Gators Monday Press Conference: WILL MUSCHAMP NOT RETURNING
DR. BERNIE MACHEN, UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT
Good
morning everyone. I know that we're here today to talk about the next
chapter of Florida football. [Athletics Director] Jeremy [Foley]
and Will [Muschamp] will be following and will do that, but for just a
moment today I would like to talk about Will Muschamp. From my
perspective as president, I have treasured, literally treasured, the
last four years in working with Will. He was asked to come here
and build a program, a program built on character and on good academic
values. He was asked to develop young men that would be a credit
to the Gator Nation. He has done that.
Just looking at the
academic performance of our student athletes, the APR is 979 this
spring, which is 10 points above the national average for
football. Will has had 68 players that are academic All‑SEC, he
has graduated 44 players with degrees. The composite GPA this
last spring was the highest in the history of our university for the
sport of football. His players have been very active in the
community, we're proud of that, and previously unknown Mike McNeely,
his biggest accomplishment was being awarded a Florida Presidential
Service Award during the '13‑14 school year, and he may have had a few
other accomplishments since then.
I think you know about the
off‑the field behavior of our athletes and I'm proud of how they
represent themselves, their team and their university. Will and
Carol and their family have been absolutely wonderful citizens in this
community. They are beloved by the people of this community and
we feel like they are ours. Never have I worked with a coach in
any sport over three different universities who has been more
supportive of the university mission and what we're trying to
accomplish. In the end, can you say that someone who has to leave
has made a positive contribution, and the answer for that is definitely
yes, for Will Muschamp. In fact, I would love for my son or my
grandson to have the opportunity to be coached by Will Muschamp.
Thank you.
JEREMY FOLEY, ATHLETICS DIRECTOR Thank
you for being here today, obviously hard to follow those comments
because that's exactly how some of us feel. Today was a tough,
tough day on a lot of levels, very emotional day for a lot of people,
including myself but certainly toughest on Will and his family.
He gave his heart and soul to this program, he loves this university,
as you all know he grew up following the Gators, he loves the Gators,
and everybody in the program was in the fox hole with him. We
respected him as a coach and as a person, and he respected all of us
for the support we gave his program. He is as fine of a person as
you could ever meet and a friend to all of us. Will Muschamp is a
good, good person. That is why this is so tough for
everybody. He's also a very good football coach, he has a track
record. He's won a lot of championships in his career; he will
win more, I promise you that. It just was not been working here
as we all envisioned and certainly not as he envisioned four years ago
when he came aboard. When things are not working as envisioned,
you've got to make a difficult decision despite the tremendous effort
he put in. That is why we're here today. On a personal
level I will miss working with Will every day. He represents everything
that is right about college athletics. That's not lip service
that's the flat-out truth. The environment inside our building is
the best it's ever been because of Will.
Obviously a tough
situation for our staff, all good people, all good coaches, all good
family men who have worked extremely hard to fix this thing for the
Florida Gators. On behalf of our program I want to thank them for
their efforts and as I said, very tough for them and we're going to do
everything we can to assist them during this transition. At the
end of the day this can be a tough business when you're not winning and
we all get that.
This may have been the most difficult
day for all of us because of the type of person that Will Muschamp
is. We wish him the best. I'm proud that he's my friend.
WILL MUSCHAMP I
guess I'm under dressed for the occasion, I apologize for that. I
want to thank Jeremy and Dr. Machen for their support. It's been
outstanding. I stand by my statement yesterday, that we didn't
win enough football games, that's the bottom line. You’ve got to
win games. We didn't get that done. Very disappointed and
frustrated that did not happen. Certainly had our opportunities,
especially this year, keeping a healthy roster and having the
opportunity to win football games, and we didn't get it done.
Certainly Saturday was a great example of that. But this locker
room is better than it was four years ago, there is no question about
that and where we've come. I appreciate our players and how
they've handled a very difficult season. You come off of 4‑8
year, regardless of the circumstances, from last year, you go into this
year and there is little margin of error and there is a Bullseye on
you. Everything is magnified to the Nth degree, but got a good
football team coming back, we got some juniors that are going to make
some tough decisions on their decisions for next year, and I'll always
offer those guys my two cents, if you're going to be a first‑round
pick, you need to come out if they're not they need to come back here
and continue to develop their game.
We’ve got a deep and
talented roster, so don't let that new guy tell you he ain't got no
good players. Tell you that right now. They got some good
football players in that locker room. I feel like we're headed
the right direction at quarterback, as far as the depth and quality of
the guys you got in the room, both lines of scrimmage, as talented a
secondary as I've been around as far as those guys coming back,
linebackers, you got some good players. Special place, special
people and I don't leave with any hard feelings or regrets at
all. After being here and the relationships that have been
built. Yesterday you're getting texts from people and whether it
was Texas or Auburn or LSU or the Miami Dolphins, from people you have
built relationships with and that's what this is. The people are
what makes it a special place and this is a great place to work.
I
am going to start on EKU, because it's Monday, and that's what we do at
a press conference on Monday. We’ve got Senior Day in the Swamp
last game for our seniors, guys that have given a lot to this program,
very proud of them, play Eastern Kentucky. I coached there in
1999 under Roy Kidd, a Hall‑of‑Famer. A great man, a wonderful
man I got a lot of respect for. They're 9‑2 right now. Dean
Hood, their head football coach is a good friend of mine, and they're a
playoff team in I-AA, or whatever we call that now. Over 200
yards rushing a game to Dy'Shawn Mobley, who is a transfer from
Kentucky, a guy that's over 1000 yards for the season. And
defensively they forced 28 turnovers and they blocked 7 kicks.
We’ve got our work cut out for us on Saturday, and our guys will be
ready to go here at noon in the Swamp.
Injury-wise,
disappointed that Jarrad Davis had a meniscus surgery this
morning. He will be out for the season, and Neiron Ball had a
meniscus surgery as well. He had to have a microfracture repair,
so he's going to be non‑weight bearing for six weeks and probably out
for four months. Extremely disappointed for both those guys, both
having great years, and certainly get those guys rehabbed as quickly as
possible. But Senior Day is a huge day for our guys and certainly
get them bowl eligible for them and send them out on the right
note. I will open it up for questions.
Q. Will,
you said you had no regrets, other than winning games is there anything
in the reflective period that you've had that you would have done
differently?
COACH MUSCHAMP: Sure, there is no
question. It's frustrating to see guys stand in this day and say
I wouldn't have changed anything, well, hell you'd have gotten fired
again. The way I look at it, there are things that you go back
and look back on your tenure, whether you're a administrator, a coach,
a CEO of a business, you would have maybe done some things differently
when you look back but I always look at why you made the decision at
the time and as long as you can look at the decision and say these were
the parameters, it's easy after it's over with to say that wasn't a
very good decision. So sure there are things that you would do
differently, there is no question about that, but I don't think that's
attributed to being a first‑year coach, I don't think that's it, I
think there are things that occur and happen and you’ve got to be able
to manage those situations better/differently however they are but
that's for me, I handle it that way. I'm not going to make a
public debate over that.
Q. Will, how difficult was it yesterday addressing the team?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: You know, hard. You spend a lot of time with these guys
and they've done everything I've asked them to do as far as on and off
the field. I'm going to root for these guys as hard as
anybody. I want the University of Florida to be successful.
I will always going to be a Gator, unless I'm on the other
sideline. I always will want these guys to be successful in what
they do and I always will be there for them. There is not
question about that. You spend as much time with these guys as
you do your own kids. Sad to say, but I do, and I look at these
young men as my own.
Q. What was your message to the players?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: A great example in life. You can work really hard
and you can be diligent in what you do but you've got to have results
in life, whether you're in the business world or in the coaching
profession, doesn't matter, you have to produce. Players tell me
all the time ‘I'm tryin' hard,’ I know, but you're not producing so we
got to go with somebody else. So that's the message I had for
them, learn the lesson you got to produce in life, if you're a salesman
you’ve got to sell, if you're a football coach you need to win.
Q.
I understand this is a business but Jeremy stood up here and said he
calls you a friend, what has that meant to you?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: It's been outstanding, the support has been unwavering
the entire time and he's got to make tough decisions for the University
of Florida and as a head coach you've got to be making tough decisions
for your football team and that isn't always [sic] with everyone in the
room with. I understand and I respect the decision. I've
got great respect for Jeremy as an administrator, as an athletic
director and as a friend.
Q. You said there are maybe
things you could have done differently. Why do you think the
offense never got cranked up? Would you have changed something,
like philosophy? You know how the fans and the media are, they
like to see offense.
COACH MUSCHAMP: Well, I think
you go back to our second year and having a new starter at a
quarterback and you play to your strengths as a coach and it wasn’t
always pretty but we did a hell of a job that year. We overachieved as
a football team and did a damn good job coaching. It may not have
been pretty but we won 11 games and it's hard to do in our
league. Moving forward, inconsistencies at different positions
offensively, and that hurt us. That's the bottom line. We
could never get on track as far as those things were concerned.
Again, I'm not going to get into a public debate about what we could
have, would have, and should have done. At the end of the day we
weren't productive offensively and that hurt us.
Q.
Coach, you got a few players over there, Mike Taylor said he wouldn't
want to play for anyone else, Matt Rolin said you are like a father to
him. What does it mean to have that kind of an impact?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: Well, it goes a lot further than Saturday afternoon and
to me that's what's different. That's what it means when you
coach young players, you're there for them on Sunday after a tough
loss, you're there for them on Monday when something is going wrong at
home, and you try and be a great example for them for them through
tough times and adversity. That’s what you do and that's the role here
we're in at present it's not just Saturday afternoon, and I feel like
that's a strength of mine.
Q. Will, after the decision was
made Sunday that you wouldn't return next year, why was it so important
to you to be able to coach these last two regular season games?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: Well, I've been with these guys, I brought these guys
on campus. I told them the football team, you're not going to see
anything different. Caleb, you jump off sides, I'm goin' rip
ya. It’s gonna happen. You ain't going to see anything
different. We're going to coach these guys hard. They
deserve that, the University of Florida deserves that. I'm
totally invested for two weeks to be the coach at Florida and that's
what we're trying to do. Not going to do anything
different. I did things a little differently yesterday, I took my
laptop home and did a little work. Today we started breaking down
Eastern Kentucky defensively. Nothing changes. We are going
to be on the practice field this afternoon, look forward to it.
Q. Eastern Kentucky coming in, do they do anything unique or difficult schematically to prepare for?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: A little different structure defensively which we will
hit with our players this afternoon and as far as offense we've seen a
lot of things that they do. They're more of an 11 personnel
grouping, inside-zone quarterback‑run game, move the pocket, a good
team, so based on what I've seen to this point, there are things we
have seen, there are not drastic differences, they've done an
outstanding job on special teams and we've got to tie some things up
there.
Q. Are you concerned about how your players will respond?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: No, our guys will respond the right way and handle it
with class like they always have in all situations. It's
important for us to get these seniors a win here in the Swamp and these
next two weeks get two Ws.
Q. How much and how
long will you continue to recruit for Florida moving forward and what
would be your message to those guys?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: The assistant coaches will continue the recruiting
process and certainly anyone that asks me about Florida I'm going to
tell them that it's a great place to be, it's a great situation
academically. Something that can certainly help you for the rest
of your life, my message won't change as far as those things are
concerned.
Q. And what do you feel about the job you've done recruiting?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: I think we've got a deep, talented team. Key
positions where we have struggled, hopefully in the future they've been
able to make those situations better.
Q. If you
get the student to be a head coach again can you talk about what you
might do differently if not specifically?
COACH MUSCHAMP: No.
Q. How tough do you think these last two weeks will be for you emotionally?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: I don't know, just hit you there yesterday and you
handle the situations as you go and look forward to getting on the
field and coaching and those sort of things. I hadn't gotten that
far with it yet to be honest with you, but back to your question, I
think every situation is different. I think we have tried to do
the best of our ability play to our strengths in some situations and
hasn't always been exactly what we all perceived that we wanted but the
reality is I felt like we do some things we need to do to be successful
and we came up short in some situations, especially this year.
Q.
In terms of the academics and the kids not having any off‑field issues,
what was the general message from day one? Why do you think
you're able to see improvement in the GPA and in kids staying out of
trouble? Were they scared of you?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: No, not scared of me. I think that goes back to
recruiting, you know, when you make decisions in the recruiting
process, the type of young men you want in your locker room and the
type of person you want on your football team and the type of
individuals you want to represent the University of Florida. That
it's an inexact science from the standpoint of the limited amount of
contacts we have off campus, but doing your due diligence as a coach
and assistant coach to make sure you have outlined for your assistants
the type of young man you want in the program and a type of guy ‑‑ if a
guy has issues as a 10th and 11th grader, he's probably going to have
them as a freshman in college. We have tried to steer clear of that and
move forward with the right kind of guy and I think this locker room
has got that.
Q. Did you know this was coming Saturday?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: You know, certainly after the game and the way it ended
and having two home games in the Swamp and you sit there and have
opportunities to win both games, I certainly knew there was a
possibility. No question, yeah.
Q. Do you want to stay in college?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: I haven't even gone past two weeks. I'm focused
in on this football team and doing things right around here before I
move forward.
Q. This should be a difficult
situation but you’re handling it really well, you look great up
there. How are you handling this thing so well?
COACH MUSCHAMP: My wife thinks I've gained some weight this year. What's that?
Q. You’re handling this really well.
COACH
MUSCHAMP: This is a business. You don't let your personal
life and your business life mess things up. You can't get
personal in this situation. In any case, I don't let my personal
feelings get involved as far as how you feel personally about a
situation. You develop friendships and as long as you're treat
right and fairly I feel like I've been treated right and fairly. Again,
I don't have any hard feelings or regrets in any situation of where we
are.
Q. What was it like Sunday night at home?
COACH MUSCHAMP: It wasn't fun. It's a tough deal, but I got a tough family, a great wife and two great kids.
Q.
Coach, you've done three senior day ceremonies before but this is your
fourth year, your first full recruiting class that you're going to
watch on the field coming out of the tunnel. What kind of
emotions do you anticipate feeling?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: Whenever you send those guys out, you don't get to
coach 'em again and we've had great relationships with these guys on
this team. That's always tough no matter its the first year or
the fourth year, no matter if it's my recruiting class, it's Florida's
recruiting class, that's the way I've looked at it. It's tough to
know you be won't be on the field with those guys, maybe on the next
level but, hey, these guys have given a lot to the university and send
'em out the right way.
Q. How much does luck have to do with whether you succeed or lose? Did you ever feel snake‑bitten?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: We had some buzzard luck last year, injuries and things
that happened, difficult circumstances. I watch Alabama late in
the game, a one score game, cut a guy loose on punting the ball back in
their area and the guy missed it; South Carolina’s guy didn’t miss it.
Bounce of the ball here or there, you never know. That's part of
it and the part of the profession and you just keep ‑‑ I've also had
the ball bounce our way a bunch of times too, it all comes out in the
wash, that's the way you've got to look at it.
Q. I know you're not looking beyond those games but did you want to coach next year?
COACH
MUSCHAMP: Hasn't crossed my mind as far as what holds after these
next two weeks, take a little time with Carol and hang out and we'll
figure it out from there. That's what I've done my whole
life. I can't imagine me not doing it, but, again, I want to do
what's best for me and my family.
JEREMY FOLEY, ATHLETICS DIRECTOR We
want to talk a little bit about the future and the search and open up
for any questions you might have about anything. The search will
begin immediately, this afternoon. There is no fixed time
timetable but we will proceed as quickly as we can. There is a
lot of work to do, a lot of research to do. We understand how
important this hire is for this university. We also understand
the pride of the Gator Nation and we understand the pride they have in
this football program and because we have fallen short the last several
years we totally understand the disappointment and their frustration.
Their passion can cut both ways but it’s their passion that makes this
place special. We may not have had the results in the last
several weeks in The Swamp that we've wanted but I've been on the field
and seen how hard those fans have tried to work to make it
special. It's an amazing place and we want to make this decision
right for them, this program and this university.
Couple of
things I want to say about whoever the next person may be and I want
you to understand going in and first and foremost is high integrity and
character, our mission statement says, "championship experience with
integrity," that is paramount us as we move forward. The guy you
just saw up here you know epitomized that right there, his integrity
without question. We would obviously like an individual that's
been successful on the offensive side of the ball, I think obviously
that's what the Gator Nation wants and we see that and that's what
we're certainly going to try to provide for them. You've heard me
talk about it before, make sure it's a fit for the University of
Florida. What does that mean? This is not a place for
everybody, not everybody fits in here. As we go through the
process we want to make sure they do fit in here.
The
other specifics of the search, I'm not going to get into those
today. I know you have questions about those but couple things I
do want to say because it's the world we live in and I understand you
all have a tough job and maybe I will speak to the Gator fans about
this one, we have not contacted anybody. I don't care what's been
written or said, rumored, what have you, I have not talked to one
coach. We will not disrupt people's seasons. We have a lot
of respect for other schools and other programs and what certain
schools are trying to accomplish and we have a little time here to do
our research but we're not going to disrupt people's seasons. As
we've always done around here but I want to make sure this is
understood by everyone, we will handle this the right way. We
don't cut backroom deals here, that's not how we do things here.
Again, no matter what is written or said. We will talk to
coaches, we will talk to athletic directors, it will be handled above
board and I want that to be understood as well. I understand the
intense interest in this search. I understand that it will
generate rumors, conversation, and, again, the intense interest of this
search makes this place special, people care. We certainly have
no problem with that, but again speaking to our fans there will be a
lot of there will be a lot of misinformation written about the search
here in the next month and I would ask them to try to wade through
that, okay? We're not sharing information about this search every
week, we can't do it. Can't address every rumor and I'm not
trying to be combative, just can't. Have a job to do. When
we can share information we will and we want to do that. I think
that's all I got on that, any questions for me? As we're going
forward about anything.
Q. This is about
philosophy. Are you definitely looking for a fellow who has been
a head coach and has experience in running the entire ship?
JEREMY
FOLEY: I commented I'm not going to get into the specifics of
what we're looking for. We spent a difficult day yesterday with
Will and his staff and the team, obviously today is same way, very
emotional. We haven't even begun to sit down and go through the
criteria.
Q. If this Gator team gets into a bowl game who will be in charge?
JEREMY
FOLEY: That decision has not been made, Will will not coach the
bowl game; that was his decision and we certainly respect that.
The paramount issue is qualifying for a Bowl game and if we do we will
make those decisions.
Q. What was the conversation like with Will, when did you tell him?
JEREMY
FOLEY: Yesterday morning, and just what you saw up here is what I
got yesterday. You know as I said, emotional, difficult, cause we
care about him so much, that's part of it. To say he was a pro
would be an understatement. I said in my opening statements he's
as good of a person as you ever want to be around, he gets it, he
totally gets it. It was a hard conversation, as much as anything
on a personal level. On the professional level it was as easy as
it could be because of him.
Q. Jeremy, you
mentioned that someone with success on the opposite side of the ball is
something Gator Nation wants, is that a schematic decision by you, or
giving the customer what they want based on what you’ve heard?
JEREMY
FOLEY: It's certainly not the a schematic decision by me, because
when I start getting into schematics, the Gator Nation is in trouble,
okay? I think you listen to the fans and certainly when Steve
[Spurrier] was here and Urban [Meyer] was here, what fans say, we think
that's important. Going forward we will see what the pool looks
like but we do think that's important.
Q. Is there
a feeling that there needs to be some upgrades in facilities? I
know you had a major upgrade in '08 but I've seen stories that feel
like Florida has dropped behind a couple of schools or is that
something that a new coach would be involved in?
JEREMY
FOLEY: I wear orange and blue goggles a lot and I'm certainly
willing to have wide‑open eyes but I don't agree with that assessment
that our facilities have fallen behind. We judge our facilities
based on can they help our programs be successful? Do they make
an impact on their ability to be successful, whether that's a weight
room for football, gymnastics practice studio, what have you. As
you look around our facilities, we're not into bells and whistles,
we're putting a major expansion into our academic center. We're
designing that right now. I think when you bring young men and
women on our campus with their parents, I think their commitment to
academic success and personal development as human beings is really
important. We're always looking to upgrade our facilities but
we're not getting into an arms race and our facilities are not any
issue in my opinion, affecting our success. A new coach will come
in here ‑‑ every coach that comes in needs something new, I don't think
this meeting room looked like this until Will got here, all
right? But that's the way it works. On a major scale that's
not impacting our success at all.
Q. How do you think Will will handle these next two weeks as far as getting this team ready?
JEREMY
FOLEY: That's the last thing I'm worried about. I've used
the word a couple times, you talk about a pro, a guy that's all about
the right things. If we didn't think he could do it, he would say
I'm not going to do it he told the team yesterday you're not going to
see anything differently. He will coach his tail off and he will
be the Will Muschamp that we've all known and he will work to be very
successful in the next two weeks and I don't worry about that at all
because of the type of guy he is.
Q. You say the
passion of fans cuts both ways, you've been a successful athletic
director, but you know how fans are, they blame you for Will Muschamp
not succeeding because you hired him. How much pressure is there
on you to make a really good hire right now?
JEREMY
FOLEY: Obviously we know it's important to the Gator Nation, it's
important to the entire University. I've been here a long time, I
know how fans support us, pressure is part of the gig and I've got a
talented staff to assist and we'll find someone who wants to be
here. Fans blaming me because we're not successful, that's part
of it, too, I understand that, we're in the business to be
successful. We're in the business to represent the University of
Florida the right way, we're in the business to graduate people,
business to develop young men and women but we're also in the sports
business, the University of Florida, we have expectations to win same
as our fans do. So it's the disappointment, and the frustration and
someone blames me -- that's part of it. That's part of it because
we're not as successful as everybody wants us to be or as we want to
be. I understand that. But I also understand the need tore
us to get this right and that's why we're here today,
unfortunately.
Q. Will it be a search firm or is it just you?
JEREMY
FOLEY: No, it will not be just me, in fact, I've learned a long
time ago it, I can't do this by myself. I've leaned heavily on
internal staff, I learned that about ten years ago. I kept making
hires that weren't working out, in a lot of different sports.
Once I figured out we needed some help, we started getting pretty
good. I have a very talented staff that will help, as far as a
search firm, I have not made any decisions on stuff like that at this
point in time. In reality it wasn't Jeremy Foley last time, work
with people to get help and we will get a lot of people's input, valued
peoples contributions at the end of the day. Dr. Machen and I
will make the decision, it will be done, certainly Dr. Fuchs, the
incoming president is going to have a role in this because he will be
here in January. We will not do ‑‑ it will not be a lone wolf
Jeremy Foley by himself that's not the way it's been for a long
time.
Q. You talk about somebody that fits with
Gator Nation can you expand on what that means and how many people out
there fit in with those qualifications?
JEREMY
FOLEY: We're going to find one, because this place is a special
place, this place, we talk about high character, a championship
experience with integrity, you got to find that individual that fits in
that. You got to find an individual that values all 21
sports. We’ve got some really good sports programs around here
and really good coaches around here and you better value them and be
part of them. The beauty about what we do around here is that we have a
lot of coaches that work together and pick each other's brains.
You can't come in here and think football is more important than the 20
other sports, that mind‑set doesn't work here, understanding the
passion of the Gator Nation, understanding the academic reputation of
this institution, understanding that inside the building, that's
important, what does that mean? Respecting people and treating
people right. Those things are important to us and personal,
individual philosophy, I think they translate into success. I
think that's one reason we've been successful around here because we
got a lot of people who are that way. Again, I've said often
that's nebulous sometimes, to try to explain that but hopefully that
helped a little bit.
Q. How much has the
marketplace changed in four years, in terms of the salary you're going
to have to pay the next guy?
JEREMY FOLEY: To be
honest I haven't really looked at the marketplace, the world changes
and University of Florida is going to find a good football coach and we
will do what we need to do to be successful today. We have always
taken care of our coaches financially. I do think it's changed to the
extent that a lot of people are paying their coaches a lot of money and
there may be people that are movable or not movable, but haven't jumped
into that and we will find nor about that in the next few weeks.
Q. You said this was a tough decision, what would it have taken for Will to return next season?
JEREMY
FOLEY: Certainly done a lot of evaluating after the Missouri game
and talked about those things and ideally he would’ve run the
table. Started out in a very positive way by upsetting the
Bulldogs and had positive momentum. We had to keep moving up the
tracks, so to speak, like a roller coaster, going up, going up, going
up and thought we were doing that and I know he thought that and
Saturday was a step back and that's why we're here today. Had to
show that type of progress, we talked about it all year long we were
going to evaluate the season as it progressed and that's what we
did. Again, at the end of the day, felt that we weren't
progressing as we needed to be and that's why the tough decision was
made yesterday.
Q. I'm sure worrying about
rerouting be is not high on your priority list right now but this cycle
has not been that great to you guys, how do you think recruiting will
play out the next month and half with the assistants?
JEREMY
FOLEY: There is no question anytime there is a coaching change
it's difficult in recruiting. Signing day is not until
February. You can't rush this. At the end of the day, it's
still the University of Florida. We got a lot to offer up
here. I think we have an opportunity here and a new coach will
get in here, but recruiting is about relationships, you have heard Will
talk about it and Urban talk about it and that's the way it is. A
new coach coming in here will be behind the 8 ball but you're not going
to rush it because of recruiting. Recruiting is important and
we'll get a coach in here in plenty of time to visit and we will
convince folks this is a great place to be because it is a great place
to be, we have a lot to offer, and that has not changed. But right now,
the unknown, who is the new coach, can't answer that right now.
Q.
You spoke earlier about making sure you take care of your
coaches. Will Will's contract be were honored in full, as well as
his assistants?
JEREMY FOLEY: Will's contract will
be honored, payment over time and the assistant coaches will be
honored. The only difference between Will and the assistant
coaches is the assistants have mitigation, if they get jobs that
releases us from our burden of paying them. Again, the University
of Florida respects the job those folks have done for us, they have
worked really hard. Nobody wants to be here today, but they have
families, they're people and we care about them and we will treat them
right. We've always done that.
Q. You
alluded to the need to get an offensive‑minded coach here. Does
that preclude hiring a head coach whose acumen is on the defensive side
of the ball?
JEREMY FOLEY: You misquoted me,
Gene. I know that doesn't happen very often. I said someone who
has had success on the offensive side of the ball.
Q. My question is does that preclude somebody who was weaned on defense?
JEREMY
FOLEY: No, I mean, we need to have a coach who has a track record
of success on the offensive side of the ball. That's what I meant
to say and I hope that clarifies it.
Q. Steve
Spurrier hasn't coached here in more than a decade, yet his name gets
thrown around the rumor mill. Does that surprise you?
JEREMY
FOLEY: No, the amount of respect that the Gator Nation and we all
have for Steve Spurrier, there will be rumors and speculation and a lot
of things thrown out there and some point we're going to start the
search process and go from there. But to emphasize what I said
earlier, I have not talked to one coach. Really I've not even begun the
search process because we've been dealing with Will and his team and
his staff.
Q. I know you're just getting started.
I don't want say a timetable in term of a day it's got to happen, but a
general idea when you feel like this needs to happen?
JEREMY
FOLEY: Certainly I think you like to have somebody on board at
some point in December. To get acclimated to get a staff in place
so you can hit the ground running at recruiting time. I know
there is a dead period in December sometime, I don't know exactly when
that is, but that's ideal. A lot of things that go into that,
bowl games, those type of things, but we will navigate that. We
have navigated that. That's ideal. I don't want people holding me to
December 8th, "Why don't you have a coach?" I'm not saying
that. Ideally you would like to have somebody in here before
Christmas, that would be perfect.
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