GCMB Poll: Worst UF football coach ever

[78]

The highly scientific criteria used to select candidates:

• Won-loss record
• Ability to speak in undecipherable sentences after games and flame out
• How bad off did he leave us?
• Ability to hire high schoolish assistants
• Ability to take recruiting cues from high schoolish assistants
• The dick factor
• Was he a hypochondriac?
• Was he a pyromaniac?
• Was he a kleptomaniac?
• Any other manias or phobias
• What would Swamp Donkey say?

You'll note most of these guys posted positive win-loss records. We're here to carefully examine and extract the suck factor. I have full faith you'll find it.

 

[LagoonGator68]

It's a no contest....

Chump

 

[gatordad3]

Muschamp.
There was a reason Saban didn't make him the Miami Dolphins DC.

 

[gardnerwebbgator]

Bear Wolf, followed closely by Duncechump.

 

[crosscreekcooter]

It's a no contest....

Chump

This. Darnell second.

One of the more colorful coaches was the Gator's HBC from back when men played the game and didn't need no stinkin helmets.
George E. Pyle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_E._Pyle

Pyle replaced Jack Forsythe as the Florida head football coach, and he held that position for five seasons, from 1909 to 1913. During that period, he accumulated a 26–7–3 record and a 0.764 winning percentage, making him the third winningest coach in school history after Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer. In 1911, Pyle led Florida to its first and only undefeated season when the newly named Gators posted a 5–0–1 record.

The first Swindle
In 1912, Florida posted a 5–2–1 record. After the season, the team participated in its first post-season game, the Bacardi Bowl held in Havana, Cuba. It was actually a two-game series against different Cuban athletic clubs. The first game was played on December 25 under the so-called "old rules" that existed before the American football reforms of 1906. In that game, Florida defeated the Verado Tennis Club (?), 28–0. On December 30, Florida played the Cuban Athletic Club of Havana under the "new rules." According to one source, the game's referee was a former coach for the Cuban team, and the officiating was blatantly biased. After two Florida touchdowns were nullified by questionable officiating, Pyle protested a fifteen-yard penalty. When the referee offered a five-yard penalty instead, Pyle and his team left the game in protest. Another source states that the game ended late in the first quarter after a fight broke out between the teams; Florida accused the Cuban team of still playing under "the old rules." Regardless of the reason for the forfeiture, Pyle was arrested by the Cuban authorities. He was charged with violating a law that prohibited a game's suspension after money had been collected. After his trial was delayed, Pyle and the Gators left the island country, which caused him to be branded a "fugitive from justice."

 

[ChiefGator]

Whoever was coach when this happened.

Fourth-and-Dumb Part II, 1973
Florida’s season was falling apart. Nat Moore was out with an injury and the Gators had lost three straight. They trailed Ole Miss 13-10 but were driving. Quarterback David Bowden threw a pass out of bounds on purpose to stop the clock. The trouble was that it was fourth down. Ball game.

I seem to remember us doing it another time but once was way too many.

 

[Jbossgator8]

Muskrat WITHOUT a doubt. I remember I was at Disney when they announced the hiring. My Dad called me and I was like WHO?? We knew he was the Texas head coach in waiting and he was a good recruiting but that was it. He was a garbage and still is. I NEVER liked the hire from the beginning. He DESTROYED Florida Football

 

[ExecutiveGator]

Chump. He was given the keys to a Ferrari and turned it into a Hugo in 4 short years. 3-years later, we are still suffering. Single handily destroyed a top 5 program.

F**k him.

 

[Jbossgator8]

MusDump the WORST EVER

 

[LagoonGator68]

You can take the boy out of the Big Sky, but you can't take the Big Sky out of the boy........so, the jury is still out on this question.

 

[Gatorraid81]

Since I'm only 35 I voted for Champ, but may have voted for Dickey had I lived through his coaching blunders, which I've read were not few. Sounds like Dickey was a great underachiever too and we didn't win a game the year after he was fired, so I guess he didn't leave much. I do have a question for those that lived through the 0-10-1 season. What was the biggest factor in us not winning a single game that year? Crappy luck, no talent, players not accepting the new coaching staff, injuries? It just blows my mind when I think of that year and how the University of Florida could not win a single game.

 

[MJMGator]

Mushchamp is the clear winner. Dickey sucked but no one was ever as bad as WM. The jury is still out on Mac. Let's hope he's not the eventual winner.

 

[T REX]

Losing to a lower division directional school is unforgivable. He should have been thrown off campus that day but Foley was too weak or too stupid to do it.

 

[NavetG8r]

Nobody did less with more like Mushchump. Except maybe Richt...

 

[TN G8tr]

Well I did live through the Dickey years. He and Muschamp have to be 1a/1b for the worst ever. Most hated coach.......for me it was Zook. Could not stand him and he was a terrible figure for anything UF. I have always said that RZ should have never even been offered the job. Why would you hire for HC the guy that Spurrier ran off. Zook can make a strong case for 1c.

 

[TN G8tr]

Since I'm only 35 I voted for Champ, but may have voted for Dickey had I lived through his coaching blunders, which I've read were not few. Sounds like Dickey was a great underachiever too and we didn't win a game the year after he was fired, so I guess he didn't leave much. I do have a question for those that lived through the 0-10-1 season. What was the biggest factor in us not winning a single game that year? Crappy luck, no talent, players not accepting the new coaching staff, injuries? It just blows my mind when I think of that year and how the University of Florida could not win a single game.

The one thing that I remember from those years was HUGE. We lost the biggest bad azz we had in Scott Brantley to injury. Most of it was from the shape Dickey had taken the program to. A lot of the same intangible factors that we've seen recently. I do not ever recall the players not buying into Pell at all. We came close on a few games, especially pitt. That was the year after they lost Tony Dorsett, heckuva game and the one if memory serves we lost Brantley. And it just seemed like old Gator luck. UF in those years seemed and before, to just never get over the hump.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

More interesting will be how this poll looks at this time next year.

 

[CaribGator]

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I do have a question for those that lived through the 0-10-1 season.

Its not all about wins and losses.

Today's records are greatly exagerrated bc of the three directional school games. We didnt play Northeastern South Arkansas back then..... of course Chimp.managed to lose one of those gimme games to a 1AA team.

His record would be the equivalent of going 2-8, with his only wins over Tinerc and Kintuck.

Also, keep in mind that in the 70s, the population of Florida was less than the population of Mississippi and we sure as hell werent considered THE RECRUITING hotbed. Its a lot more of a feat to go 2-8 at Florida today than 0-10 at a Mississippi type school.

 

[PastyStoole]

Whoever was coach when this happened.

Fourth-and-Dumb Part II, 1973
Florida’s season was falling apart. Nat Moore was out with an injury and the Gators had lost three straight. They trailed Ole Miss 13-10 but were driving. Quarterback David Bowden threw a pass out of bounds on purpose to stop the clock. The trouble was that it was fourth down. Ball game.

I seem to remember us doing it another time but once was way too many.

Jimmy Fisher did it a couple of years later. I want to say it was against Pittsburgh. I think he had his bell rung on the previous play and was a bit out of it.