Florida question…

I sat there during the Dickey/Charlie Pell years, so yes.

Pell had us at a championship level when he got in trouble and even Muschamp with a crappy offense had us a USC upset of ND away from a possible championhip game (we were an ugly looking offense though). Not sure about Napier but if he doesn't get going next year he is probably doomed.

Florida seems like an all or nothing situation. You have enough instate and border state talent to meet the blue chip ratio to win big and you have the stage to win big but it’s not really in a traditional position of winning big.

Spurriers fun and gun was by most contemporary standards a gimmick offense that utilized that talent to be a top SEC school but “normal” coaches (outside of the generational talent of the Tebow years) just can’t put it together. For some reason.

If I was the AD at Florida I would throw a fat contract at Dave Clawson at Wake Forest as soon as Napier builds a roster. The Clawfense is innovative enough to win everywhere he’s had control and had players buy in. And with NIL helping recruit he could be the perfect guy for Florida.

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Spurrier and Urban have been the only real winners there in 40+ years.

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Florida had never won a single conference title in 83 years of football until Spurrier got there in 1990. Spurrier would have won the SEC his first season but UF was on probation. He did win it his 2nd season.

So, yes, Florida has only ever won when they have had HoF level coaches. This is in contrast to, say, Bama who has always won no matter who the coach was.

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Do you have to be a HOF level coach to win there? Spurrier and Urban have been the only real winners there in 40+ years.

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You shouldn't with all the talent in the state.

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Do you have to be a HOF level coach to win there?

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No.

UF had some very good teams in Spurrier's playing days and at other times. UF was just that program that would come up a little bit short and manage to drop a game here or there. For so many years, without a CCG and a shorter schedule, one loss was it. Spurrier put UF over the top but UF's lack of titles prior to him was not because of some magical quality where they needed a HOF coach. Bryant always called UF a sleeping giant. He was right. Right now, the giant is sleeping, in a coma.

Ray Graves had a lot of very good teams way back in the day. Pell had a great team in 83, and the best team in the nation in 84, and easily a top 5 team if not the best team in 85. Muschamp was like old Florida - there was only one team in the country that would have potentially beaten Bama in 2012 and it was UF. Muschamp had the best defense in the country but one strange offensive play against UGA and that was that. Zook had solid teams, was a great recruiter, but he was a setup man, and without Zook, Meyer doesn't win jack in 06. Zook brought in a lot of talent.

UF football prior to Spurrier can be summed by this: Run Lindsey Run. Great performance other than that one play. That's just how it was.

That said, Spurrier is the most important man in the history of the school. No one brought more to UF than Spurrier. So much attention, fan support, visitors and business activity, more enrollment etc. There has never been a prolonged time of excitement on UF's campus like the 1990s. 1980s pretty close with Pell, but probation put a damper on that in the last half of the decade.