Post-Game Discussion: Las Vega Bowl -- FLORIDA vs. Oregon State

Or it's people that understand the roster situation and know that in order to upgrade our talent we had to make room. That's been known for a long time and has nothing to do with "fueling hope" but carry on...

 

I assume you said this about the Mountain West guy too...

 

I think it's more about facilities, recruiting budget, NIL, etc.

All of which are really good. But I'm not sure they offer something LSU, Alabama, and Georgia don't. And like it or not, to get to a title, we have to go through them.

All of that stuff is getting better, but it just took a while for us to wake up and get the ball rolling.

 

The general rule is you're not swaying a head coach at a successful blue blood to coach for another blue blood (unless there's some special connection there like alma mater or a pre-existing relationship with the administration). Obviously money talks, but blue bloods hiring either coordinators from big time programs or successful head coaches from smaller programs is the status quo. That's what almost everyone does.

Southern Cal and LSU just went crazy with the pocket books.

 

My favorite were the ones that we said we would be better off without him because Kitna was a better "decision maker".
Of course they had no way of knowing, but talk about some posts that didn't age well.

 

I'm speculating but I think he was tired of the general head coaching grind at a program like Florida and he wanted to cash out.

 

Texas and Nebraska?

 

I see the logic in hiring Napier after Mullen checked out last year.

Dude quickly brought back the Louisiana program from pretty bad depths and recruiting consistently better than any program in the Sun Belt during his tenure there barring his first year (where he was just hired) and his last year (where it was obvious he was leaving).

I had issues with him schematically even when we hired him, but there's a whole lot that suggests high ceiling and stability with him. Obviously you never know for sure, and recruiting in the SEC is unlike recruiting anywhere else, but that's the game we play. Most known commodities at blue blood programs are not on the table.

 

Oh its definitely worse. Hall was hamstrung with the second worst probation ever levied on a program and still managed to never have a losing season.

 

Yes. They are both nationally recognized as bluebloods. Florida and a helluva lot of other schools with great programs (the three Florida schools, Georgia, Penn State, Tennessee, LSU) are not considered such.

This isn't what I believe, but what I believe doesn't mean jack. Personally, I think both should have lost their blueblood status since 2010 (Nebraska since 2002), but I suppose it's like aristocracy. In Britain, you can be a hereditary peer and drive a taxi, yet still be a peer of the realm...

 

You beat me to it. Considering what he had to work with, Hall was a damned fine coach.

 

You say SC and LSU went crazy with the pocket books, I say they did what it takes to hire the guy.

We can have our fun doing what almost everybody else does. And we’ll have a football program like almost everybody else has. I’m glad you’re content with the status quo.

 

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the Napier hire reminds me of McElwain with some huge key differences.

1. Mac was known as more of an offensive guru, while Napier's an offensive guy, but he's more known for his ability to build a program.
2. Mac improved a Colorado State team over the course of 3 seasons, and the offense took off, but the recruiting never really did even by Mountain West standards. Napier improved a Louisiana team more dramatically more quickly, but it was more about the whole team than any one side of the ball. Napier consistently recruited at the absolute top of the Sun Belt and just seems to be a better fit for a "southern" team than McElwain.

I think people are just growing impatient at this point because we're running a decade long of this seemingly never-ending cycle of coaching changes and because it seemed like we were so close to breaking through under Mullen for like two seconds. But I genuinely think this hire calls for more enthusiasm in the last decade apart from maybe Dan Mullen, who we absolutely needed to move on from.

 

Do you know Brian Kelly is "the guy?"

I'm pretty confident Lincoln Riley is, but under no circumstances did I think the best coach in the Big 12 who happened to be at Oklahoma was on the table. It was a masterful move. Expecting any other program to pull something like that off just isn't realistic.

 

Yeah I get that part too but UF isn't exactly cheaping out on them. Yeah, we're not #1 but we're in the top 20 according to rankings I've seen and we've been rapidly making them better.

 

Well, look at our history where we got coaches (previous jobs):

Bob Woodruff: Head coach at Baylor
Ray Graves: DC, Georgia Tech
Doug Dickey: Head Coach, Tennessee
Charley Pell: Head Coach, Clemson
Galen Hall: OC, Florida
Steve Spurrier: Head Coach, Duke
Ron Zook: DC, New Orleans Saints
Urban Meyer: Head Coach, Utah
Will Muschamp: DC, Texas
Jim McElwain: Head Coach, Colorado State
Dan Mullen: Head Coach, Miss State
Billy Napier: Head Coach, Louisiana

Probably the two biggest previous jobs were Dickey's and Pell's. Generally, we hire the way we've previously hired -- with up and coming coaches at stepping stone jobs, which may or may not pan out...

 

If I see changes in philosophy next season, even if the results still aren't great, I'll have a lot more confidence in Napier.

Most coaches we've seen are just stubborn and refuse to change which is why I think most of us are skeptical that will happen. But if we see an intense defense next season that blitzes and plays a lot of press coverage and a short passing game, I think that signals a guy who understands that what we did in 2022 wasn't working. He's figured out a system that works before for a worse program than Florida. He can figure one out again.

 

I bet we win as many championships over the next 5 years as USC.

 

Okay. Maybe there is are old Blue Bloods and modern ones...idk

 

You’re on.