Gators just need to be set out to dry

The Orlando Sentinel, obviously occupying a seat at SEC Media Days this week, asked its readers in a blog post: "Is Florida in decline mode?" Amid a lack of buzz about UF football at SEC Media Days, Sentinel writer Mike Bianchi claims the team Urban Meyer leaves for new coach Will Muschamp is worse than the one Meyer himself received from his predecessor, Ron Zook.

Hats off to Bianchi for saying what the Gator Nation doesn't want to hear.

Meyer ushered in two BCS titles to Gainesville. Which is, you know, great and all. But once he announced his (first) resignation as UF's No. 1 guy, he really meant it. He came back to coach the following season, yes, but he wasn't the same tenacious Meyer known around the nation and feared around the league. That's when his team went an 8-5 that seemed more like 0-14, as I'm sure any fan remembers in frustration.

Will Muschamp will serve his first season
in Gainesville as a head coach this fall.

So Muschamp, the sometimes-scarily-passionate defensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting behind legendary Mack Brown at Texas, is hired in. Let's not forget that UT also had an extremely disappointing season, going 5-7 with 'Coach Boom' on the Longhorns' sidelines.

Let's recap. Last year's Florida team dodged more criticism than points scored throughout the season. Muschamp wasn't exactly heralded at Texas either. Long story short, both sides are hungry. And talented. Meyer gathered up the nation's top recruiting class, but ultimately didn't coach them to their full potential last season. That's what Muschamp is for now.

I'm not saying the Gators are going to take the CFB world by storm and clinch the SEC title under Muschamp in 2011. That level of quality rebuilding takes time. But talking to Muschamp myself when he visited Tampa earlier in June, and seeing his easy comfort in his Gator-blue tie, behind that SEC podium yesterday has given me great confidence in what is to come of the Gators in the not-so-distant future, no matter what condition Meyer abandoned them in.

"I don't think anybody is feeling sorry for the Gators," Muschamp said during his time on the first SECMD. And he's completely right. There's enough talent in Florida's arsenal; it's just raw and inexperienced.

To continue Bianchi's metaphor likening the Gators roster to a cobwebbed cupboard, I would agree that there are some pots and plates missing in Gainesville. But they're just sitting in dirty sinkwater. All Muschamp needs to do now is clean them off and see what happens when he sets them out to dry.