Florida Football: Brent Pease Hired as Gators' New Offensive Coordinator

According to a report by The Gainesville Sun, the Gators have hired their new offensive coordinator, Brent Pease. Pease began his coaching career in 1999 at Northern Arizona University, but most recently was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Boise State University. Pease had previously coached at Boise as the wide receiver and assistant head coach from 2006-2011. 

The past week Pease had been rumored to be deciding between Florida and Alabama, who both had their offensive coordinators accept head coaching positions at other schools. 

According to The Sun, Pease and the university have come to a contract agreement and will make an official announcement tomorrow. 

Pease led the Boise offense last season for the first time, and the Broncos finished the year with the ninth-ranked total offense, fifth overall scoring offense and the 11th-ranked passing attack. 

The signing of Pease with still 22 days left before national signing day is important for Florida to show recruits a level of stability that the Gators haven't seen since 2008. Colin Thompson, the top-ranked tight end recruit, has already sounded off in approval of the new hire. With the fourth-ranked recruiting class already, the move to sign Pease and show recruits that Florida is still committed to running a pro-style attack and can point to the success of Boise's offense since 2006 to back up the hire. 

Pease's first order of duty will be to hit the recruiting trail, and he will likely be making a few visits to Nelson Agholor, Stefon Diggs and Kent Taylor. Of those three only Taylor has made a commitment to Florida but has stressed that if he did not like the new offensive coordinator he could open his recruiting up.

The Gators were stretched so thin at tight end last year that freshmen defensive lineman Clay Burton was forced to move to offense to add depth. With Gerald Christian off to Louisville adding Taylor and Thompson will bring considerable depth to a very thing position.  

Agholor and Diggs would give the Gators two serious threats at wide receiver, a position that former offensive coordinator Charlie Weis forgot was on the team. The Gators receivers did very little receiving last season and can use any and all help from this recruiting class. 

After recruiting, Pease will be in charge of developing two very young and talented quarterbacks. Both Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett should become very familiar with Pease this off season as he learns their abilities and creates an offense that will best suit whichever signal caller wins the starting job. 

The hiring of Pease also gives head coach Will Muschamp his first victory, albeit not on the field, over Nick Saban and Alabama. Muschamp is showing Gator Nation that he is committed to winning and winning now. Muschamp knows that a 7-6 record will not keep him in Gainesville for very long and the hiring of Pease seems to show potential recruits and Gator Nation a commitment to winning. 

Only time will tell if this was the right hire, but for now having an offensive coordinator who led such a high-powered offense should give the Gators a little Pease of mind.