Will Muschamp: "I Certainly Can" Guarantee A Win Over Georgia

Well, well, well...those are what might qualify as fighting words if we were actually discussing a rivalry game (Georgia-Florida) that was not as lopsided as the one this match-up has become over the last two decades.

New Florida head coach, Will Muschamp, made certain to emphasize that any ties he had to the Georgia Bulldog nation as a former player and coach were no longer present in his mind in his new position as the head man at Florida. Said Muschamp, his loyalty is with whomever "signs my checks" and no one else.

You can't hate the guy for saying as much since he does have bills to pay, but the whole guaranteeing of a win thing has to stick in the craw of just about every Georgia fan who hates the color orange and has vivid memories of making those long, painful, trips back from Jacksonville after yet another Bulldog loss to the Gators.

The hope in 2011 is that the Dawgs can turn it around and start a new trend—a winning one.

After all, they will have one of the more experienced quarterbacks in the SEC—from a playbook knowledge aspect—and a defense that has nowhere to go but up in season two.

That said, there are also still plenty of questions at both running back and wide receiver, and now also the offensive line, where there is no certainty that a star will rise.

So, when a former Georgia player (who grew up attending Florida Gator games and, apparently, only came to Georgia because it was cost-efficient) starts making pronouncements that his team will be the better one on the field come October, you start to wonder just how scared the Bulldogs should be of their SEC East foe.

In the end, it's all just conjecture and grandstanding for the Florida Gator fanbase, but Muschamp has certainly given his alma mater even more reason to show up in Jacksonville—for all four quarters—in October.

Related articles

• Florida's Muschamp defends hiring Weis, spells out plan (cbssports.com)
• Dead to me. (blutarsky.wordpress.com)

Duval County: The $7 Million Decision That Nobody Wanted To See

Duval County, located in Jacksonville, FL, has decided to cut all high school sports programs from their budget in order to cover a $97 million shortfall. The decision means, effective immediately, there will be no basketball, no baseball, no football, or any other sports programs in any school located in Duval County—indefinitely.

While Duval is not the only district dealing with the problem of a busted budget, they are the only ones that have decided to do so by cutting all extra-curricular activities—including band. According to Paul Pinkham of jacksonville.com, the Duval County School Board Chairman, W.C. Gentry, stated that Duval County is "...trying to be proactive, start process early, look at impact on district then going to community..." 


That said, how did it get to this point in the first place? 


Many blame the politics of the of Florida's Governor, Rick Scott. Some feel he has brought a questionable agenda to the table in regards to many of the state's most pressing issues—including that of education—and that has meant a shift in the way the state approaches the operations of the public school system. In a nutshell, Scott favors finding profit in everything and is a proponent of expanding Florida's small-school voucher program. And it is that desire that, some feel, fuels Scott's desire to run the state "like a business". This decision has resulted in more wealth for the wealthy, but little for everyone else. 

Whether that theory is true or not is unknown, but that is one of the overwhelming theories on the matter. 

No matter what your politics, it has to be disturbing to see a district come to such a decision—moreso for the opportunities and doors it closes for the athletes than anything else. Where will these prospects go now that they are no longer able to play within their own communities? What are they supposed to do if they either cannot afford or do not have the option of playing elsewhere?


Here's one coach's opinion on the consequences of such an act:

"You take away sports and watch how low the FCAT scores drop. I had a lot of guys who had marginal [grade point averages], but the threat of losing their eligibility got them into the classroom and got their GPA over a 2.0 because they wanted to play sports. You take sports away, and you’ll lose those kids. They won’t have the motivation to get the GPAs up. We’ll lose them to the streets."

For the sake of Duval County, let's hope this decision doesn't trigger a community apocalypse but, on a broader scale, let's hope Duval County's decision doesn't signal the beginning of a trend either. That would be quite a mess indeed.

What say you?