Florida Gators in the NFL: Put Some Respect on Will Muschamp's Name

Demarcus Robinson and Dante Fowler Among His Many Former Players Still Balling in the NFL

Watching Demarcus Robinson and Dante Fowler ball out this past Sunday - and really all season - made me think back to Will Muschamp’s final Florida Gators team in 2014. Muschamp was fired before the season ended, but it wasn’t because of a lack of talent. Including Robinson and Fowler, there were 34 (!!!) future NFL players on that roster. In my research, it’s the most NFL players on one Gators team by far and I’d guess it ranks among the most for any one college team ever too.

Ten of those guys are STILL playing in the league, including D-Rob and Dante.

It begs the question 10 years later, and with a bunch of mediocre to bad Gators coaches and teams since, why the hell did UF fire Muschamp? His overall record was only 28-21 and the SEC mark of 17-15 sucked. But as I looked beyond those numbers, I couldn’t help but think about what if.

Muschamp’s greatest strength was as a recruiter. He was a fantastic defensive coach too, but his offenses - partly due to his coordinators, partly due to horrible injury luck - were unwatchable. 

He went 7-6 in his first year in 2011 after the absolute chaos and bare cupboard Urban Meyer left behind. In 2012, Florida went 11-2 and finished in the top 10. Jeff Driskel looked like the next Tebow, the recruiting classes were top five, and the Gators looked prime to challenge for the SEC and national title in the coming years.

Reader, that is not what happened! UF started 4-1 in 2013 despite losing Driskel early in game three against Tennessee - a game the Gators still won. They collapsed in an avalanche of more injuries and finished with what at the time seemed like an unforgivable 4-8 record. The infamous FCS-loss to Georgia Southern was the worst in school history and made the Gators a punch-line from which Muschamp would never recover. 

The animosity after that game and that season made 2014 an impossible task for him. He and the team had to be near perfect. A 3-1 start that included a win over the Vols but a loss to #3 Alabama spiraled down due to Driskel’s poor play and eventual benching. It seemed like the now legendary win over Georgia where the Gators ran for 418 yards and completed just three Treon Harris passes would save Muschamp, but just two weeks later after a bad loss at home in overtime to South Carolina, he was fired.

Looking back now, it seems insane a young coach who was a great recruiter who built strong, deep rosters and had wins over Tennessee and Georgia was dismissed. I won’t try to rewrite history and say Muschamp was a great head coach, but I will say his teams were talented and fought hard - something that would be much more rare in the coming decade. 

Perhaps it is a lesson Gator Nation needs to be reminded of as we deal with the struggles of Billy Napier while our eyes can clearly see the progress and fight this current team has made.

Here’s the full list of all 34 players to play in the NFL off that 2014 Gators squad.

BEST PLAYER OF WEEK 9

It’s a three-way tie this week. D-Rob’s first back-to-back two-touchdown games were punctuated with this miraculous one-handed game-winning snag. 

Fowler had his second two-sack game in four weeks and is on pace for a career-high QB takedowns. Despite playing less than half the defensive snaps in Washington, he’s having the best season of his nine-year career.

Jon Greenard racked up two sacks of his own on Sunday Night Football. He’s tied for sixth in the league with seven sacks. At this rate, he’ll be running Cobra Kai by the end of the year - see… he celebrates each sack with a karate kick… - I’ll show myself out.

BEST PLAY OF WEEK 9

D-Rob. Let’s see it again.

Rams head coach Sean McVay and the entire L.A. locker room went wild for “Demarcus! Demarcus! Demarcus!”.

TOP 10 WEEK 9 PERFORMANCES

1(t) - Demarcus Robinson, WR, LAR

Week 9: 6 rec (9 targets), 94 yards, 2 TD, 54 snaps (70%)

You’ve seen the one-handed grab many, many times, but Robinson would have been the top player of the week even without that particular grab. He was awesome in Seattle and has been so underrated playing for great teams as a third-fourth-or-fifth option. It’s awesome to see him getting his due finally.

1(t) - Dante Fowler, Jr., OLB, WAS

Week 9: 2 sacks, 6 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 QB hits, 1 FF, 31 snaps (48%)

1(t) - Jonathan Greenard, EDGE, MIN

Week 9: 2 sacks, 2 tackles, 2 TFL, 2 QB hits, 1 PD, 48 snaps (89%)

4 - Alex Anzalone, LB, DET

Week 9: 6 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 QB hit, 65 snaps (100%)

5 - Kaiir Elam, CB, BUF

Week 9: 5 tackles, 1 TFL, 1 FR, 58 snaps (95%)

Elam made his first start of the season and made some plays. He recovered a fumble and nearly forced another. After a decent rookie campaign, it has been a rough couple of years for Elam. Nice to see him get a start and perform well. Unlike previous UF first-round corner busts, Elam’s team hasn’t given up on him either. He’s working hard and will find a path to more and more playing time.

6 - Jawaan Taylor, RT, KC

Week 9: 85 snaps (100%)

Taylor continued his run of impressive play with another clean, solid performance. Of course, the Twitter cops were out in full force with a frame-by-frame breakdown of one snap in overtime where he clearly moved 0.001 seconds before the ball was snapped. You got him, congrats! 

7 - Ventrell Miller, LB, JAX

Week 9: 8 tackles, 45 snaps (57%), 11 ST snaps (48%)

8 - C.J. Gardner-Johnson, DB, PHI

Week 9: 4 tackles, 54 snaps (100%)

9 - Marcus Maye, S, MIA

Week 9: 6 tackles, 1 TFL, 66 snaps (100%)

Maye wasn’t officially credited with a missed tackle, but if you watched the Dolphins game you know he could have made a play to save a long touchdown. He’s been decent in Miami, but much like his entire career, there are ups and downs every game.

10 - Gervon Dexter, Sr., DT, CHI

Week 9: 3 tackles, 46 snaps (79%), 6 ST snaps (21%)

THE REST OF THE FORMER GATORS

Fred Johnson, OT, PHI

Week 9: 78 snaps (99%)

Johnson made his third straight start at left tackle for Philly. He missed one snap with a knock but otherwise was effective again helping a resurgent Eagles offense go up and down the field against Jacksonville.

O’Cyrus Torrence, G, BUF

Week 9: 66 snaps (100%)

Torrence played well against Miami outside of a very questionable holding call that negated an awesome Josh Allen touchdown scramble. 

T.J. Slaton, NT, GB

Week 9: 4 tackles, 31 snaps (54%), 7 ST snaps (32%)

Brandon Powell, WR/PR, MIN

Week 9: 1 rec (1 target), 9 yards, 1 PR, 15.0 avg, 19 snaps (26%), 4 ST snaps (18%)

Kyle Pitts. TE, ATL
Week 9: 1 rec (1 target), 11 yards, 31 snaps (54%) 

Honestly don’t know what the deal is with Pitts anymore. He’s playing fewer and fewer snaps and his target rate has dropped from nine to five to one in two weeks. That said, he’s obviously regained some of his explosiveness down the field. But it appears he’s stuck at being a hit-or-miss guy week-to-week.

Evan McPherson, K, CIN

Week 9: 2/2 FG, Long 44, 5/5 XP

Eddy Piñeiro, K, CAR

Week 9: 1/1 FG, Long 48, 2/2 XP

I’m excited to see Eddy in person in Germany this week. 

Tommy Townsend, P, HOU

Week 9: 3 punts, 51.3 avg, 51.3 net

Jonathan Bullard, DL, MIN

Week 9: 2 tackles, 30 snaps (56%)

Marco Wilson, CB, NE

Week 9: 2 tackles, 25 snaps (32%), 5 ST snaps (19%)

Taven Bryan, DT, IND

Week 9: 2 tackles, 17 snaps (23%), 9 ST snaps (41%)

Amari Burney, LB, LV

Week 9: 2 tackles, 1 snap (1%), 28 ST snaps (88%)

Justin Shorter, TE, LV

Week 9: 4 snaps (7%), 16 ST snaps (50%)

Shorter was officially signed to the Raiders 53-man roster. He previously was on the practice squad and had been elevated for the previous two games. He has yet to receive a target on offense or record a tackle on special teams.

Zach Carter, DT, LV

Week 9: 5 snaps (7%)

Carter made his Raiders debut with five snaps.

Anthony Richardson, QB, IND

Week 9: Did Not Play

The Colts offense was terrible on Sunday night, the first game since Richardson was benched for Joe Flacco. {Insert smug shaking head at the camera meme gif here} 

Kyle Trask, QB, TB

Week 9: Did Not Play

BYE WEEK

Ricky Pearsall, WR, SF

Van Jefferson, WR, PIT

C.J. Henderson, CB, PIT

Jeremiah Moon, OLB, PIT

INACTIVE

Dameon Pierce, RB, HOU

Brenton Cox, Jr., OLB, GB

PRACTICE SQUAD

La’Mical Perine, RB, PIT

Malik Davis, RB, DAL

Kingsley Eguakun, C, DET

Richard Gouraige, OT, BUF

David Sharpe, OT, HOU

Kadarius Toney, WR, CLE

Trey Dean III, S, CLE

INJURED RESERVE

Trent Brown, RT, CIN

Stone Forsythe, OT, SEA