At first glance, Will Muschamp’s hire of former Boise State offensive coordinator Brent Pease to fill the vacancy at Florida seems like a great one.
The move to bring in Pease wasn’t a huge splash, like when Charlie Weis took the job last year, but it appears to be a solid hire by an up-and-coming coach trying to rebuild a storied program.
Just look at the numbers Pease’s offense put up in his only season as the Broncos’ playcaller.
Boise State was ninth in the nation in total offense (481.31 yards per game), fifth in scoring offense (44.23 points per game), 11th in passing offense (309.38 yards per game) and 40th in rushing offense (171.92 yards per game).
Naturally, you would expect the Pease hire to be a home run for a Florida squad that was in the bottom half of FBS in most offensive categories last season.
The Gators were near polar opposites of the Broncos in 2011, ranking 105th in total offense (328.69 yards per game), 71st in scoring (25.46 points per contest), 89th in passing (185.69 yards per game) and 73rd in rushing offense (143 yards per game).
While Pease’s offense turned heads at Boise State last season, he also had Kellen Moore, the winningest quarterback in college football history, running the show.
Things become a lot easier when Moore and his 50-3 record (with the three losses coming by a combined five points) are executing the plays.
Before Pease was named the offensive coordinator at Boise State prior to last season, he was average — and I use that term very loosely — as an FBS offensive coordinator.
While Pease had five seasons leading an offense before landing in Idaho, take a look at just his first years at Kentucky in 2001 and Baylor in 2003.
With the Wildcats, Pease’s first season was middling. Kentucky finished with the nation’s 56th-ranked offense (382.82 yards per contest) en route to a 2-9 record and the second-worst finish in the Southeastern Conference.
The Wildcats’ scoring offense was bad (80th in the nation at 23.55 points per game), and their rushing offense was worse, ranking 100th overall.
The only silver lining to Kentucky’s offense under Pease was its passing, with the ‘Cats finishing in the top 20 nationally.
He didn’t fare much better in his second season.
At Baylor in 2003, Pease had the fourth-worst offense in the nation, with the Bears finishing 114th in total offense, 110th in scoring, 102nd in rushing and 98th in passing.
The following two seasons showed improvements — barely.
While Pease surely benefited the last six years learning under the tutelage of offensive guru Chris Petersen at Boise State, Pease’s numbers as a coordinator shouldn’t make Gators fans overly excited for next season, especially with two unproven underclassmen vying for the quarterback job, a patchwork offensive line and no reliable option returning in the backfield.
So while Muschamp said he found the right fit for Florida, only time will tell whether Coach Boom hit this one out of the park, or struck out for the second time in a row.
Contact Tom Green at tgreen@alligator.org.
