It's been a decade and a half since we competed for championships every year. My point is that, to get there, we need to recruit at an elite level, year after year AND have some continuity of staff. There is not a coach anywhere, not Saban, not Kirby, not SOS, not Urban, that could come to UF right now, in this NIL, me-first world, when we are a talented depleted team...and actually have success. It's a multi year rebuild. For ANYONE. I'm hoping it'll be Napier.
"If you block a punt you win the game 9 out of 10 times" according to Urban who quoted a study. 8 blocked punts in a season for UF...Im not sure weve had 3 blocked punts since he left. Ive said it before and Ill say it again...why have we discarded special teams like a spent condom? Having a grad assistant manage..I mean mismanage special teams is inexcusable. Urban said in order to start you had to play on special teams and guys fought to be on special teams...and today a fair catch is probably our most successful outcome.
Yeah, people forget this. That said, that depth means something and we had a lot of in-state depth and talent under Meyer. Let's put it this way, when the best FL players stayed home (UF, UM or FSU), the National Championship went through Florida not the SEC. I just can't believe we all squandered what we had and allowed things to revert, quite literally, back to the 70s.
The top schools have a win at all costs mentality we have never had. Do you think if Urban Meyer was our coach and just won a national championship and the players were partying all night at a strip club and then two people died from reckless driving with questionable vehicular chain of ownership and then it would just blow over and no one talks about it and everything is fine?
You mean Saban happened. I personally think Alabama was doing a "collective" well before NIL. That jump in recruiting - especially in places like FL - was beyond normal and literally borders on the "unrealistic" things we could do on the NCAA video game titles back in the day. Saban's a cool guy (I guess), but nobody has that much gravitas. This along with our arrogance (all three schools) regarding new facilities is my only explanation for such domination. I mean, Georgia is doing the same thing now. Does anyone think that's because of Kirby's bubbly personality?
We had that guy in Mullen. That guy can't win anymore because recruiting (for many of the reasons you lay out) is now 90% of the equation instead of 60-70%. Meyer/Mullen had a bit of both during our heyday with the spread/read-option game. But, after the read, I just don't see any new innovations, no real schematic advantage to be secured anymore. The SEC had to change how they recruited because of Spurrier. I just don't see that happening again. Instead I see an NFL model coming. 3-5 years tops for even successful coaches. Some will be short-term fixers, others will be foundation layers. Might be a case where you bring in a Lane Kiffen to win with Jimbo's recruits knowing you'll fire him in 2 years due to his inability to keep up recruiting and set a culture.
Doesn't work in the pros either. How on Earth did Cleveland come back and beat Baltimore last week? THIS ^ is how.
I worry about the NIL component. If you look at.On3 website, you’ll see that of the top 100 college athletes getting nil compensation. We only have one in the top 100 and that’s Graham Mertz.
But urbs walked into a wealth of talent. He’s been an opportunist everywhere he’s gone. He goes and coaches, somebody else’s recruits, and when they’re finally gone, his teams fall apart.
You know those numbers are just guesses, right? On top of that, they’re guessing an evaluated number. They’re not even trying to put a number on what they’re actually getting paid.
TAMU’s cupboard wasn’t exactly bare. Here’s their recruiting rankings before Jimbo: 2013 9th 2014 5th 2015 11th 2016 17th 2017 12th
The 2008 team was 95 percent his guys, same with his title team at OSU, he likes walking into talent but he knew how to build as well.
Tebow, Spikes, Harvin, James, Pouncey twins...all his recruits. I'd say he did pretty well with them.
Urbs has made some big mistakes. He's also made some great decisions and some very hard decisions. But I can't deny that he gave the gators 100% even to the point of messing up his life and his health. It was the cost of 2 Natty's. He is far from perfect, but I am grateful for all he did for the mighty gators. He raised the bar super high, and people that aren't achievers, like most in the media and weak players, did not like his standards. But the champions, the Tebows and the Spikes and the Harvins, know that he pushed them to greatness. Go Gators
