Gators' Bid to Finish Strong in Muschamp's First Season Boosted by a Healthier Brantley
Thursday, November 10, 2011 | Football, Scott Carter
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – The finish line is in sight for both of them. Their success is tied together stronger than many people expected when fall camp opened three months ago.
The first season of Will Muschamp's Florida coaching career has three games left, four if you include a likely bowl bid with one more victory. The same goes for Gators quarterback John Brantley's final season.
Their season together started off the way they hoped with an undefeated September and four-game win streak heading into the Oct. 1 showdown with Alabama. And then Alabama's Courtney Upshaw sacked Brantley, and more than Brantley's right ankle was damaged.
The Gators didn't win again until Brantley, after missing two games and playing on one leg against Georgia, finally played close to full strength to help Florida beat Vanderbilt last Saturday. Even in the Gators' best moment in six weeks Brantley endured a fourth-quarter hit that forced him to the sideline with a sore throwing arm.
Nothing comes easy for this year's Gators. Fortunately for the Gators Brantley returned to practice Tuesday and looked sharp according to offensive coordinator Charlie Weis. In what has been a see-saw season for the Gators, they want to finish on an upswing starting Saturday at South Carolina.
“You come to Florida to win,'' receiver Andre Debose said. “We just want to win out. If we do win out I'll feel like it's a very successful season.''
At 5-4, 3-4 in the SEC, the Gators need to defeat the Gamecocks to avoid their first losing conference record since 1986. Their other remaining games are against nonconference foes Furman and Florida State.
Coming off a much-needed victory and with a healthy Brantley directing the offense, Florida's optimism is on the rise heading into Saturday's matchup against South Carolina and head coach Steve Spurrier, who turned the Florida program into a national power with his arrival in 1990.
“In our first four and a half ballgames, we played pretty well on offense until John's injury,'' Muschamp said Wednesday. “To get John back last week was very similar to what you saw early in the year – a great mixture of run and pass. We're a different team when we are able to run the ball and play-action off of that.
“Having John back makes us that sort of offense that we want to be. That's where we're headed and that's what we're looking forward to displaying there in Columbia.''
For Brantley, the realization that the end is near started to hit home Friday night prior to the win over Vanderbilt. Muschamp, continuing a tradition his predecessor Urban Meyer started, invited more than a dozen former captains to come and speak at the team dinner.
Brantley listened to the former players and their stories, some of them familiar to him as a lifelong Gators fan. He left gripping the primary message the players wanted to deliver.
“You have to cherish these moments,'' Brantley said. “They don't last forever.''
Despite his roller-coaster season, Brantley ranks fourth in the SEC in passing (194.3 yards per game) and fifth in pass efficiency (138.8) with six touchdowns and three interceptions.
He has also shown a chameleon-like ability to adjust to whatever game plan or tweak to the offense Weis throws his way.
“The coaching staff change was pretty easy,'' he said. “They made it easy for us. Now that things are getting better each week, I'm kind of forgetting about [the past] and moving forward.''
Weis is confident that Brantley is finally at a place where he can perform at a level to create some special memories in the season's stretch run.
Weis couldn't say that when Brantley was hurt or even when he returned against Georgia and played well in the first half before mobility issues slowed him down in Florida's 24-20 loss. To help boost Florida's running game and take some pressure off Brantley's ankle, the Gators used a pistol formation from the shotgun against Vanderbilt.
The result was Florida's first win since Sept. 24 at Kentucky and 410 yards of total offense, including 280 in the first half.
“Going into Georgia, the kid was still pretty hobbled,'' Weis said. “He couldn't have even really done that [pistol formation] in that game.''
In his two seasons as Florida's starter, Brantley has endured more hits than some quarterbacks take in a career, and not just from linebackers. He was Tim Tebow's replacement, a near impossible task to try and fulfill. Brantley also was a drop-back quarterback playing in Meyer's spread-option offense a year ago.
After the season, Meyer departed and Muschamp took over the program. For a few weeks there were rumors that Brantley would transfer. He remained and continued to endure, slowly regaining his confidence once Weis arrived and installed a pro-style attack much more suited for Brantley's skill set.
Once the season started, everything was going smoothly until Upshaw's sack bent his leg awkwardly and derailed his senior season for a month. Through it all, Brantley has gained a newfound respect from his teammates, coaches and many of the same fans who complained he wasn't Tebow last season.
“I wish I had him another year. I'd love to have him,'' Weis said. “I don't think his football-playing career will end when he leaves here.
“I like the fact that when I got here he was a beaten-down young man and he has stood as tall as you can possibly stand. That's what I like more than anything else. You don't think these kids hear the boo birds when they go off the field. They hear it. They take it to heart. There is no doubt the team looks to him as the leader of the team. That is something I didn't know whether that would happen or not.''
As the Gators attempt to close the season strong, the fact Brantley is close to 100 percent is something the Gators have on their side.
“I think that when you look at the opportunity that John Brantley has had the chance to start and finish football games for us, we've been pretty successful,'' Muschamp said.
The Gators won't make it to the SEC Championship game in Brantley's two seasons as the starter, but Muschamp will look back someday and consider him a vital piece to his first Florida team.
“John has done everything we've asked of him,'' Muschamp said.
