10/02 Weekly Hot Topic: Lose, Team, Lose?

[Dan!]

I heard an interesting phone call to a radio show this morning. I fan of Texas A & M said he was actually glad they lost this week. He said it would speed the ouster of current coach Dennis Fanchione and claimed that many alumni felt the same.

That made me think. Is it ever appropriate to pull for YOUR team to lose? Many fans have done this before hoping to get a coach fired, get a higher draft pick, etc... Have you ever done this, even secretly? What are your thoughts?

[Gandalf]

The only time I remember rooting against my team was when Warner with the Cardinals played against Martz's Rams. I wanted Martz to be embarrassed in the showdown. Now that Martz is gone, I can't forsee a situation where I'd want the home team to lose. It was nice to see the Rams beat his Lions 41-34 this week.

[Sam!]

Oh man... if I wasn't so tired...

I will say it is never, ever, ever OK to root against your team.

With one exception.


And his name is Ron Zook. Details tomorrow.

[Gandalf]

I'm not sure who Ron Zook is, but if it's an alias for Mike Martz, I'll agree with you ;)

[Jake]

Oh man... if I wasn't so tired...

I will say it is never, ever, ever OK to root against your team.

With one exception.


And his name is Ron Zook. Details tomorrow.

Hmmm....a fellow Gators fan? ;)

[jrmitch]

Kind of a tough call on this, but I admit that I did it during the second of Wade Phillips two years as head coach of the Broncos. (So did many other Bronco fans, as we wanted to see a coach that would give Elway more offensive tools to work with and Phillips was even more conservative than predecessor Dan Reeves).

I think it's also understandable in the case of gross mismanagement/neglect on the part of ownership (or in the case of college ball Regents/School administration). You never think of it as disloyalty; rather, you can look long-term and see temporary suffering as being the possible catalyst for necessary change. Sometimes the bottom has to fall completely out in order for things to get better.

[Dan!]

The one time in recent memory that I will admit to pulling for my team to lose was last year when the Houston Texans were playing the SF 49ers in the so called "Reggie Bush Bowl" to see who would finish with the worst record in the NFL and have the first pick in the draft.

Kris Brown of the Texans lined up for a potential game winning FG. I remember wishing that he may as well miss it. He did. Badly. And then they passed on Bush to select Mario Williams anyway.:confused: Oh well. I learned my lesson.

[Sam!]

I'm not sure who Ron Zook is, but if it's an alias for Mike Martz, I'll agree with you ;)
Let me tell you about Ron Zook.

Zook was an assistant on Steve Spurrier's staff at the University of Florida in the early 90's. He was every energetic, but the bottom line is that he was not a good defensive coordinator. Spurrier and the Athletic Director at the time did not want to pay a severance package, so they "demoted" Zook from Defensive Coordinator to Special Teams Coordinator. After a year, Zook quit.

He resurfaced at some point as a coordinator for the New Orleans Saints. He was their defensive coordinator in the 2001 season, when NO had a shot at teh playoffs, and then then their defense gave up an average of 40+ points a game in the final 4 games. Saints missed teh playoffs.

When Steve Spurrier resigned, the AD at Florida tried to lure away Bob Stoops (former UF Def. Coordinator under Spurrier, current coach at Oklahoma), Mike Shanahan (former UF Off. Coordinator under Spurrier, current coach at Denver Broncos), and then Ron Zook. The man was run out of town as a coordinator here and was coaching for the miserable saints.

Ron Zook was very excited at Florida. He splect about 4 hours a night "because if you sleep 4 hours fast, it's like sleeping 8." That is a direct quote. The man was just not a good coach.

From 1985-1994, Florida ranked in the top 10 defenses in the country five times. '85, '87, '88, '89, '90. Zook took over in '91.

1990 -- 5 ALL SEC Defensive players (Year before Zook as DC)
1991 -- 5 ALL SEC Defensive players (First year of Zook as DC)
1992 -- 2 ALL SEC Def. players players
1993 -- 1 ALL SEC Def. player
1994 -- 4 ALL SEC Def. players (First year of Pruett as DC)

1994 - UF defense had 20 interceptions (6th best total in UF history)
1990 - Defense had 19 interceptions (8th best total in UF history)
1991, 92, 93 --- The Zook years are nowhere to be found.
I could go on with stats...

So after being unable to handle any part of a football team successfully anywhere he went, he landed one of the premier coaching positions in college football. Because he happens to be a good friend of the Athletic Director. Nice.

Yeah Zook did pretty well against Florida's Big Three rivals (Georgia, Florida State and Tennessee). But he lost about as many or more games at home in 3 years as Spurrier did in 10 seasons. He inherited the No. 5 team in the nation and performed well enough to take us out of the Rankings for the first time in years.

Florida's records under Zook: 8-5 (w/ a bowl loss), 8-5 (w/ a bowl loss), 7-5 (w/ a bowl loss). 7 Home Losses (several against teams ranked lower than us). I am pretty sure Steve Spurrier coached us to 6 home losses in 10 years.. something ridiculous like that. OH. Speaking of unacceptable losses... Florida lost to MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY in one of their "rebuilding years" in 2004. MSU had previously lost to Division I-AA Maine en route to a 3-8 (2-6 SEC) record. That is what prompted his firing.

Why am I bitter? Because I did not have season tickets my freshman year here-Spurrier's final season. I then had seaon tickets for my final three years... Zook's three seasons. Zook's famed recruiting abilities turned out to be all hype. Urban Meyer inherited a team of depleted talent. Zook inherited a Heisman Trophy runner-up quarterback in Rex Grossman and turned him into a subpar player the following season.

Anyway... in that case, we were rooting against Florida because we knew it would take an extreme situation for the Florida AD to fire the coach. For every home loss, there was a road win and the "experts" would point to that as a sign of potential. Well after 3 years, either you have it or don't. Zook hadn't been successful before Florida, hasn't been succesfful since, and wasn't successful here. THose of us "pulling" for Florida losses at the end there were only doing so for the sake of the team's longterm future. We saw the big picture. It doesn't take long for a football powerhouse to become a team that nobody respects. We did not want to see our beloved Alma Mater turn into Vanderbilt Football. With apologies to any Vanderbilt fans. :cool: