ESPN Article on Napier

I get the sense from this article that BN is safe unless the team totally collapses as in winning only 4 games.
Again, his buyout is huge I mean Yuge. It is imperative we have a winning season for all sorts of reasons and I believe we will. Beat Miami and I can see us winning 8 games or more. Need this win Saturday!

 

Very, very seriously doubt five wins “secures” anything. I think it could go either way with five wins, and it probably matters a great deal what those seven losses look like.

 

I dunno.

If Strikliner is still here, I think BN is still here, barring some catastrophic, 4-win type of season.

 

What part of the article are you referencing that suggests five wins results in a guaranteed fourth season?

 

Nappier?

 

Nice article. Thanks for posting.

 

.... When Napier made his calls during his interview process to find out why Florida had not won consistently enough, he learned the Gators had fallen behind with both their facilities and budget and were woefully behind from a recruiting, staffing, organization and sport science perspective.
...
Not a quick rebuild. Especially in a shifting landscape.

 

As long as recruiting does not collapse, he will be here next year.

 

Then let’s define what a “recruiting collapse” is. Is, say, dropping from a Top 5 class to around 15 almost overnight a “collapse?” I ask because some of the folks around here were saying “look at the class, not the record” last December. The problem was, the recruits were looking at the record. We then got an immediate reset for the definition of what a “collapse” was and were told the new standard was as long as Napier recruits better than Mullen, the class is awesome (but with lots of situational caveats to explain away why Napier, though roughly finishing in the same spot as Mullen the previous few years was way, way better).

Look, I want to move forward, too, and I wish Napier nothing but success this season. But I loathe this idea of “fourth season no matter what.” Another losing season is intolerable, and we shouldn’t tolerate it. Let’s stop making excuses in advance — “But the recruiting class …” “But if Lagway transfers …” “But the schedule …” “But Mullen …” — and start demanding victories. Napier needs a winning season. He burnt all of the grace straight to the ground with some of the dumb unforced errors, mentioned in that article, last season. Time to show us on the field he is the right guy.

 

Because Billy "Pampers" his guys with "Huggies". He just "Luvs" them!

 

When an organization is as F’ed up as Florida football was after the 2021 season it was apparent to any experienced manager that this was not going to get turned around quickly. Talent wise, Mullen left us with a bottom quarter SEC roster, and I might be being generous at that. It is undeniable that the majority of our most productive players the last two seasons were recruits or transfers under Napier. Both of our lines were severely lacking talent and depth. Senior nights the last two years were basically introductions to players that non one other than their family and friends knew of.

On top of a weak roster, we had an an awful (terrible, embarrassing, weak, you name the adjective) culture. Grantham should have been gone after the 2019 season. Several others as well. I really don’t think that Mullen was incompetent but his arrogance would not let him see the warning signs of his lazy recruiting and not holding his staff accountable.

IF Mullen had left some talent, then the culture change would have produced better results early. It’s extreme difficult to bring in talent, play them as freshmen (often out of position)and change culture at the same time, and Napier’s critics will be very hard pressed to find anyone who successfully did it anywhere by their second season. The HBC inherited an extremely talented roster from Galen Hall, as did Meyer from Zook. Saban inherited an excellent roster at Alabama from Shula and a very good roster at LSU. The rosters Spurrier and Meyer inherited were stocked with great players who had to start early as freshmen and they had already taken their lumps. Hall and Zook both left better cultures than the steaming pile of dogshit that Mullen left.

This year is, undoubtedly the most talented top to bottom roster we have had since Meyer. Napier built this with a transitional recruiting class and two classes after losing seasons. If we can stay healthy, we will see a big difference in talent on Saturdays. Barring a three win season coupled with lack of effort, or a major cultural or compliance breakdown it would be downright stupid to buy Napier out, lose all of the talent to the portal and start over, AGAIN!

I hate losing more than damn near anyone. But overall, Napier has done a hell of a job here. People who feel that he should already be gone, or needs to be on a very hot seat are just football ignorant. If you want to question, then question. If you want to criticize coaching, that’s fair as well as long as you know it was coaching and not a blown assignment. But going from what he inherited in January of 22 to where we are right now and claiming him a failure is foolish.

 

Stakes are high for both teams this Saturday but I think they are considerably higher for Napier. Cristobal has an easier schedule this year so a loss isn't going to affect the team record that much. Also, he is a Miami guy so has a longer leash. Napier has none of those things going for him.

 

Charley Pell says hello. Still a damned fine post.

 

Let it go man, and just see how this season plays out before freaking out over something that may not happen. Damn it doesn’t take much to spin you up over firing our coach. The word obsessive leaps to mind

 

I don't recall getting a phone call. I could have told him all those things and I'm just a dumb fan.

You can park that right on JF's doorstep.

 

Happy to see how this season plays out, starting with Saturday. But I didn’t bring up the progressively stale trope of “fourth season no matter what, because Mullen …” I just responded to it. Here’s to kicking Miami’s teeth in this weekend and ending the discussion.

 

I think given the total rebuild, Napier has until next year before he's officially on the hot seat if we underperform

 

Five wins is certainly not good.

But weighed against the buyout, and the schedule, along with the still very unsettled world of NIL and the Portal the question isn't so much about firing Napier as who would be get as a replacement and how much faith could we even put in anyone willing to come in under such circumstances?

Circumstances could change but barring some sort of gridiron messiah appearing on the horizon I think five wins gets him to 2025.

 

I actually thought about including Pell, but he also inherited a much better roster than Napier. Collinsworth, Brantley, Little, Fisher etc. He also had some painful injuries that first year like Brantley.

As painful as it was for Pell to come in and clean up the culture in 1979, I think his head would have exploded if he came in and had to do it 2022.