Did Will Muschamp save job by routing Georgia? It’s not crazy
Here’s the almost-impossible-to-believe paragraph ever typed about Will Muschamp in regards to the 2014 season:
Muschamp and the Gators could take a 7-3 record into the season finale at Florida State with wins in hand against rivals Tennessee and Georgia. That’s really 8-3 if you count the canceled season opener against Idaho. It would’ve been 8-2 (or 9-2) if not for some fourth-quarter craziness against LSU.
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Crazy talk, right?
That’s too many characters for Twitter, where Muschamp is roasted more than any coach not-named Brady Hoke. That’s also a lot of what-ifs when the reality is Florida is still 4-3 and Vanderbilt and South Carolina aren’t gimmies.
Can you really fire that coach?
Muschamp made his case Saturday, but he really made it back at SEC Media Days, when he said the Gators have to beat Georgia and end a three-game losing streak in "The World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party."
Done and done well.
It didn’t look that well early. Nick Chubb rushed for 101 yards in the first quarter, including a 39-yard touchdown run.
Holder Michael McNeely took a fake field goal 21 yard for a touchdown with 8:25 left in the second quarter to tie the score. Florida dominated afterward. The Gators rushed 60 times for 418 yards. Quarterback Treon Harris threw just six passes, but he didn’t make mistakes. Florida won 38-20, and it wasn't that close.
Muschamp, a former Georgia safety, might have just eliminated his alma mater from the College Football Playoff. A fake field goal might have saved his paycheck. Now Georgia coach Mark Richt, who falls to 5-9 against Florida, is feeling the heat.
Crazy talk, right?
Perhaps getting away from The Swamp was the ticket. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium emptied in the third quarter in a 42-13 loss against Missouri on Oct. 18. Florida doesn’t have to go back until Nov. 15, when the Head Ball Coach is coming to Gainesville. A win there would end any-and-all talk that Steve Spurrier would come back.
Lose there, back on the hot seat.
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But a win, and it’s another a win against Eastern Kentucky before the season finale against the defending national champions. Florida is the last team to beat Florida State. Would America rally around the coach everybody assumes is fired, the guy who wears the $3 sweatshirt and looks like he hasn’t combed his hair since August, against the team everybody wants to lose?
You’re damn right they would.
So here's the task for Muschamp: Beat Vanderbilt, EKU and one of South Carolina or Florida State. Win the bowl game just to be sure. Do that, and you are back on Florida's sideline next season.
There’s nothing crazy about that at all.
