Dawn of a new Day for the Gators

[Brad]

Dawn of a new Day for the Gators

Ex-UNHstar assisting Florida rebirth  

Ray Duckler

Monitor Staff

May 05. 2005 8:00AM

Some people are born to coach. You can see it in their eyes, hear it in their words, sense it from the positions and roles they played back in high school.

Meet Ryan Day. That's Coach Ryan Day, the former Manchester Central High quarterback who used to torch Concord High back in the mid 1990s.

Day went on to break records at the University of New Hampshire, and now he's in the early stages of what he hopes will be a big-time coaching career, somewhere.

He's in his first season as a graduate assistant coach at the University of Florida under first-year head Coach Urban Meyer. His focus is offense, and he's working in one of the biggest pressure cookers in the country.

These are the Gators, whose fan base rivals that of Red Sox Nation when it comes to passion, expectations and scrutiny. These are the Gators, who, under former coach Steve Spurrier, won the 1996 national championship, claimed the Southeastern Conference title six times and finished ranked in the final coaches' poll 15 straight years.

 

Those Gators.

"I'll see how coaches handle it and kind of learn from them," Day said by phone, referring to the pressure that accompanies working on this sort of staff. "You can't be afraid to fail. That's why I came here. If I didn't want to do that, I wouldn't have come down here."

Day, 26, is part of a new era in Gainesville, albeit a small part at this early stage in his coaching career. The Gators, like the Yankees, are not permitted to retool or rebuild, which is why Ron Zook, who replaced the legendary Spurrier for the 2002 season, was axed after three seasons and a 23-14 record.

It's a decent winning percentage, true, but it's also just 13 fewer losses than Spurrier had in 12 seasons in Gainesville.

Zook guided the Gators to the Outback Bowl twice and the Peach Bowl last season, but to Gator Nation, that's like three straight trips to the Toilet Bowl. It's no wonder, then, that fireronzook.com, established two days after Zook was hired, proclaimed after Zook was fired in October, "It's happening. It's happening. Oh my God, it's happening."

Such is the nature of college football at Florida. Day, a hardened New England sports fan who has seen coaches barbecued around here, grew up in a Gator-like climate.

"Gator Nation is like Red Sox Nation back home," Day said. "If you don't win for the Red Sox, there are people on the radio cursing you out and second guessing every move. In Gainesville, everyone second guesses, and if you're not winning, you will be run out of town. If you want to be in a high profile place, it comes with the territory."

Day has the sports background to coach, having played the three thinking positions - quarterback, catcher and point guard - at Central.

During those days, he began coaching informally and unofficially, as a surrogate coach for his two younger brothers. Tim is the starting quarterback at the University of Massachusetts and Chris pitched at Saint Anselm College.

"I had a certain coaching mentality with them growing up," Day said. "I was fairly athletic, but not that athletic, so I had to figure out how to play the game with my mind to beat the other guy, and even more so, that was the case in college. I had to understand the game like a coach."

Day was a walk-on at UNH and finished his career with a full scholarship, not to mention school records for career completion percentage at 60 percent and career touchdown passes with 53. UNH head Coach Sean McDonnell sensed he had more than a quarterback when Day arrived in Durham.

"He was like a sponge in that he wanted to soak up as much as he could," McDonnell said. "He loved discussions about the how, the why and the where. He was pretty impressive. He was great with X's and O's, and he was a very good recruiter with the parents and kids. He had all of it."

This is Day's third coaching stop. He coached the tight ends at UNH after graduating in 2002, and spent the last two years working with the wide receivers at Boston College.

Manchester native Dan Mullen, Florida's offensive coordinator, followed Meyer from Bowling Green to Utah to Florida and brought Day to Gainesville as a graduate assistant coach. Day is taking courses and is compensated as though he's on full scholarship. He'll learn and then check the coaching landscape.

In Meyer, Florida has one of the hottest young coaches in the nation, having led Utah to a win over Pittsburgh in the 2005 Fiesta Bow. The expectations are enormous in Gainesville after a three-year lull. Witness the 58,000 fans who showed up for Florida's annual spring game, an event that traditionally draws no more than 35,000 people.

"I would say there's little bit of excitement with Coach Meyer coming in," Day said. "And with that comes expectations, so we have our hands full. You're in the limelight, and if you don't produce, there will be a lot of people upset."

We'll watch and gauge Day's progress, now that he's getting a taste of the really big time. He's setting no timetable as far as landing a head coaching slot, but his goal and passion are clear.

"I'm going to keep my head down and work hard and come up for air and see where I stand," Day said. "Ideally, sure, everybody's goal is to be a Division I coach.

"We'll see."

(Ray Duckler can be reached at rduckler@cmonitor.com.)

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Good luck, it's a long hike back to New Hampshire.

[DawgPound]

Their attitude about bowl games backs my point about them being arrogant with a serious superiority complex.

[Brad]

There attitude about bowl games backs my point about them being arrogant with a serious superiority complex.

You think?