Well if Mullen didn't flame out he would still be here and would be at worst the 5th best head coach we've ever had.
Not arguing any of this but part of managing a staff is not just hiring good new coaches but also retention of current coaches. Apparently he's done that well enough to still be successful in all those sports. We always hear about contract raises and extensions in football bit it also happens with those other coaches and he must do alright by them as they are still coaching at UF. What are they (AD's) expected to do to get credit? fire all coaches just to be able to say they hired said coach? If the coach is good than I guarantee it's a fight tonkeep them employed and not poached. I also don't see how someone would say he gets credit for success from only coaches he hired. If he's in charge, during the success than he gets credit. No different than getting a new boss at work who comes in and has continued success, they dont tell him well you did it with employees who were already employed when he arrived son he's not cutting it Again this isn't a "I think he should stay" thing by me, just pointing out and playing devils advocate that his actual job encompasses much more than just a football team and their coach. Now the football coach has only football things to hang his hat on but the AD can point to other successes if he were to argue his point.
Kiffin doesn't have to talk to anybody or have much interest at this time; doesn't mean we don't make contact to just put it out there. We'll have our people contact your people. I'm not sure he is first on the list anyway, think there is a closer eye on Jedd Fisch.
Florida didn't chase Mullen off because of his W/L record. Kiffin's record at Ole Miss is 35-15 (.700). But Ole Miss was 20-28 (.417) the four years prior. Mullen's 34-15 (.694) record was preceded by Florida's 30-20 (.600) record the four years prior. His recruiting rankings are somewhat deceptive. He had 18 recruits in 2022, 16 recruits in 2023, and 21 recruits in 2024. Why? He finished 1st, 2d and 2d in the Portal the last three years. Apparently, he understands the system better than anyone in Gainesville.
We are in the same boat. I am still trying to hold onto that sliver of hope and trying to be optimistic. I wish the pitchforks would stay in the shed until the offseason. I dont think people realize how much these players are reading into the media. If they are able to be persuaded... we are not helping. No way the team as a whole is bought into Napier at the moment. Time to start weeding how who wants to actually be here.
So, do you think Napier rests Mertz and start DJ for this cupcake game? I haven't heard much about how well Mertz is doing. I would start DJ... but (Lol) I'm not the coach. Who would you start?
So what do we do? Last 2 coaches have been booted mid season and we basically just had to watch the team get dragged through the gutter. We are 1 week into the season, and people are talking about BN not making it to Knoxville lol. Hard to believe that the season will be any better with Napier fired today, than it would be at the end of the year.
I of course want to see Lagway play just because.... and my guess is that it is 50/50 right now on who starts. I think if Mertz clears protocol, he starts no matter what. Mertz is coming off season ending injury last year, and honestly probably needs some reps. Especially as a bounce back from last week. I dont see Napier sidelining him if he has a go-ahead from the medical staff. If anything he gets a few drives and hopefully a 2-3 score lead. Then Lagway gets to play the rest of the way.
I agree completely. Maintaining the support structure for each of these programs--which would certainly include coach retention--is an enormous and complicated job and I think Stricklin can rightly point to his positive role in our ongoing success as an overall athletic program. A smaller but absolutely essential part of that job, though, is hiring head coaches. And over the past eight years he's had several opportunities to do so. His best hire over that entire stretch is Todd Golden, who has shown good things and we all hope will have that program back on top soon. But even he hasn't "made it" just yet as a top coach. Every other hire, however, has been extremely modest at best or an outright disaster at worst. And I don't think that can be overlooked. I give Stricklin tons of credit for keeping us as a athletic department at the top. But the deficiency of his hiring track record has been a critical failure and may very well prove terminal. The AD has to be able to hire good coaches. Not to replace the ones he already has, but because there will always be attrition of some sort--people leave, retire, get fired, etc--and it's his job to deal with it. Not many ADs would have survived the women's basketball coaching scandal, let alone follow it a year later with a women's soccer coaching scandal. Add to that his other lackluster hires and not one but two high profile failures in football, and an essential and indispensable element of his job seems completely off.
Yes I’ve seen them just behind the end zone for years, almost right behind the Goal Posts. It seems like they were in a different spot closer to the tunnel where the visitors sit by where the away fans are seated. I may be wrong here.
Agent of next hire will have so much leverage on us. No telling what kind of deal Scrackilin will cut.
I would start DJ to give Mertz a rest but in actuality I would be auditioning DJ. If he looks good running the offense, then give him the aTm game too.
I think the only chance we GOT is to start DJL. Any HOPE for this team is for Napier to do what SOS said on the last Dooley Podcast....CHANGE SOMETHING. DJL can run the read option, I say let the kid play some street ball, ANYTHING other than what has been happening.
