You also need X and Os. Being good on gameday is valuable. We dog Kirby but right now he’s far superior to Napier on gameday.
Agree, when you consider the talent (on paper), the number of advisors to assist our D coaches, for the D to remain far below UF standard, Toney needs to turn things around. I seriously doubt BN will demote or replace, so I'm hoping Toney makes vast improvements. If it's not coaching, then we need to hit the portal really hard. A good but not great D and we win last night.
Bizarre that the 2020 Gators had a "Lambo" passing game with almost no run game and the 2022 version has an elite running attack with a YUGO passing game. Both versions had way sub par defenses.
This game was lost by lack of athleticism on our front seven and the inability to contain Travis. AR is twice the athlete that Travis is and their front seven contained him well.
They had the same amount of time to recruit the same players via portal or the uncommitted (see Perkins, Mekhi Wingo, others). UF offered both (and others) but simply got beat. That happens. He knew where the deficiencies were/are prior to Spring. Ditto Lincoln Riley.
also worth reposting here: "Not ready to bury coach just yet as that would not be fair. But for those leaning on recruiting prowess YTD, it should be noted that we are exactly one spot higher than Dan Mullen after his first year. One. Staff absolutely has more energy on the trail. That said it is not like we are recruiting at some absolute elite level."
One less class of Grantham and Mullen’s stellar recruiting on the defense will be a leap forward. Did you not watch out guys in position to make plays only to watch them flail and flop and fall all over themselves only to give up a big play?
I don't follow recruiting, but agree with the Q about Vandy-level talent. Is KY more talented than FL? Did TN suddenly pass us in talent? I honestly don't know the answers, but tend to be skeptical. At this moment, I find it difficult to dismiss the performance of the head coach and DC citing "talent." This Gator season was a failure, imo and not a total failure only because: We got one quality win (only one) against UT. We got a couple SEC wins against SC & A&M. We will earn a bowl bid. 6-6 / 3-5 sucks. I won't try to polish that turd.
I think you need to go back and look at how many of Dans signees never made it to a practice. He signed some high risk players to get his ranking up and they never made it. Were you in the stadium the last two years for Senior Day?
And he has an OC and a DC. Perhaps the CEO needs to learn that he can't do every job at the same time.
Talent is not the only thing, its development which, like it or not, takes time. Let me put it another way, if you sign 22 best of the best freshman and played out the year, they would, at best go 7-4 ish. Why? Because while they may be talented and their potential is high, there is a distinct disadvantage when playing against teams with more experienced players. Young teams tend to have pretty wild swings game to game or even play to play, making mistakes and such. Ideally, you want a healthy distribution of upper and lower classmen. UF is currently heavily slanted to FR and SO this year and you saw that in their play. So, I think saying we need talent is only partly true. We need a better distribution of the talent amongst upper/lower classmen.
They seemed to actually have a plan to do so, while our guys appeared to just suddenly discover that Travis could scramble. They had no plan to contain him.
The QB threw for 400yds, w 3 TDs/1 fluke int. The QB didn't decide to fumble a punt into the EZ or give up 31 pts to Vandy.
Did not stop Utah. Gave up 230yds rushing and 23/32 to the QB. We couldn't stop them in the 2nd half.
I don’t think you’re considering the whole picture Davis. This roster/season was much more comparable to 1979 than any other Gator transition year in history. And the truth be told the 79 team had a lot more talent ( Collinsworth, Brantley, Little, Fisher, Young along with some great freshman like Jones and Faulkner. This team’s ceiling was absolutely no better than 8-4 and that was if we stayed healthy. It looks like Napier has corrected the the Mullen lack of effort on the players that got on the field, but my guess is there is another 15-25 players that will be shown the door after the season. This year was the beginning. Next year will be some growing pains but should be 9-3. 2024 we will contend for the east title.
Before yesterday we avg only 2 points (31) and 24 yards (343) per game less then lsu who is on the cusp of a playoff berth.
