WHAT Will/Needs TO HAPPEN IN YEAR THREE!

Well, some dude from the Longhorns Wire predicted we would go 7-5. So we got that going for us.....which is nice.

 

it’s an important game, but there’s always a possibility that Miami ends up a top 10 team. It’s hard projecting the schedule we have as we could have as many as five top 10 teams or maybe only one or two on our schedule

 

Gators compete in 21 sports. They are nationally ranked in 17. Not ranked in FB, WBB, Soccer, and MCC. Three of the non ranked teams hired by current AD. Maybe what has to happen in year three is a new AD?

 

Well, yeah, I take that as a given if this football season goes south.

 

This is sadly ironic. Any coach who wins can get hired/stay employed. Hell, hired prostitutes? Liberty will hire you!

If universities wanted to do the moral thing, they would put students on the field and actually care that they went to and passed classes. They would demand that coaches put education and player character (team felonies?) as high on their list of priorities as championships.

To your point, however, I sure care more about student education than the moral implications of firing a guy making millions/year mid season. The system has wholly devolved to base capitalism where the only values are money, power and winning (though I wish, like you, that wasn’t true).

 

Agree 100%.

Yes on the surface first game of the season, year 3, hated rival, at home, etc. All those things are true.

The problem with a loss here is that if you start the season by losing against Miami, how will Billy then get to 5-7 arguing that we are no doubt improved over last year’s 5-7 and make a solid case to be retained for 2025?

The schedule is brutal. We will be underdogs in 6 other games for sure.

Drop this one and odds are you are limping into another 5-7 record with a dejected, demoralized fanbase or worse 4-8/3-9.

You can’t suck out loud for 3 years promising the fourth one may bring a winning season. Not at UF. No way, no how.

Room for error in 2024 is 0.00%. Gotta win this one, Billy.

 

Scott Stricklin will not hire the next UF football coach if Napier is fired. Common knowledge amongst those who know.

 

I hear ya but when it comes to sports, winning is pretty important.

 

A football coach’s job is to win football games.

If as a result of that you build a culture, identity, reputation, and fame that lead to outstanding student athletes, then that is fantastic. But you must win football games.

 

They don’t need a degree from the players to win games either. That’s why they invent classes to keep them eligible. The ones getting legit degrees that will help them later in life are to be commended but that’s not for every athlete. Many are just football players.

 

Degrees are worthless in the era of NIL and the transfer portal.

Notice how we don’t have any academic casualties, not meeting minimum SAT/ACT scores, or minimum GPA scenarios anymore.

 

I'm no fan of our AD's hiring record. But, in fairness to SS, the UF soccer coach has the team headed in right direction after only two seasons. By the end of the 2023 season, the soccer team was clearly better than they were at the beginning of the season, and were highly competitive against all the top SEC teams they played.

Her performance in 2023, and her team's, was the very definition of turning around a program - despite inheriting a situation that was at least one order of magnitude WORSE than what CBN walked into. It's maybe THE reason I don't buy the "CBN needs more time" narrative. The soccer coach has already shown in year 2 what she can do. IMO, so has he.

 

This should probably have its own thread but I’m going to drop it here. Good read by Gene Frenette, some of the quotes will likely stir a few up a bit.

Ray of Hope -- Optimism for Gators' football future tied mostly to DJ Lagway

 

Oh boy

 

Quotes seemed pretty benign to me. Whole article saying the same thing a lot of posters have been saying. Of course, I'm sure he is a fake news mainstream media click baiting biased hack gator hater because he dared say hot seat.

 

Well this isn't good:

 

If that truly is the case, then Stricklin shouldn’t have final decision on Napier’s future should the season go poorly. Stricklin would have a conflict of interest that biased him toward keeping Napier around (to save his own job) even if that is not the right call.

 

He will not. If Napier is to be fired after 2024, Stricklin goes with him. He will not get a third bite of the apple. Two strikes and you’re done.

Again, those who know truly know.

 

The HBC is always on point and a Gator to the core. He expresses a rational concern- BN is a good guy who wants to build right - but the evidence raises more questions than answers to date.

As for Stricklin, his leash should be short as his record of hires is more msu than UF (even ignoring the major scandal of women’s hoops he blundered).

 

Excellent way of wording it: more questions than answers.

If 2024 goes south, we will be left with more questiions indeed. We will however have the only answer that we need, which is Napier is simply not the guy. Gotta move on at that point.