Muschamp keeping the Florida Gators clean

Turn on ESPN and you’ll see where the climate of sports is currently. The NFL is dealing with a myriad of off field behavioral issues, spearheaded by an atrocious video of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice striking his then fiancé in an elevator, knocking her unconscious.

The NFL and Roger Goodell are going through a PR nightmare while they try and clean up the image of their highly profitable product.

Say what you will about the Florida Gators production on the field since Will Muschamp has taken over. The Gators are just 24-17 (14-12 SEC) under Muschamp and just came off of the worst defensive performance (in terms of yards allowed) in school history.

However, given the climate of the sporting world at the moment, there is something Muschamp can hang his hat on — he’s running a clean program.

“I just think it’s a daily education for your team to understand, No. 1 there’s consequences in our program for when a young man makes a poor decision,” Muschamp said. “It doesn’t mean he’s a bad person, but there are consequences, they understand that.”

Muschamp arrived in Gainesville coming off of a very successful run for the Gators on the filed but a program that lit up police blotters in Gainesville the previous five years under Urban Meyer. Meyer and the Gators may have won two national championships but moral fiber wasn’t exactly a stat that Florida kept track of — or one they wanted to keep track of anyway.

Under Meyer the Gators had more than 30 arrests or citations in a six-year period. Muschamp’s first big move as Florida’s head coach was dismissing All-American cornerback Janoris Jenkins who told the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi; “I’d still be playing for the Gators if Urban Meyer was coaching.”

Those are pretty damning comments from Jenkins, who Bianchi correctly stated was probably trying to compliment his former coach. But Jenkins became the cornerstone for Will Muschamp’s discipline and his intentions to run a clean program and have Florida players act according to the “Florida way.”

“One poor choice, can really impact the rest of your life in a negative manner. It’s a continuing education. It’s not ever over,” Muschamp said. “You’ve got to continue to educate your guys and stay in your guys’ ears about all of the pitfalls that they can come across in life. It’s about the choices and decisions they make.”

Under Muschamp, players have been making better choices off the field. In total 15 players have been arrested or cited by police during the Muschamp era. Other than Jalen Tabor being cited for marijuana possession, the Gators hadn’t had a player arrested or cited since Antonio Morrison’s summer of poor choices in June-July of 2013.

The arrests range from knowingly driving on a suspended license, underage drinking, domestic battery, simple battery and marijuana possession.

The majority of the citations for possession of marijuana came in 2011, just months after Muschamp took over the job. Marijuana use has become part of our culture. More than 20 states allow the production, use or sale of marijuana in either a medicinal or recreational form. It isn’t, however, legal in either form in the state of Florida or at the University of Florida.

“Beyond football, one of the biggest things we talk about is substance abuse and where those things can lead. But that’s part of our society right now,” said Muschamp. “That’s something that you’ve got to continue to educate. If you want to be the best football player that you can be, then substance abuse doesn’t need to be a part of your life.”

Muschamp inherited a locker room that was described as “broken” by the man that sat in the office before him. Muschamp has taken control of the locker room and impacted the lives of his players. Florida is doing things the right way off the field. Muschamp has changed the attitude of the locker room, shown players they will be responsible for their choices and that there are consequences for those actions.

Nick de la Torre
A South Florida native, Nick developed a passion for all things sports at a very young age. His love for baseball was solidified when he saw Al Leiter’s no-hitter for the Marlins live in May of 1996. He was able to play baseball in college but quickly realized there isn’t much of a market for short, slow outfielders that hit around the Mendoza line. Wanting to continue with sports in some capacity he studied journalism at the University of Central Florida. Nick got his first start in the business as an intern for a website covering all things related to the NFL draft before spending two seasons covering the Florida football team at Bleacher Report. That job led him to GatorCountry. When he isn’t covering Gator sports, Nick enjoys hitting way too many shots on the golf course, attempting to keep up with his favorite t.v. shows and watching the Heat, Dolphins and Marlins. Follow him on twitter @NickdelatorreGC

1 COMMENT

  1. So true, but don’t you think Florida fans would trade what happened under Urban Meyer that included winning over what Muschamp has produced, which is a clean program but not even a division title? If someone was honest, I don’t think it’s too hard to figure out what you would choose. Florida is not getting on the cover of Sports Illustrated like they did with Tebow with this current crop of players. Speaking of Tebow, he is an example of the vast majority of players that were good citizens under Meyer, but that doesn’t make headlines.