Gad Zook-s!
Ron Zook has four days left to prepare to play the Georgia Bulldogs. He also might need to spend some of that time looking for a new job.
Zook was fired on Monday as head coach of the Florida Gators, along with his entire coaching staff. During his two and a half years at Florida, Zook has led his team to a record of *insert record*, clearly not up to expectations of a Florida program that was used to contending for the National Title under Steve Spurrier.
As the quest begins for Zook's replacement, obviously the first name on the list is Spurrier who resigned from coaching the Washington Redskins after two troublesome years in the NFL. Spurrier has spent most of his time since that point on the golf course and away from coaching. Comments by Spurrier on Monday don't tip his hand in either direction as to what he would say if he was asked to come back. He would be inheriting a team with obvious talent, but which was not motivated under Zook's leadership to compete in a very difficult SEC over the past few years.
The most shocking part for me, which seems to be the trend these days, is that Zook will continue to coach through the end of the season. If a team had no motivation to win under him when he was the coach, where will the motivation come when he is coaching as a lame duck with four games to go? To me, it does not seem like this would be a situation where a team would go out and try extra hard to win it for the guy who brought them there. At least not this Florida team. That to me is why it is shocking that Zook was fired before the end of the season. Obviously, the loss to Mississippi State was going to spell the doom for Zook at year end. By accelerating the process, the only guarantee that Florida has right now is that they will not get into a situation similar to what happened at Auburn last year when Louisville coach Bobby Petrino was secretly flown in to meet with Auburn officials while Tommy Tuberville still was in possession of his job.
As I wrote on Saturday, Florida still has a difficult schedule ahead with their next four games. The only "easy" win should come against Vanderbilt. The other three teams remaining have a combined record of 17-4 heading into this weekend. With a 4-3 record right now, Florida could potentially end the season at 5-6, missing a bowl game for the first time since the 1990-91 season. According to a
poll run by ESPN, almost 60% of those responding believe this will be the case.
The Georgia game on Saturday will be the true litmus test for the team. Should they fight hard and be close against Georgia, or maybe even win the game, they may be able to salvage their season and a bowl berth. However, this will be a tough chore against a Georgia team which had over 500 yards of offense on Saturday in their game against Arkansas.
If the Gators lose on Saturday...well, at least their next opponent is Vanderbilt.
