Ron Zook, Florida Head Coach FIRED

[fleaflicker]

I think that they'll try to get Spurrier back after his unsuccessful bid in the NFL. They will most likely succeed. FSU, like any other university, wants to win a lot, and right now it seems you see a lot of firings after 8-4 seasons with a win in a bowl game, at least in college. But I think that while this was probably going to wait until the end of season for consideration, Ron Zook's intimidation of some frat members who got into a fight with some FSU players probably pressed the issue and got him fired about 2 or 3 months sooner than otherwise would have happened.

[HOLLYWOOD]

Only Time will tell!!!

[Cornelius]

How stupid is Jeremy Foley for firing Zook (one of the best recruiters in the country) and not just explaining that they wanted Spurrier back and that he should take over the defense? This was a really poor decision on the timing and how they went about it. You saw the UF players and how thrilled they were, and what they think of Spurrier. They should have kept Zook on the staff.

[HOLLYWOOD]

He wasn't producing there as they should!! He lost to a pretty bad Miss. St. team. It is a tough business and it is good for a change there!

[The Ancient Enemy]

Let me explain this to you, 'Hollywood'. It's a hell of a lot harder to have excellent recruiting classes than it is to win football games. Ron Zook is one of the best recruiters in the entire country. When you are dealing with building a program, what needs to happen, and in what order? 1: you have to win games. 2: people go see the games. and 3: quality players from recruiting. The ideal situation is to improve all three of those every season, until you're Miami or Southern Cal or Michigan. Which of those 3 things is the easiest one to achieve or fix? Winning! Florida screwed up by hiring Zook in the first place. The guy had no head coaching experience, and those people down there expected him to be better than Steve Spurrier, which is impossible in a conference like the SEC. If it was the Big East or Sun Belt, then it would be possible. They hired the wrong guy, and they didn't give him enough of a chance to mature as a head-coach. When programs start to slip, the recruiting goes down and the attendance goes down. Neither of those are at-all true about Gainesville, Florida. But, UF is VERY demanding, and that is why they made the right choice by getting rid of Zook. They should not have done it when they did, and as you saw today against Georgia, it didn't make those kids play harder, even when they had every incentive to win for their fired coach whom they all love and adore. It ruined the entire remainder of the season for that football team. Now there's NO CHANCE at a bowl game. You wait till after New Year's to fire people.

[blueandwhite200756]

I am a die hard florida fan and i never really liked ron zook. He never really had the ability to pull out the big games such as bowls or even some regular season games. He did however do good against Georgia in past years. I'm glad they fired but I wish they would have waited until the end of the season. I would like to see the old ball coach back in the swamp.

[once a runner]

Florida knew what they were doing in firing Zook in the middle of the season. They obviously wanted rid of him, so why give him the chance to save his job in the last 3 games. Suppose they run the table and go to a good bowl game. Now, they can't fire him and they have no chance of getting Spurrier back. Instead, they have a lame duck coach and the players probably don't perform as well as they could.

Also by firing him now, they have the first crack at getting Spurrier before anyone else can hire him. With Spurrier they were national contenders every year, with Zook they are not.

[HOLLYWOOD]

Ancient,

How would you know about how great of a recruiter he is?? Do you know college football? Usually if you get good players and have good coaches then you WIN football games!!

[WPIAL~Titan]

I think that HOLLY is the front runner to replace Zook in Gator Land! After all, he's paid his dues and done his time mowing RichFraud's grass and helping RichFraud's kids with their homework as a GA!!!

WT

[blueandwhite200756]

Please don't put hollywood in gainsville it would be the total end.