Gator Country

Kirby · 03-03-2013, 08:16 PM

I think GH would have had a lot of success if he had been given the chance to coach with a full contingent of players. I think he would have won SEC championships and potentially could have won an NC Could he have had more success than SOS? I think it is 50/50. The juggernaut had started when he was let go He didn't get the chance to ride it out. What say you?

I started this thread not to demean SOS, but to give GH some credit that I don't think is given around here in our success for the last 20+ years.

**OaktownGator** · 03-03-2013, 08:41 PM

I don't think we need to compare to SOS, but yes, GH was a good coach.

In fact, he did win the SEC Championship in 1984... then a group of self righteous, duplicitous cheating bastards retroactively took it away in an action they haven't done with other SEC members put under sanctions (Bama - cough, cough).

We still won it on the field. And almost certainly would have won the NC in 1984 if we didn't start the bowl ban, then. We were clearly the best team in the country that year.

But we got caught, so it is what it is. And in the end, we're a better, cleaner program for it.

Do I think GH could have won additional SEC Championships given the chance without sanctions hanging over his head? Sure.

Mayhem41 · 03-03-2013, 09:18 PM

Who knows what kind of recruiter Galen would have been over the long haul. Let's not take credit away from Pell for the foundation and talent he left Galen with.

We all have a soft spot for Galen as a OC and HC at Florida..... other than that, what's the point comparing him with Spurrier? Pointless endeavor.

geauxgator1 · 03-03-2013, 09:19 PM

Yeah, he did a good job while he was here, but how good was it when SOS came back to UF? That was story book. Galen was a good coach and by all accounts a good man. Imagine where he could be if he had a personality.

**gatorjjh** · 03-03-2013, 09:24 PM

Galen was a good Coach, he stepped in it at the wrong time and UAA & Tigert used it to dump him unfairly. His career was essentially destroyed until he came back to PSU. One of the saddest tales in UF history

JohnC1908 · 03-03-2013, 11:39 PM

Comparing Galen Hall to Spurrier? Lulz.

RayGator · 03-04-2013, 12:29 AM

First, I think Galen Hall was a very good coach. Very good indeed. And true he tried to do the job with one arm tied behind his back. And If that hadn't been the case, I think he would have had a very excellent career at UF. However I don't think it's worth anything to say he would have been better than Steve Spurrier. They both were excellent coaches and I'm glad the Gators had both of them. I think Pell was good also but his own "Watergate" did him in.

grant1 · 03-04-2013, 08:31 AM

I think the question "What say you" is overused and trite. If you have to ask me to respond, then the content of the post must not have merit to begin with.

Go2gtr · 03-04-2013, 08:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grant1

I think the question "What say you" is overused and trite. If you have to ask me to respond, then the content of the post must not have merit to begin with.

**luciaboy** · 03-04-2013, 08:52 AM

no comparison

tedunderhillstab · 03-04-2013, 08:52 AM

lol. Thanks for the laugh. I love Galen Hall, I understand Charlie Pell, but Spurrier is so far above them he can't see them below.

GatorSean · 03-04-2013, 09:18 AM

I think Hall is definitely underrated and deserves a lot of credit for the success we had in the 90s.

Spurrier, however, is one of the best coaches of all time... there is no comparing the two.

Claygator · 03-04-2013, 10:00 AM

I never understood why Hall was treated so badly by UF, and was essentially blackballed as a coach for a number of years. Truly unfair.

Wormwood56 · 03-04-2013, 11:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RayGator

First, I think Galen Hall was a very good coach. Very good indeed. And true he tried to do the job with one arm tied behind his back. And If that hadn't been the case, I think he would have had a very excellent career at UF. However I don't think it's worth anything to say he would have been better than Steve Spurrier. They both were excellent coaches and I'm glad the Gators had both of them. I think Pell was good also but his own "Watergate" did him in.

Excellent post, Ray. Would Galen have won as much as Spurrier? Probably. Hall was also a great recruiter, and the recruiting was only going to get better. Would Galen have won with the same level of panache as Spurrier? Not even close. Spurrier gave Florida a signature style. Before that, the Gators was a smashmouth, defense-oriented team with a solid, efficient, time-consuming offense - much like what Muschamp is building now.

Florida is known for what Spurrier did for the program, fair or not. The population explosion purchased the land, Ray Graves cleared the land, Pell and Hall laid the foundation, and Spurrier built the palace. It's all a part of Florida's great history.

Ahab · 03-04-2013, 12:16 PM

When Spurrier took the UF job, it was in no way certain that UF would evolve into a consistent championship program. I think Galen was/is a good coach but Spurrier is one of the GOATs.

GatorLaw · 03-04-2013, 12:26 PM

I doubt that Hall would have had the record that SOS had no matter what. SOS introduced the SEC to an entirely new way of playing offense and we were just flat out clobbering good teams by scores like 45-10 and 52-14 for several years. Hall was a good coach who got royally shafted by UF. But I don't think he would have been as innovative or as dominant as SOS was.

Distant Gator · 03-04-2013, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Claygator

I never understood why Hall was treated so badly by UF, and was essentially blackballed as a coach for a number of years. Truly unfair.

I remember it well. There was a witchhunt going on by the NCAA in 89. They looked at all the sports (including my sport of track) hoping for any stain or blemish. I had graduated by then but my friends in the track program described it as chaos- crazy charges being thrown around about anyone and everyone. Again- truly a witchunt.

They only found one real charge in football- the child support payment. But Hall also supplemented the salary of his OC Lynn Amadee and some other piddly stuff.

We played .500 ball from 87-89 while Spurrier was doing big things at Duke. So my take is that our administration saw it as a way to fire Hall for the noblest of causes- NCAA violations. That would kill 2 birds with one stone
1) Sacrifical lamb for NCAA to save face
2) Getting rid of Hall to hire Spurrier without looking too terrible.

I could just hear our administration saying "While it's true we fired this fine, upstanding gentleman who was hampered by scholarship reductions, it wasn't due to winning or losing. We just can't abide cheaters. The fact that we are now free to hire our alum and favorite son Steve Spurrier is purely a coincidence."

**maverick** · 03-04-2013, 02:01 PM

Current Gator program originally built on shoulders of Charlie Pell. His 84 team taken over by Galen Hall, could have beaten anybody. I dont believe that our three top competitors, Ga, Auburn or Fsu scored a touchdown on the Gators.

KronoGator · 03-04-2013, 02:28 PM

Hall was a pretty good coach, I don't know if he would have had the success Spurrier had, his problem, sort of like our current coach (so far), was finding an offense to go along with the great defense, he had 3 different OC's in his last 3 years, the 89 team was only 25 points from 11-0.

**HungaryGator** · 03-04-2013, 03:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kirby

I think GH would have had a lot of success if he had been given the chance to coach with a full contingent of players. I think he would have won SEC championships and potentially could have won an NC Could he have had more success than SOS? I think it is 50/50. The juggernaut had started when he was let go He didn't get the chance to ride it out. What say you?

I started this thread not to demean SOS, but to give GH some credit that I don't think is given around here in our success for the last 20+ years.

Galen won big with Charlie Pell's players. He also reeled in a tremendous recruiting class in 1987 and did OK in 1988 but the Hall regime was running out of steam and we were getting beaten regularly on the recruiting grail by the sows. Part of that was undoubtedly the BS 1989 NCAA investigation of the program leading to one charge which they alleged but never proved (ie that Hall gave a couple hundred bucks to Jarvis Williams to make a child support payment which both Williams and Hall always denied).

Galen was a solid coach. He won at UF under some very trying circumstances, he won in the WLAF and he was a solid OC at Penn State for several years. All that said, he was nowhere near the coach SOS was - and unlike some in our fan base, I do not worship Spurrier but truthfully, he was a much better coach than Hall even though Galen was not bad at all.