Post by Mojave Gator on Dec 14, 2006 19:35:04 GMT -5
In 2002, a man known only as Baghead created FireRonZook.com. The site was created to protest the hiring of an obviously unqualified head football coach at the University of Florida, and the message board gave like-minded people a place to vent. This board is a successor to FRZ, and recent circumstances at the University of Florida have unfortunately prompted us to revive the tradition. While Baghead is not associated with this board, many of the users here were active users there.
This board was known as Zook Free Zone when the break was made from the original FRZ. FRZ had been essentially abandoned for some time, and when a hacker destroyed what was left of the main message board we moved on. In April 2011 the decision was made to remove the reference to Ron Zook, since Zook had been gone for more than five years and as time passed he became less relevant to us. Members suggested possible names and Fighting Gator Forum was chosen. On February 1, 2014 we came full circle and became Fire Will Muschamp.
With the hiring of Urban Meyer and the two national titles that followed, it appeared that we could rest on our laurels, our place in history secure and our beloved Gators restored to their rightful place in the national rankings. Then came Meyer’s meltdown, his departure and a hiring almost as inexplicable as that of Ron Zook: Yet another defensive coordinator who had never been a head coach and who did not appear have the requisite qualities to successfully lead a program, another one of Jeremy Foley’s “undiscovered jewels” who no one else wanted as a head coach. The only difference is that he wasn’t demoted on the Gators’ staff prior to being hired. An 11-1 regular season in 2012 gave us all hope, but in retrospect the seeds of last year’s 4-8 season, the Gators’ first losing campaign since 1979, were already planted and growing even while we were winning games in 2012. Our offense was horrible, one of the least productive in the country, at the flagship university of a state known for producing outstanding offensive skill players. For that one season almost every significant break went our way, and defensive and special teams play was good enough to make up for the paltry production on offense. Louisville exposed the fraud that was our 11-1 record to the entire nation in the Sugar Bowl. The Gators’ defense, the strength of the team, was led by Meyer recruits who would be moving on. Our new head coach castrated the offense by insisting on a power running game and a ball control offense - the same kind of one-dimensional attack that did Ron Zook‘s teams in, only with less talented players than Zook brought in. A sickening feeling of déjà vu was about to hit - only what was coming would be far worse than anything even Ron Zook had concocted.
By the first week in November the Gators had already lost three straight games, including their third consecutive loss to Georgia in Jacksonville - the first time this has happened since 1987-89. The loss to Vanderbilt at Homecoming 2013 was both historically bad and inexcusable. A 17-point loss to a team who had not beaten us since 1982, and had not beaten us in Gainesville since 1945 - and they were starting a backup quarterback to boot. It was also a tipping point for the future of this board.
Then came the loss to Georgia Southern, an FCS team who had lost four games (one of which was to Wofford), had 19 players out due to injury and should have been run off the field by even a subpar Gator team. They won without completing a pass, and they ran for over 400 yards. This was a loss so inexcusable that it just had to cost Muschamp his job, just as the loss at Mississippi State cost Ron Zook his job in 2004. This was even worse, happening at home against a lower division opponent who had already lost four games against FCS opponents coming in. Instead, clueless Athletic Director Jeremy Foley said that he is “1000 percent behind Coach Muschamp” and that the program is “moving in the right direction”. Muschamp would remain regardless of what else happened. The inevitable blowout loss at home against eventual national champion Florida State - the most lopsided Florida loss in the series since 1988 - capped a seven-game losing streak to close out the season. It quickly became apparent that Foley cannot be trusted with anything other than the safekeeping of his own ego. He is apparently so concerned with being vindicated concerning his choice of Will Muschamp that he is willing to risk totally wrecking the football program to prove himself right.
Our services to the Gator Nation are needed once again, a dozen years after our first attempt to rid our beloved university of an unqualified and underachieving football coach. Fire Will Muschamp carries on in the tradition of our predecessor board.
We still maintain the FireRonZook.com Museum, which contains some of the best material from the original board.
Little known facts:
For a brief time we served as a host board for SEC Rivals, when a hacker destroyed their main board. We hosted forums for every SEC team during that time.
For approximately two years we hosted Illini Reservation, a forum for Illinois fans wanting to get rid of Ron Zook. As was the case with the Florida fan boards during the Zook years, the Illinois fan boards tolerated no dissent or contrasting opinions. We gave them a place to land.
This board was known as Zook Free Zone when the break was made from the original FRZ. FRZ had been essentially abandoned for some time, and when a hacker destroyed what was left of the main message board we moved on. In April 2011 the decision was made to remove the reference to Ron Zook, since Zook had been gone for more than five years and as time passed he became less relevant to us. Members suggested possible names and Fighting Gator Forum was chosen. On February 1, 2014 we came full circle and became Fire Will Muschamp.
With the hiring of Urban Meyer and the two national titles that followed, it appeared that we could rest on our laurels, our place in history secure and our beloved Gators restored to their rightful place in the national rankings. Then came Meyer’s meltdown, his departure and a hiring almost as inexplicable as that of Ron Zook: Yet another defensive coordinator who had never been a head coach and who did not appear have the requisite qualities to successfully lead a program, another one of Jeremy Foley’s “undiscovered jewels” who no one else wanted as a head coach. The only difference is that he wasn’t demoted on the Gators’ staff prior to being hired. An 11-1 regular season in 2012 gave us all hope, but in retrospect the seeds of last year’s 4-8 season, the Gators’ first losing campaign since 1979, were already planted and growing even while we were winning games in 2012. Our offense was horrible, one of the least productive in the country, at the flagship university of a state known for producing outstanding offensive skill players. For that one season almost every significant break went our way, and defensive and special teams play was good enough to make up for the paltry production on offense. Louisville exposed the fraud that was our 11-1 record to the entire nation in the Sugar Bowl. The Gators’ defense, the strength of the team, was led by Meyer recruits who would be moving on. Our new head coach castrated the offense by insisting on a power running game and a ball control offense - the same kind of one-dimensional attack that did Ron Zook‘s teams in, only with less talented players than Zook brought in. A sickening feeling of déjà vu was about to hit - only what was coming would be far worse than anything even Ron Zook had concocted.
By the first week in November the Gators had already lost three straight games, including their third consecutive loss to Georgia in Jacksonville - the first time this has happened since 1987-89. The loss to Vanderbilt at Homecoming 2013 was both historically bad and inexcusable. A 17-point loss to a team who had not beaten us since 1982, and had not beaten us in Gainesville since 1945 - and they were starting a backup quarterback to boot. It was also a tipping point for the future of this board.
Then came the loss to Georgia Southern, an FCS team who had lost four games (one of which was to Wofford), had 19 players out due to injury and should have been run off the field by even a subpar Gator team. They won without completing a pass, and they ran for over 400 yards. This was a loss so inexcusable that it just had to cost Muschamp his job, just as the loss at Mississippi State cost Ron Zook his job in 2004. This was even worse, happening at home against a lower division opponent who had already lost four games against FCS opponents coming in. Instead, clueless Athletic Director Jeremy Foley said that he is “1000 percent behind Coach Muschamp” and that the program is “moving in the right direction”. Muschamp would remain regardless of what else happened. The inevitable blowout loss at home against eventual national champion Florida State - the most lopsided Florida loss in the series since 1988 - capped a seven-game losing streak to close out the season. It quickly became apparent that Foley cannot be trusted with anything other than the safekeeping of his own ego. He is apparently so concerned with being vindicated concerning his choice of Will Muschamp that he is willing to risk totally wrecking the football program to prove himself right.
Our services to the Gator Nation are needed once again, a dozen years after our first attempt to rid our beloved university of an unqualified and underachieving football coach. Fire Will Muschamp carries on in the tradition of our predecessor board.
We still maintain the FireRonZook.com Museum, which contains some of the best material from the original board.
Little known facts:
For a brief time we served as a host board for SEC Rivals, when a hacker destroyed their main board. We hosted forums for every SEC team during that time.
For approximately two years we hosted Illini Reservation, a forum for Illinois fans wanting to get rid of Ron Zook. As was the case with the Florida fan boards during the Zook years, the Illinois fan boards tolerated no dissent or contrasting opinions. We gave them a place to land.