The most interesting thing, in hindsight, was that Lincoln Riley & Brian Kelly were both willing to move, and got no interest from the UF hiring manager.
Napier needs to stop being so stubborn about sticking to his 'plan', and make some changes to his coaching starting with getting an offensive coach who has a lot more experience in the SEC and a D coach who wants the other team to get hit hard. He might want to take a peek at SOS's play book, too.
In hindsight all his strengths were strengths in the Sunbelt, mediocre at best in the SEC. All his weaknesses in the Sunbelt were magnified by the SEC.
(Sighs) Sometimes there’s only one solution for a situation like that, and you thank the old gods and the new that it’s so clear.
Believe it or not, many people here can't even agree on that point. And that's because the two leading candidates have some wild pros & cons. Kiffin is a portal master because he cannot get 5* star recruits en masse to sign with is current team, would that change at Florida? Who knows, but that's a huge risk to take on a coach that is close to great, but a coach that has yet to win anything of significance. His offenses are dynamic and fun to watch, but he still has to find a DC that knows everything that he doesn't know about the defense because he's only good on offense, and he needs to trust the DC implicitly. Meyer has been there and done that with two difference teams. And some say his greatest achievement was winning a new year's 6 bowl game with a team that was not even in a power 5 conference at the time that he won it. He's a great all around coach that knows enough of the entire football team, especially the special-teams, to make him a great judge of assistant coaches. Although he did have one very glaring miss on that when he let former O-line coach, Steve Addazio, become the OC for the Gators and that was a huge epic fail. He had his ups and downs with discipline problems to health issues... Is he healthy enough to come back to football and is he any good at the transfer portal and the NIL like Kiffin has proven to be? I want a coach that is a little of both of these two coaches. But those coaches are hard to find. We cannot afford to get another "up-and-comer" type coach... not in this ever-changing environment of college football. We need someone that can hit the ground running, almost literally... So who is that coach? I'm not sure if "he" was around in 2021 much less right now. But most would agree that there are two coaches that have the most to offer and are the most realistic coaches for the Gators to land if we needed a new head ball coach.
Do you recall how frustrated we were with Muschamp’s complimentary football and winning the TOP battle to inflate his defensive stats? He went through three OCs and they all called the same game of ball control and playing not to lose.
Which is why I don't understand why he was hired for 7 years and such a large buyout? There are only 3 current active coaches with a National Championship in their trophy case yet we give these guys multi generational wealth the day they are hired and with no guarantee of anything more than a lottery ticket.
The big rumor was Riley was willing to move because he didn't want to coach in the SEC, he denied it but the Oklahoma people certainly thought it was why.
Personally, I didn’t buy that. Scott Woodward thought he had Riley locked up for LSU, as did the Tiger faithful. USC swooped in at the last minute and offered him a similar contract in a vastly easier conference. Brian Kelly was Woodward’s scramble backup move. Woodward is a big game hunter, he never gave Billy the slightest look, and he was just up the road too.
Look, like everyone else, I'm utterly disgusted by the pile of shit we're treated to on the gridiron... ...but to Billy's credit, he has laid some solid foundation. It's there. We have an aircraft on the tarmac fully capable of flight. Problem is, the engineer who built the plane, hasn't a @#%%&n clue how to fly the damn thing. I'm all for showing him the door, but bc he can't fly the plane he built, not because he can't build one that can fly. And ASAP, since we're already woefully behind on our flight schedule. TBL--I don't really have a problem with what he's been paid, just a huge problem with what we have to pay him, when we paid for plane AND pilot, and only got the plane. And the buyout, is tantamount to paying for having arrived at our destination, when we're still stuck at the airport, without a pilot. Fwiw.
92, I respect you post above, but I’m not sure he’s built a solid foundation. IMHO, that includes players and coaches….not to mention the large supporting staff. An experienced OC would help. I was sickened my Miami’s statement that they practiced 6-7 plays that were our tendencies, and lo and behold we ran those plays. If that alone doesn’t make Nape change, nothing will.
One would hope that Lane Kiffin has matured some since we last looked at him as Florida's head coaching material. He seems to have settled into the "head coach" role pretty well at Ole Miss but still likes to take shots at other programs via X. I would think it easier to recruit to UF than it is to UM but I may be wrong. He is high on my list either way. Urban had a hard time handling the pressure of SEC football his last time here, that has only amplified with the additions of OU and UT. I love what he brings to the table as far as coaching and being a CEO over the staff that has been built. I think he probably wins faster than anyone else available, just don't know how long he would stick around. Jedd Fisch is the one that is the most intriguing to me although I will admit he is the one I know the least about. Gator alumni that was a GA under SOS and has worked in both college and NFL ranks. P5 head coaching experience and turned Arizona's program around. I would think that UF would be his dream job, and he would work his butt off to make it work. Nowhere near the record that either Kiffin or Meyer has but might be the one most open to coming.
The whole, but look what he’s built argument is overrated too, imho. Plenty of other guy’s could’ve come in and done the same, and some even better. His worst workday of the week is on Saturday’s, and that’s a BIG problem. Billy Napier is no William Wallace.
He inflated his defenses by playing the TOP game? Some of the game's greatest coaches were overwhelmingly defense dominant, including Spurrier at USCe. 2011: TO: 74th TD: 3d (11-2) 2012: TO: 82d TD: 11th (11-2) 2013: TO: 42d TD: 19th (11-2) 2014: TO: 33d TD: 92d (7-6) I agree with you that Muschamp couldn't envision a good offense to save his life, but ball control is not "playing not to lose." Don Shula before Marino, Bear Bryant, many Nick Saban teams, Frank Beamer, Joe Paterno. None of them were offensive gurus. It seems that only fans of Florida demand high-flying offenses...
I get why some make the comparison, but Meyer's teams were playing tougher opponents than were in the Sunbelt and routing them. Napier turned Louisiana around but had a lot of close games due to a boring 80s offense. Doesn't matter now tho, Meyer ain't coming back.
I’m a little surprised no one has mentioned Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman. He took over for the 2021 bowl game and currently has a 20–8 record. I know we like to say that Notre Dame has a weak schedule, but he did go into Aggieland last week and go home with the victory. He would bring defense savvy that has been so severely lacking for a number of years. I know most fans here want a coach with offensive experience who will light up the field with passing, but we’ve seen enough bad defenses to know that a good offense has nowhere to go if they can’t get on the field.
