Aidan Mizell: "Parental Perspective: Legacy’s path to Florida began with an apolog"

Mizell story is amazing, and getting out of that mess is amazing and very positive.

 

Every time I read stuff like this I'm reminded of Mullens hiring.
Most here loved the hire, rationalizing that yea he was a mediocre recruiter at State but that was Mississippi and he would kill it in Florida with our resources and all the state's talent. Guess there's more to recruiting than most posters think.

 

I think most of us were on z Kelly or Frost and we got behind Mullen when the hire was made. That’s how I am anyway. I’m gonna support our coach until I can’t anymore. I was ready for all three of the last coaches to hit the door though. They all were obviously done.

 

It's funny how negligence in one or two facets of the job can absolutely tank a coach's tenure here.

Muschamp was well liked in the building and recruited decent but neglected letting someone else have full control of the offense and roster balance was an issue.

Mac recognized some of our program deficiencies, but made enemies when he called out our admin support/ facilities and started to figure out recruiting before being fired. Their staff evals later proved to be great overall but the QB room was always a mess of a revolving door, keeping Nuss as OC was a problem, and the strength program was a joke.

Mullen brought back an exciting offense but the recruiting, off the field staff support, and TG defense sunk him.

I'm optimistic for Napier, mainly due to the fact that he seems to understand that all of these cogs needs to be turning in the machine.
He understands that there needs to be enough support staff so that the coaches focus on coaching and don't burn out. He understands that UF has excelled with Florida-centric rosters. He understands that the OL/DL have to be stacked so the other guys can do their jobs.
It's one thing to have a schematic, it's another to actually build and operate the machine.

Unfortunately, we just have to wait to see how he actually addresses these things over time, because he WILL have areas that will need to be improved. It's just the nature of the beast.

If he fails here, it will most likely be due to a failure to evolve and trying to stick to a plan that may be outdated/not suited to the reality of the situation.

 

Great post!

I will only add to your last “if he fails here” sentence: or, if our fan base and administration fail to give him enough time to turn this mess around

 

Mullen is the only decent play caller we’ve had hell I cant say since when. I’m not sure if Napier is going to be that guy but first he’s gonna have to have a quarterback that can run it anyway. AR was just very limited at running an offense even though he was extremely talented.

 

I recall a lot more Mullen supporters than you I guess, with many saying he should have been hired during the prior search and blaming Foley. (Perhaps Foley had good reason not to make the hire) I was not a fan of the Mullen hire for multiple reasons but was happy to quickly get on board with his initial comments and success. I had no real idea as to the inner workings of his program as noted in the article(s), which I believe is true of most fans.

As for support, I support all the Gator teams, not just football, no matter who the coach is. As for the coaches, I've become more of a "show me" guy, not really buying into the hype. Also, Im not into blaming the administration or the fans for the team's failures. Every prospective coach should be doing his due diligence to know exactly what his resources are.

 

Personally, I Remember it the way Wanne does. Most were on about Frost and Kelly as 1a and 1b and no one else was close. When Mullen was hired many were not enthused until he got off the jet doing a Gator chomp at which point many threw in their support based on his link to our prior titles. He said all the right things initially and there was a renewed excitement at the idea we had a coach who knew what the expectations were and embraced them as well as embracing spurriers presence.

 

I think that if people see changes and *see improvement* then they'll be more lenient.

How many times did people question Muschamp's offenses and him say "We'll get it fixed" only to trot out the same crap week in and week out?

Same with Mac and Nuss' offense and Mullen and Grantham's defenses. Fans and media questioned them FOR YEARS and we only saw excuses and not actions.

If there's a pain point, the fans and administration will just want to see it be addressed.