How the Gators Really Got Stuck with Ron Zook

By now all of the top high school football players in the country share the same question: how did the Gators go so quickly from Steve Spurrier to Ron Zook?

Just in time for recruiting season, the University of Florida has replaced a man who uses the word "evil" as half of his nickname (the more accurate half, incidentally), with a man who was a Saint.

Just a few days ago, the Gators had Spurrier, the arrogant coach who built a dynasty, and now they have Ron Zook, a defensive coordinator with a history of failure in New Orleans and Gainesville.

In the next few days, recruits will hear several reasons for the Gators' quick descent from swagger to desperation.

Bobby Bowden will have a story about it, as will Tommy Bowden and who knows how many other Bowdens.

Mark Richt, Lou Holtz, Larry Coker, and Phil Fulmer will all sit in the living rooms of talented teenagers and offer their thoughts on the Gators' crisis.

So how exactly did the Gators run the gamut from Ass to Zook in just a few days?

It was much more complex than the University of Florida would have us believe.

When Spurrier left Florida, the Gators assumed they would be able to hire Bob Stoops, who chose instead to remain at Oklahoma.

Then they were rejected by Mike Shanahan, who told Florida he would rather stay in Denver than move to Gator Country.

The university eventually hired Zook, the man the Gators want us to believe was their only other choice.

In claiming he wanted Zook all along though, Florida AD Jeremy Foley insults our intelligence and that of the Gators' fans.

I refuse to believe their top three candidates were Stoops, Shanahan and Zook.

Instead, through some careful investigative research, deductive reasoning, and wild speculation, I've decided Zook was really Foley's eleventh choice.

Foley, hoping to avoid the same embarrassment Notre Dame endured when the Irish were recently being rejected by every coach in the country, attempted to continue his search for Spurrier's successor in secret.

He did not want to risk making Florida a laughingstock like Notre Dame, who hired a guy just because he looked like a leprechaun and later found out his resume was full of lies.

I do not blame Foley for trying to avoid a Notre Dame like fiasco, but I can not believe Zook was really his third choice, right behind NCAA champion Stoops and Super Bowl champion Shanahan.

Surely, Foley called June Jones in Hawaii, Ralph Friedgen in Maryland, Mike Belotti in Oregon, and Rick Neuheisel in Washington before hiring Zook.

Jones, Friedgen, and Belotti simply chose to remain at their respective universities, while Neuheisel declined because he is waiting for the San Diego Chargers to call.

Mike Reilly, recently of the San Diego Chargers, was Foley's seventh choice, but Reilly refused because he covets the Huskies job. Reilly expects the Chargers to hire Neuheisel away soon, creating an opening in Washington.

When Reilly rejected him, Foley, who had never expected the search to be so lengthy and had not yet identified his eighth choice, began to panic.

He was turned down by at least three other candidates, including former University of Georgia coach Ray Goff, who did not accept the offer because he thought Foley was joking.

Gerry Faust, of Notre Dame shame, and Galen Hall, former leader of Gator Nation, also received and rejected offers.

Eventually, the Gators resigned themselves to a defensive coordinator who had been unsuccessful at Florida before rising to more spectacular failure in the NFL.

Yes, the Gators settled on their eleventh choice, Ron Zook, a man with no head coaching experience.

In the wake of the George O'Leary comedy at Notre Dame, I felt compelled to check the accuracy of Zook's resume, but its claims are true.

He really was the Saints' defensive coordinator when they allowed 160 points in the last four games of the season to ruin the team's playoff hopes.

He was indeed the Gators' defensive coordinator until he had that responsibility taken away from him by Coach Spurrier.

Foley wants us to believe Zook, despite his lack of success or experience, was Florida's third choice, right behind Stoops and Shanahan. I believe Zook was Foley's eleventh choice.

Ask yourself whether my story makes more sense than Foley's, especially if you are about to sign to a football scholarship.