Don't forget that LSU. From 1980 to 2000 Jerry Stoval (22-21-2) Bill Arnsparger (26-8-2) Mike Archer (27-18-1) Curley Hallman (16-28) Gerry DiNardo (32-24-1) Heck Nick Saban's record was relatively inconsistent at LSU 8-4 10-3 8-5 13-1 9-3 In SEC play he was 26-12 I'm not convinced that Nick would have the success he had without the Alabama brand and system behind him. Can you imagine what SOS would have done as the coach of Alabama. It's common knowledge that Steve did not like to recruit. At BAMA he would not have had to recruit. He, backed by the BAMA brand and backed by the BAMA system would have had a top-five class yearly without even trying. Pre-2004 LSU was not IMO an elite HC job. Since 2004 came three NC's and the job is now considered one of the premier HC jobs in all of college football.
They used to send the gator football yearbook magazine to boosters. In the back of it you will find the range of contributions given by boosters. I believe the highest was 5 or 10 mil down to $500 / yr. My name is always on the last page. Lol.
This. To this day, I am pissed about Pell being fired. Firing him did nothing to stop the NCAA from bitch slapping us. We should have kept him, given the finger to the NCAA, and kept on trucking, because he was winner. He was a hell of a coach and recruiter. Pell is the guy that built the foundation for Spurrier and Meyer. For instance, there were no statewide Gator clubs prior to Charley. I could go on about all that he did, but he was the guy that put us on the map. For those of you that don't know Pell's history, he played at Alabama, and was a grad assistant there under Bear. He also testified for the Gumps and Bear as a player on the '61 or '62 Gump team that was accused of fixing the game with the leghumpers. There was considerable evidence that Wally Butts, UGA's AD at the time (and who was buddies with Bear) gave Bear UGA's playbook prior to their game, in order to wager. The Saturday Evening Post broke the story, and was sued for slander. The Post lost. My point: Pell knew exactly what was going on in the SEC in recruiting and otherwise. He did absolutely nothing that all of them hadn't been doing for decades. Herschel Walker showed up in Athens with a new trans am. Pell knew how it worked.
True very true. The same year Robert "Speedy" Neil (RIP my friend) was another Parade All-American (along with Herschel) out of Key West High School. Like Herschel EVERY school and I mean every school recruited Speedy. I grew up with Speedy and played with and against this man-child. Speedy's father, worked with my mother for numerous years. Ohio State flew a private jet into KW to transport Speedy to his visit. Michigan had hookers waiting in his hotel room. His UF visit was relatively unremarkable. Everyone knew Speedy wanted to play as close to home as possible. He took the UF visit just for kicks. He said if he didn't select UM he'd was going to OSU or Michigan. The University of Miami bought him a Cutlass Supreme to close the deal. I know this personally. But everyone in KW knew. Speedy was never red-shirted and started all four seasons culminating with the 83 NC. Despite being a naturally gifted athlete Speedy (big 6'3" and 245) he really didn't like football. His first love was baseball. He regretted not focusing on baseball.
I was thinking of who would make a good AD, and one name came to mind. And then JC said it on Shane Matthews' podcast as well - Brad Culpepper. Yes, he is not a sports admin guy. But, he's a Gator through and through. He's in the college football Hall of Fame, a successful attorney experienced in contracts and administration. I also think he would bring some outside-the-box perspective. We need a Florida person in that position.
Obviously, this seems bad but it is probably not what it seems on the surface. No one can look at the results and think Stricklin is actually going to lead this and do a good job. The more logical explanation is that Stricklin is just a figurehead like Roger Goodell who takes all the public arrows while the boosters do all the work behind the scenes just like the NFL owners.
Holy Hell....this was his response to a question about the FOOTBALL program: When reached for comment on the future of the football program, Stricklin offered to CBS Sports: "This is a remarkable athletics program. Over half of the Gators' athletics teams finished in the top five a year ago, we continue to win championships as a department and the Gators continue to finish among the top five programs annually in the director's cup. The University of Florida allows athletics to attract the best and brightest athletes and supports them in a way to achieve at the highest level. We have high expectations for all of our programs." This AD is so F'n clueless. He has done incalculable damage to this University. We can't get him out of G'ville fast enough.
If the article is to be believed (who knows), then Stricklin was allowed to go off and hire Billy. This cannot be allowed again!
Just curious, would you have ever made the acquaintance of a certain Have a Key West question for you re: people. I'll PM
Bump to make sure this stays near the top and people don’t forget. First Stricklin, flush the UAA (barely any Gator grads in it they don’t care about Florida Football) then fire the coach. In that order.
I have no problem with someone with the initials SS hiring the next coach...as long as those initials dont belong to Scott Stricnyne.
Question, Should Florida lean towards the growing trend of hiring a General Manager of football operations? Answers to the board not the AD. manages transfer portal, NIL and hiring of head coaches. And other major tasks.
It is an interesting idea. Other top tier AD’s don’t seem to struggle with handling this, so I think that you would just create another level of management in an already noisy space. The AD should be able to manage this function.
