I am not saying that I want Will Muschamp fired, but...
Escambia, I think Bob Stoops is the best coach out there for us. What is your opinion of Stoops?
...And THAT (the above) actually puts a less-pessimistic/holds-SOME-hope spin on it, compared to my own view. "Teetering on the edge of a cliff" puts us one step from the full-on, complete disaster of a fall-from-grace, whereas I see us as blindfolded and in the middle of TAKING that step-into-nowhere.This was posted on SDS:
More than likely, this will be Will Muschamp’s last season at Florida. Barring a miraculous turnaround, Muschamp simply wasn’t able to put a consistent product out on the field, despite achieving three top-10 recruiting classes.
Right now, recruits can still look back at the national titles in 2006 and 2008 and envision this Gators program returning to its championship form, but Florida is teetering on the edge of the cliff. Another couple seasons like fans and recruits have seen over the past two years, and they’re looking at nearly a decade of an average football from a program that was destined for a dynasty back in 2008.
At some point, the novelty wears off and you are what your record says you are. And Florida’s record proves the program is heading in a downward trend.
Of course, that’s not to say it can’t be turned around. The biggest factor in that will be the Gators’ next hire if it does reach that point. Coaching hires — or lack thereof — can make all the difference and the Gators wouldn’t be the first top program to fall victim to irrelevancy.
Look at Texas. The Longhorns were a perennial powerhouse and had a BCS Championship appearance in the 2009 season, just four seasons after winning the national title. But as the program started slipping, the program’s reluctancy to let go of Mack Brown cost them and the Longhorns have lost at least four conference games in every season since 2010.
The Tennessee Volunteers, a program to be reckoned with in the 90s and early 2000s, is fighting just be relevant within the conference. Once Phillip Fulmer left, the Vols’ hiring of Lane Kiffin and subsequent hiring of Derek Dooley just a year later set the program back several years. Now, Butch Jones is left picking up the pieces and is just now seeing some positive results in his second season.
For the Gators, they are at a crossroads. The decision by Urban Meyer to un-retire and come back in 2010, ultimately was a poor choice in hindsight. The lack of heart and care he put into that season left the cupboard bare for Muschamp when he came in.
And despite a hopeful 2012 season, Muschamp will probably leave this program in a very similar situation in terms of on-field success — middle of the road and off the college football radar. So where will this program go?
If you described to Florida fans after that 2009 SEC Championship loss what the state of the program would be just five years later, they would have described it as mere fiction.
But sadly, for those fans, the stark truth of how far this program has fallen and the direction in which its headed is becoming more and more of a reality with every passing week.
We do have a history with Stoops--but unless we have started such an effort before now, it's almost certainly too late--unless OU themselves are softening in their loyalty and commitment to the point that Stoops is feeling it there now. Without that, a feeling from behind him that "the good times are done" there, his once seemingly ever-stronger "welcome" finally wearing thin, only a long seduction, complete with "name-your-own-price--just-give-it-some-thought-and-come-up-with-a-number" blank-sheet contract hinted at, was likely to even get us to "meaningful talks" with The Bob of Stoops. If those have begun on some super-secret, behind-the-scenes level, well, maybe we have a shot. Otherwise, move on. And remember this: As far as our public plans, moves and methods are concerned, we're already seen somewhat as "damaged goods"...We start forcing too many consecutive "No"s in too quick succession and we heighten and intensify that feeling surrounding our program. Lets be sure who and what we want, no matter who we're going after, before we embark on an "anyone who's anyone", panic-attack scramble all over the coaching map. The UF job is still a high-profile, highly-regarded (as WELL as highly-paid) job that hasn't plunged into the abyss YET. We SHOULD still be able to "get the guy we WANT", not just "settle for whomever guy-with-a-rep will TAKE us".Escambia, I think Bob Stoops is the best coach out there for us. What is your opinion of Stoops?
I've been staying away from this--partly out of the "it's early" hopes I had for us as recent as a month or so ago, and (lets face it) partly out of a continuing sense of disbelief; together, they add up to head-in-the-sand "denial".And now Rivals has us # 68 in recruiting. You know you're in trouble when you can't out-recruit Northern Illinois. Talk about a free fall.