there would be some people here who would suddenly be defending the kid.  I know, fire away, but it is the truth.....

BBG

Coach Shannon is guilty of hurting Gator feelings in the now distant past (including mine, and I suspect Tom is correct that it had everything to do with Urban Meyer).  And that's pretty much it.  And speaking for myself, my initial reaction to the Shannon rumors was "what the heck".....but I gave it a lot of thought and was fully onboard with the possibility well before it happened (and some regs here that I texted about it can vouch for that). By all accounts, Coach Shannon wanted nothing to do with Nevin Shapiro, and warned the UM administration about him to no avail.  Being a lone voice in the wilderness is not an easy thing to do, and speaks well of Shannon's character.  And the reality is these coaches are all "hired guns", and they are (for the most part) professionals at what they do.  I think we saw collective professionalism in our own bowl game preparations from a mostly lame-duck staff.  We certainly hope our new coaches will come to have at least some of the deep-seated feelings and love we have for our Gators (and some may already have at least a degree of that), but it's a bonus if they do.

Winston is in an entirely different league of transgressions, both proven and alleged.  I would HOPE no one here would be supportive of your hypothetical, but it wouldn't shock me if a couple would be.  And there are probably other boards where the spin cycle would be fast and furious.

And while I'm rambling, I'm very happy about the staff Coach Mac has assembled (and is assembling).  I don't think there is any question that they're all eminently qualified, and I don't think we're going to lose a beat on the D side of the ball - if anything, we will be even better.  Coach Collins talked about how important it is for the players to have "situational awareness" in the PC today, and by that I suspect he's referring to our penchant for giving up third and longs under the previous staff.