Firing Will Muschamp in the middle of October is not the answer.
What happened Saturday night was bad, in my opinion it was the low-point of the Muschamp era. The Georgia Southern loss was awful and inexcusable but at least Florida was competitive in that one.
The Gators shot themselves in the foot with a Gatling gun on Saturday night to the tune of six turnovers that produced 28 points.
I know athletics director Jeremy Foley’s famous quote delivered after the firing of Ron Zook in 2004.
"When the situation starts going downhill, it's hard sometimes to push it back up. I think the situation got out of control, even for him," Foley said.
Perhaps it is only fitting that Zook was fired after an embarrassing loss to Mississippi State nearly 10 years to the day — Oct. 26, 2004 — as Muschamp’s worst loss in his tenure in Gainesville.
I know you want Jeremy Foley to drop the hammer.
I read way too many of your tweets directed at me to not know that. I heard you chanting “fire Will Muschamp,” as the game ended and Florida committed one of its seemingly 45 total turnovers Saturday night (even if Muschamp himself did not).
But my question to you, is “OK, you fired Muschamp with five games left, and then what happens?”
You get rid of Muschamp now and you appease the mob, the horde of Gators fans that grows more numerous as each loss mounts. Remember — we’re talking about whether Muschamp should be fired during the season. What happens after the season is another story.
Remember, Zook didn’t go away when Foley canned him, he finished out the regular season, even triumphing over Florida State and being carried off into the sunset on his team’s shoulders.
Zook only didn’t coach the bowl game that year because he got another job, so don’t think Foley dropping a hammer on Muschamp would be the end for Muschamp.
Because if you get rid of him totally, then you turn the team over in the interim to offensive coordinator Kurt Roper — who’s in his first year here — or D.J. Durkin, who doesn’t seem like a head coach at this point in his career. Durkin is also just a Muschamp re-tread in the sense of being a defensive guy that has coached under him on that side of the ball. Neither of those options seem very appealing.
OK, fine, perhaps it may get Foley a chance to look at other candidates, but who exactly, and shouldn’t he already be doing that already? Foley has said that he — like any competent AD — has a list of potential candidates in his desk at all times. If a coaching search is coming, do you really want it to drag on for two months?
Coaches not named Bobby Petrino don’t often jump ship midseason. Dan Mullen, the coach de jour right now because of his blatant connection to offense and UF, has bigger fish to fry than Florida at this point in his season.
As do most of the other head coaching candidates you can drum up in your head at this point.
The fact of the matter is Florida is still a destination job no matter what because of that the program is, where the program is, the conference that it plays in and the market value that it has. Foley has Muschamp at a bargain price as far as SEC coaches go, and Florida can make the big fish say no to them after the season, Foley isn’t banging on anyone’s door right now to ask.
Firing Muschamp just gives you the finality you want for the impatience you feel.
You want something done, because you want something — anything done.
If you fire Muschamp now you run the risk of having a team completely check out. Sure, they could rally around Muschamp and have a profound moment built for a 30 for 30 documentary, or they could completely tank and take a bad season and send it even farther south.
Firing Muschamp during the season appeases you. It doesn’t appease recruits who will now have more time to be able to be poached by other schools because Florida still won’t get a coach by the middle of December at the extreme earliest.
It doesn’t appease potential coaching prospects for the job, and it doesn’t appease the other coaches of the other sports here at UF that Foley must answer — to the ones that he's said need to understand he'll stand behind them.
I ask for patience, even though you probably don’t have any left. It will get better around here, but I don’t think firing Muschamp in the thick of the season will turn this ship around, it’ll just give you a peace of mind.
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
Will Muschamp walks onto the field for the post-game handshake following Florida's 42-13 loss to Missouri on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
