I wrote this seven years ago. While it doesn't apply to Mullen on his head coaching resume -- and Will Muschamp DID get (and lose) The South Carolina job -- the narrative is eerily similar. At this hour, Dan Mullen is stll Florida's coach.
What I think went wrong with Will Muschamp at Florida is: You can’t expect an assistant to kick off his training wheels and step into Big Boy Coaching Pants that fast. No matter his credentials
By BUDDY MARTIN
SouthernPigskin.com
I never really knew Will Muschamp (Dan Mullen), and I’ve known most of the Florida coaches pretty well over the past half century.
I’ve hung around the Florida program a long time and pretty much always enjoyed a good working relationship with most Gator coaches. I’ve interviewed every other Florida coach since the late 1950s for articles or for my radio show. But Muschamp and I never seemed to click.
Guys like Bob Woodruff and Galen Hall were never easy. But I’ve dined and had beers and played golf or cards with Ray Graves and/or his staff members, Doug Dickey and Charlie Pell; befriended Steve Spurrier, Ron Zook and Urban Meyer. The latter three are still my friends.
You can tell when a guy has time for you. I never felt Muschamp did, but on the other hand, I never made an effort, either.
It always felt like Muschamp was guarded to anybody outside his immediate circle -- a page right out of the Nick Saban coaching handbook. On the other hand, my new world order and job paradigm shift haven’t taken me down that orange and blue road as much.
Not that any UF coach owes me or any other media member anything but straight answers and maybe a little cooperation. However, the fact that Muschamp has come and gone without my ever connecting to him is a bit saddening to me.
Not that it matters to anybody else. Guys who cover the beat regularly seemed to like him, but admit he wasn’t exactly a quote machine.
In the past four years, as my role in the media changed and I spent less time in Gainesville, Muschamp and I never connected. Didn’t talk on the phone or text. Never spoke in private.
The sense I’ve had about him is that if I’d ever gotten him away from The Job and into a fishing boat or on a golf course or even over a cold beverage, Will Muschamp is a guy I probably would have liked. And maybe he might even have liked me. But that’s not necessary to do your job.
I just wonder how many Gator fans felt that disconnect.
Maybe it was because of my close relationship with Meyer, having written his authorized biography and come up with the title “Urban’s Way.” That didn’t seem to be too popular a phrase after 2009.
When Meyer left for ESPN and then Ohio State, it seemed everybody connected with him was pretty much persona non grata around the Gator program. Urban’s Way was kicked down the highway.
I do remember in Muschamp’s first press conference he emphatically referred to it several times as “The Florida Way,” and I took it to mean The Muschamp Way, not Urban’s.
Not having ever spoken more than 20 words at one time to Muschamp, or recalling anything he ever said as memorable, I eventually stopped going to his press conferences.
Maybe it’s because some of us never felt he was the right fit for the Gators, even though I can see how Jeremy Foley would have thought that he was. On paper it looked great.
Will grew up partially in Gainesville. Played and coached in the SEC. Mentored under Saban. Had NFL experience. And was next in line for the Texas job. He came with an impressive resume and promises of change. But it proved to be a one-trick pony: 11 wins in his second year proved to be the Fool’s Gold, as some have called it.
In year three we could all see things were changing. Muschamp was complaining that Meyer had left the cupboard empty, even though two of the recent Meyer recruiting classes had been ranked among the ESPN Top Five.
Meanwhile, many people were distancing themselves from the program. There was no offensive sizzle. There was no glue with “The Gator Nation.” And it was no fun.
The fan base began to erode. Truthfully, part of that was because the economy and the stadium experience bottomed out all over in college football.
And last year you could see it falling apart in Gainesville. Even before the loss to Georgia Southern, I felt so strong that he WASN’T the right guy that I wrote a column, “Ten Reasons Why Will Muschamp Should Be Fired.”
But then I added: “And One Reason He Won’t.” That reason was because Foley would step in to save him. Which he did. Almost.
By the way, I take no delight in Muschamp’s failure or bragging that I was right. Because by the time 2014 rolled around I had sort of stepped back, reconsidered and decided Muschamp was worthy of a mulligan. One reason was there were never any really hot candidates out there to replace him.
Maybe Kurt Roper could transform Jeff Driskel into an All-SEC quarterback. We all knew the defense would be good again. And we all felt like down deep, Muschamp was a “good guy.”
I did find myself rooting for Muschamp to succeed at the last part of his tenure. At the same time, I was having more interest in other programs and other teams coached by coaches I knew – Spurrier at South Carolina, Meyer at Ohio State, Charlie Strong at Texas, Steve Addazio at Boston College. Even interviewed some of them on my show.
For the first time I can ever remember in more than a half century, Florida football felt irrelevant in much of my world. Who needed to go to the games when you could stay home and watch on HDTV? The stands were half full sometimes, and the crowd left early.
All of this was not the fault of Muschamp of course, but it did happen on his watch.
Despite all this, Muschamp nearly pulled it out after beating Georgia convincingly. Now with a win over South Carolina, there was a good chance he would salvage his job, a winning season and a bowl game.
Foley would say later that Muschamp was on the clock after the embarrassing 42-13 loss to Missouri and that he needed to “run the table” to keep his job.
After two Gator wins, in one of the most bizarre finishes I’ve ever seen, South Carolina blocked a field goal and punt in the fourth quarter and came back to win in overtime after being what Spurrier later described “dead in the water.”
After that game, Spurrier almost apologized for beating Florida and costing Muschamp his job, even though the Head Ball Coach had been through a little piece of hell himself this season. He told me in a phone conversation that the football gods had decided this outcome, but that if he’d had a choice this season between losing to Tennessee or Florida he’d had rather it had been Florida.
So we all sit around wondering what went wrong … what will happen to Muschamp … and who will be Florida’s next coach?
What I think went wrong was you can’t expect an assistant to kick off his training wheels and step into Big Boy Coaching Pants that fast. No matter his credentials. There is as much difference between head coach and assistant coach as vice-president and president.
As for what will happen to Muschamp: I see him either taking a year off or going somewhere else in the SEC as a defensive coordinator – but not South Carolina as some have speculated. I’ve heard one rumor that a team in the SEC West has inquired about him.
As for who the next coach will be -- if we go by the parameters laid out by Jeremy Foley, the next hire will be a head coach with offensive acumen who has a proven track record as a winner and is a man of integrity.
Anybody come to mind?
Me neither.
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