Will Muschamp takes a page out of Paul Johnson’s playbook.
… When asked about the Oct. 29 game against Georgia, his alma mater, Muschamp was to the point.
“I know we need to win. They’re all big,” he said. “… I’m not going to treat any game any different than any other one. I think when you do that you start to have fluctuation how you play and how you approach.”
Somewhere, Steve Spurrier is shaking his head. We’ll see if Muschamp and the Gator fan base feel the same way next spring if Georgia pulls off the surprise in Jacksonville this year.
This is our opportunity to change our fortunes in 2011. If we win in Jax this year, maybe the pressure falls back on the Gators for a change. Then, Muschamp’s “dismissal” of the relevance of this game stirs up the older fanbase who remember a time when the shoe was on the other foot.
Still, all the pressure is on us until we do something about it.
LikeLike
^ this
LikeLike
Didn’t Paul Johnson say something like this? Look at his success against UGA.
LikeLike
i feel like it’s been a long time since the gators feared or respected us, losing 17 of the last 20 will do that, georgia needs to pull off a string of wins against uf before that game means something to uf again
LikeLike
Maybe after Jacksonville this year 2011 and UGA will be a big deal and forever in the mind of Corch Muschamp.
LikeLike
we have to beat them twice in a row to liven things up. 3 in a row, and the hex is officially dead. 4 in a row, or maybe even 3 out of 4, and someone’s getting fired in Gainesville. No point in talking about it; win and the rest solves itself.
LikeLike
Conspiracy theories will abound in Jort Nation if the Gators lose this year.
LikeLike
No joke. Just think if we somehow pulled our heads out of our asses and won back-to-back games in Jax with a Georgia alum at the head of Gatornation.
Maybe I’ll go this year anyway.
LikeLike
Sounds like a certain head coach at Georgia who has publicly stated the same. And while they say it publicly, you know Mark Richt and Muschamp *probably* feel differently privately. Each knows this rivalry is not “just another game”.
And for the record, I don’t believe that it would be an upset if we won. Mark Richt HAS to win this game, Muschamp does not.
LikeLike
Did Muschamp scowl and shake his jowls like Paul the Johnson?
LikeLike
As Dawg fans we face a new reality. Our perfect season is 11-1. Yes, that one is the mighty Gaytors. It was a sad day when I accepted this reality. However, the past twenty years have given me little to no hope that things will change in the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party.
LikeLike
Everything changes. I just wish it would hurry up and happen already.
LikeLike
You nailed it. We start every season 0-1.
LikeLike
Why? Because we are unwilling to make changes that would level the playing field for our team. Shame on us.
LikeLike
Eh, to me, as a Dawg fan, this doesn’t grate nearly as hard as when Muschamp pooh-poohed his time at Georgia as “temporary insanity” or whatever it was. Yeah, we gave your walk-on ass a shot at becoming a star, but whatever, I’m sure that had nothing to do with your eventual rise to fame.
Still, we need to win in Jacksonville this year like a junkie needs a fix — this is now the third time the Gators have introduced a new coach since I went to Athens as a freshman, and it’d be nice to say “Welcome to the SEC, pal, things have changed” for once and mean it. I may be overstating things here, and I’m sure I’m looking numerous gift horses in their mouths, but sometimes I wonder how different things might be with the Georgia program right now if we hadn’t let the Zooker eat our lunches that night in 2002.
LikeLike
I just don’t even like thinking about that 2002 game. I’ve never been more dejected after a game; ever.
LikeLike
Ditto
LikeLike
Those quick screens to the outside. Ugh.
LikeLike
That was ’03, no?
LikeLike
02 was: the bubble screen, the forward lateral by Pollack, Grossman tackling Tim Jennings and Terrence dropping the huge post route bomb.
03 was Chris Leaks freshman year and I can’t recall exactly why we wet the bed that year. They start to run together.
LikeLike
Also the 15 yard penalty against our OL (Foster?) for the dry hump of a Florida player he’d already knocked down.
LikeLike
Yea, the bubble screen is what I remember (in a foggy haze actually.) That and breaking my coffee table after the George Foster dry hump. Wasn’t a good time for me. Now I just turn to resignation and apathy every cocktail party. Less expensive that way.
LikeLike
In ’03 Fred couldn’t catch a cold and we ended up kicking a FG to tie it because we couldn’t punch it in. Leak led them down to kick a FG to win it.
LikeLike
It was “temporary insanity” on my part to wish him well in Gainesville.
Now, I hope we beat the crap out of the Gators until they fire his ass! I’ll even pull for FSU and Auburn as well.
Take that, Jerko.
LikeLike
Doomsday Wake up things change we used to own them and we will again FSU uprising will help plus we will not permit it anymore
LikeLike
We will not permit it anymore. Really? So after dropping 17 of 20 we have seen the light? Until we run off back to back wins against them things will remain the same. Can it happen? Sure, but a major change in attitude is required from the entire program. And I have yet to see that attitude change.
LikeLike
I really don’t like Muschamp.
LikeLike
Muschamp was on three different ESPN shows yesterday.
The guy whose ass we kiss is dead! Long live the guy whose ass we kiss!
LikeLike
We’ve got to, at the very least, win back-to-back games against Florida before any of the pressure in the series starts to fall on them. Our three wins against them since 1990 have been followed by a six-game losing streak, a two-game losing streak, and a three-game losing streak. Until we put a streak together against them they’re still going to feel like like they own the series. It will be extremely tough because Florida is always loaded, but with their program in a state of flux at the moment it might be now or never.
LikeLike
Whether they deny or not, the Jacksonville game is an important win to UF. Nothing different form the GT – UGA game.
LikeLike
Most Florida fans (young AND old) will admit that they enjoy beating UGA more than FSU or any other team. Beating UGA never gets old to them, never loses its satisfaction, and will never take second place. The testament to this is seeing them leave Everbank Field (Gator Bowl) after a loss – it is truly a priceless, beautiful experience. You’ve never heard or seen more whining and crying in your life, as if it is their god-given birthright to beat us year-in, year-out. They are truly shocked that they could lose to us. It completely befuddles them. They enjoy dancing to their post-touchdown “kimosabi jam on it” song but to sit in their section wearing the red and black after Tavares King takes a deep one to the house is pure fucking ecstasy. At that time, I was the only one standing with a fist pumped in the air in an area sitting thousands of gator fucks. Tens of thousands. I stood their through the extra point, savoring the brief moment of in-your-arrogant-cocksucking-gator-face satisfaction to it’s fullest extent. The rage and anger emanating from them would have been detectable by a blind, deaf, and dumb man. And I REVELED in it. Embraced it. Fucking assholes.
So Will the cocksucker Muschamp saying that this is just another game is complete and utter bullshit. His ass knew the hate when he played at UGA and he knows it now. When we humble them this October he will certainly understand the hate that exists – primarily from the UGA faction.
And if for some reason Mark Richt ceases to be the head football coach at Georgia, his tombstone will read the same as the two before him – “The man couldn’t beat Florida”.
That is all.
LikeLike
Jax says;
“The testament to this is seeing them leave Everbank Field (Gator Bowl) after a loss – it is truly a priceless, beautiful experience.”
You writing suggest that you are not old enough to have experienced this more than three times in your life.
However, your Florida contemporaries have experienced the joy of watching UGA fans leave with their tails tucked between their legs 18 times.
LikeLike
Wrong. In my late 30’s, I recall a time when beating florida was a sure thing – much like your attitude now. And judging from your response, I’d imagine that my comments were dead on.
The pendulum will shift again “Mike”. I shall look forward to your reaction when it does.
LikeLike
If you are in your late 30s, then you were a mere teenager when beating Florida “was a sure thing.”
Florida has been beating UGA like a drum for 21 years. So, even if you are 39 now, then that means you were 17 the last time UGA had the upper hand .
As for the pendulum shifting to UGA, that might indeed happen at some point. But for it to shift, there probably has to be the right combination of UGA getting better coaching and better recruiting than Florida. Richt is a better coach than Zook but could not manage to best him. He certainly is not a better coach than Spurrier at Florida or Meyer, and he could not beat either of them regularly either. (In fairness, he only met Spurrier at Florida once.)
It remains to be seen if Richt is a better coach than Muschamp.
As for the recruiting, UGA has had some very good years, but then, so has Florida. Due to demographics, Florida will probably usually have the slight upper hand most years in recruiting.
LikeLike
All programs rise and fall. Florida, despite the jortnation’s arrogant opinion, will too. And if it were all dependent on recruiting, Miami would win the NC every year. You’ve been fortunate to have 2 fantastic coaches at Florida since 1990 – don’t look for that pattern to continue repeating itself. Now if Foley would go ahead and retire…….
LikeLike
Florida did fall on hard times. The three Zook years were mediocre and last year was bad too.
As for Miami, they had very poor recruiting during the Coker years.
I don’t know if Muschamp will be a great coach or not. But the early returns for his recruiting are very promising
LikeLike
You can tell it is spring time. There are new buds on the threes and UGA fans are optimistic about the WLOCP.
Come fall, reality will set in again
LikeLike
What goes around certainly will come around again.
LikeLike