Let's be honest about who we are.

Or maybe the coaches bosses who keep hiring coaches that can't figure out how to win with the current system.

 

Um...strongest academic in the South Eastern US....No....not even in just the SEC.

 

Couldn't agree more. But personally after following the Gators for almost 60 years and witnessing many years at the top with CFB as f'd up as it is now, I'm done with CFB. I don't watch hardly any CFB anymore and don't read about it except what I see on Gator MB's. I'll eventually stop even frequenting the Gator MB's. You're welcome.

 

It's what we were before Spurrier - pockets of success , mostly average maybe even loved our Gators in a more pure way less dependent on results and expectations...

these 500 seasons in a way are really fun to watch ....every game is a nail biter lol.

once u climb the mountain- expecting to win by 30 every week isn't all that fun!!

 

Way funner to me than witnessing this incompetence game after game. But different strokes for ....

 

Nah it's worse.

1950-2012, A total of 6 losing seasons.
2013-2023 5 so far.

 

this is true, but unfortunately nothing I've seen from Napier so far makes me think he'll be here much longer anyway.

 

I agree but I prefer watching games that the outcome is an unknown. Watching games that are predetermined doesn’t hold my attention .might as well watch pro wrestling.

 

We could make a garbage schedule and look better on paper.

 

My $0.02 would be that the whole system is in a a state of serious flux and what we were, or what we could be are going to remain indeterminate for at least two or three years. NIL is still in it's infancy and how it is playing out right now will not be how it plays out further down the road. Everyone involved is staring up the steep start of a learning curve. The portal isn't that much different and only adds to the complexity of the situation.

Meanwhile we have a head coach who has had a rough start, may not have what it takes, and is caught in a hot seat getting hotter next season. But my gut tells me that the powers that be will see no serious upside to making any change until at least two more seasons have passed. If only because, given the unsettled nature of everything, just how would you evaluate any potential replacements? Nobody that well proven is going anywhere. Better to hold pat and weather the storm before making major changes.

Two or three years down the road should be sufficient time for the powers that be to decide what they want UF football to be.

I have long argued that the administration felt badly burned by the Meyer era and think the price paid for those championships was not the exception but the rule. And, given the longstanding pattern of less than full commitment to football, have instead chosen to find ways to temper expectations. Don't get me wrong, they expect winning seasons, and they want us to be routinely in the hunt, but they are not dedicated to seeing us get on top and stay there. Call it the giving 90% approach.

Hopefully Napier can pull things together a bit more, no doubt he is learning as he goes. Hopefully he is not learning that he is getting overwhelmed. If he can find a way to six wins next season I will consider that marked improvement, but not a guarantee of much more. More championships is going to require the University stepping up their game as well.

Conversely, if these changes shake out to the point where there are effectively two camps in every program - what I would call the school players (the ones not going to the Pros) and the mercenaries (those with the potential) - and those camps become disconnected and negative to each other then I agree with the previous poster - trash the whole damned thing. Get rid of the athletic scholarships, send the mercenaries off to a farm league, let the NFL finally bear some direct financial responsibility for developing their employees, and UF can field a team of walk-ons who can play other like minded schools.

 

No we wouldn’t

 

Not so. Kentucky and Mizzou are also in the SEC East, and have been better. This idea that we would have won 10 games outside the SEC is a myth that refuses to die.

We played tough schedules during the Pell, SOS, Zook and Meyer eras and didn't play like this. Galen Hall never had losing season in the teeth of our near death penalty. Muschamp had a tougher schedule in 2012 and went 11-2.

It's worse now.

 

The reference is almost certainly to public institutions. FTR, UF is widely considered to be among the best public universities in the country, not just the SEC - according to multiple publications/entities that rank academic institutions. I would have thought that most Gators would have gotten that memo some time ago. I would also have expected that the vast majority of Gators would take satisfaction and maybe some pride in those lofty standings. Apparently, that isn't always true. Go figure.

 

Spoken like someone who didn't experience '79. But seriously, I agree with the underlying point that the program has been down longer and is at a lower ebb than at any time since before I was born. And I'm pretty damn old. Obviously, the frustrations we have all felt continue to mount with every head-scratcher play call, every half-hearted stab at making a play on defense and every loss to a less talented team - of which there have been several in the last two years. As a rule, I try to live in the moment. But the fact is that things are really tough right now and there are no guarantees they will get significantly better in the short run - no matter what BN does or doesn't do in the off season. Despite the struggle to acquire a better roster in the NIL era and the on-going staffing issues since NB arrived, our "big picture" outlook will only get exponentially worse if we act rashly now and go with the "three years and out" paradigm, yet again.

Bottom line is that BN has not cemented himself as "The Man" to this point, and we may be flirting with some form of virtual "program death" if we don't pull out of this downward spiral soon. Disconcertingly, knee-jerk reactions in Gainesville don't have a history of ending well and another rash decision could be catastrophic. I agree that there were plenty of good reasons to fire the rouges gallery of failed HCs that have followed Urban's departure. I also understand the peril we face if we continue to hire and fire at a pace that no program can sustain forever. I suspect that the question of "Who in his right mind would take the UF HC job when they'll fire your ass in a New York second?" is circulating in some corners as I write. Like it or not, Billy should and probably will have two more full seasons to get it together before we start sharpening the axe one more time. JMHO.

 

I agree with most all of that. Personally, The firing coaches is just a talking point. No one of sound mind thinks we should have kept any of them. Their subsequent lack of success bolsters this point. Now the argument that we might fire a coach because we make bad hiring decisions…….ymmv

UGA and Ohio state are not slouches in the research fields. Once again we get caught up in the academic standing rhetoric, which is completely different that University support.

Really hoping we see a sudden spark with lots of fire. I am by nature pessimistic, but hopeful.

 

90% equals half ass effort

 

Oh, but I did! LOL!! I just never blamed 1979 on Charley. The older Gators told us he was doing what Bear Bryant did at Texas A&M -- The Junction Boys. Burning down the barn to get rid of the rats. But we went 8-4 the following year -- and should have been 9-3...if not for Buck Belew to Lindsay Freaking Scott...

 

Yup. US News and World Report has us 6th among publics nationwide. It was only a few years ago we were 16th. We're continuing to excel...

 

Congrats...I share your pain. Do you remember when we missed a chip shot field goal to lose to Bama in '64 after Spurrier dazzled the world and Bear Bryant by bringing us back in the fourth quarter of his first really big game as a soph? I remember it well, unfortunately. Despite the loss, Steve did put the world on notice that day that you better be good and be playing to win to beat him and the Florida Gators. Many younger fans don't realize just how masterful SOS was in his day at picking an opponent apart and coming through big-time when the chips were down. We could use a good dose of that coming through part anytime now. I know, I digress.