Florida’s run game is rolling, but Buster Faulkner has more tricks to come
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GAINESVILLE — Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner is obsessed with Xs and Os, fanatical about formations and possessed by scoring points.
He is ready to dig into his bag of tricks to challenge defenses, but he also doesn’t overthink it.
“I love plays,” Faulker said Tuesday. “But we try to do what our guys are good at.”
He knew a good thing when he saw it during last Saturday’s 52-28 rout of Ole Miss.
Florida’s run game was unstoppable, allowing Faulkner to unleash Jadan Baugh, Duke Clark and a collection of players that has discovered the joy of manhandling defenders.
When the dust settled, the Gators had amassed 302 rushing yards — widely considered the gold standard of dominance on the ground.
“When you’re going to rush the ball — especially without the quarterback element — for 300 yards, it takes all 11 on the field,” Faulkner said.
Quarterback Aaron Philo is an effective runner, but certainly not elite like Haynes King, who ran wild under Faulkner the past two seasons at Georgia Tech while Philo served as the Yellow Jackets’ backup.
But Philo’s deep-seeded understanding of Faulker’s scheme allows the 21-year-old to orchestrate it without a hitch.
“Getting us in the right run, timing the motion, all the things that go with it,” Faulkner said.
Endless repetition and unabridged buy-in, especially from Florida’s explosive playmakers on the perimeter, creates a mentality defenses are then challenged to match.
“Coach Buster says, when the whole stadium knows you’re running the ball, we’re still gonna run,” sophomore receiver Dallas Wilson said Tuesday.
Having Baugh and Clark helps.
With 600 rushing yards, including 142 against Ole Miss, the 6-foot, 222-pound Baugh leads the SEC by 198 yards over Mississippi State’s Fluff Bothwell. Baugh’s 11 touchdowns lead the nation — and are the most through the first four games of a season since SEC expansion in 1992.
“He moves like a 185-pound guy,” Faulkner marveled. “You can see the wiggle. He’s very unique in that aspect. Once he gets his pads going downhill, and there were a few runs the other day … that’s what’s gonna carry him for the rest of his career.”
With Clark’s emergence, Baugh doesn’t have to shoulder the load, either.
A 6-foot-2, 208-pound sophomore, Clark moves like a smaller man himself. A 45-yard touchdown run against Ole Miss featured two cutbacks that left defenders in the dust and highlighted 126-yard day on just 12 carries.
The two backs combined for seven runs of at least 10 yards.
“They make explosive plays out of nowhere” Wilson said of the duo. “Plays you couldn’t see some people make often.”
The Gators’ 1-2 punch gives Faulkner a hammer he is ready to use to wear down defenses.
“That’s important, imposing your will in all football,” he said.
Faulkner also has plenty of options in his toolbox.
The visor-wearing 44-year-old grew up in Georgia enraptured by Steve Spurrier coaching at Florida.
Faulkner quarterbacked Atlanta’s Parkview High School to the 1997 4A state championship — the first state title in school history. He later led Valdosta State to the 2002 Division II championship, where the Blaze lost a 31-24 heartbreaker to Grand Valley State.
Since then, Faulkner has continued to develop a deep catalogue of plays during a two-decade coaching career.
The run game was rolling at Auburn, where Florida finished with 242 rushing yards, and against Ole Miss in the Swamp. But Saturday at No. 25 Missouri (3-1, 0-1 SEC), Faulkner and No. 8 Gators (4-0, 2-0) will be ready to adapt on the fly if needed.
“We want to be an offense that can beat you in really any fashion,” he said. “If we’ve got to drop back, we’ve got play-action, screen game, all the different things. When the time arises, we’ve got to be able to beat you in those cases.”
Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com
Up next
What: UF (4-0, 2-0 SEC) at Missouri (3-1, 0-1)
When: 3:30 p.m., Saturday
Where:Faurot Field, Columbia, Missouri
TV: ABC
Favorite: Florida by 5.5 points
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