By PETER KERASOTIS
Florida Today

Ron Zook was talking in exclamation points, the pitch in his voice rising. "There's a lot of mud being thrown, but it hasn't come from this office, not from this camp!" he said.

"But I tell you what, it's my nature, because of the way that I am, that when someone says something about me that's not true, I'm like, 'You want to get it on, let's get it on!'"

Zook's X's and O's and his credentials to coach a major college football program have been questioned since the day he replaced Steve Spurrier at the University of Florida. He understands that, almost welcomes it. He says it makes him work harder, if that's possible.

But when his integrity, honesty and character are brought into question, then he responds. He reacts. And there's a part of him that also has to refrain from retaliating.

"All I have is my word," he said. "What more do I have?"

We were discussing an ESPN.com story written Wednesday, which, in case you didn't notice, was national signing day for high school football prospects.

ESPN's Ivan Maisel, a reporter with impeccable credentials, was given exclusive access to Florida State's inner sanctum during the frenzy that is signing day.

Maisel reported that FSU coaches said they were told that recruits who had not yet decided between Florida and Florida State "received overnight packages in the last couple of days filled with clippings pertaining to the Seminoles' problems last fall."

The implication, of course, is that UF had stooped to dirty tactics.

"We've had to put out more fires," Maisel reported FSU defensive ends coach Jody Allen as saying.

Maisel says offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden took the accusation a step further, interrupting Allen.

"We've been Zookified," Bowden said. "Call it like it is."

But how is it?

It's like quicksand. The harder you report a story like this, the more you sink into a he-said, they-said game of accusation, denial and counter-denial.

For instance, Jeff Bowden denied Friday that he said, "We've been Zookified."

"I have no recollection of making a statement like that," he said. "Maybe Ivan heard someone else say it and thought it was me. But a word like that, a catchphrase like that, I think I would remember saying it."

Maisel, on the other hand, says it was exactly because the phrase was so unique that he remembers so well that Bowden said it.

"If he's saying now that he didn't say that, then I'm disappointed in him," Maisel said from his Connecticut home. "He did say it. I've got it right here in my notes."

He started flipping pages.

"Here it is," he said finally. "It was Tuesday afternoon. We were standing in (recruiting coordinator) John Lilly's office. He and Jody and John were in there. It was a good line, that's why I used it. I'm not clever enough to come up with something like that myself. He said it. I don't know what else I can tell you."

And so it goes.

But it does get better. Or worse. Depending on your point of view.

The alleged overnight packages filled with negative clippings on FSU's problems would be especially damning, if it was true. But is it? When I asked him, Jeff Bowden said he has no firsthand knowledge of such packets even existing. None whatsoever.

"Seems to me," Zook said, "that you can check the records on that. If it exists, then you can check where that stuff came from. But I can say this: We did not send overnight packages like that to anybody! No way! We don't operate like that. Nothing like that came from here. But, you know, the way they (the Seminoles) operate, they might have sent it out themselves and then blamed us."

Zook laughed. He laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. But the moment was fleeting.

"If there's a package, they need to find out where it came from. It may be a Gator fan. If that's the case, I can't help that. But I can also say that the FireRonZook.com web site has been traced back to Tallahassee. So what's the big deal?"

The big deal, of course, is that the rivalry between these two schools, which everyone would like to see stay on the field, keeps stepping outside those boundaries.

There was a bit of a peaceful period when Zook replaced Spurrier, who never met an FSU barb he didn't like, or launch. But all that apparently is over now.

When Zook took the podium Wednesday night to address the media after an enormously successful signing day, he openly and somewhat frustratingly talked about his battle against what he said was negative recruiting.

In our conversation Friday, he revisited that topic.

"There was a lot of negative recruiting going on! A lot! But it wasn't coming out of this camp."

Zook said the two things he heard most from recruits were that he wasn't going to be around to coach him beyond another season, ostensibly because UF boosters would buy out his contract, and that he would switch a kid from the position he wanted to play in college to another.

"They (other college recruiters) made a living out of telling kids I wasn't going to be around next year," Zook said. "Are you kidding me? That was constant! Constant! And then they were telling kids that I was lying to them."

Zook said he had several conversations with Palm Bay High standout Joe Cohen, rebutting other recruiters' accusations that he would switch Cohen from running back to defensive lineman. Cohen did sign with Florida.

"I finally told Joe Cohen, 'Joe, I'm spending all my time telling you what we're not going to do that people keep putting in your head. All I've done is tell you what we are going to do. Maybe some of the things you're being told are things other people are thinking about doing with you. Why are people telling you what we're going to do? Why don't they tell you what they're going to do?'

"Another time, I told him, 'Joe, I've been coaching since 1976. Find me one player that I've lied to. Just one! Just find me one!"'

Zook sighed, and it was a sigh that sounded like it emanated from a wind tunnel.

"Why don't people just sell their program? That's what I did. It's probably a little easier for me to say that because I've got a great place to sell.

"But all I know is that we recruited the right way, the way you're supposed to do it. You recruit your (butt) off and sell what you have. I didn't do any negative recruiting. You know, never one time did I say about (Bobby Bowden) being however old he is. Never! Never! And all I got back in my face was that I wasn't going to be here next year!"

His voice was rising again. But then it lowered. Conviction creeped in.

"You know what I can't wait for?" he said. "I told my staff that I can't wait for recruiting next season. This just fires me up. It gets me going. I told my staff, 'Let's get into the football season. Let's play. Let's coach our (butts) off, and then, by golly, we'll ride up and do it again.' Yeah, I can't wait to start recruiting all over again."