The Vibe at Florida: Later Gator

For Florida fans, the only news better than last week's firing of coach Ron Zook would be the rehiring of Gators god Steve Spurrier

By Andrew Abramson

Frustrated Zook haters started making their pitch to Spurrier almost immediately Heinz Kluetmeier/SI

Mike Chisholm was so disgusted that he couldn't even finish his beer. Sure, the drink could have eased the Florida librarian's pain. But on Oct. 23, after watching the Gators lose 38-31 to Mississippi State, the same team that had fallen to Alabama-Birmingham and Division I-AA Maine earlier in the season, Chisholm and everyone else in Gainesville's Salty Dog Saloon could only stare blankly at the TV screen and wonder what had happened to the program.

The loss dropped Florida, ranked No. 11 in the country earlier this season, to 4-3, and fans coped by drowning their sorrows on University Avenue on a gloomy Saturday night. Groans filled the bars every time a SportsCenter clip showed the upset of the year. Patrons bore that eerie just-finish-me-now look of Nicolas Cage in Leaving Las Vegas. Several bartenders were forced to turn off all sports shows to keep some semblance of order.

Most of the hostility was predictably directed toward coach Ron Zook, who in three seasons since replacing Gainesville god Steve Spurrier is 20-14. "You've got to fire Zook," fans cried, groveled, begged on local radio talk shows. "Get that bum out of here. He can't win."

Fans got their pound of flesh. On Oct. 25, two days after the Mississippi State loss, Zook was fired by athletic director Jeremy Foley. Zook, who had the thankless task of following Spurrier, is now a footnote in Gators history, though he will finish out the remainder of the season. That afternoon, according to The Tampa Tribune, a class was taking a test when a student reportedly barged in and yelled, "Hey, Ron Zook got fired!" prompting the class to applaud.

The previously apocalyptic tone of call-in radio shows quickly became giddy again with the news that Spurrier might return to Gainesville, where he won five SEC championships and the 1996 national title before leaving for the NFL. Message boards crashed amid the onslaught of fans crying, groveling, begging for Spurrier's return. Says Gators fan Billy Scott, "He's definitely an improvement over Zook. I feel like we wasted the last three years, but I'll take [Spurrier] back." Added another student, "The Gators are cool again."

Few were more elated to see Zook gone than members of the Pi Kappa Phi fraternity. While Zook had more than his share of slipups during his Florida tenure, none was more publicly humiliating than the incident in front of the Pi Kapp house. On Sept. 15 three Gators players got into an altercation with several frat members. Late the next night Zook, at Foley's request, showed up at the house to break up another dispute between his players and the frat. Zook told frat members, "I'm not going to let you take the f---ing football team down," adding that he'd "do anything in my power to take this house down." Foley would cite the incident as one factor in his decision to let the coach go.

The one group of Gators not happy with the firing was the players themselves. Zook was, to a fault, a players' coach, which explained both his exceptional legacy as a recruiter (hello, Chris Leak) and his deplorable record as a disciplinarian. Linebacker Channing Crowder was arrested twice at the same nightclub and was suspended only one game each time. The second time Zook delayed the suspension six weeks.

On the day Zook was fired, Foley addressed the team. He barely got past the first sentence. Some players yelled at Foley. Others walked out. "We're really torn apart," junior safety Jarvis Herring says. "[Foley] basically just ripped the heart out of the team. He kept saying it was all about the team, all about the team. No, it's not about the team. It's really about the damn boosters and the fans."

Issue date: November 4, 2004