Will Muschamp, for as well-liked as he was at Florida, took the Gators offense in the wrong direction. To put it bluntly, he sucked the offensive life and excitement out of a team that has historically lit up scoreboards. As is generally the trend in college football, athletic director Jeremy Foley went the opposite direction in hiring the offensive-minded Jim McElwain to run the Gators.

While the Muschamp years weren’t fruitful offensively, but there is some talent on the roster for McElwains and offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier to work with. How can that pair get the Gators humming offensively?

  • Figure out the quarterback situation. It could very well be the case that the Gators don’t have the right quarterback on the roster. Treon Harris probably should have played sooner in 2014, but when he did get on the field he was inaccurate, especially when throwing downfield. The diminutive rising sophomore is not built to be the type of player to drop back and sling it downfield. Harris beat out fellow freshman Will Grier for the backup job in 2014, relegating the No. 2 pro-style quarterback in the class of 2014 to clipboard duties. That could flip in 2015, as Grier seems to be more equipped for the job. If neither Harris nor Grier pans out, McElwain will have to hit the recruiting trail hard.
  • Develop a No. 1 receiver. Demarcus Robinson had flashes throughout his sophomore season, but was nowhere near consistent enough to be relied on weekly. It’s very possible that the subpar receiver play from the season past had as much to do with poor quarterback play as it did with talent, but no one outside of Robinson averaged even two catches per game. The man to answer the bell could already be on the roster: Ahmad Fulwood. The 6-foot-4 beast had just 12 catches, but still finished third on the team with 199 receiving yards in 2014. He showed how dangerous he is with his 86-yard touchdown catch-and-run in the Birmingham Bowl, and in McElwain’s offense he will hopefully see increased work.
  • Balance the three running backs on the roster. One thing Muschamp always wanted to do was establish the run, and the Gators were actually pretty good at it. They bring back budding star Kelvin Taylor next year, as well as two rising sophomores in Brandon Powell and Adam Lane. We didn’t see much of Lane until the bowl game, but he was a breakout star with 109 yards and a score in the win. Lane is built like a mini-tank at 5-foot-7 and 222 pounds, and players like that can be used in an array of sets. Lane outweighs Powell by about 50 pounds, and it seems like Powell could be suited as a pass-catching scat back to complement Taylor toting the load.
  • Build offensive line depth. With D.J. Humphries heading to the NFL, the Gators have a lot of rebuilding to do up front. They’ll have at least four new starters along the line, and the players slated to step up are inexperienced. The Gators have three offensive line commits, all three-stars, in their recruiting class as it stands now, but have a big fish on the line: Martez Ivey. Pulling in the offensive tackle, the top-ranked offensive lineman in the country and the top high school player in Florida, would get the offensive line turned around in a hurry.