After Will Muschamp whiff, pressure on Florida AD to revive football program
By Pat Forde
On the floor of the Louisiana Superdome after Florida had blasted Cincinnati in the 2010 Sugar Bowl, Jeremy Foley offered me some reader feedback.
Iād written a column the previous day surmising that the game might be the last night of the Florida dynasty ā Tim Tebow was leaving, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong was leaving, and head coach Urban Meyerās future was uncertain after a bizarre retirement/unretirement in a matter of 48 hours. It had been a great run, but the future was in the balance.
āThis is not the last night of the Florida dynasty,ā Foley said, friendly but firm. āI guarantee you that.ā
Nearly five years and zero Southeastern Conference championships or BCS bowl wins later, the dynasty is dead and in need of a revival. And itās on Foley to bring it back to life.
Heās an accomplished and respected athletic director who suddenly finds his continued viability at Florida very much on the line. After firing Will Muschamp Sunday, Foley has to get his replacement right.
He is batting .500 in revenue-sports hires. If the next one doesnāt work out, and he has more failures than successes in Floridaās marquee sports, it almost certainly would be his last major hire. Heād be gone, too.
Billy Donovan as basketball coach in 1996, and Urban Meyer as football coach in 2005. He identified a young star on the way up in Donovan, and has kept him in Gainesville for 18 phenomenally successful years. And he outflanked Notre Dame to get Meyer, a coup that altered the football trajectory of both schools for several years. Those hires yielded four national championships between them.
But Foley also hired two unproven football head coaches who were busts. He had to fire bumbling Ron Zook after less than three full seasons, and now he has trap-doored Muschamp after fewer than four complete years. This one undoubtedly hurt more than firing Zook ā Foley, like most everyone else, greatly liked Muschamp and badly wanted it to work out.
It didnāt. Muschamp never could field quality offense, and rarely fielded even a competent one. At a school that had been on the cutting edge of offensive football for more than a decade with Steve Spurrier and then with Meyer, ineptitude on that side of the ball was difficult to swallow.
A lot of athletic directors who have two strikeout football hires donāt get to make another one. Foleyās stature gives him wider latitude ā but there will be a lot of pressure to hit a home run this time.
Florida has a new president, Kent Fuchs, who arrives Jan. 1 from Cornell. He has no ties to Foley. Loyalty wonāt keep Foley on the job if the athletic departmentās performance is insufficient.
So where will his coaching search lead? In broad terms, the new guy almost certainly will be an experienced head coach ā the Zook and Muschamp eras guarantee that. And after years of offensive futility, expect the new guy to have a track record of lighting up scoreboards.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/after-...-home-run-with-next-hire-192700543-ncaaf.html
By Pat Forde
On the floor of the Louisiana Superdome after Florida had blasted Cincinnati in the 2010 Sugar Bowl, Jeremy Foley offered me some reader feedback.
Iād written a column the previous day surmising that the game might be the last night of the Florida dynasty ā Tim Tebow was leaving, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong was leaving, and head coach Urban Meyerās future was uncertain after a bizarre retirement/unretirement in a matter of 48 hours. It had been a great run, but the future was in the balance.
āThis is not the last night of the Florida dynasty,ā Foley said, friendly but firm. āI guarantee you that.ā
Nearly five years and zero Southeastern Conference championships or BCS bowl wins later, the dynasty is dead and in need of a revival. And itās on Foley to bring it back to life.
Heās an accomplished and respected athletic director who suddenly finds his continued viability at Florida very much on the line. After firing Will Muschamp Sunday, Foley has to get his replacement right.
He is batting .500 in revenue-sports hires. If the next one doesnāt work out, and he has more failures than successes in Floridaās marquee sports, it almost certainly would be his last major hire. Heād be gone, too.
Billy Donovan as basketball coach in 1996, and Urban Meyer as football coach in 2005. He identified a young star on the way up in Donovan, and has kept him in Gainesville for 18 phenomenally successful years. And he outflanked Notre Dame to get Meyer, a coup that altered the football trajectory of both schools for several years. Those hires yielded four national championships between them.
But Foley also hired two unproven football head coaches who were busts. He had to fire bumbling Ron Zook after less than three full seasons, and now he has trap-doored Muschamp after fewer than four complete years. This one undoubtedly hurt more than firing Zook ā Foley, like most everyone else, greatly liked Muschamp and badly wanted it to work out.
It didnāt. Muschamp never could field quality offense, and rarely fielded even a competent one. At a school that had been on the cutting edge of offensive football for more than a decade with Steve Spurrier and then with Meyer, ineptitude on that side of the ball was difficult to swallow.
A lot of athletic directors who have two strikeout football hires donāt get to make another one. Foleyās stature gives him wider latitude ā but there will be a lot of pressure to hit a home run this time.
Florida has a new president, Kent Fuchs, who arrives Jan. 1 from Cornell. He has no ties to Foley. Loyalty wonāt keep Foley on the job if the athletic departmentās performance is insufficient.
So where will his coaching search lead? In broad terms, the new guy almost certainly will be an experienced head coach ā the Zook and Muschamp eras guarantee that. And after years of offensive futility, expect the new guy to have a track record of lighting up scoreboards.
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/after-...-home-run-with-next-hire-192700543-ncaaf.html
