Jimbo Fisher and Will Muschamp prepare to put their friendship on the line Saturday as the Seminoles face the Gators. (US-Presswire)
Florida men's basketball coach Billy Donovan knows how difficult it can be to coach against a long time friend. Donovan has routinely faced off against former Gator assistants who went on to head coaching positions at other schools.
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida-Florida State rivalry has always had its share of colorful characters and entertaining subplots, perhaps none surpassing those years when Steve Spurrier and Bobby Bowden’s teams staged must-watch showdowns throughout the 1990s.
But all those “house divided” flags, T-shirts and license plates you see all year long around the Sunshine State have taken on new meaning for the 56th meeting between the schools.
Who knew a beach house co-owned by Gators coach Will Muschamp and Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher would steal so much of the pre-game hype for Saturday’s grudge match in The Swamp?
“I don’t think that would have happened [back then],’’ Spurrier quipped on Wednesday’s SEC media teleconference. “We didn’t get along with them as well as they do now.’’
Muschamp and Fisher have been good sports about their ownership of perhaps the most famous beach house in the history of Panama City, but as the topic grew in popularity for fans and media this week, they both tried to downplay the off-the-field storyline.
Maybe they’ll have better luck calling plays on Saturday.
Since Muschamp was hired in December to replace Urban Meyer, more questions have been asked about the beach house than possibly even Gators quarterback John Brantley’s injured ankle. At his introductory press conference Muschamp joked that since Gators athletic director Jeremy Foley didn’t ask during the interview process, he kept the fact he owned a beach property with Florida State’s head coach to himself.
The two went in with a mutual friend to purchase the property while they were colleagues on Nick Saban’s staff at LSU.
Muschamp and Fisher became friends during their time together at Auburn in the mid-90s when Fisher served as Terry Bowden’s quarterbacks coach and Muschamp, fresh out of college, began his coaching career as a graduate assistant. They were two young Southern guys starting out on career paths that more than 15 years later have them pitted against one another in the spotlight of one of college football’s top rivalries.
Fisher grew up in West Virginia the son of coal miner and school teacher. Muschamp split his time growing up between Gainesville and Rome, Ga., raised by a family of educators.
With much in common, they naturally became friends and that friendship grew when they became colleagues at LSU. Fisher recommended Muschamp to Saban when a position opened on LSU’s staff. Their time together peaked in 2003 when the Tigers won the national championship with Fisher as the offensive coordinator and Muschamp the defensive coordinator.
“I’ve got a lot of respect for Jimbo,” Muschamp said earlier this week. “When you work with somebody for four or five years and spend as much time as we do as coaches working and preparing you build a relationship with him and also his family.”
Fisher, in his second year as FSU’s head coach and fifth overall, feels the same about Florida’s rookie head coach.
“He's a great coach, good competitor, all those things,’’ Fisher said of Muschamp. “You know you've got your hands full [when you play him]. I'm happy for him and his family. It's a great opportunity for him.”
While the beach house in Panama City has served as a lively talking point heading into Saturday’s game, there are deeper ramifications for the two coaches and their families. Muschamp’s wife, Carol, is also friends with Fisher’s wife, Candi, and they have kids around the same age who have spent time together.
"When you're in this profession, you're kind of in a bunker mentality,'' Muschamp said. “You have the guys on the inside who understand. Then you've got everybody else. When you coach with somebody, it's natural that the families get close. You spend more time with the coaches than you do your wives a lot of time.’’
Late Saturday night there will be a winner and a loser, one family and fan base will be happy, the other left with disappointment.
Gators men’s basketball coach Billy Donovan and assistant John Pelphrey can relate.
In March 2006 the Gators won the first of 12 consecutive NCAA Tournament games over two seasons – winning back-to-back national titles along the way – by facing Pelphrey’s South Alabama team in Jacksonville.
Pelphrey had spent six seasons on Donovan’s staff at Florida from 1996-2002 before leaving to become a head coach for the first time. In his fourth season, Pelphrey was named the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year and led the Jaguars into March Madness.
On the other bench was Donovan, one of Pelphrey’s mentors and best friends. Much like Muschamp and Fisher at LSU, during their time together at Florida, Pelphrey and Donovan became close as did their families.
Pelphrey vividly recalls the wide range of emotions he experienced leading up to the game as much of the media coverage focused on his connections to Florida and his friendship with Donovan.
“I don’t want to say it was bittersweet, but it kind of was because here you are having the biggest moment of your coaching career in terms of level of achievement and having a chance to go and compete in the NCAA Tournament, and it had to be against him,’’ Pelphrey said. “It’s tough enough in our profession and sometimes those things cross over and add other elements to the game.’’
Pelphrey left South Alabama after the 2006-07 season to take over at Arkansas, a school the Gators face regularly in the SEC. The games against Pelphrey were never a lot of fun for Donovan considering their relationship.
“I didn’t really like it when you are competing against a friend,’’ Donovan said. “Certainly going into the game a lot of the talk is on the coaches and it probably should be centered on the players.
“Once the game starts, you’re just coaching your team. I think the one thing that is hard when you have a lot of familiarity around you and someone has really been inside your program and you’ve worked closely together, there definitely to me is some things they can certainly provide their team.’’
To emphasize his point, Donovan used first-year Wyoming coach Larry Shyatt as an example. If Florida had to face Wyoming this season, Shyatt, who spent the past seven seasons as Donovan’s right-hand man, could provide his team with some key advantages at least in the preparation stage.
In Saturday’s meeting between Florida and FSU, recent familiarity won’t be as much of a factor since Muschamp and Fisher have not coached together since the 2004 season and last coached against one another in 2006.
That was Fisher’s final season as LSU’s offensive coordinator and Muschamp’s first season as Auburn’s defensive coordinator. Auburn won 7-3.
Five years later they meet head-to-head as head coaches for the first time.
“I think we have similar philosophies probably,’’ Fisher said.
Donovan views much-hyped games like this as commonplace if you stay in the coaching game long enough. He faced two other former assistants last season — UCF’s Donnie Jones and Alabama’s Anthony Grant — so he has become accustomed to the questions and extra attention a game like Saturday’s gets because of the coaches.
“It’s always difficult,’’ he said.
Pelphrey, who returned to UF in the offseason, agrees with his longtime friend.
“It doesn’t get any better,’’ Pelphrey said. “The first one was unique because it was in the NCAA Tournament. It’s a very, very competitive league. It’s very challenging, and then to have to do it against a very dear friend, it does take a portion of the enjoyment out of it.’’
The “house divided” motto originated from a famous speech made by Abraham Lincoln in 1858.
Lincoln sought to unite the Republican Party of Illinois when he spoke his famous line about “a house divided against itself cannot stand.’’
More than 150 years later Lincoln’s line has made its way into Florida-Florida State lore in a new way — through the front door of a beach house.
“You know, we bought the condo there about 10 years ago when we were assistants at LSU,’’ Muschamp said. “It wasn’t like I took the Florida job and we decided to buy a condo together.”
Fisher added: “It’s funny how it’s turned out. We were never there at the same time. They had their weeks there, and we had our weeks there even when we went and did things.’’
The players seem unfazed by the familiarity of their head coaches. Brantley has a better grasp than most of the coaching fraternity since his father is a high school coach.
“It’s a small world. Everyone seems like they know each other and you get to be such good friends,’’ Brantley said. “It’s a little weird, but I think Coach Muschamp has us focused on the game more than that.”
With the game nearly here, any plans to use that beach house have been put on hold by Muschamp and Fisher.
“We don’t talk a whole lot [right now],’’ Muschamp said.
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