Funny typo. I can go along with what you're saying. It's hard to fathom our 3rd down defense especially.
I had tempered expectations knowing just how bad defensively the Gators were the past two seasons under Mullen. But knowing how bad we were, the new staff couldn’t bring in a few transfers to at least be… mediocre? I mean come on on, the D had to show some progress. We still can’t cover anybody. Basically just as bad as the last two years. We didn’t buy out Mullen and bring in a new coach to be “just as bad” as the worst defenses in school history! Only a fool would be calling for the head coach to be fired already, but in addition to the obvious (recruiting talent on D), it’s possible some staff/scheme adjustments are needed on that side of the ball. I mean… when you are dead last/bottom feeder on defense that should go without saying.
It's interesting that fans believe our defensive talent is G5 level at best. Looking at the defensive recruiting star averages since 2018, we had 52 recruits with an average of 3.85 star average. Now, I realize star averages aren't everything, but our star average is higher (some far higher) than Utah's, USFs, Kentucky's, Tennessee's, and Mizzou's. Does this mean that Mullen and Co. simply couldn't evaluate talent? Or that they couldn't develop talent? But at least statistically, the talent seems to have been there.
Current players or recruits? A lot of Mullen's recruits were reaches, fell off other teams boards, and/or never made it on campus or transferred out.
To be fair, we said that about the last 2 seasons of Dan's tenure here. Well it's the same players. Hit its obvious by our current class that CBN is highly aware and is working to change that really the only way you can, start crootin. (Year around )
This class will be heavy on the defensive talent and too bad we didn't have a class like this last year. I hope we can add to to defensive talent, because it seems that highly talented offensive players are easier to get than highly skilled, in the numbers we need to get, than it is to get the defensive players. One receiver here... and an O-lineman there, and we are okay for now. But the defense needs tons of skilled/talented players. And I do prefer we get them out of high school and build them our way... with different defensive schemes. By the way, Tennessee's passing defense is 129 out of 131 in passing yards allowed.. Think about that for a moment. NCAA College Football FBS current team Stats | NCAA.com
Make them worse? That is a debatable subject. How about the this subject "The depletion of talent (from graduation/portal) and a lot of new players is exposing multiple weaknesses" The LSU, Kentucky, and Tennessee got very predictable. Why? It is no secret that too many Gator defenders do not have the speed, the size, and the talent to defend a team like. The opposing offenses struck the exposed weak area like a shark. You can see why the opposing running backs (including the QB's are running wide on the Gator D. The playing out of position, the lack of speed, the lack of size, the lack of skill. The running backs and the QB's are quick to get outside of the hashmarks. When they get there, they turn it up field with speed and velocity. The result is too many wiffed/missed/broken tackles, and too many yards after first contact. The Gator pass defensed is exploited in similar fashion for the same reasons. The end results are too many completions, and too many yards after the catch. I can see how some people say that the Gator Defense is worse now than last year. Please note that a lot of those Mullen players left the team last year. The recruits from last year are only ten months from their last high school game. The portal did not bring in better talent.
Still not convinced it's ALL about the lack of talent. We are constantly misaligned on the defensive side of the ball. And we have the most obsolete schemes that none of our defensive schemes are working at a high degree in the SEC. I also noticed when our defense started becoming less than good... It started when Grantham made us a 3-4 base defense instead of the good/great 4-3 base defenses that we had in the past. And it took Grantham one full year to transition to that failed 3-4 base defense. That's all on Grantham, and Mullen too for not firing him.
That's hogwash and as simplistic as those screeching that its all coaching. You don't consistently rank in the top 20 recruiting rankings by stealing recruits from FAU and FIU. Did we steal any from UGa and Bama?...if we did it probably wasn't enough, but we have consistently recruited in the top half of the SEC teams. Of course that level of recruiting still isn't good enough to get where Gator fans want to be, which is one good reason why Napier is here at all.
I was concerned when Napier announced we would run a 3-3-5 defense, which is what Grantham ran most of the time. Its the flavor of the month Defense, but as we can see with our own eyes its not even slowing down a lot of these high powered offenses
It does NOT work in the SEC... A true 4 (DTs only) 2 - 5 defense would work better. That's a 4-2-5 defense. But a 3-3- 5 defense is too finesse. If you give the QB's that much time to throw the ball your defense will die on the vine... even with all world DBs and Safeties. They get worn out eventually when the QB has all day long to pass the ball... never freaking works in the SEC. The 4-3 base works to pressure the QB... but we can run and 4-2-5 from that or a 4-1-6 dime defense too. If we don't get more pressure on opposing teams' QBs then they have all day long to carve up our secondary, and no amount of talent can cover all day long. We have to get to the QBs faster/quicker.
IMO, what we want is for Napier to be working 24/7 and zig when he zags. Mainly revisionist history based on hindsight. I have to believe he took inventory and decided what he could do to help right the ship this year, based on what he had as his resources. He obviously did not (and in my mind could not) do enough, especially on defense. I think what the hindsighters want is for Napier to have released about 20 more players who did not leave voluntarily before the beginning of the season. We were all full in the scholarship department (and likely we were over and grayshirted a couple of them). And then we would go all "aTm" in free agency. If it makes you feel empowered, then that is fine. But realize that hindsight looks different in the present.
I would advise Coach Napier to make a special effort to revise our defensive scheme because the current one isn't working. We are at the nadir right now. He's going to have to coach his way out of this. I think the reaction is overblown. You would think we lost to Appalachian State, not LSU.
Yes, but that applies to all teams, not just Florida. Hendon Hooker and Jalin Hyatt both came through the portal from Virginia Tech. Think that mattered? Besides, do all the teams we played thus far have equal to or better talent Florida?
I'm not mad at the players or coaches at this point. I am quite disappointed in the defense repeatedly getting pushed around, even by EWU. But I really like the fight in this team. Our performance isn't where it needs to be but it seemed our players in the past few years gave up once they got down.
There is no way to compare Napier with Saban and I wasn’t trying to. We will just have to wait and see how Napier rebuilds this program to compare that. My bad if that’s how my post read. My point was that Saban took over a much better roster from Shula than Napier did from Mullen, and still had a shaky first year. The last Florida coach to take over a roster even close to this bad was Pell. And that roster was much better than this. Scott Brantley, Cris Collinsworth, David Galloway, Robin Fisher, and Tyrone Young we’re all studs. They also had some freshmen that some remember like Chris Faulkner and James Jones.
