Post by Mojave Gator on Dec 19, 2005 23:34:57 GMT -5
January 4, 2002: Steve Spurrier abruptly resigned as head coach of the Florida Gators to become head coach of the Washington Redskins of the National Football League. He left behind a team that finished the season 10-2 and ranked #3 in the country. Days in the top 20 - let alone the top five - would soon become a distant memory with the hiring of Ron Zook to succeed him. Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley first tried no-chance visits with Bobby Stoops (who won a national championship at Oklahoma in his second season) and Mike Shanahan (who won two Super Bowls with the Denver Broncos).
Shortly after Ron Zook's hiring was announced a Gator fan known only as Baghead established FireRonZook.com, a website and electronic bulletin board that would gain national notoriety and inspire countless imitators. Like many others, Baghead knew what was coming based upon Ron Zook's lackluster coaching career and his poor performance as the Gators' defensive coordinator. Baghead's board, to which this board is a successor, gave the average fan a place to vent and to express displeasure over this inexplicable and inexcusable hiring. Whether FRZ hastened the firing of Ron Zook is open to discussion. One thing is certain: FRZ was both highly visible and famous. Even today, some sportscasters refer to it.
Zook supporters (back when there were any) immediately set out to discredit the new site. Rumors abounded, including one that Baghead was actually a Tennessee fan who was only fueling discord among Gator fans - although they never explained what motivation a Vol fan would have to do this.
2002 season: Rex Grossman finished the 2001 season second in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy. Ron Zook stated shortly after being hired that he would help Grossman win the award in 2002. Apparently Zook believed that handing off on draw plays, throwing screen passes and running option plays was the best way for Grossman to impress the Heisman voters. Grossman not only fell off the All American and Heisman charts, he wasn't even second-team All-SEC under Zook's tutelage.
The first real hint of what was to come was a 41-16 drubbing at home at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes. Worse was yet to follow. A loss to Ole Miss on the road (Zook still managed to blow this game even though his defense largely shut down Eli Manning) and a 36-7 home loss to LSU fell between narrow wins over Kentucky and Vanderbilt. A 17-point loss at Florida State preceded the defining moment of Zook's first season: the Outback Bowl against Michigan. This game included a flyover by a plane towing a banner for FireRonZook.com, which stated "We told you so!". Website founder Baghead stated after the game, "It wasn't hard to find an angry Gator with an airplane." The Gators were driving while trailing by eight points late in the fourth quarter. The offensive genius made his former All American QB the primary receiver on a critical play as the Gators tried desperately to tie the game late. A wounded duck pass thrown by a running back was intercepted by the Wolverines, killing the drive. Zook explained after the game, "Rex was open". The Gators trailed by eight points instead of seven because Zook inexplicably went for a two-point conversion after an earlier touchdown - a try that failed.
This team was neither young nor inexperienced - although Zook cited both as excuses for his team's disappointing season. Eight players from this team were taken in the 2003 NFL draft, among them Rex Grossman, a quarterback who arguably should have been awarded the Heisman Trophy the season before. As of the beginning of the 2006 season, 19 players from this squad held spots on NFL rosters. This team certainly didn't lack talent. Preparation is another matter.
2003 season: If the tide was to turn, this was the year we should have begun to see results. Instead, we saw more of the same. In order to halt the already extensive damage done to his stock by Zook's coaching, junior QB Rex Grossman declared early for the NFL draft. This left freshman phenom Chris Leak and inexperienced backups Gavin Dickey and Ingle Martin to run what passed for an offense under Zook.
After a romp over an awful San Jose State team in the season opener, the Gators traveled to Miami to meet the Hurricanes. As the Miami team ran onto the field, Zook inspired his charges by saying "In three years, we will look like that." Zook's troops overcame his inspirational pre-game chat to take a 33-7 lead in the third quarter. Zook's defining moment was at hand. However, Zook found a way to negate his unexpected prosperity. Miami QB Brock Berlin, a transfer from Florida, had been unable to handle pressure all night. Zook decided to help him out, going to a three-man rush and loose zone coverage. The Gators ran a prevent defense - a strategy usually reserved for the last possession of the game - for most of the second half. Given all day to throw, Berlin picked apart the Gators' secondary. Zook also abandoned everything that had worked offensively in the first half, and the Gators continually went three-and-out in a game they had dominated to this point. The Gators' biggest road win in years turned into a 38-33 loss. Zook said after the game that his team learned more by losing the game than they would have had they won it, and that his players were tired from thinking before the game.
A 65-3 trouncing of Division I-AA Florida A&M - a game in which Zook could have allowed his young quarterbacks to work on timing in the passing game against an overmatched opponent but did not - preceded another debacle: Tennessee at home. Prior to the game, Zook criticized both the media and the fans for questioning his refusal to name a starting quarterback before this game. He said that he was going to do what gave the team the "best chance to win" - as if keeping both his own team and his opponent in the dark about the quarterback situation would do that. With the Gators clinging to a slim 3-0 lead late in the second quarter and with 65 yards of total offense in the entire half, Zook decided that they could drive 50 yards in less than two minutes to try a long field goal - into the wind. The Gators were predictably forced to punt into said wind, Vols' QB Casey Clausen hit a long touchdown pass just before halftime, and the Gators lost 24-10.
A narrow 24-21 escape at Kentucky - in which Wildcats' QB Jared Lorenzen bailed Zook out by throwing a late interception while in the grasp of a lineman with Kentucky driving for the winning score - preceded another blown game at Ole Miss. The Rebels were ranked dead last in Division I-A against the pass going into this game. Zook spent the entire game trying to establish the run against a team that had given up over 1,100 yards passing the previous two weeks, including almost 700 yards to Texas Tech the week before they played the Gators. During this game, former Georgia head coach Jim Donnan said in an online chat on the ESPN website, "I don't understand why they (the Gators) aren't throwing every down." Ole Miss, probably unable to believe the gift they were given, choked off the run and scored late to win, 20-17. Zook explained his failure to attack the Rebels' most glaring weakness by saying that because Ole Miss was weak against the pass "doesn't mean they aren't going to practice and get better."
After handing the eventual national champion LSU Tigers their only loss of the season at Baton Rouge, another near disaster followed at Arkansas. With the Gators leading 33-7 in the fourth quarter, Zook backed off again. The Hogs scored three touchdowns within the span of a few minutes after scoring only seven points in three quarters plus. Only a questionable personal foul call against the Razorbacks on third and long during the Gators' last possession prevented them from having to punt to Arkansas leading 33-28 with about two minutes left. It was just the latest of several routs turned nail biters by Zook's conservative late game strategy.
More help from the opposition came at South Carolina. The Gamecocks gave the Gators a virtual gift touchdown with a failed fake punt deep in their own end of the field - the difference in a 24-22 Gators win.
Another Outback Bowl followed, this one against Iowa. After the Gators took an early 7-0 lead on a long post pattern, Zook never ran the play again. Zook said after the 37-14 loss that he was "scared" by how quickly his team scored, and that he didn't want his players to think that the game was "too easy". Apparently Zook believed that his job was to increase the degree of difficulty rather than giving his team the best chance to win.
Ron Zook meddled in the offense all season long, and it was an unproductive disaster. His offensive coordinator, Ed Zaunbrecher, had previously coached the high-powered Marshall offensive machine with Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich, who both became starting quarterbacks in the NFL. With Zook's micromanagement the expected wide-open attack was reduced to draws, screens and short sideline patterns. After overruling Zaunbrecher all season Zook publicly blamed him for his team's poor offense, demoting him to quarterbacks coach. Zaunbrecher told the media afterward that he "just did what the head coach told me to do." Typically dodging responsibility for this failure, Zook said afterward "I think this move on our coaching staff will allow us to take advantage of all of our strengths."
Although Zook's apologists again offered the "young team" excuse, the Gators started 14 seniors in 2003. Only Arkansas in the SEC started as many.
2004 season: Make or break time for Ron Zook. The Gators, who finished the previous two seasons unranked, were once again ranked in the preseason top ten - as high as #6 in some publications.
After a victory over overmatched Eastern Michigan, the Gators opened the SEC season at Tennessee. The Vols alternated two freshman quarterbacks. With the Gators clinging to a one-point lead late and needing a first down to run out the clock, Zook ran the exact same off-tackle handoff on three consecutive plays. The Vols stuffed it each time, and the Gators punted. Zook once again went to a three-man rush and loose zone coverage. Predictably, the Vols' young QBs repeatedly hit their receivers and Tennessee kicked a game winning field goal as time ran out.
Another example of Zook's poor game management followed against LSU at home. Despite the Tigers virtually handing the Gators 14 points with early turnovers deep in their own end, Zook's troops led only 21-17 late. With the Gators pinned back inside their own five and needing a first down to run out the clock, Zook called two slow-developing plays: a bubble screen completed three yards deep in the end zone, and a draw play. The Gators narrowly avoided safeties on both plays. They punted and LSU scored a touchdown with less than a minute left to pull the game out.
Two weeks later came the defining blow: A road loss to hapless Mississippi State. The punchless Bulldogs had earlier lost 9-7 at home to Maine, a Division I-AA school who finished the season 5-6. They had also lost a home game to perennial SEC doormat Vanderbilt by three touchdowns. Zook had no answers all afternoon as his unprepared and confused team surrendered 38 points, including a deciding touchdown with less than a minute left. After the 38-31 loss it was very evident, even to Zook's supporters, that the Gators' football fortunes had fallen as hard as the goalposts that October afternoon in Starkville, Mississippi.
October 25, 2004: The Monday after the Mississippi State game brought the announcement many Gator fans had prayed for for three years: Ron Zook would not be back in 2005, and this sorry chapter in Florida football history would mercifully come to an end. This was a loss so bad, so inexcusable, that even those who had steadfastly supported Ron Zook could no longer tolerate the damage he had done to the program. This Gator broke out a specially-bought and long-awaited victory cigar for the drive home from work. I watched ESPN SportsCenter for Jeremy Foley's announcement, just to make sure that it was really true.
It may not have been a great day for Zook, but it sure was for thousands of Gators.
The Gators rallied for an emotional win over Florida State at Tallahassee in what would prove to be Zook's last game as head coach, but they did far too little of that during his tenure. Poor discipline, awful game strategies, a totally absent off-season conditioning program and a complete inability to adjust on the fly defined the Ron Zook "era" at the University of Florida - that, and a shouting match at an on-campus fraternity house. Zook threatened to shut that fraternity down - the fraternity of Ben Hill Griffin, after whom the stadium the Gators play in is named. Not a good career move.
It should be noted that while the season-ending victory at Florida State is widely credited to Ron Zook, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong actually ran the team that night. The assistant coaches were finally freed of Zook's micromanagement and constant meddling and overruling, and the aggressive approach paid immediate dividends. Zook ran up and down the sidelines yelling and looking clueless just like always, but he played no real role in the victory.
Summary: Not since Doug Dickey had a Florida coach accumulated so much talent and done so little with it. Virtually every loss during Ron Zook's three-year stint can be directly attributed to abysmal game strategy, poor preparation, bad clock management, a failure to exploit opponents' weaknesses and a failure to adjust to what the opposition did. Several of the losses came to teams with far less talent. Leads blown in the second half and games lost in the waning seconds were a trademark of Zook's teams at Florida. During this time, the Gators were consistently the most penalized team in the SEC, largely penalties caused by lack of concentration such as offside, false start and illegal motion penalties. Zook never corrected this in three years as head coach.
Zook's recruiting - supposedly his strong suit - was not nearly as good as advertised. He signed a number of good individual players, but he did little to address team needs. The Gators were heavy in some positions and razor-thin in others, indicating a lack of attention to the depth chart in the recruiting process. Urban Meyer was forced to move a fullback to linebacker in spring practice before the 2005 season just to have enough players on the field at that position - an inexcusable situation for a top Division I-A program. One thing that came to light after Zook left is that more than half his recruits washed out. This indicates serious problems with the assessment process and it contributed greatly to the serious depth problems Coach Meyer inherited when he took the job in Gainesville.
The depth of Zook's poor preparation of both the team and of individual players came to light after his departure. Athletic department officials cited the complete absence of a mandatory off-season conditioning program. Coach Meyer also bemoaned the team's poor fundamentals, saying that it was "inexcusable for a top Division I program" to be in this shape. Chris Leak's mechanics were so bad (after two seasons under Zook and Co.) that Coach Meyer and his staff had to spend the entire spring correcting them - valuable time taken away from the task of installing a new offense. It was also revealed that Leak had never learned to call an audible - center Mike DeGory had been calling them. One wonders what Florida really paid Zook and his staff to do, since it appears that coaching football wasn't happening.
Two seasons after Zook's departure, with essentially the same team Zook had lost five games with in his last season, the Gators were national champions. This illustrates what should have been happening all along. Replacing a bad coach with a good one was all that was needed. Some sports writers have tried to credit Ron Zook, at least in large part, with the Gators' success in 2006. While it is true that Zook recruited most of the Gators' starters, the fact that he never managed better than a five-loss season with the same players shows that he does not even deserve a footnote in the story of the 2006 season. That the Gators repeated the feat in 2008 with all of Zook's recruits gone eliminates the argument that his recruiting was responsible.
The Ron Zook "era" (or error, if you will) is thankfully over at Florida. He is now Illinois' problem.
Shortly after Ron Zook's hiring was announced a Gator fan known only as Baghead established FireRonZook.com, a website and electronic bulletin board that would gain national notoriety and inspire countless imitators. Like many others, Baghead knew what was coming based upon Ron Zook's lackluster coaching career and his poor performance as the Gators' defensive coordinator. Baghead's board, to which this board is a successor, gave the average fan a place to vent and to express displeasure over this inexplicable and inexcusable hiring. Whether FRZ hastened the firing of Ron Zook is open to discussion. One thing is certain: FRZ was both highly visible and famous. Even today, some sportscasters refer to it.
Zook supporters (back when there were any) immediately set out to discredit the new site. Rumors abounded, including one that Baghead was actually a Tennessee fan who was only fueling discord among Gator fans - although they never explained what motivation a Vol fan would have to do this.
2002 season: Rex Grossman finished the 2001 season second in the balloting for the Heisman Trophy. Ron Zook stated shortly after being hired that he would help Grossman win the award in 2002. Apparently Zook believed that handing off on draw plays, throwing screen passes and running option plays was the best way for Grossman to impress the Heisman voters. Grossman not only fell off the All American and Heisman charts, he wasn't even second-team All-SEC under Zook's tutelage.
The first real hint of what was to come was a 41-16 drubbing at home at the hands of the Miami Hurricanes. Worse was yet to follow. A loss to Ole Miss on the road (Zook still managed to blow this game even though his defense largely shut down Eli Manning) and a 36-7 home loss to LSU fell between narrow wins over Kentucky and Vanderbilt. A 17-point loss at Florida State preceded the defining moment of Zook's first season: the Outback Bowl against Michigan. This game included a flyover by a plane towing a banner for FireRonZook.com, which stated "We told you so!". Website founder Baghead stated after the game, "It wasn't hard to find an angry Gator with an airplane." The Gators were driving while trailing by eight points late in the fourth quarter. The offensive genius made his former All American QB the primary receiver on a critical play as the Gators tried desperately to tie the game late. A wounded duck pass thrown by a running back was intercepted by the Wolverines, killing the drive. Zook explained after the game, "Rex was open". The Gators trailed by eight points instead of seven because Zook inexplicably went for a two-point conversion after an earlier touchdown - a try that failed.
This team was neither young nor inexperienced - although Zook cited both as excuses for his team's disappointing season. Eight players from this team were taken in the 2003 NFL draft, among them Rex Grossman, a quarterback who arguably should have been awarded the Heisman Trophy the season before. As of the beginning of the 2006 season, 19 players from this squad held spots on NFL rosters. This team certainly didn't lack talent. Preparation is another matter.
2003 season: If the tide was to turn, this was the year we should have begun to see results. Instead, we saw more of the same. In order to halt the already extensive damage done to his stock by Zook's coaching, junior QB Rex Grossman declared early for the NFL draft. This left freshman phenom Chris Leak and inexperienced backups Gavin Dickey and Ingle Martin to run what passed for an offense under Zook.
After a romp over an awful San Jose State team in the season opener, the Gators traveled to Miami to meet the Hurricanes. As the Miami team ran onto the field, Zook inspired his charges by saying "In three years, we will look like that." Zook's troops overcame his inspirational pre-game chat to take a 33-7 lead in the third quarter. Zook's defining moment was at hand. However, Zook found a way to negate his unexpected prosperity. Miami QB Brock Berlin, a transfer from Florida, had been unable to handle pressure all night. Zook decided to help him out, going to a three-man rush and loose zone coverage. The Gators ran a prevent defense - a strategy usually reserved for the last possession of the game - for most of the second half. Given all day to throw, Berlin picked apart the Gators' secondary. Zook also abandoned everything that had worked offensively in the first half, and the Gators continually went three-and-out in a game they had dominated to this point. The Gators' biggest road win in years turned into a 38-33 loss. Zook said after the game that his team learned more by losing the game than they would have had they won it, and that his players were tired from thinking before the game.
A 65-3 trouncing of Division I-AA Florida A&M - a game in which Zook could have allowed his young quarterbacks to work on timing in the passing game against an overmatched opponent but did not - preceded another debacle: Tennessee at home. Prior to the game, Zook criticized both the media and the fans for questioning his refusal to name a starting quarterback before this game. He said that he was going to do what gave the team the "best chance to win" - as if keeping both his own team and his opponent in the dark about the quarterback situation would do that. With the Gators clinging to a slim 3-0 lead late in the second quarter and with 65 yards of total offense in the entire half, Zook decided that they could drive 50 yards in less than two minutes to try a long field goal - into the wind. The Gators were predictably forced to punt into said wind, Vols' QB Casey Clausen hit a long touchdown pass just before halftime, and the Gators lost 24-10.
A narrow 24-21 escape at Kentucky - in which Wildcats' QB Jared Lorenzen bailed Zook out by throwing a late interception while in the grasp of a lineman with Kentucky driving for the winning score - preceded another blown game at Ole Miss. The Rebels were ranked dead last in Division I-A against the pass going into this game. Zook spent the entire game trying to establish the run against a team that had given up over 1,100 yards passing the previous two weeks, including almost 700 yards to Texas Tech the week before they played the Gators. During this game, former Georgia head coach Jim Donnan said in an online chat on the ESPN website, "I don't understand why they (the Gators) aren't throwing every down." Ole Miss, probably unable to believe the gift they were given, choked off the run and scored late to win, 20-17. Zook explained his failure to attack the Rebels' most glaring weakness by saying that because Ole Miss was weak against the pass "doesn't mean they aren't going to practice and get better."
After handing the eventual national champion LSU Tigers their only loss of the season at Baton Rouge, another near disaster followed at Arkansas. With the Gators leading 33-7 in the fourth quarter, Zook backed off again. The Hogs scored three touchdowns within the span of a few minutes after scoring only seven points in three quarters plus. Only a questionable personal foul call against the Razorbacks on third and long during the Gators' last possession prevented them from having to punt to Arkansas leading 33-28 with about two minutes left. It was just the latest of several routs turned nail biters by Zook's conservative late game strategy.
More help from the opposition came at South Carolina. The Gamecocks gave the Gators a virtual gift touchdown with a failed fake punt deep in their own end of the field - the difference in a 24-22 Gators win.
Another Outback Bowl followed, this one against Iowa. After the Gators took an early 7-0 lead on a long post pattern, Zook never ran the play again. Zook said after the 37-14 loss that he was "scared" by how quickly his team scored, and that he didn't want his players to think that the game was "too easy". Apparently Zook believed that his job was to increase the degree of difficulty rather than giving his team the best chance to win.
Ron Zook meddled in the offense all season long, and it was an unproductive disaster. His offensive coordinator, Ed Zaunbrecher, had previously coached the high-powered Marshall offensive machine with Chad Pennington and Byron Leftwich, who both became starting quarterbacks in the NFL. With Zook's micromanagement the expected wide-open attack was reduced to draws, screens and short sideline patterns. After overruling Zaunbrecher all season Zook publicly blamed him for his team's poor offense, demoting him to quarterbacks coach. Zaunbrecher told the media afterward that he "just did what the head coach told me to do." Typically dodging responsibility for this failure, Zook said afterward "I think this move on our coaching staff will allow us to take advantage of all of our strengths."
Although Zook's apologists again offered the "young team" excuse, the Gators started 14 seniors in 2003. Only Arkansas in the SEC started as many.
2004 season: Make or break time for Ron Zook. The Gators, who finished the previous two seasons unranked, were once again ranked in the preseason top ten - as high as #6 in some publications.
After a victory over overmatched Eastern Michigan, the Gators opened the SEC season at Tennessee. The Vols alternated two freshman quarterbacks. With the Gators clinging to a one-point lead late and needing a first down to run out the clock, Zook ran the exact same off-tackle handoff on three consecutive plays. The Vols stuffed it each time, and the Gators punted. Zook once again went to a three-man rush and loose zone coverage. Predictably, the Vols' young QBs repeatedly hit their receivers and Tennessee kicked a game winning field goal as time ran out.
Another example of Zook's poor game management followed against LSU at home. Despite the Tigers virtually handing the Gators 14 points with early turnovers deep in their own end, Zook's troops led only 21-17 late. With the Gators pinned back inside their own five and needing a first down to run out the clock, Zook called two slow-developing plays: a bubble screen completed three yards deep in the end zone, and a draw play. The Gators narrowly avoided safeties on both plays. They punted and LSU scored a touchdown with less than a minute left to pull the game out.
Two weeks later came the defining blow: A road loss to hapless Mississippi State. The punchless Bulldogs had earlier lost 9-7 at home to Maine, a Division I-AA school who finished the season 5-6. They had also lost a home game to perennial SEC doormat Vanderbilt by three touchdowns. Zook had no answers all afternoon as his unprepared and confused team surrendered 38 points, including a deciding touchdown with less than a minute left. After the 38-31 loss it was very evident, even to Zook's supporters, that the Gators' football fortunes had fallen as hard as the goalposts that October afternoon in Starkville, Mississippi.
October 25, 2004: The Monday after the Mississippi State game brought the announcement many Gator fans had prayed for for three years: Ron Zook would not be back in 2005, and this sorry chapter in Florida football history would mercifully come to an end. This was a loss so bad, so inexcusable, that even those who had steadfastly supported Ron Zook could no longer tolerate the damage he had done to the program. This Gator broke out a specially-bought and long-awaited victory cigar for the drive home from work. I watched ESPN SportsCenter for Jeremy Foley's announcement, just to make sure that it was really true.
It may not have been a great day for Zook, but it sure was for thousands of Gators.
The Gators rallied for an emotional win over Florida State at Tallahassee in what would prove to be Zook's last game as head coach, but they did far too little of that during his tenure. Poor discipline, awful game strategies, a totally absent off-season conditioning program and a complete inability to adjust on the fly defined the Ron Zook "era" at the University of Florida - that, and a shouting match at an on-campus fraternity house. Zook threatened to shut that fraternity down - the fraternity of Ben Hill Griffin, after whom the stadium the Gators play in is named. Not a good career move.
It should be noted that while the season-ending victory at Florida State is widely credited to Ron Zook, defensive coordinator Charlie Strong actually ran the team that night. The assistant coaches were finally freed of Zook's micromanagement and constant meddling and overruling, and the aggressive approach paid immediate dividends. Zook ran up and down the sidelines yelling and looking clueless just like always, but he played no real role in the victory.
Summary: Not since Doug Dickey had a Florida coach accumulated so much talent and done so little with it. Virtually every loss during Ron Zook's three-year stint can be directly attributed to abysmal game strategy, poor preparation, bad clock management, a failure to exploit opponents' weaknesses and a failure to adjust to what the opposition did. Several of the losses came to teams with far less talent. Leads blown in the second half and games lost in the waning seconds were a trademark of Zook's teams at Florida. During this time, the Gators were consistently the most penalized team in the SEC, largely penalties caused by lack of concentration such as offside, false start and illegal motion penalties. Zook never corrected this in three years as head coach.
Zook's recruiting - supposedly his strong suit - was not nearly as good as advertised. He signed a number of good individual players, but he did little to address team needs. The Gators were heavy in some positions and razor-thin in others, indicating a lack of attention to the depth chart in the recruiting process. Urban Meyer was forced to move a fullback to linebacker in spring practice before the 2005 season just to have enough players on the field at that position - an inexcusable situation for a top Division I-A program. One thing that came to light after Zook left is that more than half his recruits washed out. This indicates serious problems with the assessment process and it contributed greatly to the serious depth problems Coach Meyer inherited when he took the job in Gainesville.
The depth of Zook's poor preparation of both the team and of individual players came to light after his departure. Athletic department officials cited the complete absence of a mandatory off-season conditioning program. Coach Meyer also bemoaned the team's poor fundamentals, saying that it was "inexcusable for a top Division I program" to be in this shape. Chris Leak's mechanics were so bad (after two seasons under Zook and Co.) that Coach Meyer and his staff had to spend the entire spring correcting them - valuable time taken away from the task of installing a new offense. It was also revealed that Leak had never learned to call an audible - center Mike DeGory had been calling them. One wonders what Florida really paid Zook and his staff to do, since it appears that coaching football wasn't happening.
Two seasons after Zook's departure, with essentially the same team Zook had lost five games with in his last season, the Gators were national champions. This illustrates what should have been happening all along. Replacing a bad coach with a good one was all that was needed. Some sports writers have tried to credit Ron Zook, at least in large part, with the Gators' success in 2006. While it is true that Zook recruited most of the Gators' starters, the fact that he never managed better than a five-loss season with the same players shows that he does not even deserve a footnote in the story of the 2006 season. That the Gators repeated the feat in 2008 with all of Zook's recruits gone eliminates the argument that his recruiting was responsible.
The Ron Zook "era" (or error, if you will) is thankfully over at Florida. He is now Illinois' problem.