You seem to maintain the negative perspective instead of looking at both the negative and positive perspectives. Each one provides valuable information. Ignoring one will give you false evaluation. Case 1: The 2023 roster will have more talent than the 2022 roster. The 2022 roster had some overrated/under-performing players. Due to Mullen exporting via the Portal, the 2022 roster had less than 50 players (out of 125) that played together as teammates. Napier did lose 20 or more players to the Portal/NFL/Suspensions. However, the 2023 roster will have a total of 60 Sophomore, and Junior players that will have two or more years of playing together and having one year under Napier's system. Case 2: Your are under the false impression about the validity of the star rankings. These rankings are like those of a beauty patent. In other words, in the next two or three seasons, many of all of the 1 thru 5 star recruits will have the overrated title. This gator class has 17 FOUR STAR recruits and 3 THREE STAR recruits. At this time this is a very good class. Your comments are an insult to this class. Case 3: 61 on the transfer portal balance sheet? Come on man! How far back are you going to get this stat? At this point, the history of three or more season ago is not relevant. Almost of that was during Mullen's time and not Napier. Please not that some of those Portal transfers out were/are players who were not going to fit into the new regime. You need to give Napier more than one season to reverse the Portal trend that Mullen started. Case 4: You need to review the college/pro football history of rebuilding teams. First of all, take a look on how many seasons it took the successful coaches to get their new teams back on the winning track. Take a look at Charlie Pell's 1979 first season with the Gators. It was like 1-9-10. Then take a look at the follow seasons. Take a look at the recruiting rankings for Florida after that 1979 season. You also need to look at some of the NIL restrictions that UF, FSU, and the other Florida State colleges have to work under. Florida state colleges cannot encourage or discourage players to or from NIL deals. Basically, they cannot get into the conversation of NIL's with the recruits. A good percentage of the major NIL deals are happening outside the state of Florida. The only exclusion is the private college of the University of Miami (which is now under NCAA investigation for possible NIL violations).
Please note that the recruiting for the 2022 Gator signee class, actually started two to three years before Napier was even offered the HBC job at Florida. Once Mullen was fired the list of potential signees took a hit. Napier had to go into damage control on the players that he wanted from that class. At the same time he had to go into the "Flip" role to get more players. This was a very tough job to do with just a month or less before national signing day.
As for the other positions, you need to consider the personal/talent growth of these players and the coaches knowing these players better. In other words, the players will grow and there will be some coaching up.
Well they can make a lot of noise, create a lot of negative buzz, which feeds a media negative frenzy, etc. Etc.
The boosters control the money, not the numbskulls on social media. As long as the fans are in the seats and the donations come, it’s all good. Boosters don’t listen to fans that don’t matter.
I don't think the bowl game is glimpse. The entire team is different than the bowl game. It seems coach gave those guys a chance to show up or move on and the bowl game decided they were not who he wanted to ride with. Team should be better next year.
ONE bowl game was not a tryout. That's silly to suggest. You think a head coach doesn't know what he has by his 11th month on the job? You think he needed to give a try out? Look at the snap counts if you want a glimpse of who the coaches like and want on the field - no tryout was needed.
The fans are the boosters, just about the entire alumni side of the field. Many just the minor ones but tge big boys too. When they aren’t interested (empty seat) the money quits flowing until changes are made.
I only know that we better beat Vandy in ‘23, no SEC coach is going to survive consecutive loses to Vandy.
I get confused on some of the arguments. One moment some are saying stars don't count while these same people claim that this class is better because of all the 4 stars. Only time will tell.
It's a common refrain when seeking excuses. If one looks at the top two teams over the past 20 years, one will find that about 90% of them were top five in star average. For me, the QB is the key. As my name suggests, we older Gators are accustomed to having outstanding quarterbacks. Not counting the sanction years, from Kerwin Bell through Tebow, we've had an abundance of wealth behind center, but since Tebow, how many great QBs did we have? Two, for 2-3 years total? We can no longer assume that the next QB will automatically be better than the last, or even very good. As for the Portal, passionate fans always want to assume that our coach is only getting rid of the dead wood, so to speak. All fans say thins, but how many players sprint to the Portal to desert the sinking ship? Is the Good Ship Gator sinking? I most certainly hope not! But if we continue to have losing seasons, I can only wonder what the players will think...
This analysis gets better with the addition of Goodwin. We'll be 100% fine across the OL - zero issues here. And for those that like to track this (like I do): We're now at 82 scholly's, so room for 3 more (for now).
That is why he sent them all packing right? Some guys were starters and expected to be starters next year yet played like garbage in the bowl game when they were expected to pick up the leadership. especially OL. maybe, just maybe the effort in the extra practices and effort in the game sealed their fate that coach decided these were not the guys he was going to ride with his contract on the line over the next few years.
