Muschamp’s third time through ESPN’s car wash

By Adam Silverstein
July 24, 2012

Florida Gators head coach Will Muschamp on Tuesday traveled to Bristol, CT and went through ESPN’s self-named “car wash” – appearing on nearly a dozen of the network’s media platforms over the course of one business day – for the third time in his career. He had previously been put through the wringer in April and July of 2011. OGGOA followed Muschamp’s media appearances throughout the day.

Muschamp began the day without his face on camera, taping an interview for the College Football Podcast at 11 a.m. [Listen] and another for GameDay Radio at 11:45 a.m.

Asked on the podcast if he had ever been a part of a team with such a strange schedule, Muschamp said: “Part of our motto this year is: Start fast. We go to College Station to play Texas A&M and then we go to Neyland Stadium to play Tennessee. We need to start fast in those games. I look at it as a great opportunity and a great motivating factor for our football to start the season with great opponents.”

He then answered a question from the @ESPNCFB Twitter account about whether or not he was open to rotating quarterbacks this season.

Muschamp followed that up by taking part in a live ESPN.com chat session where he answered 15 different questions from fans. [Read]

Seth (Gainesville, FL): Coach Muschamp, Florida has been known for its high-powered special teams in recent years. What role do you see Florida’s special teams playing in this years team?

Will Muschamp (12:23 PM): Controlling the vertical field position is very important. We did a great job of that last year. We need to improve in our punt return game. That’s something we need to do a better job with and continue to block punts.

After doing an interview with ESPN’s Playbook at 12:50 p.m., Muschamp appeared live on SportsCenter at 1:45 p.m. where he was interviewed by Chris Fowler.

He said that he is proud of the foundation that the Gators built in 2011 and is confident that Florida will build on that this season. Muschamp also explained how his offense can improve in 2012: “Be more balanced; be able to run the ball when we need to. Late in games last year we were unable to maintain possession of the ball. We couldn’t run the ball; we put the defense on the field way too long. […] That can be the difference in three or four games.”

Fowler then asked Muschamp what he would do if a Penn State player called him up and said he wanted to transfer to Florida. “I think you gotta be very careful. We’re very close to the season right now,” he said. “Our players work really hard, and I love the chemistry in our locker room right now. You can disrupt your football team very easily by bringing somebody from the outside if it’s not the right fit.”

[EXPAND Click to expand and read more about Muschamp’s car wash.]Muschamp then jumped back on Twitter to answer fans’ questions via the @SportsCenter account. He said that he did not believe any team was a threat to end the SEC’s national title streak and suggested that the first question a college football prospect should ask a school recruiting him be: “What is your academic support?”

He also sat down with College Football Live, Recruiting Nation and SportsCenter Tonight Radio before concluding his day with an appearance on ESPN Radio’s The Scott Van Pelt Show at 3:15 p.m. [Listen] and another on ESPNU at 3:35 p.m.

Muschamp told SVP hosts Ryen Russillo and Adnan Virk that he does not feel much pressure being the coach of the Gators. “The pressure is what you put on yourself,” he said. “I really don’t think I have a stressful job. No one made you sign up to do this. I want to be a college football coach. I really enjoy what I’m doing. There’s not a day – even after a hard loss – that I go to work and I’m not excited about going to work and representing the University of Florida.”

He also discussed some of the difficulties surrounding college football recruiting: “It’s about developing relationships. For as much information out there, there is so much misinformation. It’s amazing to see some of these recruiting sites, and we have people that monitor because of the information you never know what might be true or what might not be true. I have our recruiting guys come to me and say, ‘Well we heard this.’ And I’m thinking, ‘That never even happened.’ There’s a lot of misinformation out there in the recruiting world, and a lot of people make a lot of money off of it.”

Additional links and content will be added when Muschamp’s five combined taped segments and print interviews are published by ESPN.[/EXPAND]

4 Comments

  1. Walt P says:

    Couldn’t catch the shows. Good read

  2. G2 says:

    Hope someone emerges as a punt/kick returner, we got killed last couple years not having a return game. Lets get some PSU players or the competition will.

  3. gatorboi352 says:

    “Hope someone emerges as a punt/kick returner”

    His name is Andre Debose. He returns kicks for touchdowns.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3_jarhKGBQ&feature=related

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm-eS3y2QTc&feature=fvwrel

    And he does this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKJQbiaOgyY

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