Ron Zook fired, expected to return to job as bank janitor

RiverRat

Glass half full
Lifetime Member
Nov 1, 2017
3,242
7,262
He can recruit and coach special teams , after having two blocked punts against meat chickens he might be worth looking at.
Saw him at FGTD Club many years ago and he told the story of Bobby Bowden telling recruits he (Zook) would probably not be around that much longer. Zook said he told the recruits "hell how much longer do you think that old bastard will be around , he's already lived past the average male life span"
He got a big laugh, of course Bowden was right he was fired that year.
 

GatorStud

Founding Member
Score Points, Be Happy
Lifetime Member
Jun 13, 2014
2,964
2,540
Founding Member
Listen, for all the bad things about Zook let's be real. Muschamp and Mac would cream their pants to have offenses like Zook. If Zook didn't get off on the prevent, may have gone better, but things worked out in the end.

Ahem! Just say NO to that damn bubble screen... :lol3:
 

Gator By Marriage

A convert to Gatorism
Lifetime Member
Dec 31, 2018
14,780
27,950
As a little kid i was a Baltimore Orioles fan and when Brooks Robinson retired he was replaced by a guy named Doug DeCinces. Good guy, decent fielder and hitter, but no Brooks. Meanwhile there was a young hotshot thirdbaseman in the farm system who everyone knew was destined to be a Hall of Famer; fellow by the name of Cal Ripken. Once Cal was ready they sent DeCinces to the Angels and that was that. (Who knew they were gonna move Cal to short the next season?) I have always thought of Zook as UF's DeCinces: The average guy stuck between two legends.
 

Theologator

Enchanter
Lifetime Member
Aug 11, 2015
8,248
15,806
If we had hired him before the SOS era, think he woulda been fired for his on field results? SOS set a standard we had never seen.

Ask Doug Dickie. Maybe before the Ray Graves era 8 wins would have kept him around a bit longer.

Zook is a good guy and tried hard, but he isn’t/wasn’t an effective HC. I like him but NOT as our coach.

The roster was in rough shape when Zook arrived, however, in part due to the ridiculously overrated 2000 recruiting class. Zook recruited well but his guys didn’t develop properly until Meyer’s staff arrived. They all say that.
 

MJMGator

Founding Member
Slightly amused
Lifetime Member
Jun 10, 2014
20,038
41,114
Founding Member
Ask Doug Dickie. Maybe before the Ray Graves era 8 wins would have kept him around a bit longer.

Zook is a good guy and tried hard, but he isn’t/wasn’t an effective HC. I like him but NOT as our coach.

The roster was in rough shape when Zook arrived, however, in part due to the ridiculously overrated 2000 recruiting class. Zook recruited well but his guys didn’t develop properly until Meyer’s staff arrived. They all say that.
Doug Dickey averaged about 6 wins at Florida.
 

Tay Bang

I might have been mean to Byrd
Lifetime Member
Jul 25, 2018
3,027
3,453
I find it amazing when an AD goes out and hires a coordinator who was fvkking terrible at being a coordinator, like Zook or Butters. I guess that is all they have in the factory reject aisle.

Your post count would be less than 100 if Butters and Chimp had never happened. Butters in particular is the best thing that ever happened to you. IMG_1488.JPG
 

Marine1

Semper Fidelis
Dec 20, 2015
2,923
8,113
Ask Doug Dickie. Maybe before the Ray Graves era 8 wins would have kept him around a bit longer.

Zook is a good guy and tried hard, but he isn’t/wasn’t an effective HC. I like him but NOT as our coach.

The roster was in rough shape when Zook arrived, however, in part due to the ridiculously overrated 2000 recruiting class. Zook recruited well but his guys didn’t develop properly until Meyer’s staff arrived. They all say that.

This. I had the chance to talk to him a couple times. Really liked the guy. He loved being a Gator and especially being our head coach. He just wasn’t real good at it and had to go. So a bunch of folks hated him and talked a lot trash.
 

AugustaGator

Founding Member
Junior Member
Lifetime Member
Jun 12, 2014
30,229
16,526
Founding Member
Because he humiliated the university at every turn with his bumbling incompetence?

Besides, he really does serve as a janitor at a bank.
He could throw a keg better than any coach.
 

ergator920103

Founding Member
Member
Lifetime Member
Jun 12, 2014
772
897
Founding Member
I can't believe any of you are defending the first of Fooley's 3 terrible hires. He was a complete moron and a ****ty coach..
 

T REX

Founding Member
Well-Known Member
Jun 24, 2014
10,107
7,389
Founding Member
I've really softened on Zook..."we're getting better"...it was on Fooley. F ing foley.
 

Swamp Donkey

Founding Member
7-14 vs P5 Fire Stricklin First
Lifetime Member
Jun 9, 2014
78,161
109,975
Founding Member
I can't believe any of you are defending the first of Fooley's 3 terrible hires. He was a complete moron and a ****ty coach..
Basically the same people who defend Fooley himself.
 

aka

Founding Member
I Deliver
Lifetime Member
Jun 22, 2014
7,447
14,397
Founding Member
It's just that McElstain lowered the bar so much, Zook starts looking better.
 

gator1946

Founding Member
Senior Member
Lifetime Member
Jun 10, 2014
4,183
6,310
Founding Member
Zook,

--A great recruiter
--A terrible game day coach
--A worse time manager
--Still worse awareness of game situations
--Annnnnd insufferable during a presser. If I hear "we'll get it corrected" anytime anywhere from anyone I go in a closet an scream. If I hear him rattle off unintelligible sentences at a word count frequency that only a dog could pick up, I'll shoot myself.
--Nice guy, But not real good at thinking through breaking up Frat fights.

Bring him back. Let him recruit. Never let him open his mouth in public. Keep him away from Frat fights. And don't let him coach ANYTHING. Yes anything is in caps.
 

Theologator

Enchanter
Lifetime Member
Aug 11, 2015
8,248
15,806
This. I had the chance to talk to him a couple times. Really liked the guy. He loved being a Gator and especially being our head coach. He just wasn’t real good at it and had to go. So a bunch of folks hated him and talked a lot trash.

A lot of the angst grew out of the obvious (to most) reach he was. Every mistake, every babbling presser, every loss affirmed the obvious. And that put the program into a spiraling decline of fulfilled low expectations and poor decisions. Mac’s was worse in the decline of talent and S&C and papered over by a few more Ws.

It is tougher to follow a legend in his prime than to fix a broken program because sustaining excellence is harder than reaching a goal the first time.
 

BruceWayne

Well-Known Member
Dec 12, 2016
877
1,155
As a little kid i was a Baltimore Orioles fan and when Brooks Robinson retired he was replaced by a guy named Doug DeCinces. Good guy, decent fielder and hitter, but no Brooks. Meanwhile there was a young hotshot thirdbaseman in the farm system who everyone knew was destined to be a Hall of Famer; fellow by the name of Cal Ripken. Once Cal was ready they sent DeCinces to the Angels and that was that. (Who knew they were gonna move Cal to short the next season?) I have always thought of Zook as UF's DeCinces: The average guy stuck between two legends.

My dad liked Brooks Robinson so much that he named me after him. Probably the best third baseman ever and he was a good guy.
 

rogdochar

Founding Member
RIP
Lifetime Member
Jun 14, 2014
25,397
29,513
Founding Member
I say hire him as an analyst and let him recruit behind the scenes.

Zook has sustained his coaching usefulness for 40 years = 12 college, 18 in NFL. Purty good failure? The Steelers, the Chiefs, the Saints, plus the Packers all employed Zook, covering 18 years. Zook lost his job with the Packers due to a shake-up in personnel, not because of work failure. (The 2 years before Green Bay put him back into NFL coaching Zook worked as a CFB analyst for CBS & was employed as a bank executive, a loan officer. No janitorial duties.)
The only question is : Could Zook recruit well for us ?

Have we got a recruiter with 18 years in the NFL? That should provide him with something to relate to recruits.
Better get him before Sabin does? :cool:
 
Last edited:

oxrageous

Founding Member
It's Good to be King
Administrator
Jun 5, 2014
36,935
97,630
Founding Member
Rog, you could drive by that particular bank in the evenings and see him in there cleaning floors, etc.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Help Users

You haven't joined any rooms.