I'm sure Riley wanted no part of the SEC. It's most likely why he fled Oklahoma. Kelly, OTOH, was open to Florida. He's represented by Trace Armstrong, who played his senior season at UF. That's the word. Armstrong was told that UF wasn't going in that direction.
Napier isn't the OC either. It's very difficult to ascertain exactly how much delegation occurs with any of those guys....it's generally the nature of coaches to be control freaks. I personally don't think Napier calling plays is problematic, but I also don't think he is a playcaller that is so dynamic we would be hurt if he stepped away from that role (assuming whomever assumed that role was high quality).Wonder if the NCAA added another on field slot where UF would add a coach....Jamar Chaney on defense and O'Hara on offense wuld be the likely in house promotions.
My guess is that Napier hires a playcaller/OC at some point. It's possible that who he has in mind is not available yet.
If UF had gone after break dancing Brian Kelly this place would have melted down. And I’m still not convinced that’s the guy we needed. So far he’s taken a loaded team and won the SEC west - hell McElwain accomplished the equivalent of that and look how that turned out. Everybody is an expert in hindsight. How about we stand behind the man trying to undo all the damage over the past 10 years and support who we have? Got nothing to lose by doing that for the next 2 years. In all kinds of weather…..SMH
I agree with everything you posted except for the loaded team comment. Kelly inherited 39 scholarship players on the roster (46 below the limit of 85) and did a really good job at replacing them with a mix of both new recruits and portal players.
Napier stepped into a better roster than Kelly. Kelly had very few scholarship players, no QB, etc. Gotta give credit
There’s truth to what you’re saying here Crusher, but LSU has been out-recruiting UF for more years than the kids have eligibility. LSU was far deeper at every position when BK showed up with his dancing shoes on
The Florida football program may be walking through a similar situation to Tennessee 2008-2020. It's rough stuff to have to wonder through the desert for a long spell.
I've been pretty supportive of Napier. That doesn't change the fact that the Administration will not pay for elite, big name coaches.
That's my fear and the longer this goes on just makes that fear even worse. Our experience (and UT's) should be instructive of what happens when you take your position in the competitive landscape of the SEC for granted.
And their brand is much stronger. Just two years removed from a National Championships, with former star players scattered throughout the NFL. Hell, they out recruited us at times when we were elite too.
My comments wasn’t directed at you Tommy. But we will just agree to disagree on UF playing “keep up with the canes and the Aggies” in the runaway pay for play disaster. I fully support our position of refusing to get in bidding wars for 17 year olds who have yet to take a college snap. Among other things, we are coming off 10 years of ‘cancer culture’ on our team and it’s smart to get that addressed first before throwing a few millionaire superstars on top of the dumpster fire. As has been said many times before, you can’t fix this in a year. They are executing a rebuild plan and if our only problem was talent that would be one thing, but there’s far more than talent to consider in fixing this mess created by 10 years of Meyer, Muschamp, McElwain, and Mullen
I understand the need to change the culture at UF despite that it may seem like we are trying to swim upstream to the current environment of NIL and lack of player commitment to any particular institution. I don't understand why that requires a total tear-down to the point of possibly having multiple losing seasons to get back on track. Also, Napier was brought in because he has a plan to fix the football program that he said requires patience. Does the plan also reflect a change in the culture of our administration? Does it also work in conjunction with the other pieces/coaches of the athletic program? I'm concerned that Napier can tweak the culture of the football program until the cows come home, but if the culture of our administration isn't similarly addressed he will end up peeing into the wind.
