Man, it's hard to believe we've had 3 straight losing seasons with a 4th more than likely coming. My how things can change so much in just 15 years.
That part. Think about it....we DO NOT have a recruiting problem (besides on the OL imo). Napier and co showed this past cycle that UF can recruit with anyone ...we just have a WINNING problem. Even rival fan bases were right in saying....that our class will fall apart as the season goes on...and they were right....because we didn't WIN as the season went on. Remember...we didn't have ANY decommits (besides Jerrick Gibson in 2022 and Bowens in June of last year) until NOVEMBER of last year. Everyone was locked in until it was evident that the wheels on the field were falling apart. Beat Arky and/or Missouri and we maintain our top 5 class. I'm 1000000% sure of that. Since we didn't do that, we're going to struggle to recruit/land ELITE 2025 kids OUT OF THE GATE until we prove it on the field. We'll get our fair share of commits before the season starts, but you can bet your last dollar we're not going into the season like last season ranked in the top 5 in recruiting. We're unfortunately in prove it on the field mode this season
Other than the NIL money, which is also a factor, this is so spot on. This is why the bump class for a coach to really have a chance to rebuild a program MUST be special. Napier's was not, and now the window for turning things around is narrowing and the portal recruiting that might make it possible is pretty hum-drum. Fans are becoming impatient and we are staring down the barrel of a historically difficult schedule. To pull this thing out of a nosedive and get it back on the upswing is going to take a ton of extremely hard work and not just a little luck.
Just hoping for 6 to 7 W's, a bowl invite, and of course improvement in literally every area, but especially defense and special teams. Of course I am hoping to see DJ, especially later in the year, showing what he brings to the table.
15 years? 4 years ago we had yet another winning record and almost beat Bama in the SEC title game while fsu was in the midst of a streak of losing seasons with one foot in the grave. We had our concerns but never would have guessed the script would flip 180°
That's true....unfortunately a lot of our excitement that season went down the field along with the shoe that got tossed. UF has been consistently behind the curve in Football since the 12 year period after some genius hired another genius after the 1989 season. Unfortunately that doesn't seem to have changed and we appear to have been caught with our pants down with the NIL wave as well.
Hi Crusher - Yeah, I kinda thought, because of Covid, NIL, Transfer Portal and the general insanity of these "New Rules" (to quote Bill Marr) that perhaps UF would see that traditional 2nd year "BUMP" Class the third recruiting cycle. AND - that appeared to be the case. Sadly it sputtered badly the last month. Bobbys post, I suspect, offers a key explaination as to why the class unwound so badly. And while you can count me as one of the apologists that consider the kids UF signed this cycle as VERY GOOD, UF lost seven (7) recruits previously committed. Any way you cut it, that hurt. UF is desperately in need of quality depth, well UF had 7 players in the recruiting "starter to contributor mode" leave for other programs. I'm not quite as convinced as others that "transfers" offer the immediate solution and/or upgrades to the H.S. kids. Some do sure - give me a Greenard, or Pearsall every day of the week and a month of Sundays, but those guys were more the exception than the rule. I am also VERY CONCERNED that UF's class was: A) Heavy on out of state kids B) UF is NOT closing very well on top 100 kids in UF's traditional recruiting grounds: Central and N Florida and S Georigia. C) The Gator Collective Organization (Florida Victorious) does not seem to be on the same level of our high end rival(s) programs, financially speaking.
I do wonder though...what's the selling point by the staff for recruits BEFORE the season starts this time around? More than likely, we're not going to get a high school QB commit the caliber of DJ Lagway (I mean as far as being a 5* QB) in the next month or so to be the building block of the 2025 class like Lagway was for the 2024 class. Going to be interesting
Which seven? I see as few as three wins here, with a seven-game losing streak to close out the season. Optimistically, five wins: Saturday, Aug. 31 vs. Miami Saturday, Sept. 7 vs. Samford Saturday, Sept. 14 vs. Texas A&M Saturday, Sept. 21 at Mississippi State Saturday, Oct. 5 vs. UCF Saturday, Oct. 12 at Tennessee Saturday, Oct. 19 vs. Kentucky Saturday, Nov. 2 vs. Georgia Saturday, Nov. 9 at Texas Saturday, Nov. 16 vs. LSU Saturday, Nov. 23 vs. Ole Miss Saturday, Nov. 30 at Florida State
Another reason a bump class is so incredibly important. That's the class you can sell hope and dreams to. Now, not only do you have to sell that, you have to fend off all the folks pointing out the uncomfortable facts seen on the field of play. With each succeeding year it becomes more difficult to pin that on your predecessor.
