As this is Urban Meyer’s first season at UF without Dan Mullen as offensive coordinator, I wanted to track the offense each week, and compare the 2008 and 2009 versions- with an extra look at how new coordinator Steve Addazio fared as an offensive coordinator at Indiana in 2004.

With the recent controversy surrounding the offense, and our performance in the Tennessee game, I felt it was important to get actual facts and statistics into the discussion. But I’ll also track it on a game-by-game basis and keep you updated, so we can see what new trends are developing, if any, and see what else we can learn in the process.

The first things that jump out at me are the differences in total plays and total offense. The plays are up for a couple reasons- the pass attempts are up (though 35 of our 67 pass attempts to date were in the Troy game), and probably the hurry-up offense.

There are several stats from these first three games and last year’s first three games that don’t show up in these averaged totals, but warrant mentioning. The first is that during the Miami game of ’08, our first downs came more from passing that rushing, and almost all of the TE and RB receptions over the first three games came from that single game. Though our talent eventually won out, our line struggled with their front seven, and I think this departure from the play-calling of the other two games is a result of dealing with the Miami defense.

Similarly, in last week’s Tennessee game, we threw to running backs 5 times- more than the first two games combined. I should note that in determining throws to the running backs, I am just counting receptions by Demps, Rainey, James, and Moody… not re-watching the games and seeing where they are lined up.

The other odd thing about last week’s Tennessee game is that we had our fewest number of pass attempts on the season, which was also reflected in the first down numbers. Tebow also carried the ball 24 times, when he previously carried the ball 2 and 13 times in the first two games.

So what does all this mean? The first thing is that it is inarguable we went ultra-conservative against Tennessee this season. But the run/pass ratio was close to what we used in 2008. In fact, these are similar to the Hawaii game in 08, as well.

For all the talk of how conservative I thought we were being, we actually passed quite a bit against Charleston Southern and Troy. Some of these per-game numbers could be skewed, as our FCS opponent came much later in 08, but I’m not sure why we threw more against Troy. Were we getting more work for Tebow in the passing game for NFL scouts? Were we trying to find which receivers we could count on during the SEC schedule? Or were we just trying to find a passing game in case he wanted to crank up the scoring against Kiffin? Judging by how the UT game went, I’d say the last reason is out, and I’d also throw out the first reason because I think Urban Meyer has always been more concerned with how best to get his current team to play their best. And we definitely have issues at wide receiver.

Another truth during Urban Meyer’s tenure is that he’s always gone to the players he trusts, and his playmakers, more when the game is tight. With this team, I think it is clear he thinks our backs are the critical unit for the offense, and when handing off wasn’t working against UT, he got the ball to those guys significantly more through the air. It is interesting how he has not found receivers this season that he wants to get the ball to in running plays- Cooper and Thompson each got a single carry against Troy, and those represent all of the WR carries this season.

The Troy game started out sloppy, due to the weather and some turnovers. In times like those, Urban turns to the players he trusts the most, and that is reflected in Tebow’s drastic increase in carries from week 1 (2) to week 2 (13). It doesn’t have much to do with not using the QB position to run, because Brantley came in against Charleston Southern and got 6 rushing attempts.

What happened last week?  The late Tebow fumble swung the score significantly, if it's 30-6, we could have tried to get that extra score to cover- and I wouldn't put it past Urban.  More importantly, we had more total offense- which could be due to our lack of a special teams score, to an extent, but also means that our uncharacteristically settling for field goals led to more yards for less points.  Compared to some of Meyer's more conservative games in the past, we actually had a lot of offense, and ran a very high number of plays.  Basically, the big run never came.  If that was because our little backs were overmatched by their defenders (or illness), it doesn't really matter.  It was frustrating to me that we didn't just put in Moody (the guy on our team without a Heisman that can handle physical running) and punch some of those long drives into the end zone.  But after looking at these numbers, I'm less worried about the offense than I was before.

So what can we expect in this afternoon’s Kentucky game? I think we could cover the 21 points easily- IF the non-UT trends hold and we give our WRs a workout, trying to find someone to produce for the LSU game in two weeks. However, it is raining right now in Lexington, but supposed to clear around gametime. A sloppy game could mean more work for the backs- which could also mean we put up points, as I don’t think anyone is arguing Kentucky’s front seven is on par with Miami or Tennessee’s. Kentucky’s Trevard Lindley is a great talent at CB, so he’s another strike against airing it out. Somehow I think if the early conditions are good, we will be less “scared” of top DB talent, and more interested in finding some receivers for crunch time in Baton Rouge.