in the recent past, UF got sub-par QB play from guys with creditable NFL careers (Jacoby Brissett, Jeff Driskel) and terrible QB play from very bad players (Treon, Skyler, really everyone until Will Grier). We had half a season of sensational play from Will Grier, more struggle, the enigma that was the career of Kyle Trask and then sub-par play from the greatest athlete to ever play the position at UF. QB play is not necessarily the barometer for on-field success at UF. we have done more with less and less with more at the position, team success for UF is more often predicated on defensive stars individually affecting outcomes and shutting down offenses just enough for us to win the ballgame. successful NFL players from UF have tended to be either defensive or on the OL for basically the past decade. Timmy Tebow ain’t walking through that door
Good call. Sarcasm aside, I'll try to respond to the rest of your message when I can. In the meantime, do you think we have the QB(s) to win more than six games? It's a genuine question. I'm not saying we don't, but the QB room offers little reason for optimism at the moment. It most likely would require winning three of: @Utah TN @UK @SC GA Ark @LSU FSU
We don’t have the defense to win ten games with an average qb. Trask and co carried that defense to a decent season. Only a qb can be a one man difference maker.
Why do you think that? Do you think we're really going to just settle in for third consecutive losing season? That everyone -- anyone -- will just be cool with another losing season? I know you love the guy, but it's just unreasonable to think that many people will have much faith in continuing with a coach who lost seven his first season, got blown out in a bowl game, and has already lost to Utah, Tennessee, and either South Carolina or Kentucky (or both), with the defending champs, LSU and FSU still ahead? With three of their four wins to that point McNeese, Charlotte and Vandy? Florida football is becoming irrelevant very quickly. Say Utah blows us out, we lose to UT and Kentucky at home and squeeze out boring wins against Vandy and SC. You think the words of unsigned 11th-graders are going to carry Napier through another losing season, especially after what happened with Rashada this season? You have to look at this realistically, and realistically, another losing season means that we are an afterthought. Which means we won't keep the '24 class together, and we've hired a coach who can only succeed when he out talents the people he plays.
Who said I “love the guy”? Wasn’t me. I don’t know if he is or isn’t the long term answer but I’ll give him time to work his plan… as will UF. He inherited a shitty culture, years of negligence in recruiting and 2nd tier infrastructure that couldn’t compete with other top programs. And he’s addressed each one of them. He’s made more progress in many areas within the program than the prior 3 hires. It’s not even close. Your benchmarks based on certain number of wins were ridiculous. 9 wins this year or he’s on the hot seat? Win the East in 24 or things will get “ugly”??? Complete nonsense.
Prior to this year the Gators have only had back to back loosing seasons once in the last 75 years. I'm not sure BN will be given a third year if he doesn't have a winning season.
It's weird to see fans have such a bleak outlook for the Gators in 2023. You figure they'd be more optimistic, especially since the players they accuse of being selfish, me-first and toxic will no longer be around. Getting rid of those cancers should immediately boost the win total. Unless, of course, those players weren't the problem...
This is the second or third time you've suggested the Coach (or coaches -- but several are gone) are the problem. Instead of fence-straddling, why not just come out and say it and support your reasons? Until then, what's so hard to understand about playing the SEC gauntlet with a roster of good to great kids that aren't capable of playing at the same level as other SEC schools and, when at the same level, who didn't appear at times to give consistent efforts? You can't perform a magical and complete rebuild from the foundation up in a single season, especially since last year Florida still had most of the same players from the year before. This is almost the same as those who claim Coach Napier will be on the hot seat with anything less than 8-4 or 9-3 this year or, barring that, the SEC East in 2024. Oh, by the way, other schools and boosters are also going after those 4-star and 5-star players that will make a difference. Coach's job is measurably harder than the last group who mailed recruiting in year-after-year.
I have been coalescing around this same type of reasoning, and I will explain my position on it - Napier feels like a classic Big Fish/Small Pond guy with zero schematic advantages in his arsenal and an inability to change directions. He is a Southern McElwain, a Chicken-Fried Mac. Both were sold to us from the Saban tree, which is intoxicating but often a mirage also. Saban's power comes in his ability to change, Saban is a shapeshifter. Saban hires half a dozen of the best coaches in football every year and changes his offense to fit the developments of the game. Mac was so rigid that he went down with the ship rather than fire his homie Nussmeier, and so rigid in personality that he lied his way out of $20+ million dollars. Napier is already establishing a record of resistance to change in the face of reality. Saban would *never* double down on not hiring an OC or a Special Teams coach after that horrendous sh1t show of a season. Saban famously lost to ULL in his first year at Bama and was 7-6 that year (with a bowl win, contrasted to Napier not even contesting his bowl game recently). the next year Bama went 12-2 and lost in the Sugar Bowl. contrast that with what I am seeing on this very message board - the repeated thought that we won't even win 6 games next year. it does not look like Napier can be as humble and self-critical as is necessary to adapt to the SEC. UF cannot out-athlete anyone at this point, so it is critical that we have some sort of schematic advantage that we can exploit. Spurrier and Urban both won big at UF by being different and innovating on offense, and the rest of the league followed us. that is what we need to be, the brand of change - fun fast Florida. we had a golden opportunity to do something different last year and make our mark with a generational talent at QB, but we wasted his year here with vanilla soft serve playcalling. now we face a future of chasing the pack instead of veering off into new territory, which is the only way we have won in the past.
Because I think the fair and sensible-minded thing to do is to give everyone (players and coaches) ample time to see what they've got. I'm not really in the business of being down on anyone on the team, whether it's the players or coaches. However, lately I've been seeing the brunt of the blame being put on certain players, so I've been holding coaches accountable too. The reasons you stated about how difficult it is to coach in today's climate are valid, which is why I don't like to partake in criticizing them. They’ve got a tough job to do. I extend that same grace to players, I can’t imagine it’s easy for them having to deal with new coaching staff and coordinators and constantly along with the pressure to live up to lofty Gator standard of football.
16 months in, and you’ve already pegged him as a failure. Got it. You must be one of those guys that just read the first chapter but never finish the book, because you think you know how it ends. Not a healthy way to live… but you do you. For most of us, I think we’ll read a few more chapters first.
There are some really miserable people on this board. Got no idea where they all come from, but they’re damn sure not the Gator fans I grew up with — riding out a lot of rough years to see this program finally succeed at the highest level. These new crybabies don’t have the stomach for down years. And they are so caught up in “I Want! I Want!” that they melt down at the thought of a turnaround taking more than one season. And when they don’t get what they want, they attack the coaches for failing to satisfy their totally unrealistic demands. What a bunch of entitled losers
I don't think any of that happens, BTW. I think we win 8, maybe 9, because we ought to have enough talent to match almost everyone on the schedule, and we ought to at least split those where we're equal. I'm just saying that the narrative that BN gets a third year regardless, or that we shouldn't worry about '23 (or 24) because '25 is when things take off, doesn't make much sense.
We will not have the better qb in most games we play and will be an average sec team otherwise. We won’t be favored in many games.
Gainesville suffers greatly when the Gators suck. businesses close, families lose everything. it’s a business decision for a lot of folks, and your emotions seem to be leading your decision making. facts don’t care about your feelings amigo.
You point out how dependent Gainesville merchants are on UF Football, and then proceed to spread more negativity about our program. After the “let’s bash our program” fire in this thread had died down you felt compelled to re-light it. So this is how you show your concern and support for the Gainesville merchants and families? What a virtue-signaling hypocrite LMAO ‘My emotions and my feelings’? Nice try pal but that’s just a weak misdirect. If you want to worry about peoples’ emotions and feelings, start with the Gainesville merchants and families who stand to lose more money every time you try to turn another person against our program. What a joke
