If our recruiting class stays in the Top 5, I don't care how bad this season gets, save making up stuff like Mac did when he melted down. I want to land that plane and see where we go next year. That ain't happening if we fire him after two years, which I think most people know.
He will get four years to see Lagway start and these classes grow up. Nobody gets fired when his first class hasn’t even had time to get on the field.
Well, right, but do you honestly predict this class will stay together if the season goes as badly as predicted? I don’t. CBN needs to show he can coach and develop talent on the field this season. That means winning all of the games we’re supposed to win, one or two that we are projected to lose, and looking competitive in the games we are supposed lose badly. I don’t see any other way this class stays together. They aren’t going to sign to play for a guy who might get fired in the middle of the 2024 season, and that’s what all the opposing recruiters are going to say if we have a third losing season in a row.
Agreed. That was my motive for starting this thread. While many are more confident about how this season will go we need to be prepared should the ride prove rough. I expect to be critical of much this season, but will try to temper it with the recognition that this is a multi year project.
If Mertz is good, it’ll make a lot of things easier. If he’s bad, tge sec is a rough place for an average sec team with a bad qb. I do think he will surprise people. I expect him to do well Thursday.
Hopefully you are correct. Too many drives stopped last year to play calling, banging up the middle. Our schedule is very tough this year for us not to be able score, think Georgia, LSU on the road, Kentucky and Tennessee will light it up this year through the air. Utah, SC will pitch it around. We need to be able to use half backs, and all our receivers with consistency, even FSU will throw it around. Hopefully our defense can consistently stop any team and our offense doesn’t get into low scoring affairs leaving the home teams with a chance. I am worried about both because we don’t have hardly any pansies to run it up on. This schedule is much harder than last year. Our special teams were horrid and our defense couldn’t stop people down the stretch. Our offense would go into hibernation, many things have to improve on to get seven wins. We will see, tomorrow the truth will be seen on this team, no excuses!
Tomorrow we get out third or fourth toughest game of the year. All teams have to do all those things you listed to be successful. Having a qb that can play inside ten yards makes it possible to call a game. Mertz will either be good or he won’t. It’s pretty simple, he’s good we win 7-9 games. He’s bad, we struggle to find 6 winnable games..
If we have an "unproven QB situation" what do you call Georgia's? Nobody's talking about that for some reason.
They’ve got a loaded roster and there choice of at least three highly ranked unproven qbs. They will find a decent one more than likely we don’t have that luxury.
They have a dedicated OC who calls the plays. they run and throw against whatever the defense gives them and they have executed well with great athletes. Expect the same. Now at Florida we haven’t had a QB to move the chains and score consistently since Trask! Tonight we will see if we can move the ball against a very good defense, a forerunner to our tough schedule. Whichever transpires, hopefully we are a good offense with some surprises through the air.
No one survives at a major college program with 3 straight losing seasons You also have to factor in things like recruiting will start faltering if on field performance stinks I’m not saying he needs great years, not even decent years…we just can’t suck for 3 years in a row
All of this worrying about what talking heads say when they don't know what they are talking about is silly. But, I don't see us beating the Yutes. Utah is good, and we are in transition, and we do not play well out west historically. And worrying about a talking head prediction of Napier's firing is also silly. Only the Gators can fire Billy; which is why we need to shut up, stay the course, and let him succeed.
Mike Bobo is no T Monken plus he dosesn’t have a 3yr starter at QB. They do have an embarrassment of riches wrt talent though, just remember Bobo will cost the at least 1 game this year.
After the top handful of teams (with highly ranked classes and high profile returnees), no one knows much of anything. The difference between 10 and 40 or so has become razor thin with all the attrition. Most of these predictions are basically last year’s record - returnees +/- this year’s projected schedule. That said, knowing who we have on hand, how we played last year, who we play this year, and where we can reasonably expect to improve, I am pretty bullish on 8-4.
If oregan st is any indication we are in trouble. I doubt though that they are any better than last year and I think we are better at almost every position except qb and that’s still questionable. Oline scares me but if Mertz holds his own and our line does well, I think we can win. It might just being embarrassing though, who knows. The only thing I disagree with though is “historically.” These coaches or players don’t have history to worry about and I doubt it’s a factor. They are at home and either beat us or not.
