Florida AD happy to see Will Muschamp back in the SEC

Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley was unhappy on the day he fired Will Muschamp, and he was happy Wednesday to see Muschamp back in the conference as a head coach.

“You saw the press conference the day we let him go. It made it pretty clear how much we care about him,” Foley said during a break in the SEC’s annual spring meetings. “Obviously, things didn’t work out at Florida like we envisioned. We can argue why or what all. The bottom line is there’s a guy that gave it all for the University of Florida. He’s the guy on a personal level that we all cared about. The fact he has landed on his feet, and seeing him in the hallways here, it’s been really special. Because he’s one of the good guys. I wish him the best.”

Muschamp was 28-21 as the Gators head coach from 2011 to 2014. He was hired to be South Carolina’s head coach in December.

“We text before a big game,” Foley said. “Obviously, last year when (new Florida coach Jim McElwain) was doing so well, he was excited because those were the players he recruited. He would make a point of texting me after a big win, ‘Tell Mac congrats.’ Yeah, we stay in touch.”

Talking Tough

Tennessee head coach Butch Jones was asked this week to respond to the fact that several of his players have voiced their optimism about this fall’s game against Alabama on social media networks.

“This is a generation that has been brought up broadcasting every emotion you have,” Jones said. “We will continue educating them. We have tremendous respect for Alabama. Who wouldn’t with everything they have accomplished? That was one of my topics earlier this week with our freshman class, not broadcasting every emotion you have.”

Not so fast

After Jones labeled Florida and Georgia as challengers to his team for SEC supremacy, first-year Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart was quick to downplay that optimism.

“Since Butch came to none of our spring practices, I don’t know how he would be able to say that,” Smart said. “I do have a lot of respect for the way they play at Tennessee. They’ve got a really good program. They do a good job of making their kids play hard. As far as his consideration of us, that’s his opinion.”

Transfer tweaks

The SEC is updating its rule prohibiting schools from accepting transfers who have been dismissed from other schools for serious misconduct to broaden the list of offenses that disqualify a transfer. For instance, a stalking charge that led to a dismissal would now bar a transfer.

“It’s not a wholesale list of felonies or something like that,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said. “It’s pretty focused on interpersonal violence.”

Drug policy status quo

The SEC athletic directors haven’t discussed making the league’s drug penalties more uniform.

“Could it come up? Anything could come up, but it’s not an issue on the agenda,” Sankey said.

This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 5:54 PM with the headline "Florida AD happy to see Will Muschamp back in the SEC."