Here are a few things bouncing around in my head after Gator Nation met its new head coach last night:
- “I suffered some temporary insanity.” I’m sure that won’t sit well with plenty of Georgia fans, but really, who cares? It’s in the nature of coaching introductions to toss out some red meat for the faithful and that’s all Will did. What’s more interesting to me is how enthused the reception was. Meyer certainly wasn’t as wired as Muschamp appeared to be, but it sounds like they’ve lapped it up in Gainesville. Perhaps a sign that a wee bit of Meyer fatigue might have begun to set in?
- Corch Meyers, here’s your new office. Maybe there’s no fatigue with Jeremy Foley, who wants Meyer to stick around and perform unspecified duties for the athletic department. Gregg Doyel is freaking out over this and while I don’t share his concerns (duh), I can’t say that he doesn’t make a few good points about the potential for this to create some friction down the road if Muschamp doesn’t knock ’em as dead on the field as he did at yesterday’s presser.
- Are we really sure Jeremy Foley is a genius? Aside from Doyel’s points about whether Foley is perhaps being too clever by half keeping Meyer around, there’s this quote about the hire – Foley called Muschamp a “perfect fit.” He was just what Foley was looking for in a “relentless recruiter.” – that sounded eerily similar to what I would have thought was rattling around Foley’s brain when he hired the Zooker. Maybe I’m reading too much into that, but, boy, wouldn’t it be great to find out that the real brains of the operation departed for Athens a few months ago?
- Say goodbye to the Gang of Six. When I think of what’s made Florida football excel over the past two decades, what comes to mind are cutting edge offenses. Spurrier singlehandedly dragged SEC offenses and defenses into a new era with the Fun ‘n’ Gun and Meyer’s success with his version of the spread option has had a dramatic effect on the conference, particularly in the last two seasons. Muschamp is saying farewell to all of that and intends to run a pro-style offense with a coordinator who has some NFL experience. To me, it sounds like he’s ditching the finesse approach that’s marked Florida football to adopt a more Saban-like philosophy. Given his access to talent, I can’t question the move, but it’s a little strange to see the Gators abandon something that’s been in the program’s DNA for so long.
- John Brantley. So much for the player formerly known as the second-best quarterback in the SEC, folks. Although his uncertainty about his future at Florida does raise the question of how smooth the transition on offense is going to be next season. Georgia fans can tell you something about learning curves and personnel mismatches which stem from a radical change of scheme, Coach.
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UPDATE: It’s never a good sign when you come out of the gate referring to yourself in the third person.
If I was Grantham, doing cartwheels would not be out of the question. Welcome pro style offense meets pro style defense, like those odds much better.
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Brantley? Transfer? Where? He’s a rising senior. No D-1A. No JC. Any D-2 programs need a stopgap QB? Maybe Tampa…wait…they dropped football. Edward Waters College? Webber International perhaps? You get in bed with the devil………
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FAMU? Valdosta State? West Georgia? Shorter?……..nah.
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I got it! He could GRADUATE then transfer to another D-1A institution like Masoli. Wait…doesn’t he have to commit some sort of CRIME to be able to do that? NCAA rules require that, don’t they? HEY RAINEY! GET OVER HERE! TAKE BRANTLEY WITH YOU TONIGHT ON A DOUBLE DATE!
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Well darling, it appears Mr. Muschamp would have rather have been a Florida educated man. Now I really hate him.
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+1
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Two high-profile opportunities to show some class/respect to his alma mater…and he makes childish comments instead. Let’s quit pining for a myth of a coach that probably never was and retract his DGD credentials once and for all.
He’s doing a great job of stabbing the SOS and Urb skewer in our direction…well played I guess.
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I had the exact same thoughts, re: Meyer’s keeping an office in G’ville, but as a Georgia fan I’m all for it. The angle that I totally missed on, and haven’t really seen covered in the media anywhere until a small tidbit on Weiszer’s blog, is that each of Saban’s coordinators from his last LSU team are now the head coaches at Florida and FSU, and get this- apparently own a house there together. That might get a bit awkward going forward.
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CUM’s office door should say “the Once and Future Corch”
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Whoso removeth this foreskin from this young Filipino shall rightwise be crowned king of all douchebags.
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i don’t know. the sort of intensity meyer had has a way of burning itself out, obviously, turned inward as it often is. the sort of intensity muschamp has, . . . .well, i’m not saying he’s another zook, but he certainly reminds me a hell of a lot of zook in some ways: more cheerleading than calculating.
but whatever–it doesn’t matter to me. i don’t think i’d be able pick uga to beat the gators if they were coached by the corpse of lenin.
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BD….”coached by the corpse of lenin.” Out-by-God-standing!!!!!
(For the Bama, Awbun and Florida folks who read this blog, Lenin was the daddy of the revolution back in Russia in the early 20th century. There is a rumor Lenin called the quarterback rotation for Florida against Florida State.)
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For some reason, I keep being reminded of Ray Goff. Him (Goff) running down the sideline doing cartwheels during the Peach bowl (95?) is a lasting memory.
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“it’s a little strange to see the Gators abandon something that’s been in the program’s DNA for so long.”
My thought exactly. As interesting as that is, why wouldn’t Foley pointedly go after a ‘spread’ guy or at least someone who wanted to keep it in? Wonder if Corch had a say in this. “Look, unless you can find another Tebow or a Cam, I would change it too.”
Very, very interesting implications.
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I’m sort of torn re: the whole Florida running a pro-style offense thing. On the one hand, as others have noted, Grantham will likely be more comfortable scheming for them. That’s certainly a good thing. But on the other hand, I think recruiting in the state of Florida may have just gotten a little harder for us.
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I had this exact same thought, especially for QB’s and TE’s.
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Good thing we have both QBs and TEs covered for the next 3-6 years!
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So, maybe we can focus on fencing off Georgia again?
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It could be that the move to the pro-style offense is a recognition that Brantley has talent which is more suited to that than the spread. UF has been an offensive leader, but it’s mainly good for the fans: Where’s Timmy these days? Will he even be in the NFL next year? How many of Spurriers QBs became NFL starters? Jes’ sayin’
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Two of Spurrier’s, Johnson and Grossman, which is actually not that bad. Richt has only produced one so far.
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Which one of Richt’s qbs played in a superbowl?
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David Greene made it to one
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Stafford can’t even make it through a season without someone destroying one of his shoulders. Not that I’m blaming him for that, but it makes it hard to even make the playoffs, let alone a Super Bowl. Also, Grossman got to a Super Bowl, sure, but he was also terrible in that game and was abysmal the following season.
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To be fair, Stafford had plenty of prior knowledge and bloggers/commenters warning him of the dangers associated with going to a terrible team that had Swiss cheese on the two deep at O-line.
So, even though he chose not to listen to all of that it’s not completely his fault nor the fault of physical weakness that his body is getting crushed.
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Richt has only produced one so far.
Chris Weinke + Mat Stafford = 2
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I meant as head coach, but fair enough. Danny Kannell would also count.
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Better add Brad Johnson to that list too.
I wonder why he’s not involved in Athens. Think he’d be a good QB tutor…
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Bobo seems to do okay with the tutoring thing, except when he’s stuck working with Tereshinskis.
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I don’t think Spurrier ever produced an NBA point guard.
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+ 1
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“Jeremy Foley, who wants Meyer to stick around and perform unspecified duties for the athletic department…”
German reaction to scheme involving Oscar Meyer and Boom Mother****er!:
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While the pro-style offense may be better for CTG, it isn’t an advantage on the recruiting front. With the spread becoming the dominant offense in high school ball the pool of pro style qbs is going to continue to dwindle and there are a lot of sec schools in need: ut, bama, USC, lsu, arky and now uf all need those kind of qbs. Whereas auburn and MSU will have the inside track on all of the spread qbs. Luckily our track record with QBs may be the best among the group.
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Doyel’s right. And the real brains at the University of Florida Athletic Department DID move to Athens several months ago.
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I wonder too if Foley hasn’t out-clevered himself.
According to Gatorsports, in 72 hours Foley went from first thinking of Muschamp as a possible candidate to hiring him as head coach. Muschamp apparently wasn’t in the initial group of names Foley came up with to succeed Myer, but Myer became enamored with Muschamp and moved quickly to hire him.
There were a couple of quotes of Foley in the Gatorsports article about how Foley decided to go with his instincts in hiring Muschamp and not interview anyone else. Maybe this will be a great hire for UF, but in general its a bad idea to have so much confidence in oneself that one ends up making big decisions based on gut feelings. It sounds like Foley has been reading all his rah-rah local press.
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Last sentence of second paragraph should say Foley, not Myer, became enamored with Muschamp.
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He’s referring to himself in the 3rd person several times in the latest article on ESPN:
http://espn.go.com/blog/sec/post/_/id/17951/more-from-gators-coach-will-muschamp
“The University of Texas was very good to Will Muschamp and my family”
That seals it for me, he’s a tool bag.
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Pfft. He’s not even consistent with his pronoun-antecedent usage. As an English teacher, I can truly say that now he is dead to me.
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Well said. Pronoun-antecedent disagreement cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.
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Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. As a student Muschamp was no slouch. He had some niffty scholarship offers from some military colleges before he decided to walk on at UGa.Had some academic honors while at Georgia. Got a masters while he was coaching at Auburn….yes I know what your thinking there but none the less.
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“Masters at Auburn”
That’s the equivalent of 2-3 2000-level courses at UGA isn’t it? (Unless it’s sociology, in which case make that “1500-level class.”)
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If he’d kept his car window up while driving through Toomer’s Corner, he never would have been stuck with that Auwburn Masters degree.
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Please, guys, watch your language.
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illeism appears to be a trait Will shares with Jimmy and Will’s soon-t0-be neighbor down the hall.
http://heyjennyslater.blogspot.com/2008/07/urbans-way-home.html
Next thing you know, Jeremy will be doing it too, such as, “Jeremy should have paid attention to Gregg Doyel.”
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George is getting upset!
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LOL ,Finally the cwm, cdd (lol) cks, train has stopped (all 47 cars).It has been said, “CNS has made coaches appear better than reality” (css?). 2011 should fe fun. GATA
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Can I get a key for your post? That is some serious abbreviatin’ right there.
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Needs more acronyms.
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Whisky, Tango, Foxtrot. That is all.
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I doubt that UF would change O schemes because they have John Brantley, this is what you get when you get a Lil Nicky clone coach. They will now be a 3-4 D and a Pro O. The fact that they have to adapt to two scheme changes in the first season will be hard. Their weakness this year was at WR, TE and RB. They have to now change from a small quick O to a Bama pound that rock O. You think we had a problem finding a Nose well UF has a lot of LB’s playing DL now. At this point I’m more concerned with the Ole Ball Coach than Boom MF.
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A very wise comment from the “pre-D Day” crowd.
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Hard to understand how people like to match offense against defense, like pro-offense sets against a coach who saw this in pros. I think TG came to Athens due to his understanding of the 3-4. And yes a lot of high schools are going to the spread. But you had better chart the plays before you say there are no passing quarterbacks. Look at the passes CCHS put up against Brookwood and Brookwoods prior playoff opponent. But better yet take look at Boise State and Oregon. The spread QB has to throw the football. Has the DC at Sandy Springs come up with the “D” against the spread. After seeing them in the Dome I liked that. Supposedly the 3-5-3 tight is good, but the set their line back a touch. You have to like coaches that think like that and the Coach at CCHS. Now why in the hell can’t we have that on a college campus with guys getting the big bucks. Sounds like they are a little stuck in the past and lazy.
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or…why you leave HS you ain’t in Kansas anymore?
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the plan is for muschamp to keep things afloat for a few years and when urbs is ready he can take over again and win a few more.
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