Just four short years after it began, the sun is setting on the Will Muschamp Era in Gainesville. Believe it or not, Coach "Boom" has just two games — Eastern Kentucky and a road game at Florida State — left on the horizon.
Saturday’s game against Eastern Kentucky is the last home game of the 2014 season, which means that it is also Senior Day, which makes it a special last game in The Swamp for both the seniors and Muschamp.
Junior Buck linebacker Dante Fowler Jr., who declared for the 2015 NFL Draft via Twitter on Tuesday evening and will be playing his last game in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on Saturday, said it is difficult to see the coach who he came in with leave after such a short period of time.
"It’s hard when you’re man that basically recruited you to come in, that was my recruiter really, my defensive coach, basically my defensive coordinator, and just to see him go and just to see how great of a guy he is, to see how far he’s come ever since he first stepped, you know, a foot on campus," Fowler said.
This week’s game against Eastern Kentucky will also most likely be the last game for Muschamp’s coaching staff, including Florida’s first-year offensive coordinator Kurt Roper.
Roper was one of the more intriguing hires of the offseason last year, and was suspected to make positive adjustments on offense immediately due to his success at Duke the previous six seasons.
However, with inconsistent quarterback play from Jeff Driskel and a conservative approach being evident throughout the season, the offense is averaging just 29.3 points per game, which is tied for ninth in the Southeastern Conference and tied for 65th in the country.
Florida is also ranked 90th in the country in total offense.
Roper said that the challenges of going through three offensive coordinators in four years could have been one of the reasons why the scheme wasn’t completely successful in Year 1.
"That was one of the benefits of being at Duke six years," Roper said. "Everybody that went through that system heard the same language for six years. There were no changes in vocabulary. That’s been one of the challenges for these guys offensively. It’s been the third guy in however many years it is, so that obviously is a challenge."
Defensive coordinator D.J. Durkin, who was on Florida’s staff as the linebackers coach under Urban Meyer before Muschamp was hired, talked Wednesday about sending the seniors and coaches out on a positive note Saturday.
"We need to as a team — coaches, players alike — go perform really well for those guys and send them off the right way out of The Swamp," Durkin said.
It may feel like it began just yesterday, but Saturday will be one of the last two times Gator fans will see Muschamp on the sideline as Florida’s head coach. The same Muschamp, who as a boy who grew up in Gainesville cheering for the Gators, will take one last final bow working his dream job as the Gators’ head coach in The Swamp.
"That’s my coach still," cornerback Brian Poole said. "Whether or not he’s here, I still consider him as my coach, as like a father figure to me."
But for right now, it’s just business as usual.
"It’s going to be the same," linebacker Mike Taylor said.
"They won’t change. We won’t change. We’ll go out there. We’ll work. I’ll cherish my last couple weeks here. They’ll cherish their last couple weeks here. We’ll all cherish and enjoy this time because things will be a lot different next year. Just enjoying the here and now is what I can imagine it will be like."
Follow Morgan Moriarty on Twitter @Morgan_Moriarty
Florida head coach Will Muschamp celebrates with defensive lineman Darious Cummings (55) following Gators' 34-10 win against Commodores on Saturday in Nashville, Tennessee.
