The happiest person outside of the state of Ohio regarding the complete mess that is Brady Hoke’s tenure at Michigan is likely University of Florida head coach Will Muschamp. Muschamp, along with Hoke, were the two collegiate poster models for head coaching hot seats and although Hoke is getting all the publicity for all the wrong reasons, Muschamp’s job is far from safe.

After taking over for Urban Meyer, Muschamp finished 7-6 in his first season including a Gator Bowl victory over Ohio State, followed by a 11-1 regular season campaign in 2012.

That’s when things went downhill.

After being labeled as a 17-point favorite against Louisville in the Sugar Bowl, Muschamp’s Gators were soundly defeated by Teddy Bridgewater’s Cardinals, 33-23. The bad feelings from that loss would carry over into 2013, when Florida had an unthinkable 4-8 record, including hitting rock bottom in a 26-20 home loss at the hands of FCS Georgia Southern.

That Georgia Southern loss guaranteed Florida’s first losing season since 1979.

“Very disappointed for our program, an embarrassment (to be) in this situation,” Gators coach Will Muschamp said. “It’s all disappointing. It’s hard to measure it at this point.”

2014 is a new season and Will Muschamp and his team are going to have to show considerable improvement for him to retain his job. After a blowout victory against hapless Eastern Michigan, it took three overtimes for Muschamp’s Gators to get past Kentucky. Their first measuring stick game came against Alabama, where the Tide rolled to a 42-21 victory in which Florida allowed a school record 645 yards of total offense.

Although Muschamp’s teams have had several different breakdowns over the past year and a third, the quarterback position has been a staple of ineptitude. Muschamp hitched his wagon to Jeff Driskel back in 2012 and although the talent around him carried the team to 11 wins in Driskel’s first year, the quarterback has seemed to regress.

Still, Driskel is Muschamp’s guy and he’s not thinking about making any changes at this moment.

“We’ll continue to move forward this season and he’ll make the Gator Nation proud he’s their quarterback,” Muschamp said of Driskel. “I know that the majority are. That’s the frustrating part, that you’ve got to listen to the negativity of the small few. But that’s part of it.”

The negativity is coming from more than a small few. What once was a national title contender year in and year out is now a fan base who is trying to figure out if they’ll win enough games to be bowl eligible.

Although not everything is Driskel and Muschamp’s fault, they are the two most public figures.

One of the biggest indictments on the Muschamp era has not only been the poor play of Driskel, but the quality play of the quarterbacks that Muschamp chose Driskel over.

Jacoby Brissett and Tyler Murphy are starters at N.C. State and Boston College respectively, and they’ve outperformed the signal caller that was chosen ahead of them. Brissett is completing nearly 70 percent of his passes while having a sterling touchdown to interception ratio of 13:1. Brissett nearly pulled off the upset of the 2014 season as he put up 41 points against top-ranked Florida State.

“Haven’t seen too much of the Florida quarterback but I can’t imagine he’s better than Jacoby Brissett,” Clemson defensive coordinator Brent Venables said.

Tyler Murphy is a dual-threat quarterback who had 191 yards rushing and a touchdown in his team’s upset victory over USC. That victory alone is better than anything that Driskel has had on his resume in the past two seasons.

“He’s a heck of a player,” USC head coach Steve Sarkisian said of Murphy following BC’s 37-31 victory.

Will Muschamp has made his bed with quarterback Jeff Driskel and their success the rest of the year will determine their legacy at Florida. Right now, Muschamp has a similar record to Ron Zook and Driskel could go down as the worst Gators starting quarterback this century.

The success of Jacoby Brissett and Tyler Murphy further reinforce the decision making of Muschamp and the incompetent play of Driskel.