The Sunday Blog comes at you after a dud of a night when it came to games we could enjoy after a hard day’s night. Come on, man. It’s all we got.
- I refuse to believe that Florida is in a hole it can’t dig its way out of. I get a lot of feedback about how low the program is right now and a lot of blame for Jeremy Foley. True, he’s 1-3 when it comes to selecting football coaches, but the one won twice as many national titles as Florida had won in its history. Ron Zook was a mistake. Will Muschamp made a lot of sense. Jim McElwain was a panic hire because there wasn’t much out there. Sometimes, it’s timing. The point is that with all of the things that Florida plans to do to improve facilities and with the young talent still here, the right guy can get this thing headed in the right direction pretty quickly. But it has to be someone who wants to be here and can grasp what Florida is all about. Chip Kelly was not that guy.
- A former UF player has been on me about pushing for Steve Spurrier to be the new coach. He wants me to write an open letter to Spurrier begging him to come back and save the program. I have also heard from a lot of people asking that Spurrier be brought in as a bridge to the next coach. There’s one problem. “I’m finished coaching,” Spurrier said. “I’ve had my day in the sun.” He said he’d be happy to help out. If nothing else, Florida needs to tap that source as much as possible. And bring the players back into the fold the way Urban Meyer did.
- Is Alabama done? You look at how the next College Football Playoff rankings are going to shake out and it’s going to take a lot to get the Tide a chance at a national title.
* The Clemson-Miami winner is in.
* The Auburn-Georgia winner is in.
* Oklahoma is in of it beats TCU.
* Wisconsin is in if it beats Ohio State.
That fills the dance card. If Oklahoma and Wisconsin lose, Alabama has a chance and we have a reason to watch the final selection show. How about this possibility — Clemson-Alabama in the Sugar Bowl semifinal? It could happen.
- My AP ballot reads this way — 1. Clemson; 2. Wisconsin; 3. Oklahoma; 4. Auburn; 5. Alabama; 6. Georgia; 7. Ohio State; 8. Miami; 9. Penn State; 10. USC. Obviously, neither one of those awful teams who played in The Swamp on Saturday have been near my ballot for awhile. It is going to be strange to sit back and watch Championship Weekend on my recliner, but who’s complaining?
Here is your schedule of Power 5 conference title games:
Friday
Stanford-USC, ESPN, 8 p.m.
Saturday
Oklahoma-TCU, Fox, 12:30 p.m.
Auburn-Georgia, CBS, 4 p.m.
Clemson-Miami, ESPN, 8 p.m.
Ohio State-Wisconsin, Fox, 8 p.m.
Buckle up and pass the dip.
Pat, Will Moosecrap made no sense at all. You have got to let it go.
Muschamp had ambition, a good agent, and the smarts to befriend the right people. These qualities do not make a successful head coach. Foley should have learned from the Zook and Meyer experiences that UF is not the place for on the job training at the head coach position.
Randy Shannon should be fired! His inability to recruit and develop LBs has left our defense in shambles!!
Retain Jajuan Seider and let everyone else go
[/i]and can grasp what Florida is all about[/i]
And what exactly is Florida all about, Pat? “A championship experience with integrity” is the line from The Firm. I think it should be “A probation experience with integrity,” because, since 2010, we routinely field squads more limited than programs dealing with sanctions. Setting aside wins and losses, I struggle to recall the last time we even made it to the FSU game with a roster not in disarray.
Maybe it’s time for Florida to grasp what college football is all about in 2017: quality facilities, technology, robust/well-paid assistant coaching staffs, competitive roster management techniques, etc…in short, a fully invested organization. Until that happens, good luck finding any decent coach to commit here long term.
Make the world a better place, punch Jeremy Foley in the face.
Foley is the most overrated AD of all time. He was a blind pig finding a truffle when he picked up Meyer. Everyone wanted him – if ND had a faster plane Foley would have found another Zook.
I know I’m not supposed to release my Heisman ballot until after the announcement but here goes:
1. Mayfield
2.Love
3.Barkley
Bernie Machen delivered Urb. Foley’s rep is mostly about Billy Donovan (there’s your magnificent truffle). JF did a good job stocking the non-revenue generating sports with great coaches. Who can be unsatisfied with baseball, softball, soccer, tennis, volleyball, gymnastics, track, golf? For whatever reason, women’s basketball has hired a bunch of good coaches to no avail. But the big “Tada” is football. At that JF was more failure than not.
This has been coming for a long time, as Florida has allowed it’s facilities to decline and have made sub par coaching selections since Meyer left. Heck, even Meyer was just filling space the last year he came back here with his whole cock and bull about his health and the pressures of coaching. The only way this gets turned around is for the administrators and AD have to make a commitment to doing whatever it takes to upgrade the facilities (indoor practice field was a start), hire a coach who is not over his head and upgrade the entire fan experience (on the field as well as off the field). Just my humble opinion.
The perfect coaching hires for Florida, Charlie Strong as head coach as long as he agrees to hire Steve Spurrier as offensive coordinator, OBC would have limited recruiting obligations, keep Randy Shannon as defensive coordinator, keep running backs coach, hire best special teams coach available.
Everybody knows President Machen hired Meyer. Foley had no choice in the matter. Besides it was the only choice that time around. Problem is we don’t have such an obvious choice this year. BUT we can sure screw this selection up if we mess aground too much. Alabama learned that lesson the hard way and gave Saban no chances to get away. Could of Kelly been another Saban? Saban was not an “Alabama guy” (IE. he’s a full blown Yankee). Kelly may not of been a “Florida guy”, but he had the best resume with results running a major program. Time will tell.
Completely inaccurate
Not that it matters, but Saban is hardly a Yankee. He is from West Virginia, which is at least as big a trailer park as is Alabama.
The point is mute now. Dan does have a UF background that hopefully will have an immediate impact on recruiting. Maybe he can make the step up like Bear Bryant did from UK to Bama. I like his opening comments. Sounds like he will have an orientation and oversight process (try to instill how young men should conduct business).
Kelly was the apparent best available coach during this cycle (resume with wins). Doesn’t matter now. Having fun monitoring UT’s hiring process. They already have state representatives protesting PSU connection.
First 5 sentences—-completely accurate.
Perfect coaching hire, Charlie Strong, ” as long as he agrees to hire Steve Spurrier as offensive coordinator ” keep Randy Shannon as defensive coordinator, keep running back coach, wow talk about recruiting and coaching. Keep the ole ball coach recruiting to a minimum, hire the best special teams coach out there
DeWayne – Let the yankee stuff go man. The cival war has been over for a long long time. That said, I hope we hire a good coach no matter where he is from. I would love to see Spurrier as the quarterback coach.
I was referring “Yankee” in a cultural mode only. I’m a NWFL native and know AL well. My point was Bama had to try and fail with their “Bear’s Boy types” (Dubose/Shula) prior to shelling out whatever $$$ was needed to get the BEST. Saban didn’t fit their past traditions…they let go and hired the very best any with historic results.
Have we done that with Dan Mullen??? or should we have given Kelly a deal he couldn’t refuse.
Dan is the man now. We must give him a solid 3-4 years to recovery our program and possibly return to Championships. He does have a UF background which will immediately be measured in recruiting.
It’s really funny to look at all the Foley quotes lately, and be the guy who was not only shunned by his fellow Gator fans, but actually kicked out of one group, because 15 years ago I was saying, “Foley needs to go, he’s phoning it in and the football program is not getting the attention it requires.” Funny how that happens.
Another funny thing about this coaching search is that so far, none of the names that have come up as far as potential candidates are fit to clean bathrooms at UF. If this football program is going to come back to the power program that competes for championships year in and year out, then a big name college coach, or NFL coach must be hired. The only candidate out there in the college coaching ranks is James Franklin. After him, there’s nobody qualified to take over this program.
In the NFL, a good place to start is Josh McDaniels or Matt Patricia. Keith Butler is a bit long in the tooth, but again, he’s got great strengths and major coaching skills. Now, the home run hire from the NFL is Dan Quinn. He’s already coached at Florida, and “knows the drill’ so to speak. You just have to offer him enough money to move 5 hours south, and recruit.
So, Florida can start playing big boy football with big boy coaches, or hire Frost, or Taggert, or ect….and keep playing high school ball, like we’ve been doing. Let’s see where Stricklin goes. Hope does spring eternal, but I’m not holding my breath.
That “former UF player” wouldn’t happen to be Chris Doehering now would it? He was on the Satellite Radio airways yesterday morning while I was driving to the game pitching the same idea. Love Spurrier, but I would not want to see him come back in an official coaching capacity. He is and always will be our first love. Don’t do anything to diminish that. Now, if he is willing to help out who wouldn’t jump at that opportunity? Someone who gets fired mid-season, that’s who.
The very idea that Foley hired Meyer is a joke. Bernie chose him because he trusted him and knew what he could do as a Head Coach. Dan Mullen will be the guy to bring back our offense is a dual threat run-pass world of College Football.
Pat I believe you would like Muschamp to be be rehired at UF. His team was kicked to the curb last night. Bad idea then, Bad Idea now. And please remind us how much UF is going to pay Muschamp at the end of the year because Foley failed to negotiate a non-compete clause worth a crap.
Pat,
I am hearing that Florida is thinking of hiring Dan M as head coach. I feel as if Florida football has been circling the drain for about seven years and I don think this is going to change thing. We continue to march towards irrelevance.
I think it’s a good hire. Winning 8 to 9 games a year in the West at MSU is fantastic. He knows offense, he knows QB’s. Now we have start recruiting like we did in the Meyer years again. Outside of UGA the east is lousy there is no reason after a couple of recruiting cycles this can’t be back on track.
completely agree.
The fact that anybody thinks that UF could even get an interview with a highly successful NFL coach is hilarious. C’mon guys, take off the orange and blue glasses. Not everyone wants to be the UF coach!
Exactly.