GAINESVILLE, Fla. – First question for Florida coach Will Muschamp: Do you feel your team deserves a shot at the national title?

Answer: "Absolutely."

Second question: Do you feel your team is the best in the country?



Answer: "Yes."



Pause.

"We have the best defense in the country. We are creative in the running game. Our quarterback gives you issues. We are well-prepared in every game. And our team understands the meaning of the word 'team.' "

Well, that's a different kind of coach-speak.

The surprise here isn't that a Florida head coach thinks his team belongs in the BCS Championship game. An 11-1 record at this school will lead to that kind of declaration, even though Muschamp fully acknowledges his team blew its title chances against Georgia with six turnovers.

No, the surprise is that this has happened so soon under "Coach Boom" just a few months after a 7-6 campaign had Gator Nation warbling over whether things would ever be the same in the post-Tebow era. How bad was it? Florida drew only one NFL scout to a late-season game last year; he was there to watch a player on the other team.

That other team was Furman.

It was even worse than most fans standing in the shadow of Saint Timmy's statue realized, as Muschamp says his team was a "very divided" and "very selfish group."

View photos

That's putting it nicely, according to some of the seniors who say there were actual fights among players. "Physical, verbal, everything," says star linebacker Jon Bostic.

These weren't brawls where steel chairs got tossed around, but the Gators were in disarray. The Muschamp hire wasn't looking nearly as inspiring as those of Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, offensive geniuses who not only won championships but baffled opponents with revolutionary schemes and rare talents.

Muschamp's background is as a defensive coordinator. His scheme, not exactly Smithsonian material. The only flashy thing about him was the nickname he'd inherited when TV cameras caught him yelling "BOOM!"after a defensive play when he was a coordinator at Auburn.

Muschamp did recruit Johnny Manziel while an assistant at Texas, but in his own words, "I liked him as a safety."

[Related: Johnny Manziel on the verge of making history]

Heading into this season, there was a palpable fear that things would be irrelevant quickly. The two-game road trip to Texas A&M and Tennessee barely out of the gate made even optimistic Gator-backers nervous. And the home date against LSU made them downright pessimistic. Who could doubt their reason for concern? The quarterback was sophomore Jeff Driskel (a four-star recruit, but still unproven) and the running back was Mike Gillislee, another unproven recruit. Danny Wuerffel and Emmitt Smith were not walking into the locker room.

Nor was their coach getting booted out of it.

Athletic director Jeremy Foley's first and only call on his drive home from Urban Meyer's retirement press conference was to Muschamp. This past offseason, Foley gave him a contract extension (but didn't announce it until Tuesday). Foley invokes John Elway when asked how long his list of candidates was.

"There was no Plan B," he says.

So what if Coach Boom was a bust?





Urban Meyer was certainly not a bust, winning twice as many national titles as Spurrier, but the end of his era at Florida was messy. "Toward the end of Coach Meyer's time here, a lot of guys were out for themselves – not buying into the team concept," explains defensive lineman Omar Hunter. "He was out for himself, so they thought the same thing.



Story continues