How Mac's 1st 2 years compares to SOS, Zook, Meyer and WM..

Which ones walked into a worse situation? For everything Zook wasnt as a HC he was a very good recruiter.

Mac had the remains of a tough D left behind but the O was very thin and lacking.
Most of our best offensive players now are Mac's recruits.

I like the way Mac's trending. Recruiting ranking went up, team ranking went up, more conference championship appearances than any other coach in his first two years, second highest SEC win % being Spurrier, and he probably inherited the worst offense of any of the coaches in this chart.

Thanks for posting

And Spurrier is the greatest coach in school history and one of the greatest of all time. What's your point, beyond arguing for the sake of arguing?

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Actually Spurrier inherited one of the best defensive units that Florida has ever had

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Spurrier mentioned this in the ESPN special on him. He was surprised how much talent he walked into.

Context is so important to these statistics.

Even in a vacuum they are interesting, but context tells the story.

I will list the defensive players he inherited for you TJ since you seem to be fond of stats and figures:

All Americans Brad Culpepper, DL
" " " " Will White DB
" " " " Huey Richardson DL

All SEC Tim Paulk LB
" " " Tony McCoy (our centers dad)DL
" " " Shayne Edge punter
" " " Godfrey Myles LB ( played for Dallas and in the pros quite a few years)...he was one of favorites and would bring the lumber with him. He wore # 98.
" " " Richard Fain DB (from Ft Myers and grew up around Deon Sanders)

Jerry Odom LB & many others. Of course I expect you to dismiss this in some fashion TJ, but thats ok. Keep stirring the pot my man. The kitchen might blow up on you though if you stir too much.

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In third year when it was time for Spurriers team to show up...they didnt because of lackluster recruiting the first two years...We got POUNDED by Moo State and UT our first two SEC games because we had no OL...imagine that?

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There wasn't lackluster recruiting in Spurrier's first two years. If that had been the case he would not have been able to win 4 SEC titles in a row from 93 to 96.

The problem in 1992 was that the defense dropped considerably despite returning 7 starters. The DC was Ron Zook. He was DC 91-93 and got demoted eventually to special teams coach because he performed poorly as the DC. The offense performed at a high level in 92 but the defense was near the bottom in most categories.

Zook's defenses were particularly bad against the pass. So they'd often stop the run on 1st and 2nd down but not get off the field with a 3rd down stop when teams would drop back to throw. However, Zook did a great job as DC in 91, definitely his best job ever. I still remember the FSU game that year and they were knocking the shite out of FSU the entire game. Only bad game was up in Syracuse. They blanked Bama 35-0. I remember talking to Bama fans after that game - they were distraught.

They replaced 4 of 5 positions on the OL and they had depth, and the backups had gotten some time in 1991. If I recall correctly, in the late 80s just prior to Spurrier taking over, recruiting took a hit due to probation. I think the OL was just not that great, past the 1st string, as a result. So in 92 it was a struggle the first few games. Green started from the beginning of the year but Odom didn't start at tackle until after the Moo St game. If Spurrier hadn't done a good job of recruiting he would not have had Green and Odom to plug in there and 92 could have been really bad.

They played 6 ranked teams that year, 3 of them in the top 10.

Some new players that showed up in 1992:
James Bates
Johnnie Church
Dexter Daniels
Cameron Davis
Tony Davis
Bart Edmiston
Reggie Green
Demetric Jackson
Eric Kresser
Anthone Lott
Jeff Mitchell
Jason Odom
Lawrence Wright
Danny Wuerffel
Donnie Young

All of these guys played exceptionally well for Florida. Some are legends in UF football. The class was ranked in the top 5 of every recruiting service ranking. Several of them were key to the 96 title. Eric Kresser had to be the best backup QB in the history of college football. Incidentally, Nebraska's 92 class is considered one of the best of all time.

Dick Vermeile (sp?) called Reggie Green the best freshman tackle he'd ever seen. He did a masterful job against Bama and one of the best DEs to play CFB in the past 50 years.

Some names from the 1991 class:
Fee Bartley
Kevin Carter
Shane Edge
Ben Hanks
Jack Jackson
Ellis Johnson
Larry Kennedy

Considering UF got notification of probation penalties around Oct 1990, that's a pretty good recruiting class. It was ranked in the top 10 and one service had it as high as the #3 class.

The defense was great in 1990 but returned only 4 starters in 1991 so it's not like Spurrier had it all on a platter for him in both of those years. But he did great with the offense and Zook probably turned in his best coaching job as a coordinator, in his career. I'd forgotten Zook was the DC in 91. I thought Jim Bates was still in that position until I checked again.

Muschamp had the worst situation talent wise.

NVM I was thinking of Noah Brindise instead of Shane Matthews who started 4th string. I'm getting old.

If you adjust for strength of scuedule McElwain might have had the worst 2 first years. Zook had a tough OOC scuedule with both FSU and Miami (when the Canes were good), a Saban coached LSU and a much better SEC East.