:) I've been laughing at him for years. Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T -----Original Message----- From: oli...@bobparks.com Sender: gatortalk@googlegroups.com Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2011 01:17:26 To: Gator Talk<gatortalk@googlegroups.com> Reply-To: gatortalk@googlegroups.com Subject: [gatortalk] Fw: [gatornews] Let me tell you, coaching Gators is no easy task
One could never say Bianchi isn't funny. :-) Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry -----Original Message----- From: "John Bowers" <jbowe...@cfl.rr.com> Sender: gatorn...@googlegroups.com Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2011 21:08:06 To: <gatorn...@googlegroups.com> Reply-To: gatornews+own...@googlegroups.com Subject: [gatornews] Let me tell you, coaching Gators is no easy task Let me tell you, coaching Gators is no easy task Sportswriter gets backstage pass to UF spring game Mike Bianchi SPORTS COMMENTARY 6:40 p.m. EDT, April 9, 2011 os-bianchi-florida-gators-spring-game20110409 http://www.orlandosentinel.com/hive/images/ratings/rating_off.jpghttp://www. orlandosentinel.com/hive/images/ratings/rating_off.jpghttp://www.orlandosent inel.com/hive/images/ratings/rating_off.jpghttp://www.orlandosentinel.com/hi ve/images/ratings/rating_off.jpg GAINESVILLE - I'm telling you, we all need to have a variation of the Gator Walk on our way to work. Wouldn't it be great if, for instance, I walked into the Orlando Sentinel building amid an adoring horde of fans who lined the parking lot and screamed, "We love you, Bianchi! . Your columns are profound, Bianchi! ... Nobody paints a picture with words like you do, Bianchi!" That's what it's like when you traverse the Gator Walk - that 150-yard brick pathway by which University of Florida players and coaches enter Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. It is lined with thousands of fans who cheer for you and scream your name and tell you how wonderful you are. On Saturday, new UF coach Will Muschamp invited a handful of media members to be "guest coaches" at the Orange and Blue spring game and provided us with a one-day backstage pass to the inner workings of Gator football. We ate the team meal. We took the team bus. We stood with the coaches during the game. But, best of all, we strode down the Gator Walk, where fans high-fived us, took our picture and just wanted to touch us on our way by. One fan even yelled, "Go Media!" Somewhere, Urban Meyer must have been having convulsions. Meyer used to yell at Orlando Sentinel reporters; Muschamp invites them into the locker room. Then again, Meyer won two national titles. Muschamp has never, ever coached a real game as a head coach. Muschamp has the championship credentials as an assistant coach at big-time programs like Auburn, LSU and Texas. And he certainly has the intensity and focus judging by his pre-game message to his team Saturday. "First impressions are important," Muschamp said in the locker room beforehand. "This is your first time out in front of Gator Nation. "I wanna see fast; I wanna see physical; and I wanna see somebody knock the [spit] out of somebody!" The question every Gator fan wants to know is if Muschamp can match UF's other great coaches of the last two decades. Those eras were put on display Saturday when statues of Florida's three Heisman Trophy-winning quarterbacks - Tim Tebow, Danny Wuerffel and Steve Spurrier - were unveiled. Meyer, of course, coached Tebow to national titles; Spurrier coached Wuerffel to a national title. Muschamp? He coaches John Brantley, who doesn't have any statues but last season played like one. He is a resurrection project for new offensive coordinator Charlie Weis, whose pro-style attack is obviously a better fit than Meyer's disastrous attempt to make Brantley a spread-option quarterback. When I asked Weis in the locker room Saturday if he could guarantee Brantley would never be asked to the run the option under his watch, he smiled and said, "I can definitely guarantee that. You can count the number of times John Brantley will run the option this year on no hands." Although Muschamp insists Brantley has been sharp during closed practices this spring, he certainly didn't impress the announced crowd of 53,000 on Saturday. Brantley, playing behind a makeshift offensive line, completed only 4-of-14 passes for 45 yards. On the last play of the first half, Brantley threw an unsuccessful Hail Mary. Tebow, on hand for the statue unveiling, caught the ball on one bounce behind the end zone and fired a spiral back out to the middle of the field. The crowd roared. It's never easy being the quarterback who followed Tebow, and no doubt, Brantley's shaky performance Saturday will be picked apart by many UF fans who ravaged his performance last year. That's just the way it is when you play for one of the most demanding fan bases in the country. Ron Zook used to refer to fan and media criticism at UF as "noise in the system." Meyer used to call it "Gator nonsense." How will Muschamp describe it? Florida fans cheered their new coach Saturday, but he will be criticized soon enough. It happens to all of 'em - even us guest coaches. In fact, after my Orange team fell to the Blue 13-10 Saturday, a hoarse fan screeched from the stands, "Bianchi, your coaching is worse than your columns!" See what us coaches have to put up with? So long, Gator fans I am resigning to spend more time with my family. mbian...@tribune.com -- 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 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- 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 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us -- 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 2008 National Football Champions | Three Heisman Trophy winners: Steve Spurrier (1966), Danny Wuerffel (1996), Tim Tebow (2007) - Visit our website at www.gatornet.us
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