Florida Gators Football: Why Will Muschamp's 2nd Season Will Be a Success

Cheer up Florida Gator fans. Will Muschamp has the Gators heading in the right direction and the Muschamp era will have a very successful second season.

Although posting a 7-6 record wasn't in the plans for Muschamp during his first season, there is still reason for a lot of optimism in Gainesville.

Here are five reasons why Muschamp's second season will be much better than the first. 

Familiarity with the 3-4 Defense

When Will Muschamp became the head coach at Florida, he switched to a 3-4 defensive system.

The change brought a difficult task upon the new coaching staff because many of the players on the roster were recruited to the former defensive style of the Charlie Strong and Urban Meyer days.

Players like Ronald Powell had to learn new positions. For Powell, it was the Buck position, which is a linebacker who concentrates more on pass rushing from the edge. He had only 32 total tackles, but he also tallied six sacks.

With the players having another year to familiarize themselves with the 3-4 defensive schemes, I expect them to have a stronger grasp of the defense, which should pay dividends on the field.

The Gators' defense was ranked eighth in total defense in 2011, giving up 299.5 yards per game. An improvement from an already top 10 defense would make this Florida team dangerous throughout the season. 

Matt Elam

Perhaps the Florida Gators' most valuable player this past season was sophomore safety Matt Elam.

Elam, who earned the starting job after the departure of Ahmad Black, was second on the team with 78 tackles. He was constantly around the football, delivering huge hits or making big pass deflections.

In 2012, Elam will be a junior and has the potential to develop into an All-American safety by season's end. With Elam progressing by the year, he'll become the leader of a strong defensive unit in 2012.

Having a dominant player like Elam in the secondary will make life much easier for Muschamp next season. It will force defenses to respect the Gators' secondary and be more unwilling to throw the football downfield. Therefore, Florida's defense can focus more on stopping the run, which was an big liability for the Gators in the past season. 

Brent Pease

The hire of new offensive coordinator Brent Pease will help Will Muschamp out tremendously in his second season.

The biggest advantage of Pease coming to Gainesville is the help he can bring to offensive areas that lacked production in 2010, especially the wide receivers.

During his time at Boise State, Pease coached up one of the most productive wide receiver tandems in the last decade: Austin Pettis and Titus Young.

Young was the all-time leader in receiving yards at Boise State. He caught 164 passes for 3,063 yards and 25 touchdowns in his four-year career with the Broncos. Pettis had 229 receptions and 2,838 receiving yards, along with a school record of 39 receiving touchdowns in his four-year career with Boise State.

For Florida in 2011, the Gators' leading receiver, Andre Debose, only had 432 yards on 16 receptions. Running back Chris Rainey led the team with 31 receptions on the season.

Pease's experience in dealing with big-time college wide receivers should bring a huge boost to the passing game. I expect to see the Gators' receivers become more dynamic throughout 2012 as they are being coached by one of the more proven wide receivers coaches in the nation.

And with the Gators having to look toward either Jacoby Brissett or Jeff Driskel to lead their offense in 2012, Pease's success with Kellen Moore last season gives hope for the Florida quarterbacks. Moore threw an impressive 43 touchdowns and 3,800 yards in his senior season.

I'm not saying Brissett or Driskel will duplicate these stats, but it shows that Pease has had success at coaching a top quarterback and knows what it takes for them to reach that same level.

2012 Recruiting Class

As it stands now, the Florida Gators have the No. 3 ranked recruiting class for 2012.

Already, the Gators' class features some top players at numerous offensive positions including five-star offensive tackle D.J. Humphries, 5-star defensive end Jonathan Bullard, 4-star tight end Kent Taylor and 4-star defensive back Brian Poole.

Will Muschamp hasn't stopped there, though.

The Gators are high on the list for several top prospects including 5-star wide receiver Stefon Diggs, 5-star wide receiver Nelson Agholor, 5-star defensive end Darius Hamilton and 5-star defensive back Tracy Howard.

If the Gators can close with a few of these prospects, there is a good chance that Florida will finish with one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. Muschamp has been able to identify their biggest areas of need and fill those holes with top prospects from the 2012 class.

Although there is no guarantee of how these players will turn out once in Gainesville, it is still a huge step for Muschamp in getting Florida back to its winning ways in 2012. 

A Young Team Gaining Experience

The 2011 Florida Gators were full of youth and inexperience. 

On defense, the Gators will lose only two of the team's top 20 tacklers from the past season. Arguably, their most consistent players were all sophomores: Dominique Easley, Matt Elam, Sharrif Floyd and Matt Elam.

Offensively, there will be more new starters next season since John Brantley, Chris Rainey and Jeff Demps are all graduating, but they will return many of their wide receivers. Deonte Thompson was the only senior wideout this season, so the young Gators receivers will come into next season with more experience.

And let's not forget about the head coach. Will Muschamp will benefit next season after going through his first year as a head coach in the SEC. With a year under his belt, Muschamp can come into 2012 knowing what to expect and how to better handle specific situations. The team can only get better as Muschamp learns to improve his coaching with every season.

The large number of returners for the Gators sets them up for a successful 2012 season.