How Florida football OC Buster Faulkner's Air Raid roots will shape UF offense

Buster Faulkner is aware of the expectations of Florida football fans when it comes to high-powered offenses.

Faulkner grew up a Steve Spurrier fan and revered the Head Ball Coach's 'Fun N Gun' offenses that attacked defenses with crossing patterns and downfield throws when the Florida Gators reigned in the SEC in the 1990s.

"The way he went about it, he would talk trash a little bit along the way," Faulkner said of Spurrier. "So that was always fun to watch. As a kid, he was an outside-the-box thinker. He was ahead of his time right? Like always adjusting. I thought that was something that I take a great deal of pride in, is just trying to stay ahead of the game."

As new UF offensive coordinator, Faulkner said his goal is to bring an innovative offense to The Swamp while tailoring it to the strengths of the roster.

"Nowadays in football there’s so much film," Faulkner said. "There’s iPads on the sidelines. There’s great coaches. There’s big staffs. They find tendencies. I’m always trying to find ways to stay ahead of that. When the playing field is even you have to find a cutting edge. I’m always for the cutting edge. What can we do better and stay ahead of it."

How Valdosta State roots shaped Florida football OC Buster Faulkner

Before guiding one of the top offenses in the country at Georgia Tech last season, Faulkner cut his teeth 107 miles north of Gainesville at Valdosta State, first as a quarterback from 2000-03 and then a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator from 2007-08.

As Valdosta State's offensive coordinator from 2000-06, David Dean recruited Faulkner out of Parkview HS in Lilburn, Georgia, where he won two state titles. That ability to win carried over to Valdosta State, where Faulkner went 47-6 as a starter and led the Blazers to a Division II national runner-up finish in 2002.

"He had great leadership ability, and I knew when he got into coaching, that trait was going to carry over, it was going to make him successful," Dean said. "I think from a standpoint was he was extremely smart, he knows the game very well, he studies the game very well, he's got a good feel of how the game progresses and how the game moves and flows and I think that's a reason why he's such a good play caller."

At 5-foot-11, Faulkner made up for his physical limitations at quarterback with his toughness and football IQ.

"He had to overcome a lot of traits," said former Valdosta State defensive coordinator Ashley Anders, whose defenses Faulkner faced in practice. "He wasn't the tallest, he didn't have the strongest arm, he wasn't the fastest by any means, but yeah he studied the game, man. That's one thing that helped him be successful. He knew what to do with the ball, that's for sure."

Anders said that Valdosta State's head coach at the time, Chris Hatcher, liked to keep his quarterbacks on edge and constantly competing for their job. Faulkner, Anders said, relished that challenge.

"Those guys saw everything," Anders said. "They had weeks where we were going to blitz them to death and they had other defenses that dropped nine every time, so you never know what you are going to see.

"But man, I saw that guy get his head knocked off and get back up and go back to the huddle and you go 'Golly ,how did he get up from that?' But just his determination, and his toughness, he'd get the crap knocked out of him and I don't think he would ever miss a snap."

How Buster Faulkner became Florida football OC

Florida football coach Jon Sumrall had a long-standing relationship with Faulkner, beginning when he coached against him as a defensive assistant at Troy while Faulkner was the offensive coordinator at Arkansas State. The two also vacationed at the same beach each summer and would see each other during Fourth of July weekends.

"From a defensive perspective, when you evaluate offensive coordinators, you're looking for people who can make the scheme fit the people," Sumrall said. "Everything is player driven. I think you've seen Buster evolve and adapt to, okay, who's my quarterback, and what's our O-line do well, and then who are the skill people we want to distribute the football to."

After working as quarterbacks coach at Georgia under Kirby Smart during UGA's national title seasons in 2021 and 2022, Faulkner blossomed in three seasons as offensive coordinator at Georgia Tech. In that three-season span, Georgia Tech's offenses ranked first in the ACC in rushing (197.8), second in total offense (437.7), third in passing efficiency (144.1) and fifth in scoring offense (31.0).

"Full disclosure, my first couple of conversations with Buster about maybe being on my staff happened before I was the head coach at Florida," Sumrall said.

Faulkner confirmed that interest was mutual, saying they've talked about working together "for a few years."

"Jon and I've known each other now probably going on four or five years," Faulkner said. "I think you can see his passion, his energy, you know, he's a proven winner, and that's something that I was attracted to, right? Obviously, Florida's a great place, got a great tradition, and, you know, I look forward to helping restore what's going on here in the past. I really believe that we can do it."

How will Florida football's offense look under Buster Faulkner

Faulkner learned under the lineage of Air Raid coaches at Valdosta State that includes Hatcher, Hal Mumme and the late Mike Leach.

"We're going to be young at quarterback, pretty inexperienced upfront," Faulkner said. "So, between now and the time we kick off in September, we've got to get a ton of reps, build continuity, find out who can play for us. And those are all Air Raid principles.
You know, everybody thinks just the ball is in the air in the Air Raid, which, that part is true, right? But the repetitions that went into getting them there is what, to me, was second to none. The way the practice is organized, the way the practice is structured. I was able to take a lot of those principles, right, and do them in different facets of what we do offensively."

With junior running back Jadan Baugh returning for UF, Faulkner will look to establish the run as well. The 6-foot-1, 231-pound Baugh emerged as one of the top running backs in the SEC last season, rushing for 1,170 yards and 8 TDs.

"He knows that you have to be able to run the football," Anders said. "A lot of times you have quarterback coaches that end up becoming play callers, they want to throw it because that's what they liked to do as a player, but his understanding of the game, he knows you have to run the football in order to be successful."

But Faulkner said he's willing to experiment with different formations − including four-wide receiver sets − if that's what suits the offense best. Florida returns two rising sophomore wide receivers − Vernell Brown III and Dallas Wilson − who showed flashes of playmaking ability as true freshmen last season. From the transfer portal, UF added another speedy, proven SEC receiver in former Auburn wideout Eric Singleton, who played under Faulkner at Georgia Tech from 2023-24.

"I want to be able to push the field vertically, horizontally, over the middle, every which way we can," Faulkner said. "Get them involved in the run game. Whatever it takes. The thing about receivers is usually they're the fastest guys on the team, and you can kind of look at what we've done in the past is how do we get them the ball in space so they can make plays? That's looked different at a bunch of different stops for me. Over the last couple of years, we've played around the strengths of the quarterback that we had, but that didn't mean the receivers weren't heavily involved in the gameplan."

Faulkner pointed out when he coached Singleton at Georgia Tech, the speedy 5-foot-10 receiver rushed for close to 200 yards.

"He's able to find ways to get his playmakers the football," Dean said, "He's able to find ways to create opportunities to make plays and extend drives and make big plays, he finds ways to get them the football, I think being a good play caller, that's huge to what you have to do to be successful."

Kevin Brockway is The Gainesville Sun’s Florida beat writer. Contact him at kbrockway@gannett.com. Follow him on X @KevinBrockwayG1. Read his coverage of the Gators’ national championship basketball season in “CHOMP-IONS!” — a hardcover coffee-table collector’s book from The Sun. Details at Florida.ChampsBook.com

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Florida football OC Buster Faulkner on his innovative offense, Air Raid roots