A little perspective on the UF head coaching gig and their program.....

fdawg1103 · Nov 22, 2021

We've seen posts claiming the right coach will make life a living hell for Georgia and we've seen posts saying firing Mullen is not a good thing for Georgia. So I figured I'd just provide a few facts on the UF program history to clarify some of the issues. The first part below is factual info and then I'll offer a few conclusions drawn from said facts.

UF Coaches Over the last 30 years:

Stephen Orr Spurrier, a.k.a "The Head Ball Coach", also unaffectionately known as "The original Georgia boogeyman and the bane of fdawgs's existence in his youth"
- HC at UF from 1990 - 2001
  - Overall record of 122-27 or avg. 10-2
  - 1 Natty
  - 6 SEC Titles
  - 8 SEC East titles
  - Finished 1st or 2nd in SEC EVERY. DAMN. YEAR.
  - Simply put, he was to UF what Kirby is to UGA, the grad who came home and coached with an unparalleled passion and excellence
  - Left voluntarily to pursue NFL ambitions to the delight of UGA fans everywhere
Ron Zook, a.k.a. The Zooker
- HC at UF from 2002-2004
  - 23-14 overall, averaging 8-5 over 3 seasons
  - Finished 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in East
  - Fired for not being Spurrier
  - 1 SEC East title
Urban Meyer, a.k.a "the Guy who allows murders to reside on the football team"
- HC at UF from 2005-2010
  - 65-15 overall, averaging 11-2.5 over 6 seasons
  - Finished 1st 3 times, 2nd 2 times, and 3rd 1 time in the East
  - 2 Nattys
  - 3 SEC Titles
  - 3 SEC East titles
  - Faked a heart attach to get out of Gainesville at the first sign of not being successful
  - A note on Meyer: He was the hot, up and coming coach that had led a G6 program at the time (Utah) to undefeated seasons and was ready to make a jump to a big time stage
Will Muschamp, a.k.a. "Secret Agent Muschamp"
- HC at UF from 2011-2014
  - 28-21 overall, averaging 7-5 over 4 seasons
  - Finished 1st 1 time, 3rd 2 times, and 5th 1 time
  - 1 SEC East title
Jim McElwain, a.k.a "Shark Humper"
- HC at UF from 2015-2017
  - 22-12 overall, averaging 7-4 over 3 seasons
  - Finished 1st 2 times in East, was fired during 3rd season
  - 2 SEC East Titles
  - Fired midseason for humping a shark and then lying about receiving death threats
Dan Mullen, a.k.a. "Clownface"
- HC at UF from 2018-2021
  - 34-15 overall, averaging 8.5-4 over 4 seasons
  - Finished 1st in East 1 time, 2nd 2 times, currently 6th
  - 1 SEC East title
  - Fired for being a clown and not winning enough

So to summarize, UF has had 6 coaches over the last 31 years. Of the 6, two are inarguably considered ELITE coaches that had ELITE success at UF. These two combined to win 81.7% of their games, 3 National Titles, 9 SEC Titles, and 11 SEC East titles (out of 18). They had unparalleled success at UF during their tenures.

Then you consider the "other" coaches at UF. These four coaches each averaged 7-8 wins per year, combined to win the East 5 times in 14 years but never won the SEC or a national title. They were each unceremoniously fired for lack of performance or for just being weird morons.

Interestingly, the last 5 coaches at UF (including Meyer) have averaged only 4 years per tenure and all have left either severely failing to meet expectations or after meeting expectations but then deciding it was too much to deal with (Meyer and his fake heart attack).

So here's my conclusions from all this:

YES, the right coach CAN turn UF into an ELITE program again that could make life harder for Kirby and the Dawgs
NO, it isn't guaranteed that they can make said hire and, in actuality, it's MORE LIKELY that they screw it up again
There isn't another SOS out there for UF
None of the above REALLY matter as it pertains to UGA and Kirby because the machine Kirby's built isn't going to be knocked down by any coach at UF. The only option fort he gators is to hire a coach that can bring UF up to UGA's level. And that's easier said than done.

So that's my take on the situation. It certainly is not given that the next UF coach will actually succeed and history shows it's far more likely they will continue to be average to above average. There's only ONE coach out there right now that might be available that would fit the ELITE coach potential, imo. That coach..........Luke Fickell.

IMO, Fickell checks a lot of the Meyer boxes as the next up and coming coach ready to make a jump to the big time. The question is can uf pry him away? Cincy will be B12 in a few years so it's not like he'd have a better opportunity at UF to win than Cincy. He's already doing it in the AAC. So I'm not sure, but he's the only coach that would "worry" me as a Dawg fan. And even then, he wouldn't do anything that would cause Georgia to get worse, I just think he'd have the potential to bring UF to UGA's current level as a program.

guestofthestatedog · Nov 22, 2021