Back to the future with the Florida offense?

Here’s a note from Tony Barnhart’s post today:

… When I was at Florida two weeks ago offensive coordinator Steve Addazio told me that without Tim Tebow the 2010 offense “would probably look a lot like 2006.” That’s the year that Chris Leak was the senior quarterback in a traditional, drop back passing offense. The wrinkle came when Tebow, a freshman, would enter the game on short yardage situations to pick up the first down. This season John Brantley will fill the Chris Leak role.

Is that such a great thing?  Here are Florida’s in-conference scoring offense rankings over the past four seasons:  5th in 2006; 2nd in 2007; 1st in 2008 (by more than 100 points!); 3rd in 2009.  Now Barnhart’s right in mentioning that Florida did just fine in the ’06 season with that offense, but that year’s MNC is more of a tribute to a ferociously talented defense than the Gator offense.

Mandel looks upon the works of Charlie Weis and despairs. Okay, not exactly.

Stewart Mandel puts on those special 20-20 hindsight specs of his and lets us in on a secret.

… As he peeled back the curtain on Weis’ regime, during which the Irish went 16-21 the past three seasons, Kelly found what many of us on the outside had suspected all along: For years, Notre Dame had run more like an NFL franchise than a college program. For many, career aspirations came before championships.

“All along” – like when Mandel informed us that Notre Dame was a legitimate contender for the 2006 MNC, in part based on this:

But Weis’ impact reaches beyond X’s and O’s. Neither Willingham nor predecessor Bob Davie could be said to exude confidence, and it showed in their players. Weis, though generally mild-mannered, is beyond confident — he’s downright cocky. He constantly references his coaching abilities both in public and, according to several sources, with his players. They must be buying into it. After years of maddening inconsistency (beating Michigan and Tennessee, losing to Boston College and BYU), the Irish, if nothing else, looked prepared every week last season. They appeared outclassed only once, in the Fiesta Bowl, and exhibited not a hint of intimidation against a USC team that at the time had won 27 straight games and clobbered the Irish the previous three seasons.

“I guarantee those kids playing for Notre Dame right now believe they can win every time they step on the field,” said SuperPrep‘s Wallace. “They play so much more competitively now.”

… In today’s landscape, there couldn’t be a more telling barometer for Notre Dame’s supposed resurgence than whether a senior-laden Irish team could stack up with the young, reloading Trojans.

“We did well last year, but we really have a long way to go,” said Quinn. “I’d be lying if I told you [a national championship] isn’t in the back of my mind. People talk about it and write about it, but we want to make it a reality.”

It’s already closer to reality than much of the country would like to admit.

Does “much of the country” include the folks from Mandel’s go-to state?  I wonder if they knew it all along, too.

It’s Saturday in Athens.

Yeah, I know that G-Day is little more than a glorified scrimmage, but I’m still looking forward to it.

And I really like this picture.

Friday morning buffet

Grab a plate and fill ‘er up.

• Lord knows I’ve thrown my share of barbs in Stephen Garcia’s direction, but are we really supposed to believe that he’s a bad enough quarterback that his head coach is prepared to bench him in favor of a true freshman?
• How good was Drew Butler last year?  So good that his position coach is concerned about what might happen if he punts much better:  “I don’t know that you want him to punt too much farther than that because you end up outkicking your coverage too much.”
• Meanwhile, the Zooker is worried about excessive celebrations… sort of.  Maybe sometime in the future.
• So what do Oklahoma fans think about their team playing its biggest rival at a neutral site located in the other school’s state?  Per the AD,  “… I can tell you, unequivocally, as an athletic director, 9-to-1, I hear — maybe more than that — the vast majority of our fans favor keeping the Red River Rivalry right where it is, the Cotton Bowl Stadium, year after year. I know that.” Hmmm… maybe it’s not that hot in Dallas that time of year.
• Here are the revised recruiting assignments for Georgia’s coaching staff in the wake of the changeover.
• More Big Ten “whither expansion?” talk and the potential consequences for college football.
• Georgia Tech’s #1 wide receiver has one career start in thirteen games.  And he doesn’t get to practice with his starting quarterback until August.

Will the last returning player leaving Knoxville please turn out the lights?

Nick Stephens, the only quarterback on Tennessee’s roster with actual D-1 game experience, announced he was leaving the program in the wake of his demotion.

… The loss of first-team reps set the stage for Stephens’ exit.

“It made me sick,” Stephens said. “It was probably one of the hardest things I’ve had to cope with in a long time, especially since I felt like up until that scrimmage I was having a really good spring.”

And before you accuse me of exaggeration with my header, check out the head coach’s biggest regret about Stephens’ decision.

Dooley asked Stephens to delay his decision until at least after next Saturday’s Orange and White game, but the program’s only experienced quarterback decided to go ahead and leave…

“I told Nick that I wish he’d have played it out and competed through the end of spring, and then based on what our analysis was at the end of spring, I could certainly understand how he felt,” Dooley said…

Translation:  son, we don’t think you’re good enough to contribute in the fall, but we need you as cannon fodder for the spring game.  That’s not exactly your standard vote of confidence in quarterback depth.  Anyway, my header’s mild in comparison with this one.  Not to say that Pennington doesn’t have a point when you look at his analysis:

… Stephens is the third experienced Vol to quit the team in the past month.  UT’s only returning offensive line starter, Aaron Douglas, plans to transfer.  And the Vols’ leading returning rusher, Bryce Brown, is away from spring practice and contemplating a transfer of his own.

Tennessee’s roster was less-talented at the end of the Phillip Fulmer regime than at any point since the late 1980s.  When Lane Kiffin arrived last year, he ran off a number of players — especially along the offensive line.  Therefore, Dooley inherited a dangerously thin roster that included:

* No returning starter at quarterback

* No returning starter on the offensive line

* No returning starter at tailback

* And no Eric Berry or Dan Williams, last season’s two best players

In addition to the thin roster (that’s getting thinner by the day), Tennessee will face Oregon, Florida, LSU, Georgia, and Alabama in its first seven games.