You let the man currently in charge keep building the program, hoping that he can turn it around on the field. If it turns out he is unable to turn it around on the field, then at least we have a great program. Then all you have to do is hire a new HC that can turn it around on the field and hope he can keep the program "built". The 64 million dollar question is how much time does CBN get. My guess is 5 years, which seems to be the general consensus among the level-headed posters anyway...
I agree but would add that UF Admin was complicit in that damage as well. Look no further than the way they handled the debit card issue in 2017. No winning program handles things that way.
Im all for giving some time to BN but lets see the level of patience some of you have when we close out the season with three likely losses and no bowl and then open into a vicious schedule next year. Losing will get old...it already has for some.
I can't deny it... it's going to be tough. I'm expecting 3 losses to end the season. As long as I don't see the team give up, I think I'll have enough patience to see it through.
Keep in mind that #4 pick in the NFL draft would have never played at Florida. You guys must have Alzheimer's. AR most likely would have transferred out after Trask because Mullen was set to hand the keys over to EJ. EJ was his guy, not AR, just like Franks was his guy and not Trask. Mullen barely had Top 10 classes but what you don't look at are the vast number of transfers every year. I would love to see a revision to these rankings. When Mullen was fired, we were looking at a Top 35 finish with Napier improving it to a Top 15 class. Mullen just didn't want to recruit.
Mullen's downfall was his first full recruiting cycle in 2019. His success his 1st 2 seasons was in Mac's stellar recruiting, including his last season ranked 3rd. Of that 2019 class, only a third would remain by Year 3. Jalen Jones was the only QB he recruited in that cycle and he transferred out before the season started. The top pick in Chris Steele also was gone after his 1st semester. In total, Mullen's Top 10 2019 class featured a third of his recruits not even making it to the fall practice. 3 couldn't qualify and a 4th had a visa issue. If you shake all that out, Mullen's 1st full recruiting cycle was as small as his transitional class. And what about all of those high ranking recruits that transferred out during Mullen's tenure? Only 2 managed to start on their respective teams. All of the others either were on the roster but never played or never were seen again. Just 2. Chances are had they all stayed, they wouldn't have amounted to much. Keep in mind guys like Jones transferred to high schools and either played and were benched or never played a single down - Henderson comes to mind, he never caught a single pass after he transferred to powerhouse Jacksonville St and when that didn't work, transferred to Blinn College where he never made the roster.
To pile onto Mullen: he earned an NCAA sanction a year later for not knowing recruiting rules. Even when he tried to recruit, he screwed things up.
Trying to find the negative aspects from our last winning seasons. That is now what it has come down to Just to find the silver lining in these recent losses
Mullen is where he is commenting on football games. The word is out on him he won’t recruit or can’t recruit! No AD in his right mind would hire him because most colleges need a coach that can recruit and build a program. I like Napier he knows how to build a program. He has established a culture. We have had no scooter accidents no jail time for players no quoting on the football field. Billy has opened doors to high school programs that were closed to the previous staff and all his coaches recruit kids that are high caliber kids. We have not had kids that committed to the Gators but couldn’t get into the college because of Academics. A common problem for last coach. So that tells me a lot of evaluation of recruits goes on in Billy’s program. We all know about the portal. Live by the portal die by the portal. The portal is for quick fixes not long term sustainability. Smart at Georgia uses the portal very sparingly he built the program on high school recruits. So has Bama. So is Billy. He has been here less than two years and has a top 3 class committed the next class could very well be a top 3 class. Recruiting is not going down it is going up! We play a lot of young players but the beauty in that is they grow up they get bigger they get smarter but from what I see they don’t quit and they haven’t had off field issues! Sure we are losing some games and I don’t know how the rest of the season plays out and the rest of the Gator fans don’t know either! But I can tell you we won’t quit and the Coaches won’t quit. The only quitters are intemperate fans. It takes time but if you are impatient and can’t wait go find a team that is nice and shiny and pull for them. As for me and my house we will pull for the GATORS in all kinds of weather! GO GATORS!!
All true, GP. There are many positives. But, he's not gonna make it if he continues losing games due to his sideline brain-farts and head scratching decisions.
This part is highly underrated. When those “in the know” talk about fixing the underlying rot in the program, this is a big one. Urban Meyer started turning off some high school coaches, including my old high school and some of the powerhouses that Bama, Ohio State, and Georgia have been grabbing recruits from.
It’s a fantasy myth perpetuated by the Napier crowd to somehow excuse his ineptitude. It’s not like we were Colorado or something.
And the myth goes larger. I’m sorry, but a guy like Deion has proven you don’t need 5 years to rebuild a program that was at the bottom of the barrel for the past decade. And Florida was nowhere near the bottom of the barrel having won several SEC East crowns during the “M coach years.” Colorado isn’t in the prime breeding ground for the highest share of eventual NFL players either. That’s how you rebuild a program in true need of a rebuild.
Ineptitude is too harsh, IMO. He's working on multiple program-level off-field issues, and trying to do too much (again, IMO) by running the offense while simultaneously managing the game. He absolutely must figure out how to drastically reduce the in-game mental mistakes by coaches (including himself) and players.
No, sustainability comes from the HS ranks, raiding portal for a “team” yearly is the path to ruin no argument here wrt “administrative influence”
Dion has accomplished squat and without #2 he is looking at an 0-9 record. His wins come against programs that are 14-22 and he is 1-5 in conference and lost in horrific fashion to stanford. Lets see if he breaks .500 next year
Technically it would be closing the season with five losses. With that said, I don't think we lose all of the next three. ESPN FPI gives us approximately a 50% chance of winning at least ONE of them, and I'm going with LSU if they don't have Daniels. I also think we can beat FSU in the Swamp if we get some bounces.
Having the #4 draft pick as your QB is an entire offense? The QB isn’t everything, but everybody knows it’s a QB’s game and a good to exception QB can cure a ton of other problems on your offense. Not to mention how horribly Richardson was managed during his final season at UF.