Gator Gary setting the record straight

This was posted by Gator Gary on GATORCOUNTRY....one of the best insiders refutes the earlier post. (both posts taken from GATORCOUNTRY showing you both sides of the story)


Setting The Record Straight Reply

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SETTING THE RECORD STRAIGHT

Before I get into the meat of this post, let me preface my remarks with the following:

1. I have never seen the need or the reason to call out another poster. Many times I have read things on this Board, and others that were simply not true. I usually was successful in suppressing the urge to flaunt my knowledge and/or inside sources and “straighten them out.”

2. The only reason I began posting in the first place was to calm the fears of the “sky is falling crowd” after the 2005 loss to LSU. You remember, the “Meyer is a crier” game. After the game, the usual suspects are screaming that we made a mistake and that Meyer was no better than Zook.

3. For most of Gator Nation, Meyer was still a relative unknown. Although he had won at smaller schools, he had never stayed more than two years and the real question mark was could he recruit or if he had just won with “other’s players”? Most either wanted Spurrier back or in the alternative a “Big name coach” such as Stoopes, Shanahan, etc. The early struggles in 2005 just confirmed to those that Foley “screwed up again”.

4. I was fortunate enough to have inside sources that had told me that after the UT game earlier that year (Meyer’s first signature win) that no less than ten 4-5 star recruits had verbally committed in the locker room after the game. My first post was titled, ‘Help Is On The Way” and named names. As it turned out 8 of the 10 ultimately signed with UF.

5. I have tried to only bring information that is backed up by sources in a position to know. If I am stating an opinion I will label it as such. Therefore, I am extremely sensitive to others that appear to want to state their opinion as fact.

6. Also, as many on here are aware, I am a trial lawyer with over 30 years of experience and have made a living out of trying to ascertain what happened in a particular case and try to differentiate between fact and fiction. Thousands of times during my career I have learned that things are not what they first appeared to be.

7. Based upon recent events surrounding the Gator football team, there are those that stated their opinions as fact when they really had no idea what they were talking about. Their opinions have been repeated and expounded upon to the point that many have taken these opinions to be fact. The result is that innocent persons have been hurt and their reputations have been damaged. IT IS TIME TO SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!

8. The following is based upon every single source I could muster. The two most prominent are two (2) members of the 2009 coaching staff. While I have always promised not to reveal their names, let me say that both have accepted jobs elsewhere for the 2010 season.

9. I fully and intentionally stake my reputation on the accuracy of the facts set forth in this post.

ISSUE #1 ? Billy Gonzales was NOT fired as has been alleged.

1. I had previously posted this FACT earlier and such was met with some skepticism. Even after Meyer came out a few days later and also stated that Billy was not fired, many just assumed it was “coach speak” and that and that Meyer was in essence lying.


2. A popular poster on Gator Country Naphta stated unequivocally that Billy was fired and stated some reasons why. Those allegations were brought to this Board and stated as fact. He could not have been more wrong. Did Billy know there was going to be a birthday party that faithful Monday night? Yes, however, he understandably believed it was no big deal. He did not know there would be alcohol, trusted the few players going to act responsibly and be home at a decent hour. Was Meyer pissed when he found out about the party and that Billy knew? Yes, however, he never blamed Billy for the Dunlap situation or anything else associated with the party. That party had ZERO to do with Billy leaving the Gator program.

3. The reason Naphta’s explanation was so readily accepted was that Gator nation was searching for a fall guy and a reason why this unbeatable team had played so poorly against Bama. Billy was the perfect fall guy and his sudden departure made sense except the firing never happened. The insinuation that he was fired was painful to both Billy and his family.

4. My source was Billy Gonzales himself. The only other person in the room, Meyer, also stated Billy was NOT fired. Naphta, who is your source that says he was, in fact, fired?

5. Naphta owes Billy Gonzales an apology. Anyone that repeated the version that Billy was fired also owes him an apology.

6. Based upon all of my information this is my OPINION as to what actually happened:

A. Billy was upset he was not the OC. (Fact)

B. He thought he should be at least the co-OC. (Fact)

C. He had more input in the play calling under Mullen than he did Addazio. (Fact)

D. LSU had been trying to hire Billy away from UF for the past three years. (Fact)

E. LSU wanted Billy for his coaching/recruiting abilities and because they thought hiring him would weaken UF. (Opinion)

F. Billy went to Meyer and told him he had accepted the LSU job that offered more money and more responsibility in the play calling. (Fact)

G. Billy thought that Meyer’s response would be an offer of more money and responsibility in the UF offense. (Opinion)

H. Meyer basically told him to not let the doorknob hit him in the rear on the way out. (Fact)

I. If Meyer had offered Billy the opportunity to stay at UF with more money and especially more “say so” in the game day offense, he would still be a Gator. (Opinion)

ISSUE #2 ? The Gator Juniors have been maligned and/or slandered:

1. Contrary to what has been written, there was NEVER a meeting at which the Juniors with NFL potential met and discussed leaving in mass for the NFL.

2. While this team is close and they do “hang around” with each other quite a bit, there was never an organized or orchestrated meeting for the discussion of going pro.

3. Of course, these guys would talk about NFL dreams and aspirations; however, nothing more than is normal and expected.

4. To even insinuate that they talked about playing less than their very best in order to avoid injury is SLANDER of the worst kind. How can they ever prove otherwise? To avoid injury you simply fake a minor injury, just “bad enough” to cause you backup to have to play. You don’t play soft. Everyone knows that playing to avoid injury is actually the best and easiest was to incur an injury.

5. The effect of these “opinions” and falsehoods is that a significant portion of Gator nation now believes that some of our best and hardest working players were selfish and quitters. Keep in mind that we are talking about players that got up at 5:00 a.m. all through the off-season and endured the “toughest off-season in Gator history”. Guys that played through numerous “nicks and bruises” to take the field in the orange and blue.

6. To “refuse” to name them by name but to lump them in the category of “Juniors looking at the NFL” painted all of the prominent Juniors with the same slanderous brush. Was it any less incriminating to not mention the Pounceys by name? What about Haden? Hernandez?

7. Naphta owes the Juniors a sincere and public apology! Anyone that repeated the lies without proof or qualification also owes them a heartfelt apology. These guys, although appearing to be men, are nothing more than boys playing a violent game. They do not deserve to be maligned because we are so upset with the results of their last game.

8. The fact that the Bama loss ended “our dream” of back-to-back BCS Championships does not give us a right to question their integrity or guts. It does not give us a right to call them selfish and/or quitters.

9. How can anyone think they did not want to win it all more than we did? Who had invested the time? Who have invested the pain, sweat and tears? Who risked and endured physical pain and injury? Who stood to earn a ring and the possible title of best college football team ever? To insinuate otherwise is asinine and insulting to all of the members of the Gator football team.

ISSUE #3 ? Why we lost to Bama:
1. I know for a fact that we went into the Bama game extremely overconfident.

2. Based upon the tapes of Bama from their previous games there was no fear of them by the Gator players or staff.

3. Even the coaches admitted to me that while they respected Bama they were not overly impressed with them. Bama’s strength (running the ball) played to our defensive strength of stopping the run. The Bama QB would have been at best third string at UF and folded under pressure. They were not concerned about their passing game and believed Haden was more than a match for Julio Jones.

4. The Auburn game further added to the overconfidence in that Auburn, a less talented team, had success by spreading Bama out. Bama was extremely fortunate to beat Auburn and since it was one of the most heated rivalries in college football, there was no thought that Bama simply was looking ahead to UF.

5. Bama came out, hit us in the mouth and we never fully recovered. The coaches panicked somewhat and never tried to establish the run. (Still a mystery to me)

6. The loss of Dunlap hurt as Bama capitalized on his absence to come out throwing which caught us by surprise. McElroy continuously rolled out to his left. He would not have been able to do that with Dunlap on that side. While I am not saying if Dunlap had played we would have won, his presence could have changed the early success Bama had and allowed us to get into the game mentally before it was too late.

7. We played our worst game of the year while Bama played their best. If you want an applicable analogy you need only think back to the 2006 BCS Championship game. We played our best game while OSU played their worst. They were extremely overconfident based upon our season long track record. While we may have truly been the better team we surely were not as much superior to OSU as we appeared that night.

8. Football is an emotional game and we were not emotionally ready to play Bama and it had NOTHING to do with the Monday night party or any Juniors contemplating an early exit to the NFL.

BOTTOMLINE ? Billy Gonzales was NOT fired and the Juniors did NOT quit or act selfishly against Bama. Apologies are in order.






Follow-UP:
Originally posted by jdizel01:
Gary, did you confront Naptha on his post? If so how did he react?
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Among other things, he called me a liar, a "fraud" and a "charlatan". He went on to say that I had absolutely no inside information and that I "make it all up".

Before I could respond, the entire thread was deleted.

Imagine that, for over a week they "sticky" his thread to the top in which he said (without even giving a hint as to who his source was) :

“3) I was told that there was a players meeting among some of these core contributors prior to the FSU game discussing NFL prospects and determining the list of who would be coming out and who wouldn't. A "core group" of players determined that they would all come out together. It was determined in this meeting that some kids would be minimizing their risks in the coming games. Some were offensive and some were defensive players. The impact of the looming rookie salary cap had a huge effect on the mentality of some players. The coaches were aware of some of this, but not the full extent, and there is only so much you can do even if you know, short of benching starters. Some of these were absolutely critical players we were counting on to come through, and simply quit on the team.”

and:

“7) So yes, some of the team "quit" after the SEC schedule. The partying was a symptom of that. Certain star players got a kind of entitlement mentality as they got closer to the draft and it spilled over into our final games. Urban thinks that it is touch and go whether we can get them re-focused for the bowl game. A loss would not surprise me with as widespread as the "relaxation" got. Urban may end up benching some starters if he can't get them focused on trying to win the bowl game. You may see some OL and O skill stalwarts sitting for the bowl game. Don't be surprised.”

And I research for a week and talk with numerous witnesses, including players and three assistant coaches to verify all of that was untrue and my thread gets deleted within an hour. I guess they decided to "rest the defense". Go figure.