Nobody's gonna be happy if the Gators suffer another crappy season, but you simply don't fire a coach after two seasons w/o extenuating circumstances. Yes, you can find the occasional outlier (the FSU coach), but we don't do that at UF.
Same. Everything I disliked about the NFL has come to college ball now. And living in CA, it's just not feasible to watch the "non-rev" sports with much regularity, as many of the games/matches start while I am still working. I still watch Florida football, but if I have to miss a game, it really doesn't bother me now like it did in the past. The expanded playoff may help pique my interest, at least in the short term, as now I know our season won't necessarily be over after two losses. Crazy to think I hated the old bowl system with its MNC winner(s) each season, but at least I cared about the less prestigious bowl games back then. I watched them all. Now I couldn't tell you when the last time was that I watched the Sun Bowl, for example.
It’s all hypotheticals when “hypothesizing” about what may or may not happen this season. Problem is when all the hypotheticals focus on scenarios that will put our coach on the “hot seat”. That shit is beyond getting old. Enough already
This is without a doubt the giant elephant in the room. NIL has always been a factor with under the table payments. But the ability for players to transfer to other schools at will, multiple times, gives college athletes MORE power than a pro athlete has. A pro has to demand a trade or hold out of camp. And even then, they risk becoming an eyesore or pariah to the public. Whether they know it or not, that's what these kids become x10 when they bounce with the drop of a hat and worse, end up transferring multiple times. It has lifted the veil on the lack of loyalty in college sports and thus the fans have become more apathetic.
This times a billion. I think Florida and many other teams are going through growing pains with the Portal and NIL. Not sure many fans, and perhaps even some staffers fully know to exploit either at this time. We could win nine games this year, but could very well lose nine games as well simply due to striking out on both the Portal and NIL. I think this lack of understanding may be the root cause of the perceived apathy.
It's essentially become the Wild Wild West for players and fans are continuously kicked in the nuts for caring about their success. It's now minor league sports, except the schools have no control or say whatsoever in what a kid does after he signs his letter of intent. Contrast that with pro sports, for example, where a team drafts a kid and has years of control over his future. So we no longer get the benefit of the guise of "amateur sports" and we don't get the control over where the kid goes like a professional sports team would. Looks like a house of cards to me. That goes for all of college football, not just UF. Not sure why anyone who makes decisions thought this would end well.
Thanks for posting ocalaman. I don’t see a lot of substance to the article. All of the schools mentioned are experiencing a downturn and winning will change that. Let’s hope we are in for a serious upturn in the next few years. I believe we are.
On the bright side, I got an email saying that there are tickets available for purchase this season. So I got that going for me. Which is nice.
It has become an open labor market, which is great for the athletes, but just doesn't mesh well with sports. Athletes went from having very little power to pretty much all of it. The balance of power needs to find a new equilibrium. IMO institutions need to move towards the pro style of employment with contracts, as much as that pains me to say. They could do that by taking control of the NIL process because they are the ones that truly have the power. How many of you on here would give a flying you know what about a kid named and looking like Anthony Richardson if he played for Alabama? Probably a hand full because he is from Gainesville but for most, not at all. Your NIL attractiveness is rooted not from the name on the back, it's about the logo on the front. The way I would see it working is something like this: Bob's Burgers in G'ville wants a UF football player as a spokesperson for advertising. They got a 100k per year. They go to UF with this and UF finds a suitable match between a player and Bob. The 100k goes into the general UF player salary pool from which all players are paid from via a contract. How feasible ^ that is, I don't know, but to me it is a path towards a better dynamic than what we have now. Not to mention it would be much easier to regulate (for both sides) to avoid Jaden Rashada type incidents. As it is now, it is just a matter of time before half a team all has a NIL deal fall through with none of them getting paid and lawsuits across the board. Hope to hell UF is not involved in that disaster.
Even I’m pretty meh about Gator football. I think it’s a combination of things. First off we’re kinda stuck in neutral since Urban’s departure. The lack of recruiting success, the lack of wins and the emergence of Georgia has really made me apathetic.
I think expectations is the problem. We had an average class in Napiers initial signing. His first full year netted 18 4*s and 2 3*s with the 5th highest average. Right now our recruiting average is #2. We didn’t win many games in year one, and uga is rolling. But things are moving up.
* only 2 teams currently have longer odds to win the SEC than UF, Mizzou & Vandy. Lost to one of them last season.
I agree with you on all, except that Mullen was a bad hire. I think Mullen was a good coach, who probably learned the required lessons the year he got fired. I'd like to see what he could have done with another 2 years. But... impatience ruled the day. Now that we have Coach Napier, I hope that he gets time to learn and adapt. It doesn't help us to just keep firing coaches trying to find the one guy who can get us to the playoff in year 1 and a championship in year 2.
