Reality and Progression, FSU

As usual . . . a great and level-headed post @thekentuckygator.

Some good, some not so good, but personnel will be much different for the Utah kick-off next Fall.

As far as an OC, my personal opinion is that Coach Napier was coaching with one arm tied behind his back for one reason or another. If Florida gets personnel and we still see the same patterns, well maybe talk about hiring an OC becomes necessary. Not next year as you pointed out for us. Same for the Co-DCs, I think.

THANKS again for these great weekly must-reads!

Lots for everyone to discuss.

 

As usual, thanks TKG. Lots of good points. We must have a consistent passer to go along with our very good running game. IMHO AR isn't the answer even if he returns. He has played an entire year, let alone some last year and he still is an inconsistent passer. Yes he is a good runner when he wants to be but not good enough runner to compensate for inconsistency with passing. I really see a parallel with the way BN views AR and the way DM viewed Franks. DM imo chose Franks because he was more of a dual qb and for his leadership skills. I think Franks was more popular, outgoing than Trask. Trask wasn't a 4 star and wasn't viewed very highly. It took an injury to Franks for DM to see what a diamond he had in Trask. Come to find out we didn't really need a dual threat qb, we needed someone who could actually pass. Just seems to me like DM, BN is emotionally tied to AR and that won't change so long as AR remains at UF.

But the biggest issue bar none is D. Personally, I think we have enough talent to be this awful. The D has remained an issue all year long. We have scored enough points that we should have had a better record had it not been for this D. Fixing the D needs to be BN top priority imo. The front 7 is the key, and if Toney is retained and the D still looks undisciplined and inconsistent, more changes should be made.

This year was BN honeymoon. Most of us knew it would be a bit bumpy but had hoped for a little better. Our running game was a pleasant surprise. The OL I thought played consistently good. QB and wr play disappointing overall. Fans expect significant improvement year 2. I'm pretty sure BN knows this.

I'm hoping BN finishes strong recruiting wise, encourages certain players to leave, and desperately needs to find really good players in the portal focusing on the front 7 on D.

 

Agreed, but I think its a big mistake....you don't need two years to evaluate a coach. He needs to evaluate which are under-performing and make changes now. Otherwise he risks another lackluster year before he makes changes and then he is coaching for his job with brand new coaches in year 3....similar to Muschamp. Additionally, he needs to identify the under-performing players and let them know they need to find another place to play. This is a business now, and tying up scholarships with someone that can't or won't contribute is a sure way to lose your job.

 

As Muschamp and Dm found out, loyalty to underperforming assistant coaches can end up bringing a hc down. Both coaches had confidence in their assistants but it was unmerited. I think that's why Saban doesn't get too close to assistants, won't let friendship influence decision.

 

I don’t think Billy was holding back AR, especially later in the season. I mean most teams don’t have a qb waiting to step up and be just as good. You could say that about so many teams. I just think AR just did t want to run that much. Look at the missed shuffle pass to Johnson last night. AR should tuck and run that for a million yards

 

He is a great CEO. If he was also showing great OC chops, I would still want him to offload some of the work to a coordinator and be the HC. He isn't really showing great OC chops, hopefully he will have the humility to let the OC duties go to someone else.

 

We have an OC and its not Billy....its Sale. Billy is the play caller and that is the position that he needs to let go of. Either let Sale call the plays from the booth or hire a new coach to take over both duties and let go of one we have. That being said, if the D isn't addressed as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd priority then he is just wasting energy.

 

Good stuff as always. On point with just about everything.

I never come here and complain about the officiating but that was so blatantly bad last night. In a close game like this bad calls matter and last night there were more than just a few that tipped the scales to FSU.

 

Head coaches who call their own play are usually brilliant at it (Spurrier, Leach, Kiffin, Sarkisian,...hell even Mullen). Billy is not a great play caller. Not even a good one. He should let it go. Hire someone to do it...that's what CEOs do.

 

I don't know that I agree with the BN loyalty to AR. He didn't bring AR in and really, did he have any other good qb options other than AR at the beginning of the season? AR was the only qb with any meaningful game experience.

Defense is getting a bad rap and some for pretty good reason, but not so much from the scheme. FSUs biggest plays last night were after the play had broken down and we had guys in position to make the plays, they just didn't make it. I'm not sure why you'd blame the DC at that point. By far, our biggest area of need is LB. Our LB room just isn't very good, IMO.

I think AR either goes pro or transfers and I hate to say it will be better for both parties.

 

Luckily our recruiting class is looking like CBN is aware our D needed an influx. Our D linemen and DB class look terrific so far. Couple more LB would be nice

 

Someone that might have been more observant than me, did you notice any change in AR’s facial expressions in game close ups over the course of the season? I just noticed last night that he seemed to show zero emotion on his face; although he did celebrate a couple times after TDs that I saw. I don’t recall his countenance being so zombie-like earlier in the year, but maybe that is his normal game face. Very unTebowesk. Was he just done with it all? Is he not an on the field leader? I appreciate his spurts of brilliance, but he was inconsistent. He’s still all Gator to me and I wish him the best where ever he is next year.

 

I've been saying this since the UK game. I don't think he's going to give up play calling anytime soon or being the qb coach. He probably likes to control that side of the team. Hopefully, he gets better at it next year.

 

I'm just sad at how far the Gators have fallen, but this isn't entirely on BN. Some might even say he's making the best of a horrible situation he inherited.

I'm just tired of losing games we've always won in the past. I remember a time when I truly believed we'd win every game we played (of course we didn't but I went into literally every game thinking we'd win regardless of our record or ranking). Now I feel we could lose every game and am honestly surprised by the rare wins. I've stopped watching any games live and just go back and watch the wins on dvr.

 

I’m not sure where you come to the conclusion that BN is “emotionally tied” to AR. He hasn’t been in G’ville a full year yet and is dealing with a forced marriage to players that are not his own.

 

And we hired him to be a CEO, not to be Mullen or Spurrier.

 

Ugh, did you see the Kentucky game? His body language might be the thing that has bothered me the most about him. Qb has to lead. Gotta shake off the bad plays. I'm not sure I can name another QB who has had worse head hanging than him. Frustrating because he is the best athlete on the field at any given time yet goes timid.

 

Honestly, I think Billy MUST make big changes on both sides of the ball if we want this rebuild to be quick.

Coaches have a tendency to be stubborn in their philosophy. “When MY players come in, the playcalling on offense, and the scheme on defense will suddenly fix itself.” I’m more inclined to believe that’s true for the defense than the offense, but I’m very skeptical that either are great schematically.

The only great thing we have going for us right now is our running game. We are bad football team everywhere else. I don’t think the depth on defense is great, but it’s better than the product we put out on the field this year. I just have a hard time seeing a defense under this scheme being elite, which is what Billy will need to win championships if the offense isn’t elite.

To be an elite football team, there’s got to be something about your team that’s elite, and it has to be more than half of one side of the ball in the running game.

Im a little frustrated because if you combine the best qualities of each of our last 4 head coaches including Napier, like some Frankenstein monster of a head coach, you’d clearly have a championship level head coach; elite offense, defense, and situational football. Each head coach we’ve seen had red flags that you can see pretty early on in their tenure, Napier included. Muschamp had issues with offensive scheme and offensive recruiting, Mac had issues with recruiting in general, Mullen had issues with player seniority, loyalty to a fault, and recruiting, Napier seems to have issues in not recognizing his own strengths and weaknesses and his failure to establish an identity with at least one dominant side of the ball.

Napier’s excellent at understanding the big picture. He’s good when it comes to having a vision for the program and selling that vision with class. He’s by no means an elite Xs and Os coach, and he needs to stop acting like we hired him to be one. He doesn’t have to.