SI Article: Who Should the Gators Pursue in the Transfer Portal?

Obviously they have different priorities. You’re right, it’s their money. I wonder how long until viewership dies off or do folks keep watching this crap.

 

One or the other or both. Both is what most kids will pick. A&M kids are jumping ship to get both. They didn’t realize they were being paid to suck. Miami still recruiting decent but they will overpay to do so until they can win. It has to be really expensive to pay a kid to suck.

 

I keep reading people saying they’re done, but they still show up here to gripe and remind everyone they’re done.

Me, the Gators are my team. I’ve been a fan since I got my first gator onesie. I’ve always followed my team, and rocked my gator gear, and don’t really see that changing. I can’t buy us a team, and would consider it very unlikely for me to do so even if I could. I just have to root for what we’ve got. Bitching and moaning isn’t gonna change nothing and I’ve got no right to tell others how to spend their money.

 

Same here but I turned that game off after the first quarter. What they provided tonight was pure garbage. I’ve watched less and less the last few years. I went to three games last year and I might go to one next year, the games aren’t very interesting anyway. I’ll always be a fan but I might have more interesting things to do with my time more often in the future . I’ve never let my Saturdays revolve around us beating a directional school by 50 but if that’s what the real games are becoming , I just have no interest. It’s getting way out of hand.

 

A 60 pt blowout in a championship game is definitely not very interesting to me. I don’t follow many other teams with any enthusiasm unless we’re winning though. Pretty much just watch the gators. If we’re winning and in the hunt, I pay closer attention to what else is going on around the league, but when we’re poised for a slot in the vegas bowl, I pretty much only watch our games.

 

I watch other big rivalry games. If we are in the hunt, I’ll watch whatever may be relaxant to us later. It’s gotten so lopsided lat that it’s becoming less interesting.

 

Which is why I didn't watch it. I'm having enough trouble mustering up enough enthusiasm to watch my Gators.

 

I heard I missed a great game between TCU/Michigan but I knew it would ring hollow anyway because the loser wasn't going to put up a fight against Georgia. The only bowl football I watched was the last 2 minutes of Tulane and USC which admittedly was entertaining. I have already stopped watching college football with the exception being the Gators and even that isn't must see for me anymore.

For me personally there are a number of reasons but the 2 team show with the occasional 3rd or 4th outlier like Clemson or OSU just isn't entertaining. It would be one thing if the playing field was level but how unevenly the NCAA enforced recruiting and program violations while facilitating the lopsidedness we have today left me disinterested.

Now we know UF let the program slide through a lack of commitment to resources and reluctance to evolve with the changing landscape of college football and that was their own undoing, but it boggles my mind how we had a coach who while known to be a poor recruiter was actually not allowed to meet with recruits because of a minor infraction.

Everyone praised Saban for his "discipline " when it was always about stacking every advantage possible legal or not. It was always dirty and while NIL at least puts an end to the facade, without any regulation, contractual obligations or transparency it just seems like it will be more of the same.

 

I don’t. But I’ve heard what some are looking for, we simply can’t pay it.

 

Fair enough. For the record, I'm not saying you are wrong, but we can only assume.

Even if we can afford to get in bidding wars.....should we? If a good (NOT great) portal player wants a better deal than what our best players are getting, that's a slippery slope. Overpaying for an "outsider" sets a bad precedent and it's not sustainable.

Napier and the staff already proved they can find talent at good value (Pearsall, Torrence, Johnson, Miller, etc) so I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt for now.

 

The players themselves have repeatedly said that the majority of the numbers you've seen being tossed around are utter BS. Are there a few out there that think they're worth crazy money? Probably.

I also wouldn't say "we simply can't pay it". I would say, "I simply can't pay it". Some of our big money guys certainly CAN pay it, almost whatever "it" is, but they're under no obligation to and nobody can make them. It's their money to do with as they wish.

 

I didn’t watch any cf playoff or bowl games except the Gators in Vegas. Even that game I had to tie myself to the couch because gators sucked in that game. I don't know how much longer I can stand the suckiness of the football team. I still keep up with the basketball and baseball teams though.

 

I watch pretty much all the basketball, football, baseball, and softball games. Occasionally watch some wbb, and volleyball if I know it’s available and I’m not doing anything else. My wife likes the last two so she knows when a game I didn’t know about is streaming sometimes.

 

So Wanne - a few notes on this comment:
"Napier brought in a nice talented class no doubt but to me it looks like we still didn’t come close to begin to closing the gap. The big boys still took the top highschool players and whichever portal players they needed to fill their gaps."

I posted something along these lines several times:

FYI Sites are now posting two "scores" - Straight up HS recruiting and then HS in combination with transfer portal success.

OK - lets use 24/7 for reference: (HS recruiting)
SEC:
Bama 1
UGA 2
Texas 3 (soon to be SEC member)
Oklahoma 5 (soon to be SEC member)
LSU 7
U-Tooth 9
UF 11

That makes us the 7th rated SEC class. Seventh, as in - (7th).
While recognizing that recruiting is not the only factor in success
the above does not exactly bode well for UF leapfrogging other programs.

Obviously one may look to FSU's example under Norvell - Modest classes at best and yet they pulled a 10 win season out of the hat. I personally think Travis was the biggest reason for the success.

Another VERY CONCERNING stat - UF DID NOT land, one (1) top 20 Florida HS kid this cycle. Not one. Yes, we signed some great Florida H.S. kids but the Cream of the Crop from Florida? - They all went elsewhere.

Which leads to the point of this post:

We ALL KNOW that CBN or ANYONE, for that matter, has an expiration date of three season if the results are poor to modest. Well Napier had to expend alot of Gator "patience" capitol in 2022. Much more than I would have liked.

Next year will really be key for CBN. Improve the record - Well Yes, obviously, but he simply must pick it up a notch in recruiting, as in top 5 going forward, or awfully close to it.

Last point - I hope everyone is CORRECT that Mullen left the cupboard bare. If this assumption is NOT correct, well, I don't want to think about it.......................

 

Discipline is easier with buckets of talent. Rot gets ejected much quicker.

 

I watch some of the women's sports too.

 

If there's gators playing on TV, I'll watch it, and if I can catch it on a streaming platform I have access to and I know it's happening, I'll watch it there too. Gymnastics doesn't do much for me, but if it's on TV, I'll probably still stop on the channel if I see it. I'm not a college football fan, or an sec fan. I'm just a Gator fan.

 

Right now we need a can't miss QB1 for next year... McCall or someone like that.

 

McCall...

 

Isn’t he staying put?