Why Will Muschamp's Florida Career Was Doomed from the Beginning
This was so obvious from the start, an inevitability from day one. Florida fired Will Muschamp on Sunday, four years after the Big Mistake, when he was hired.
People liked Muschamp. They loved his fire. He was quirky.
That's nice and all, but at some point, people will look back at this as one of the worst, most destructive big hires in modern college football history. Charlie Weis might be off the hook. Twice.
.jpg?w=256 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
| 2014 | 5-5 | Will Muschamp | |
| 2013 | 4-8 | Will Muschamp | |
| 2012 | 11-2 | Will Muschamp | Sugar-L |
| 2011 | 7-6 | Will Muschamp | Gator-W |
| 2010 | 8-5 | Urban Meyer | Outback-W |
| 2009 | 13-1 | Urban Meyer | Sugar-W |
| 2008 | 13-1 | Urban Meyer | BCS-W |
| 2007 | 9-4 | Urban Meyer | Capital One-L |
| 2006 | 13-1 | Urban Meyer | BCS-W |
| 2005 | 9-3 | Urban Meyer | Outback-W |
What did Muschamp accomplish at Florida? Put it this way: Four years ago, Florida had all the momentum anyone could have had in college football. Tim Tebow. Urban Meyer. National championships. In that time, a dynasty is gone because of the Big Mistake, hiring Muschamp because he had been called the "head coach in waiting'' at Texas.
Still waiting.
It was an impulse hire, and Florida is now lost in the SEC. Its big budget isn't going to be enough to stop the momentum of Alabama, Auburn and now the Mississippis.
Head coach in waiting. That is just such a damning thing to call a guy.
Years ago, I nicknamed Weis the "Intern" because Notre Dame had made the unbelievable choice to hire a guy who had never been a head coach to take one of the most prestigious, pressure-filled head coaching jobs in the country. Notre Dame was not the place to learn on the job.
You don't let someone serve an internship as the CEO of Microsoft. That's what a head coaching job is at these football powerhouses. And everyone is watching every move. Muschamp was brought in as the CEO of Florida Gators football.
Muschamp didn't get that. He was a top defensive coordinator, and coordinators are OK flailing around and letting their faces distort while they scream and curse.
They called Muschamp "Coach Boom." It's rare you see that in head coaches anymore.
Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley should have known better than to create Intern II. Somehow, Foley, considered one of the top execs in college sports, is being entrusted to hire Muschamp's replacement. Probably because Foley hired Meyer and also basketball coach Billy Donovan.
He will not take a chance this time. (My prediction: Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez, for his modern offensive mind.)
It's not that a first-time head coach can't make it in the big time. It's possible (see: Fisher, Jimbo), but it's unlikely. Rookie head coaches are going to make mistakes. There's a learning curve. And the idea is to get those mistakes out of the way at, say, Miami of Ohio, where the nation isn't watching. That's why Miami is called the cradle of college coaches.
Marshall coach Doc Holliday, a former Florida assistant under Meyer, isn't sure about my theory.
"Expectations in this business are extremely high no matter where you go," he told Bleacher Report. "I hate it when anybody gets fired in this business."
It's not just in college football either. Superstar baseball players also don't tend to be the best managers. Partly that's because they are hired into the top jobs as a PR move without first going to Des Moines for a few years to learn how to manage.
But it's even easier to get away with mistakes at Oregon, where first-time head coach Mark Helfrich might win the national championship this year. Most of the nation is asleep by the time Ducks games are on TV.
At Florida? Forget it. It's even worse now with the SEC as the dominant conference and the SEC Network in place.
But it wasn't only that Muschamp seemed and acted like an intern. Those were strikes one and two, but strike three was the style of football he had his team playing.
A program has a personality, an identity. Florida's is the fun and gun of Steve Spurrier (who it would be a mistake to bring back). If you're going to change a top program's identity, then you have about 10 seconds to make it work. If that.
That means Muschamp had about 10 seconds for his internship to be completed. Honestly, though, even when Florida went 11-2 in 2012, its fans weren't enjoying watching Muschamp's smashmouth defense and neglected offense.
Rodriguez did the opposite at Michigan and was run out for not doing, roughly, what Muschamp did. Now Muschamp is out for not doing what RichRod does.
Muschamp went through three offensive coordinators in four years, including Weis, the genius offensive coordinator/failed intern CEO, who needed a place to land after Notre Dame dumped him.
Florida went 4-8 last year, and it was amazing Muschamp came back. This year, it was probably over after the 42-13 home loss to Missouri. Most likely, Foley was just looking for the softest spot to dump Muschamp.
But then Florida beat Georgia, and you couldn't fire him them. The way the Gators lost Saturday, to South Carolina and Spurrier—of all people—finally did Muschamp in.
People will point to the late blocked punt, which South Carolina turned into a game-tying touchdown. But really, it was more that Muschamp had the ball and actually played for the punt and defense instead of a first down that would have won the game.
As Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Bianchi pointed out, Spurrier once was asked about having a bad punter and said, "Doesn't matter because we don't plan on punting much anyway."
Muschamp planned for the punt. It's just a different mentality. So he completed his internship the way you always knew he would, with Florida lowering the boom.
Greg Couch covers college football for Bleacher Report. He also writes for The New York Times and was formerly a scribe for FoxSports.com and the Chicago Sun-Times. Follow him on Twitter @gregcouch.
.jpg?w=480 "Ohio State Team Doctor")
