Interesting conversation with a former college coach

I called us to win six this regular season.

Six wins next season would mark a substantial improvement, and I've said eight wins is our ceiling. But realistically we could also finish with four wins, which would mark us as being in a holding pattern. Not that most will see it that way.

 

Excellent suggestion, but it sounds like he may have to wait for them to get untangled just a bit before giving it a try.

 

Agree. After taking the schedule into account, we could finish with six wins yet have a far stronger team. Never understood why the barometer is ALWAYS the number of wins and losses...

 

I do think Billy needs to win some games most don't expect us to win next year. We're a couple of plays from being 7-5 right now, need to start finding a way to win. Obviously the schedule is tough but at some point all of the investment has to translate to on field success.

 

one of the GC writers wrote a glowing article on a LB transfer and I pointed out that his numbers didn't look very good to me. One of the Mods jumped on my case for critizing a writer

 

Didn’t see the article, but I would assume it was about Nunnery, who has flashed. Teradja hasn’t done much from what I can tell.

 

Teradja has barely even played. Is he hurt?

 

48 of 70 snaps against Missouri.

He's made some good plays on runningbacks as I recall. No reason to think he's not playing to the best of his ability.

 

Florida's wins total changes dramatically next year if we can land portal guys on the offensive and defensive line. And another pass-rushing DE. The Kentucky guy would have been great - too bad his mom was ill and eventually died. He alone would have made a difference this year. We also have a few guys that will be back from injury, I hope.

Next year will be a trick. Miami is the game I have circled. My hatred of Miami is unmeasurable. If we lose that game I see us with the same record as this year.

We need offensive linemen. We have holes we must fill through the portal.

Go Gators

 

Shemar is our only real difference maker at LB right now. When he went down before the UGA game, our defense completely fell apart. If he was healthy, I think we win both the Arkansas and Missouri games. LB help is coming next year but we gotta get a handle on the OL. Losing Goodwin hurt! Need to hit the portal again hard.

 

I now realize that I must not know his number. I saw 15 and a player I thought was Nunnery....perhaps it was actually Teradja.

 

15 is Wingo. Mitchell is 20. Nunnery is 34.

 

This is every surprising indeed...

 

#15 Is Wingo.

 

We get talented lbs but they are in hs as we speak. We need a portal guy to start until they are older.

 

Speed and instincts together have been rare in Hogtown. Looking forward to James' growth for next year.

 

Well described and completely sensical. It's obvious we have disastrous holes in the O-line that have kept Mertz from doing even more than he has. And, it's also evident that the losses of Shemar and then Mertz have weakened the team impactfully. It's really good to hear the optimism from a knowledgeable source on the long-term prospects, though. The only thing that concerns me is that we haven't seemed to make any headway in O-line recruiting and retention; in fact we seem to have regressed. We need to quickly find some elite o-line talent to push us over the top. And, if they're not transfers, it will take time to grow them once they get here. We have to fix that now to ward off the impatience in the program that isn't going to go away.

 

Watch closely this off season. It's plain we need linemen on both sides of the ball. Good ones, transfer or recruits, are in high demand and expensive. Will we continue with the same NIL strategy or start bidding and take the hits that come with.

 

Oline is a big problem and Napier has recruited a few that we haven’t seen play yet. Those guys panning out will be very important for his future. We do need some help there from the portal but you can’t force them to come. Other teams are in the playoffs and have cash too. It’s not all that easy to get oline talent from the portal. Let’s hope we get lucky there and hope the ones we’ve been growing turn out good.

 

IMO it's not just the OL. The D is still terrible. I just see no road to even 8-4 in the forseeable future. Of course I'm not the most optimistic guy so there's that.