Sure but all this stuff is relative to history and Gator fans had to deal with two prior coaches who wouldn't make changes despite glaring issues...maclwein with strength and conditioning and Mullen with his defensive coordinator. I think the fans who are willing to wait and see if Napier can eventually be a success weigh his willingness to change as a huge positive. That won't last if results don't ensue but for the time being it's a plus given the talent infusion as well.
Good points. We are definitely starting off differently with Billy compared to those two who won first then went downhill so maybe lose first and build in to a winning program? Only time will tell.
I can see your point, but maybe he thought he needed explosiveness (which is what his S&C was gearing towards) vs. weight. It’s not like we were the most explosive team before he got here. I don’t know if that’s the case, but neither do you. I simply see it as he tried one way, it failed so he’s going a different route. There’s nothing wrong with that. Both our most successful coaches brought something different than what the SEC was doing and had success. Nothing wrong with trying different things.
The S&C was always my #1 sticking point and I've mentioned it for a long time. I thought Napier was unqualified as a HBC in the SEC because he brought over a S&C coach who was coaching up the Sun Belt, not the SEC. I don't know how many times I brought up throughout the last couple of seasons that our guys were all finesse, no blue collar ethic. And I think even if the goal was on team speed, Napier failed in spades here too because everyone was faster than us. Our linemen were the weakest and slowest in the nation. Time and time again our guys never could keep the pocket on the outside because they lacked the quickness to handle even a Vandy defender nor the strength to compete with an ACC defense. To me the icing on the cake was against FSU where their defender bull rushed our lineman 5 yards into the QB for the sack. No way should a DE ever be able to push your tackle into a QB unless if he was out of position. This was a straight up one-on-one play where the tackle was pushed into the QB. Then on the opposite side of the line, our defenders rarely put any pressure on the QB. Ranked dead last in the country. You literally could bring in UAB's defense and see a letter grade higher. If we had Kentucky's defense, we might have won 8 games last season. It really doesn't take much to grab a few more wins if we had a good S&C program. It's like how Napier is handling ST, he's not. The worst unit in all of college football is unchanged. I remember Meyer saying in a presser that all 3 phases of the game matter and that ST is one that can change the dynamics of a game just on a couple of plays. You literally can change a game where offenses and defenses are deadlocked and your ST opens up the game with a punt return, kick return, or FG or FG defense. Under Napier, have we ever blocked a punt, FG, punt return for a TD, or kick off return for a TD? In 2 years, none. The only FBS or FCS program.
I appreciate their anonymous interviews but its nice Princely was willing to put his name behind it, good and bad. I also laugh how he's taken on some Napier talk, if that make any sense
Yeah …he made a move that worked for him in the past. Then it didn’t… and pivoted. What is your point?
Are you kidding? Nearly ALL of his hires have been pretty bad.. I’m not sure which coach he hired I would call outstanding or even average for that matter. Let me know who on our staff of his original staff is an outstanding hire…He didn’t hire just one dud…he hired an army of duds
Not a single Stricklin find has won a championship at UF. His only hire that has won a championship is the swimming coach and he was an assistant on the staff, so not a “find” when you hire from within.
Well our RBs, WRs, TEs, and QB seem to be playing ok. Did he hire those coaches? Aside from the OL I’d say all the problems are on defense which if I recall he has swapped out those coaches. Keep in mind, our D has sucked for years thanks to Grantham. Zero depth, and less talent. If you think we can polish a turd with a coaching hire then that’s on you. We are now getting the talent so coaching on that side of the ball is yet to be seen with the new coaches. Personally I think AA called some great games and we fell short of talent.
This is the hammer meeting the nail right here for me. Our strength looked weak for two years, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Add in the absence of special teams, which is looking like for the third year in a row. Not sure if we will see any improvement from this coaching staff in this area ever at this point. We seem to be satisfied with fair catches and extra points. There is no emphasis beyond that. Game changer? Sorry that is just coaching bs. The last two years have been the worst special teams I’ve ever seen at UF since 1980. Period!
On the S&C, wasn’t it Nebraska that pioneered Olympic lifting at a time when they were laying waste, to college football, including us ?
This is why our DBs looked like HS kids and Bama/Dawgs" looked liked our LBs. A new SC won't help with the angles we take, but hopefully it'll make a difference when we make contact
And savage wanted to stay after nape was hired. I remember his quote in that Netflix special during the trask season talking yo one of the guys as they were walking into am lifting session “we’re going to make that tattoo 3D”. I wanted him to be my trainer after that special.
I get what you’re saying about all he had to do but S and C is easily one of your top 2-3 hires. Essentially this is the person leading your program for the 6-7 months you’re not practicing or playing. The 60 positions you mentioned. Biggest staff we’ve ever had. Hope the sheer volume of those hires didn’t take away from importance of getting the right guy for S-C. I say that because I’m not sold on hiring 60 and having the biggest staff we’ve ever had by quite a bit. I still feel Billy can right the ship and he has a good year this year but I think there’s a big number that wish some of these things would have been addressed much sooner. Portal strategy getting better but this is year 3. And even now, while I acknowledge portal this year is much better I still say cannot let kids like Howell and Banks go visit other schools. We need several more portal additions before school starts which is very soon. Urgency is obviously needed in all aspects at this point.
