- Jan 2, 2018
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Some Gators football history
- Thread starter stephenPE
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- Jun 9, 2014
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I can’t be. It’s a guess. Call it an educated guess. Cheating was off the table by 1984. We won the SEC with Pell’s own OC, Hall, calling the shots from the fourth game on. We were ranked No. 1 the following season. These were heights never before achieved by UF football.
And then the decline began, most noticeably because Hall wasn’t the recruiter Pell was. You’ll probably ask how I know. I know what I know.
- Jan 2, 2018
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I think you answered your own question. Piecing together your response: “Cheating was off the table by 1984.” “And then the decline began, most noticeably because Hall wasn’t the recruiter Pell was.” Hmm... what ever could have been the difference for a coach who was familiar with the former’s system and recruited the same areas/HSs to the same system?
Here’s a fun exercise: swap the names of Florida and Georgia (or Tennessee or Bama or Auburn etc) during the Pell Period and resulting forfeiture of title. Would you be saying: “that Pell was a hell of a coach but a group led by our own Gators caused him to lose a title!” Or would you being saying “I can’t believe Georgia would hire a dude with known compliance issues then get angry when people said he was not cheating!” In fact, remove all that and try this out: Pell got caught cheating at Clemson and Georgia. [Fill in blank with assessment].
- Jun 9, 2014
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Dude, have you ever met Galen Hall? Well, I have, two times at Gator Gatherings where I was sent out to interview him. He makes Paul Finebaum look Hollywood flamboyant by comparison.
- Aug 11, 2015
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Your memory is a bit exaggerated. It was 107 allegations. The end findings after all was said and done were much fewer, 59 most of which were minor. I did a quick search to confirm those numbers but cannot find an article that affirms my memory that the major infractions were more like 7.
Still a bad, bad time. I’m not suggesting it should change your mind. But for me, it made the prior and subsequent flagrant and unpunished violations at f$u and scUM all the more frustrating.
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- Aug 11, 2015
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Ah... trying the ol Donk tactic. Deflect to something no is talking about to avoid answering a question. And if what you say is true - and I don’t doubt you - wouldn’t that mean that Pell was a bigger cheater than you are admitting? HC’s are not big recruiters - coordinators and down are. HCs help close the tough ones or high priority targets. So Hall was out on the front lines reaping recruits for Pell then took over a position with less recruiting duties but declined? See how that does not add up?
I get that he added a lot of excitement to your prime football watching days. Meyer did with mine too. Mullen is doing the same, to a lesser extent. But I can readily admit that much of Meyer’s success was build on questionable practices - namely who he recruited and to what extent he would stretch to retain players and personnel. Admitting Pell’s coaching may have been helped significantly by the corners he cut - proven twice - is ok too. Proof is in the puddin, as they say.
- Jan 2, 2018
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Sounds like we need more BHG Jr boosters again to get back on par with Bama, UGA, etc.Not to mention the booster/Gator Club network.
I’ll never forget when they were honoring BGH Jr. on the field. They hss as bred him a microphone and he said, “I’m still a Charley Pell man!” They snatched it away quickly.
- Jun 12, 2014
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Griffin gave $10m as the lead gift to bowl in the south end zone & build then state-of-the art locker & weight rooms. That was a lot of money in the early 80’s. He wasn’t implicated in the violations as far as I recall.
So yes, the booster & Gator Club network is a key foundational piece. I look back on the 80’s as a time that set us up in many ways for SOS, including Pell warts and all and Galen Hall getting fired. We can’t change any of it anyway.
- Jun 9, 2014
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Bear Bryant wasnt even a mediocre coach without cheating. He cheated at every school.
- Jun 9, 2014
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we don't have a problem with money. we've always been a 10 school in fundimg amd used to be top 2.
we just have a problem finding athletic department personnel who will spend our football money on football.
- Jun 30, 2014
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Just for clarification, Pell got money from boosters, re-energized the fan base and got a load of talent (84/85 teams were some of the best) but (IMO) his teams played too tight. They were very disciplined and had some signature wins but choked in some too. Galen Hall loosened things up and opened the O a little (for those days!). I don't think Galen was a bad coach ... we were on probation that came as close to the death penalty as you could get.
I sure would like to have that 84/85 O line back.
I sure would like to have that 84/85 O line back.
- Jun 30, 2014
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Probably 80% of the NCAA football rules were inspired by Brynt/Bamma walking the gray line. Just like now, he/it was too big to take down by the NCAA.
- Jun 9, 2014
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He wasnt walking gray lines. He was a cheating mofo who dared them to catch him and penalize him, and they were too scared.
It is funny how some coaches get "above the rules" status. I dount Gene Stallings did even 1/100th the things Bear (or Saban & Co) did but Stallings never achieved "above the rules" level.
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- Sep 8, 2014
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Some funny back and forth here.
I'm pushing 50 years old, so my first real memories of Gator football were the late 70's (my first Gator game was Kentucky 1979 - the 0-10-1 season. I remember running around on the artificial turf after the game). Charlie Pell is the first UF coach that I really remember. He made UF football a powerhouse. I loved watching Bob Hewko, Wayne Peace, Kerwin Bell, and the great RB's we had as well as great defenses. I think he (and we) got screwed by the NCAA and I don't blame him for doing (most) of the things he did. We had a couple of rough years under Galen Hall, but we recovered well - and quickly - by 1990.
I'm pushing 50 years old, so my first real memories of Gator football were the late 70's (my first Gator game was Kentucky 1979 - the 0-10-1 season. I remember running around on the artificial turf after the game). Charlie Pell is the first UF coach that I really remember. He made UF football a powerhouse. I loved watching Bob Hewko, Wayne Peace, Kerwin Bell, and the great RB's we had as well as great defenses. I think he (and we) got screwed by the NCAA and I don't blame him for doing (most) of the things he did. We had a couple of rough years under Galen Hall, but we recovered well - and quickly - by 1990.
fischerwood
Wake me when we fix this mess
- Sep 5, 2014
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You completely misunderstood the intent of my comment. Hall was a film room guy and a completely uninspiring figure. His recruiting mirrored it. It’s not deflection or opinion or anything else, it’s fact. Our recruiting was immediately impacted by Pell’s departure, to the point where by the late-‘80s we had, beyond Emmitt Smith, a very average roster.
Think Miami mid-‘90s under Butch Davis. He was a recruiting machine. They got very good, he left for the NFL and bald-headed, poker-faced Larry Coker takes over, the wind very much at his back. One problem. Coker couldn’t recruit. What happened to Miami after a few empty seasons?
What happened at UF was very similar. The Pell cheating involved spying on other teams’ practices, payments and gifts to players. Yes, it was cheating. Would he have been successful had he not cheated? You can ask that question right here, and probably the vast majority of respondents from this board will tell you yes, he would have.
Go back and look at the list of players recruited by Pell from my previous post and tell me that wasn’t a solid list of athletes. You’re young and probably don’t know them to the degree an older Gator would.
- Jun 9, 2014
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Possibly but remember Pell didn’t have the luxury of Kerwin Bell to the extent Hall did. That offensive line, too, made a helluva difference.
- Jun 11, 2014
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