I don’t know the starters on every other team in the country, and haven’t seen anywhere that tracks this specific stat. I do know that plenty of other teams are losing quality players. I know OSU lost their starting qb, a starting wr, and their second and third rb. Other teams are losing starters and two deep players. This isn’t unique to UF.
Is losing 5 starters off of a team that went 5-7 a bad thing? We need to replace them with better players, but I’m not heartbroken they left.
In the case of the guys who left, I'd say "yes it is". Now, if we replace with upgraded portal talent, then you are correct. No biggie. But at this point I don't think we can say that, other than maybe Slackman for McClellan.
But so far 3 of those starters have gone to other SEC teams that are better than us and I don't think money is all that's involved. Some will say that money is the ONLY thing that would cause a starter to leave THE University of Florida. I happen to think there are other issues at play.
There’s likely hundreds of variables at play. We’ve been spinning our wheels for over a decade, through the end of the tenure of one of the most successful AD’s in college history, onto another, multiple University Presidents, and 4 coaches. I personally think there’s simply a lot of luck involved. Getting the right guy at the right time with the right support makes all the difference. Nobody really knows when all of these stars will align themselves and a dynasty will be born. Both of our championship winning coaches quit on us, that’s some kinda luck. Both of them were up and comers too. Most of our fans throw fits about hiring coaches with little or no experience. Then we watch Kirby, who had never been an HC, come in and put Georgia on the pathway to becoming a dynasty. Likewise, we watched TAMU break the bank to hire a sitting national championship winning coach, and then turn around and outright buy him a number one recruiting class only to watch that burst into flames. It’s not just as simple as wanting to win. It’s not as simple as hiring a sitting, p5, experienced coach. It’s not as simple as just having an unlimited bank account. It’s simply, just not that simple. The bama’s of the world have been bending/breaking the rules for decades, and the new NIL rules let them solidify a place at the top and operate out in the open. Money isn’t everything, but it isn’t nothing either. The schools that seem to be the most successful luring and retaining top talent in the new NIL landscape are mostly the schools who have all been suspected of making these payments long before it was legal to do so.
Thanks for the fistbump! Basically, your current response is very close to like analytics in baseball. Getting verbal information from a former player or assistant, can be valuable and at times inaccurate. However, it can never compete with dept and width of a study of game films. Now if that former player or assistant has the play book, that is another story. The main point here, is the type of information you are referring to does not compete with how information is now being used college football now. Currently in college and NFL football, much of the video and almost all of statistical data on the players, the practices, and the games is constantly being collected and inputted into computer databases. The coaches and scouts can execute database queries to get both printed and video output. Now comes the blowing your mind part. Today, many scouts and coaches are using computer analytical processes on that data to provide them accurate outcomes on many scenarios. Yes, MoneyBall has moved into Football too. Here is link that you will find interesting The Power of Analytics in Football: How Data is Revolutionizing the Sport.
Totally agree. I think a bigger issue is that none of them are buying in and believe they’re going to win or get the best professional development at UF. Whether you agree with them or not, I would say that’s a problem.
Only the durable running backs make it past 3 to 5 years. And that's hard to gauge from college to the pros.
There’s also more temptation now than ever before. It’s natural for us to question whether we’re in the best place to succeed, but most of us don’t have miles of “greener pastures” to tempt us away from trying to make the most out of our current situation.
That's true for sure. If I was at UF on a full scholarship majoring in accounting, with a part time job working at the top CPA firm in Gainesville and the promise of a full time position once I got my undergraduate degree, and Deloitte International (the top accounting firm in the world) said that if I would transfer to Columbia U. to complete my degree there and offered me $250,000 to do so, not a single person would criticize my decision to accept the offer. In fact, most would be envious. I know this isn't an exact apples to apples comparison, but the point is that college athletes have the right to pursue whatever avenue they think is in their best interest, just like any college student should be able to do or any adult should be able to do. We just get upset when it's our athletes and our university and our teams that get negatively impacted.
Funny you say that, just watched Money Ball for the 20th time last week. Never gets old. One who doesn’t follow trends, loses for sure. This conversation has turned useful. It’s a fact and good link there.
Unfortunately that concept leaves us with two bad choices: A) The starters on a bad team are the best of a bad bunch or they wouldn't be starting. Even if you get better players, not keeping the starters weaken the overall team even if they would just provide quality depth in the future. B) The coaches are terrible at their job and have the wrong players starting so it wouldn't matter if they left at all. Any replacements have just as good a chance of being as good or better.
Who says they're worse though? An arbitrary website.... we're off 3 straight losing seasons. The fat has to be trimmed. ETN is the lone transfer the staff wanted & tried to keep, PU wants stats, & Mizzou is apparently losing their entire front 4 so McClellan will likely start. Gotta stay positive, all of CFB is turning into an fsu sized circus.
