We all know of the issues stemming from our ST play, and most people agree we need a dedicated on field coach. Billy G spent time as Urban's special teams co-coordinator at Utah, the question arises: Why haven't steps been taken to hand over the responsibility/title to him in order to have a dedicated, on-field point of contact for ST? Pay the man more if needed, just do something. From Billy G's coaching bio: "As a special teams guru, Gonzales led Utah to 28.2 yards per kickoff return in 2003, which was good enough for the nation's lead. Utah was also third in the country in net punting yard (40.8) and fifth in kickoff returns during the 2004 season (26.2)." It's a solution that could be implemented immediately, mid-season, without the need for an external hire or changing headcount of coaches. Someone needs to be accountable in GameDay situations, because the communication issues are stemming from either too many cooks in the kitchen, or none at all. If it doesn't work out, address it with an off-season hire.
True, but the whole point of this post is that UF has someone on staff that they could shuffle around mid-season to address these recurring issues and eliminate a point of failure in the communication between ST plays and the players.
No doubt about it. The problem is that reporters haven't seemed to ask/press - Is Billy G Coaching special teams, if not why not? Who is the special teams coach? News flash: I am pretty sure that CBN could call the STC of U Conn and convince him to come on over to the gators. Don't tell me he can't.
Reduce OL coaches by one or replace both with new one. Hire an OC. Give position coach the collateral duty of ST coach, or BG takes over ST. Will be interesting to see.
After listening to the stadium and gale pod, I'm even more confused by the special teams. The fact that we continue to put 10 guys on the field on ST just really makes me wonder WTF are we doing. I have been in on Napier, I do not want him fired, but after hearing that segment today, I just can't understand how we can be so incompetent. The play at the end of regulation Saturday made me stand up out of my chair and raise my hands in disbelief at what I was seeing. I honestly thought we were going to have a time run off and not get a chance at the FG. At this point, what will it take to get ST addressed? You could make the case it's cost us two games and it certainly hasn't won any for us.
Special teams is probably 20% of the outcome of a game. Offense and defense 30% each...luck 10% and officiating 10% (except when we play FSU this goes to 80%). Its amazing we disregard special teams like a spent condom and just act like it will just figure itself out. Was it not seen after last years disaster and addressed? I dont get why it is the same thing over and over for 2 years.
There is absolutely zero excuse for that keystone cops routine at the end of regulation. I could see it in the first few games last year, but at this point, it’s just a head scratcher. How does this happen toward the end of the second year?
Billy G and Sean Spencer have both spent some time as special teams coordinators. Napier does not need to fire one of his 10 on-field coaches in the middle of the season to bring in a special teams coach. He can choose to pile on special teams duties to one of his on-field coaches right now. I am sure that other coaching staffs work like this, so this surely is not an outlandish idea from a message board. I figured this would be common sense.
All the posts above bring up very valid arguments. It’s mind blowing how ST and the offense (but that’s for another post) haven’t been addressed. Similar to how we have seen 0 half time adjustments we are not seeing any in season adjustments. The press is scared to ask the hard questions and the administration, at least publicly, is acting like we are on the path to greatness. Heck, even our message board admin has mandated that we not criticize the coaching staff. The bottom line is that we are way too deep into year two to be losing games due to a procedural penalty.
I would expect a coach to tweak little things. I am not saying Napier needs to fire anyone or hire anyone in the middle of the season. I am not talking about switching entire offensive and defensive schemes. I am just talking about minor tweaks to coaching responsibilities and perhaps some changes to player assignments.
Your mind is easily blown if you think our offense is the problem. Our offensive line is a problem, but not our overall offense.
It's probably the same reason Callaway hasn't been handed OC duties. That's not the process or analytics or both/neither or whatever the hell bs we are being given as an excuse.
Players should be present in thee moment and know what up but a coach should be responsible for managing those situations and execution. I don't understand how we got to our current situation but it needs a fix very soon.
I like this suggestion for all of the stated reasons. Especially the having the Position Coach doing the ST duties on game day. The ST coach should in this case will have a good idea of which players will be a good fit on the Special Teams, and make sure that they are ready to take the fields at any point in the game. As far as knowing who is ready for Special Teams, the ST Coach and Billy will have that list ready at the beginning of each week.
I was a fan of the BN hire and still believe there is a path to success here. And no top level coach will tolerate repeated incompetence. The failure to address special teams SNAFUs this year (and last) is a HUGE red flag. I do NOT expect (or want) BN to publicly humiliate anybody, but you have to put BG or another on field coach over special teams (try anything). I fear he is pulling a Mullen with Grantham and tolerating failure with his staff. Hopefully he is just waiting until after the season but if it costs us another game (and recruits?), that is a poor choice.
I really want CBN to succeed. I hate the moniker Sunbelt Billy crap talk. It's getting harder and harder to defend him at MBs, friends who are fans of other teams, or at any water cooler talk at work. Especially when wtf plays continually happens in critical moments of the game. I hope he makes some moves during the off season to correct these problems.