Will Muschamp was the third to speak on Monday.
After UF president Bernie Machen spoke about how he turned the football team around off the field and athletics director Jeremy Foley followed with nothing but praise about the person he is, it was Muschamp’s turn to talk.
Despite the praise, despite what he was able to accomplish, Muschamp could not translate that to wins.
He won’t be Florida’s head coach come December.
And for Muschamp, he understands.
“You come off of a 4-8 year regardless of the circumstances, from last year, you go through this year and there is a margin of error and there is a Bullseye on you,” Muschamp said. “Everything is magnified to the Nth degree.”
With Muschamp’s tenure as Florida’s head football coach concluding following the Florida State game on Nov. 29, Foley announced that the search for Florida’s next head coach will begin immediately.
Foley rebutted the notion that he has already been in contact with potential candidates, citing that it is not his intention to disrupt other teams’ seasons.
“There is no fixed time timetable but we will proceed as quickly as we can,” Foley said. “There is a lot of work to do, a lot of research to do. We understand how important this hire is for this university.”
And after four years of seeing Florida fail to crack the top 90 in total offense, Foley knows in what direction he needs to head when naming Muschamp’s successor.
“We would obviously like an individual that's been successful on the offensive side of the ball,” Foley said. “I think obviously that's what the Gator Nation wants and we see that and that's what we're certainly going to try to provide for them.”
But while the 61-year-old Foley knows Gator fans want to see the explosive plays on offense that have been lacking over the past four years, he said the school’s integrity will not be compromised when naming a new head coach.
“Our mission statement says, ‘championship experience with integrity,’” Foley said. “That is paramount to us as we move forward. The guy you just saw up here you know epitomized that right there, his integrity without question. … This is not a place for everybody, not everybody fits in here. As we go through the process we want to make sure they do fit in here.”
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Athletics director Jeremy Foley speaks to media on Nov. 17.
