Florida relies on an unconventional running approach

	Florida freshman receiver Percy Harvin is the Gators' most dangerous running threat, averaging 11.3 yards per rush. Dale Zanine/US PRESSWIRE
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PARADISE VALLEY, Ariz. -- From USC routing Michigan by eliminating the handoff from its playbook to Boise State breaking out seemingly every trick play ever invented to Louisville and Wake Forest simply playing in the Orange Bowl, the 2007 BCS bowl season has been one for the nonconformists.

Now, along come the Florida Gators, playing for a national championship in spite of -- or is it because of? -- a running game centered around a freshman backup quarterback and a freshman receiver.

"It's hard to imagine," conceded second-year Florida coach Urban Meyer.

Contrary to the perception that hovered over them much of the regular season, the Gators do have a relatively powerful offense. They rank 19th in the country with 398.1 yards per game, just three spots behind their opponent in Monday night's BCS title game, Ohio State. Their 160.3 rushing yards per game isn't stupendous, but it's higher than that of two previous BCS champions, Florida State in 1999 and Oklahoma in 2000.

So why, then, do so many people still perceive Florida's offense as dysfunctional? Some might say it's because QB Chris Leak seems so misfit for Meyer's preferred spread-option attack. Others may cite the Gators' penchant for drive-stalling penalties (8.5 per game, second-worst nationally).

But there's also another factor that rarely gets talked about: The inherent disbelief that anyone could field a national-championship offense with a No. 1 tailback, DeShawn Wynn, who averages less than 10 carries per game, including just one attempt in Florida's SEC championship victory over Arkansas.

"We always want to be a team of 50-50 [run-pass] balance," said Florida offensive coordinator Dan Mullen. "We had to find a different way to get our other 50."

Credit the creativity of Meyer and Mullen -- a pair of outside-the-box play-callers who have now successfully adapted their version of the spread at three different schools (Bowling Green, Utah and Florida) in three different conferences -- for getting the Gators this far. They wouldn't have been able to do it, however, without the arrival of a pair of uniquely talented freshmen.

When all-everything recruits Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin committed to Florida within a week of each other in December 2005, Gators fans began conjuring images of the quarterback-receiver tandem leading their team to national titles in the years to come. But even they couldn't have predicted both would play starring roles on a national-title contender this season.