Who To Blame for where we are now

[I Have No Friends :(]

Looking at it from a business world point of view, Foley is ultimately to blame because he's in charge. However, I like Foley so can we please forgive him and move on?

 

[backstop13]

I agree SOS raised our expectations, we grew from fans accepting mediocre to fans demanding near perfection. We haven't had stability in coaching since SOS left us - I'd argue Urban's relatively long tenure was not stable given his retire-unretire-retire situation. And that instability at the HBC position comes from expectations of winning records and championship rings, that put us in position for a decline. So it's YOUR fault. And mine.

I don't think expecting 9 win seasons is unreasonable as a fan. Especially considering there's a good 4-5 guaranteed wins built into our schedule every year (1-2 directional schools prior to SEC, Vandy, Kentucky, One more directional school before the clowns.

No one was calling for Spurrier or Meyer's head when they won 9 games. The loudest screams from the fan base came during the years we were floundering under Zook and Chump. And to be frank, we're no different than any other fan base. Take any university that has "tradition" (e.g. OSU, Michigan, 'Bama, ND, USC, 'Bama, UT, etc.) and you'll find that they aren't tolerant of losing either. SOS just happened to bring us up to the level of "traditional" standards very quickly, setting our expectations in line with other big schools.

 

[alcoholica]

It's a little bit of a lot of parts. Urban did F us over. In 2012 we had some elite D talent, but remember that no one really got hurt that year. No depth. Muschamp walks into a bad situation....which he made worse because he couldn't cut it even if he'd been handed a talent rich roster. Meyer's handling of the LOS recruits and Muschamps slow start to recruit the OLine have greatly diminished our offense. The decision to name Driskel the QB for 2013 and not have an open competition was also foolish. Hell, we even let Tyler Murphy go and keep Driskel...that's getting pretty low.

The whole Brantley thing confounded me because a GA at the time said that Meyer and Co. completely F'd his mental game up. Anyone else wonder why we never ran the 2006 NCG offense with Brantley? Let the slow white guy run the option....yep, that's what we did.

You can blame Foley for the Muschamp hire, but he was widely regarded as a good hire....just turned out to be a bust. But blame is rightly deserved.

Meyer won us 2 NC's (so long as we don't lose the 2008 when Hernandez crap hits the fan) and whether you hate him or not, we have those. To some he's great, to others he's a putz, but he's an elite coach by any standard. As they always say, you don't want to follow the legend. You want to follow the guy who followed the legend. We are entering that era with McElwain, so sit back and enjoy the progress.

 

[TLB]

I don't think expecting 9 win seasons is unreasonable as a fan. Especially considering there's a good 4-5 guaranteed wins built into our schedule every year (1-2 directional schools prior to SEC, Vandy, Kentucky, One more directional school before the clowns.

No one was calling for Spurrier or Meyer's head when they won 9 games. The loudest screams from the fan base came during the years we were floundering under Zook and Chump. And to be frank, we're no different than any other fan base. Take any university that has "tradition" (e.g. OSU, Michigan, 'Bama, ND, USC, 'Bama, UT, etc.) and you'll find that they aren't tolerant of losing either. SOS just happened to bring us up to the level of "traditional" standards very quickly, setting our expectations in line with other big schools.

'Near perfection' was hyperbole on my part. 9 wins was a bar higher than we'd had before SOS, and is about where it remained after he left. So I'll agree to your more rational phrasing that our expectations were raised (quickly) to that of traditional powers. But now that our fans expect that, we haven't had anyone that can delivery consistently - Meyer did for the short run, hollowing out the program to do it and then he burned out on us. Meyer can meet fan expectations more consistently at tOSU than in the SEC, simple fact. He couldn't live up to our expectations, nor did Zook or Champ as noted. It is a standard that is hard to meet on a consistent basis at UF. We should feel 8-4 is a down year, not that 7-5 is an improvement. Our expectations may have been raised to match those of the 'traditional' powers, but it's harder to achieve it at UF than most of the others. I hope JMac can.

 

[KCgator]

Jeremy Foley. End of discussion.

 

[soflagator]

Foley is solely to blame for the recent debacle('11-14), but I think we had contributing factors that hurt us in 201 as well, which in my opinion led to Foley having to replace Meyer in the first place. The blame definitely falls on Muschamp. But considering he was pursued, interviewed and hired by our AD, you ultimately have to look at that guy. I like Foley and am a supporter of his. But he can't avoid that.

 

[TheDouglas78]

 

[dubster1]

Jeremy Foley. End of discussion.

 

[VulcanAlex]

Well Foley by my idea. He allowed Urban to take a vacation and assign an incompetent individual to stay as a place holder. Perhaps he did not pay close enough attention when our team somehow became broken under the leadership of Urban.

Then he hired Champ instead of looking for what he did this time. Next he bought the idea that Champ would be a success if only injuries did not occur and gave him an extension.

Additional factors are the TV contracts that level the playing field for hiring and retaining coaches.

 

[Gatorbreath]

I blame myself.

 

[AlexDaGator]

Osama Bin Laden/Darnell Dockett


The 9-11 attack delayed our 2001 game with Tennessee. Pre-Dockett's injuring of Earnest Graham we beat them in the Swamp.

With only one flukey loss to Auburn on the schedule, we get a rematch against LSU (who we had already beaten 44-15 on the road) in the SEC Championship game.

We handle them easily at the neutral site game, and look forward to our bowl game against Miami for the MNC.

Rex becomes the first sophomore to win the Heisman.

With Jabbar Gaffney, Reche Caldwell, and Taylor Jacobs catching the ball, and with SOS calling the plays, we beat Miami despite their dazzling array of talent.

Spurrier gets his second MNC. Rex gets in the Ring of Honor.

Instead of going to the NFL, Spurrier tries to repeat with Rex and Taylor Jacobs in 2002.

No Ron Zook.



In 2004, Spurrier wins his 3rd MNC and coaches his 3rd Heisman trophy winning QB in Chris Leak.

He retires to try his hand at the NFL and is replaced by TCU coach Gary Patterson who goes on to win 2 more MNCs behind the talent of some kid named Tebow.



Alex.

 

[t-gator]

cam Newton leaving changed the whole trajectory of our program. We probably have another title, heck maybe more because I don't believe Meyer would have left. Then we hired muschamp instead of ponying up and paying Chris Peterson what he wanted. Then we kept muschamp a year too long.

 

[Gatorbreath]

Osama Bin Laden/Darnell Dockett


The 9-11 attack delayed our 2001 game with Tennessee. Pre-Dockett's injuring of Earnest Graham we beat them in the Swamp.

With only one flukey loss to Auburn on the schedule, we get a rematch against LSU (who we had already beaten 44-15 on the road) in the SEC Championship game.

We handle them easily at the neutral site game, and look forward to our bowl game against Miami for the MNC.

Rex becomes the first sophomore to win the Heisman.

With Jabbar Gaffney, Reche Caldwell, and Taylor Jacobs catching the ball, and with SOS calling the plays, we beat Miami despite their dazzling array of talent.

Spurrier gets his second MNC. Rex gets in the Ring of Honor.

Instead of going to the NFL, Spurrier tries to repeat with Rex and Taylor Jacobs in 2002.

No Ron Zook.



In 2004, Spurrier wins his 3rd MNC and coaches his 3rd Heisman trophy winning QB in Chris Leak.

He retires to try his hand at the NFL and is replaced by TCU coach Gary Patterson who goes on to win 2 more MNCs behind the talent of some kid named Tebow.



Alex.

Phenomenal hypothesis. I do think we'd have crushed the Chuggers that year if we had played them in September. A battle against that Miami squad for the Natty would have been something to see.

A terribly minor thing on a horrifically tragic day, but I've always thought things would have been very different for the SOS and the Gator Nation were is not for the events that day.

 

[ChattanooGATOR]

... Our expectations may have been raised to match those of the 'traditional' powers, but it's harder to achieve it at UF than most of the others. I hope JMac can.

Why do you say that? Not trolling - honest question.

 

[VulcanAlex]

Why do you say that? Not trolling - honest question.

I think it might be our academic standards and the fact that the police here don't generally cover up stuff, in fact sometimes they make it bigger than life. Examples include barking at a dog, stealing a taco, and getting a car out of impound informally. All could have been handled with discression.

 

[SaltGator]

Fooley and Dawgcramp.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

In this order:

1. Obama
2. God
3. Obama
4. My Lord and Savior Jesus Christ
5. Obama
6. Obama
7. Newman.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

It's not like putting the keys to a Ferrari in a 16 year olds hands...it's like putting it into a 90 year old blind woman's hands. A 16 year old would at least push the vehicle to it's limits and go too fast...muschamp would drive 10 mph in a 65 mph zone with his emergency blinkers while everyone else passed him by

This is such a stupendous post that I'm embarrassed that no one has liked it.

 

[Swamp Donkey]

In this order:

1. Obama
2. Unit
3. Corps
4. God
4. Country

I blame Lt Johnathan Kendrick. The offense died because it had no code.

 

[Captain Sasquatch]

I blame Lt Johnathan Kendrick.

Good call, he did order the code red.