http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/17/sports/ncaafootball/florida-fires-football-coach-will-muschamp.html 2014-11-16 22:55:16 Florida Fires Football Coach Will Muschamp Under Muschamp, who will remain in the position for the two remaining games, the Gators have a 5-4 record this season and finished 4-8 last season. === Will Muschamp, who has compiled a 27-20 record in four seasons as Florida’s football coach, was fired Sunday, though he will remain at the helm for the team’s last two games, against Eastern Kentucky and No. 2 Florida State. “We are not where the program needs to be and should be,” Florida’s athletic director, Jeremy Foley, said in a statement. Sports Illustrated first reported the firing. Florida, long among the nation’s powerhouse programs, has a 5-4 record this season and is 4-4 in the Southeastern Conference. The Gators finished 4-8 last season, a year after going 11-2 in Muschamp’s second season. “I simply didn’t win enough games — that is the bottom line,” Muschamp said in a statement. Entering the season fighting for his job, Muschamp hired a new offensive coordinator, Kurt Roper, to install the type of spread, fast-tempo offense that has become widespread in the college game. But the results have been disappointing. At one point, Muschamp benched the senior quarterback Jeff Driskel, once a five-star recruit, for a freshman, Treon Harris. Florida ranks 91st in the Football Bowl Subdivision in yards per game and 116th in passing yards per game — out of 124 teams. In their biggest victory of the season, 38-20 against No. 16 Georgia two weeks ago, the Gators attempted only six passes, a far cry from the pass-happy Florida teams under Steve Spurrier during the 1990s. The Gators’s 23-20 home loss on Saturday to South Carolina, now coached by Spurrier, was apparently the last straw. Muschamp, who was the defensive coordinator for Louisiana State and for the Miami Dolphins under Nick Saban and at Texas under Mack Brown, will very likely be a sought after as a coordinator during the off-season.