I've always thought that Galen Hall got a bum rap. His recruiting efforts were greatly hindered by the probation that Pell led us to, and some very nitpicky, trivial, and somewhat unjust followup allegations that occured on his watch.
That said, he did recruit some kid from the panhandle, which was fertile Bama territory in those days (still is to some extent) who went on to have a great stint at UF and is currently the NFL's all time leading rusher. Hall may have not had the charisma to take us to the heights SOS did, and as unfortunate as events turned out for him, the timing of those were just right for us to bring SOS in, which was a watershed day for the program. But Hall was popular with the players, had good teams (especially considering the handicaps they were playing with) and has shown, since he's been allowed back in college coaching, to have a good football mind. He's also a former bowl winning UF QB (ironically, against Penn State, where he coaches now). And, for what it's worth, Spurrier has gone on record as saying that he inherited a very talented squad from Hall, which allowed him to hit the ground running (passing) and to be a major player from day one in the SEC. While Zook recruited some very talented guys that Meyer inherited, his classes all had some major holes to fill, and I'd say that they weren't as ready to compete as the group that SOS started with. Back on topic, I suppose making comparisons is an exercise that will always be popular, but there are so many variables that can be overlooked either intentionally or unintentionally, that most of the conclusions are highly subjective at best. I'm glad we had Pell, glad we had Galen, glad we had SOS, glad Zook was willing to be the guy that followed the legend, and am glad to have Meyer at the helm today. After all of those years of frustration, it's still a little surreal to me that we have a chance to win a third national championship (in football - our two in basketball go beyond surreal when viewed with historical perspective) two days from now. It certainly is great to be a Florida Gator! After Graves, Dickey tore up whatever foundation we had. We had some good years with Galen, even though the recruiting did fall into the toilet. One nice thing about Zook, even when he was losing games, he was still an effective recruiter. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ GATORS: ONE VOICE ON SATURDAY - NO VOICE ON SUNDAY! 1996 National Football Champions | 2006 National Basketball Champions 2006 National Football Champions | 2007 National Basketball Champions Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
