Not going to dispute this take, but I would MUCH prefer saying Mertz was serviceable, but not if the running game isn't working and the offense passes conventionally with the way the O-line played. This take puts too much onto Mertz. And I think it is mainly misidentified ire.
Sorry for the late reply. The timeout issue. Someone HAS to be responsible for the special teams errors. Situational awareness dictates someone, anyone on the staff picks up on the problem and calls a timeout in order to save a possession. That's just one example. For a team that had so many communication issues there is no reason to take any timeouts home with them. Also on the tempo thing. Again, not getting the extra play in the 3rd. Not having any kind of tempo change or urgency as situations dictate just give the vibe that there is a rigid plan in place that does not allow for flexibility or the moment is just too big for someone thst has so much on their plate as coach AND coordinator. Mistakes are mistakes but philosophy is concerning. I'm saying this as a constructive criticism. We have had concerns in the past with other coaches that turned out to be correct. I'm not in the meltdown camp and I think cries for firing, or hiring deion or denigrating the staff is completely counterproductive and just feeds the trolls and rivals but the board is here for positive and negative criticism. Sadly, this board is much much more even tempered than the rest of the boards and media sites out there. It is ugly and when enough public sentiment is shared loud enough that becomes the reality of perception. I wish Napier had the chance to grow in a different age of football where social media was non existent but right now the trolls and media are feasting. Edit: had to add the delay of game early 2nd half I think it was. 3rd and short in scoring position becomes 3rd and long over a delay of game. Coach has to do everything he can to get things going. Call a timeout and give your guys a shot. Instead 3rd and long.
Yup, Napier reads that part of the contract every night before he goes to bed. He is 1000% sure that is how much the buyout costs
I try and stay positive when I post, or at least level headed. My issue, at this point, is that even if the offense didn't have mistakes, it's too slow for todays game. If the other team is fast paced and can score then we are in trouble. There is so much going on pre snap that it provides so many more chances for the players to err. Another question is if OC and ST coaches are brought in, who goes? We are already at our limit of on field coaches. I think CBN's first main objective was to sure up the lines and he hired extra coaches for that. Those need to pay off before I think he would be ready to leave that strategy.
Exactly, reality is much more nuanced than saying he was just good or bad. He missed some throws, but that's okay all QBs do. He didn't get much help from the running game and was asked to throw almost every play. Several times he had no time to throw so protection could be better, but when Utah brought big blitzes there was no hot read to get rid of the ball quickly (which Mertz HAS to learn since he doesn't evade pressure himself). Very few throws were downfield, Mertz wasn't stretching the defense (which could have opened things up for the running game). By the second half Utah had a big lead and allowed Mertz to rack up yards on short passes that milked the clock and just waited for UF's offense to stall themselves out with a penalty or something else. For those that hoped Mertz would be a good game manager QB, the game was very encouraging in that respect and Mertz deserves some kudos. But the discouraging part is that unless other things improve UF may need him to be much more than that to beat good teams (which our scheduled has several more). And that's probably too much to ask of Mertz.
Holly Rowe when reporting at half time of the game quoted Napier as saying it was a freshman player mistake.
Right, he meant a freshman mistake from our team captain. I heard him with my own ears say "Jason" was supposed to come off the field.
It was punt safe, meaning the defense including our best cover corner should be on the field. The freshman mistake was on EW3.
Here is CBN's exact quote. It sounds like he's referring to Jason to me but I suppose he could mean EW3. “That’s exactly what it is. It is something that we have had in the past, we’ve worked in the past. We were rotating the punt returner two to one. And we go safe, Jason (Marshall) is out there. We were supposed to get him off,” Billy Napier explained after the game. “We just didn’t communicate. We’re in put safe. We’ve got to communicate that better. There’s no question that’s another thing that we control that we didn’t do the right way.”
Kirk Herbstreit offers hard truth for Florida following Utah loss “I’m telling you, I’m calling this game and all I can think about is what people in Florida are doing watching this game because back-to-back losing seasons — Billy only had it last year — and then to start a season this way with the miscues, Herbstreit said on SportsCenter with Scott Van Pelt after UF’s loss to Utah. “
Yea I watched the presser and thought his answer was confusing too. Punt safe would mean your defense stayed on the field. Regardless, we need more quality control guys who make sure I’ll players don’t make these dumb mistakes and can alert the coaches to call timeouts.
We can fix all the punting issues really quickly. Don’t try to field any punt. No more duplicate numbers on the field, no more catching the ball on the 4. Easy peasy problem fixed. feel like I need to say it’s a joke cause right now people are on the edge.
There has to be something done ASAP. Current plan isn’t working. Maybe related, but I recalled when Napes was at ULL, he had issues with his FG unit once his starting kicker went down. The replacement kicker was barely .500.
