The Fun N Gun: Remember when this was us?

[lizardbreath]

Yep that was a joke how Machen handled that. He should have just kept his mouth shut and gave the standard respectful answer when asked about Spurrier knowing he was hiring Meyer no matter what if he would come.

I am glad Spurrier finally said what was going on generally. You used to have people on these forums acting like it wasn't a done deal and Machen wasn't in charge of that decision. Foley had no say in reality on that hiring.

Foley was a gutless errand boy who just did what Daddy told him to do; "Get on that plane and don't come back without Urban's signature on a contract." To which, Foley said; Yes Daddy, can I please have the keys to the jet?"

 

[rogdochar]

Please explain this. Was calling what you said "asinine" too much for you to take? How you have survived here with your thin skin all these years is a minor miracle.

Insti, you can toughen your hide up by doing daily 'callouskinics'.
And Charlie Strong? Wonder if U Texas had hired Spurrier instead of Strong.?

 

[Gator By Marriage]

Foley was a gutless errand boy who just did what Daddy told him to do; "Get on that plane and don't come back without Urban's signature on a contract." To which, Foley said; Yes Daddy, can I please have the keys to the jet?"

Not disputing this, but wondering why Machen did not take an active role in hiring Urb's replacement. Or did he and he was OK with the hiring of Muschump? I wanted to give him a pass on Butters since he left around the time Butters was hired, but since he knew how bad Foley screwed the pooch on chump, why would he trust him with the next hire?

 

[78]

Machen gets too much credit and yet not enough. He's not that football bright, but he knew a good one in Meyer from his time in Utah. I'm pretty sure Foley would have hired Gerry DiNardo or Gary Crowton if Machen hadn't stepped in.

Machen actually thought Mac was a good hire. Either that or he had a bookie who helped him bet against his own school.

 

[YLGator]

Suggesting that hiring Meyer was a $100M mistake might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever read on this board.

It’s like a $100M lottery winner saying the worst thing that ever happened to them was winning the lottery because they screwed up the taxes and ended up in jail for tax evasion.

Hiring Meyer was like winning the lottery. He won two championships for us in 6 years. Just because we were completely incompetent in dealing with the aftermath of the Meyer regime, doesn’t make his hire a mistake. It just shines a light on how utterly incompetent the UAA was and how incredibly lucky we were to actually have him while we did.

 

[neteng]

Suggesting that hiring Meyer was a $100M mistake might be the dumbest thing I’ve ever read on this board.

I dont know ... using U A L as the abbreviation for Bama is dumber imo.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

Hiring Leyer a 100 mil mistake? No.

Hiring Foley? Much larger than 100 mil mistake. Much larger.

We have flat revenues DESPITE the influx of ESPN money which is disguising the fact that we actually were losing revenues through the last decade under Fooley.

Let's not even talk about his insane propensity to give his terrible hires big extensions and raises (2 in one season?) in order to prove that he made a great hire.

 

[LagoonGator68]

I remember all the discussion on various board at that time arguing that Meyer was a much better hire as he would be at UF long after Spurrier retired for good. Here we are 15 years later and Spurrier is still winning games while Meyer is on his second "health" related retirement.

The Meyer hire was a $100 million mistake. Now as someone pointed out above, it was Machen's mistake not Foley's, but it was at least a $100 million mistake. So you can love Meyer all you want, but hiring him over Spurrier greatly hurt UF's athletic department.

Just imagine had Spurrier coached UF from say 2005 to 2017. Let's say Spurrier was not as successful as his first time around. Still he might have averaged 6 SEC wins a year for 78 more SEC wins to become the coach with the most SEC wins in history. Imagine given UF's football history if UF had the coach to have won the most SEC games in history.

Additionally, UF's jersey sales, UF attendance etc would have not tailed off nearly as much and I think $8 million a year lost is a conservative figure. The cost of hiring Meyer could be well over that $100 million figure and it does not even calculate in the damage to the brand of the Meyer era of arrests and bad behavior that Machen allowed because he could not afford to have the guy he snubbed Spurrier for fail.

In 2001, UF had the most admirable football program in the country. Since then, the powers that be at UF have allowed the brand to be harmed because they could not stand to bring Spurrier back any of four chances they had.

Insti is mostly right.....

Fck Urban Meyer and his 2 championships....the last 9 years have been a nightmare for Gator football. Fck Machen too.

 

[78]

Not that SOS quitting for the NFL had anything to do with this two-title nightmare that was thrust upon us.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

$100m mistake? How did we arrive at that math? How do you label two national championships a mistake?

please don't question his formulas.

would you really want to hear his answer?

 

[78]

please don't question his formulas.

would you really want to hear his answer?

Probably not the abbreviated version.

 

[LagoonGator68]

Not that SOS quitting for the NFL had anything to do with this two-title nightmare that was thrust upon us.

Spurrier had a itch to scratch at $5 mil a year for 5 years....mistake...no need to throw out the baby with the bath water. Machen was an idiot Mormon who wanted to ban alcohol from campus.

 

[78]

Spurrier had a itch to scratch at $5 mil a year for 5 years....mistake...no need to throw out the baby with the bath water. Machen was an idiot Mormon who wanted to ban alcohol from campus.

I'm trying to understand where you're going with this. Were we supposed to hire head coaching temps until SOS was ready to return?

Man, you really got a thing for Bernie, huh?

 

[SeabeeGator]

I'm trying to understand where you're going with this. Were we supposed to hire head coaching temps until SOS was ready to return?

Man, you really got a thing for Bernie, huh?

Bernie did kill the game day atmosphere along university. It used to be wild - so much fun. I was in school when he turned it over to the boosters.

 

[78]

Bernie did kill the game day atmosphere along university. It used to be wild - so much fun. I was in school when he turned it over to the boosters.

I went to maybe a half-dozen games during that span. We either kept it under wraps or went to the Swamp for drinks, but I'm very sure we partied before every game. Unless I can't remember.

 

[t-gator]

Why didn't we just hire spurrier after meyer quit? Not long before Meyer quit us for the last time , spurrier came to swamp and emptied it in the 1st half. He also put a severe asswhooping on Saban and his defending champs that year.Then proceeded to lead usce to their most successful 3 or 4 seasons in their history.

We could have avoided mac and muschamp. Spurrier ends his coaching career as a gator.

 

[LagoonGator68]

I'm trying to understand where you're going with this. Were we supposed to hire head coaching temps until SOS was ready to return?

Man, you really got a thing for Bernie, huh?

Spurrier should have been hired instead of Meyers....Bernie set us back years in administration too.

 

[SeabeeGator]

I went to maybe a half-dozen games during that span. We either kept it under wraps or went to the Swamp for drinks, but I'm very sure we partied before every game. Unless I can't remember.

We did as well but nothing compared to those street parties. I hated that he put an end to it - always will.

 

[78]

Why didn't we just hire spurrier after meyer quit? Not long before Meyer quit us for the last time , spurrier came to swamp and emptied it in the 1st half. He also put a severe asswhooping on Saban and his defending champs that year.Then proceeded to lead usce to their most successful 3 or 4 seasons in their history.

We could have avoided mac and muschamp. Spurrier ends his coaching career as a gator.

There are some who will tell you Spurrier and Foley had developed a mutual resentment toward the end of their working relationship that made it impossible for them to work together again.

Others will say Spurrier was content in Columbia and that it was doubtful he would have wanted to return to the pressure cooker that he himself had helped create.

I'm not even sure UF fans were all onboard a Spurrier return. I remember comments on GSMB to the effect that he was aging and that the game had passed him by. GO YOUNGER was the cry.

Look where that got us. It made us all older.

 

[gatormandan]

I'm not even sure UF fans were all onboard a Spurrier return.

The dentist that my wife worked for at that time was a UF grad and him and I had this discussion because I wanted SOS to come back and he didn't. He said he knew several alum that didn't want him back. I thought that was crazy.