If we win this weekend vs LSU, is Foley forgiven?

[78]

Foley deserves a lot of praise for the athletic program, but let's please try and keep this in perspective. We already had an outstanding athletic program long before he arrived. He helped raise it and added to the facilities, as well he should have done. It's what he was hired to do. The combination of a gorgeous campus, year round warm weather, lots of money and loads of athletes makes this ripe ground for all-around greatness no matter the athletic director. Anyone who doubts me simply needs to go back to around 1981 and look at what we did in baseball, swimming, tennis, golf and whatever else. We were kicking ass back then, too.

Re his reputation for managing the football program, it'll improve markedly if McElwain turns out to be the kind of hire he looks to be.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

[QUOTE='78;n298641] let's please try and keep this in perspective. We already had an outstanding athletic program long before he arrived. [/QUOTE]

This. People act like Florida becoming a powerhouse has more to do with the guy that inherited the Kingdom than what happened in the Kingdom. It has more to do with demographics and, as my poli sci professor used to say, air conditioning and bulldozers (to fill the swamps).

Yes, we didn't win much before the 80s. Of course, before the 80s our population went from the equivalent to Mississippi and half that of Ugly to having 10 times the pop of Miss and 2.5 times Ugly. Going from 2 million to 20 million population in a couple of decades to become basically the only state that matters in football recruiting is why the job is different now than it was before the 80s.

Now I'm really done.

 

[jdh5484]

IF UF wins?

 

[L-boy]

Foley bashers are idiots.

Name one athletic director who has gotten every coaching hire right.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

Law and '78 make great points (as per usual). Florida is the 3rd largest State in the nation, just recently passing NY. And certainly the largest alumni base in the state. To screw up the "other" sports would take some ineptitude. To manage them mediocrely (yep, that's a word) would go unnoticed. Foley has made some huge mistakes that I don't forgive but I'm willing to forget.

Now the counter argument:
There's a list on TOS that's about who's likeness would go on the Florida's version of Mt Rushmore. Let's call it Mt. Florida. Three are easy; Spurrier, Wuerffel, and Tebow. I might put Pell on there at fourth - like it or not he built the Foundation for the Gator Nation and gave us the first taste of SEC championships. Now let's say I couldn't put Pell up there - he's not Alumni after all. Who has been the steward while all that money poured in from the booster program that Pell put in place? Who has been here while the state grew and we reaped all the riches that came with it? Who oversaw, at least in part, not one, not two, but three stadium expansions, the IPF and probably numerous facility improvements that I don't even know about? And who has managed to not only not screw up, but do an awesome job with, the "other" sports? Yes, Foley is one for three with head football coaches. But if Mac leads us back to the promised land I'll be willing to forget about the two failures. Just like I'm willing to have selective memory about the coach who actively tried to beat us for 11 years.

Now I need to take a shower after typing that.