You drifted off course and lost me Bud. We’re talking about Billy Napier. Mullen? Different situation altogether, but for what it’s worth, both coaches undoubtedly took this job in good faith. Both tried to build winners and both failed. As soon as Mullen ran into choppy water he quit. He was lazy and he quit on the job. That is not a sign of good character and I have no problem calling him out for it. But that has nothing to do with Billy Napier.
FTR, it isn't Billy's character that I no longer have confidence in. At an instinctual level, I personally don't believe that Billy has a duplicitous bone in his body. But after two and a half years of amateur-hour bungling on game day, coupled with the worst play calling I've seen since Doug Dickey, enough is finally enough. Before the season, BN was clearly enthused by the level of preparation and readiness of his third-year team. I still assume that he actually believed that they were ready to go and that good things were about to happen. I'm just finally convinced, at long last, that BN doesn't know what a P4 team actually looks like or what to do with one if he did manage to assemble a "championship" roster. Also, the squabbling about who hurt whose feelings or who was "right" and who was "wrong" in the preseason is beyond tiresome at this point. Long-term butt-hurt or grudge settling among Gator fans is not a good look for any of us, just saying.
You believe Mullen quit on the job. Please post facts or first hand accounts that show that belief to be true. I think Mullen is poor at relationships and when things went sideways, he flailed alone. none of us know the details on both coaches? Therefore it is surprising that someone so readily casts one person as lazy but BN repeatedly failing at the same issues can only be labeled “he is trying.” My point is that respect and keeping things objective, not personally attacking coaches (or posters), is a 2 way street. You don’t know if Mullen is lazy or just terrible at recruiting (maybe he addressed it like Billy addresses special teams)? No need to go there for either.
It's been a long time since I met/knew any of these guys, so all I have to go on is public persona. I have little idea if my take on someone in the public sphere from the outside looking in is an accurate representation of "who they are." It's a part of it, for sure, but I try to keep a light grip on my take on a coach's character. Because even my well educated assumptions are still only assumptions. I really disliked, for example, Muschamp's public persona. He looked uncontrollably angry on the sideline and overtly hostile to criticism off the field. Yet the reports were the administrative and support staff absolutely loved him and thought he was just the best guy. Mac, on the other hand, was all aw shucks and ain't it neat on camera, but the reports from behind the scenes were the opposite of Muschamp's. Mullen never really rubbed me the wrong way but most people here seem convinced he was painfully awkward and unbearably arrogant. The general consensus on Napier seems to be a fine, upstanding guy who is in over his head. And that may be true. That seems the most likely from my vantage point. Though again, I don't really know these guys and his true personality may be closer to his more prickly moments (can you be more specific about special teams or Central Florida basements) than I assume. But I try to give the benefit of the doubt on issues like character because I know what it's like to be in the public eye and have people incorrectly assume they know you from afar, and it's very very easy these days to say the ugliest things from the anonymity of the keyboard. So I'm firmly on the side of the good faith Peter Principle explanation for Napier until I know otherwise.
I said his first year after AR exhibited some major deficiencies that Napiers remark after the Utah game that " my wife could call plays for that guy" was concerning. He followed that up with preseason praise of the defense last year and we saw how that went. Then all the accolades heaped on every aspect of the team this preseason.... He doesn't even know what the finished product should look like at this level. What a mess.
Yeah Mullen quit. Plainly obvious. No idea what happened behind scenes but he didn't follow his own mantra of "maximum strain and admire the throw. " I didn't believe he was looking at the NFL until the 2020 bowl game. It started to make sense then and was obvious after kentucky.
BN is not evil nor do I consider him a liar. He actually thinks he’s process oriented, analytical, detail focused, physical, a good OC. He’s delusional more than anything. We can see it clear as day. Instead of pivoting to save the best job he will ever get he is willing to die in his delusions. If Florida wants to be an academic only school it should leave the SEC. Being poor in major sports on a national stage harms moral and hurts the reputation. How “smart” can we be if we stink at sports with top 5 resources? The educational landscape has changed too. I hire 6 figure people multiple times per year either as direct reports or direct reports for peers, and where they went to school has nearly a 0% impact for either new grads or experienced professionals. Most importantly they are symbiotic. Success in one helps success in another. On a net basis success in one will lead to more dollars in the other. They do not cannibalize resources from each other.
Yep, and so is everyone else. Which is why nobody else is in any hurry to start down that road. And also why, depending on how things go at the very top of the University, this situation could very well linger into next Fall.
Well said... that last paragrpah seals that whole statement for me... Far too often people will missunderstand that being good at sports does NOT take away from trying to be a top institution of learning, and they are in fact symbiotic. Saban made one pertainent point recently... saying that his winning football program brought in about $200 million into the University of Alabama anually... which further proves your point. That money is not only used for sports but is spread out into the university helping the accademics too. Even though money was not your point, the symbiosis is realized in money that is brought into the university system.
Entirely true and valid. The problem is that it does not take in to consideration the actual motivations of the people at the top of the organization. That they may differ substantially from what you value. We have a very real problem in our society now, and it is not just limited to the academic world, we also see it happening in corporate board rooms and government as well. Where the people at the very top are more concerned about appearances and status among their own in group than with the other metrics of performance by the organization. Think about the Bud Light marketing fiasco, or any number of other situations over the past few years. The divergence between what they want and what you want has never been more obvious.
Just to give a bit of contrast. Dan Lanning purposely had 12 men on the field to burn 4 seconds off of a 10 second game clock. It cost him 5 yards but left Ohio St with only 6 seconds. That's chess. Lanning: Ducks purposely induced 12-men penalty We had 12 men on the field and cost us a sure 3 points in the first half. Three points that could have prevented overtime. That's checkers.
Lingering into next fall certainly can happen but would be yet another example of not having their shit together.
That’s a rule that needs tweaking which is probably in place to squeeze in another commercial or two without care of affecting the outcome of the game everyone paid to see.
