Florida Gators embrace feelings of playing Will Muschamp

It’s been a difficult season to be a Florida Gator. Maybe even more difficult than the final two seasons the Gators were led by Will Muschamp.

Since his firing in 2014, Muschamp has moved on to be the head coach at South Carolina, and he is having a decent amount of success in his second season with the Gamecocks with a 6-3 record.

As Muschamp builds a team that seems to be turning things around at South Carolina, he could put an exclamation point on Florida’s horrible season on Saturday with a win over his former team.

“We’ve got to beat him,” said redshirt junior defensive lineman Taven Bryan. “Can’t lose to ‘Champ, right?”

Well, the Gators haven’t managed to lose to him yet, but after four consecutive losses and back-to-back blow outs from Georgia and Missouri, it is hard to believe much will change this week.

There will be a lot of emotion going into this game on both sides as Muschamp gets another shot at the team that fired him and many of Florida’s players will see the man who recruited them, or who they once played for, on the opposite sideline.

“A lot of guys will go out and hug Muschamp,” said interim head coach Randy Shannon. “Guys are going to do that. You don’t take anything away from young men who were recruited by another opponent. Some coaches get, ‘Ah, he shouldn’t do that.’ No. That guy spent a lot of time putting faith in the guy that recruited him to come to Florida. He gets the right to go over there and hug him, shake his hand. But now when the time for football comes on, he’s going to turn it on a switch and compete for the Florida Gators and compete against South Carolina.”

Most players who spoke on Monday carried that mentality. It is strange playing a former coach, but all those feelings have to go to the side until the game is over.

“I think it’s cool to come back and see who recruited you for the guys who did get recruited by Coach Muschamp,” said junior offensive lineman Tyler Jordan. “But at the end of the day, once the kickoff starts, it’s the Gators versus the Gamecocks.”

This team has been through a lot in 2017, from a seemingly never-ending list of suspensions and injuries to starting as one of the front runners in the SEC and now in line to be one of the biggest disappointments to losing a head coach in the middle of the season.

Losing to a former head coach would just add more salt to the wound.

Florida needs something to happen to get back on track, and a win over Muschamp at South Carolina could provide that spark.

Bailiegh Carlton
A lifelong sports fan, Bailiegh Carlton knew from a young age that she wanted to work in sports in some capacity. Before transferring to the University of Florida to study journalism, she played softball at Gulf Coast State College. She then interned for Gator Country for three years as she worked toward her degree. After graduation, Bailiegh decided to explore other opportunities in the world of sports, but all roads led her right back here. In her time away, she and her husband welcomed a beautiful baby girl into the world. When she isn't working, she can almost always be found snuggled up with sweet baby Ridley, Cody and her four fur babies.