Will Muschamp Can Talk

... And talk and talk and talk and talk.

Will Muschamp was officially introduced as the head football coach at the University of Florida on Tuesday evening. If he’s half as good at coaching as he is talking and storytelling, the Gators should be just fine. Let’s take a look.

[Read everything to yourself in a thick southern accent. It will make your experience more realistic.]

“The expectations at Florida are winning championships. And believe me, I understand that, and I understand what you’ve got to do to be successful in that situation.”

Okay, you have my attention. Continue.

“You got to get a degree. I’m going to emphasize it. If our kids don’t want to get their degree, they don’t need to be here. If they’re not going to go to class and act the right way, they don’t need to be here. There’s a certain thing that I’m going to refer to as ‘The Florida Way,’ and that’s the way they need to act and that’s the way they need to represent our university.”

A bit idealistic. You’re telling me you’re not going to bring in a lightning fast kid from Pahokee because you know damn well he has no plans of playing more than three years of college football so that he can move on and make more money than his family ever dreamed of? Of course, it’s the right thing to say, but this is the SEC and this is Florida. Most kids on a scholarship here have the ultimate platform to get to the NFL if they live up to expectations.

Now Muschamp grouped this with one of his many great stories of the night. It was about having to cut a 24-year-old with two kids and no back-up plan during his year as a defensive coordinator with the Miami Dolphins. Muschamp said that player cried in his office because he had nothing to fall back on, and he doesn’t want to see the same thing happen to his players.

“There’s nothing more frustrating to me then to see a young man make a poor choice and somebody said, ‘He must be a bad kid.’ He’s not a bad kid. He made a poor choice and decision. So we need to do a great job of conditioning our players to make good choices and decisions.”

Ah, the Bobby Bowden school of discipline. TRANSLATION: Chris Rainey will be a very important part of the 2011 Gator football team.

“Nothing’s going to be done, in my opinion, right now before the bowl game as far as coaches that are going to be hired, retained, whatever. Right now, I’ve got absolutely no timetable with that.”

Something tells me this actually means “nothing will be made public as far as coaches until after the bowl game.” Regardless it’s the classy and respectful move to give Urban Meyer a proper send-off as head coach without any assistant controversy. Enjoy Christmas, Addazio. Something tells me you won’t be living it up too much come Jan. 2.

“And I can tell you this right now: As long as Will Muschamp is the head coach of the University of Florida, Urban Meyer is going to be involved in this program. And I’ve invited him to the weight room, I’ve invited him to the practice field, I’ve invited him to the meetings and whatever he wants to do.”

Yes, this adviser role has been talked about by Foley, and under the current situation, it’s the right thing to do. As long as Urban Meyer is not employed somewhere else, he should have the right to a major say with this team.

On the other hand, as long as there are guys that Meyer recruited on this team, it can be a sketchy deal even though I’m sure Meyer will be appropriate and step out of the way. Way different power totem, but it feels like a bit of Pat Riley syndrome. What happens when Muschamp gets mad at a player and they run over to Meyer to talk about it. Just seems uncomfortable.

“We’re going to be a pro-style attack both offensively and defensively. As far as special teams is concerned, I feel like our players will be exposed to cutting-edge schemes to make sure that they show their abilities. If they want to play on the next level, they certainly can have those opportunities.”

If this was a Facebook status, I would be the corny guy that asks why there isn’t a “love it” button. I love everything about bringing a pro-style approach to Gainesville. It’ll be good for recruiting. Admit it, it was going to be tough to keep top-caliber running backs coming here when we’ve shown that backs only get six or seven carries a game and are never showcased.

Playmakers get utilized more. Coaches can tell players, “Hey, come here and we’ll get you ready for the NFL.” It’s a win-win. The spread offense is great for teams that can recruit more speed than talent. It can play as a great equalizer when one team is at a sufficient talent disadvantage. [See Boise vs. Oklahoma, USF vs. Auburn, Appalachian State vs. Michigan]. But when a team has all the talent in the world, the gimmicks of a spread and especially a spread option almost appear to get in their way.

The Gators offense is full of great players. Let them show it.

“But I think the best coaches out there, they look at their roster and they evaluate who they are at this time.”

Another great note. The biggest complaint about Addazio is that he refuses to adapt to the offense that he has in 2010. I dedicate this quote to him.

“As a football team, I want to be known as a blue-collar, overachieving unit. We’re going to recruit good players here, but they need to take the talent they have – what God’s blessed them with – and stretch it to the potential that they’ve got… We will be a physically tough football team. And it’s not something you talk about; it’s something you live your life with.”

Uh, Tebow, is that you? Tough is a beautiful word when you’ve watched your defense get tossed around all season. Muschamp also referenced the fact that the SEC is a great conference because of elite defensive lines. The Gators defensive line? Not elite.

on coaching in the NFL

“But the tough thing is in the NFL there’s only 32 teams, okay, so the turnover ratio in that league is about two or three years for an assistant coach.  And I don’t want to live in San Francisco, and that’s not any offense to anybody from San Francisco.  But I’m from the south and I’m not going much west of Texas and I’m not going much north of Tennessee with my family.  So that eliminates now about eight teams, so if those teams aren’t open, you’re in a bind.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you, a SEC football coach.

“I have great memories since my dad had Florida season tickets for us in the north end zone, which was not the north end zone it is now, I can assure you of that.  We walked right off the street and we walked down.  But some great memories of a 17 to 9 victory over USC and watching Wilbur Marshall play outside backer about as good as you can play and watching Charlie Pell circle the field when it was over.  Watching James Jones make a one‑hand catch against Miami, and he was inbounds, I do remember that.  All the Miami fans make sure he was inbounds.”

Florida Gator history lessons brought to you courtesy of Head Coach Will Muschamp.

on considering coming to Florida as a walk-on

“Funny story, when Coach Spurrier was the coach here, they told us to come down for the unofficial visit, and so we came down here, and we waited for awful long time in the football office and nobody showed up.  He was 2‑under at the turn.  So I guess we didn’t get a chance to see him.”

OBC: Recruiting juggernaut.

“Obviously getting back to Gainesville is a lot of fun.  My two brothers Mike and Pat.  We have had a lot of good football games at 1122 Northwest 22nd Street off 8th Avenue in Gainesville, Florida.  Mike was Wayne Peace a lot, Pat was Tyrone Young and I was Tony Lilly, on the back end there for all you Gator guys that know a lot about the Gators.”

The stories and history lessons continue. In Muschamp’s rapid-fire 20-minute introductory speech, he probably talked more than Meyer did in his six years as coach. Is it good, bad or does it not really not matter at all? The latter is probably true.

Spring practice is getting closer and closer.

All quotes courtesy of OnlyGators.com and GatorZone.com.

- Bryan