Florida Football: Why John Brantley Transferring Would Benefit the Gators
With Urban Meyer's resignation and the quick hiring of Will Muschamp, the football landscape in Gainesville is changing rapidly.
Among the changes that the Gator Nation will see are a conversion from the spread offense back to a pro-style attack and greater emphasis on defense than in seasons past.
However, another major change could be in store at the quarterback position as well according to multiple reports (including this one from USA Today).
With the possibility of John Brantley transferring now out in the open, here are five reasons why moving on from Brantley will benefit the Orange and Blue.
The John Brantley Experiment Will Not Work In Gainesville
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Don't let the Outback Bowl bid fool you. A "pretty good" bowl berth doesn't erase the fact that 2010 was an ugly season in Gainesville. Steve Addazio excluded, John Brantley is the individual most associated with that futility.
In his attempt to fill Tim Tebow's shoes, Brantley couldn't even manage to put on his socks, struggling mightily to run the spread offense and looking lost in the pocket more often than not.
Brantley has struggled so much that fans at "The Swamp" actually booed him whenever he would come back into the game for Trey Burton or Jordan Reed.
This season may have done irreparable damage to Brantley's reputation as a Gator, perhaps JB needs a change in scenery to fully realize his potential and become the successful quarterback everyone expected him to be.
The Gators Need to Prepare For The Future
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As much as the Florida faithful would like to see the Gators rebound from this season's woes in 2011, they should expect some growing pains in the near future.
First-time head coach Will Muschamp will be taking over a team that is as young as they are talented, and throwing a redshirt senior quarterback that doesn't really give the team a significant edge almost seems counterproductive.
The best option for Florida is to go ahead and start the 2010 Gatorade Player of the Year and soon-to-be true freshman Jeff Driskel to see what the kid can do.
There will be some growing pains during the early going, but this move will pay plenty of dividends for both Driskel and the Gators down the road.
Brantley Is an Immature Quarterback
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There's something about John Brantley that has baffled me throughout the season and here it is: How does one of the nation's top quarterback recruits go to Florida, learn the in's and the out's of the offense for three years, and have Tim Tebow as a mentor, but fail to improve at all?
Granted, some of his earlier mistakes can be attributed to his lack of game experience, but when you've been the starting quarterback for 12 games, then it's time to grow up and do your job.
The only way to explain this is that Brantley must be a slow learner.
He never adjusts (granted, that's partly Addazio's fault), his awareness is horrible (how many bad sacks have you seen him take?), and he rarely looks down the field, limiting himself to bubble screens and halfback passes.
If you send any kind of blitz when Brantley is playing quarterback, you are pretty much assured a sack, an interception, or meager two-yard gain on a pass to Chris Rainey or Trey Burton.
No disrespect to the guy, but when these same mental mistakes continue to persist, you have to question Brantley's football IQ.
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Brantley Doesnt Have The Confidence Of His Teammates
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If you wanted to sum up Florida's 2010 offense in one drive, look no further than the Gators' 31-7 loss to Florida State.
On Florida's last possession of the first half, redshirt freshman Jordan Reed had led the offense 60 yards in six plays, putting the Gators on the 'Noles' 20-yard line before Urban Meyer inexplicably subbed John Brantley for Reed.
On the very next play Brantley threw an interception, killing the drive and robbing Florida of an opportunity to cut the lead to 24-14 at halftime.
Reed was visibly upset by Brantley's turnover and had to be restrained by other teammates while offensive lineman Carl Johnson got in No. 12's face on the way into the locker room.
While players refused to throw JB under the bus after the game, it was obvious that the team's frustration with their starting quarterback had boiled over in the blowout loss.
They've had a front row seat to the worst offense of Meyer's six-year tenure, and making matters worse is that best quarterback on the team is taking reps with the tight ends.
If Brantley returns as the starter in 2011 he'll have a long way to go to earn his teammates' confidence back after a sub-par season.
Brantley Just Is Not Very Good
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To put it bluntly, the Florida Gators' offense stunk in 2010.
And while the inept strategy of Steve Addazio played a major role in that futility, you can only blame the embattled offensive coordinator so much for the Gators' woes.
After all, Florida's offense was actually decent with Jordan Reed under center (when Addazio wasn't running him up the middle every single play).
Urban Meyer pinpointed the Gators' biggest problem this season as an inability to execute and he hit the nail on the head in terms of the quarterback position.
Brantley simply was not good enough to execute the offense. Reed could. Trey Burton could much more effectively than JB.
Granted, his two backups have skill sets more suited to the spread offense, but let's take the gloves off here—there's no excuse for Brantley to be this bad; after all, he spent three seasons practicing this offense and learning how to succeed with it from Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow—two college football legends.
Brantley certainly is not dumb, and if Chris Leak could run this offense efficiently, then Brantley should be able to as well.
Unless, of course, he just simply isn't as good as advertised.
Read the original article on GatorRaid.com.
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