Choosing the Right Man (or Woman) Not Always Easy To Do

Coach. This simple word brings to mind legends and leaders, men and women who are chosen to lead their respective teams. Lombardi, Landry, Auerbach, Wooden, Weaver, Summit. The names roll off your tongue like a melody. But what about other names, more obscure, lost to history since they were largely ineffective and eventually fired from their posts? No one remembers Phil Bengston, Bob Wade, Dave Campo, Ray Miller or Ron Zook, fine men who were good at specific jobs, but who lacked the elusive DNA to be successful leaders of men and women. So what was missing? It’s hard to quantify the precise formula for success, and for proof we offer you Exhibit A: the University of Florida football coaching carousel.

As of this writing, Florida, picked to challenge Georgia and Alabama for SEC supremacy, sits at 5-5, and is coming off an embarrassing performance where they allowed Samford (the school, not the junkman) to score more points on them in one half than any other school in the history of Florida football. Ever. That’s right. Not Alabama, USC, Georgia, Nebraska or Michigan hold that honor, but a low level FCS school which had but 52 scholarship players, yet still hung 42 points in one half at the Swamp. How is that possible? Who’s responsible?

When he was hired before the 2018 season, Gator headman Dan Mullen seemed to check all the boxes: he’d been a head coach before at Mississippi State and knew the SEC terrain, was considered a whiz at offense, and as a former offensive coordinator was familiar with the demands of the UF job. His start was most promising – two straight New Year’s Six bowl games, with records of 10-3 and 11-2; last year’s squad won the SEC East before fading in the end. This year began with great promise, losing to Alabama by two points and largely outplaying the defending national champions for the better part of three quarters. Then, the bottom fell out. Losses to Kentucky, LSU, Georgia and South Carolina promptly ended all title dreams; more importantly it brought into focus what had been murky before – the fact this coach could call great ball plays, but could not recruit great ballplayers.

Who knew? Who knew the coach apparently disliked recruiting, wasn’t very good at it, and most importantly, apparently did not value it enough to surround himself with a staff that could cover for his apparent deficiency? No UF fans did; neither did the writers and broadcasters who cover the team, nor did anyone in the administration – and yet here we stand, about to finish year four of the Mullen era, and UF’s recruiting ranking sits somewhere between awful and who cares. Replace the coach you say? Sure, easy to do – hard to do well. If Mullen is fired, it will mark UF’s fourth coaching change in the last 10 years, hardly a formula for stability or success.

So we plug on, hoping to see some change, but aware the odds are firmly against it. Your in-state rivals are struggling as well, proving it’s not a UFonly phenomenon. But how do you find the right man? Where is the blueprint? How do you avoid falling into the pit once again? I don’t know.

Anybody got a Ouija Board?