It is fair to say Florida made the right move by cutting Will Muschamp when they did. The Gators had fallen behind the pack in the SEC, the SEC East and behind rival Florida State. This was not a one-year blip on the radar. This was a downward trend with little reason to trust the course would align properly any time too soon. While releasing Muschamp of his duties may have been praised by some, others may have been less optimistic. Those who may have cast doubt on Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley and his decision to go in a different direction when he did became a bit louder on National Signing Day when Florida missed on a handful of big recruits, most notable to Auburn.
Auburn, of course, picked Muschamp up from the unemployment line and gave him a job as the new defensive coordinator. The coaching move has since paid off on the recruiting trail with Auburn locking up some key recruits on signing day, a couple coming down to the wire between Auburn and Florida. With Muschamp giving Auburn an edge, in part because of established relationships that new Florida head coach Jim McElwain could not possibly make up enough ground on in the short time period available, the uproar about Florida’s recruiting was heard by Foley. Sticking by his decision, Foley is also understanding of the negative criticism aimed at Florida by some.
''It’s good conversation; it’s angst,” Foley said to the Associated Press. “But we terminated Will’s contract. He’s free to go make a living like anybody else.’'
Foley is not going to waste much time thinking about what could have been with Muschamp, nor should he. Florida was trending downward under Muschamp as head coach, and the hiring of McElwain is expected to turn things around. McElwain did alright for himself with his limited time to recruit at Florida. The Gators may not have landed a top elite class, but it could have been much worse than it ended up.
Muschamp was aimed with some good ammunition in the recruiting battles between Florida and Auburn, and given the way things ended in Gainesville he figured to have a few inside stories he never would have shared before. Although Muschamp was all class in his departure from Florida, the tales told on the recruiting trail can tend to show a different side of things.
Florida and Auburn are not scheduled to play each other either of the next two seasons, unless they happen to face off in the SEC Championship Game (or schedule a non-conference game against each other), so for the near future the Florida-Auburn storylines will have to stick to the recruiting trail.