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re: What was the SEC worst football coaching hire ever?

Posted on 10/30/15 at 11:11 pm to
Posted by Tuskateer
arkansas
Member since Nov 2010
110 posts
Posted on 10/30/15 at 11:11 pm to
Nutt the quarterback killa and program wrecka.
Posted by gatortrav88
Member since Oct 2014
3807 posts
Posted on 10/30/15 at 11:11 pm to
uf went like 35 years or what ever without a losing season and he managed 4-8

I know he's not the worst ever but he was frickin awful i mean at the time he was hired we were trying to keep a championship program going and he took us to the bottom all respect lost not a team worth a shite feared the gators by the time he was done
This post was edited on 10/30/15 at 11:18 pm
Posted by Sid E Walker
InsecureU ©
Member since Nov 2013
23884 posts
Posted on 10/30/15 at 11:14 pm to
quote:

Does Franchione count?
He set our program back 15 years

He set ours back about six years, sanctions provided an assist. But he was a shite doing what he did to that last Bama team he coached.

:inb4sabandidthesametomiami:
Posted by FearlessFreep
Baja Alabama
Member since Nov 2009
17288 posts
Posted on 10/30/15 at 11:18 pm to
quote:

How many SEC hires have never even sniffed the Sugar Bowl?
Well, if we're just talking Florida, its about 95% of them.

You may not know this, but in the 82 years the SEC has been in business, the Gaytors have only had 2 HCs to win championships. True.

I know you have this irrational hatred of Muschamp, but the guy isn't even the worst HC hired in the past decade, much less all time.
Posted by Nuts4LSU
Washington, DC
Member since Oct 2003
25468 posts
Posted on 10/30/15 at 11:26 pm to
quote:

I will throw out Curley Hallman just to get things started


Wrong answer. He's not even the worst LSU hire of the last 30 years, let alone the worst SEC hire ever. Mike Archer was worse. Yes, I know Archer had a better record, but he took over a top-10 program, won for a couple of years and then ran it into the ground. Hallman was hired to clean up the mess Archer made. He recruited well, but unfortunately couldn't do anything with the talent he brought here. Still, he left the program in better shape than he found it. He inherited a losing program with practically no talent on the roster, and left it a losing program with a lot of talent just waiting to be properly directed. Archer inherited a strong program and destroyed it.
Posted by JohnnyBob
The Lake
Member since Aug 2012
9482 posts
Posted on 10/30/15 at 11:31 pm to
Are we including interm coaches too? If so, of course John L Smith and that good ol'boy that took over Vandy that time. Can't recall his name but he was awesome at media day but was lacking in wins.
Posted by supadave3
Houston, TX
Member since Dec 2005
30245 posts
Posted on 10/30/15 at 11:35 pm to
quote:

Who on the UT staff or administration thought, "Hey, Derek, let this law officer push you around and down the ramp in this wheelchair, it'll make the program look good."
LINK


What was the reason for the wheelchair? Not familiar with that story.
Posted by sullivanct19a
Florida
Member since Oct 2015
5239 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 12:36 am to
quote:

Will Muschamp. Took UF to never before seen lows, it's money and recruits. GD I hate Foley


Muschamp was bad. We all have a tremors and eye twitches seeing him and thinking of the repeated displays of ineptitude. But it's a fresh wound.

Foley is the best AD in the nation. Not even close. UF has had the best all around athletic program in the SEC for decades now. It's hovered at the top 3 or so in the nation for most of that time. It's truly remarkable considering UF has not fielded nearly as many sports as other schools. Plus, UF's athletic department turns a profit each year. Few schools can say that. FSU gets handouts. UF pays it's own bills. That's because of Foley. The growing revenue in big time college sports is an ever growing bubble and one day that bubble will burst. When it does, we'll be very, very happy that Foley was so "cheap". If that happens, UF may be one of very few schools in the nation to sustain a true athletic program. Doak Campbell will go into mothballs and Florida Field will still be hosting big time football games.
Posted by sullivanct19a
Florida
Member since Oct 2015
5239 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 12:37 am to
Doug Dickey is the worst coach in UF history. He's so bad I have to write a lot to cover this.

UF started football around 1905 or 1906. It was never that big of a deal. During WWII, UF didn't a field a team for part of that time. After WWII and the GI Bill, hundreds of thousands of Veterans were going to college, the nation transformed as would be expected after a war like that. The economy changed, etc. UF grew a lot in that post war period and the athletic teams got a little better, gradually.

UF had some good teams in the 60s like when Spurrier was playing, but they always came up short. When you want to know why Spurrier put so much focus on Georgia and was so passionate about whipping UGA each year, just review the era when he played. That SEC championship was close but eluded UF during that time. Georgia often had a role in UF coming up a bit short.

In the 60s and 70s UF had some true greats come through the football program from Spurrier to Carlos Alvarez, John Reeves (the father of Lane's wife, Layla), that badass Jack Youngblood, Chris Collinsworth and others. A lot of the big names came to UF to play for Ray Graves, Spurrier's coach at UF. Graves did a lot to build the program. He's been underappreciated by many UF fans because of what I call the dark ages of UF football (Dickey era). UF had developed a good offense due to Graves, Spurrier, Reaves, Alvarez, etc. UF was 9-1-1 in Graves last year (best in school history to that point). Graves took UF up to play Bama and beat them, unexpectedly at Denny, now BDS. Bryant only lost like 2 or 3 games at home in 25 years, at BDS.

Enter Doug Dickey.

Doug Dickey - grew up mostly in Gainesville, only because his dad was a professor at UF, went to UF and played ball at UF. Then coached, made a stop at the Vols garbage truck campus, then head coach at UF, 1970-1978. Then spent about 20 years back at the Vols garbage truck campus as a paper weight or something. Don't like to disown one of your own, but I've always felt like he was a Vol, not a Gator.

Dickey was a bad coach. Couldn't deal with the strong offense UF had been building, and took UF on a negative trajectory for about 4 years. He went to a slow paced, option offense, different personnel, and had success in the mid 70s. His best year was 9-3, 3rd place in the SEC only conference loss was to UGA. He was 3-6 against UGA. It went downhill from there and UF got worse and worse.

Just my opinion but the SEC of today is very similar to the SEC of the 60s and 70s, except some of the newer offenses create lightning in a bottle at times and pose problems for defenses. UF excelled when it had a coach like Ray Graves, taking advantage of home grown talent like Youngblood, bringing in talent like Spurrier, being aggressive and dynamic on offense. It was good for the w/l column, recruiting, and culture of the program. UF never has and probably never will excel at a Nebraska or Bama type approach. UF's weakness, to me, was a lack of systematic approach to building the program. That left some holes at some positions and it hurt UF. On the other hand, Bama was a machine, and is once again under Saban. Bear Bryant had watched the development of UF and said UF was a 'sleeping giant' and the SEC would have to be careful if that giant was ever awakened. Bryant wasn't a legend because he was stupid. He knew exactly what he was talking about.

The problem was that Doug Dirty Vol Dickey put the giant in a coma. He halted the momentum Graves had going, then briefly generated some with a different approach that really didn't fit, and it all fizzled and collapsed though and UF literally started to circle the drain. This should sound a bit like Muschamp's approach.

Charley Pell came in 1979. He understood that systematic approach that was needed. Like a lot of people born in the 1940s, in the south, his parents didn't get to middle school. I know my grandmother never went past the 3rd grade. There were other things to do like survive and find food. But Pell got through high school, got recruited for football and went to Bama, played for Bryant, was part of Bryant's first title I think. He learned from Bryant but wasn't stupid either, and knew UF had to have its own identity. But he came to build a program. First thing he did was tell the AD, boosters, etc that UF needed a football program, that it couldn't just field a football team.

He took that comatose giant into the 1979 season, had some bad luck, played a tough schedule, had a ton of injuries and went 0-10-1. The worst season in school history. The next year UF won 8 games, one of the biggest turn arounds in NCAA history. But UF also had to endure a crushing defeat from UGA with the 'Run Lindsey Run' play. There used to be a bumper sticker around Gainesville, "Wait til next year". It didn't take Pell long. Next year arrived. UF was among the best in the nation by 1983 and in 1984 was probably the best team in the country.

Problem was that Pell also learned some things from Bryant like bending rules, breaking rules, things like that. It was at first speculated that the violations were massive. They were not. Pell had some bad things in there like players getting money, but that was pretty much standard for most schools. Still is. But Pell had also taken care of players and created a team, like bringing walk-ons into the athletic dorm, even though that was prohibited by NCAA rules. It was stupid rule so Pell ignored it. In the end, UF had to fire him and endure a couple years probation. It hurt the program but Bill Arnsbarger, UF AD, (former LSU coach) helped guide UF through the probation and rebuilding. He also hired Spurrier.

Charley Pell screwed up, but by all accounts he was a very good man and deeply cared about the sport and wanted to build something at UF. He did bring about NCAA trouble, but he also woke up the giant and Pell knew how to coach. In a very short time UF saw that it was all too possible to build a program and put a dominant football team in a Gator uniform and beat anyone at any time. And truthfully, deep down I think all Gators knew that Pell got it quicker with some rule breaking and bending, but that it was going to happen with his approach. Pell came from winning, he'd been a winner, and that was exactly what he was going to build - a winning program. There was confidence in the football program.

The struggles despite very good teams and great players, the 'Run Lindsey Run', Wait til next year - they all went away and Charley Pell was a big reason and he never gets enough credit due to the violations. UF weathered the storm of probation knowing the rebuild could happen. Thank God for Bill Arnsbarger. He brought in Spurrier and the evil genius took off in 1990.

Those violations ended Pell's career and deeply affected his life. He tried to commit suicide and later passed away from cancer. If there was ever a man that deserved a second chance in coaching, it was Charley Pell.

The true low point for UF was 1979, 0-10-1, an inevitable result of the dark ages known as the Doug Dickey era. If there's an inflection point in the history of UF football, it's at 1979.




Bill Arnsbarger's role in UF football has always endeared a liking of LSU for me. Doug Dickey just makes me hate the Vols even more. I bet he and Fulmer rub their butts together.
Posted by Nguyening
SEMO
Member since Jun 2013
9057 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 12:47 am to
The real answer is mark richt. No other hire has ever lulled a big 6 member into such a state of complacency.

Anyone worse than richt would have set in motion a chain of events, maybe 2-4 coaches in length culminating in someone that could actually Take advantage of UGA's built in advantages and won a few championships by now.

Mark richt has done the entire SEC and incredible kindness, bc gosh darn it that's just the kind of guy he is.
Posted by sullivanct19a
Florida
Member since Oct 2015
5239 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 1:11 am to
quote:

What was the reason for the wheelchair? Not familiar with that story.


Still not sure why he was in it. Maybe he had a deep ego bruise.
Posted by GoldenBoy
Winning!
Member since Nov 2004
42010 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 1:16 am to
Mike Price
Posted by tarzana
TX Hwy 6--Brazos River Backwater
Member since Sep 2015
26139 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 2:35 am to
If you look at records only, I think Ole Miss firing Cutcliffe and then hiring Ed Orgeron made no sense at all.
Posted by GatorsGonnaGata
Member since Jan 2014
229 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 3:03 am to
Muschamp
Posted by harmonics
Mars Hotel
Member since Jan 2010
18616 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 3:32 am to
A lot of Bama fans are saying Dubose and while he failed in the end, he is not 100% to blame for Alabama's demise. I throw the vast majority of that on Bob Bockrath and the Board of Trustees for forcing out Stallings to begin with. They made their bed.
Posted by tarzana
TX Hwy 6--Brazos River Backwater
Member since Sep 2015
26139 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 4:16 am to
I remember hearing Hallman say during SEC media day 1991 that it would take 5 years to build LSU into a good football program, since Archer couldn't recruit and the Tiger talent was so limited back then. Unfortunately Hallman was no longer around to see the Tigers' coming of age, thanks to a horrendous '94 season which included an 18-13 loss to the Aggies featuring a Tiger PUNT with just two minutes to go, the infamous Interception Game, a humiliating trouncing by Ole Miss and a comedy of errors vs. Alabama
Posted by TJGator1215
FL/TN
Member since Sep 2011
14174 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 4:46 am to
Don't give that shite. Foley sucked horse cock with zook and champ. Great ADs know when to cut bait. Not give free passes and 6 million for mediocrity 7 outtA the past 12 years. This Mac hire looks good, but Foley is an okay AD.
Posted by AUstar
Member since Dec 2012
17005 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 4:54 am to
quote:

uf went like 35 years or what ever without a losing season and he managed 4-8


LOL. You sure about that? 1979 UF was 0-10-1.

Florida was a mediocre program until Spurrier got there.
Posted by KoachKletus
Member since Jan 2015
1102 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 5:26 am to
quote:

What was the reason for the wheelchair? Not familiar with that story.


He shat on Tennessee so hard it threw his hip out of joint.
This post was edited on 10/31/15 at 5:27 am
Posted by Placebeaux
Bobby Fischer Fan Club President
Member since Jun 2008
51852 posts
Posted on 10/31/15 at 6:06 am to
Holy frick! 6 pages and nobody said Mike Archer

I like what Bill Arnsparger did for LSU while he was here but he set us up to fail when he recommended Mike Archer for the job then goes and hires HBC at Florida.
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