Gators eager to greet Muschamp

Ex-Florida coach, fired after 2014 season, prospering at South Carolina.

GAINESVILLE — For the second year in a row, a handful of Florida players recruited to Gainesville by Will Muschamp will face their former coach when the Gators play Saturday at South Carolina.

There will be hugs and handshakes after the game again, but mostly the Gators would like to repeat the outcome after beating Muschamp’s Gamecocks 20-7 in The Swamp a year ago.

“I mean, yeah, we’ve got to beat him. Can’t lose to ’Champ, right?” redshirt junior defensive tackle Taven Bryan said.

Bryan joked he might take a more involved role in the preparations this week.

“I’m excited to play Muschamp. Obviously, he was my original coach. I still got his playbooks. I may pass those out. I’m sure not much has changed.

So, I look forward to that,” Bryan said.

At this point, anything that might spark more motivation out of this reeling Gators team is a good thing. Florida has lost four consecutive games, each defeat looking worse than the one before it, including the dismal performance last week in a 45-16 loss at Missouri.

Interim coach Randy Shannon, for one, expects a different attitude and performance from his team this week.

He also appreciates the connection to Muschamp, who went 28-21 over four seasons at Florida before being fired after the 2014 campaign.

“It’s a lot of feelings and stuff that (are) part of this game,” Shannon said. “A lot of guys will go out and hug Muschamp . ... Guys are going to do that. You don’t take anything away from young men who were recruited by another opponent.

“Some coaches get, ‘Ah, he shouldn’t do that.’ No. That guy spent a lot of time putting faith in the guy that recruited him to come to Florida. He gets the right to go over there and hug him, shake his hand. But when the time for football comes on, he’s going to turn another switch and compete for the Florida Gators and compete against South Carolina.”

Meanwhile, Muschamp’s replacement at Florida is already gone. Jim McElwain lasted just 2½ seasons before being unceremoniously ousted two weeks ago.

As the Gators (3-5, 3-4 SEC) look for yet another coach, Muschamp has South Carolina (6-3, 4-3 SEC) on the rise in his second season behind sophomore quarterback Jake Bentley.

While Muschamp has moved on well from his time at Florida, and the Gators are eager to move on from his successor, it makes sense to compare the short and shorter tenures of Muschamp and McElwain in Gainesville. They were eerily similar. ■ Both had some degree of early success that was couched by concerns about the quarterback. After a 7-6 debut, Muschamp led Florida to an 11-2 finish and Sugar Bowl appearance in his second season, but fans wondered if Jeff Driskel could take his game to the next level. McElwain led Florida to back-to-back SEC East titles to start his tenure, but he rolled through four QBs in the process, leaving many concerned about the lack of progress at the position.

■ Their ultimate demise began with a respectable start to their third season. Muschamp started 4-1 in 2013 before losing seven straight games to end the season. McElwain started 3-1 this fall before the losing streak began.

■ Injuries demolished both rosters in those disappointing seasons. Florida has at least 15 players out this week — not including the nine suspended players. Both Muschamp’s 2013 team and McElwain’s final team also used three quarterbacks while searching for answers.

■ Under Muschamp and McElwain, the Gators failed to finish a season higher than 96th nationally in yards per game — and it’s a safe bet to remain true this year, as they rank 111th. The program cracked the top 70 in scoring offense once these past seven years, in 2014. This season, the Gators are 113th out of 129 FBS teams in scoring offense (20.6 points per game).

■ One main difference is Muschamp’s defenses remained elite throughout his tenure, while the Gators have now given up at least 42 points in back-to-back games while tumbling to 78th nationally in points allowed (28.4 per game).

■ The other is Muschamp, who had a better relationship with the athletic administration, was allowed to return for a fourth year despite that 4-8 debacle, going 6-5 in 2014. McElwain was shown the door at the first chance Florida had to part ways.

In the end, both coaches left the program with plenty of questions for their successor to answer.

Seeing Muschamp on the other sideline Saturday may be nostalgic for the players he recruited to Florida, but probably not so much for the Gators fans who are simply ready for the next head coach to try to do what the last two couldn’t.