Gators Embrace Unusual Role of Underdog, Out to Prove Doubters Wrong
Thursday, July 21, 2011 | Football, Scott Carter
HOOVER, Ala. – The Gators have shown up here for SEC Football Media Days the past few years often as the main attraction.
A pair of national championships, a Heisman Trophy winner and one of the game's top coaches does that for a program.
What does coming off an 8-5 season do? It quiets some of those outside expectations.
First-year coach Will Muschamp, quarterback John Brantley, receiver Deonte Thompson and defensive end William Green faced dozens of questions Wednesday about what people should expect of a Florida program in a rebuilding mode.
Seven months after being hired to replace Urban Meyer, Muschamp's message sounded very similar to the one Meyer shared in his six seasons.
“I have high expectations for our team,'' Muschamp said. “I tell them all the time, 'If you play at Florida, you expect to win championships.' That's what we expect.''
The Gators are being picked by many to finish as low as third in the SEC East behind South Carolina and Georgia in Muschamp's first season. When the league coaches released their All-SEC team earlier this month, not a single Florida player was on the first team.
Thompson chuckled when asked if that bothered him.
“I like it,'' he said. “It's all about the end of the season, not the beginning. There is no cockiness. We're not used to losing. We've got to change it. We lost five games. We expect that [outside view].''
In a little more than two weeks the Gators will open fall camp with perhaps more questions than answers. They are still learning a new offense installed by Charlie Weis and adjusting to new defensive schemes implemented by first-year coordinator Dan Quinn.
They have certainly closed the gap in the learning curve since ending spring practice in early April, but as fall camp looms, Muschamp understands the importance of finding some of those answers that the coaching staff is still searching for before the Sept. 3 season opener against Florida Atlantic.
“All of our team, in different degrees, has some deficiencies,'' Muschamp said. “We need to identify those. We've got more unknowns going into August camp than I would like to have, but that's part of it.
“We're moving forward.''
The key concerns are finding more playmakers on offense at receiver and running back, shoring up depth along a thin offensive line, and continuing to develop some of the talented young players on defense who have shown flashes of production but lack experience and consistency.
Brantley is confident that the players the Gators need are already on the roster.
“We've got some of the best recruits in the country,'' Brantley said. “If everybody plays to the best of their ability, we have a great chance to win. [Last year] wasn't our best year obviously. That's in the past now and we're looking forward.''
As they go forward, Muschamp is seeking progress. The Gators talked Wednesday about winning each day, whether it's on the practice field, in the weight room or on Saturdays. That's the only way they are going to get where they want to go.
Brantley will play a key role in how far the Gators get. He is coming off a shaky first season of the post-Tim Tebow era, playing in the spread offense that Tebow thrived in but that is not best suited for his drop-back passing ability.
He said when Weis first arrived and handed him a playbook that “it looked like Chinese at first.'' However, Brantley said he is now much more comfortable running Weis' pro-style offense and is excited about picking up where he left off in the spring.
While outsiders may not be picking the Gators to be a threat in the SEC, Brantley said that's not the mentality the team has coming off its first five-loss season since 2004.
“That's all in the past,'' Brantley said. “We can't do anything about that now. We can only work to get better and learn from this coaching staff. In a way that puts a little chip on your shoulder. That makes you want to go out there and prove everyone wrong.''
For that to happen, players like Green – inexperienced and unproven as a regular starter – must fulfill their potential.
“We've got players on defense that can play,'' Green said. “I'm a guy who had to wait his turn and I want to take advantage of it. There are more like me.''
Said Muschamp: “Potential is a bad word in our building. That means you haven't done anything.''
With his first SEC Football Media Days out of the way, Muschamp headed back to Gainesville ready to get started on the task at hand: making his mark on the program the way Meyer did.
That starts in earnest early next month. The Gators may be thinner than normal, they may not be picked to win the division or league title, but in the wake up all the changes since the end of last season, one thing that hasn't changed is the expectations around the Swamp.
Muschamp joked that emails from fans remind him of that daily.
“I don't think anybody is feeling sorry for the Gators,'' Muschamp said. “I think our guys are tuned in to what we're doing. I'm excited about that.''
