Santa Claus is coming to town (Gainesville)!

[Escambia94]

I posted an article not on my thoughts on the next Gator head coach, but on the rumor mill.

Yes! It is true! I heard from a friend of a friend who is a Bull Gator who knows someone who knows someone who read on Twitter that Santa Claus is indeed coming to town as the new Florida Gator head ball coach! It must be true. I saw it on Facebook.

Rumors are rampant throughout the Gator Nation. Chris Petersen. Dan Mullen. Bobby Stoops. Gus Malzahn. Gary Patterson. Bobby Petrino. Steve Addazio. Kyle Whittingham. Josh McDaniel. Everyone seems to know who is the next Gator head coach. The truth is that nobody knows who it will be! Not Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley, not University of Florida president Bernie Machen, not Urban Meyer, and not the savior himself, Tim Tebow.

Enough with the rumors already! Nobody knows. All the Gator fans have their own favorites. The non-Gator fans have their non-favorites. I get it, people are tired of the Florida Gators. That is no reason to go around attacking Gator fans, as if WE had something to do with how the Florida football team dominated college football for the better part of the past 20 years. That certainly is no reason for Gator fans to go around attacking other Gator fans. What happened to In all kinds of weather, We'll all stick together, for F-L-O-R-I-D-A?

Let's try some rumor control here. We all have our own "list" of preferred Meyer successors. We do not get a say in the matter. We get whomever Jeremy Foley selects. Here is my assessment of the rumors, graded on how I perceive the rumors to be realistic. I am not asserting my own favorite, just my perception of the validity to the rumors.

Read more...

 

[DRU2012]

You've hit on the GOOD side to all of this, E-: All this attention and reaction in the media and on the blogs has meant that not only are we at the top of everyone's thoughts and opinions again, but who we'll get, how we have our choice 'cause we're one of the handful of prime programs in all of college football, and so on, have replaced what the Haters were somewhat hopefully referring to as our "inevitable decline" as the focus of any discussion that includes the Florida Gators. Whenever the Haters and even the casual non-Gators start whining about how sick they are of hearing about us it's GOOD news: it means they sense we're back on the upswing, and THAT'S what they're sick about. All in all, it's a good place to be, and has its own aura of "self-fulfilling prophesy".
As for "Gators-fighting-Gators" over this business, outside of the weirdly warped views of the local radio-guys and the everything-filtered-thru'-the-how-it-relates-to-the-Longhorns-view of the people around me here, (as we've BOTH mentioned) I've been busily DUCKING a lot of the queries and comments coming in to me, along with cutting down on my usual monitoring of the constant flow from two Gator-news search engines I employ. Aside from a quick scan of headlines and an occasional open-up-and-speed-read, if it hasn't come up here on the Envy, I haven't taken the time to investigate...
So: is this supposed internecine fighting over the circumstances of Urban's resignation and who should replace him REALLY HAPPENING? It's asinine, fellow Gators. It is very important, yes, and our passion and deep concern and involvement with our program SHOULD lead to spirited discussion and debate, but we really ARE in this one together.
I'll admit, there ARE choices that would leave me baffled and worried, even angry, but from what I know so far, none of them are anywhere near "the short list" (though a couple of them HAVE been mentioned). I have to believe the number of folks who'll be angry if/when they're NOT chosen will be relatively small. The likeliest ones are all worthy, potentially great. Meanwhile, we share our views, try to show some "the error of their ways", and (failing that) amicably agree to disagree--no matter who or what, we all hope for the same ultimate outcome, a re-energized Gator team surging towards dominance once more.

 

[G8RB8R]

Latest rumor comes from over at GatorCountry.com, via ESPN Rumor Control.....Stoops is very close to closing the deal with Foley and will bring in Kerwin Bell as his OC. This rumor is already popping up on Google news searches.

 

[DRU2012]

Not the way I thought we'd go--but it could WORK, obviously (possibly even the understatement of the whole affair; we'll see!)