Will Muschamp put his replacement in a tough spot when he left the Florida Gators – in more ways than one. Not only did Muschamp leave a roster depleted in a few key areas, he told the media and fans that he recruited so much talent that the next coach should have nothing to complain about.
“They’ve got a deep and talented roster, so don’t let that new guy tell you they don’t have any players,” Muschamp said last November. “Tell you that right now – they got some good football players in that locker room.”
New head coach Jim McElwain‘s now had a legitimate opportunity to evaluate the depth and talent on the Gators’ roster. And while he believes there are some capable players at Florida, he also noticed that there are some deficiencies.
“You’ve got to play the hand you’re dealt and right now, quite honestly, the hand we were dealt is really insufficient at some of the areas,” he said last Friday.
McElwain was specifically talking about the Gators’ depth at offensive line (seven scholarship players), linebacker (five scholarship players) and running back (two scholarship players).
But Muschamp, despite claiming not to have heard what McElwain said, had no problem responding to it before taking a turn at Florida’s new coach.
“I didn’t see any comments,” said Muschamp on Thursday during his second media availability as Auburn’s defensive coordinator, according to al.com. “At the time [I left], D.J. Humphries and Tyler Moore had not declared for the NFL Draft. “Certainly, at that position at the offensive line, the numbers are obviously down … but I didn’t know of any [of McElwain’s] comments. Other than that, there’s a lot of good football players sitting down there.”
And then came the jab.
“[He] said he could coach a dog and win. Heck, [does] he like the dog better than his players?”
Muschamp was referencing a statement McElwain made back in December, when UF’s new coach mentioned his dog during his opening press conference with Florida.
The problem? Muschamp took McElwain completely out of context.
“You got to understand this: I believe I can win with my dog, Claire-a-bell,” McElwain said. “That’s the attitude. There are good players here. That’s just our responsibility.”
McElwain did not say he preferred his dog to his players, especially considering he had not even begun evaluating the Gators yet. Rather, he was referring to the fact that he was so confident in his systems that he believed he would be able to get by even if a dog had to play one of the roles.
As such, McElwain was not commenting about talent when he called the roster “really insufficient” last Friday – he was discussing the Gators’ lack of bodies at key positions.
“It’s hard. It hurts the whole team [having so few offensive linemen]. Just like the short numbers of our linebackers as well. We’re awful short there as well. And yet, it’s something we know, it’s something there’s nothing we can do about,” McElwain explained. “I did try to get free agency put in and we weren’t able to get that handled. At the same time, we’ll do what we have to do, find out what those guys can do and let’s do it best.”
Muschamp was much more successful ribbing Urban Meyer during his four years at Florida than he was taking a turn at McElwain on Thursday.
Let’s just hope the end result is not McElwain putting Claire-a-bell on the field and having her try to block defensive end Alex McCalister but rather Muschamp actually reading comments he’s asked about before responding to them.
I wonder if Will broke any clipboards or whiteboards during the presser. Or was he foaming at the mouth when he gave the answer?
If I recall correctly, Mac’s comment was in response to QB play specifically. He was asked about Harris/Grier, and was implying that he could win with either guy, which makes Muschamp’s comments even more out of context.
He’s starting to sound like a bitter ex. No apologies, Will….we’ve found someone smarter & sexier to take to the dance.
In a follow up comment Forrest Gumpchump said, “I’m not a very smart man, and I can’t count anyways”.
Gumpchump must be the only person in the country who didn’t think Humphries was going to declare for the draft.
Just glad he’s going to screw up AU program instead of UF any longer.
The picture tells the whole story. Typical mad Muchamp pic. Haven’t seen on of BigMac that looks anywhere as miserable as Mus. Good riddance.
Adam,
In reference to the OL, out of the 6 that we recruited this off season how many early enrollees were there? Besides Martez Ivy, do you believe any others can contribute this season? I know were are thin in those spots but maybe we are waiting for the missing pieces to graduate HS.
Muschamp, thank you for your service but (I hate saying this) “Bye Felicia.” hahaha
None enrolled early. I think Ivey would contribute no matter how deep Florida was on the OL. The others will contribute, but I’m not sure if they’ll all be ready.
The worst coach in gator history, shut up fool
haha, sadly, not true. just look at the history of the program pre-charley pell
Gotta disagree there, Pell’s record was actually worse than the Chump’s and you would have to go pre-Graves and really pre-Woodruff to make that argument stick. Chump and Woodruff are about a push. But in the post 1950 or 1960 era Chump is clearly the worse, Zook had him beat by a mile and that is a sad statement. Good riddance no matter how you look at it.
Good bye Muschamp. We wish you the best at Auburn. The school notorious for accepting our rejects. Engineering students, QB, and head coaches.
Should we just nickname Auburn “Not good enough for UF”?
Is Auburn becoming the new Tennessee (…BTW… it was Miami before that…) to Florida fans?
Muschamp is gone. Joy!
And therein lies one of the most glaring differences between these two coaches: their levels of intelligence.
That the whole Claire-a-bell thing would even painstakingly have to be explained, as though it weren’t obvious that the man was tongue-in-cheek explaining in a fun, folksy way that he’s an optimist, that he believes in his system, he believes that his coaching techniques are sound and that he believes he can win with his players every time that he takes the field. What else could you possibly want in a coach?
I’m still sore about that clown being allowed to leave with all of that money, take a new job for too-much-more money, all without any restrictions on him being able to raid the cupboard of the recruits UF had invested in while we were paying him to recruit.
The only people happier about the departure of this “defensive genius” (bahahaha) than I am are the folks at Wisconsin and their running back who set an Outback Bowl rushing record on a team that couldn’t pass in a win over Auburn after the genius had weeks to get his defense ready for the game.
Adios, defensive genius. Before it’s all said and done, I predict that he will turn out to be the same kind of genius that Weiss turned out to be (i.e. just clipboard-holding order-takers in the Belichick and Saban systems).
The guys a moron, just showing his a$$ again as usual!
Muschamp was never one for the words (or offense)