Warm wishes from Dan Mullen

It doesn't take 4 years to make progress. Any progress. For a recent example at Florida look at McElwains squad vs Michigan in 2017 losing 33 - 17 and then Mullen beating Michigan the next year 41 - 15.

Sure there are some personnel changes and other intangibles, but for UM it was the same coaching staff 4 years in. That's an example of good coaching.

Now, Mullen was not a good executive, but currently we have someone in year 3 who is neither a good coach or good executive. He's only good at getting paid above his value and costing the university millions in salaries for a staff that is full of his ineffective and inexperienced buddies.

Also Napier is not a new coach. He has 6 years of experience as a head coach at 2 FBS universities. That is more than enough time to develop his identity, and here it is

 

The secondary had some good plays and looked good at times. Not having enough defenders to cover all the patterns on a side of the field really isn’t on the kids. They can only cover one at a time.

 

Guy looked like he could lace em up immediately and earn All SEC votes game 1...what a beast.

 

Miami has a squad no doubt about it, but we have talent on this team as well. Napier said as much at media days. I think the coaching staff failed in every way possible. Worst part was having Mario mock us after the game too smh. Total embarrassment.

Oh and forget going an extra 4 quarters, Miami should have had a 50 burger on us but they let up off the gas.

 

We don't have enough talent to compete for championships but definitely enough to play better than that. As far as DL goes, we are built to be decent at stopping the run, but I said all offseason we need to replace Princely with someone in the portal because we don't have a consistent pass rusher. Staff chose not to do it. Ok so now we have to bring pressure to get pressure, didn't seem like the staff chose to blitz Cam very much. I don't know, maybe the staff thinks Cam Jackson and Des Watson can snap off the edge the way Princely can?

 

There needs to be more than one guy on the field that can rush the quarterback also. It’s so easy to defend if there’s only one guy. It’s true. We don’t have anybody off the edge that’s elite, but the two guys in the middle are sloths the entire play is over and they have not moved one freaking yard from where they were when the ball was snapped, you have to get disruption up the middle too. Any offensive coordinator can guarantee that both of our tackles will not do shit on a pass play. That makes it so easy.

 

I'm with you. I actually wonder if the staff even watched tape of Cam Ward this offseason because the game plan, considering our personnel, was garbage. Now every OC is going to attack us the same way if we don't start getting much more aggressive

 

Coaching is important and we know we don’t have it during a game, most previous games. It’s also important in spring and preseason and it sure looks like we are lacking on this also. But, talent is talent and good players man up for war - but not us. You guys may not be old enough to know of the 1984 Gators. They flat lined up and played football. It was tough and brutal and every game was a war. Not seeing this, sadly.

 

People here seem to think Grantham was the root of all our defensive problems and couldn't get a job selling cokes at the concession stand, but he is well respected in football circles. He had a 28th ranked defense in 2018 and a 9th ranked defense in 2009. The bottom fell out in 2020, finishing a horrible 83, but it improved to 51st in 2021. In 2022 and 2023, it dropped down to 96th, then improved to 69th. Currently, it's ranked 120th, but as the season continues, I'm sure it will drop (cue rainbows here). Perhaps his problem was that he had strong showings as an NFL position coach and a DC, and the college game couldn't pick up on his schemes. But Grantham didn't single-handedly ruin our team or our defense. Like everything else, it was a team effort, much of which he was responsible. But the scapegoating of Grantham brings me back to those heady days when PDGator posted (in mocking jest to the scapegoaters):

"Fire Hoke!!"

(New format doesn't have the same fonts or size styles lol)

 

Perhaps they were influenced by message boards saying Ward was a flash in the pan, overrated, a turnover machine, ad nauseum...

/sarcasm

 

KY has been better than UF on OL and DL for several years now. Hard to pinpoint the reason but I think it starts with “coach” and ends with “ing”.

 

Yep, if recruiting rankings mean anything, it's not the players.

 

But your scheme and choice of players can influence how badly you get beat up. If your Oline can’t hold a block for 3 seconds, then why are you running a pass play with two different play-fakes that the defense doesn’t honor and slow developing routes? Why are you having a passing TE try to block a DE that your OT is having trouble blocking?

The scheme can have a major impact on how poorly a team looks. Billy’s offensive scheme is no better than Muschamp’s was. And both of them played the same card that if every player executed properly, then the plays would work even though we are running into the strength of the opposing defense. If a scheme requires perfect execution and better players than the opposing team to work, then that scheme is garbage.