----- Original Message -----From: mail.bobparks.comTo: Gator TalkSent: Thursday, November 29, 2012 10:25 PMSubject: [gatortalk] Fwd: [gatornews] Great Article from Yahoo! SportsThanks for posting this, Mary!Nice photo of Coach Boom!
Oliver Barry, CRS, GRIReal Estate BrokerBob Parks, LLC1517 Hunt Club BlvdGallatin TN 37066615-972-4239615-826-4040Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:From: Mary Weigly <weigly@gmail.com>
Date: November 29, 2012 6:25:12 PM CST
To: gatornews@googlegroups.com
Subject: [gatornews] Great Article from Yahoo! Sports
Reply-To: gatornews+owners@googlegroups.com--Gators going boom under the anti-Spurrier
Eric Adelson, Yahoo! Sports
17 hours ago
Will Muschamp has the Florida Gators fired up in his second season as head coach.
(AP)GAINESVILLE, Fla. – First question for Florida coach Will Muschamp: Do you feel your team deserves a shot at the national title?
Answer: "Absolutely."
Second question: Do you feel your team is the best in the country?
Answer: "Yes."
Pause.
"We have the best defense in the country. We are creative in the running game. Our quarterback gives you issues. We are well-prepared in every game. And our team understands the meaning of the word 'team.' "
Well, that's a different kind of coach-speak.
The surprise here isn't that a Florida head coach thinks his team belongs in the BCS Championship game. An 11-1 record at this school will lead to that kind of declaration, even though Muschamp fully acknowledges his team blew its title chances against Georgia with six turnovers.
No, the surprise is that this has happened so soon under "Coach Boom" just a few months after a 7-6 campaign had Gator Nation warbling over whether things would ever be the same in the post-Tebow era. How bad was it? Florida drew only one NFL scout to a late-season game last year; he was there to watch a player on the other team.
That other team was Furman.
It was even worse than most fans standing in the shadow of Saint Timmy's statue realized, as Muschamp says his team was a "very divided" and "very selfish group."
Jeff Driskel came into the season having thrown just 16 passes at Florida. (Getty Images)
That's putting it nicely, according to some of the seniors who say there were actual fights among players. "Physical, verbal, everything," says star linebacker Jon Bostic.These weren't brawls where steel chairs got tossed around, but the Gators were in disarray. The Muschamp hire wasn't looking nearly as inspiring as those of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, offensive geniuses who not only won championships but baffled opponents with revolutionary schemes and rare talents.
Muschamp's background is as a defensive coordinator. His scheme, not exactly Smithsonian material. The only flashy thing about him was the nickname he'd inherited when TV cameras caught him yelling "BOOM!"after a defensive play when he was a coordinator at Auburn.
Mike Gillislee celebrates after a 9-yard touchdown run against Florida State. (AP)
And that's exactly what they did. The Aggies' first six possessions in the second half went like this: punt, punt, punt, punt, punt, punt.
Muschamp told his defenders to stay in Manziel's running lanes and stop turning their backs to him on receiving routes. Make Manziel hesitate where he's used to making defenders hesitate. It worked beautifully, and Manziel was held to less than 200 yards passing for the only time all season in which he played all four quarters.
Florida came back and won. The triumph was a callback to another defensive stand against a similar quarterback.
In 2007, Tebow suffered one of the few home defeats in his Florida career, held to 201 passing yards and losing in the Swamp for the first time in 17 games under Meyer. It was then that Foley noticed the excitable defensive coordinator on the other sideline. Three years later, Foley would offer him a head coaching job.
"He was a defensive coach," Foley says. "I'll be honest with you: that was important to us."
Four years after that upset at the Swamp, Muschamp was be celebrating a turning-point win at Florida. In that visitor's locker room in College Station, the Gators realized Muschamp's scheme could work. "It was electric," Muschamp says. The talent would always be there at Florida, but Muschamp wouldn't need to go five-star-gazing to win a lot of games.
"I'll turn my back on a five-star guy if he isn't a good guy," Muschamp says. "I have zero reservations about that. ZERO reservations."
He raises his voice a little.
"I'm the recruiting coordinator here," he says. "You're not a good guy, you go somewhere else. We'll play you. We'll beat you."
His definition of a good guy is Gillislee, a Florida native who'd only seen part-time work in his first three seasons as a Gator. Thrust into the starting role as a senior, all he's done is become the first 1,000-yard rusher Florida's had in eight years.
"He never bitched, never moaned," Muschamp says. "He is the greatest example of a team player I've been around as a football coach."
Welcome to the new Gator football, where the biggest star is soft-spoken Mike Gillislee. It kind of fits, really, as Gainesville isn't exactly Las Vegas (or even Oxford, Mississippi). It's a blue-collar town that's far more South Georgia than South Beach. Muschamp should know. He was born in Georgia but grew up here, in Gainesville. Defense makes him tick, and sometimes detonate.
It's a whole new world for Gators fans, and Muschamp is making this place his town again.
It's Boomtown.
--
GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions
2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions
2008 National Football Champions |
Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996),
Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us
GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY!
1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions
2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions
2008 National Football Champions |
Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996),
Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Re: [gatortalk] Fwd: [gatornews] Great Article from Yahoo! Sports
LOL. Yes, very flattering.
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