I'm not particularly worried about Napier when it comes to self assessment. Unlike McElwain and even Mullen, he seems to have a stronger background working with program builders like Saban, Smart and Swinney. I would be shocked if we found out later that he was a neophyte like Chump. I'm pretty certain he knows exactly what has to be done and the steps that need to be taken to accomplish it. Now, that doesn't mean he will be ultimately successful and there are things outside of everyone's control that happen from time to time.
I'm going to play Devil's Advocate here, because I don't think that folks should to be gathering their pitchforks and firing up their torches to get ready to run off our latest coach either. You classify all of the players that transferred as "malcontents, malingerers and no-talents" so to you running them off is a positive. But other than a few players that were dismissed, there isn't a great deal of fact involved in lumping all into such a undesirable category. It isn't any kind of stretch of the imagination that one could easily conclude the opposite and see such a large exodus (including important starters) as a failure on Napier's part to instill the culture that he desires (or potentially a failure of our University to concede to operating in the current financial environment). Like I posted earlier, time will tell....
Well you've hit about 6 out of 27...what about the others? All malcontents and malingers from your perspective?
I see you attributed the word "malingerers" to me, which I did not in fact use. No matter, the devil's advocate can't be expected to refrain from a certain amount of hyperbole or convoluted logic - after all, the devil do what the devil do. Now, about your "theoretical assertion" that many of the guys who left may have been the victims of an incompetent, bumbling coach who just couldn't keep them in the fold; please allow me to redirect you to a phrase I actually did use in my original post..."I don't deny that the doubts/reservations/cynicism and scarcely veiled hostility being directed toward BN from some quarters has some "arguable" basis in recent history. Frankly, and not to put too fine a point on things, there were almost certainly some hurt feelings, angry reactions and "failures" to communicate that occurred along the way. But with the many marginal talents that DM brought in, the hoard of positional misfits (AKA "tweeners"), multiple known attitude/conduct problems, at least one guy who wouldn't or couldn't cut it in the classroom, plus the numerous players who doubtless knew they had been recruited around and would be bypassed ASAP, your "argument" is strained to and beyond the breaking point. The countervailing opinion game is such fun, we must do it again soon!
You forgot to close quotes so I don't know where your original phrasing stops . Malingers, malcontents - tom-ay-to, tom-ah-to pretty much no difference in the description. Also, you might want to look up the term Devil's advocate. It doesn't require agreement with the position "advocated." Just recognition that there is an alternate, potentially valid position.
It was a sample size of malcontents in response to someone who said we didn’t know if there were any malcontents. If you want to extend the list be my guest.
They dont have be current malcontents or malingerers, what people without a position could turn into, i dont for second believe both BN and the departed didnt have a meeting those holdovers saw that the days of underachieving upper class players holding onto a starting role simply b/c of classification are over. Add in the willingness to play freshmen and the attrition is understandable. This is the roster makeover is what many were clamoring for and now they dont have the stomach for the process? A youth movement with players fully knowing what they are signing on for is a good situation
What? It's fine to think Napier's great, that you like what you see from him. But if you're comparing resumes and experience, there's no comparison between Napier in either McElwain or Mullen. They were both MUCH more qualified for the UF job when they got it. Maybe that didn't help them, but it's not accurate to say Napier has a stronger background in building programs than either of those two. Mullen was intregal here when Florida resurfaced under Meyer. McElwain was a crucial part of Alabama's rebirth under Saban. In addition, both took dormant programs to respectability as head coaches in tougher conferences than the Sun Belt. You can think Napier is the better coach, but it's simply not true to say he's got more experience in program building than either of those two.
Mullen and Mac were known as play callers. Neither were seen as guys who worked hard as recruiters when they were assistants. I'd take Napiers work over the last decade over theirs.
And Mac doesn’t have some stellar resume anyway. He was a coordinator under Saban and other than that has been a career run of the mill coach.
We lost 5 out of 22 game 1 starters (3 of which were still starting in game 12) to the portal. Even if you had a plan to replace them with better talent, I would have hoped that a few could have been convinced to stay for at least quality depth. We saw what could happen to a team when one of the position groups was decimated by injury this past year.
Which group got decimated? We were thin everywhere but rb I guess. The receivers were injured but the droppoff wasn’t so bad really considering they weren’t terribly effective in the first place.maybe that’s on AR? Two oline and a db portaled that would help next year. Given the guys we got in the portal, White and Tarquin may not be missed all that much. The dbs we lost probably won’t be missed all that much either, they weren’t overly talented. Torrence to the nfl is big and qb may be a problem.
WR group was decimated in the last few games with not a lot of quality depth, and it showed. We'll see on the OL, but losing multi-year starters to the portal when you haven't yet identified replacements is a risky business. Even if the newcomers and the ones that portaled out are a wash, there will still be a big hole left by OCyrus. Other than Rashad Torrence, I didn't think much of the Defensive portal entries, but they might have provided experienced depth in our defensive scheme.
Ocyrus is huge but he went where he was suppose to go. We don’t know why White and Tarquin left. They would help for sure. The only thing gives me pause with those two is that if they aren’t with us, they’re gator bait. They either quit on us or were shown the door. Neither is good so good riddance.
Wrs didn’t look all that worse really other than a few drops. Shorter and Henderson weren’t exactly putting the fear of god into defenses. Qb getting rthem the ball was more than likely a big part of that though.
