October 23, 2004

Croom's first SEC win puts Zook in hot water

It's been a tough year for Ron Zook. He's been in a frat fight, lost more games at the Swamp that his visor-wearing predecessor ever did, and Google now serves up more than 750 hits for "Fire Ron Zook". It's been so bad that Zook isn't eating or sleeping. Somehow, I think it's about to get worse.

Mississippi State was a 24½-point underdog against Florida, and had given no indication it could even be competitive with the Gators. By the time it was over, Sylvester Croom's Bulldogs had put together the coach's first victory, knocking off the Gators 38-31. After Florida tied the ballgame with just under six minutes to go, MSU took the ball with less than two minutes remaining and drove it 57 yards to seal the win. Seconds later, the cowbells were sounding and the goalposts were on the ground.

One look at the stats shows that MSU outplayed the Gators. One that shouldn't go unnoticed, however, is the Bulldogs punting game. Mississippi State had just four punts, but averaged 55.3 yards per kick. Wow. That's flipping the field for your team.

Zook's Gators have lost their last four SEC teams. It's got him in a lot of hot water with the Gator nation. Like it or not, his performance invites comparisons to Steve Spurrier. Zook is 12-6 (.667) at home. Spurrier was 68-5 (.931). Zook has lost 13 games in just 2 1/2 seasons. Spurrier lost just 27 times in 12 years. Needless to say, traffic is way up at HireSteveSpurrier.com.

Posted by Kevin Donahue

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Comments & Trackbacks

1. Mike says:

   posted on October 23, 2004 08:40 PM — link

   For those who'd like to know, www.fireronzook.com crashed right after the game, apparently due to too many hits.

2. Jeff says:

   posted on October 23, 2004 10:38 PM — link

   It's still down - apparently exceeded their bandwidth usage.

3. Randy H. says:

   posted on October 23, 2004 11:01 PM — link

   Lordy, lordy, another MSU victory. Forget Maine, forget Auburn, forget LSU. Forget fireronzook.com, and start talking about beatifycroom.com. :)

4. Michael Hickerson says:

   posted on October 24, 2004 12:39 PM — link

   I'd heard about the crashing of FireRonZook.com. Honestly, neither Florida nor Georgia has looked great this year, making next week's showing a potential let-down. I doubt it though--Zook will find a way to get the Gators up for the Bulldogs.

   Oh wait...I'll bet that was said about this week's game as well....

   Oops!