Steve Addazio Was the Worst Offensive Coordinator Ever

"Steve Addazio Was the Worst Offensive Coordinator Ever."

The title says it all.

It’s over, Gator fans.

The nightmare is finally over.

Just not quite the way people might have imagined.

Steve Addazio, the downright "offensive" offensive coordinator, has been hired as the new head coach at Temple.

Yes, HEAD COACH.

What did Temple do to deserve this? They don’t deserve to have a head coach who dropped his team 31 points from the year before, or who runs dive plays on approximately 72.17 percent of the plays.

Can you believe that?

The offense (WITHOUT HELP from the defense and special teams) dropped nearly 31 points, which is pretty bad.

What could be worse?

An astronomical 72.17 percent OF ALL OF FLORIDA’S PLAYS WERE RUNS UP THE MIDDLE. That might be slightly skewed with Jeff Demps or Chris Rainey seeing no daylight on the outside, and cutting back inside—but STILL. 

Even if it’s 40 percent—that’s WAY too often!

I consider every play that saw the man  possessing the ball cross the line of scrimmage between the hash marks as a run up the middle.

What this means is that nearly three quarters of every offensive play by Florida was a run up the middle (Brantley almost never scrambled).

What this means is that Steve Addazio never realized that putting up a combined three touchdowns in five losses is not a calling to keep the same formula that he rode to infamy (all other points were either less than 40-yard drives set up by defense and special teams or those units actually scoring on their own).

And what this also means is that Steve Addazio doesn’t know a toy train from the UF offense. He plays with and wrecks the latter just like he would the former.

Here is Addazio’s offensive play-calling sequence on first down: dive, dive, option, dive, bubble screen, dive, bubble screen, option,  dive, dive, quick out, bubble screen. Then back to the top. THAT’S IT! GO AND WATCH FILM FROM THIS YEAR IF YOU WANT TO SEE FOR YOURSELF. In the exact same order, EVERY SINGLE TIME.

How bad was he, really?

Remember Urban Meyer’s good buddy, Lane Kiffin? Remember how Kiffin talked trash and earned himself a spot in the front of Urban Meyer’s mind?

Remember how Florida’s offense looked so unstoppable the previous year, and even better after the first two games (over Charleston Southern and Troy)? Best of all, remember how Meyer was supposed to run it up on a rebuilding Tennessee defense?

The best he could manage was 23 points. That’s it, boys and girls, after all that buildup, all Florida could muster was a pair of TDs and a trio of field goals.

What made this even more shameful was that Brandon James got the Swamp roaring and rocking by returning the opening kick to the Vols’ 30. Addazio had all the momentum to work with, but was about as comfortable with it as a Hasidic rabbi at a bachelor party.

UT’s young, green and inexperienced defense that was supposed to buckle under this incredible noise basically held twice—Tebow converted a fourth-and-two and then Caleb Sturgis kicked a field goal.

The next drive, the Vols’ defense stopped the Gators again.

And the next drive, too.

And the drive after that.

Finally, Tebow got tired of playing silly games and used Addazio’s repetitive and conservative play-calling as an excuse to truck UT defenders. One by one, Tebow flattened them—even Eric Berry. Finally, Tebow scored.

But Florida couldn’t really do much more, other than a late third quarter TD by Demps.

Here was Addazio’s chance for redemption. Winning 23-6 after three quarters, by scoring a pair of TDs and holding Tennessee scoreless, Florida would win, 37-6. Nothing monumental, just an average, solid blowout. I’d have been content with 37-6.

Even one TD would have made it 30-6, the exact score from 2008.

But Addazio got so conservative, he was content to stop there. Never mind that Kiffin insulted his "friend" Urban Meyer. Just sit back, relax, eat some popcorn and get even fatter than you already are, and thank your lucky stars that UT wasn’t playing to win, that they were just playing to not get blown out.

Here are some more examples of Addazio the p*ssy's play-calling idiocy: 

1) Mullen Challenges Addazio’s Manhood… And Wins

Dan Mullen called only one pass play the entire second half, feeling the 10-0 halftime lead was well secure. ONE PASS THE LAST 30 MINUTES OF THE GAME. That’s it… he challenged the Gators to score 10 measly points the whole game.

He shut down his offense, running options and HB dives and actually TRYING to go three-and-out, as he didn’t want his offense to be too tired to celebrate on the flight home.

What did Addazio do to make Mullen pay? Did he get pissed at the insult and open up the playbook for John Brantley? Did he ditch his conservative game plan? Did he acknowledge the challenge?

No, no and no.

He played the second half like he was up 10 TDs, not down 10 points. Florida couldn’t have won the game if MSU took knees on every play. And that’s essentially what Chris Relf did.

The Bulldogs never scored again. They never seriously threatened again. And the best UF could do was seven points.

Because Addazio isn't a man, he's just a p*ssy, afraid to try anything creative, like a play-action pass or deep bomb.

And if anybody thinks that Chas Henry was the goat of that game, you’re mentally ill. He never should have been in that position to start with. If Mullen was still a Gator, that game would have been over at halftime.

2) Florida Declines to Attempt 59-Yard Game-Winning Drive

Mighty Florida had the ball with 27 seconds left in the game against Georgia at their own 41-yard line… and how much faith did Meyer have in the offense? Just enough to take a knee.

How pathetic. Meyer wasn’t even willing to try to get into field goal range because he knew that they plays that Addazio would call would get them nowhere.

Remember how Oregon, time and again this year, would try to go 95 yards for a TD in less than a minute? Remember how they actually accomplished that sometimes?

Obviously, Florida is not Oregon. Usually, it’s the other way around.

3) LSU Calls Timeout to Get the Ball Back… With 3 Minutes Left in the Half

Florida ball, first-and-10, with three minutes left in the half.  After running our standard HB dive for two yards, LSU called a timeout to stop the clock.  

That’s right, they were so confident that our offense couldn’t pick up a first down that with THREE MINUTES left in the half they were willing to call timeouts to stop the clock. 

They disrespected us like that, and what did we do to make them pay?  Almost get a safety on a predictable as sunrise option play call that got mauled in the backfield for a near safety.

There are a few possible explanations for the UT game:

1) His memory is horrible and forgot what Kiffin said or did.

2) He hates Urban Meyer deep down despite Meyer counting him as a good friend.

3) He’s just an awful OC and playcaller, and eventually either his players got tired or Monte Kiffin figured out how to stop the dive play, and he didn’t adjust.

I’m going with No. 3.

We all know Addazio has major problems as a play-caller, but there’s another glaring flaw in him—he fails to capitalize on momentum, and becomes even more conservative once things are going well.

Look at the South Carolina game—the opening kick was taken back for a TD by Andre Debose, and Addazio was probably as predictable/repetitive as he has been all year.

In the 2009 SEC Championship Game against Alabama, right after Tebow turned the Tide following Mark Ingram’s big run with a 60-yard bomb to Riley Cooper, Addazio opted for the chip shot field goal rather than take a shot at the end zone. Florida never scored again.

That's not to mention the Tennessee game of 2009, as I explained earlier.

The most annoying thing of all was that nobody outside of hardcore Gator fans noticed the problem.

In 2009, Addazio was able to hide how bad his offense was behind the great defense of the Gators, which kept them winning games.  Addazio took an offense with one of the greatest players in college football history, and an offense that was oozing with talent beyond that, and turned them into a mediocre offense that could not maintain a drive consistently.  

The team lost Louis Murphy and Percy Harvin from 2008, but the massive drop-off in offensive production is much more a result of the switch from Mullen to Addazio than it is the downgrades at wide receiver.

Addazio sticks with his game plan no matter how ineffective it is, often continuing to force HB dives with 110-lb. running backs and weak screen passes as the defense continues to eat them up, and refuses to try and stretch the field vertically when necessary.

Can anybody disagree?

Normally, I wish Gator coaches nothing but the best in moving on, but with Addazio, I hope—and honestly believe—that he gets his brains beaten in 12 times.

If Addazio hires a young hotshot offensive coordinator, and has his call plays, Temple very well may turn out to be pleased with Addazio, because in all honesty, he is a great offensive line coach and recruiter. But if Addazio runs the offense himself…

It’s really a disgrace to think of all the talent Florida had in 2009, and how much they underperformed. If only Dan Mullen were the offensive coordinator for one more year….

Then Florida would have crushed Alabama for the SEC title, and Texas would have been next.

Oh, if only...

Maybe Charlie Weis can do that?

Time for one more prediction on Addazio at Florida.

Ready?

He acts like the p*ssy that he is, crawls back into his shell, and PSU beats Florida, 17-14.

I really hope I'm wrong...