In the season opener against heavily favored Houston – one of the most famous games in school history – Pancoast devised a game plan that left the Cougars, ranked No. 1 in Playboy magazine’s preseason poll, stumbling toward the exits of Florida Field.
“By the end of the third quarter, we could have run anything,” former Gators All-American receiver Carlos Alvarez said Monday. “They were so confused. They had no idea what was going on. That was the case for most of the season. He was an offensive genius.”
In his first game as offensive coordinator after five seasons as an assistant for UF head coach Ray Graves, Pancoast’s pass-heavy scheme overwhelmed Houston’s defense in the Gators’ 59-34 victory. The win launched a 9-1-1 season and the phenoms known as the “Super Sophs,” a group of sophomores that included Alvarez, quarterback John Reaves, fullback Mike Rich and tailback Tommy “Touchdown” Durrance, among others. It took three plays for the Reaves-Alvarez connection to bring fans out of their seats.
More than 50 years have passed since that memorable opener, but the Super Sophs remain a part of Gators lore thanks in part to Pancoast, who died at age 90 on April 9 in Nashville.
Recruited as a running back, Alvarez convinced the coaching staff to move him to receiver the previous season on the first-year team. In the 1969 spring game, Pancoast purposely kept Reaves under the radar, devising a plan to hit the Cougars for the long ball if the opportunity presented itself.
Reaves hit Alvarez for a 70-yard scoring strike on the game’s third play, setting the tone for what was to come that season. Under Pancoast’s direction, Florida’s offense averaged 301.6 yards passing per game, the first Southeastern Conference team to average 300 passing yards per game.
As quarterback coach in 1966, Pancoast tutored Steve Spurrier on the way to Spurrier winning the Heisman Trophy.
“He made me a better and much smarter coach,” Pancoast told Nashville sports historian Bill Traughber in 2011. “I hit it just right where I coached him as a junior and senior. Of course, he won the Heisman Trophy…
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