Charlie Weis came in with a plan when he became offensive coordinator on coach Will Muschamp’s staff.
Although many of Florida’s players have said throughout the duration of fall practice that Weis is a very detail-oriented coach, the intricacies of the offense weren’t his biggest issue with his new team.
“Where some people are worrying about the finer points of the offense, I was more concerned with the foundation of the offense,” Weis said. “Once you establish the foundation … that now allows you to have a whole arsenal of things that you can do on game day.”
When Weis was being recruited by Muschamp and his staff, he didn’t know much about the Gators or their personnel from last season.
After looking into the offensive players on Florida’s roster — from quarterback John Brantley, to the running back duo of Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey, to the cast of offensive linemen at his disposal — Weis ultimately accepted the challenge.
Upon arriving in Gainesville in early January, the former NFL offensive coordinator with four Super Bowl rings began implementing his pro-style offense and fitting it to the personnel available to him.
That began with Brantley, who Weis said is suited to run a dropback-style passing attack.
That passing offense is based on runs and play-action calls, so the foundation also stretched to the offensive linemen, many of whom were injured during the spring when Weis had to assess the candidates.
He also went through, player by player, and asked each how he saw himself in the new system.
When fans got an early look at Weis’ offense in the spring game, he said it was like a fire drill, with the offense being hastily thrown together. But in the months since, he has been impressed with the progress and work ethic the offensive players have shown.
Still, concerns remain for Weis heading into Saturday’s opener against FAU.
“You haven’t played yet and I think that anytime you’re putting in a new system you really want to go and try to play as clean as you can in the first game,” he said.
“There’s no preseason games here in college. This is kick it off and let’s go and it counts. You want to minimize your mental mistakes, you want to minimize your line of scrimmage penalties and you want to take care of the football.”
But with practices closed to the public, Weis’ offense in his first year as the Gators’ offensive coordinator largely remains a mystery to those outside of the program. And until the season opens, how well the offense comes together remains unknown to Weis.
“We’ll have a better answer for that about 10:30 Saturday (night),” Weis said. “I think practice is practice and games are games. There’s been plenty of progress, but you’re judged by what happens on Saturday night. You’re not judged by what happens in practice.”
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
Gators offensive coordinator Charlie Weis said he’ll be looking for minimal mistakes against FAU on Saturday.
