At any rate, Will Muschamp will become the first coach to qualify for two consecutive Birmingham Bowls and coach in neither of them. That sounds like a great Jeopardy question in about five years.
Hah!!!
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From: gatornews@googlegroups.com [mailto:gatornews@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Shane Ford
Sent: Tuesday, December 08, 2015 7:10 AM
To: GatorNews
Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: Back Nine: ACC made better coaching hires
Back Nine: ACC made better coaching hires
By Pat Dooley
Gainesville Sun sports columnist
Published: Monday, December 7, 2015 at 2:33 p.m.
Last Modified: Monday, December 7, 2015 at 2:33 p.m.
The Back Nine comes at you after one final crazy weekend in college football. Not the games, so much, but the hires.
Enlarge |
Mark Richt gestures after being introduced as the new NCAA college football head coach at the University of Miami on Friday in Coral Gables.
AP
10. People think of me as an SEC snob, but I give credit where it is due. And it feels to me like the ACC just rose up a couple of notches when it comes to head coaches and the SEC dropped down a couple bringing them to pretty much even. You never know how coaching hires are going to work out, but on the surface, here's what happened:
• The ACC added a successful head coach with 15 years of SEC experience in Mark Richt, a coach who was one game shy of 100 wins at BYU in Bronco Mendenhall and a red-hot young coach in Dino Babers who has won 26 of his 31 conference games in two stops.
• The SEC hired two defensive coordinators and a guy who came up woefully short in his one head coaching stop.
There are a lot of things about the West that makes it a better division than the East. With Steve Spurrier, Gary Pinkel and Richt, you could at least make the argument that coaching was not one of them. Now, not so much.
11. Perhaps South Carolina's hiring of Will Muschamp will work out. After all, expectations are not as high in Columbia as they are in Gainesville. Maybe he has learned from his four years at Florida and will allow the offensive coordinator the freedom to do what he wants. And maybe this column will win a Pulitzer. There are a lot of things on Ray Tanner's list that he checked off with Muschamp — head coaching experience, knowledge of the SEC, great recruiter. So in some ways, it makes sense. I thought after his anger management issues on the sideline against Alabama that might have killed it for Muschamp's chances. Maybe Tanner's satellite dish was struck by lightning right before that play. At any rate, Will Muschamp will become the first coach to qualify for two consecutive Birmingham Bowls and coach in neither of them. That sounds like a great Jeopardy question in about five years.
12. It must be comforting for Jim McElwain to know that if things don't work out at Florida, there's always a place for him at South Carolina. What is UF, a feeder system for the Gamecocks? Think how loud the boos are going to be on Nov. 12 when Muschamp leads his team out of that tunnel. So now Steve Spurrier has been followed in his three college coaching stops by Barry Wilson, Ron Zook and Will Muschamp. The first two had a combined record of 36-44-1 at the schools after Spurrier left. Muschamp has a real challenge to do better. He may not have to clean up a character mess as he did at Florida, but that South Carolina roster is a disaster.
13. So I filled out my Heisman Trophy ballot Monday morning and while I can't tell you who I voted for, the events of Saturday night sure made it hard. They made it easy for the College Football Playoff committee, but difficult for us intelligent voters who waited until AFTER THE SEASON WAS OVER to make their picks. I had three guys in my mind and all three turned in incredible performances in winning conference championships. It wasn't until Sunday night that I made up my mind, then slept on it and got some input from the smartest college football fan in the house. Kelsey had them in the same order so my ballot must be right.
14. It's nice to see that those of us who want an eight-game playoff picked up another endorsement when Stanford's David Shaw said he'd be in favor of it. He also said it has nothing to do with Stanford, the Pac-12 champion, being left out of the playoff. Surrrre, it doesn't. The problem is that we have seen two different conferences left out of the first two playoffs. That's not enough chaos. And this year, it was a consensus concerning the top four. That's not what us "Expanders" were looking for. Dang it. Still, I can't wait for New Year's Eve. You enjoy the confetti and noisemakers. I'll be watching 12 hours of college football.
15. In the final version of The Picks for the season, I finished with a strong 8-2 record to pass the magical 100-win mark for 2015. I'd like to thank everybody who helped me with The Picks and you know who you are. My record ended up at 101-45, which is good enough to get you fired at Georgia. It has been one of my favorite seasons, even if Florida finished with a whimper because of an offense that played as if it had bet the under for the last few weeks. Still, it was a trip to Atlanta and being in the November conversation for a playoff berth. That's what I'll remember from this season, that and all the craziness that happened around the country every week. It has been fun. And now we get to the second season, which promises to be really cool with all of the great bowl matchups.
16. And while I am going to consider picking against the spread next season, I may also have to back off on my grades for the Gators. After all, I don't want to end up in a lawsuit. One of the supporting points in Steve Sarkisian's wrongful termination lawsuit against Southern Cal is that a Bleacher Report writer gave him A+ for his coaching job against Arizona State. Interesting. Oh, before I forget in this football-heavy column, a tip of the visor to Mary Wise for getting to another Sweet 16 in volleyball. It's never a bad day when you eliminate Florida State in anything, right Mary?
17. The Tweet of the Week is from college football writer Matt Smith — "Just went to the fridge for a beer and I have more rushing yards than Florida." Unfortunately, that pretty much tells the story about Saturday's game.
18. OK, so I have re-committed myself to daily work in the gym (it's a silent commitment) and that means I need some great music so I put together this playlist.
• "Ditmas" by Mumford and Sons.
• "Genghis Khan" by Mike Snow.
• "The Struggle" by Grizfolk.
• In honor of the late Scott Weiland, "Interstate Love Song" by Stone Temple Pilots.
• And in honor of our great debate over dinner Friday when I was making the argument for "Help!" being the Beatles best album, "You Like Me Too Much" by The Beatles. To be continued at a Citrus Bowl hospitality room.
Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at dooleyp@gvillesun.com. And follow at Twitter.com/Pat_Dooley.
Sent From Shane's iPhone
Go Gators! & Skål Vikes!
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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)
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