by Bradley Parsons
Staff Writer
GAINESVILLE — University of Florida football coach Ron Zook found out Monday that he’d been fired, but he said Tuesday he still has a job to do.
In the long term that means guiding his team through the season’s final four games and preparing the program for its new boss. In the short term it means diverting his players’ and his coaching staff’s attention from their uncertain futures toward this Saturday’s game against their biggest conference rival.
“I have a job to do, a responsibility to do, and I’m going to do it,” said Zook.
Considering his players have had to absorb a loss to Missisisippi State, one of the worst Division 1 teams in the country, and their coaching staff’s dismissal, all in the last three days, Zook said he liked their focus as they prepared to face Georgia this Saturday afternoon at Alltel Stadium.
As its name suggests, winning the game known as the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party,” has always been about dealing with distractions. Usually they consist of drunken fans and hotel room beds, not a pink slip delivered halfway through the season. But Zook said the ferocity of the rivalry would keep his team’s attention.
“This is a special game. It’s a game these kids will talk about for the rest of their lives,” he said. “These guys will be fine. They’ll prepare like business as normal.”
Given recent events, Zook seemed relaxed as he addressed the media Tuesday morning inside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. He joked with the reporters about some of their criticism and drew laughs when he needled one veteran scribe about his age.
If Zook’s demeanor was unexpectedly light, his star tailback’s disposition was predictably dark.
Jacksonville native Ciatrick Faison, one of Zook’s biggest supporters since the coach talked him out of quitting the team last year, eyed the media like a Georgia linebacker as he stepped up to the podium.
His coach’s dismissal was poorly timed, the former Fletcher High star said. It made it difficult to prepare with a clear head and he said the players were to blame.
“All the losses don’t have to do with the coaches, they have to do with the players,” said Faison. “We cost coach his job.”
Faison was recruited to Florida by former Coach Steve Spurrier, but Tuesday he sounded unimpressed by recent reports that Spurrier is now interested in a return.
“There’s been reports like that for three years,” said Faison. “Some days he wants to be here, some days he doesn’t.”
Three years removed from high school, the junior tailback could leave for the NFL at the end of this year. He said he would wait until the season was over to think about it.
No matter the distractions, Georgia Coach Mark Richt said he expects the Gators’ best game on Saturday.
Richt is used to getting good effort from the Gators; he’s lost the game three years in a row and Florida had won 10 of 11 before he arrived in Athens.
Richt doesn’t worry about keeping his team focused. In fact, he said he sometimes has to find a way to dial down his players’ intensity.
“I want to make sure we don’t play the game during the week,” he said on a conference call. “Sometimes they get too excited and run into each other too much during practice and get banged up a little bit.”
Richt said he liked Spurrier but that might be because he only had to coach against him once in Jacksonville.
“We played them just one time when he was coach,” he said. “They beat us pretty good.”