It’s too late for that, in this modern hire/fire CFB world. No OC worth anything will come here after Napier is forced to make changes, knowing the new AD will let the entire staff go after a year.
I warned our coaches about how slow practice makes for slow play in games... And can we get the O-line to push sleds 40 yards at a time... every single freaking practice? That really does work!!!! Same with the D-lineman... no in game push means they have NOT pushed the sleds eon ugh. And this can and should be done at the end of practice every single time during the season. IT FREAKING WORKS!!!
QB is more than serviceable, receivers are very good. Offensive line is a big problem. They can’t run block or pass protect and they make mistakes at the worst times. Hopefully they will get better as the season progresses. Defense is decent but that wasn’t a very dynamic Utah team. Tennessee might shred them. I’m just hoping they can win a few games at this point. have yet to see anything from Napier that gives me hope other than recruiting. Poor oline can make any offensive coach look bad but it’s his to fix.
For me, all the positive changes of late won't matter much if the coaching isn't there and so far hate to say it it's lacking. I'm ok if we lost, it's how we lost that's upsetting.
Not sure why we had a slow pace on that last drive. Maybe he was trying to force Utah to burn their timeouts?
Legitimate question. Is it the attention to detail? #3's. Is it discipline? #3rdDownPresnapPenalties. Is it game management? #SlowModeHurryUp.
Thought the D looked a little better given all the new faces. Better tackling at least. Kick coverage was good, the rest of special teams no better Offense will go nowhere until o line improves, looked worse than last year. Mertz was ok, probably gets better as the season advances if he doesn't get killed first I know folks love the Napier hire and I hope they're right, but damn his offense looks like something out of the 80s and thats not good imo.
Mertz looked more than capable to me. The transfer from Bama and his O line need to play better and help him. Napier as a play caller has zero "feel" for the game. Very predictable and all over the place. What the heck is our offensive identity? Why not pound the rock and maybe that would help settle the O line down maybe? That's where an OC with a "feel" comes into play. My 2 cents, Go Gators
This Florida offense looked a lot like McElwain's offense back in 2015. For instance that play where they sneak the TE out in the flat on a play-action-fake - sometimes it worked (i.e TE Odom had a couple of nice plays), sometimes not once it was figured out by the Utah defense. Utah's defense just kept everything in front of them and let Florida get some yards but largely kept Florida out of the endzone. Florida again played poorly in the redzone. The lack of a solid running game;especially in the red-zone made the Gators look too soft.
This team has no clue what it's supposed to be and that starts with Napier. There's no identity. It's like he's just winging it to see what'll work. Not to mention the lack of energy and fire. None from Napier and none from the players. Poorly prepared = poor execution. We had so many mental mistakes on the field and from the staff. Blundering ones, too. Drive killing penalties. And 1/13 on 3rd down offensively is offensive. Kudos to the defense for holding them to 3/13. Much improved. The D was much better than I was hoping. Still some bad areas, but it showed improvement. Special teams is being coached by no one and it's obvious. It's IS an integral part of the game and it's our worst unit. Unfathomable there is no dedicated coach. Offensive line is awful pass and run blocking. Speaking of, 43 yards on 12 carries? We were all hoping for a monster run game but wow was it just no where to be found. Utah has a very good front 7, but so do like 9 teams on our schedule. That doesn't bode well. We'll be playing catch up all year long and we aren't explosive enough for that.
That was a cluster. Everything that could go wrong went wrong. That was a veteran team against a bunch of youngsters and an oline that couldn’t block shit. We killed every bit of momentum we got all night. Defense looked a bit better and Mertz looked like he could get it done. Receivers not bad.
The great sales job BN is putting on the recruits is going to get much harder with this type of rigid plodding he is rolling out.
I was ridiculed this week on another thread for questioning Napier’s Xs and Os. A lot of Gator fans have drank the kool aid that this relationship building and people-centric approach to football are going to supercede everything. Wake up people! We still have to put on the helmets and play ball! I see absolutely nothing in Napier’s Xs and Os that stands out in any way. NOTHING. Napier may be a smooth talker and convince people that his approach is the right one, but he continues to get owned on gameday.
Did that OL blocking give you confidence we could pump fake all night directly into the play when passing?