Expectations Need To Be Tempered For Florida Head Coach Will Muschamp

By Trevor Lowry @TheTrevorLowry on October 6, 2014

Let me start off by saying that Urban Meyer is gone, and he ain’t comin’ back. Neither is Steve Spurrier.

Although Florida head coach Will Muschamp’s hot seat isn’t burning at quite as high of a temperature as that of Michigan head coach Brady Hoke, it is still quite the inferno. I have to agree with Florida’s athletic director when it comes to evaluating Muschamp’s work on the entire season.

Before we go any further, let’s take a look at Muschamp’s time at Florida:

2011: 7-6, win in the Gator Bowl
2012: 11-2, loss in the Sugar Bowl
2013: 4-8, no Bowl

Now, Meyer didn’t exactly have the best finish ever at Florida, as his last team compiled an 8-5 record. But then again, a team tends to have an off year when it loses a player as great as Tim Tebow, among others.

Last year’s 4-8 season is absolutely unacceptable — there is no doubt about that. The Gators don’t lose. They aren’t supposed to lose. For other programs, a 4-8 record looks like a bad year; but for Florida, it was a legen … wait for it … darily bad year. It marked the first time since 1979 that Florida had a losing record, and the first time since 1990 that the team missed out on a bowl game.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

Although pointing fingers at Muschamp and the offense was the popular thing to do (heck, I even got in on that), no team can come back from as many injuries as Florida faced and make an honest season out of things. Jeff Driskel may be a ball of disappointment, but even losing him for the season would throw off the team — and it did.

Instead of calling for Muschamp’s head after every loss, the AD has decided to judge the New Ball Coach’s success on the entire season. For what it’s worth, Florida only has one loss right now. That loss came against Alabama, which is lightyears ahead of everyone when it comes to competing for national championships every single year.

Was the Gators’ loss to the mighty Crimson Tide pretty? Well, is losing ever pretty? Florida got its butt kicked once the clock switched over to the second half. Heck, the Gators realistically got their butts kicked the entire game despite the scoreboard showing evens entering the second quarter, and even though Florida was only down by seven going into the half.

Let’s wait and see how Florida does against the Tennessees and Vanderbilts of the world. In fact, the Gators just beat the Volunteers … no thanks to Driskel.

The season just started and Florida is only four games in (should be five, but bad weather got the best of Florida’s first scheduled game), so let’s talk after the team’s rough three-game stretch against ranked opponents. The Gators, of course, just knocked off Tennessee, but now they will play LSU, Missouri and Georgia next. All three teams rock a number sign followed by a number next to their names — they are all top-25 teams. Well, LSU technically isn’t ranked anymore, but they were before this week.

Let’s talk when and if the Gators don’t make a bowl game this year. For that to happen, Florida would have to fail to win 6-7 games, which is possible with how tough of a schedule it still has to endure.

People have to remember that Florida didn’t enter the season in the top 25 this year. Teams hit droughts, and that’s the nature of well, I guess, life. Fans may be saying, “No, not Florida. The Gators are always good.” To those fans, I say look at the New York Yankees, the Boston Celtics, the USC Trojans, the Los Angeles Lakers, UCLA‘s basketball program.

Heck, even Takeru Kobayashi seemed like he would dominate the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest forever. Lo and behold, someone bigger and better took over.

Florida, without a doubt, has talent all over the field, and that is the biggest problem. Talent ultimately equals championships, or so people think. People expect a team like Florida to be good forever and ever because of the talent it brings in on a yearly basis. Well, some teams underachieve and some teams face key injuries, which has been the case in the Muschamp era, at least last year.

Now, that is no excuse to suck like Florida sucked last year, but it is what it is.

Let’s temper our expectations though. The Gators weren’t ranked entering the season, and they surely weren’t picked to win the SEC. The team was expected to be better than 4-8 — a respectable 8-5 to 9-4 season, if you will. If fans didn’t realize that entering the season, then they probably have unrealistic expectations or don’t follow Florida very closely.

If Muschamp gets fired for taking his team from 4-8 to 8-5 or 9-4, then something is seriously wrong with the way head coaches are evaluated at the college level … or any level really, which we kind of already know. The AD is giving Muschamp until the end of the season to show his worth, which is the correct thing to do.

The big question now is: Will Florida settle for not making the College Football Playoff and keep Muschamp around? What about not making the SEC title game, or not even winning 10 games?

Unless if Florida somehow turns Driskel into a stud and the rest of the offense follows suit, the Gators are going to be nothing more than a good team (don’t look now, but freshman QB Treon Harris just helped lead the Gators to victory over the Vols … oh wait, he just got suspended, so there goes that). And if that is not good enough for the AD, then so be it. For the time being, though, people need to stop turning Muschamp’s seat into the hottest thing since … I don’t know … LeBron James‘ decision to return to the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This team may have talent, but the Gators are not a national title contender — despite the fans wanting that so badly.

Trevor Lowry is a Content Associate at www.RantSports.com. If you’re a tweeter feel free to follow him @TheTrevorLowry or add him to your network on Google.