If Muschamp had never been fired, where would our program be?

[JDW]

Well like everything else it’s all speculation

 

[InstiGATOR1]

You think I’m wrong...I think you’re wrong. That’s how it goes sometimes.

I personally don’t know a single Gator fan...including myself...who was praying we would land Mullen. I don’t know a single Gator fan who did back flips upon the announcement of DM. I count myself among the fans who are approaching DM and the upcoming season as optimistically as we can. That’s a long ride from believing we got “the man”.

Elite coaches have avoided UF for a long time. This past year two of the hottest commodities said no thanks. Nobody is pursuing the job. Were it not for Machen coming to UF we would have absolutely, positively not landed Urban. We have had to rummage down a tier or two to get coaches who would never say no.

Either DM gets it done or we have to hope he at least gets us back to respectability enough so that the next young gunslinger sees the opportunity. A Scott Frost type will need to come along and not buy into the perceived negativity as it does not appear that championship level coaches have much if any desire to coach here.

1. There is a difference between fans praying to land a particular coach and being happy with a hire. It is a very rare thing to have a single must hire like in 1990 with Spurrier. Even when Meyer was hired few would have been upset had it been Spurrier then. I think a lot of fans were pleased it was Mullen. Not everyone follows the team like message board fans and understands his MSU record like people here.

2. Not landing Meyer and having Spurrier back in stead might have been the best thing that could have happened to UF that year. But alas it did not happen.

3. When the young gunslinger went to UNL that has an open job is a very different thing when the young gunslinger went to University of Cincinnati or East Stroudsburg University.

4. Additionally, I think if the young guns are shying away from UF at all it has much less to do with the fan base and expectations than it does the preening UAA trying to take credit for any success. Hot shot coaches particularly hotshot young coaches want credit for what they accomplish.

5. UF's last six coaching hires have been:
A. Spurrier who was certainly UF's top candidate at the time.
B. Zook who was certainly a step down after UF failed to get some top candidates.
C. Meyer who along with Spurrier were the top two candidates on the market that year.
D. Muschamp who was the head coach in waiting at the University of Texas. That is a big deal in terms of where one is as a prospect and there were not that many candidates out there that year.
E. McElwain who was at the time a Saban acolyte from the offensive side of the ball with some successful heading coaching experience. This was probably just who the AD wanted.
F. Mullen a guy who was an SEC head coach already and probably just who the AD wanted.

So I do not see top candidates running from UF. I see UF's UAA getting one of their top targets every hire but one since 1990. I am not even sure this time that Kelly ran from UF since all of that went down before they were will to talk to Mullen.

 

[78]

1. There is a difference between fans praying to land a particular coach and being happy with a hire. It is a very rare thing to have a single must hire like in 1990 with Spurrier. Even when Meyer was hired few would have been upset had it been Spurrier then. I think a lot of fans were pleased it was Mullen. Not everyone follows the team like message board fans and understands his MSU record like people here.

2. Not landing Meyer and having Spurrier back in stead might have been the best thing that could have happened to UF that year. But alas it did not happen.

3. When the young gunslinger went to UNL that has an open job is a very different thing when the young gunslinger went to University of Cincinnati or East Stroudsburg University.

4. Additionally, I think if the young guns are shying away from UF at all it has much less to do with the fan base and expectations than it does the preening UAA trying to take credit for any success. Hot shot coaches particularly hotshot young coaches want credit for what they accomplish.

5. UF's last six coaching hires have been:
A. Spurrier who was certainly UF's top candidate at the time.
B. Zook who was certainly a step down after UF failed to get some top candidates.
C. Meyer who along with Spurrier were the top two candidates on the market that year.
D. Muschamp who was the head coach in waiting at the University of Texas. That is a big deal in terms of where one is as a prospect and there were not that many candidates out there that year.
E. McElwain who was at the time a Saban acolyte from the offensive side of the ball with some successful heading coaching experience. This was probably just who the AD wanted.
F. Mullen a guy who was an SEC head coach already and probably just who the AD wanted.

So I do not see top candidates running from UF. I see UF's UAA getting one of their top targets every hire but one since 1990. I am not even sure this time that Kelly ran from UF since all of that went down before they were will to talk to Mullen.

I have no idea what you just said.

 

[MJMGator]

Strong would have been a failure.

Yeah, but he woulda left us with a sh*t load of talent...like Zook did.

 

[Ancient Reptile]

Yeah, but he woulda left us with a sh*t load of talent...like Zook did.

Talent plus a program back on track and attractive to the next coach.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

I have no idea what you just said.

You read it?

 

[oxrageous]

Sure on this board there is a lot of skepticism about Mullen. No place else in the Gator fandom is that true.

You're honestly telling us that Gatorchatter is the only place in the entire Gator Nation where people are skeptical about Mullen?

Hell, I'm part of a huge Facebook Gator group (in order to link to things here) in which they have been kicking anyone out of the group that is negative about Mullen. They've kicked a LOT of people.

 

[Marine1]

Bottom line is we have gone 2nd or 3rd tier 4 out of 5 hires in the past 17 years. We only got Urban because of Machen.

Surely in 17 years we would have hired an elite coach if we could. Hell we couldn’t even get Stoops back here.

Mullen is who we have. He wants to be here. He seems to be bringing structure back to the program and some positivity among the players. Recruiting is down but I think we will be better coached. He was far from my personal choice but I’m ready to see what we do this year. I’m optimistic.

 

[gardnerwebbgator]

I was optimistic until the past 48 hours. No new direction or discipline. The same old ****.

 

[-THE DUDE-]

If you told me the only two options were Strong and Mullinz there is a zero percent chance I take Mullinz.

Also would have gone Strong all a day any day against muscrap

 

[rogdochar]

we've had terrible interperms since 2009

U Texas is of similar top perch in the State of Texas, as UF is in the state of Florida. U Texas is $-richer, has it's own tv-channel, dominating the state. U Texas had a lousy interperm HC in Strong = 6-7, then 5-7 then 5-7. That's 16-21.

Mullen was 9-4 then 6-7 then 8-4. That's 23-16 at a poor money school, poor recruit draw school.
Sure DM has flaws but Strong must also have flaws. Texas with the right HC should be a top 6 team every year. They probably will get there, in the near future.

Overall, nobody knows what/who HC will excell UF or UTex.?? Right now from the "draw" of practical & reachable HCs who is there?

 

[Durty South Swamp]

Strong has been a failure.

FIFY

 

[soflagator]

Yeah, but he woulda left us with a sh*t load of talent...like Zook did.

I'm also not convinced Strong would've been a failure here. So much is based on circumstances, and if we're going back in time, I think he would've been a fine replacement for Meyer. Certainly better than the toolbag we hired.

So while I get that he was a disaster at ut, and I didn't think he was the ideal guy to pull us out of our current hole, I actually think Strong can be a good coach when he's handed a decent situation. We would've been that post '09 and to a lesser extent post 2010.

All of this still centers around an AD who was given about as much an advance notice as you can get, and wasted an entire year because he wanted one guy--an unproven, first time HC who was not only a bulldog, but one with a completely backwards vision of what can(or should) be done at UF. We all hate WM and JM. But if we're honest, we probably shouldn't even know who they are.

 

[Ancient Reptile]

I'm also not convinced Strong would've been a failure here. So much is based on circumstances, and if we're going back in time, I think he would've been a fine replacement for Meyer. Certainly better than the toolbag we hired.

So while I get that he was a disaster at ut, and I didn't think he was the ideal guy to pull us out of our current hole, I actually think Strong can be a good coach when he's handed a decent situation. We would've been that post '09 and to a lesser extent post 2010.

All of this still centers around an AD who was given about as much an advance notice as you can get, and wasted an entire year because he wanted one guy--an unproven, first time HC who was not only a bulldog, but one with a completely backwards vision of what can(or should) be done at UF. We all hate WM and JM. But if we're honest, we probably shouldn't even know who they are.

At UT the players didn't want the mess cleaned up. No surprise. But the big supporters didn't seem to want the mess cleaned up. That was a surprise.

 

[Ancient Reptile]

It's interesting that Herman with his kissy-kissy, everyone gets a participation trophy approach seems headed for success. Who'd a' thunk it?

 

[78]

I'm also not convinced Strong would've been a failure here. So much is based on circumstances, and if we're going back in time, I think he would've been a fine replacement for Meyer. Certainly better than the toolbag we hired.

So while I get that he was a disaster at ut, and I didn't think he was the ideal guy to pull us out of our current hole, I actually think Strong can be a good coach when he's handed a decent situation. We would've been that post '09 and to a lesser extent post 2010.

All of this still centers around an AD who was given about as much an advance notice as you can get, and wasted an entire year because he wanted one guy--an unproven, first time HC who was not only a bulldog, but one with a completely backwards vision of what can(or should) be done at UF. We all hate WM and JM. But if we're honest, we probably shouldn't even know who they are.

Machen should have made that hire, too. We'd have ended up with Whittingham, not a bad replacement at all.

 

[ThreatMatrix]

We would suck. Chump did more with less than anybody in recent memory including Mac. He had plenty of talent and managed to not finish ranked 3 out of 4 seasons. And Chumps recruiting was going downhill (not to mention one-sided). Given another year or two he'd be pulling in mediocre classes.

 

[Ancient Reptile]

We would suck. Chump did more with less than anybody in recent memory including Mac. He had plenty of talent and managed to not finish ranked 3 out of 4 seasons. And Chumps recruiting was going downhill (not to mention one-sided). Given another year or two he'd be pulling in mediocre classes.

I am always surprised when someone returns to topic. Suppose you were a Bull Gator and had contributed a lot of money hoping to keep us out of the very mess we are in. Would you feel your money was well spent? It kept us from the mess Muschamp would have left us in.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

At UT the players didn't want the mess cleaned up. No surprise. But the big supporters didn't seem to want the mess cleaned up. That was a surprise.

Not to mention Strong and his entire staff had zero Texas recruiting contacts. That was a disaster waiting to happen. You just can't do it.

Strong would have recruited much better here then or now. I'm not sure he is the best gameday corch but he sure as hell wouldnt be bringing home below average classes like Cousin Butterteeth.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Suppose you were a Bull Gator and had contributed a lot of money hoping to keep us out of the very mess we are in. Would you feel your money was well spent?

No, I would feel like 20% of football's money is spent on football.