Is a huge turnaround ahead for John Brantley?

By Adam Silverstein
February 15, 2011

Florida Gators redshirt junior quarterback John Brantley decided to finish out his career in the orange and blue once he learned offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Charlie Weis would be the one providing him the opportunity to turn everything around. The “Football Scientist” KC Joyner believes Brantley was not as abysmal as he appeared in 2010 and has the opportunity to be elite in 2011.

Citing evaluations he made during Brantley’s performances against three FBS top-31 defenses of Tennessee, Alabama and LSU (all games that came before Florida moved to a QB rotation), Joyner concludes that the signal caller “had very little to do with the terrible state of the Florida offense in 2010.”

Read Joyner’s analysis of Brantley and the offense…after the break!

Here are the combined statistics from those three games:

Composite passer rating: 112.2
CMP/ATT: 46/78 (60%) | YDS: 523 | TD: 1 | INT: 3
Yards per attempt: 6.7

Below are the medium depth (balls thrown 11-19 yards) statistics Joyner discovered:

Composite passer rating: 214.4 (“ridiculously high”)
CMP/ATT: 19/24 (79.2%) | YDS: 347 | TD: 1
Yards per attempt: 14.5

As Joyner concludes, “Those are simply phenomenal numbers on their face, but considering that they came on medium depth throws (some of the hardest completions to make) and against three tough pass defenses, they are even more incredible.”

He also notes that Brantley “only had two bad decisions in 82 dropbacks, for a bad decision rate of 2.5 percent” and compares the rate which he does not to make bad decisions (turnovers or near turnovers) to that of Peyton Manning.

So why was the Gators’ offense so terrible, and why did Brantley look inept?

Joyner cites Florida’s propensity for dropping passes (a “simply unacceptable” 8.5 percent), Brantley having eight passes tipped (two of which led to interceptions, two others to near interceptions) due to offensive line issues, and the offensive line allowing five sacks in those games.

Though Brantley will need to improve his preparation and overall quarterback intelligence, Joyner believes Weis’s affect on the entire offense will provide him with a cushion he did not have in 2010.

Getting receivers to run crisper routes will also be high on Weis’ priority list. […] Errors like this are something that should be easily correctable with effective coaching. […] If Weis can effectively coach up the receiving corps and offensive line, and get his QB in a Cassel- or Jimmy Clausen-like comfort zone to take advantage of his considerable downfield passing skills, Brantley could be able to engineer a serious turnaround in the Swamp in 2011.