One-on-one with Coach Dan Mullen

Larry Vettel

FightinGators.com
Dec 21, 2004

Sunday evening I had a chance to visit on the phone with one of the new members of the Gator coaching staff, quarterbacks coach Dan Mullen. After helping Alex Smith to a top four finish in the Heisman voting, Mullen will attempt to do the same with Gator junior-to-be Chris Leak. Here is a partial (edited) transcript.

Vettel: How tough has it been to prepare for the opportunity at Florida while still doing justice to Utah and the kids who got you to this point?
Mullen: It's been real tough, I mean Urban's put together a great plan. I have yet to make it to Gainesville even, which I can't wait to get down there. But I've been staying here trying to keep people focused on the bowl game in our own program. The great thing that's happened for us out here is that the University of Utah has hired a new head coach, Kyle Whittingham, the defensive coordinator who is already here. That alone has brought complete stability back to the program and allowed the kids breathe a sigh of relief and now get their focus back on football and winning this bowl game.

Vettel: Talk to me about this offense. It does a lot of similar things to what Florida does, but also mixes in some unique things with the quarterback running with the ball. How would you describe what you guys do out there?

Mullen: Really when the offensive was created what we wanted to do was spread people out and make them defend the entire field. When you talk to defensive coaches, what causes them the most issues, you know? One being a team that can throw the ball. If you want to be a successful passing team in college the best way you do that is by spreading the field out, getting into empty sets, spread it out and let the quarterback see what's really going on. When I was at Notre Dame with Bob Davie we'd be playing Tennessee and Michigan and those people. You know he'd be kinda worried but feeling okay with the defense. Then we'd go play Navy and he'd be in a cold sweat, so what we tried to is combine the option football with that spread passing attack to really cause defense problems and force them to stay in one defense.

Vettel: Most teams are either pass-oriented or run oriented. They are option teams or they're not. You're basically creating a three-style hybrid. My question is, how hard is that to teach, and thus how hard will it be for returning players to learn here in Gainesville?

Mullen: In all the offenses I've been involved with I think it's the easiest offense. Now, the tricky part is it takes a little while to get used to it. But once you have things down, very little changes. We don't change a whole lot of our plan from week to week. When you're coaching the quarterback and you can say, okay this is the defense they're running this week, he'll come in and say, I pretty much know the game plan already because I know how we attack this defense. Our goal obviously is by the end of spring and by the end of camp, to get everything cranked up and everybody on it for the opening game against Wyoming next year and we get a chance to let it go a little bit.

Vettel: One thing that Urban said in his press conference that really stuck with me was that, really there is no offense, per se. There is a scheme and a philosophy that is tailored to the personnel. You've had it with Josh Harris at Bowling Green and now Alex Smith at Utah, now you're inheriting a guy in Chris Leak who has had quite a bit of success. Give us a sense of how things can be tailored for the skills of the quarterback.

Mullen: What we'll do is in designing who is going to carry the ball, or who is going to touch the ball. What we can go is tweak little things on reads. We were at Bowling Green and we had Josh Harris, who was basically a 235-pound tailback who could throw the ball. We would just line up there and almost be a single-wing team and let him pound away at people. When we came out here to Utah, well, we had Alex, and the best way to make people defend was to find more ways to get the ball into the running backs hands and one way to do that was to make people back up and defend the pass. From everything I know about Chris (Leak) he's a great student of the game and he's obviously a great passer. From what I've seen so far he going to be much more in the mold of an Alex Smith; a smart, good decision maker who is a great passer. So we can kind of stay on the same path we've been on here. The thing I'm excited about is I hear there are great wide receivers and a lot of skill guys we can create matchups against and cause some issues for the defense that way.

Vettel: Yeah, you got some good toys to play with.

Mullen: I can't wait, I'm thrilled and I think it's going to be exciting, you know and I hope all the kids down there are excited to get to learn a new offense. Our offense is a lot of fun and kids enjoy playing in it because there are a lot of ways to spread the ball around. If you're a receiver you are going to get to run with the ball we're going to pitch it to you and you're gonna run. If you're a running back, we're going to throw the ball to you and move it that way. We're going to try and create matchups and get the ball into our playmakers hands as much as possible.

Vettel: Have you had a chance to talk with Chris Leak?

Mullen: I spoke with him briefly, just to introduce myself. He and I talked and his biggest focus right now, and Chris knows this, is to beat the Hurricanes. That'll be a great launching point for our season next year to come away from the Peach Bowl with a big victory.

Later this week I'll have more with Dan Mullen, including his personal scouting report on the Gators' new head coach. Plus he shares his thoughts on spending New Year's Eve watching the Gators and Hurricanes, and why it's important to all the coaches coming to Gainesville that Utah get the job done against Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl.

Is Florida's Tebow Revolutionizing The Position?

By ANDY STAPLES, The Tampa Tribune
Published: December 8, 2007

NEW YORK - The scene looks so familiar. A linebacker-sized quarterback in the shotgun. Five receivers, spread the entire width of the field.

The quarterback takes the snap and runs into the teeth of the line. He bursts through. The free safety stands in his way. The poor, poor free safety. The quarterback dips his shoulder. Kaboom! The free safety lands on his back. Two defenders finally wrestle the quarterback down inches short of the goal line.

Another one for the Tim Tebow highlight reel, right? Not exactly.

The scene is the first play of a highlight video for Los Alamitos (Calif.) High junior quarterback Clark Evans. And thanks in part to the 51 TDs scored this season by Tebow, the University of Florida's sophomore quarterback, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Evans could become one of the nation's most prized recruits next year.

After tonight, the demand for a single-wing tailback with a howitzer for an arm may soar. Tebow could become the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy in the award's 72-year history.

While Tebow, Arkansas tailback Darren McFadden, Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan and Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel wait to learn who will claim the trophy, coaches from schools throughout the country are scouring high schools looking for the next Tebow. Meanwhile, thanks to Tebow, junior varsity linebackers, tight ends and fullbacks may go to bed tonight dreaming of one day tossing TD passes and freight-training free safeties.

"I've been saying it all season. I think Tim Tebow is revolutionizing the position," ESPN analyst Kirk Herbstreit said. "There are kids who are in middle school now, built like linebackers or tight ends, and they've always been pushed in a certain kind of way as a 13-, 14- or 15-year-old.

"Now they see Tim Tebow, who's built like a linebacker, but he has the ability to throw the ball and now there's a place for that guy in this spread offense."

Even teams that don't use the spread may want a Tebow-type running their offense.

South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier, Florida's first Heisman Trophy winner and one of the nation's best molders of pro-style, drop-back quarterbacks, decided after this season he needs an athlete - not just a pure passer - under center. To that end, he hopes former Jefferson High star Stephen Garcia, a mobile, 6-3, 215-pounder, can win Carolina's starting job next season.

"You need a guy back there who can move around," Spurrier said, "because four or five times in the course of a game, you have an opportunity to change things."

Rivals.com recruiting analyst Barry Every believes other coaches who run more traditional offenses may alternate between recruiting drop-back passers and what recruitniks call "dual-threat" quarterbacks. Every, who said West Virginia quarterback Pat White deserves as much credit as Tebow for the paradigm shift at quarterback, said coaches who run pro-style offenses might use the athletic quarterback as a change of pace. Florida did it last year, spelling Chris Leak with Tebow. This season, LSU played its way to the national title game with pro-style quarterback Matt Flynn occasionally replaced by dual-threat Ryan Perriloux.

"You're really going to see schools try to get an athletic quarterback," Every said.

Recruiting rankings have begun to reflect that demand. Rivals lists Terrelle Pryor, a 6-6, 235-pound dual-threat quarterback from Jeannette, Pa., as the nation's No. 1 prospect in the class of 2008.

Meanwhile, across the country, Los Alamitos coach John Barnes is preparing for the onslaught of college coaches who will try to get Evans to make their campus his home in 2009. Barnes, who used four-receiver sets before Evans, said he has switched to a version of the spread, except near the goal line. There, Barnes said, Evans runs a 1950s-style single-wing. Evans threw for 2,358 and 16 touchdowns and ran for 958 yards and 13 touchdowns in 10 games as a junior. Do those numbers ring familiar?

"I tell coaches," Barnes said, "he's Tim Tebow."

But the Tebow effect hasn't only changed offenses. Just ask Armwood coach Sean Callahan, whose team lost to Tebow's Ponte Vedra Beach Nease team in the 2005 Class 4A state title game.

"We changed our defense," Callahan said, "because of him."

Callahan realized he needed faster defensive linemen to stop the spread. Now, when it comes time to place a player on offense or defense, Callahan makes sure his biggest, fastest players go to the defensive line - because they might stand a chance against a rampaging 235-pound QB.

Still, some believe the Tebow effect may be limited because Tebow may have once-in-a-generation ability.

"Is he going to revolutionize the position? I don't see many out there like him," Tennessee coach Phillip Fulmer said this week. "That's a very unusual skill set he has. I don't see many Tebows out there."

Maybe because they've all been playing linebacker or defensive end. But the next generation of football players may not feel constrained by an antiquated idea of how a quarterback should look. Want proof? Go to Google and enter the phrase "next Tim Tebow" into the search box.[See Video below]

Then click the second link and watch Clark Evans and imagine how many more running, throwing juggernauts dot the football landscape. And while you're at it, pity the poor, poor free safeties who'll get steamrolled by a quarterback revolution.

Reporter Andy Staples can be reached at (352) 262-3719 or astaples@tampatrib.com.

The Next Tim Tebow?

Watching Junior quarterback Clark Evans of Los Alamitos (Calif.), it doesn't take long to find a quarterback to compare him to. How many other quarterbacks in the country run the ball like Mike Alstott and have a good enough arm to play quarterback in college?




Los Alamitos coach John Barnes is preparing for the onslaught of college coaches who will try to get Evans to make their campus his home in 2009. Barnes, who used four-receiver sets before Evans, said he has switched to a version of the spread, except near the goal line. There, Barnes said, Evans runs a 1950s-style single-wing. Evans threw for 2,358 and 16 touchdowns and ran for 958 yards and 13 touchdowns in 10 games as a junior. Do those numbers ring familiar?

"I tell coaches," Barnes said, "he's Tim Tebow."

Single-Wing Touchdowns the Diffence In Heisman

Tebow Makes Heisman History
By RALPH D. RUSS

NEW YORK (AP) — Tim Tebow needed only two years of college to graduate to Heisman Trophy winner, putting the sophomore in a class by himself.

Florida's folk-hero quarterback with the rugged running style and magnetic personality won the Heisman on Saturday night to become the first sophomore or freshman to take college football's most prestigious award.

Since 1935, when Single-Wing Tailback, Jay Berwanger of Chicago won the first Heisman, every winner had been a junior or senior — until Tebow, who picked up quite a souvenir on his first trip to New York.

"I am fortunate, fortunate for a lot of things," Tebow said. "God truly blessed me and this just adds on. It's an honor. I'm so happy to be here."

He beat out Arkansas running back Darren McFadden, the first player since 1949 to finish second in consecutive seasons. Tebow received 1,957 points and 462 first-place votes to McFadden's 1,703 points and 291 first-place votes.

Hawaii quarterback Colt Brennan was third, and Missouri quarterback Chase Daniel fourth.

A year after Tebow helped Florida win a national title, and in his first season as the Gators' starter, the chiseled 235-pound quarterback in a fullback's body put together a historic campaign. He's the first major college player to run for 20 touchdowns and throw 20 TD passes in the same season.

"When I get back to the University of Florida, we're going to have fun," Tebow said.

In an unpredictable college football season, the Heisman race was as unsettled as the national title chase. Tebow emerged as the front-runner even though Florida (9-3) stumbled early.

Six of the last seven Heisman winners picked up their bronze statues on the way to playing in the national championship game. Tebow won't get that chance this season, but Heisman voters didn't hold Florida's failure to defend its national title against him.

McFadden slumped in October before finishing with a huge November, capping his season with a spectacular performance — 206 yards rushing, three touchdowns and a TD pass — in the Razorbacks' 50-48 triple-overtime win over No. 1 LSU. It seems doubtful the junior with sprinter's speed will return to Arkansas next year to make another run at the Heisman. Not with some NFL team likely to make him a top-10 draft pick.

Brennan and Daniel each passed for over 4,000 yards and led their teams to breakout seasons.

But no player was more important to his team than Tebow.

The closest he came to a bad game came in a 28-24 loss at LSU, when he completed 12 of 26 passes for 158 yards, throwing for two scores and running for another. He finished with a school-record 3,970 yards of total offense and accounted for 51 touchdowns.

Simply put, he's the perfect quarterback for coach Urban Meyer's spread-option offense.

Florida fans might argue Tebow is just plain perfect.

Tebowisms have become all the rage with Gators fans on the Internet. A sampling: Superman wears Tim Tebow pajamas. Tim Tebow has counted to infinity ... twice. Tim Tebow ordered a Big Mac at Burger King, and got one.

And if joining Steve Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel as the only Florida players to win the Heisman Trophy wasn't enough to make Tebow the most popular man in Gainesville, there's one more reason for Gators fans to be excited: the promise of two more years of Tebow, who has said he has no plans to leave school after his junior season.

The legend of Tebow started at Nease High School in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla., where he once finished a game playing on a broken leg.

Homeschooled by missionary parents who run an orphanage in the Philippines, Tebow took advantage of a Florida state law to play for Nease, about 90 miles from the University of Florida campus.

Tebow has worked and preached at his parents' orphanage since he was 15. He regularly speaks at schools and delivered his message of faith at a prison in Florida earlier this year.

He arrived in Gainesville with superstar status, and Gators fans could hardly wait to see their quarterback of the future.

In a part-time role as a complement to Chris Leak, Tebow played with a fiery passion. He bowled over defenders and bounced around the field, fists pumping and arms waving.

He ran for 469 yards and eight touchdowns as a freshman, throwing only enough to take advantage of defenses stacked to stop him from running.

This season, the Gators became Tebow's team and at times he was a one-man offense.

He completed 68 percent of his attempts for 3,132 yards and 29 touchdowns and continued to run with reckless abandon, even while playing the second half of the season with a very sore shoulder.

Compensating for the Gators' lack of a reliable tailback, Tebow led Florida with 838 yards rushing and set a Southeastern Conference record with 22 touchdowns. With speed and a strong arm to go with his power and grit, Tebow is part throwback to the days of single-wing football and part 21st century prototype for the position.

Add winning the Heisman as a sophomore, and Tebow is truly one of a kind.

The Associated Press