STATE OF FOOTBALL: Muschamp joins ex-Gator coaches to play hit-and-miss after Gainesville

For a while, there seemed to be a blueprint for head coaches who were asked to leave the Florida Gators sideline and turn in their whistles.

Ray Graves became Florida’s full-time athletic director after his excellent run of 1960s success. He didn’t want to do that, but was a good soldier and a steady hand on the program.

Doug Dickey, after a mixed bag of good and bad through the 1970s, would also find his niche as longtime athletic director at Tennessee, though it came after five years running a Lakeland tile company. No knock on the flooring industry, but back then, college buy-outs weren’t what they would become.

More:South Carolina fires football coach Will Muschamp following 2-5 start in his fifth season

Since then, the post-Gainesville coaching careers have been all over the place — literally and figuratively — so there’s no way of knowing what will become, long-term, of Will Muschamp, who lost his South Carolina job last week, six years after his four-season run at UF was terminated.

Muschamp isn’t the first to leave Gainesville and fail to stick elsewhere … though sources tell us Doug Dickey left the tile showroom of his own volition.

Charlie Pell: Pell came to UF from Clemson in 1979, turned the Gators into big-stage players, and was fired in 1984 after a laundry list of rules infractions were uncovered by the NCAA’s cops. He was so tarnished, he never got back into coaching, and eventually became a spokesman for depression awareness. He died in 2001 at age 60. Trust me, this list gets better.

Galen Hall: He got off to a great start, went from interim to permanent, and like Pell before him, left under a cloud of violations in 1989. He coached in four different off-shoot professional leagues before returning to his Penn State alma mater to serve as offensive coordinator from 2004-11. Last we heard, he’s now 80 and spending his retirement outside Orlando in Groveland.

Steve Spurrier: After a miserable and short-lived stint with the Washington Redskins, Spurrier reminded everyone how well he could coach during 11 seasons at South Carolina, which included a school-best three-year run of 33 wins.

Ron Zook: The Zooker had one excellent year and two mediocre campaigns in seven seasons at Illinois. He spent five seasons on the Green Bay Packers staff (2014-18) and is now a “senior analyst” for the Maryland Terrapins.

Urban Meyer: Success followed Meyer to Ohio State, just as it followed him from Bowling Green to Utah to Gainesville. He left the Buckeyes after seven seasons under less than ideal circumstances, and the newest rumors range from conceivable (USC) to “holy mackerel” (Michigan). Remember, Bo Schembechler was once an Ohio State assistant (and Ohio native) before becoming a Michigan legend.

Will Muschamp: Best guess is, Muschamp will become defensive coordinator at a big-league school, or perhaps an NFL assistant. It would take a couple of sideways moves and big success for him to get another quality shot at a Power Five school.

Jim McElwain: It looks amazing on paper. McElwain went 10-4 and 9-4 in his first two seasons at UF yet didn’t survive Year 3. After a year coaching receivers at Michigan, he became head coach at Central Michigan and is 10-6 overall through a season and a half.

More:Steve Spurrier shares advice on coaching

Rank & File

This week’s ranking of Florida’s seven big-league college football programs, based on results versus expectations, current trends, and the Alachua County millage rate.

1. Florida (5-1): Well, it’s official. Kyle Trask isn’t just on the Heisman radar, he’s Ground Zero. Trevor Lawrence will almost surely resume his march to the Heisman after a two-week break, but if Trask doesn’t slow down and if Florida doesn’t lose, we might someday see a fourth statue outside the big stadium in Gainesville. This week: at Vanderbilt.

2. Miami (7-1): This week it’s Miami’s turn to do the COVID shuffle. The ’Canes survived a bunch of absences to hold off Virginia Tech last week, then began a two-week virus-related holding pattern that, conversely, sent the schedule planners into overdrive. If you happen upon the ACC’s travel agent, be nice. This week: Georgia Tech at Miami postponed.

3. UCF (5-2): It’s as if the pickers in the country’s two top polls couldn’t wait to get rid of the Knights once things started veering south, as they did with two straight losses last month. But three straight wins and a trainload of offense has followed, and now a chance to face the No. 7 team in both major polls. This week: Cincinnati at home.

4. FAU (4-1): So far, so good as Willie Taggart follows Lane Kiffin at Coaching Renovation U. It’s a weird season where anything can happen, but the Owls really should be 5-1 by the weekend. This week: UMass at home Friday night.

5. USF (1-7): Saturday in Tampa, it’s “Salute to Service Day” at Raymond James Stadium. Properly, the Bulls will likely hand the Midshipmen a loosely wrapped victory. This week: Navy at home.

6 FSU (2-6): Freshman QB Chubba Purdy passed for 181 yards (15-for-23, two TDs, no picks) and ran for 54 in last week’s latest bottoming-out loss. That's the good news and here's the bad: Don’t look now, but this cellar also has a cellar door. This week: Clemson at home.

7. FIU (0-4): Butch Davis turned 69 this week and can’t afford to be throwing away entire seasons. But there’s not a hoarding grandpa on Earth who wouldn’t gladly toss this one. This week: at Western Kentucky.

Pro Picks

Pittsburgh (9-0) at Jacksonville (1-8): Steelers coach Mike Tomlin has a level of intensity that seems inherent with coaching in Pittsburgh. On this week’s downtrodden opponent: “We are not a Big Ten team playing a MAC opponent … Every time we step into a stadium, we're playing professionals — players and coaches. We've got a ridiculous level of respect for that. We understand what we're going into in Jacksonville … that's a group that's trying to kick our butt.” We ain’t buying the trying. Steelers 30, Jags 16.

Miami (6-3) at Denver (3-6): As you’ve been told countless times during the rebuild, the Dolphins have two picks in each of the first two rounds of next spring’s NFL Draft. Their fans have gotten so accustomed to that being the good news, they’ve practically whip-lashed themselves by violently shifting into “we can make the playoffs” mode. Dolphins 27, Broncos 19.

L.A. Rams (6-3) at Tampa Bay (7-3), Monday night: Tom Brady goes prime time again, two weeks after infecting our Sunday night airwaves with that dung heap of a loss to New Orleans. Pride alone is worth two scores in this one. Bucs 26, Rams 23.

Reach Ken Willis at ken.willis@news-jrnl.com.