Is the 2023 Roster Still Better than What Billy Inherited?

Sure, we can revisit as much as you like, but my comment was about not knowing if the roster is better yet because we haven't seen the bulk of the new players perform. It didn't really have anything to do with W's and L's.

 

Its one thing to identify areas of improvement and move toward that objective. Its quite another to dismiss starters that performed adequately during the season when you badly need experienced depth prior to even identifying the replacement. I'm just not buying your theory that BN told those starters to hit the bricks weeks before we recruited replacements in the portal. That would be too risky a move, particularly with the slow start we got off to in signing portal players.

 

Conversely, AR was in the program for multiple years and struggled throwing short and intermediate passes. Again, every Gator fan wanted him to succeed. Just hitting the passes that were there would have been huge.

 

Hooker wasn't even the starter at UT at the outset of 2021...and by the end of that year he was throwing to receivers head and shoulders better than AR ever had.

Jalin Hyatt won the Biletnikoff Award and has a #10 draft ranking, Cedric Tillman has a ranking of #86 and was UT's 5th receiver in production.

In comparison Shorter was our 2nd receiver in terms of production and has a draft ranking of #279. I guess Piersall might have had a shot to start at slot at UT, but the rest of our WR's would have been spot players at best.

 

I havent proposed the exact scenario that unfolded, and have mentioned the only people privy to the actual chain of events are staff and they arent talking nor should they.

Wrt to your observation about adequate performance that isnt what most if not all in here support depth or not. The staff may be rocked by the transfers i doubt it, and it looks like we upgraded while adding quality players thru traditional signing windows.

We are going to lose players to portal moving forward even when every player on the roster is BN’s. It is a cost benefit model and BN seems comfortable with his position valuation system.

Lastly, this is what roster management looks like and decisions should remain confidential despite the angst demonstrated by some contributing here. So far, it doesnt look like BN hasn't had contingencies for the departed players. Next season’s performance will be telling i dont believe adequate factors into BN’s calculus

 

Just a little Friday pick me up. He gone! Now that was a roster.

 

I turn that shit off pretty quick

 

This is true about the receivers but that doesn’t affect a qb’s accuracy.

 

I know we signed a good class but a lot of you are putting great stock in a group of high school players who have never play a college game. Please don't tell me that Napier is a great evaluator of talent (and he might be well we hope) because that has been said about every one of our coaches until we found otherwise.

 

Well for the most part, it was true about Muschamp and McElwain. Their shortcomings came elsewhere.

I don't think anyone claimed Mullen was a great talent evaluator. Maybe he was, but he wasn't persistent enough to land enough of the good ones to sustain success.

 

Napier brought in Ocyrus and Montrell..both of them turned out to be some of our best players on the team. Many of our commitments over performed in the HS all star games and got rave reviews. All signs, IMO, point to Napier and staff being very good talent evaluators. I'll go with that until it's proven otherwise.
I don't want to make this about Mullen but.. His prize recruit Emory Jones turned out to be a flop, both at our school and his portal destination. Mullen hand picked him and certainly gave him every opportunity and all the coaching necessary to be a success. IMO, he picked the wrong guy which is all based upon Mullen's initial evaluation. Mullen was not a great talent evaluator. (see Trask also)

 

Well written and well thought out eighties. My only question is are you honestly that much of an insider that you are privy to coaches wives comments on their time at UF?
I follow gator football pretty closely and just can't recall public criticisms from coaches wives- Mrs Muschamp, Mrs Mac or Mrs Mullen (after head coaching stint). Any public quotes like that on the record? Or just more Dooley/Bianchi gator fan hate?

 

the former team had a few guys who were hyped to be amazing but were very pedestrian when it came to playing in real games. Other than OCyrus, our best players are returning.

 

AR may be sorely missed despite his shortcomings. Dexter was probably out best interior lineman despite not really being a gamechanger. Shorter was probably our second best receiver. White and Tarquin may have been two of our better linemen. Torrence was one of out better db’s. Dean just won mvp of his game. We will be missing a bunch of talented snaps. They may be replaced with better talent for the most part but it’s not a given. What I do expect is a team that has the mental unification that was perhaps lacking in some.

 

Agreed and you didn’t even mention our two best LB’s graduating. I also hoping for better unity and team play too. Hopefully we have brought in good players as replacements.

 

Basically missing half our starting lineup

 

1) Ocyrus and Montrell were better in this system than other players because they had been in the system longer. They knew what to do. I think what we're seeing in the All-Star games is that other guys had talent, too, but they couldn't make it work in this system.

2) Emory Jones had one season as a starter. The fanbase turned on him because he wasn't Trask, but it's hard to call a guy who had one season behind center a bust and everyone became infatuated with AR because he showed flashes of brilliance in the Oklahoma game and then when he came in to spot Jones. AR was a damn-near perfect spread option QB, and might have been great had UF stuck with that system -- he was big and strong enough to move the pile, not great at reading defenses but in a pure spread option, he wouldn't have had to be. But he struggled doing those things he didn't know how to do.

3) I think people really do underestimate a coaching recruiting for a system.

 

Ocyrus would be elite on any line.

 

And Napier saw that.. Talent evalutaion. Also Montrell was very good.

 

What you are seeing in the all-star games are restriction parameters being placed on scheme. This makes it easier on athletes to just play and not have to think and react