Gator Bites, Week 11: Florida Gators vs Vanderbilt Commodores

Right about now, Urban Meyer is pretty far down on my list of College Football Concerns. Remember: "Success is the best revenge"...and we're currently in reverse there as well. No, the most frustrating AND infuriating thing about this season is that we have been watching helplessly while the program sank into a morass of mediocrity and irrelevance, and once it became clear to most of us "normal uninformed outsiders" (ANOTHER stubborn attitude that Will Muschamp has insisted on digging himself deeper and deeper into, reflected in this case in the same refusal to look, listen, or include the very folks who the team represents, who will stand by them through anything when we feel they're ours and vice versa, who were here before he and his staff got here and will be here long after they're gone--yet are treated like intruders, just this side of "the enemy") what was wrong and that it wasn't gonna fix itself, have had to stand aside completely ignored and dismissed, waiting for first, the Coach and his staff to actually DO something about it themselves, once they presumably realized that was their JOB, and, when they never did, and SINCE they never did, we are now left waiting, "wishin' and hopin' and prayin' " that the guy who hired the Head Coach responsible now does HIS. That about sum things up? Urban still seem like a front-line concern at the moment, when ya think about it? (Sorry--I want him worryin' bout his own problems too...but OU/Mich just doesn't hold any "buzz" for me this year...Nothing but waitin' for the "other shoe to drop" now, and afraid that like all the other "steps" that haven't been taken here, it just won't happen after all.

Too bad his contract isn't written in such a way as to allow for a demotion to DC. That way he would be "insulted" and quit of his own accord. That would save a ton of $$$. But, alas.

Florida's once proud football program has been driven into the ground by Coach Muschump. ( I use the term "coach" very loosely ). It will take years to recover from his inept handling of the program from top to bottom. Oh well, still love my GATORS, hopefully we'll get a competent staff to guide us through the rebuild.

A sad commentary.

[Related: Florida hauls its players to homecoming in a dump truck]

Florida hasn't had a losing season since 1979. At 4-5, they'll need to win two of their final three, against South Carolina, Georgia Southern and Florida State, just to get to .500. And, astonishing as it seems, a bowl bid may not be forthcoming for the Florida Gators. Florida hasn't missed out on a bowl since 1990, when the team was ineligible due to sanctions, and hasn't played its way out of a bowl since 1986. Five years from a national championship, eleven months from a trip to the Sugar Bowl, and Florida looks completely lost. Granted, injuries across the board have taken their toll, but still: a loss to Vanderbilt.

This begs the question, then: is head coach Will Muschamp done at Florida after just three years? Boosters and school officials can't be pleased at the turn the program has taken. Plus, from a recruiting perspective, the Gators picked an insanely bad time to turn south; both Florida State and Miami are on the upswing, and even stumbling Georgia looks like a more attractive destination than Gainesville right now, meaning recruiting efforts are going to be challenges for the next few years.

I almost missed the grand plan.
Foley, thanks for hiring a Bulldog to bring the Gators down. Plan is working perfectly.

I woke up this morning expecting to hear news about UF "parting ways" or "going in a different direction".... Cant find anything... must be a dream.

Didn't see it. Glad I didn't. Losing to Vanderbilt is always - always - unacceptable. That's like the Packers losing to the frigging Jaguars.

The plus side now is that since the Gators are out of the top 25, I never even have to wonder if they'll be on TV up here. Frees up my day.

When do we get to catapult someone into a volcano?

miltongator said:

A sad commentary.

[Related: Florida hauls its players to homecoming in a dump truck]

Florida hasn't had a losing season since 1979. At 4-5, they'll need to win two of their final three, against South Carolina, Georgia Southern and Florida State, just to get to .500. And, astonishing as it seems, a bowl bid may not be forthcoming for the Florida Gators. Florida hasn't missed out on a bowl since 1990, when the team was ineligible due to sanctions, and hasn't played its way out of a bowl since 1986. Five years from a national championship, eleven months from a trip to the Sugar Bowl, and Florida looks completely lost. Granted, injuries across the board have taken their toll, but still: a loss to Vanderbilt.

This begs the question, then: is head coach Will Muschamp done at Florida after just three years? Boosters and school officials can't be pleased at the turn the program has taken. Plus, from a recruiting perspective, the Gators picked an insanely bad time to turn south; both Florida State and Miami are on the upswing, and even stumbling Georgia looks like a more attractive destination than Gainesville right now, meaning recruiting efforts are going to be challenges for the next few years.

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ALL too true, mg, but again--and this is really weird, ME, "glass-is-half-empty-Dru" of all people, voicing the "optimistic" reply--but there IS a somewhat "not to panic" consideration to note there: In truth, potential recruits for the most part are NOT discouraged from joining a program like ours 'cause of one or two down years. In fact, there is much evidence that it can actually work sometimes the opposite way, interestingly enough--they figure they'll have a better chance of playing sooner. At the very least, handled correctly it is no net obstacle to continuing, even (if there's room) widening the overall quality of our recruiting hauls. The touchy part is negotiating these tides of change in a confident yet subtle manner: Whatever coaching changes are coming (and at the very least, firing Pease and specifically curtailing Muschamp's further practical planning, control of and influence over our offense, with the hiring of a virtual "Co-Head-Coach" in charge of that offense, no matter what his actual title is, MUST be a minimum practical and symbolic move--a need for us and a signal to prospective recruits--and all that only because some or all of the many caveats raised by our thoroughly knowledgeable and rightly cynical regulars here at The Envy turn out to hold too much sway after all--Seems simpler, best and ultimately a more realistic move to just "bite-the-bullet" and MAKE THE BIG CHANGE), our recruiting point man and "coach-contacts on-the-scene" have to get out there and smooth those troubled waters, reassure the young men and their families, put our own spin on the whole deal. It can be done--in most cases it is NOT specifically "Will Muschamp" they are interested in coming to play for. There ARE coaches like that, a relative very few, but Will isn't one of them, hasn't yet even come close to attaining that kind of stature.. No, it is UF as an institution with history and charisma, and our coaches who have been in contact with them and will actually be a day-to-day part of their lives should they come here (and should those coaches stay here themselves--and this is where "subtleties" like "who you keep" enter the picture, for eg.) that will make the big difference either way. Meanwhile, Foley, the way he conducts the "search" and ultimate hiring, things like how this is all perceived on the national and regional levels--and above all WHO HE GETS will "close-the-deal", or conversely fail to do so, and THAT would sink things as far as the worst-case scenarios you and all of us fear.

FrozenGator said:

Didn't see it. Glad I didn't. Losing to Vanderbilt is always - always - unacceptable. That's like the Packers losing to the frigging Jaguars.

The plus side now is that since the Gators are out of the top 25, I never even have to wonder if they'll be on TV up here. Frees up my day.

When do we get to catapult someone into a volcano?

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Hmmm. Forgot about that last move. These ARE "desperate times"...Used to be a "maiden"--that's a "virgin", in modern-speak, no? Gotta move fast first week of Sorority Rush...This IS University of Florida: No use wasting time and effort on a futile search before then.
(Who said that? I'm shocked, simply SHOCKED, at the level of insensitive discourse at this site. I'm putting myself on report.)

mjfan23 said:

I woke up this morning expecting to hear news about UF "parting ways" or "going in a different direction".... Cant find anything... must be a dream.

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Yeah--I'm with you...but didn't/don't really expect it yet. "Not how it's done" here at UF, OR Foley's style, for that matter. No, unless this were a "final straw" situation of either a behavioral or ethical nature, they'd wait 'til the end of the season: There's still respect for him "as a man and a friend", and meanwhile no real need or advantage in making such a move yet--especially at the risk of looking panicked and disorganized in doing so when the guy(s) you're considering is still in the middle of his season, doesn't want that kind of attention now, and is judging you and the way you're handling this situation the whole time anyway as part of whether he wants to come work for you.
What I think (let's face it: hope) we'll hear first are rumors bubbling up from "a source", "word is..." and so on, that "the decision has already been made" that there "will be a change at the end of the season", and eventually things like "so-and-so has been made aware of their interest", etc. Even these won't really come until December (I'm already hearing it from INSIDE the UF Athletic Dept.--but am told it hasn't "solidified"--in other words, the individuals who are privy to and/or actually make those decisions are tight-lipped on the subject thus far--but no ringing endorsement either, publicly as well, you'll notice: That may be the most telling hint we'll get for a while), probably, unless we see a complete collapse in not just outcome but quality-of-play (ie. the kind of thing we saw--well, those who could stomach watching it--in the first half against the Commodores, only no come-back/flurry-of-effort in the 2nd half).
Meanwhile, as "true fans" we sit here wanting to support our team, have no choice BUT to cheer for them, suffer not just the defeats but the mounting signs of deeper and deeper dysfunction, not to mention the glee of all the haters now jumping up and down in front of their caves and hovels, merrily shouting "I told you so!" (and those are just the media-guys...OK, I'm exaggerating, but you get the idea--and feel my pain). For us the only possible relief in sight IS the kind of Big Change we're hoping for, even anticipating, but with no certainty or guarantee that it will occur. The key word there is "HOPE", and all of ours, for now and for the future, is riding on something that isn't guaranteed, could stay "under wraps" for weeks to come--and may not come at all. Yikes. Don't know 'bout you, but I think I need a "hobby"--ridin' my hog too fast thru' the Hill Country without a helmet and drinkin' myself sober-at-dawn I'm told is not one with a long future, and with an open-ended period-of-suspended-decision ahead, well, I gotta make a change or two of my own, I s'pose.