There are 10 days until Florida's football opener against Florida Atlantic on September 3. There are 20 entries remaining in our 50 For 50 series. You do the math. And check out Alligator Army's 50 For 50 series for more of our 50 reasons to be excited for Florida football in 2011.
After years of Urban Meyer's dour preseason outlooks — typically, the sort of prospectuses that made Lou Holtz' pessimism look somewhat sunny — the lack of negativity from Will Muschamp during Florida's fall practice was jarring, even worrisome to some. So it comes as a relief to some of us that, yes, Will Muschamp can lower the boom after bad practices.
Muschamp laid into his team during media availability tonight. Here's some of the choicer stuff.
Muschamp said the scrimmage did not go very well. We did not execute very well. Mental toughness was not there. Very immature team.
Was tonight's disaster scrimmage a step backward for Florida? "It dang sure wasn’t a step forward," Will Muschamp said.
Will Muschamp on tomorrow's practice: "We are gonna be in full gear and we are gonna strap it up. It's gonna be a lot of fun. I cannot wait."
Muschamp being mad at the team is probably a sign that, shockingly, this Florida team isn't looking quite like a national championship contender in the fourth week of August. But it's also a sign that Muschamp knows when it's important to be mad at his players in public. The Gators won't like being called out by Coach Boom, and might benefit from being excoriated if it's in the name of making them better.