GeauxTo
10-14-2005, 01:31 PM
Here's a good read from the Shreveport Times:
LSU tries to beat Florida's spread
October 14, 2005
.photocontainer {width: 375px;}http://cmsimg.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D9&Date=20051014&Category=SPORTS0202&ArtNo=510140328&Ref=AR&Profile=1001&MaxW=375
Chris Leak (12) has endured his ups and downs in the first year of coach Urban Meyer's spread-option offense. (Phil Sandlin/AP)
By Glenn Guilbeau
gguilbeau@gannett.com (gguilbeau@gannett.com)
BATON ROUGE -- So far, new Florida coach Urban Meyer's spread offense is not spreading like, say, former coach Steve Spurrier's Fun 'n' Gun attack that revolutionized the Southeastern Conference in the 1990s and beyond.
Spurrier rarely, if ever, kicked field goals. Meyer had three kicked in his "signature" 16-7 win over Tennesee on Sept. 17. All Meyer got was a field goal in a 31-3 loss at Alabama on Oct. 1. That was the Gators' lowest scoring output since losing 45-3 at Tennessee in Spurrier's first season in 1990.
No. 11 Florida (5-1, 3-1 SEC East) even struggled with lowly Mississippi State's defense in the early going last week before winning 35-9. No. 10 LSU (3-1, 2-1 SEC West) and a defense that improved against light fare the last two weeks will get its first in-person look at the stagnant spread of Meyer at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS in Tiger Stadium.
Florida's pass offense is No. 1 in the SEC with 258 yards a game, but it is sixth in scoring with 29 points a game and fourth in total offense with 413 yards a game. Meyer's hiring at Florida from Utah was trumpeted like the second coming of Spurrier, but some of former coach Ron Zook's offenses were better.
"It looks awful," admitted Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen, who followed Meyer and the spread from Utah. "It looks bad. That's kind of where we're at right now. It's not a hard offense once you know it. Then it rolls. Getting to that point is frustrating. It's exhausting. It's not far off, but not being far off makes it look really far off."
The spread offense features a lot of misdirection passes and runs, shovel passes and end arounds and tries to create mismatches. Meyer began using it while at Bowling Green to offset a lack of talent.
"We were undermanned, and it was an opportunity to compete with more talented teams," he said. "It was the best opportunity to create an offense that would be able to sustain drives and create matchup problems."
Meyer has the talent now, but he retained the offense, which at times has made Florida look void of talent and misdirected. The Gators are second only to LSU in penalties with 48 for 408 yards. Against Tennessee, Florida often followed a nice play with a penalty, then had to kick a field goal.
Alabama combated the complex with the simple.
"We let our players play," Alabama coach Mike Shula said. "Our defensive guys have good speed. If you're having to think and you're reacting slowly, then those (Florida) guys have enough speed to run right by you."
Meyer did not foresee this much trouble.
"I thought we'd be much farther along. I thought we would have four or five legit playmakers at wide receiver. It's frustrating. There's some talent there. But it's a little bigger challenge."
Fellow first-year LSU coach Les Miles was not talking specifically about Florida, but when asked what he would do if his philosophy did not fit his talent, he said, "You have to change. If you don't, you find yourself calling a bunch of old plays that look really good with a bunch of old guys that aren't there any longer."
Florida has suffered some injuries at receiver.
Junior Andre Caldwell, who was the leading returning receiver in the SEC with 43 catches for 689 yards last season, broke his leg against Tennessee and was lost for the season. Junior Jemalle Cornelius, who caught eight passes for 138 yards in a 49-28 win over Kentucky, sprained his ankle against Alabama and practiced Wednesday for the first time since that game. Junior Chad Jackson, who leads the SEC with 47 catches and with 529 yards, left the State game in the third quarter with a knee injury, but he is expected to be fine for Saturday.
"We're still adapting right now, and I think when Caldwell went down," Meyer said, but he didn't finish the sentence. "Part of the spread offense is getting a number of wide receivers on the field, and we're pretty limited in that situation right now."
Star quarterback Chris Leak has been hit with the spread as hard as former quarterback Rex Grossman was blindsided by Zook's offense post Spurrier. Only Leak had to go from a classic drop-back quarterback to an option athlete, and it hurts.
Leak, who is only 6-foot and 195 pounds, had to have an injection in his throwing arm for pain last week and did not throw at all in workouts before the State game after injuring his shoulder against Alabama. He has practiced this week and is expected to start, but he has not been the same since Alabama. He is 34-of-70 (48 percent) with four interceptions and one touchdown since that game.
"Chris Leak is an excellent college quarterback," Meyer said. "Sure, we'd probably like to do some more things. More than Chris Leak, there are a lot of other breakdowns. So I don't think it's fair at all to slap it on Chris like that."
With a more conventional passing game in 2003, Leak completed 18 of 30 passes for 229 yards and two touchdowns in a 19-7 win at LSU. It was the Tigers' only loss in a national championship season.
"I think that's what he would rather do," LSU defensive tackle Kyle Williams said. "I think in the past, he ran to throw the ball. Now he's running more to gain yards."
Williams and other LSU defenders struggled to remember playing an offense like this in the SEC. Florida's players see it as exotic as well.
"It's like nothing any of us have seen before, so it's going to take time," Jackson said. "We're still just learning the offense. It's all new to us."
http://asterix.ednet.lsu.edu/~stockard/experimental/01798cd0.png
LSU tries to beat Florida's spread
October 14, 2005
.photocontainer {width: 375px;}http://cmsimg.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=D9&Date=20051014&Category=SPORTS0202&ArtNo=510140328&Ref=AR&Profile=1001&MaxW=375
Chris Leak (12) has endured his ups and downs in the first year of coach Urban Meyer's spread-option offense. (Phil Sandlin/AP)
By Glenn Guilbeau
gguilbeau@gannett.com (gguilbeau@gannett.com)
BATON ROUGE -- So far, new Florida coach Urban Meyer's spread offense is not spreading like, say, former coach Steve Spurrier's Fun 'n' Gun attack that revolutionized the Southeastern Conference in the 1990s and beyond.
Spurrier rarely, if ever, kicked field goals. Meyer had three kicked in his "signature" 16-7 win over Tennesee on Sept. 17. All Meyer got was a field goal in a 31-3 loss at Alabama on Oct. 1. That was the Gators' lowest scoring output since losing 45-3 at Tennessee in Spurrier's first season in 1990.
No. 11 Florida (5-1, 3-1 SEC East) even struggled with lowly Mississippi State's defense in the early going last week before winning 35-9. No. 10 LSU (3-1, 2-1 SEC West) and a defense that improved against light fare the last two weeks will get its first in-person look at the stagnant spread of Meyer at 2:30 p.m. Saturday on CBS in Tiger Stadium.
Florida's pass offense is No. 1 in the SEC with 258 yards a game, but it is sixth in scoring with 29 points a game and fourth in total offense with 413 yards a game. Meyer's hiring at Florida from Utah was trumpeted like the second coming of Spurrier, but some of former coach Ron Zook's offenses were better.
"It looks awful," admitted Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen, who followed Meyer and the spread from Utah. "It looks bad. That's kind of where we're at right now. It's not a hard offense once you know it. Then it rolls. Getting to that point is frustrating. It's exhausting. It's not far off, but not being far off makes it look really far off."
The spread offense features a lot of misdirection passes and runs, shovel passes and end arounds and tries to create mismatches. Meyer began using it while at Bowling Green to offset a lack of talent.
"We were undermanned, and it was an opportunity to compete with more talented teams," he said. "It was the best opportunity to create an offense that would be able to sustain drives and create matchup problems."
Meyer has the talent now, but he retained the offense, which at times has made Florida look void of talent and misdirected. The Gators are second only to LSU in penalties with 48 for 408 yards. Against Tennessee, Florida often followed a nice play with a penalty, then had to kick a field goal.
Alabama combated the complex with the simple.
"We let our players play," Alabama coach Mike Shula said. "Our defensive guys have good speed. If you're having to think and you're reacting slowly, then those (Florida) guys have enough speed to run right by you."
Meyer did not foresee this much trouble.
"I thought we'd be much farther along. I thought we would have four or five legit playmakers at wide receiver. It's frustrating. There's some talent there. But it's a little bigger challenge."
Fellow first-year LSU coach Les Miles was not talking specifically about Florida, but when asked what he would do if his philosophy did not fit his talent, he said, "You have to change. If you don't, you find yourself calling a bunch of old plays that look really good with a bunch of old guys that aren't there any longer."
Florida has suffered some injuries at receiver.
Junior Andre Caldwell, who was the leading returning receiver in the SEC with 43 catches for 689 yards last season, broke his leg against Tennessee and was lost for the season. Junior Jemalle Cornelius, who caught eight passes for 138 yards in a 49-28 win over Kentucky, sprained his ankle against Alabama and practiced Wednesday for the first time since that game. Junior Chad Jackson, who leads the SEC with 47 catches and with 529 yards, left the State game in the third quarter with a knee injury, but he is expected to be fine for Saturday.
"We're still adapting right now, and I think when Caldwell went down," Meyer said, but he didn't finish the sentence. "Part of the spread offense is getting a number of wide receivers on the field, and we're pretty limited in that situation right now."
Star quarterback Chris Leak has been hit with the spread as hard as former quarterback Rex Grossman was blindsided by Zook's offense post Spurrier. Only Leak had to go from a classic drop-back quarterback to an option athlete, and it hurts.
Leak, who is only 6-foot and 195 pounds, had to have an injection in his throwing arm for pain last week and did not throw at all in workouts before the State game after injuring his shoulder against Alabama. He has practiced this week and is expected to start, but he has not been the same since Alabama. He is 34-of-70 (48 percent) with four interceptions and one touchdown since that game.
"Chris Leak is an excellent college quarterback," Meyer said. "Sure, we'd probably like to do some more things. More than Chris Leak, there are a lot of other breakdowns. So I don't think it's fair at all to slap it on Chris like that."
With a more conventional passing game in 2003, Leak completed 18 of 30 passes for 229 yards and two touchdowns in a 19-7 win at LSU. It was the Tigers' only loss in a national championship season.
"I think that's what he would rather do," LSU defensive tackle Kyle Williams said. "I think in the past, he ran to throw the ball. Now he's running more to gain yards."
Williams and other LSU defenders struggled to remember playing an offense like this in the SEC. Florida's players see it as exotic as well.
"It's like nothing any of us have seen before, so it's going to take time," Jackson said. "We're still just learning the offense. It's all new to us."
http://asterix.ednet.lsu.edu/~stockard/experimental/01798cd0.png