HOOVER, Ala. -- Ron Zook strode to the microphone as if his hair were on fire. Once there he grabbed both sides of the podium, leaned forward, and went from 0 to 110 decibels faster than a hummingbird beats its wings. His voice was loud enough to peel the ballroom wallpaper. And you needed a court stenographer to keep up with the word count. Zook doesn't believe in periods, which is why his sentences kept bumpingintoeachotherlikethis.

Three minutes into his debut at the annual SEC Football Media Days and Zook already had his game face on. His tie had spilled out of his sportcoat, his energy level was at DefCon 1, and the assembled print hacks were asking for defibrillators to restart their microcassette recorders. Any more intense and Zook would have run an Oklahoma drill on the ballroom carpet.

	Ron Zook will only wear a visor if it rains.

So this is how the Florida Gators must have felt in January when they met their new coach for the first time. You go from the clipped, melodic, Tennessee drawl of Steve Spurrier to the WE-WILL-ATTACK-THE-ENEMY-FROM-THE-WEST! bark of Zook the Ohioan. Spurrier is frenetic, hyper-competitive, a football savant. But he was never like this. One incredulous writer from Memphis blurted out, "It's like he's on speed."

Zook wasn't Florida's first choice. Or second. He has never been a head coach on any level. He replaces the alpha coach of the SEC, of Division I-A, for that matter. In a 15-day span in September he faces defending national champion Miami at The Swamp and SEC runner-up Tennessee at Neyland Stadium.

Nearly 20 years ago Zook jotted down a wish-list of 10 head coaching jobs. Florida was No. 1. Now that he has it (thank you, Bob Stoops and Mike Shanahan), Zook is hell bent on making the most of the opportunity.

The former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator puts a happy Gator face on everything.

Best thing about coaching in college again? "I don't have to play the St. Louis Rams anymore," he says.

How does he explain the energy surges? "If you sleep four hours fast, that's like eight hours sleep," says Yogi Jr.

Philosophy on visor wearing and throwing? "Only if it rains," he says. "Only if the sun is in my eyes. If it rains I'll wear a hat."

Zook is no Spurrier, which is the way it should be. There is only one Ballcoach, and he's in Japan right now, drawing up ballplays, counting the nanoseconds until he can get back on the Washington Redskins' charter. After all, that's why they call it an Era: Spurrier came, he saw, he kicked SEC butt.

Now it's Zook's turn. So far he's pulled the seating from the Gators' practice field (You vil stand and you vil like it!), turned the tempo up in workouts and approved an offense that features more shotgun, more no-huddle, more rollouts, more option plays, more running. He doesn't have Spurrier's sense of verbal panache, but he's capable of a decent practical joke. At the end of the Gators' spring game, Zook called the team together and told it he had petitioned the NCAA for 15 more practices. "And since I'm a new coach, they granted the request," he said.

The Gators thought he was serious. Then he smiled.

"I learned a long time ago I had to be me," he says. "I have to be me. I can't come in here and be somebody else."

And there's the rub. Zook is caught between a Spurrier and a hard place. He has preseason Heisman Trophy favorite Rex Grossman at quarterback, and Earnest Graham at running back, and Taylor Jacobs at wide receiver, and the usual collection of Florida talent on the roster. But he also has the sequoia-tall shadow of Stevie Ballcoach, and a schedule that features the Hurricanes, Vols, SEC champ LSU, SEC East favorite Georgia, better-than-you-think South Carolina, Ole Miss at Oxford and Florida State at Tallahassee. Start 2-2 and folks in Gainesville are going to wish Zook was someone else ... or somewhere else.

Truth is, Zook won't get the same benefit of the doubt that Stoops or Shanahan would have received. But Zook knew that coming in. Those guys have football legacies. Zook has none.

According to Grossman, the Gators are buying into the Zook mentality. "Anytime there's a change, people get a little nervous," says Grossman. "But there's no reason this year won't be like any other year."

That's a tidy, but naïve way of looking at things. This won't be like any other year because Spurrier will be flinging visors in our nation's capital and Zook will be making his coaching debut at month's end.

One thing is for sure, though: "I think he's going to have some great pregame speeches," says Grossman.

Bring earplugs and a 120-word-per-minute typist.

Gene Wojciechowski is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at gene.wojciechowski@espnmag.com.