a sprained knee.

We are now just a little more than two weeks away from the Orange and Blue game. Hopefully it is nothing but smooth sailing leading up to the extravaganza that is April football in Gainesville.

Please be kind and use good grammar.

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Comments

nice one.

As a student of the game i wanted to enlighten you on why the “deeper in the backfield” situation feels new to us but in reality is the oldest trick in the book.

See in the shotgun formation the quarterback lines up 5 yards behind the center with the running back usually right beside him at 5 yards or just a step behind him slightly off set to the QB. this is how the shotgun has always alligned and with the exception of the one wrinkle Florida put in back in our Percy days where he would line up behind Timmy, this is how the shotgun will almost always look.

In a under center type formation, Ace, I form, Offset I, ect., the running back has almost always lined up at 7 yards deep. this is how its been since these formations were installed into the game of football. ive never seen a running back only 5 yards back in an I formation because its just too cluttered. usually the fullback will be at about 3 to 4 yards behind the quarterback and the running back will be another 3 yards from the fullback. this is because when these formations were first used the majority of the plays ran out of them were dives, counters, traps. Very downhill, inside, punch them in the chin type plays which needed to give the runner more room to fully accelerate before hitting the line of scrimmage.

Thats why were lining up deeper. all it is is the Pro style formations that our offense is now using. for examples watch Adrian Peterson and notice how deep he lines up. hes never closer that 6 yards or so.

by gatorempire127 on Mar 26, 2011 10:32 AM EDT reply actions

Field of vision. I like it.

The Once and Future King

by FlaGators on Mar 26, 2011 12:49 PM EDT up reply actions

exactly right. in alot of ways the pro offense is alot less constrictive than the spread. ppl say the spread is the best way to attack an offense but thats not true. because since the running back is next to the quarterback that requires more lateral movement to the line of scrimmage. which takes longer and prevents full acceleration. this is why mark ingram was so effective because all he had to do was run forward and get passed the first line of defense then the rest was on him to make a play. where as chris rainey and jeff demps would always get caught down the field on outside runs because they couldnt get to full acceleration until they were in the secondary

by gatorempire127 on Mar 26, 2011 1:17 PM EDT up reply actions

Yeah, going side to side Demps is one of the fastest players I’ve ever seen in that aspect. While I don’t think that Demps and Rainey will ever have a year like Ingram had, I just hope that one Gator running back will have a year like Fason did. Run for 1,000 yards and become that threat (I’m not saying Demps and Rainey aren’t threats, just a different kind of threat) in the backfield.

The Once and Future King

by FlaGators on Mar 26, 2011 1:20 PM EDT up reply actions

agreed.

Ciatric Fason is one of my all time favorite Gators the dude was a monster. i think within the next couple of seasons well have someone at that level for us again.

by gatorempire127 on Mar 26, 2011 1:42 PM EDT up reply actions

Yep. I’m going to be extremely disappointed if one or more of Mike Blakely, Mack Brown or Matt Jones (2012 recruit/commit) don’t pan out into one of those type of runners.

The Once and Future King

by FlaGators on Mar 26, 2011 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions