Florida is catching the USC bug

by nepomo on Jan 15, 2009 5:22 PM CST Comment 11 comments

Florida's recent successes is causing them problems. Winning championships can bring in the big time recruits, but it also can ship out your big time assistant coaches. Dan Mullen, UF's offensive coordinator this year, recently took a job as head coach of Miss St.

So?, you ask. Bo Pelini left after our BCSNC to be the head coach of Nebraska.

What's the big deal?

Well, Florida is also losing their offensive line coach John Hevesy, and may be losing their cornerback coach (Vance Bedford) and their safties coach (Chuck Heater). In addtion, Charlie Strong wants to be a head coach somewhere. Probably wont leave this year, but after that chances are he does.

USC restocks after losing their coordinators year after year. Right? Why can't Florida? They might. Who knows, but this problem is why I really like what Coach Miles has done with his staff and why I'm more worried about Bama than Florida.

Coach Miles has hired a OC and DC that want to be just that. Cordinators not head coaches. If we win another BCS national championship, Chavis and Crowton may go somewhere, but probably not. Chavis is a lifer at DC and Crowton has tried the head coaching thing twice already.

If Florida starts hemoriging position coaches and has more turnover at DC and OC, it will hurt them. There is too much parity in the SEC teams and not enough supply of top tier asst coaches to just continue to backfill your lost coaches with guys of equal caliber.

My prediciton is they will lose many coaches over the next couple years and will regress as a whole. They will become victims of their success, but unlike USC, they will actually have some championships to look back on.

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Good problem to have

Strong should have already become a head coach by now – at least 2 years ago after his last mighty defense won a national title for the Gators. There have been rumors that some teams have avoided hiring him because he is in a mixed marriage. I am not sure what that has to do with coaching defense, but supposedly Auburn didn’t hire Gill because of the same thing.

Our offense may have a few “adjustment pains” next season, but I think Tebow and 7 other returning starters will help overcome that obstacle. Plus, I’m not sure we’re going to have to score many points to win games with 11 starters returning on a defense that allowed 13 PPG this season.

A lot of Gators were not to upset to see Mullen go – many thought that his play calling was way too conservative and hamstrung some of our big play makers. I mean how many times are you going to run Tebow up the middle?

I have not heard anything about losing Heater – he is a great recruiter.
I see your point, but don’t think it will be too much of a problem for us – if there is one thing we are good at, it is hiring coaches – other than Zook, our AD has been the best in the land.

by skigator93 on Jan 16, 2009 9:48 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

It is a good problem to have, but it is a very concerning problem nonetheless. Everyone who is super successful goes through it whether it be football, business, whatever. Its nothing new. Just hard to stop.

As for Mullen, It did seem like Florida’s offense wasnt as complex this year as say two years ago… a little predictable.. for Florida that is.

I imagine Urban is a pseudo OC correct? If so, that really helps with a big piece of the puzzle (as long as you keep Urban :) ).

The other dilemma can come from the influx of stud recruits over a couple yrs. You can get too deep and newest studs will want early playing time and to stay close to home. They become Fl St and Miami bound. Those schools improve and then become stronger rivals to play/recruit against in the future.

Its all part of the game. Congrats on ya’lls win. You all were very worthy champs. I just wish you could have played and kicked the crap out of USC instead. Oh well.

by nepomo on Jan 16, 2009 11:12 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Thanks for the congrats

you are correct that Urban is an offensive guy (and special teams of course). I think this year was the first time the offense really worked, and it didn’t start working until after the Ole Miss game when they figured out that the “spread” needed it’s linemen “spread out” more to give our microbacks an advantage.

I’ll rish becoming too deep, as I’m not sure that can really happen. USC seemed to have the problem of too many RBs and not enough footballs. That’s how we got Moody, the former Pac 10 freshman of the year. But USC just puts the next guys in there and hopefully, we’ll be able to do that too. Urban recently said that the national championship has really boosted recruiting….not sure what that will mean this season as we don’t ahve too many open schollys to give, but maybe a couple of the bug undecided guys will fall our way.

Miami and FSU have gotten just about as many top recruits as we have the past several years, but their current situations don’t translate into developing those players. There’s still a ton of top recruits still wanting to go to Miami – apparently because of the weather and South Beach, because otherwise, I don’t see the allure of the program!

by skigator93 on Jan 16, 2009 2:51 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

“I’ll rish becoming too deep, as I’m not sure that can really happen. USC seemed to have the problem of too many RBs and not enough footballs. That’s how we got Moody, the former Pac 10 freshman of the year.”

Thats what I mean by “too deep”. Not that you have too many people to fall back on in case of injury. I’m with you. You cant be too deep that way.

Too deep in the sense that you lose players to transfers or being unable to recruit them because there is already so much talent at a particular position. So much so that they want to go elsewhere because of playing time. USC is a great example right now, I think they have 4 rbs that are all 5 star recruits. If a running back is coming out of hight school right now and sees that he has to compete with all these studs for playing time or he could go to another team and be the starter right away, he could very well go to team 2 because USC is just too deep already at his position.

I dont get the Miami allure either, but I think I get it more than Florida St.

by nepomo on Jan 19, 2009 10:46 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

I'll trade NC's for losing coaches every year...

You mentioned you were more worried about Bama than UF because of coaching turnover, but you forget Saban loses coaches without winning championships. I think they’ve lost just as many coaches so far this off season as UF has.

by LSU Jonno on Jan 19, 2009 9:06 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Let me preface by saying that right now, as a head to head opponent, Florida is a much more formidable opponent than Bama. I would much rather play Bama than Florida in 2009.

When thinking about the future of the LSU football program over the next 7 years, I am more concerned about Bama. Not because they are a better team, but because of recruiting. Keeping our instate recruits is critical. Losing one here and there is ok, but if we start losing 2-3 major recruits a year to bama, we are going to be in bad shape. Bama is going to get most if not all of alabama. If they get good pieces of louisiana too, they are going to have so many prime athletes and great coaching that its going to be very hard to beat them and win the west.
As we sit:
1. Saban is a real threat to take our instate recruits
2. Bama did very well last year
3. LSU did poorly last year
4. Saban has a strong story to tell.

LSU’s momentum dip and Bama’s momentum spike have put us in an undesirable position. That being said,

1. Bama did not get a championship or bowl win
2. Bama ended poorly
3. LSU ended on a strong note
4. LSU has a very strong recruiting class (so does Bama)
5. JJ is showing a lot of promise
6. Most importantly, Coach Miles has rebuilt the defensive staff very well and done so in the classiest of fashion.

LSU is poised for a comeback in the next year or two. IMO, I think its closer to two than to one.

Right now Florida is king of the mountain. Right now Florida seems to be somewhat unassailable. Tons of momentum, recruits galore, and great coaches. My post was intended to suggest that they are vunerable not to compare the relative coaching losses between then and Alabama.

I think you’re right. UF’s coaching losses and Bama’s are probably a push. Neither team’s coaching losses are very damaging for that matter. I’m saying watch and see if Florida’ s success ends up causing their fall from the top over the next 3-5 years because of attrition at coaching positions. Its my prediction that it will.

I’d trade NC’s for losing coaches every year too. My point is that losing coaches every year will cause you to stop winning NC’s.

by nepomo on Jan 20, 2009 10:22 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Good points

I would agree that Bama is a bigger threat to us, but not b/c of any dynamics of the coaches leaving, but rather for the simple reason that they are in the west.

I haven’t really given a lot of thought to the idea that coaching turnover can play a very big role in the success of a program. I will have to give some more thought to that.

One initial thought, though, would be that I think a head coach’s personality and style can certainly mitigate or even erase any negative effects of coaching turnover. I just think that some coaches are so committed and know how to implement a certain defensive or offensive philosophy, that they don’t require super talented coordinators.

Nick Saban seems to be an obvious example of a guy who is going to have a successful defense no matter who his DC is (within reason of course). My point is only that Saban doesn’t require any creativity or thinking out of his DC’s but simply a guy who he can delegate duties to. In other words, I am not sure I agree with your point that “there are only so many talented guys out there.” I think there are an abundance of talented and capable coordinators who could excel under a coach who “carries the bulk of the load.”

by Zandor435 on Jan 22, 2009 10:05 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

To make a long story short...

I’m worried about both UF and Bama. Bama probably a little more because they are in the West and as you said, they are in a much better position to steal our recruits.

Last year I said the pressure was on AU to win the West or they would crumble and give way to a new power. This year I think the pressure is on LSU. I don’t think we’ll crumble like AU did, because our recruiting has been so much better than theirs, but this is still a must win year for LSU to stay on top.

by LSU Jonno on Jan 23, 2009 8:37 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

We really do need to have a good showing next year. I think we can do it. A lot of things seem to fall into place for us next year except for Bama’s schedule. They play UK, UT, and SC from the East. How nice is that for them. While we play UF and UGA. And even Vandy always seems to get a big team every year.

If we win the West and beat Bama then we keep up the image that we are a top team. If we fail to do both then we are fading.

by Bob Barker on Jan 23, 2009 12:50 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

Next Year

I agree w/ all that has been said, Bama is in better position to grab some top talent from LA. and we will get most of the top talent in state, “If” our o-line can hold up we have a really good shot 2 go undefeated again in 09’ we had a great finish on the recruiting trail and the schedule does go in our favor, I think McCelroy has proved he’s the man to tk the QB spot next yr, I also think he’s a better passer than JP (Accuracy wise) which will let us get JJ into the game more and make more of an impact and the RB is filled up also so there’s a very good chance that we can repeat “if” we get past LSU.

by bama_man on Feb 7, 2009 11:31 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Undefeated in '09

I don’t like the chances of any team with a first year starting QB winning the SEC. That goes double for the UGA fans who somehow think they’ll be better this year without Stafford and Moreno…

by skigator93 on Feb 8, 2009 9:47 PM CST reply actions 0 recs