We hired a new football coach? -------- Original message -------- From: John Bowers <[email protected]> Date: 05/08/2015 12:12 PM (GMT-05:00) To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [gatortalk] Fwd: [gatornews] [SUN]: Dooley: Foley gets his guy
I also think that “only” paying $2 mill a year was a factor. White is young, obviously talented, a Florida native, and plays “uptempo” hoops. Jeremy had a tough decision, he went with what he thinks is correct. With all Jeremy has done for UF, we need to get behind the new guy. And the new football guy, too, whatever his name is. Heh heh…. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Sandy Alonso Sent: Friday, May 08, 2015 11:04 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [gatortalk] Fwd: [gatornews] [SUN]: Dooley: Foley gets his guy I respectfully disagree. Besides the fact that I am no fan of Roy Williams, a lot of those guys will cost a ton of money and bring along baggage or a boring style of play.I was on the Archie Miller bandwagon, but the basketball talking heads are gushing so much about this guy, that I'm starting to really warm up to this hire. On Fri, May 8, 2015 at 10:47 AM, mail.bobparks.com <[email protected]> wrote:I'm not impressed. If Florida is an elite program we should get an elite coach. A Roy Williams, not another project. Oliver Barry, CRS, GRI, SFRReal Estate BrokerBob Parks, LLC145 Maple Row BlvdHendersonville TN 37075Mobile: 615-972-4239Office: 615-826-4040 Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message:From: Shane Ford <[email protected]> Date: May 8, 2015 at 7:06:15 AM CDT To: GatorNews <[email protected]> Subject: [gatornews] [SUN]: Dooley: Foley gets his guy Reply-To: [email protected]: Foley gets his guy Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley was pumped up after hiring Mike White on Thursday. (The Associated Press)By Pat Dooley Gainesville SUN ColumnistPublished: Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 10:06 p.m.Last Modified: Thursday, May 7, 2015 at 10:55 p.m.It was Monday morning and Jeremy Foley was choked up. He was saying goodbye to Billy Donovan, his close friend and best hire as Florida's athletic director.On Monday afternoon, Foley made a phone call that would shape the immediate future of Florida basketball. He dialed up Tommy McClelland, the young athletic director at Louisiana Tech, to let him know he wanted to talk to McClelland's basketball coach.On Thursday, Foley was pumped up.He had hired the coach to replace the irreplaceable.“You're gonna love him,” Foley told me Thursday night. “I know this happened fast, but he blew us away.”Mike White, 38, fits all the parameters of a Foley hire. He's young, he has a great personality, he has had success but not so much that Florida had to pay ridiculous money to get him here. Foley has a track record of rewarding coaches who do well here, not somewhere else.The hiring of White happened so fast it caught a lot of people by surprise. The surprise wasn't that they hired him, but that they hired him so quickly.But you have to understand this — once coach Scott Brooks was fired by Oklahoma City, Foley and his staff prepared for the worst-case scenario. They started looking for a new coach before Donovan was even talking to Thunder general manager Sam Presti.That's what you do when you are an athletic director. You don't wait until the bomb drops, you start moving when you hear the planes overhead.“Our antennae were up,” Foley said.And the one guy they kept picking up on the radar was White, who might well be the next big thing in college basketball. He is energetic and knows the state of Florida. His team plays fast-tempo basketball, which was crucial for Foley to find.After 19 years of Billyball, nobody wanted to see Deflategate, basketball-style.Then there is this — White and Louisiana Tech have been to the NIT three straight years. That shouldn't excite anyone, but if you are at Louisiana Tech you had better win your conference tournament if you want to dance.I could mention this — he turned down Tennessee and has already won at Florida State. Now you're warming up to the guy.Or this — Florida basically traded Jeff Driskel for Mike White.Point, Florida.But these are all trivial points that pale in comparison to the biggest one. Just like it was the right time for Donovan in his career to leave Florida, it was the right time for White in his career to come to Florida.Time will tell if this was a good hire. It makes a lot of sense. There were other coaches on speculative checklists, but most of them were bloggers' dreams. Foley knew who he wanted, vetted him and went after him.Certainly, this is now an athletic director with two new coaches with limited track records in the sports that matter most. If nothing else, it makes the coming years around here really interesting.The bottom line is that a new era has begun for Florida basketball. It has been so long since one started, it's difficult to remember when it did. Here's a clue — Michael White was a sophomore point guard at Ole Miss when Donovan started his career as UF's coach. Now, White takes over an elite program, one that Donovan started building when White was trying to find a way to beat the Gators as a player.Now, White's their guy.Now, he has the chance of a lifetime.There have been a lot more splashy hires in the SEC over the last two years. Bruce Pearl, Rick Barnes, Ben Howland. This hire had much less splash. But what matters are the ripples.Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at [email protected]. And follow at Twitter.com/Pat_Dooley. Sent From Shane's iPhoneGo Gators! & Skål Vikes!ALPCA #8756 Europlate #1045-- -- 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) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorNews" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.-- -- 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) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorTalk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- 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) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorTalk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. -- -- 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) --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "GatorTalk" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
