Dooley’s Dozen: 12 reasons Florida football and basketball are mired in mediocrity
In a small town a long time ago in a multiverse far, far away, there was a kingdom. It was glorious for the people who lived there and everybody else looked on with jealousy and resentment.
It was called Titletown.
You remember. SEC championships were served as appetizers. The national titles, the honors, the relevancy?
It was something else. The heroes were one-namers – Danny, Jo, Timmy, Percy, Al and, of course, Steve, Billy and Urban.
So, what happened?
How did we get here?
Here is not good. Both football and basketball finished under .500 for the first time since 1979. In the last 15 months, UCF – UCF! – has ended the seasons of both sports in an embarrassing fashion.
Dooley’s Dozen is going to try to explain it with the 12 reasons we are here. But it’s like trying to explain the Oscar winner, “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
It got harder
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
I remember after Florida won its second football title in three years after winning back-to-back basketball crowns coming up for air. And Jeremy Foley asked me, “Why can’t it continue?”
But there were things happening elsewhere. The league improved drastically in both sports by hiring big-name coaches.
... and Florida started revolving coaches
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
Especially in football. Mistakes were made and they yielded an amazing roller-coaster for more than a decade after Urban Meyer that has included three division titles, four double-digit win totals and four losing seasons. Basketball has had to start over twice as well during this time.
Florida got a little arrogant
Doug Engle/Gainesville Sun
There was a perception that permeated both programs that just being the Gators was good enough. Too many players wanted to be football and basketball players instead of wanting to play football and basketball. The arrogance certainly was an issue with the fanbase as well as some of the coaches and an administration that was slow to react at times.
Urban got sick, Billy got sick of it
Jason Parkhurst/USA TODAY Sports
Certainly, Florida had it made with those two coaches winning four national titles in less than three years. The two were close friends and lived one house apart. But Meyer’s health issues forced him to quit twice and Ohio State reaped the benefits.
Donovan left, came back, and finally was ready to just be a coach and left for the NBA a second time. He saw what was coming in college sports.
Expectations got out of whack
James Gilbert/Getty Images
And who could blame Gator fans? Things were going along so smoothly that they expected it to always be that way. But things changed and when they did, it was hard on the fanbase.
It didn’t help that Jim McElwain used to make fun of the expectations of the fans. And it got so bad for Mike White, he left for Georgia where expectations are not quite the same in basketball.
Some bad player decisions
AP Photo/Thomas Graning
The transfer portal is supposed to be an equalizer, but it really hasn’t been that good for Florida in either sport. I don’t want to call individual players out, but there have been too many misses in both sports.
Same goes for recruiting where chances were taken that didn’t pan out. And there were definitely some bad decisions when it came to who played and who didn’t, especially at quarterback and late-game shot selection.
Camelot doesn’t last forever
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
It just doesn’t. Breaks don’t go your way, the schedule isn’t fair, injuries derail seasons. You get bad match-ups in the NCAA Tournament. Calls don’t go your way. Everyone needs a little luck and Florida got some during its magical runs.
The NIL went off the rails
Syndication: Argus Leader
It seems like Florida now has a handle on it, but there have been issues beyond Jaden Rashada. Florida was not helped by the original state law and the general misunderstanding of what NIL was supposed to be and what it turned out to be. It has worked well with some Gator athletes (and certainly has with gymnastics), but Florida missed out on too many.
Opt-out disease
Brad McClenny/Gainesville Sun
It’s more of a football thing than basketball, but there were some players in hoops that might as well have opted out because there were some real no-shows over the last few years. In football, the bowl situation has been the opposite of Alabama’s, where Nick Saban preaches adding value with a big bowl game.
The worst day ever
Brad McClenny/Gainesville Sun
You know it too well, Everything seemed to be heading in the right direction in both sports until Dec. 12, 2020. That was the day [autotag]Keyontae Johnson[/autotag] collapsed on the floor in Tallahassee. Later that night, [autotag]Marco Wilson[/autotag] threw a shoe and Florida found a way to lose to LSU.
Nothing has been the same since that day. Florida is 12-17 in football since that morning dawned and has played in two NCAA Tournament games in three years.
Florida became the target
Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
And still is because fans and players of teams that take on the Gators aren’t just playing against the current teams. They are playing against [autotag]Tim Tebow[/autotag] and [autotag]Steve Spurrier[/autotag] and [autotag]Corey Brewer[/autotag] and [autotag]Lee Humphrey[/autotag]. They are playing against the program that can say what nobody else can, that they had both football and basketball titles at the same time.
We retired
Kelly Wilkinson/IndyStar
Robbie Andreu and I both left the Gainesville Sun on December 1, 2020. We loved it there but it was time to retire from the newspaper business. All we can say is that this never happened on our watch.
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