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Gators players still have fond memories of Will Muschamp
By Andrew Olson
Published:
GAINESVILLE, Fla. – For Gators fans, Will Muschamp returns to The Swamp as the enemy, the man who nearly ruined Florida football. For the 30 Gators players he signed, however, he’s more like family, or an old friend.
“Well, I just remember the hospitality and how they treated me. They treated me like family,” defensive tackle Joey Ivie recalled of the previous coaching staff recruiting him. “Just the calls and how they included my family and the in-house visit, coming to my school a lot. When you’re a kid and you build relationships with a coach like that and you’re a solid commit to a school like this, you build those solid relationships.
“Obviously, Mac came in here and everybody bought into the McElwain era and what he had to say. Everyone’s point of view is different now, now that we have a new coach. But you still always have those, I guess you could say, friendship feelings for the coaches that were here.”
When Florida fired Muschamp two years ago, the senior class of 2016 wasn’t expecting to see him at their final home game in The Swamp. But thanks to some shuffling of the schedule due to Hurricane Matthew, the coach who signed them will be back for the departing Gators’ Senior Day. The man nicknamed Coach Boom is guaranteed to bring some intensity to Saturday’s SEC East clash.
“It’s going to be different,” senior wide receiver Ahmad Fulwood said. “I mean, I haven’t had him as a coach for two years, but to actually be playing against him is something different. I’m excited for what he’s going to bring on the other sideline, the energy. I’m excited for the game.”
Fulwood remembers feeling welcomed and getting the sense that Muschamp’s Gators were truly a family.
“He just made it feel like a family vibe,” Fulwood said of committing to Florida in 2013. “I went to a lot of places. You really didn’t get that feeling where you go every time he sees me, he asks how my mom was, my sister. All of the coaches, they asked me how my well-being was. So I felt like that was the big thing.”
When it came to recruiting linebacker Daniel McMillian, Muschamp knew how to pitch the total package of UF. The senior from Jacksonville realized he would have career options outside of football if he pledged to Florida.
“Basically he was just like, ‘You want to be close to home? Want to be SEC? It’s the University of Florida, you get a degree from here you can get a job anywhere.’ I can be an astronaut,” McMillian said.
For McMillian, Fulwood and Ivie, their college careers are coming full circle. While their season includes three more regular season games, a possible SEC Championship Game and a bowl game, they’ll be suiting up to play in The Swamp one last time.
“You know, it’s a little odd from the point of Muschamp recruiting me personally and a lot of other guys on the team. I still remember when Muschamp and Coach (Bryant) Young and Dan Quinn came to my house for an in-house visit,” Ivie said.
The visit didn’t go exactly as planned.
“I remember my mom was going to cook. But I guess something went wrong, I don’t remember exactly, but we ended up ordering and having Chinese takeout. It was my family, Coach Quinn, Coach Young and Muschamp eating Chinese takeout at the dinner table,” Ivie said.
While Ivie and other seniors could spend the week looking back on memories from the recruiting trail as they did Monday, they know that there’s a game to play. A game that Muschamp wants to win badly to send a message to the Florida fans who booed him and the school that fired him.
“I know he’s going to want to come in here, especially (after) leaving Florida, and try to get a win. It’s going to be a battle from both sides of the ball,” Ivie said.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
