GAINESVILLE — For about 10 seconds there Saturday night, it looked like just about anybody with a ride to the stadium and permission to be out past 10 p.m. could do pretty well as head coach of the Florida Gators.
Florida's Jeff Demps, international track star, certainly didn't seem to need any particular guidance on his technique or his sense of direction as he churned 88 yards for a touchdown on the opening kickoff from Florida Atlantic. Accordingly, new Gators coach Will Muschamp merely lifted his left arm and pointed toward the north end zone, a gentle reminder as Demps whistled past him.
Then Muschamp saw the yellow hanky on the grass, the signal of a Gators holding penalty and six spectacular points wasted. He flapped his plastic playsheet toward the referee in disgust. Shocked but not shocked, he got hold of the fact that Disney didn't write his head coaching destiny after all.
This job is a bear.
It opened up, remember, because former Florida coach Urban Meyer's health was pretty much shot at 46 and he needed a break, even after two national titles as Gators coach.
It will soon put gray hair, too, on the bushy head of Muschamp, who hit 40 a month ago and probably still feels a little like the feisty kid who grew up within walking distance of the Swamp.
Not anymore. He's the boss now, a sudden peer of ancient Howard Schnellenberger up in the FAU coaches' box, and Saturday's 41-3 pounding of the Owls was Muschamp's coming-out party.
There was plenty of party material for a crowd of 88,708 eager to see what Muschamp has been cooking up in his top-secret training camp. A little pro-style proficiency from new offensive coordinator Charlie Weis calmed some nerves, with senior John Brantley tossing a succession of easy swing passes to his speedy backs. Chris Rainey brought cheers, too, with a multi-tasking montage that featured touchdowns scored as a runner, receiver and retriever of blocked punts.
The best remembered image of this debut, however, may well be a third-quarter rant that Muschamp unloaded on the officiating crew when a penalty gave FAU's offense a do-over on a failed third down.
It was a promise kept, this avalanche of emotion, for repeatedly Muschamp said in recent months that he will be himself as a rookie head coach, not worrying about being caught on camera at full howl the way he often was as a top assistant at Auburn and Texas and other places.
There's just no fighting the feeling for Muschamp, who got most of what he wanted from this debut and gave a little bit, too. At the request of Florida seniors, the Gators took the field in orange jerseys rather than the traditional home blue. The last time that happened was last October, when LSU scored a 33-29 victory at the Swamp.
"Our standard will be blue for home games," Muschamp said. "If you've got any emails to send on that, send them to me."
Muschamp, a former walk-on safety at Georgia, will find his own way.
Clearly Muschamp treasures this opportunity, one that he took with full knowledge that the Texas head coaching job would have been his in time. While running out of the tunnel with his Florida team for the first time Saturday, Muschamp's two young sons, Jackson and Whit, hustled along by his side. They soon found their mother on the sideline and skittered off to safety.
A nice moment, like Ron Zook pointing toward his ill father on that first charge from the Florida tunnel as head coach, but then came the nasty.
Muschamp gulped when a shotgun snap sailed over Brantley's head, later telling reporters, "Ya'll rolled your eyes when that happened, didn't you?"
Another time the coach paced angrily, allowing Weis to do the teaching on the sideline when backup quarterback Jeff Driskel, a freshman, threw a bad interception.
As more mistakes piled up, and as FAU continued to fight back rather than roll over, Muschamp's mind might well have wandered to tougher challenges ahead, like Alabama and LSU and Florida State.
Schnellenberger, perched in the press box with a sore hip, is going through his darkest valley right now, with road trips to Michigan State and Auburn upcoming. That's why he called for a successful fourth-down quarterback sneak in FAU territory with the Gators already up by four touchdowns. At 77, he has seen it all, and said it all.
"This team will be in the national championship hunt," Schnellenberger said of Florida, "and will have a chance to win it."
Muschamp doesn't need too much of that right now. Just prior to Saturday's kickoff came the announcement that Sharrif Floyd, one of the supposed stalwarts on Florida's defensive line, has been declared ineligible pending NCAA review. Right off the bat, that makes a bear of a job grislier.
Can't argue, though, with a first Gators coaching effort that falls somewhere between Spurrier's 50-7 win over Oklahoma State and Meyer's 32-14 handling of Wyoming.
This may not be as good as it gets for Muschamp, but so far, with no punts by the remade Gators offense and no touchdowns for the Owls, it ain't bad.
