What Should Gators Fans Expect From Brent Pease? Boise State Fans Explain

Brent Pease is now Florida's offensive coordinator. But there's still plenty of doubt among some Florida fans about whether Pease's schemes from his time at Boise State will translate to the SEC, or whether he'll be the home run hire he's touted as being. To get some answers, I reached out to the folks at SB Nation's fantastic Boise State blog, One Bronco Nation Under God, to get a sense of what they think about Pease, and they graciously answered my questions with some really good insight.

Thanks again to Kevan, Drew, and Nick, and make sure to check out OBNUG.

Pease has just one year of experience as Boise State's offensive coordinator, but has been on Chris Petersen's staff for a number of years. How much of the Petersen scheme do you think Pease has absorbed?

How much of the ocean does a sea sponge absorb? Enough for you to know that the sponge came from the ocean, I would suppose (I'm neither a marine biologist nor all that interested in science).

Basically, the Boise State offense is complex and expansive, and Pease has taken in as much of it as his offensive coordinator mind can take. The Chris Petersen offense will be unmistakable once Pease starts calling plays at Florida.

Was Pease's offense in 2011 appreciably different from the one Bryan Harsin ran in 2010 and before? How so?

In no ways was it different than the Harsin offense, which probably explains how much Chris Petersen is still involved in offensive gameplanning. I imagine that the players might have noticed a few different tweaks or tendencies, but the on-field product looked largely the same as the year before.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of Boise State's offense?

The Boise State offense uses leverage, numbers, and grass to get the upper hand on the defense. There was a stellar article written about it at Smart Football a couple years back. Those three elements make it hard for the offense to have a weakness since it is constantly changing and morphing until its weaknesses turn into strengths. For instance, let's say that outside running is a weakness. You change formations, shift extra blockers out wide pre-snap, and suddenly your weakness is a strength.

Where the offense might run into trouble is with very well-prepared defenses with smart players who recognize what the Boise State offense is trying to do. Also, big, fast athletes render some of the leverage and grass moot, if they can fight through leverage and run across grass better than the offense expects.

Will Muschamp has talked about the importance of running a pro-style offensive system. Does Boise State's offense qualify, in your mind?

Absolutely. Dirk Koetter was one of the originals at Boise State, and he has gone on to coach offense in the NFL. You'd see a lot more Boise State quarterbacks in the pros if they were the right size and had less Jared Zabransky to them.

Do you think Boise State's success is due to its coaches below Petersen, or is it all Petersen's system?

I think that Petersen is the reason for Boise State's success. He hired the right guys and installed the right system. Everything at Boise State is so fluid, it's hard to pinpoint anything as the reason for success except Coach Pete. For instance, the system will look different next year because the offensive players and their abilities will be different.

How well-regarded is Pease as a recruiter? Are there any notable players he was responsible for recruiting?

I do know that he has turned out some pretty good receivers as Boise State's receivers coach. I have to think that wideouts liked him enough to come play for him and that they knew he would turn them into great players. Austin Pettis and Titus Young are the two most recent examples.

Are there any specific Pease plays you love? Any you hate?

I love all the plays that use different formations than normal. Boise State has a formation where they split their left tackle out wide and put a tight end in the tackle spot. They have a three-RB formation. They have a package for a WR-QB.

The one play that I have hated over the years is the quarterback option out of shotgun. But that may have been more because Kellen Moore was running it.