Is Fan apathy setting in?

I agree with everything you state, but as far as the recruiting goes I think that’s a no-doubter.
I read a pretty good article that may have been posted here a few months ago that was put together with some diligence about Mullens recruiting. Wish I could remember who wrote it or the title. Maybe someone with better recall than I have can help me out.
It quoted several recruits about their experience on recruiting trips and seemed reliable: If so, Mullens recruiting practices were very bad.

 

I was at the Spring game prior to Franks' last year. Trask certainly did not look like a 3rd stringer. He was clearly better than Franks IMO and should have been the starter when the season began.

 

Trask was better than Franks from the jump...he just kept getting hurt in practice.

 

I don’t doubt it. I didn’t pay attention to as much off-season activity then as I do now.

 

Mullen

 

Disagree!

 

Agree!

 

It’s not that simple. If it was, we’d have won the SEC Championship in 2009

 

Only one team wins the championship each year. That doesn’t mean the other teams are bad. My point is that sometimes the difference between a good team and a bad team is sometimes just a quarterback.

 

Very true - and my point was our QB was a 2-time national champion Heisman winner — and he didn’t have enough team (and coaches) around him to even pull off a conference championship. QB is big for sure — a necessary, but not sufficient condition for championships. You still need more

 

I notice that certain ex-UF players and coaches who eventually became personas non grata get the dreaded "He quit" label from fans who may feel like they vastly underperformed or disappointed in their duties. The thing about that "quitter" label is that it's very subjective....you don't really need to provide a lot of substantial proof for it.

For instance, if a player throws a pick or drops a pass and doesn't react emotionally enough on the field, or has a jovial conversation with an opposing player after a game we lose, fans may accuse them of not focusing or quitting. If a coach has a disappointing recruiting class, fans may say he's not trying hard enough and accuse them of quitting. Heck, people accused Urban Meyer of quitting on the team during his final 2 years.

 

The ironic thing is that I can't think of a more perfect QB for Mullen's system than Richardson. He's big enough to do the QB dive, he's fast enough to make teams suffer for missing a tackle. He's got a big arm to hit the guys open when the defense focuses too much on the run, and he knew enough to look for the first and maybe second read. He wasn't skilled in progressions or throwing guys open, but that wasn't part of Mullen's offensive strategy. While I don't know about the long term prospects, if Mullen's our coach last year we win 10 or 11.

I think Mullen had a fear of underclassmen, and that (and loyalty) had him playing EJ instead of AR in 2021. When AR showed flash in that season, and EJ didn't, Mullen stubbornly held to his position. But I think what got him fired was that a) Stricklin was getting some heat because of Newbauer, Amato and Mullen's jerky behavior and b) Mullen was often an insubordinate jerk.

 

I like most of this, but AR was too inconsistent throwing the ball, and too reluctant to take many ‘easy’ runs to move the sticks. I don’t see that guy winning 10 or 11 games unless he’s behind center in Bama’s stocked offense.

 

Yeah… i never understood the whole “he quit” narrative. Just seems like some arbitrary negative characterization that gets added on in order to make poor performance into something more sinister.

 

I've mentioned this before, AR is in a strange position. He was given the keys to a team, and didn't elevate them really at all.
I can't think of many QBs in the nfl historically that "underachieved" playing a season at major D1 school in college, then were successful in the NFL?

Extreme Busts (change to Underachieved) in College but became a successful NFL QB?

 

I wouldn’t go so far as to call AR an “extreme bust”, but there’s no doubt he underachieved.

 

Well yes, agreed… obviously that is true. You can’t have a stud QB and a bunch of terrible players and coaches surrounding him and expect to win.

 

Agree -- changed to "underachieved"

 

I picked an extreme case with Tebow of course - but the players around him in 09 weren’t all scrubs either. You could pitch a good argument that we were one Percy Harvin and maybe a Dan Mullen away from winning another NC in 09. I’m kinda being a bit obtuse pushing back on your QB point, but I don’t think you need the world’s best QB to win a championship, if the team is solid.

On the other hand, I will agree that a great QB alone can make a huge difference on a middle of the pack team. And this was your point all along right Murfree?

 

We did see the team play one game without Richardson and it went quite poorly. Much worse than with him.