Quarterback John Brantley has some huge shoes to fill in the likes of Tim Tebow for the Florida Gators. Brantley isn’t on anybody’s radar this year, except the coaching staff at Florida. Although fans are always thinking about the their current superstars, the next game, and this season, coaches are always terrified about losing their superstars and winning without them not only in case of injury, but in the future once they’re gone. Right now, John Brantley seems to be the answer for the Florida Gators when Tebow is out, but will he be the right answer? We’ll be seeing a lot of Brantley in the Gator’s spring game, and throughout the season.
John Brantley hails from Ocala, Florida, and comes from a rich tradition of Florida Gator football. His father was a quarterback at Florida from 1975-79 and started for the Gators in 1978, while his uncle, Scot, starred at linebacker for Florida from 1976-79 and played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1980-87. While almost signing with the Texas Longhorns, Brantley chose Florida in the end, to the great relief of his family.
Brantley Brings A Lot To The Table
John Brantley will be seeing plenty of playing time this year for the Florida Gators
Coming out of high school, Brantley was heralded as one of the top-three overall quarterback prospects in the nation by Rivals.com. He was chosen as a U.S. Army All-American and the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2006, owned a 27-1 record as a starter and broke the state record for career touchdown passes with 99, topping the total of 98 shared by UF quarterback Tim Tebow and Florida State signal-caller Xavier Lee.
Brantley redshirted his freshman year in 2007, but saw action in all but four games in 2008, going 18 for 28 passing for 235 yards, 3 touchdowns and one interception. He’s got the size at 6′3″, he’s got the speed – running a 4.5 forty, and he’s got the arm to throw the long ball and can throw with accuracy. He’s been schooled in the fundamentals since he was a baby by his father, and was born and bred to be a playmaker. Interestingly enough he’s billed as a pro-style pocket passer, and even with his speed isn’t considered a great scrambler. But you can be sure that as young as he is, and following in the footsteps of Tim Tebow, he’ll learn how to run as good as any of em. In fact, it’s well known that Colt McCoy wasn’t a very good runner in his early years at Texas, and look how well he developed. Teaching a runner to be quarterback can be impossible, teaching a fast quarterback to run is no big deal.
With three years of eligibility left coming into the 2009-2010 season, and playing on the preseason #1 ranked Florida Gators, you can be sure that Quarterback John Brantley will be seeing a whole lot of playing time this year for Florida, who stands to be way out in front during many of their games this year and will be looking to get a lot of playing time for their future stars. Expect to see him dominate the playing time for his squad in the spring game, and get on the field in a meaningful way in almost every contest throughout the season. The only tough decision the coaching staff has to deal with is how much playing time to give him in place of Tebow in Tim’s senior year with the Gators.
So watch closely, Florida Gator fans, because the future of your franchise is right in front of you, and as you’ve come to expect, things are looking up for the Gators.
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“Plenty of Playing time” this season? Are You Serious? Define “Plenty of Playing time”. Do you mean inside of 5 minutes to go in the 4th quarter. This is Tebow’s farewell tour and he is going to be pulling out all the stops! I don’t remember Fulmer playing Tee Martin alot, Peyton’s senior year. If Urban told this kid that he is going to get “plenty of playing time” than he really is the “king of BS”.
He is a great athlete but Brantley is on mop duty this year. I watched all of the Gators games last year and the only game that Meyer pulled Tebow before the start of the 4th quarter was the Kentucky game when they were up 56-3 at the end of the 3rd. This kid almost transfered to Texas which he was originally committed to before switching to the Gators a few years back. He beat out Cameron Newton for the Number 2 role(I believe Newton transferred). I agree with you that once he takes the reins (next year), he will be successful. The Gators don’t rebuild, they reload.
It might even be better for Brantley to wait till next year to start. The Gators have a bunch of new receivers including superstar recruit Andre Debose. Starting as a Redshirt Junior might be just the ticket with everybody playing at their prime.
That’s funny – you’re right, the Gators do reload – USC does too – they never run out of superstars to plugin. I also can not believe Florida is returning all 11 defensive starters. I’m not really a Florida hater, but that kinda made my stomach turn.
Ya know, you’re probably right – I’m thinkin that if I’m coachin, I want the guy that’s taking over next year to get some game experience so he isn’t comin in too cold. Besides, they’re going to be winning most games by 24 points going into the 4th quarter, with one of the top defenses in the land. But alas, Tebow will be shooting for the Heisman, the greatest year in college history, and a high draft pick in the NFL so you’re probably right, they won’t play Brantley any more than five to ten minutes a game. He’ll get more against whatever crappy teams are on the schedule ( I haven’t bothered to look at their schedule – not too many teams are going to challenge them ) and he’s gonna be awesome in 2010.
I’m trying so hard to enjoy Tebow and the Gators but I’ll be honest, I’m just not a big fan of the Gators. I am a big fan of Urban Meyer though.
I’m not a Gator fan or SC fan either. In fact, as a Georgia fan I really hope Georgia pulls the upset but that is not very likely. They do have two weeks off just like in 2007, 2004, 1997- all Georgia wins.
My sports talk philiosophy is to believe that the most obvious possibility is likely to happen because 80% of the time it does. Kind of like a Vegas Sports book. Last year the Gators covered in EVERY GAME. Not just won the game but they covered too. Urban Meyer doesn’t pull starters unless he is beating the snot out of a team. Keeping him in late helps cover an average or bad game– pading the stats. Seriously, Tebow was playing against Georgia when they were up 42-3 in the 4th. Brantley led the Gators for their last TD drive. Tebow is extremely competetive and I get the impression that he doesn’t like being taken out.
How hard can it be to train a QB with that kind of talent(Brantley). You don’t need to play him that much for him to be ready. He is ready right now, it just that he has to wait his turn. Andre Debose is basically going to take over where Percy Harvin left off. Brantley taking over for Tebow will be like Tebow just handing Brantley the keys to an old but still very efficient car that gets young every year(recruiting).