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AFM Magazine

AFM Magazine


The Problem with Legends? Replacing Them.

by: Richard Scott
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On the day he was officially announced as Florida’s new head football coach, Ron Zook made his point loud and clear.

In fact, he made his point repeatedly. Eleven times, to be exact, but then whose paying attention? If you’re Zook, only everybody.

“I am not Coach Spurrier. I am not going to be Coach Spurrier,” Zook said.

Get the point? Ron Zook isn’t Steve Spurrier. He isn’t the most successful head coach in the history of Gator football. He didn’t win a Heisman Trophy for the Gators. He didn’t lead the Gators to six SEC championships and a national championship. He didn’t transform the conservative SEC into one of the most exciting conferences in the nation. He just gets to follow the man who did. Let the second guessing begin, though Zook is unfazed.

“I have to be Ron Zook,” Zook said. “That’s the way it will work, and that’s the way we will be successful.”

It would seem as though Zook has it tough no matter what happens, although just about any coach would say he can handle the “tough” that is being a head coach at a top Division I-A program. If he struggles, people will remind him of the fact that he’s not Spurrier for a long, long time. If he’s successful, people will constantly measure his success against Spurrier’s legacy.

Just ask Ray Perkins, who tried to follow Paul “Bear” Bryant at Alabama. Or Bill Curry, Gene Stallings, Mike DuBose or Dennis Franchione, the coaches who followed Perkins at Alabama, where the sights include Bryant-Denny Stadium, Bryant Hall, the Bryant Museum and Bryant Drive. Let’s just say there isn’t anything named for Perkins in Alabama. Or ask Earle Bruce and John Cooper, who followed Woody Hayes at Ohio State. Or Fred Akers, David McWilliams and John Mackovic, who followed Darrell Royal at Texas.

Or Gary Moeller, who followed Bo Schembechler or Michigan. Or Jim Lambright, who followed Don James at Washington. Or Gary Gibbs and John Blake, who followed Barry Switzer at Oklahoma. Or Frank Solich, who followed both Tom Osborne and Bob Devaney at Nebraska. Or Ray Goff, who followed Vince Dooley at Georgia.

Or John Robinson, Ted Tollner, Larry Smith, and Paul Hackett, who also lost their jobs trying to replace John McKay at USC. Robinson even did it twice. Or, Lou Holtz, Ken Hatfield, Jack Crowe and Danny Ford, who failed to adequately replace Frank Broyles at Arkansas. Dan Devine won a national championship at Notre Dame, but Fighting Irish fans never accepted him the way they embraced Ara Parseghian. Then, no Missouri coach in the past 30 years has lived up to the standards Devine set at Missouri.

And what about the guys who will someday attempt to replace Joe Paterno at Penn State and Bobby Bowden at Florida State?

“He’s done so many great things for so many years, so no one’s going to be able to do it quite like Bobby,” said Georgia coach Mark Richt, Bowden’s long-time offensive coordinator at FSU.

Ask any other coach who has inherited the ghost of his legendary predecessor, and they’ll say it’s an unenviable job that often turns out to be a no-win situation.

“Expectations are so unbelievably high and the microscope on you is so large,” said Gene Bartow, who attempted to follow legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden and quit after just two tumultuous seasons, despite going 52-9 and winning two Pac-10 titles.

“For me, it almost took the fun out of it,” Bartow told CBS Sportsline. “That was the thing that bothered me the most. I didn’t have any pressure from the AD or the president. The nut element was really swirling.

“There are more than just a few that aren’t going to be satisfied. Kentucky basketball. Alabama football. Florida football would definitely fall in that category.”

There was a time when Florida football didn’t have the pedigree to claim such a distinction. Even when Spurrier won the Heisman back in 1967, the Gators were just another team in the SEC. When Florida made a move toward the top of the conference in the 1980s, multiple NCAA rules infractions knocked them back several spaces before Spurrier arrived in 1990 and transformed the program into a national power.

When Spurrier announced his resignation in January to pursue NFL opportunities, he hinted that the Florida football monster had become nearly impossible to feed adequately. Winning 10 games and playing in a New Year’s Day Bowl was no longer enough to placate spoiled Gator fans, and that played a part in Spurrier’s desire to chase new challenges.

“It’s like a disgrace when we lose and a relief when we win,” Spurrier said.

Upon Spurrier’s resignation, athletic director Jeremy Foley immediately pursued three candidates: Oklahoma head coach Bob Stoops, a former Florida defensive coordinator under Spurrier; Denver Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan, a former Florida assistant; and Zook, the former Florida defensive coordinator who had moved on to the NFL.

Stoops and Shanahan, perhaps concerned about the challenge of following Spurrier, decided to stay put. Zook, however, was eager to jump at the opportunity to be a head coach for the first time in his career, especially at Florida.

“Only in my dreams. This has been the job,” Zook said. “I’m from Ohio, so some people dream of being head coach at Ohio State or Notre Dame. I dreamed of being head coach at the University of Florida.”

The problem was, many vocal Florida fans weren’t exactly dreaming of Zook being the new head coach. In fact, many of them were shocked. They remembered that he had been Spurrier’s defensive coordinator from 1992-93, until Spurrier demoted him from the coordinator position and allowed him to stay on as Florida’s special teams coordinator and linebackers coach in 1994. One year later, Zook left Florida for the NFL and worked in Pittsburgh, Kansas City and New Orleans before Foley came calling.

“You have got to go with your instincts,” Foley said. “I have known Ron Zook for a long time. I saw his passion, his ability to recruit, how his players played for him, and I have since followed his career.”

Time will tell if Zook is up to the challenges at Florida. No one knows for sure until they sit in the saddle and start riding the big, nasty bull that life as a head coach of a major college power can become.

When Perkins replaced Bryant, one of the other coaches rumored for the job was quoted as saying, “It’ll be a lot easier to be the man that replaces the man who replaced the Bear, than it is to replace the Bear directly.” But even that proved to be untrue.

Perkins had already been the head coach of the New York Giants when he returned to his alma mater to replace Bryant in 1983. One of his first moves was to remove Bryant’s tower from the practice field, the Alabama equivalent of a new president removing the Washington Monument from The Mall in Washington D.C., because it obstructed his view from the White House. Perkins stayed for four seasons, but he didn’t do himself any favors with his gruff manner. His replacement, Curry, never had a chance at Alabama because he wasn’t one of Bear’s Boys, and left after four seasons.

“That’s Bear Bryant’s school,” said Bowden, who was turned down for the head coaching job that went to Curry. “It’ll always be his and there’s no way I could have lived up to what he did.”

When Moeller took over for Schembechler, he made the mistake of saying that replacing a legend was “no big deal.” Yet, after winning three Big Ten titles in five seasons, the Michigan administration was quick to remove him after an embarrassing off-field incident.

When Goff replaced Vince Dooley at Georgia in 1989, he stood up at his press conference and said, “If ever anybody’s life has fallen into place, I’d say mine has.” However, he went 6-6 and 4-7 in his first two seasons at Georgia. When Georgia Tech won a decisive victory at Georgia late in the 1990 season, a plane flew above Sanford Stadium carrying the message: “Fire Ray Goof.” After three more seasons of failing to meet the expectations of Georgia fans, Georgia fired Goff in 1995. He has yet to return to coaching.

Zook raised a few eyebrows early with a new spring practice policy: Everyone stands. The new fast-paced practices set a higher tempo and demanded more from the players, but Zook also demanded more from the fans and media in attendance. No one was allowed to sit in practice, and when a few fans attempted to take a seat and rest, Zook threatened to have them removed from practice.

“Well, I just wanted something different,” Zook said. “The one thing I wanted to establish is our practices were going to be different for the players. Not a lot of standing around. We’re high tempo. We’re moving around. No one is sitting.

“So we said, ‘Hey, if people come, then just ask them if they would stand up.’ If they got health problems or something like that, then you got to be smart. But just say I’d prefer if people stand at practice.”

Even Bowden had a difficult time comprehending that concept. Bowden himself has been known to sit at Seminole practices.

“Just don’t ask too big a booster to leave, OK,” Bowden said, laughing. “Oh boy.”

Zook is hoping he’ll soon have Florida fans saying, “oh boy” with aggressive offensive and defensive schemes and his own constant enthusiasm and energy.

The offense, run by former Northeast Louisiana head coach and former Marshall offensive coordinator Ed Zaunbrecher, will feature more shotgun formations, more one-back sets and possibly - this might be hard to believe - more passes than Spurrier threw at Florida. Only now, All-American quarterback Rex Grossman will be throwing more short passes and horizontal routes.

The defense, run by former Arkansas defensive coordinator John Thompson, will emphasizing blitzing and aggressive gambling from every angle.

“Those of you that saw us when I was the defensive coordinator here, we were not a sit-back defense. We were an attacking style defense. We were going to come at you,” Zook said. “Our offense is going to be the same way. We are going to be an attacking offense. We are going to throw the football around the ballpark. Obviously, that is my style and personality.”

Zook’s style and personality have gone a long way towards earning a chance with many skeptical Florida fans. While Spurrier often disliked recruiting, Zook absolutely loves it. And while Spurrier rarely enjoyed booster gatherings, Zook seems to embrace them. When an Orlando Sentinel columnist followed Zook during a spring appearance before 1,200 fans at the Lake County Gator Club, he noticed the fans were surprised and pleased at Zook’s willingness to shake hands, visit and sign autographs.

In fact, after Zook had been signing autographs for about 30 minutes, one of the club leaders told a school official, “We can cut these autographs off anytime you want.”

The school official replied: “Don’t worry about it. Ron likes doing this stuff. Things are different now.”

Things will also be different around the Florida football office. While Spurrier believed his coaches should make the best possible use of their office time and then leave early enough to be home with their families, Zook is more likely to burn the midnight oil in his office. The Sentinel also told the story of a fire alarm going off in the Florida athletic offices this spring, forcing all the employees and athletes to leave the building and walk out to the street.

One person stayed behind. Yes, it was Zook, who never quit working while the alarm buzzed away.

“If there had really been a fire, I could have escaped,” Zook insisted, pointing to his second-story office window. “It’s not that far of a jump.”

Maybe not, but the jump from Spurrier to Zook appears to be huge, just as it is when any coach replaces a legend. Whether he can do it or not remains to be seen, but Zook already understands one of the most important lessons someone in his position must take to heart.

“It comes down to winning,” Zook said. “I know that. All coaches know that.”





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