Jemalle Cornelius was about 30,000 feet over Arizona when the news broke. The speedy WR from Fort Meade, Fla., didn't have a clue. He was flying home from California after having just played in the CaliFlorida prep all-star game. When he got home, his parents dropped the bombshell: Steve Spurrier was going to the NFL.

In the five days since, Cornelius has tried following the Gator rumor mill, from Bob Stoops to Mike Shanahan to ... Ron Zook? "Ron who?" Cornelius wondered Wednesday morning. "I've never heard of him." But Auburn and Georgia coaches have -- and they're talking about Zook constantly. Both schools are still in the hunt for the 5-foot-11, 170-pound Cornelius. "The Georgia coach (Mike Bobo) told me that Zook's a defensive guy, so there'll probably be some changes in Gainesville."

And who knows? Maybe Bobo's right. Even if Zook does bring in the sharpest, most wide-open offensive minds available, the flavor around Florida football will be different. Very different. "With Coach Spurrier there, they focused so much on offense," says Cornelius. "I loved that style, but now, I don't know."

No program in any sport has been stamped with a more clearly identified persona than Spurrier's Gators. They are, and have been -- for the better part of the last decade -- an aggressive, in-your-face, always-attacking offensive machine. Back in the day, Gator legend Spurrier played that way, using UF's offense as a means of scoring his own Heisman Trophy.

Spurrier returned to resurrect Gator football and, in the process, create an offensive juggernaut. Year in and year out, he'd feed different players into his Fun 'n' Gun system, and by season's end, records were shattered. So were opponent's psyches. The craziest part was he did it all without a legit NFL QB prospect running the show. See, no matter what, Spurrier's Fun 'n' Gun was bigger than any one player. The real question now is, is it bigger than any one man?

Replacing The Visored One was going to be impossible. Even for Stoops. Or for Shanahan. But now the reigns of Gator Football rest in the hands of former UF assistant Ron Zook, a guy who made his rep as -- gasp! -- a defensive mind. Gator fans should have confidence in the gamble AD Jeremy Foley has made. After all, it was Foley who plucked then-Marshall coach Billy Donovan to take over his basketball program, and Billy the Kid has built a dynamo. But replacing a legend (and that's what Spurrier is) is different than replacing a Lon (Kruger, that is). One rival recruiter whose school regularly scoops a few kids out of the Sunshine State doesn't mind that Spurrier is gone to the NFL and has been replaced by "a defensive guy."

"He was almost impossible to beat for a receiver in that offense, and for linemen, too," says the coach. "He had the system, but even more importantly, he had the rep. And with recruits, that's what counts most."

So here comes Zook, bringing his own crunked-up attitude.

If you think the visor-flinging Spurrier was a trip, NFL observers say you have to watch Zook. His rep in the League was as a coach who loved to get in the middle of the action. He'd gather his players around him before kickoff and work them up into a frenzy and then they'd bounce him around like a pinball.

For the next month or so as he tries to get settled into Spurrier's old job, he'll probably have a similar feeling navigating the recruiting battles.

As for Cornelius, he is still optimistic about UF. The Gator coach who was recruiting him, Buddy Teevens, just took the Stanford job, and the kid is still waiting to hear from someone in Gainesville about where things are headed.

He's already heard where the rival coaches think things are going.

Bruce Feldman covers college football for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at bruce.feldman@espnmag.com.