Why does anybody only post the link? Save us all the trouble.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/florida-gators/os-sp-gators-uab-mike-bianchi-1119-story.html?
A word of advice for Chip Kelly, Scott Frost, Dan Mullen or whoever the poor soul is who inherits the smoldering tire fire that former
Florida Gators coach
Jim McElwain has left behind:
You better be an offensive genius, a defensive mastermind, a relentless recruiter, a strength and conditioning guru, an exacting disciplinarian and a facilities architect.
In short, you better be a magician and a miracle worker.
Don’t be fooled by Florida’s first win in six weeks on Saturday — a 36-7 victory over upstart UAB — because there’s simply no denying the sad state of Gators football. In less than three years, McElwain has left this once-proud program in the worst shape of any UF coach in the modern era. Worse than Charley Pell, who left the program on
NCAAprobation. Worse than Galen Hall, who also left the program on NCAA probation. Worse than Urban Meyer, who admitted the program was “broken” when he resigned to spend more time with his ESPN family.
A case could be made that McElwain leaves behind a program more broken than any time since Doug Dickey was fired in 1978 and Pell inherited a team that promptly went 0-10-1 in his first season.
Will Muschamp, at least, left McElwain a dominating defense that carried the Gators to two SEC East championships before the bottom fell out this season.
Perhaps the most-criticized coach in Gators history — Ron Zook — left behind the nucleus of a team that Urban Meyer won a national title with two years later.
That’s right, Zooker left behind a national championship team; McElwain leaves behind a team that will be fortunate to go to the Birmingham Bowl next season.
UF rolls past UAB 36-7, ending Gators' five-game skid »
The Gators played UAB on Saturday inside a stadium that Steve Spurrier nicknamed “The Swamp” 25 years ago. I was in his office that summer day in 1992 when Spurrier explained to me that “The Swamp is a place where only Gators get out alive.”
A quarter-century later, McElwain has drained the Swamp and the Gators now resemble a bunch of desert lizards — scraggly, parched and gaunt. Florida has depth issues, discipline issues, talent issues, quarterback issues and facilities issues.
Give credit to an announced crowd of 84,649 for actually showing up on Saturday. And bless UF interim coach Randy Shannon for trying to put a happy face on the sad state of affairs. Shannon says the future of the program is “unbelievable” and that the Gators will never be “a second-fiddle” program.
Breaking news: The Gators already are a second-fiddle program.
In today’s college football arms race, UF’s new coach will take over a program that is one of the few in the SEC that doesn’t have a stand-alone football complex. The new coach will have to rebuild a roster by recruiting against the likes of SEC heavyweights such as
Nick Saban and Kirby Smart and in-state dynamos such as Jimbo Fisher and Mark Richt.
The Gators played against UAB with 52 scholarship players — 33 below the NCAA limit. Florida has been ravaged by injuries and wrecked by suspensions. Nine players, including star wide receiver Antonio Callaway, have been suspended for the entire season for their part in felonious credit-card theft.
Can you blame the discipline issues on McElwain? You can when he allowed Callaway to remain on the team as a bad influence despite multiple issues involving drugs, sexual-assault allegations and theft.
Can you blame the injury issues on McElwain? You can when he refused to demote strength and conditioning coach Mike Kent, whom many UF insiders say has been an even a bigger flop than offensive coordinator Doug Nussmeier. It’s not just coincidence that the two biggest disappointments on McElwain’s staff — Nussmeier and Kent — are two of his best friends and coaches he refused to fire.
