Saturday was the final blow.
Following Florida’s 23-20 overtime loss to South Carolina, it marked the end for Will Muschamp.
The fourth-year head coach will stepped down from his position following the conclusion of the regular season, the school announced Sunday.
"Upon evaluation of our football program, we are not where the program needs to be and should be. I’ve always said that our goal at the University of Florida is to compete for championships on a regular basis," UF athletics director Jeremy Foley said in a release. "Coach Muschamp was dedicated to developing young men both on and off the field."
For too many reasons, it hasn’t worked out for Muschamp at Florida.
A tenure teetering on the precipice this season thanks to the ability to claw two wins in a row has now been pushed over the edge.
In the end, as the Gamecocks carried their quarterback off the field on their shoulders, the Gators hung their heads in sorrow — another gutting home loss delivered in a unique fashion serving as the last straw.
Muschamp’s tenure is over in large part because of a failure to evaluate and develop offensive talent on the field, but there were other issues as well.
There were too many losses to Georgia, LSU and South Carolina (three each) with a likely third coming against Florida State in two weeks.
Muschamp’s Gators were 27-20 overall and 17-15 in SEC games, and 11 of those conference wins came against Tennessee, Vanderbilt and Kentucky.
Sometimes, the wins were even more inexplicable than the losses.
There was the punt block needed to defeat Louisiana at home in 2012, a season in which Florida was a USC victory over Notre Dame from a national championship game.
There were five in Muschamp’s career that came when UF threw for fewer than 100 yards, unthinkable for an offense that didn’t run the triple-option primarily. One of those wins came against Georgia on Nov. 1, a victory that few people, if any, saw coming.
There wasn’t a bowl game last season following a 4-8 record that officially put Muschamp on the coaching hot seat.
With a loss to Georgia Southern to boot — a salt in the wound as the season died down — the words "first time since 1979 (0-10-1 season)" were written too many times.
His team lost to Vanderbilt on homecoming in 2013 — a cardinal sin. He was 18-8 at home and never able to "defend the swamp" as other coaches had, even when he used that as a rallying cry in the week leading up to the South Carolina loss.
Coaching changes rarely come out of nowhere. Coaches often know when it’s going to happen — the writing was on the wall in this case, and Muschamp knew it.
"I appreciate the opportunity that has been offered to me and my family by Dr. Machen, Jeremy Foley and the University of Florida," Muschamp said in a release. "I was given every opportunity to get it done here and I simply didn’t win enough games — that is the bottom line. I’m disappointed that I didn’t get it done and it is my responsibility to get it done.
"I have no bitter feelings, but this is a business and I wish we would have produced better results on the field. We have a great group of players and a staff that is committed to this University and this football program. They have handled themselves with class and I expect them to continue to do so. As I’ve said many times, life is 10 percent of what happens to you and 90 percent how you respond."
Saturday wasn’t a dropped touchdown or a continuous machine-gunning of their own foot, but the slow bleed. The conservative approach had fans thinking the game sat too precariously for Florida to escape with a 17-10 win.
Surely, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier would dial up a trick play and steal this one in the house he named two decades ago. No — this time was different; Florida had the game literally blocked away.
After the game, Spurrier joked that he felt old because he had started to feel sorry for Muschamp. Sunday, unprompted, he gave condolences at the formal end of the Will Muschamp era during his opening statement.
"I hate to hear it about coach Muschamp. Will’s a good person, I think he’s a very good coach. He’s a bit unlucky as you would say. We all complain about close losses, but he’s had his share of them," Spurrier said. "Unfortunately, coaches, we’re all based on whatever your record is and it appears Florida decided that they were going to make a change, but he’s an excellent coach."
Muschamp was a defense-first coach in an ecosystem that only believes it can subsist if offense is the natural resource produced.
To his credit, he tried.
Charlie Weis, on paper, seemed like a good choice for offensive coordinator. It didn’t work.
Brent Pease, the wonder offensive coordinator from Boise State, the one Alabama was going after too reportedly during that offseason, didn’t go too well either.
This season, Kurt Roper was brought in to install an uptempo system and give the offense a modern makeover.
No such thing has happened.
The perception is Muschamp always had a chokehold over the offense, asking it to throttle down when the team had a lead — something he has obviously denied, but perception is reality.
The reality around the program is that it hasn’t been better than 104th in the country in yards per game in every season except for this one, where his Gators are 91st.
The running game was always there, but the ineptitude in the passing game has always made the team one-dimensional and unable to take the next step.
Muschamp also ran into a buzz saw perception-wise because Florida State finally got it figured out.
For all his problems on the field, Jameis Winston is a phenom on the gridiron and has Florida State chugging at a pace that doesn’t seem like it will fall too far off of after he leaves. FSU’s win streak may end, but its talent level won’t drop off completely.
Jimbo Fisher seems like he’ll be able to keep bringing in top recruiting classes and at least field a top-3 team in the Atlantic Coast Conference for years to come, keeping them in at least the national title discussion for the for seeable future.
Miami also seems to have solved its issue at quarterback as long as quarterback Brad Kaaya continues to develop.
A stud signal caller now needs pieces around him to bring Miami back to where it needs to be, but this season has been a step in the right direction for the Hurricanes.
And now, Florida looks like it will be playing third fiddle in the state after Muschamp leaves at the end of the month, with a quarterback position that was prominently in a constant state of turmoil at least until a few weeks ago, leaving weapons like Demarcus Robinson wasted.
Consider this: Robinson is one touchdown catch away from tying a Muschamp era receiving record for single season scores at six.
Florida has not ranked in the top 100 in passes attempted since Muschamp has been head coach, and has not thrown for more than 2,500 yards in any of the seasons he’s coached (UF isn’t on pace to do so this season either).
Winston has more touchdowns passes through 23 games played than all of Florida’s quarterbacks in the Muschamp era combined.
He wasn’t given a full deck by Urban Meyer’s regime, but his staff was never was able to develop what it had plus bring in the right parts to supplement and grow on that side of the ball.
He will do well wherever he lands this offseason, and he’ll have a reported $6 million worth of buyout money to cushion his fall. If it’s coaching, school X is landing a skilled tactician, evaluator and tutor of defensive secondary. If it’s television, a network is about to bring in an affable self-deprecating coach with a great sense of humor and good communication skills.
Will Muschamp will succeed.
It just wasn’t meant to be in Gainesville.
Follow Richard Johnson on Twitter @RagjUF
Florida coach Will Muschamp and South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier shake hands following the Gators' 23-20 overtime loss to the Gamecocks on Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.
UF athletics director Jeremy Foley (left) and football coach Will Muschamp embrace following Florida's 34-10 win against Vanderbilt on Nov. 8 in Nashville, Tennessee.
