Saturday will mark the end of the Will Muschamp era at the University of Florida. It is fitting that Muschamp is going out at Ron Zook field, the place where he reached the height of success at Florida in 2012.
After defeating Florida State 37-26 that day, Florida still stood an outside shot at playing for a national championship. We all know that the things that needed to happen for Florida to get to the BCS Championship Game that year didn’t happen. However, after that game, the wheels came off against Louisville in the Sugar Bowl and Florida never reached such heights again under Muschamp.
As many fans among Gator Country have shared over the past few weeks, Muschamp’s simple failure was not winning enough games on the football field. However, many other fans have shared, Will Muschamp showed his players the way to do things right off the football field and in life. His legacy will be a complex one, but it is an interesting and contentious one among our fan base for years to come, just like the man he is most often compared to, Ron Zook.
In 2004, Ron Zook, the man whom so many Gator fans make a punch line to Seminole fans about their stadium, also exited Florida against the backdrop of a Florida State in a game in Tallahassee. That night, before the game, Florida State University thought that having the field named after Bobby Bowden on the night they played their biggest rival would be a good idea.
However, the football gods always seem to have a sense of irony when they punish the Seminoles, as Florida outlasted Florida State that night 20-13. For many fans, that game saved the season for Florida. It also provided Zook with a nice denouement to his tenure at Florida. It gave many fans a reason to forgive for his perceived failings.
On Saturday, Muschamp and his Florida Gators will march into the Erector Set to battle Florida State University. Nothing hangs in the balance for Florida. The Gators continue to struggle on offense and have been wildly inconsistent all year. We aren’t going to Atlanta. However, we have qualified for a bowl game, we might get a slightly better bowl game with a victory in Tallahassee, but the game holds no significance to Florida other than pride and the ability to send out Coach Muschamp on a high note.
On the other hand, the Noles come into the game with all the pressure of being defending National Champions. They are #3 in the College Football Playoff standings. They are helmed by a Heisman Trophy winning quarterback and have not lost in 28 games. The script does not look good for the Gators.
But funny things seem to happen in rivalry games. The last game the Seminoles lost to were the Gators in 2012, so let’s start there. Moreover, the Noles are a mess. They have swum upstream all this season. They have not looked overly impressive all season. Controversy surrounded their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback all season.
Moreover, other players on the team have also come under scrutiny. Simply put, the football program at Florida State University has struggled on and off the field for this season. However, many Nole fans will simply not acknowledge the struggles occurring in their program on and off the field. They would rather argue about why they aren’t ranked #1 in the College Football Playoff seeding or talk about how media types have it in for the Seminoles and their starting quarterback.
However, for many football fans outside of the State of Florida, the game has taken on a larger meaning. The meeting on the field also represents a larger cultural clash. Cloaked in the protective bubble of Tallahassee and the Tallahassee Police Department, many Nole fans have missed the memos regarding player conduct and renegade programs. Instead they are celebrating their success and return to the national consciousness, although few of them realize they are often brought up as a punch line.
Florida, the program that so many people used to love to hate, now has to take up the mantle of Florida State’s latest opponent. The Florida program that has questions around whether they can return to prominence versus Florida State, the program that faces questions regarding the prominence of its football program. The reversal of fortunes since 2009 has had a sobering effect on the Gator Nation.
Jameis Winston will also likely be playing in his final home game; most people anticipate that he will be fleeing Florida State after the conclusion of the football season. While his camp will try to sell that he is leaving to chase his dream of playing football in the NFL, most people know that he needs a change of scenery for other reasons.
Just like Muschamp, Jameis Winston will leave a mixed legacy at Florida State. However, in many ways it is the opposite of what Will Muschamp leaves behind. Despite his failures on the field, Muschamp leaves the Florida program in better shape than he found it. Despite his successes, Winston will leave the Florida State program in worse shape than he found it. There will always be asterisks and questions marks around Florida State’s success over the past two years.
In many ways Winston and Muschamp are foils to each other. Muschamp, a former walk-on, has had to scrap together a career in football despite his lack of physical gifts. Winston, the highly regarded recruit that has great physical gifts and off the charts talent.
Muschamp has struggled to win at Florida, while Winston has known nothing but success at Florida State. Florida State under Winston has slung the ball over the field with great success. In contrast, Florida’s offense under Muschamp has tried to redefine football by taking offense back to the 1910s with little to no success.
Of course, some would argue that there are deeper and more ominous differences between the two; but those have been discussed ad nauseam. Besides, according to Jimbo Fisher Winston has been a victim of media assassination. Never mind the known narratives of the incidents that Winston involved himself in. Even if it wasn’t sexual assault, the narratives of Chris Casher and Ronald Darby do not fill anyone’s hearts with admiration and awe for Jameis Winston.
Florida State has always been the program of punch lines; Free Shoes University always comes to mind, but during the Bowden years the media seemed to give them a pass due to Bowden’s “down home” and “folksy” charm. However, at least the media isn’t giving Florida State the free pass they had under Bowden. Therefore, Florida State has turned into the program that everyone loves to hate.
Contrast that with the fall of the Gators and the narrative of Muschamp and it is understandable why the Gators and Will Muschamp will have many people besides Gator fans cheering for him and his Gators as they take the field against Winston and the Noles. For many outsiders, the game represents the contrast of what is good about college football and what is bad about college football.
The Gators have much more to play for than just pride and a better bowl. They are playing for the legacy of a good man.
They are also playing for team karma. They will be playing to re-balance the scales of football success that have been out of kilter with Jameis Winston at the helm of Florida State.
The end is nigh.
Thus, the end of two eras will occur on Saturday. Only one will have a Hollywood ending. I’ll be rooting for the guy wearing the orange and blue for the last time and coaching for the team with karma on its side.
It is different seeing many non gator fans pulling for UF when many neutral folks nationally were historically not fans of our program.
Another great article with insight, intelligence, and invariable hatred of FSU.
Another writer who’s as nutty as they come. Struggling on the field? FSU is the only team in the country that is undefeated. Every other team in the country would love to “struggle” if that is the definition. Winston is the victim of a witch hunt. He stole crab legs, but that is his only transgression. He has been forgiven that by the system we live under, he doesn’t even have a criminal record. As for shouting out a vulgar meme, that is something he should not have even been punished for. It was, and remains nothing but a dumb act by a college student, that are known for doing dumb things. Winston is a great young man. He’s a born leader, an outstanding student, charismatic, and very tough and courageous. For him to withstand the unfounded slurs directed at him by the media and folks like this writer is remarkable. I, for one, am rooting for him because I believe in facts, not this other nonsense like the writer portrays him to be. This writer doesn’t have a clue. He thinks FSU will be worse of than when Winston came, but the opposite is true. Two of the top players in America, Malik Henry and Jacques Patrick, recently pledged to FSU and one of the main reasons was that their parents wanted their son to go to a school where the coach supported them like Fisher has done with Winston. I doubt the writer understands that minorities can see a smear job. They can see what’s happening to Winston for what it is, a witch hunt. I can see it as well, and for that reason I am rooting for Winston. He’s, by far, the best player in college football so he doesn’t need help, but I think he’s the victim in this charade.
For snowprint, what’s the name of that bird that always has it head in the sand?
Snowprint,
This is the biggest bunch of bullsh$t I’ve ever seen you post, and you post a bunch of BS.
Did the media make up the two separate police reports with the bb guns? Or that fact that Winston proceeded to shoot out 4000$ in windows AFTER they were detained by a police and told they can’t be playing around our license with them. So this “leader” lied to police of his intent to vandalize property by saying he went all Elmer Fudd and hunted squirrel.
Did the media make up the rape accusation? The soda stealing accusation? Crab stealing, autographs? Point shaving ? Did they make all that up or simply pick up on it and report it?
Did they make up the hit and run by a player who had no license and was illegally driving? Or did the media lie when they reported it was written off as a ticket even though they fled the scene? I’ve personally known people who have done this and we’re arrested on the spot.
The media must have certainly made up the story about karlos williams hitting his baby momma right? Or ira denson and his cousin shooting at Mario pender and so on and so on and so on.
The smoke from this fire is so long I can’t believe you don’t see the flames yet.
What kind of “outstanding young man and great leader” as you call winston, have you ever known to stand up in front of a crowd and yell offensive and vulgar remarks about women? Great Leaders will stand up a speak in front of a crowd but it’s usually to motivate and inspire and lead them, not berate women and rub in the face of everybody what he was accused off but not charged for. That’s not someone I would want to lead.
Snow print could you ever imagine a real leader and outstanding young man like tebow being involved with any of this that winston is immersed in constantly.
You speak of the minorities see the smear campaign, yet Kevin hart publicly, to his face, ridiculed jameis for the stupid things he keeps doing.
Leaders lead, they don’t do stupid college kid stuff constantly like you say, that’s what differentiates great leaders from average college kids, it normally means they are more mature than your average college kid.
Do you not see the “coincidence” in Winston’s hearing being postponed till the day after the final college regular season weekend with no decision required till the day after the national championship is played ? It’s a sham and that is why everything is amplified in the media because it’s a blatant attempt to protect its best player not to do what’s right.
There is no media witch hunt going on here, just a dumb ass kid who can’t take his first “closecall” with the law as a lesson and keep his ass away from trouble which he somehow seems to ALWAYS find.