Ahmad Black after the LSU game.

Just because Saban struggled in his first Bama season then turned it around is pretty much irrelevant to me as it pertains to Napier, yet gets referenced all the time. For every Saban that turns it around, there are 99 other guys that crashed and burned. Referencing Saban's history is just a rationalization for a poor season.

 

Or people are forced to throw against them so much because they’re playing from behind because their offense is lethal….therefore skewing the stats

 

They aren’t saying that Napier is going to turn into Saban just because they both lost some games their first season. They’re saying be a little patient, even the best to ever do it had some struggles.

We would have fired Dabo before he won his title.

 

Um, players are not robots. You don't just upload a new program and the Terminator 1.0 becomes Terminator, the Savior. Can you at least acknowledge that players have emotionally invested in what they were told by the old regime (especially in high school) and now they are resistant to change?

 

Isn't that blaming the last staff by proxy? I don't recall Spurrier having issues with his offensive players from Galen's team in 1990.

I'm with you. I don't want heads to roll. I think blaming coordinators or the head coach, especially after 1/2 years, is weak. But they have to be accountable for the product put on the field.

 

Nothing wrong with your take. I would only add that Mullen (ie, Dumbo) gave a damn lame excuse about the Cotton Bowl loss. You think that Spurrier (or in this analogy Galen Hall (or the DC who took over for him)) would have pulled this stunt? I remember how talented the Pell teams got to be, but they never got over the hill, mainly because Pell got them too hyped to win the BIG games (USC excluded), whereas Hall had a different demeanor. Gotta say the same thing about Mus-take and his histrionics. Coaches set up a vibe. I think it plausible that Dumbo's arrogance rubbed off on plenty of them. It happens.

 

Some of us on this board have coached at a pretty high level and have rings to prove it.

But you were probably one of the butters and mullenz pumpers when it was apparent they weren't getting it done. Whats your take on that?

 

He has a point, but I think there's more talent on this team than a lot of people think. There's certainly some depth issues in some key areas, but as far as stars go, there's enough to indicate that this team is better than this.

The more pressing issue from Mullen's tenure that seems to remain an issue today is defensive scheme. Recruiting was a long-term issue where the team was only going to get worse with the staff that we had.

It looks like Napier is recruiting much better than his predecessors, but my worry even there is we're still behind Georgia, Bama, and LSU. I know about Georgia and Bama's success as of late, it's just that if we're going to compete for championships we're going to have to either outscheme these very same teams or outrecruit them (or both).

The offense, albeit inconsistent, is more than good enough to win us a lot of games. If I'm Napier, make some moves this offseason, try and establish an elite defense at Florida again.

 

When I say "this team is more talented than people think" I mean Napier inherited a more balanced team than McElwain for example, though Mac definitely had a lot more talent on defense.

Mac was pretty successful early on, however, the SEC East was much weaker in 2015 and 2016.

 

Actually many have implied just that many times. The line has been Napier coached for Saban so he knows process and how to win. Saban lost in yr 1 at Bama, so no worries if Napier does the same. To me its just not a logical comparison. JMO.

 

beautiful, if we'd only listen

 

I just read through all 5 pages. Wowzah...

An inconsistent passing game, and a dreadful defense will lose a lot of games. Not surprising...

But...soon people will hate us again- because we will start winning all the time. Currently, people are pulling for the Gators to win. We are the underdogs. But the shift is coming. Soon we'll be complaining because the wins aren't epic enough, we shoulda run up the score. Why did we run and not pass? etc, etc.

This transition year has been tough to watch. But we're really positioned to make positive change. The facilities, the staff, the recruits. A new football-loving president.

The kids have no quit in them and our coach doesn't either. He's humble and takes the blame for everything. I assume AR will return. If not, we'll coach-up someone already here and consistency will turn this puppy around. Just a little better passing game, and even an okay defense, and suddenly we can win a ton of games.

Beat the dawgs!

Go Gators.

 

Many years ago I worked for a Daytona 500 winning driver. We were talking about Jeff Gordon and Ray Evernham's dominance at the time and what it would take to catch them.

He said, "Here's the problem, there's only 24 hours in a day and they have the same 24 hours that you have." The only way to catch them is to bust your ass and hope they screw up."

That's where we are at.

 

You mean the cotton bowl where 87% of our offense sat out?

A) SoS never had to deal with that crap.

B) SoS always thought bowl games were a prize and didn’t always coach them up very well, just go look at his bowl record at UF, so I’m sure if he was HBC now he would have had some interesting takes when the majority of his Offense sat out..

 

It’s too bad Diabate, Hopper, Bogle all left within days of Napier getting hired. We sure could use them right now..

 

There are other examples (including those from UF history) that support the contention that first year results are not indicative of future success.
What are you proposing? Fire the coaches ? Wring hands especially hard? What do you think about waiting to see how this turns out?

 

So let's give coordinators and Napier time to fix this? Not one Gator fan is okay with the way.our defense played the last game but other than that obvious fact - we've got to give it time. Right? What's the alternative?

 

Okay friend, I'll stick with Ahmad Black's opinion and skip your rings - Butters and Mullenz is colorful...not looking forward to your nicknames for our current staf.

 

I am not your friend and couldn't care less who you believe on the subject.

Many former players who were here when mullenz was here with Meyer defended him and thought he was the homerun hire, Tim Tebow included. Doesn't make them bad people.

We can look at the defensive performance on the field and defensive rankings and hat tells us we are worse in a lot of areas than the last 3 years.

 

Fair enough. You won't cheerlead but you'll give him time, right? Like 3 seasons at least? Let's see, we are at the 7th game in year one so we have a lot of games before anyone demands we hit the reset button.
But that's a long time to sit with your arms crossed. You might want to cheerlead someday.