On Monday during SEC Media Days news broke that the Gators would open eight fall practices to the fans and media. Praise the Pigskin. Can we get a witness? Looks like Jeremy Foley and Will Muschamp have, finally, heard the fans loud and clear regarding the wanting of more access.
As a former coach I see validity on both sides of the argument here. On one hand Muschamp doesn’t want his offense scheme and defensive strategies out on social media. Gotta keep some secrets, right?
On the other hand Muschamp and Co. are going to play Idaho during Week One and everyone will get that game tape. So much for secrecy. If Florida feels the need to hide the secret sauce from Idaho then, perhaps, they are scared of defeat. If so, then Gators fans are in for another bad season because no good comes from operating out of fear’s base camp.
That’s my opinion so I decided to ask defensive lineman Dante Fowler his opinion on the matter and he’s in favor of open practices.
“Whenever you guys and the fans can come out and watch is great,” Fowler said. “We want you guys to be able to come out there. It’s always fun to have the fans out there cheering for us at practice.”
While Fowler likes having a crowd out media days he says it not only helps him but it also helps the fans.
“Fans being able to watch us practice kind of prepares them for our season is going to be,” Fowler said. “It lets them make there own opinion about us and feel apart of the team.”
When the fans feel apart of the team they are going to make noise and that’s something that helps the players according to Fowler.
“Having media and fans out there absolutely gets us prepared for the season of loud stadiums,” Fowler said. “Plus I want to put on a show for everyone out there so that gets me ready too.”
ANDREW’S OPINION: I support Fowler’s take on the matter. Plus, if the team is ready to put on a show for the fans (who, based on ticket sales, have been steadily dwindling in numbers) then it’s up to the fans to show up and support our team.
Here are the dates of open practice:
August 7th
August 8th
August 9th
August 11th
August 12th
August 13th
August 14th
August 16th
Absolutely! I try to support WM until he puts up walls between the team and the fans/media with closed access and comments like “some fans need to get a grip”. When the chips are down, he will need every shred of goodwill he can muster from fans especially. He needs work on his fan friendly instincts. Good luck with that, WM!
I’m not crazy enough to go watch practice in August in Northeast Florida. Unless you’re required to do so, I can’t imagine why anyone would. Football practice is about as boring as golf, I would need to be paid well to watch either. But that’s why people are called fans, it’s short for fanatics, and they’ll be plenty of them to watch drills and such. I’d like to do an in-depth paper on the people who show up, my guess is the majority would be middle-aged white men, to find out their reasons for subjecting themselves to such an ordeal i the Florida heat. If someone wants to fund a research paper on it, let me know.
Snow your on every article the Sun and GC allow you to post on.Normally badgering the program,but your comments are always around.You are the definition of fanatic.I can’t wait for this season,lot of crow will get ate this year.Just hope it’s the doom crowd being served.
Yep, need a big year.