**The end is not near, for Billy Napier at Florida**

Thank goodness for that.

 

And the stories are getting better and better. But why wasn't Mullen's parting advice, after getting fired by Florida, headed. Looks like we need a redo, and it's not about a Mullen redo, but Mullen's advice to hire Kiffin, redo...

Dan Mullen reveals he told Florida to hire Lane Kiffin after being fired in 2021

 

There is actually still time to save the dignity of this team. You know what's going to happen if he says... That lat 5 games will be brutal, and the defections will cripple our team because they have already lost faith in Napier.

Look for more minor surgeries and missing players with various aliments and such appear to linger. If he can figure it out by beating MSU then UCF, then maybe he has earned that right to stay, but even with a contract he can be replaced mid-season.

I still feel sorry for him and I do like what he does off the field and what he demands of his players, but this is football, and he has to produce wins in his 3rd year as the hard coach.

 

A few points. The first is that I was responding to the concerns over news that that players can access the portal early if the coach is fired midseason. Some have suggested keeping him all season just to prevent that. My response was that could be counterproductive with players resenting a school that would trap them with no intention of keeping Billy, reinforcing a desire to simply leave here as soon as possible, no longer trusting in the school or its next hiring process. The show of good faith is that the school wants them to stay long term, through the coaching transition, but isn't forcing them to use 20-25% of their college careers in a coercive way. ADs, programs, even fans can take a longer term view of "wait until next year/next coach/next whatever," but these players--who the issue was we would be trying to keep--just have to watch their perishable careers lose a full season just because.

If he is truly a dead man walking, say a after a loss to MSU or UCF or both, things will only get nastier, uglier, and more demoralizing for everyone, Napier included. A long, slow death march through loss after loss with national attention only ramping up more and more and less and less reason to even bother. Players and coaches simply going through the motions even more than they are now, with no hope that the season will amount to anything. We've already had one of our star players publicly like a tweet calling for Napier to be fired. If and when a team quits on that coach, it needs to be over. To force a finish is to punish players and fans for something the coach may be responsible for but obviously can't recover from.

Sometimes interims make a positive difference. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes a new voice makes a connection even lights a fire, sometimes closed off philosophies from the top down can now open, sometimes the new guy feels like this is his chance or has something to prove and uses this brief window of opportunity to show it, sometimes pride steps back up and refuses to quit. Making an attempt at a better season can pay dividends to players and fans. Even if the won/loss outcome isn't much different, it maintains standards, doesn't tolerate lost seasons, and demonstrates a willingness make hard decisions for the betterment of the program, and even a small "what if" can still give people a reason to care, or try, or tune in, or show up.

With any more losses, I don't think the metaphor would be arranging deck chairs. The Titanic would have already sunk. The issue would be whether or not the rescue ships take their time to get there or leave the waiting survivors in life rafts before picking them up.

He will be paid handsomely whether or not he can or does fix his mess. That's a sunk cost. The issue is what to do over the course of this season. And again, if the intent is to fire Napier, be done with it and at least give the chance for a positive change to occur, however small or unlikely.

 

They could set it up like Cash Ap and pay as you go.

 

Not a bad train of thought. Kids that quit for any reason give me pause also. The ones that fight with their teammates are the ones your looking for anyway.

 

I put him in the Jeff Brohm category, seems like a good coach but just got the job at his Alma mater, not sure how soon/if they will leave

 

Yeah it's really Fuchs'd up!

 

This is a big business and the Head Coach and the star players are paid very well. I'm sorry, I don't feel bad for any of them. They chose to come here and play for Billy and many were compensated. This is their job. They are not unpaid student athletes anymore, they are hired guns. Why on earth would we fire our coach and let our rivals pick at the bones all season long. Do you honestly think that they would play harder for an interim coach? NO WAY, they will be looking for the next school and trying to sit out with "injuries". The days of these players coming to play for UF are sadly over. They come to play for the money. NIL In its current state has ruined college football.

 

Do I honestly think so? Yes, I do think they could play harder for someone else right now. Would it happen? I don't know. Is it likely? Also don't know. But we've seen what has happened and what's extremely likely to happen if we don't make a change. As bad as things are now, how much worse will they be with a few more ugly losses with no end in sight?

Speaking of honest thinking, why would we assume our players don't have people in their ears already? Why assume they'd hold off until the season is over if Napier isn't fired early? Bones are being picked at right now and will continue as the buzzards circle overhead, closer and closer. It's only going to get worse as the season spirals downward. We lose more games and players will opt out--either formally and openly, or with more injuries, real and not. Such "business decisions" might be happening already. An interim doesn't necessarily stop that, but it might. I'm in the why not take a chance crowd.

As far as the athletes being compensated for their job, that's back to my earlier point. IF the goal is to keep those employees as long as possible and not have them bolt as soon as they are contractually able, one way to incentivize is to demonstrate that you value their time and effort. Isn't that what the pay is for? Yes, but since players now have near free rein to leave, I'd argue that special care under these adverse circumstances can show the school's commitment to better and helping them make the most of their brief careers. We could say you're a hired gun, sucks to be you, grind out the misery for the rest of the season because we can hold you to it. But sometimes a little goodwill can go a long way, at least to keeping them open to sticking around on their own volition to see who comes next. For me, at least, this situation raises the possibility of distinction between how we could treat our players and how we should.

I'm ok with us not agreeing about the likelihood or even the benefit to all this. But you asked how firing Napier could be a show of good faith. And that's what I mean.

 

I respect your opinion. I can't think of another interim coach that made a difference. I am certainly not naive enough to think that these players are not being back channeled, but I think that it is shooting yourself in the foot to allow these players to enter the portal in season. Haven't we had enough self inflicted wounds? If the players are forced to stick around, then they may get excited by the new coach that is coming in. At least give the next coach a chance to save something. That is all I am saying.

 

I don't think we're far off from each other, just both frustrated at a crummy situation with few bright spots and maybe fewer obviously right choices. I wouldn't even argue that you're wrong--you may wind up being 100%. But I'm one who's had to learn about ripping the band aid off and think there may be real merit to exposing one kind of risk to mitigate another, and giving us at least the chance--however meager--at a reason to not write off this season completely.

 

Yep, it appears the bottom has fallen out of Gator Football. None of us like it and we all want the Gators to make a comeback, for football to be exciting again, for our team to be competitive. We just don't know when that will be. Hoping we get the right man for the job. Go Gators!

 

The season is absolutely lost and I don't trust anyone on this staff to turn it around. I think that we need to look to the future and under the new rules with the portal, I think that the University needs to play chess here and protect everything that they can for the next guy.

 

Been thinking a lot about CBN and the process since the Miami debacle. Given what he has said and how he has looked since the tAm game, I’ve come to the conclusion that he really did not see this coming. He didn’t bamboozle us. He didn’t fleece the university. Rather, he honestly thought his process was working and would pay dividends this season. We heard good things all off season. He was getting his guys. He was happy with practice (we now know a lot more about his practices) and was high on the season. Then, he got walloped by the U. Afterwards, he seemed to think it was a bit of an anomaly and that they just needed to reinforce the process and things would be ok. Throw out Samford. Then, he got outclassed by a first year coach and a freshman QB. I think that is when reality set in for him. He looked like he got a gut punch, followed by an uppercut, and then a kick to the nuts for good measure. He realizes that all of what he has done, his grand design and process, has led directly to this product on the field. He was given everything he asked for. All of the resources and staff. He mostly got he players he wanted and got rid of the ones he didn’t. He said that the players were getting it. And then they got soul crushed 2 out of the first 3 weeks. It is a tough thing to realize that your process doesn’t work. I honestly feel bad for him as a human. It has to be demoralizing. I do think he will try to shake things up. He doesn’t strike me as dumb enough or stubborn enough to now continue to do the same things given that he has actually seen the end result. So, I expect things to change in terms of prep and game strategy. I don’t expect much to change in terms of outcomes. Granted, we do have some athletes that may shine if they let them play a little more freely, but it will be a long season. No interim coach will solve it. Time to take our medicine. Just hard to have hope that the current decision makers can create a plan to fix this mess.

 

You better treat your employees like you want to be treated or they won’t be your employees for long. Guys that are going to sit and fake injuries are not the guys that are gonna win the national championships anyway. It’s best to treat our players right and do the right thing for them. We need that locker room to stay together for the next coach.

 

That was funny about Spurs being undefeated with this talent ! Well done lol

 

There are 20 different possible opening moves in chess. 400 second moves and over 72,000 third moves. I'm totally with you that I want those in charge (definitely not me) to make prudent, strategic, well thought through decisions for long term, repeatable success. There's just a bunch of different ways to do that and an awful lot of competing considerations with a variety of permutations on how to weigh and balance them accordingly.

 

We could go on and on over this. At least we agree that the university needs to be thoughtful and strategic in their decision. The problem is that we don't even know who is in charge of this. I don't see Scott Stricklin firing Billy Napier and I don't see who is going to force that on SS given that he knows that he is probably right out the door behind Billy. The fans are truly the ones that suffer as we are the only ones not being paid to be part of this debacle and yes, that includes the players. As a player, you signed up to play for UF and Billy Napier THIS year and I expect them to do just that. Since when is it ok to not honor your commitment and follow through. Those players that don't want to play are showing their true colors and should NOT be released from their commitments just because they are not winning as many games as they want. At least they are still getting a check. Welcome to the real world, you don't always get what you want when you want it, but winners in life follow through on their commitments.