Road shows Zook at his active best

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© St. Petersburg Times
published June 12, 2002

TAMPA -- The car pulled in front of the Wyndham Westshore Hotel and Florida coach Ron Zook climbed out, exchanged a few pleasantries and was whisked inside.

Or was it the Daytona Beach Hilton? Or the Fort Lauderdale Marriott? No, this night it was definitely the Wyndham Westshore.

It's getting hard to keep Zook's schedule straight. Last Wednesday it was Lakeland. Thursday was Ocala. Saturday was Daytona Beach and Wesley Chapel. Monday was Tampa. Tuesday was Orlando. Lord only knows where he is today.

Since becoming a most unlikely successor to Steve Spurrier in Gainesville, Zook has been crisscrossing the state, doing meet-and-greet functions at every Gator booster club and alumni chapter from Miami to Pensacola. He's even been to Atlanta.

The topic is almost always the same. Football. But these appearances are more about sales. As in Zook trying to peddle himself as a Gator football coach who is just as worthy of respect and devotion as the guy he replaced.

That's no easy sell.

Let's face it, the guy was the Gators' third choice. When Bob Stoops couldn't be lured back from Oklahoma and Mike Shanahan couldn't be enticed into leaving the NFL's Denver Broncos, Zook became their man.

Plus, it's not as if he comes with sparkling credentials. He has been a career assistant, never the head man. Just about everyone in Gainesville remembers how he was demoted in 1994 from defensive coordinator to special-teams coach (he eventually was promoted to associate head coach).

That has left many Gator fans in the same muddled place Kristen Oyler found herself Monday night. Oyler, a 2000 graduate, came to the Wyndham Westshore with mixed emotions about Zook.

"Did we really want this guy or did we get stuck with him?" she said. "I have to talk myself into getting excited about him, but he's ours now, so we're going to support him."

That's the trick for Zook this summer, convincing Gator fans that he belongs, that he's not going to destroy everything Spurrier built.

"That's part of it. That's the nature of the beast," Zook acknowledged.

Give Zook this. He is doing all the right things so far. He got quarterback Rex Grossman to stay, right? And boy does he know how to work a room. You should see him at these Gator functions, mingling with folks as if he had personally invited each one.

He talks 100 mph, sometimes so fast that he doesn't even finish his sentence before going onto the next. And, perhaps most important, he talks from the heart. No scripts or prepared speeches. He steps up to the microphone and lets it rip.

"I didn't graduate from Florida (he went to Miami of Ohio)," he told the crowd Monday night, "but I plan on sticking around long enough to get one of them honorary degrees."

On the football side, he has been totally hands-on. Instead of only sending his assistants on spring recruiting trips, he has packed his bags and gone with them, popping in on even the smallest of schools. At last count, UF officials say he's been to roughly 75, which is extraordinary for a major-college head coach.

"He's probably the best person they could have picked for the job," said former Gator cornerback Anthone Lott, who was recruited by Zook. "It's his passion for the game, his ability to recruit players. And he's going to go out there to win the whole shebang.

"That's the type of person you want to be the captain of your ship."

Time, of course, will tell.

Come this fall, winning over the fans won't mean a hill of beans if Zook can't win over Georgia, Tennessee and Florida State. As fate would have it, Zook's debut season features arguably the Gators' toughest schedule in years, with national champion Miami at home and FSU and Tennessee on the road.

Talk about a tough opening act.

For now, though, Zook is doing all he can do. He has packed them in at many places he has gone, including the Wyndham Westshore, where it was standing-room-only Monday night.

"This program can either go up or it can go down. I guarantee you it ain't going down," Zook told the crowd, which roared in applause.

Clearly, Zook can talk a good game. But what every Gator fan wants to know is if he can win one, too.

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