Gators Have Big Plans for Brandon Powell
Tuesday, July 14, 2015 | Football, Chris Harry
HOOVER, Ala. -- Southeastern Conference Media Days is where the stars come out.
With three weeks to the start of football practice, and another month after that to the 2015 opener, the SEC kicked off its four-day preseason dog-and-pony show Monday, with the Florida Gators one of the three teams on the opening-day docket.
New coach Jim McElwain entered the Hyatt Wynfrey Hotel flanked by junior defensive back Vernon Hargreaves III, maybe the best cornerback in the country, plus senior Jonathan Bullard, the team's top defensive lineman and all-star candidate.
And sophomore Brandon Powell.
That would be the Brandon Powell who touched the football 31 times as a freshman running back last season, only to be moved to wide receiver full time in the spring. In other words, the most anonymous (and, frankly, unproven) of the 42 players headling the Media Days lineup.
McElwain, hired to soup up an offense that sputtered like a broken-down Fiat during the defense-comes-first Will Muschamp era, saw something in the 5-foot-9, 181-pounder -- a lot of something, actually -- to make Powell the featured face of that side of the ball heading into the season. His presence here speaks for itself.
“It means we have high expectations for him,” Bullard said of Powell. “He put something on film that the coaches saw and liked. They've put a lot on his shoulders, but he works very hard and practices hard. I don't think anybody is going to be disappointed.”
The invitation into the belly of the SEC Media Day beast was not lost on him. Worth noting: Powell is one of just two sophomores due to meet the masses here this week. The other? LSU running back Leonard Fournette, a Heisman Trophy candidate.
“Now, I have to prove myself on the field, be a leader for my teammates and help us be the best we can be,” he said. “We have to get back to the top.”
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As a freshman, Brandon Powell was a running back who totaled just 217 yards of offense and scored two touchdowns. Now, he's a starting wide receiver who figures prominently in Coach Jim McElwain's offense in 2015.
Statistically speaking, the Gators have a long way to go. As far as offense in concerned, they're basically starting near the bottom; and not just of the SEC bottom, but all of college football.
An aggregate accounting of Florida's offense over Muschamp's run from 2011-14 show these (alarming) numbers:
* Over the last four years, UF averaged 336.5 yards per game, which ranked 117th out of 128 FBS programs.
* Florida's 170.52 passing yards per game during that time ranked 120th. Along the way, only two other Power Five conference teams threw fewer than UF's 54 touchdown passes: Georgia Tech, which runs a triple option, and Kansas, which won seven games over that time.
* The Gators averaged 25.3 points the last four years. That was 90th-best in FBS.
* Along the way, they had three offensive coordinators, four receivers coaches and eight starting quarterbacks.
No continuity. No production.
Muschamp preferred to play a slug-it-out kind of game on Saturdays, believing his defense and special teams would ultimately prevail. That approach worked magnificently in 2012, when the Gators went 11-2 and played in the Sugar Bowl. In the other three seasons, the offense was nothing more than an anchor; the special teams oftentimes a calamity.
Hargreaves was asked how good the Gators could have been if Florida's offenses of late mirrored its defenses.
“We'd probably have two more national titles.”
Without question, the Florida defenses under Muschamp were among the best in the country, including last year at No. 15. Hargreaves, Bullard, nickelback Brian Poole, defensive end Alex McAlister and other prominent members of that unit are back, along with some promising other impact underclassmen and newcomers. That bodes well for the new season when it comes to stopping other guys.
But this season is about seeing something -- anything -- on offense that can get the orange and blue masses excited.
The players immediately saw a difference with McElwain in the spring.
“The head coach being around the offense in practice is something we didn't see too much of [before],” Powell said. “We had the players last year, but didn't have the plays.”
In McElwain's first stint on the UF sidelines the focus will be on whether the system he ran that shattered offensive records at Colorado State -- the same one he ran as offensive coordinator for two national championship teams at Alabama -- transfers to the Gators.
For sure, that was the line of questioning put most his way Monday.
“It's kind of great to have expectations,” McElwain said during his first turn at the SEC Media Days podium. “That's something we look forward to and we embrace.”
Under McElwain in 2014, Colorado State ranked 13th in the nation in total offense at 497.8 yards per game and averaged 7.2 yards per play (fourth nationally). The Rams passing game averaged 326.3 yards per game, which rated seventh, and 9.2 yards per pass attempt (second).
They scored 35.9 points per game and were ultra-creative -- “multiple-shift, multiple-motion, try to create as much confusion, some unbalance,” McElwain said -- in their methods.
Of course, those digits were posted in the Mountain West Conference, but McElwain's system did just fine during his time at Alabama. The Gators, obviously, aren't armed with Crimson Tide talent. They don't even know if the starting quarterback will be incumbent sophomore Treon Harris or redshirt freshman Will Grier, a battle that will play out in August. The offensive line, with just one starter back (projected center Trip Thurman), will be a work in progress, albeit with an interesting group of freshmen entering the mix.
“I'm excited about that group,” McElwain said of a unit that includes true freshmen Martez Ivey, the nation's No. 1 offensive line prospect as a senior at Apoka (Fla.), and Fordham transfer Mason Halter, a two-time first-team FCS All-American. “We're 15, 16 deep there right now.”
How soon the quarterback and offensive line begins to mesh figures to determine the Florida '15 fate. But big steps from junior wideout Demarcus Robinson (53 catches, 810 yards, 7 touchdowns) and junior tailback Kelvin Taylor (565 yards, 6 TDs), plus a full year from sixth-year senior tight end Jake McGee (season-ending broken leg in Week 1 last year) could mask some deficiencies up front.
Still, other playmakers have to burst onto the scene, which is exactly what McElwain and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier envision with Powell, who figures to start in the slot with his potential to dazzle when funneled the ball in open space.
Powell rushed for 1,339 yards and 20 touchdowns as a tailback his senior year at Deerfield Beach (Fla.), but totaled just 217 yards and two TDs as a Florida freshman.
Now, he's a Media Days darling.
“I've never played receiver in my life, but I have confidence in myself and confidence in this offense, especially after the spring,” Powell said. “If we just execute everything we have to do, we're going to be better and maybe we can eliminate all that stuff from the past."
