If they hadn't poured Gatorade on him, he would've poured it on them.

That's all you need to know about Steve Spurrier's replacement at Florida. The guy needs some decaf. You don't know him yet, but he ran it up on UAB last Saturday -- 51 points and 643 yards worth -- and his players wish they could come right out and say it:

They'd rather play for Ron Zook any day of the week.

	The Gators are loving life under the anti-Spurrier.

But now's not the time to rip Spurrier. It may never be time to rip Spurrier. The Florida players may love their new coach more -- but they'd better shut their mouths.

Because they may need a job some day.

Every Gator player, on offense and defense, knows there's a coach accepting job applications in D.C., and that's why they will refuse to say on the record what many of them are thinking -- life's a whole lot better now.

Steve Spurrier intimidated them, but now they have a coach in Ron Zook who humanizes them. The more they get to know him, they realize that Ron Zook is the anti-Spurrier. He likes to lift weights with them, and bump chests with them and talk about Vietnam with them. As a result, they badly want to prove that they can win it all without Spurrier, that they can slaughter No. 1 Miami this Saturday without Spurrier.

But shhhhhhhhhhhh, it'll never be said.

Trust me, they want to stay on the Ballcoach's good side. That's why quarterback Rex Grossman, who has more authority under center now than he's ever had before, attended the Washington-Tampa Bay preseason game last month. He didn't specifically talk to Spurrier that night, but he made damn sure to touch base with Spurrier's QB coach, Noah Brandise. And he studied the Redskins' offense like a hawk.

"Could run that offense right now," Grossman says.

Is that why Spurrier's playbook is still in your head?

"Never know when I'm going to need it," Grossman says.

All the Gators feel this way, but, the truth is, another coach has already won them over. Here are the eight ways Ron Zook has done it:

On the day he was hired, he spit it out: He would run up the score like Spurrier did.

That made his new players do a double-take. "I'll never forget it," Grossman says. "He said he was going to take the Gators to a new level, which is kind of ballsy to say."

He had the good sense to realize he was Gene Bartow.

As soon as Zook took over, the school president, Dr. Charles Young, called him over for some advice. Young didn't know much about football, but what he did know about was the "legend" business. Young happened to be the president at UCLA when Bartow replaced John Wooden, and that's not to say Spurrier is John Wooden, but the people of Gainesville sure seem to think so. So Young told Ron Zook to be himself, to win games by scores of 13-10 instead of 51-48, if that's who he was. Zook listened, and listened good.

He started turning Florida into Cell Phone U.

Zook believes in communication, so on the day athletic director Jeremy Foley offered him the job, they had the following conversation.

Foley: "You're my guy. I'll pay you a million dollars a year."

Zook: "Jeremy, let's talk about something important -- I need a cell phone so I can start recruiting."

The whole thing still floors Foley. "I mean, he said nothing about cars, country clubs, what's deferred," Foley recalls. "He just says, 'Jeremy, I need a cell phone.' And a couple weeks later, I ask him, 'Zook, anything I can help you with?' And he's, 'Yeah, you can get me a cell phone that works in the shower. That'll give me 10 more minutes to recruit.' "

Not only that, Zook has passed along cell phones to everybody on his staff. He told them all, "Wear it on your underwear when you go to bed at night."

He wasn't kidding about the recruiting part. Or the underwear part.

His intention is to get to every high school in Florida -- which is virtually impossible. "I heard this said once by a Bear Bryant assistant: 'I'd rather be known as a bad coach with good players than a good coach with bad players,'" Zook says. "Well, I agree with that. And we've got a great product to sell here at Florida."

In fact, you should've seen him the night he got the Florida job. He went to dinner with Foley and Spurrier -- and their wives -- and basically spent the whole dinner impolitely on his cell phone. "I was trying to get my staff finalized," Zook says.

And the reason he wanted to get his staff finalized was so he could get them banging on doors, recruiting.

"He put that staff together in 48 hours," Zook's brother, Bob, says. "That saved the recruiting season. He hired six coaches in 48 hours. He told them, 'Forget about packing -- just come.' He told them, 'Get a change of underwear and come.' And they were out on the road the next week."

He told his players to never forget where they came from.

Because he sure hasn't. Ron Zook is inspired by a father who is fighting cancer, by a mother who still paints homes and by a brother who's been to Saigon.

The Vietnam story is the one that still motivates him. He was 14 when his brother Bob began flying bombing missions against the Viet Cong, and the day his brother returned from the war was one of the great moments of his life.

"I surprised everyone by walking in the door on Christmas Day," Bob Zook says. "Ron was working that morning at the gas station. He walked in the door, and ... that's some memory."

From that moment on, Ron believed he could do anything. And he still feels that way. He figures if his brother could survive a Vietnam jungle, he could certainly survive a Gainesville swamp.

He's a little anal -- but in a good way.

This is a head coach who carries a Dictaphone wherever he goes -- in case he gets a wonderful brainstorm. Just last month, in fact, he saw Gatorade lids on the ground, so he pulled out his Dictaphone and said, 'Memo to training staff: Tell players to pick up their trash.' "

Guess what: the ground's spotless now.

He gives one hell of a pre-game speech.

He's a little corny with them sometimes, and he always tells the players and his staff: "Take your vitamins and your running shoes -- because we're going places."

But he does enough to get the team fired up. For instance, he went on a water-skiing trip with his family before training camp started, and while he was grocery shopping one day, he picked up an SEC preview magazine. Steam was coming out of his ears when he subsequently read that he and his assistants were rated the 11th best coaching staff in the SEC.

"I know Zook's all fired up and pissed off and ready to prove himself," Grossman says. "He's brought it up to me. He's a funny dude. He's fired up and ready to kick some ass."

He may tell his players to pick up trash, but he's also told them never to talk trash.

Basically, he wants them to shut their traps as they head into this Miami game Saturday. And that means he doesn't want them responding to any of Miami's incessant yapping.

Even Brock Berlin, the ex-Gator quarterback who just transferred to Miami, has had something to say about this week's game -- although he did say it in a lighthearted way. Asked if he'll have mixed feelings while watching the game, Berlin told me, "No, I'm all about the 'Canes. I hope we crush the Gators. Hope we put it on 'em." And when asked what he would say to his ex-teammate Grossman, Berlin said, "He's got a tough defense coming at him, I'll say that. Better get ready."

It's the kind of thing that Spurrier used to respond to.

But Ron Zook, he's done nothing but make this mental note into his Dictaphone: Remind the players they need to stay quiet!

If not, he'll be calling them on his celly.

Tom Friend is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at tom.friend@espnmag.com.