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Florida may be shifting back to spread and/or up-tempo offense — at least, that's what some of the hints out there on the Internet say in the immediate wake of Brent Pease's Sunday firing.
The Gainesville Sun's Zach Abolverdi threw out this tweet on Sunday:
Today #UF coach Will Muschamp told recruits he wants to have more of an up-tempo, no-huddle offense. #Gators
— Zach Abolverdi (@ZachAbolverdi) December 2, 2013
Only Gators' Adam Silverstein has a source telling him Florida wants to go more up-tempo. There are paywalled threads on the Scout and 247Sports Gator boards, both suggesting that Florida's making a spread shift. And, perhaps both most importantly, JUCO wide receiver Eric Lauderdale, who was in Gainesville over the weekend for Florida's game against Florida State, is saying that Will Muschamp told him about moving to a spread to multiple people. From the Sun:
"No impact on me. I already knew it was going to happen. When I talked to coach Muschamp today, he said he wants to have a hurry-up offense and throw it more."
From 247Sports ($):
"He said they’ll be playing with more of a fast-tempo next year," Lauderdale said. "He said they are going to mix things up and it might be more of a no-huddle (offense). He didn’t say whether they are going to throw more or not, but I think they might be."
Take it for what you want to take it for — I think there's a significant chance that it's mostly coaches saying what recruits want to hear and recruits hearing what recruits want to hear, though offensive lineman Travaris Dorsey also saying something similar to the Sun makes this more than just a wideout hearing "Oooh, more catches" — but there's clearly smoke enough to consider the possibility that Florida is definitely considering opening up its offense in some way.
I think a shift would also indicate that Muschamp isn't actually the stubborn, pass-allergic dinosaur-slash-Woody Hayes 2.0 that he is popularly painted as, but what do I know?
