Florida's Alvarez Charges 'Betrayal' In Coaching Switch

MIAMI -- All-America receiver Carlos Alvarez feels the University of Florida football team was "betrayed" by school president Stephen C. O'Connell and coach Ray Graves in the dealing that brought Doug Dickey from Tennessee as the new Gator coach. Alvarez also said the idea of switching schools "went through my mind" and he still had not made up his mind about playing football at Florida next year.

Alvarez, a B-plus pre-law student from Miami, sounded off about the coaching switch in talks with newsmen at the Orange Bowl game New Year's night. In interviews published Friday, the Cuban refugee said the incidents surrounding the coaching change had shown him "some of the ugly aspects about college football." Alvarez and the other Florida team members held a team meeting and then asked university officials to consider giving the coaching job in Gene Ellenson, the Gator defensive coach, if Graves decided to retire as head coach to become full-time athletic director.

"I feel like I was betrayed," said Alvarez, the second best pass recceiver in the nation during the 1969 season. "People I had placed a lot of confidence and trust in did not level with us. Some even went out of their way to mislead us. There is no way I can ever justify that." The sophomore said that on the eve of last Saturday's Gator Bowl game -- in which Florida upset Dickey's Tennessee team 14-13 -- O'Connell told the players that Graves had not decided to retire as coach and that nobody had been approached about succeeding him. O'Connell also made public statement to this effect, and so did Graves, although Dickey said he had been approached by Florida officials about the coaching job.

After the switch was announced on Wednesday, Dickey added that he had been approached by O'Connell and Graves last summer.