{"id":414635,"date":"2026-09-30T12:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/414635\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T12:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:42:10","slug":"ufs-run-game-rolls-but-buster-faulkner-has-more-tricks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/414635\/","title":{"rendered":"UF’s run game rolls, but Buster Faulkner has more tricks"},"content":{"rendered":"

GAINESVILLE \u2014 Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner<\/a> is obsessed with Xs and Os, fanatical about formations and possessed by scoring points.<\/p>\n

He is ready to dig into his bag of tricks to challenge defenses, but he also doesn\u2019t overthink it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love plays,\u201d Faulker said Tuesday. \u201cBut we try to do what our guys are good at.\u201d<\/p>\n

He knew a good thing when he saw it during last Saturday\u2019s 52-28 rout of Ole Miss<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Florida\u2019s run game was unstoppable<\/a>, allowing Faulkner to unleash Jadan Baugh, Duke Clark and a collection of players that has discovered the joy of manhandling defenders.<\/p>\n

When the dust settled, the Gators had amassed 302 rushing yards \u2014 widely considered the gold standard of dominance on the ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re going to rush the ball \u2014 especially without the quarterback element \u2014 for 300 yards, it takes all 11 on the field,\u201d Faulkner said.<\/p>\n

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\u2019 backup.<\/p>\n

But Philo\u2019s deep-seeded understanding of Faulker\u2019s scheme allows the 21-year-old to orchestrate it without a hitch.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting us in the right run, timing the motion, all the things that go with it,\u201d Faulkner said.<\/p>\n

Endless repetition and unabridged buy-in, especially from Florida\u2019s explosive playmakers on the perimeter, creates a mentality defenses are then challenged to match.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach Buster says, when the whole stadium knows you\u2019re running the ball, we\u2019re still gonna run,\u201d sophomore receiver Dallas Wilson<\/a> said Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\"FloridaFlorida running back Jadan Baugh has thrived in Buster Faulkner’s offense while leading the SEC with 600 rushing yards and the nation with 11 touchdowns. (AP Photo\/Noah Lantor)<\/p>\n

Having Baugh and Clark helps.<\/p>\n

With 600 rushing yards, including 142 against Ole Miss, the 6-foot, 222-pound Baugh leads the SEC by 198 yards over Mississippi State\u2019s Fluff Bothwell. Baugh\u2019s 11 touchdowns lead the nation \u2014 and are the most through the first four games of a season since SEC expansion in 1992.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe moves like a 185-pound guy,\u201d Faulkner marveled. \u201cYou can see the wiggle. He\u2019s very unique in that aspect. Once he gets his pads going downhill, and there were a few runs the other day \u2026 that\u2019s what\u2019s gonna carry him for the rest of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Clark\u2019s emergence, Baugh doesn\u2019t have to shoulder the load, either.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The two backs combined for seven runs of at least 10 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey make explosive plays out of nowhere\u201d Wilson said of the duo. \u201cPlays you couldn\u2019t see some people make often.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Gators\u2019 1-2 punch gives Faulkner a hammer he is ready to use to wear down defenses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s important, imposing your will in all football,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Faulkner also has plenty of options in his toolbox.<\/p>\n

The visor-wearing 44-year-old grew up in Georgia enraptured by Steve Spurrier coaching at Florida.<\/p>\n

Faulkner quarterbacked Atlanta\u2019s Parkview High School to the 1997 4A state championship \u2014\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Since then, Faulkner has continued to develop a deep catalogue of plays during a two-decade coaching career.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to be an offense that can beat you in really any fashion,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we\u2019ve got to drop back, we\u2019ve got play-action, screen game, all the different things. When the time arises, we\u2019ve got to be able to beat you in those cases.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edgar Thompson can be reached at egthompson@orlandosentinel.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Up next<\/p>\n

What: UF (4-0, 2-0 SEC) at Missouri (3-1, 0-1)<\/p>\n

When: 3:30 p.m., Saturday<\/p>\n

Where: Faurot Field, Columbia, Missouri<\/p>\n

TV: ABC<\/p>\n

Favorite: Florida by 5.5 points<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GAINESVILLE \u2014 Florida offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner is obsessed with Xs and Os, fanatical about formations and possessed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[111,28,2530,2496,114,139,141,140,76046,110],"class_list":["post-414635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-orlando","tag-college-sports","tag-florida","tag-florida-gators","tag-gainesville","tag-latest-headlines","tag-orlando","tag-orlando-headlines","tag-orlando-news","tag-social-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}