| The state of College Football in Florida |
| Michael Misconi editor of The Florida Gridiron blog October 20, 2011 no secret that college football in the state of Florida has taken a huge hit this year. Florida, Florida State, Miami, USF and even UCF have all had some level of a disappointing season so far. Florida State was once ranked in the top 5 and now finds itself out of the Top 25 and looking up at Clemson in the ACC’s Atlantic Division. Florida has lost three games in a row and cannot seem to generate any offense since starting quarterback John Brantley was injured. Miami has had an up and down season after losing to Maryland, Kansas State and Virgina Tech while scoring victories against Ohio State and North Carolina. USF started strong by beating Notre Dame on the road, but has followed that up with recent back-to-back losses to Pittsburgh and UConn. UCF has lost games to FIU, BYU and SMU, leading to a 3-3 record half way through the season. The state of Florida had at least one team ranked in the Top 25 since 1982 until last week, that’s 29 years of college football excellence. While that mantle was of course carried by Florida, Florida State and Miami, it is very rare to see all three programs down at the same time. So why has the state fallen on hard times? Well, first of all, coaching turmoil has not helped. Legendary coaches Bobby Bowden and Urban Meyer have left Florida State and Florida respectively. New head coaches Jimbo Fisher and Will Muschamp are trying to fix some of the recruiting problems their predecessors left and both are still in the process of tweaking or outright changing their offensive and defensive schemes. Miami also has a new head coach in Al Golden who is trying to pick up the pieces of a disastrous half decade of football with Larry Coker and Randy Shannon at the helm. USF’s Skip Holtz is trying to get things done his way in Tampa. Second, recruiting has been a major issue for the big three. Florida State, while successful last year, has had years of poor recruiting classes during the end of the Bobby Bowden era. Miami had a highly ranked class in 2008 that turned out to be fool’s gold, and now the program is caught up in the Nevin Shapiro scandal. Florida recruited well under Urban Meyer for the most part, but several key positions have not been addressed in the last few recruiting cycles. Specifically, recruits from the Offensive Line, Wide Receiver and Linebacker positions have either not been up to SEC quality or the positions simply do not have the numbers necessary to create quality depth. Third, the secret of Florida talent is out. All major college football programs now recruit the state hard. Specifically Clemson, Alabama, Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State have had success getting big time four and five star recruits to leave the state and play for them. Imagine what might have been if Trent Richardson, C. J. Spiller, Sammy Watkins, Aaron Murray, Orson Charles, Denard Robinson and a host of other star college football players chose to stay in state. So what’s the solution? Well I’m sure nobody wants to hear this but…time. They need time. Will Muschamp needs time to recruit players that fit the pro-style offense that he and offensive coordinator Charlie Weis have installed at Florida. Jimbo Fisher needs time to develop the talented freshman and sophomores on FSU’s roster and prepare them for the week to week grind that is college football. Al Golden needs time to rebuild Miami’s confidence and convince South Florida recruits to stay home and play for the “U”. (He also needs to hope Miami dodges the NCAA’s wrath) Skip Holtz needs time to develop his program at USF. UCF needs time to try and elevate the school into a BCS conference which will finally allow them to compete with the other Florida schools. Unfortunately, time is a luxury that no fan wants to provide. |
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