Gator Country writer puts the beatdown on Muschamp and previous staff

[LongTooth]

Whew. This is brutal. Not sure if every single breakdown is spot on (DBs?), and there is a lot of pumping going on in favor of the incoming assistants and Mac, but there is no missing this writer's position on Chump and Co.

http://www.gatorcountry.com/feature/pds-postulations-winning-the-offseason-for-the-florida-gators/

 

[MissouriGator]

Law's perspective should be entertaining.

 

[TN G8tr]

That was a very interesting read. Thanks for sharing. It was an in depth piece on what many of us suspected. One glaring thing that stood out to me was the inept ability by WM to hire any quality assistants. And if he did hire a decent one (Roper and that's sketchy) the clampdown was immediately directed. Even a major slam on Robinson. And looking at it from that perspective two things, one, he can't live out of WM's shadow for some reason, and two, WM is an obsessive control freak who will not let coaches coach. Looking back at our desire to keep Robinson, it appears now why Mac perhaps did not want to retain him and the Barn was his only option. Huge epic failure by WM, which we already know. And with a guy this much of a control freak that he is, WM should never again be hired as a HBC to run a major program. Perhaps a smaller school where he can coach every position and the W/L column won't change much.

 

[Theologator]

Red meat for those still processing the past, this is GC: purely an opinion piece that is light on facts and heavy on hyperbole and invective. I agree with much of it, but let's not act like DJ Durkin can't coach and Randy Shannon is the very best position coach EVER. Durkin excelled at special teams and did a good job with the LBs and defense overall. He was a Meyer hire that Muschamp wisely retained. I like Callahan but I'm not at all convinced that he is a better coach and he's not yet a proven himself to be as good a recruiter as T-Rob.

Wallowing in Muschamp grief doesn't help anything and, ironically, sucks one into Muschamp-esque anger.

 

[CaribGator]

Just win baby, win. We'll see the fruits of the labor in a few weeks.

 

[maheo30]

I hope the pumping about the new staff is right. We've learned the specifics of how bad Chump was from the players and the new staff. When the new staff is telling you what is wrong it gives the impressions they have a plan on how to fix it. However, Chump's trashing of the Gator program won't be fixed in one season. What I'm looking for this year is improvement on offense. Can we go from being near dead last in FBS to the middle of the pack?

 

[PatDooleySucks]

This article is completely premature. I obviously hope it it's right, but it's just seems to me it's a PR machine for the new staff.

I don't think we need any more articles to tell us about chimp's shortcomings. It's beyond redundant and just boring at this point. It's also just not productive.

As a side, I seem to remember people being quite on board with his Weis and Pease hires. Quinn speaks for himself. For the most part, it wasn't chimp's staff hires that were lackluster. It was simply chimp.

 

[PatDooleySucks]

Also. Where were these writers/stories when Muschamp was still the head coach? It's very convenient to bash the coaching staff when they're gone and garnish the new staff with accolades. These sites and writers need to grow some.

 

[HogtownGator]

Don’t expect our star running backs to be sitting out in big games anymore because they don’t know how to block, catch or to move without the ball.

Sweet!

 

[TheDouglas78]

Shouldn't we wait to truly compare when this staff as a season under it's belt? GC was all rosy about Muschamp's staff before the first snap was taken as well.

 

[MJMGator]

Shouldn't we wait to truly compare when this staff as a season under it's belt? GC was all rosy about Muschamp's staff before the first snap was taken as well.

Kinda thought the same thing.

 

[NCOGator]

I smell what the writer was stepping in, but we will have to wait and see. I really liked T-Rob but Shannon is a better recruiter so that SFL connection is still there.

 

[chferg]

I wouldn't read any of the trash that this guy puts out.

Last year on GC he was out there defending Muschamp to the core and saying how he deserved another year and that we are all bad fans...I'd like to kick that guy in his small little dick

 

[GatorJ]

I wouldn't read any of the trash that this guy puts out.

Last year on GC he was out there defending Muschamp to the core and saying how he deserved another year and that we are all bad fans...I'd like to kick that guy in his small little dick

 

[soflagator]

There's a lot of truth in the article, and also a lot of truth from those on here criticizing it. WM and his staff are easy target now, and they were all in last year which was obviously a dreadful mistake. They fail to address that.

That said, I do think there is some truth with regards to the respective staffs. Muschamp's staff was comprised of great recruiters who were decent at best at coaching and developing. Durkin, for example, was about as good a guy as you could find and I can easily see how recruits and their parents buy into his optimism and energy. But I don't think he was qualified to be a DC, and I don't think we saw much improvements in players from year to year. In most cases, players were who they were, good or bad. If you read the comments from outsiders, McMillan is a perfect example of why you can't just recruit. He's apparently finally come around with the coaching and developing of Shannon.

Robinson is another. Sure the guy could recruit. But VH3 had INts in his first 3 games as a Freshman. Not sure how much coaching--in one fall camp--had to do with that. The same could be said for Fowler. On the other hand, guys like Poole, Maye, Roberson, Watkins, Gorman, Cummings, etc have largely been the same exact player their entire careers here, with little sign of developing. Compare that to what we saw from guys like Haden, Black and Wright under the Meyer and Bedford. One year to the next was like night and day. That's what you should see from your players.

Obviously there is plenty of speculation on the new staff. But it does seem that they're actually taking what they have and making it better. I don't think we ever really saw that under WM.

 

[TLB]

Also. Where were these writers/stories when Muschamp was still the head coach? It's very convenient to bash the coaching staff when they're gone and garnish the new staff with accolades. These sites and writers need to grow some.

This. It is easy to kick dirt in hindsight and pump sunshine before we see what's on the field, but where was the criticism of WM's regime during their time in power? It's double edged in that you want the readership, so you want to give them hope and something to feel good about, make them want to come back and read more even when reality isn't so pretty. Likewise, I appreciate the need to not trash a staff while they are in power lest ye get kicked out of press conferences and excluded from any inside information. But this reeks of grabbing the window of opportunity to criticize someone gone (who has been beat to death and can't fight back at this point, deserved or not) and being too early for the new guys to show anything but potential and promise, no substance upon which to place evaluation or opinion. We 'think' we have good staff hires and we "think" we are recruiting to rebuild, but until this season plays out we really don't know how good these coaches or kids are for us going forward.


To the article itself, a lot of the downtalk on the past staff and up-spin on the new guys could be written any way the author wanted. A new guy with a history of multiple position success is heralded as experienced, while a guy on the past staff is said to bounce around and/or was propped up by good players. Hack writing for clicks. The one point I do take issue with is that while we believe WM was a micro-manager on defense (and I suppose you could say the same for offense in that we think he stifled the OC), I think that's a good thing that is present in JMac as well and they get it from Saban. The difference in coaching is not the desire to control every aspect, but the way in which it is done. Saban, and we presume JMac, have staff in place that think the way they do and deploy the program philosophy the way the HBC wants. Word is Saban makes the rounds to all positions during practice as we have heard JMac do as well - ensuring that the coaches are coaching his vision, and that the players know the HBC is there watching both players and assistants. The difference with WM was on defense he used the assistants as puppets while HE was making the calls, and on offense he simply said "Do not fk up" which is in essence bypassing the staff and teaching the players to do nothing. Attention to detail is a good thing, hiring a good staff you trust to do it for you is critical to achieve the attention to detail that is required for a winning program.

 

[GMDGator]

Muschamp is a terrible judge of coaching talent. And it showed.

My question is this... Foley witnessed Zook and Meyer prior to Musstank... Why did it take him so long to see the coaching deficit that loser held?

 

[NavetG8r]

Admit it. He's just saying the same things many of us have been saying. Muschamp had no clue when it came to hiring good assistants and was an angry micro-managing overlord. Pretty much all the points in this article were brought up by one poster or another during the hiring process as we all debated what we thought of the potential candidates and hires made.

Law's been moaning and groaning since JMac was hired and collected his staff. He is emphatically convinced JMac hired a bunch of losers (other than Shannon, at least he does admit that was a good hire). This article, while perhaps a bit of an obvious pumper piece, has much truth within the lines of text.

 

[Alagator]

I hope his assertions turn out to be correct. But I also remember reading a piece before Muschamp's inaugural season stating that ex players and coaches had witnessed preseason practices and were saying this was perhaps the best assembled staff UF had ever had. We all saw how that turned out.