Charlie Weis leaving Gators, will take job at Kansas

[travisduncan]

Kansas University will officially announce Charlie Weis as the school's next head football coach Friday afternoon.

Weis leaves the Gators after just one season on the job as the offensive coordinator. The Gators offense was nothing short of a disaster this season-some of that was out of Weis' control-injuries to John Brantley, Chris Rainey, Jeff Demps and the offensive line. But beyond injuries, Weis brief tenure at UF was somewhat of a failure. He did assist in recruiting guys like Colin Thompson a top tight end in next year's class out of Warmister, PA.

Allegedly, Muschamp did not even find out Weis was interviewing for the job or that his assistant was in discussions with KU until he found out about the hire Thursday evening on his way to the Gator Bowl press conference.

At his press conference Thursday nigh, Muschamp said he was in communication with Weis "in recent days" and supports the move 100-percent. Muschamp says they will hire another offensive coordinator with a pro-style background.

We may never know the working dynamic between Weis and Muschamp, though there have been signs of tension. One area where Muschamp seemed to blame Weis was regarding the offense's inability to score in the red-zone.

It could be that Weis has always wanted to be a head coach again at a large unversity and the opportunity is just right. There's also another part of Weis which is defiant and wants to prove to a lot of people he can be successful as a head football coach.

It's probably the later.

 

[Escambia94]

****!

 

[DRU2012]

****!

DOUBLE ****!

 

[DRU2012]

Actually, I am told that Muschamp WAS sent a msg. while in transit yesterday when his staff caught wind of this--but he didn't actually read it until later in the eve (he was in the middle of a recruiting swing, and all that suggests and requires), but it was still just whispers and "signs", and there was no definitive word until today (and NOTHING from Weis himself--kind of an unnecessarily "sneaky" little sleaze job on Weis' part, from the Head Coach's POV--not that Muschamp would ever put it that way--both because this is all bad enough organizationally and image-wise already, AND that's not Coach M's way of doing things out in public in any case)--the first real "official word" was the newswire press-release from University of Kansas, with not even an advance "heads up" from Weis (though he did eventually call Muschamp, after-the-fact--that's the way I heard it; once again, in less than a month, I get to say this about an ex-Gator coach: "What a guy!").
There's a lot you could say about this whole deal--about how Weis basically violated everything he said about coming here to stay, "perfect-for-family", blah blah blah, how in taking THIS job he as much as made clear he was planning on taking the first HC job that came down the line, and oh so much more--but TWO things and two things ONLY are worth noting above all else, and they apply to the LONG term, and the SHORT:
Long Term--I believe we may be better off without Weis anyway...while I accepted that it was only fair to give him at LEAST another year, a full year "with his guys" (irony) before beginning to draw any firm conclusions, let alone begin discussion about replacing him, questions HAD begun to arise, I DIDN'T like or even understand some of the moves he made (and DIDN'T make--we had playmakers sitting on the bench, Joyer and Gillisley, for eg., and others, while banged up, gimpy versions of our fragile "little fast guys" were repeatedly sent into the middle of the line to get fewer'n'fewer yards and more'n'more injured), there was seldom ANY sign of post-half adjustments to exploit what their defenses were doing to stop us in the first (let alone IN-game changes-on-the-fly), and, though we had little depth to start with, especially on the line, and non-stop injuries throughout the season, some sign of imagination, to take advantage of what we DID have, would have been welcome and given me some hope. Never did see it, and by the end of the schedule I had begun to suspect that we may have been better off, and our Head Coach better served, had he brought in a younger "hot young up-and-coming" offensive-mind, someone closer in drive, passion and determination to himself. The problem is finding one suddenly and quickly NOW...which brings us to the second, and even more important point:
Short Term--we are SCREWED. This all has so many layers, facets and repercussions to it that I'll leave it to y'all to really flesh them out, note 'em, turn 'em over and examine them, maybe have some ideas about what we CAN and/or what we SHOULD and/or what we actually WILL DO about it? For the moment, I have only the obvious...
BAD TIMING--I mean, could it BE any worse? These weeks leading up to the week-before-the-bowl-game are KEY for recruiting, and almost impossible in terms of approaching and talking to any prospective OC-candidates who are with teams preparing for their OWN bowl games AND recruiting--you gotta know OUR Head Coach will try to do this "on the up-and-up", too. Can't see it being any of the very few "bigger name" guys out there. Whomever they bring in, it'll be a "surprise" and, while they HAVE to get this RIGHT, it's hard to imagine WHO exactly would fit the bill. Meanwhile, what ABOUT recruiting? How about Aubrey Hill--is he staying after all? With all the crap swirling around us as a result of Meyer's inside/outside attack on our staff AND our recruiting, Weis jumping NOW weakens us still further at the worst possible time (and we've GOT to now understand and DEAL with the fact that this will only kick that attack into higher gear--KNOWING that we're vulnerable, Meyer'll now have the extra arguments regarding our "pipeline to the pros" being gone, "an illusion", AND the suggestion of our general lack of reliability, that we're somehow not "stable" after all--he'll try to scare their families).
All our Head Coach and staff of "loyal and true Gators" who remain can do right now is deal with what's right in front of them--try to hold as much of what they have gained over the months as they CAN...before the Weis-story came through, this would have been a frustrating news-day regardless (though in a minor way compared to THIS bomb re Weis): in the case of two top juco players (one from the O-line and one from the D-line) that we were after and in the running for, in both cases competing with Texas and Auburn as part of the final 3, today EACH announced that they had chosen Texas.
I WAS going to talk about wanting to hear "some good and positive news", news of some things going OUR way some day soon--and then all THIS came down the pike to put it all in perspective (and bang us over the heads once again!).
I THINK we'll have to be a little more patient and supportive of our young Head Coach now--he's getting hit front, back and sideways, as WELL as right over the head like the REST of us! As Coach, team, fan-base, school and Program, we're not being given a chance even to "Start Over"; we're going to find SOME way of doing more than that. We HAVE to.
I'm going to stop here and leave it open to all of you to reflect, advise, vent and generally (I hope) LOOK AHEAD, begin to envision where we go from here.

 

[Escambia94]

Look at the bright side-- now we have another $1.5M to pay someone else.

 

[DRU2012]

Look at the bright side-- now we have another $1.5M to pay someone else.

Any ideas on WHO? Preference? As some have mentioned once more, how about the idea of bringing in Kerwin Bell now after all? Still too early in his "seasoning"? And if we DO, do we promote White and move Kerwin in behind him?
Who else is out there that excites ANYONE? Mike Shula, as some are saying is on the short list?