Gators Constantly Screwed out of Signature Coaches

[Swamp Donkey]

You're denying any validity to the story that Spurrier or a representative of Spurrier contacted Florida about the opening in the fall 2004 and was instructed to submit a resume.

Im sure agents or friends contacted someone and Im sure someone said that. Thats what they do, poll the field to see who is available and at what cost.

Im also sure there was zero chance Fooley was going to hire him. Fooley didnt want him hired the first time, resume or not.

And there was almost no chance SOS would come back. I cant even imagine the kind of mea culpa it would take from Fooley. He just doesnt have it in him.

Hell Fooley hasnt offered even the slightest apology for destroying the program, even now.

 

[stephenPE]

That's why I wanted to post - to tell some of the other success stories like Brandi and Wise, both of whom I thoroughly enjoyed as Gators over the years.

why are you extolling the greatness of our tiddly winks/bowling/water polo coaches? There is only one revenue sport that REAL MEN care about. Foley sucks. THe new guy sucks. Even south crakalaka has better hot tubs and video game rooms than we do and dont get me started on the bama putt putt golf courses on every floor of their Taj Mahal like facilities. We are doomed because we only care about our gymnastics and baseball.............

 

[jaywalker72]

Funny I left it open for someone to mention Urban’s short run here - I guess folks are like I was and not surprised that he was never meant to stay here. Mercenary coaching at its finest, he was/is.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Funny I left it open for someone to mention Urban’s short run here - I guess folks are like I was and not surprised that he was never meant to stay here. Mercenary coaching at its finest, he was/is.

Well, it was an implicit jab in the "we're going to hire a young guy who will be here a long time" line.

 

[stephenPE]

Funny I left it open for someone to mention Urban’s short run here - I guess folks are like I was and not surprised that he was never meant to stay here. Mercenary coaching at its finest, he was/is.

A hired gun that was Doc Holiday at his finest. He wasnt a lunger but his health did take him away..........mental or otherwise.......

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Doc Holliday was a great coach. Wish we had him back in football ops or recruiting.

 

[78]

Im sure agents or friends contacted someone and Im sure someone said that. Thats what they do, poll the field to see who is available and at what cost.

Im also sure there was zero chance Fooley was going to hire him. Fooley didnt want him hired the first time, resume or not.

And there was almost no chance SOS would come back. I cant even imagine the kind of mea culpa it would take from Fooley. He just doesnt have it in him.

Hell Fooley hasnt offered even the slightest apology for destroying the program, even now.

I'm still having a disconnect over 2004 over what I view a dalliance of some sort between Spurrier and UF. Doesn't make sense that SOS comes anywhere near the situation given the angst with Foley described here. I'm also curious if this is your personal assessment of the goings-on then or if there is/was some means of corroboration within the athletic department.

I could see Associate AD Foley disagreeing with Arnsparger over hiring Spurrier after the '89 debacle of a season. As a matter of fact, Interim AD Foley was very much in disagreement over having been passed up for Arnsparger in '87.

As a matter of fact, too, I'm almost certain Foley suffers from terminal penis envy.

 

[78]

I met Foley aboard the Blue Goose en route to Oxford for an SEC hoops matchup in 1981. The best I can do to describe the dude at the time was he appeared very impressed with himself. Others would shorten that description to two words: a jerk.

 

[neteng]

Im sure agents or friends contacted someone and Im sure someone said that. Thats what they do, poll the field to see who is available and at what cost.

Im also sure there was zero chance Fooley was going to hire him. Fooley didnt want him hired the first time, resume or not.

And there was almost no chance SOS would come back. I cant even imagine the kind of mea culpa it would take from Fooley. He just doesnt have it in him.

Hell Fooley hasnt offered even the slightest apology for destroying the program, even now.

I'm still having a disconnect over 2004 over what I view a dalliance of some sort between Spurrier and UF. Doesn't make sense that SOS comes anywhere near the situation given the angst with Foley described here. I'm also curious if this is your personal assessment of the goings-on then or if there is/was some means of corroboration within the athletic department.

I could see Associate AD Foley disagreeing with Arnsparger over hiring Spurrier after the '89 debacle of a season. As a matter of fact, Interim AD Foley was very much in disagreement over having been passed up for Arnsparger in '87.

As a matter of fact, too, I'm almost certain Foley suffers from terminal penis envy.

At that time (2004ish), I had blood related (well, blood married related) ties inside the admin and from what I was told there was no inquiry by SOS to come back. However, there were sideways remarks ... like "tell him to submit a resume because I am not going there" ... made by Foley when asked if SOS was on the list. Not sure who asked it but I bet it was a booster since there was a vocal minority of boosters who wanted SOS back.

What was also known to be true yet can be considered to be more of an 'assumed fact' is that SOS wouldn't ever come back while Foley was there. I know it doesn't make sense that SOS would be around UF much while he coached at USC, but he really didn't make much appearances around UF until after Foley stepped down.

 

[Durty South Swamp]

After the Earnest Graham incident, people in the AD office said you could hear SOS screaming at Foley anywhere on the entire floor.

SOS wanted to go to the NFL, but there is exactly one reason he left.

I have a close friend who worked in that office and was close with spurrier's family - like come over this saturday for a bbq close. She to this day has never let one detail about what went down between the two of them after that last FSU game slip out. But she curses Foley with every breath she takes.

 

[neteng]

... I think a lot of SOS's angst stemmed from when Foley didnt really support him (SOS) when he stood up for Danny after all those late hits. I think that was when things really went south between the two of them.

 

[AuggieDosta]

Would any of you be willing to refresh our old minds as to what happened with the whole Earnest Graham incident?

 

[neteng]

Would any of you be willing to refresh our old minds as to what happened with the whole Earnest Graham incident?

As I remember it ...

911 happened and moved UTooth game to end of season

Play FSU and Darnell Dockett twists Grahams leg taking him out of UTooth game the next week

SOS wants Foley to help and but Foley does the Foley thing and treats SOS like a loud coach who shouldn't dare bring the ADs into it because it is beneath him

Lose to UT next week

 

[78]

Good back and forth. I'm going to make an educated guess that Spurrier never did actually get in touch with Foley or anyone else from UF, but rather was quoted by the media while thinking out loud about the UF opening, to which Foley sarcastically replied back via the media to submit a resume, further unendearing himself to UF fans and boosters alike.

Spurrier had no use for self-importance and Foley was up to his ears in it.

 

[AuggieDosta]

Oh, ok, thanks for the reminder.

Yes, I remember it that way too.

Additionally, IIRC, UT was a little banged up early in the year going into our game while we were healthy and clicking.

Because of the ragheads, and flip to November, we were banged up from the FSU game while UT was healthy...hence the loss to them and our National Standing in the rankings preventing us from winning the SEC.

 

[AuggieDosta]

2001: Season finale

As usual, the Gators and Vols were slated to meet on the 3rd Saturday of September during the 2001 season. However, the SEC canceled all games on the weekend following the September 11 attacks, and they were rescheduled for December 1, 2001, requiring the SEC Championship Game to be pushed back a week as well.

As the season progressed, the postponed game took on greater and greater importance. Each squad suffered only one close loss (#6 Tennessee lost to Georgia 26–24, #1 Florida lost to Auburn 23–20) and entered the contest with Tennessee ranked #5 and Florida ranked #2. The winner would represent the SEC East and face LSU in the SEC Championship. With a win in that game, the Gators or Vols were likely to receive an invitation to the Rose Bowl to face the undefeated Miami Hurricanes with a national title on the line.

But in 2001, despite the teams' identical records and much to the chagrin of the Vols, the Gators were 17-and-a-half point favorites at kickoff.

Gators starting running back Earnest Graham had been controversially injured in UF's win over rival Florida State the previous week and was unable to play. The star of the game would turn out to be the running back for the other squad, as UT's Travis Stephens rushed 19 times for 226 yards (the second highest total ever given up by a Florida defense) and two touchdowns to lead the Vols' attack. Without Graham, Florida managed only 36 total yards on the ground. Gator quarterback Rex Grossman threw 51 times for 362 yards and two touchdowns, but his pass on a potentially game-tying two-point conversion attempt with 1:10 left in the 4th quarter fell incomplete. The Vols held on for a 34–32 upset victory, ending a 30-year winless drought against Florida in Gainesville.

Ultimately, neither team would win any championships that season. UT was upset by LSU in the SEC Championship Game the following Saturday and missed their opportunity to play for a second national title in four years. The Vols ended up beating Michigan 45–17 in the Citrus Bowl. Florida was invited to the Orange Bowl, where they beat Maryland 56–23.

The teams' December meeting would become even more historical in early January, when Steve Spurrier announced that he was resigning as Florida's head coach after 12 seasons. The 2001 game was thus the last matchup in the Spurrier-Fulmer chapter of the rivalry (they would meet several additional occasions after Spurrier became South Carolina's head coach in 2005) and Spurrier's last home game at Florida Field.

(taken from Wiki)

 

[T REX]

After the Earnest Graham incident, people in the AD office said you could hear SOS screaming at Foley anywhere on the entire floor.

SOS wanted to go to the NFL, but there is exactly one reason he left.

He also had that stupid NFL clause in his contract. There's an old interview he gave that I sometimes reference...it was his personal goal to only coach college for 10 yrs or something then jump to the pros. He left for the richest contract in history at the time. I think Foley played a part but there were many factors involved.

In conclusion, Foley is a self absorbed dip ****.

 

[BMF]

As I remember it ...

911 happened and moved UTooth game to end of season

Play FSU and Darnell Dockett twists Grahams leg taking him out of UTooth game the next week

SOS wants Foley to help and but Foley does the Foley thing and treats SOS like a loud coach who shouldn't dare bring the ADs into it because it is beneath him

Lose to UT next week

They also had footage of Dockett trying to stomp on Grossman's hand after a play (Grossman put his hand down to push himself up and Dockett slammed his foot where his hand would have been had Grossman not moved it in time). What a piece of sh*t! (and Foley too!)

I actually met Foley in 2004 just after he fired Zook. He was already scheduled to speak at our Gator Club (I was the president) so there was a big media buzz, all of the local stations showed up and he did a short interview w/ them before the event. I wrote a "story" for one of TOS (I think it was gatorbait, now rivals? maybe). He was nice to me, I suppose because I was the club president.

 

[BruceWayne]

As I remember it ...

911 happened and moved UTooth game to end of season

Play FSU and Darnell Dockett twists Grahams leg taking him out of UTooth game the next week

SOS wants Foley to help and but Foley does the Foley thing and treats SOS like a loud coach who shouldn't dare bring the ADs into it because it is beneath him

Lose to UT next week

Also in that same Fsu game Dockett clearly tried to stomp on Rex's throwing hand when he was on the ground out of bounds. Probably the most outrageous thing I've ever seen in a football game and nobody did anything about it. Luckily he missed Rex's hand. Somebody should've taken Dockett out permanently. Human garbage pos.
*edit* sorry I just saw the post above mine. ** bmf on top of it with the same thought

 

[Spurdog98]

After the Earnest Graham incident, people in the AD office said you could hear SOS screaming at Foley anywhere on the entire floor.

SOS wanted to go to the NFL, but there is exactly one reason he left.

FACT. I brought this up the year he left on the old board and was constantly lambasted for it. All the usual BS "SOS made it clear why he left and had nothing to do with the Graham incident of fans not being appreciative, yada, yada" Amazing how dumb some people can be.

He was asked to submit a resume.