Wish I were close enough to the program (and psychology) to understand how and why the team doesn't respond to Muschamp. It's like a QB needing the "it" factor. Can't be put on a resume, can't be measured. But, it's painfully obvious that neither Driskel nor Muschamp have "it". Some teams would have rallied for the coach and I guess the defense kinda did. But, the offense and special teams were tighter than the proverbial "hat band". Don't know why and at this point could not care less. It's time to move on.
It finally hit me about the same time it hit others both in and out of the program...In my case, it was something goin' round inside my head, something I had noticed and hadn't quite put my finger on--until my friend INSIDE the program said it almost in-passing:
"I dunno...It's like they're all wound up, but not in a good way; Underneath, even after good days of practice--and especially on game days, even when it seems they are READY--this team is TIGHT..."
Something hit me then. I looked closer, listened closer to what he and others on-the-scene said, read certain insiders' columns a little differently, watched what happened, especially in-game and especially ESPECIALLY paid attention to everything leading up to those games, and it became clear and undeniable: This team IS "tight", PLAYS tight.
That's what we're seeing--and it makes sense, just based on what anyone, certainly all the rest of us who AREN'T even "on the inside" can see with our own eyes. With the way Muschamp acts on the sidelines, what he says the rest of the time, the rules concerning who can talk to the media, etc., and certain signs finally surfacing in the public record (things like that stupid "cleats-incident", etc., that turn out to be just the literal "tip-of-the-iceberg" that came out only 'cause the police were somehow called in--but there have been MANY others)--and the results, not just the final scores but all the "stumbling/bumbling/fumbling" in the games themselves, are exactly what you expect when a team is playing tight, indeed is "tight all the time", never "lets go", effectively isn't permitted to by the overbearing, overpowering influence of the top guy--in fact, by the very "top-down" chain-of-command that is even more a fact than elsewhere on THIS team, the way this Coach does things. Muschamp is especially anal in his micro-managing style--and both more influential AND "effective" in that influence among EVERYONE on his team, coaches and players alike.
So what happens? Is it any surprise, given all of the above? We screw up in games, from the start. In moderation, this sort of thing can have good results on-the-field, at least at first..."Out there", while playing, may be the "most relaxed" place and time for players on such a team--long as things go well and you DON'T screw up, have to face this mad maniac in front of everyone when you come OFF the field. Maybe that explains the 12-and-2 season (what by now seems was the anomaly, NOT "everything since") to some extent. By now everyone knows better, is PLAYING "not to screw up" for a coach who's COACHING "not to lose". So you get what we've seen the better part of EVERY GAME now, complete disaster against decent teams playing well--and only off-days by teams less talented than us have kept us in the other games late, given us "one play " chances to win at the end.
It isn't just the losing, or the parade of f*ck-ups (by now even on the part of our hugely talented defense, even before they inevitably wear down, earlier and earlier each game--and THAT'S a function of "playing tight" too: It just burns you out doing ANYTHING under that kind of pressure, with no respite). It's a lack of fun, no joy in any of it, and never a break in the feeling that you are "under the gun". No MAGIC. All the things that make a TEAM "more than the sum of its parts" are missing now. And this Coach doesn't get it, may NEVER "get it". Just keeps blaming this, that or them...Thinks he needs to bear down HARDER, that folks are letting HIM down.
Well, doesn't matter by now, won't matter WHAT he tries: He's effectively ruined this team. We MIGHT get a "lift" from simply his being fired, removed from the "top down"-bummer everyone on that squad is living every day. But it'll now take a special Coach to heal a lot of this on what's a "sick team", really--but if that "Next Guy" can pull it off, recognize the truth and get his new team to relax and TRUST him, he'll be able to do pretty well right from the start, I think, compete and bring us back while he's remaking the FEELING around the program, from the locker room OUT, even as he rebuilds and replenishes, slowly changing the whole nature of this team even more through the recruiting and "bringin' 'em along" the way he and his own hand-picked staff will have to do.
That's another thing I don't think Muschamp ever grasped: Your various coaches and assistants are the key to everything you will get credit for. Think about it: He's been losing staff and plugging new guys in, sometimes promoting before they're ready and sometimes bringing them in "out of left field", as if it didn't MATTER who they were or where they came from--let alone the idea that you develop relationships over the years with like-minded folk who you admire and trust., and vice versa.
Does any of this ring true with y'all? Got a feeling you could take it from here, add your own thoughts and insights to what I'm trying to flesh out here, explain and understand a complete FAILURE--if for no other reason than we have a better idea of what to look for in "the NEXT GUY". At least look for the warning signs in what to avoid.
Which brings us to FOLEY'S failure in all of this. "Failure" in his judgment, yes, his supposed "network of contacts" AND his "gut level, intuitive feel" (his own words at the time he was explaining why he went to Muschamp first, "had him in mind all along", "was my first,practically my ONLY choice", and hardly considered anyone else)...but failure TOO in how he's handled everything since--how he continues to (NOT) "handle it" now. I don't even WANNA talk about his own "Promise" anymore. He doesn't deserve to stay, but given the forces at work, his own sense of self-preservation, and that "other thing" brewing behind-the-scenes that apparently isn't ready to happen yet (I'm trying to get some "room to maneuver", to talk about this a little more freely and in more detail--I'm not a "journalist", and won't do anything to betray a friend's trust OR screw with "touchy sh*t" going on among some pretty big and sensitive egos--and, believe it or not, our little site, you guys in fact, are read by some pretty important "Gator People", I'm told: For some reason, they seem to think we're a "pretty fair cross section" of a "certain portion of the alumni", more articulate and expressive than most, which is handy to individuals who want to "feel the pulse" of their constituents--these are "politicians", when you boil it down, after all--but don't have that much "extra time" to work thru and weed out all the crap "out there"). Anyway, it all means that by expedience alone, Foley may well get to stay, at least for now--long as he finally does what he's been blocking even from consideration, sacks Muschamp, AND is seen to at least be doing things differently, "consulting and considering" the views, opinions and actual network-of-connections that surround him and are by now clamoring for his attention, at the very least. Gets it right, and he'd then be "allowed to stay", eventually go out with apparent dignity, on a successful note, as the "next phase", "A New Era With An Old Friend and Hero" is ushered in fairly seamlessly a few years down the line. That's the "dream scenario", anyway--Who knows how realistic or doable it all is gonna turn out to be?
But it's all still in Foley's hands at the moment, damnit. It all bodes poorly for us if even this is "messy", looks like it is done in a classless, "chaotic" sort of way, and the media cover it that way. Then we WILL have trouble, getting the right "Next Guy" by any way but pure, blind spin-the-wheel LUCK. And I don't LIKE depending on "luck", not under the BEST of circumstances...and these aren't those. Not even close to anything LIKE "the best of circumstances".
