Florida Gators Optimism for 2024 Stems from Billy Napier's Recruiting & Transfer Portal

I have read enough sports articles, from non-biased prognosticators and former college/pro football players turned sports personalities, to believe that Napier and company are starting to build a real football team and program.

The Lagway effect is in full swing and the SEC experts are starting to notice. I expect a very competitive Gators football team this year.

 

The SEC is likely hoping we’re stupid enough to get impatient and run him off before he has time to put this altogether. Many of the people yakking about a hot seat are probably trolls trying to stir up discontent and scare off recruits.

 

Well I personally am definitely not a troll. And I hope you guys are right. I WANT Billy to succeed. But I also hope that should our fine institution ever need to hire another Coach that we 1) have an AD that doesn’t hire a guy that has to have a 5 year plan to turn things around 2) Bring in a guy that doesn’t NEED 4 years just to get to a 9 win regular season. We’ve got what we’ve got, but this year needs to end up being more than a good attitude and a good effort. We need to see clear, consistent development throughout all this past off season, during the Summer, and then in the fall leading up to the first game. There should simply be no excuses for not looking like a well organized, efficiently led team. It’s time. If they do, GREAT. If they don’t, no more excuses. Hoping for the best, but time will show what we’ve got.

 

Napier isn’t/wasn’t the problem with your “5 year plan”. The problem was the 3 coaches before him who dug the deep hole that our new coach had to pull us out of. You can’t throw together a quick plan to undo 10 years of damage - not one that’s sustainable. Any coach you hire would certainly require longer than the 2 seasons Napier has had to rebuild. (Where did this 5 years come from?). Hell, in 5 years this program will be kicking ass - now are you really willing to give him that long?

Other than this key point, I agree with your post.

 

Can’t wait to see Lagway as a junior.

 

He should be in NYC at the end of it.

 

I’m looking forward to seeing the rest of these talented youngsters grow up with him.

 

If he makes it to NY those guys will be a big part of the reasons why

 

This is exactly what I'm thinking too.

 

Yes, my take was more forward looking about the talent level of players. Mertz is obviously going to start our football program's ascension back to a the top tier of college football. The top tier that the Gators are meant to be in... from the great state of Florida.

 

Give him excellent blocking and he'll be top 5. Give him an excellent defense also and might be in NYC at the end.

 

Yep, it's always about the line... O-line and D-line. And we have the size and talent to be good in both lines. All we need is for them to play as one unit on the field and let Mertz and the others, receivers, do their thing.

As our lines go so does our team.

 

The schedule is on a different level this year.

I've been pretty concerned about his game day management, but I think the trick is managing expectations. We should consider how we look on the field, improvement, and shoot for say 7-8 wins.

Any other year people would say that's a disappointment. No team is winning 10 games on this schedule.

 

The system, the personnelle, the recruits and the transfers are looking real good. We are so fortunate to have Lagway and some other upper level studs. The recruiting is going really well, but once we start winning some big games-the recruiting will exponentially manifest itself in a whole new way. The whole program will explode!

Kind of like when Forest Gump was in shackles and that little girl told him to: "run Forest run," (bad guys chasing him) The braces broke off and he took off!

The training wheels need to fly off in a big way this year. The kids need to put on their big Boy britches and take the field and own it. They need to be present, resilient, and persevere through four quarters. And, quite frankly, I don't see why that won't happen.

Go Gators

 

Yep, if Mertz gets the blocking... we could air it out some this year. It would be great to see Gator football again.

 

There is reasonable cause to believe this year could be the beginning of our return to relevancy.

 

I gotta say - this show is unlistenable. It’s by far the worst of all the locked on daily shows. I think they kid tries but he fumbled around, whines, looks for conjoiners like “gonna be really really really really good” to fill time. He just seems nervous. I really wish they’d let a different host take over that locked on deal

 

Just watch Stephen a for a minute and you’ll be all better.

 

These things take time. We must have patience. A 4-5 year plan is about right to rebuild a football program and culture. Too fast could flame out quickly.