Well in answer to your meaningless post, I’d rather lose to A&M and beat Kentucky than the other way around
Just so we are clear. If Billy somehow turns this ship around, I will tell everyone it was this thread that did it.
I want to say first I am NOT arguing for Billy to be retained. And I agree w/ all this.. But I think I remember Mullen packing it in vs Kentucky late first half in 21. So think about it.... Mullen goes turtle end of first half vs UK in 21...Gator fan screams FIRE THIS MAN.... After other problems, Mullen is fired. Gator fan is smiling. Gator fan's anger is appeased... Savior comes in, Gator fan says THIS MAN WILL CURE ALL OUR PROBLEMS... Much much money is spent, hopes are raised... three years later... Savior goes turtle end of first half vs UK... So "meet the new boss, same as the old boss.." I think the lesson is... Don't fire the coach (or anyone) unless there is a great chance you will improve the position. Otherwise, we are just spinning in circles... Or getting worse.
I was one of his more staunch supporters up until this year. Not that I was certain he was going to succeed but that he deserved this year before we made any indictments of his ability since UF was a mess with NIL as well as the mess Mullen left behind. Miami was the end for me. Absolutely no way to justify that performance at home to open the year. Up until that game Utah was the most disappointing performance I had experienced but at least I could maybe blame it on the loss of our center, playing on the road and a couple fluke plays that really turned things early. Laying eggs with a full offseason to prepare is all coaching. Even now with the defense stepping up and lagway making some chunk plays the deficiencies as a head coach keep popping up. Defense steps up then the special teams fail. Offense steps up then he turtles up and doesn't even attempt to score before half. It's whack-a-mole with him from day 1. Not giving up the OC was a huge red flag but the Miami game to me was inexcusable. I have a hard time ever saying no chance in a game but I have a very hard time believing Napier can scheme a plan to help lagway against what Georgia will throw at him. Worse yet is Georgia now has film on Lagway so things will become more difficult for him against them and every game after. Edit to add: aTm might be the worst indictment of his coaching ever because they beat us at home, with a backup qb, 2 former defensive starters and 2 former defensive coaches and a coach in his first year there. Totally inexcusable.
A 6-6 record third year imo doesn't deserve a fourth but keep in mind who has the power to keep or fire BN. Right now it's SS. I firmly believe SS really likes BN, he can say with the difficulty of our schedule BN isn't going anywhere, plus you have the huge buyout, plus you have the fact the players seem to love coach, plus UF doesn't have a President, plus to fire BN means yet again SS has failed and I doubt he wants to admit that. So, whereas many gator fans are ready for a change the power at the top may feel differently. So far we have beaten teams we should beat, the key is can we beat some teams where we are underdogs? To get to 6-6 we will have to beat at least one. I believe the other win is fsu. Personally, I hope we run the table.
Just my take but…Win/lose a bowl game won’t be part of the equation - takes place a month after the season. Any coaching change would likely come well before that. I don’t really recall any coach getting canned post bowl game. With the changing of portal season, signing day, etc. I imagine a school would need to move as soon as possible to hire a coach and new staff.
Every Gator should hope he runs the table. That would be far and away the best scenario regardless of how incompetent he has been to this point. It just feels silly even discussing that though given how unable he has been to string multiple wins together regardless of competition.
This forum is very tame compared to others. It’s been this way for a while in life. There’s an equal amount of vitriol spewed in both directions.
I think the incompetence you refer to is largely his gameday play calling. Sorting out which personnel should be getting the most snaps isn’t figured out in 2 games or a dozen practices - not when many of your brightest stars are true freshman and transfers who are taking their very first snaps as Gators. There’s a ton of talent we’re just now beginning to recognize and all of it was recruited by Billy. It’s a totally new team and it’s showing every sign of improving in all phases. We’re idiots to not support the growth of this very young team
Definitely a factor but I'm not sure if it's the biggest factor. Coaching for his life and he couldn't find a way into the endzone against Tennessee in the first half. Some of that is player execution sure but you had a senior qb and senior rb along with an offensive line you praised in preseason. Same for the 2 point decision and the playcalling in OT. Coaching for his life and after giving up a huge momentum swing against Kentucky you eat two timeouts and 90 seconds to go into half. As mentioned in my prior post about aTm, a must win home game and a team with a first year coach, backup qb, 2 former Gator defensive players and 2 former defensive coaches blow us out. Miami, no other team has had a problem scoring on them. I may not sound like it but I would still want nothing more than for the Gators to run the table and Napier keep his job but I don't see how that's possible given his history. The recruiting class will fall apart even with a 6 win season. Gator legacy Hanks is already posting tweets in a hurricane uniform. Many said prior to the season just win some games and the recruits will come. The program is in dire need of momentum and losing to Georgia, ole miss and lsu would be the wrong kind of momentum.
Technically, 1:30 to go. I didn't have any problem with what CBN did. Crowd at BHG clearly objected though. Lagway was 4 of 11 with an interception in the first half and UK had 2 timeouts, which they had to burn when we ran the ball. Why give UK any chance at shifting momentum when you have them on the mat?
So we had the discussion in the stands prior to this series. There's 1:30 left in the half at our own 25, up 14 points. The concensus was to run the ball on first down.....make UK use their timeouts, little risk of a big negative play (Lagway's bad int and a couple of other badly forced throws were still fresh in our minds), and somewhat insure UK wasn't going to get a chance to score again. IF the play had popped then you can get aggressive, but it was a 3 yard gain and UK save their TO's so we burn some clock . Next play to me is debatable play call, but I do think you want to keep the clock running if you don't get the first down....3 yard gain so UK burns TO. 3rd down I liked the call....use Lagways legs on a roll to the right. Good chance to get the first down but low risk of turnover. UK defense makes a nice play and they burn their last TO but have no chance to score. I don't mind not being aggressive with a nice lead and a true freshman qb. Pretty much the only way we lose that game was letting UK get a quick score before the half, we insured that didn't happen. I'm ok with it.
This is a conscious decision, not a screw up. One can disagree with it, but there's certainly an argument to be made for either side. That type of thing doesn't bother me nearly as much as not being able to get the $#@($& play in and having to use a timeout.
Going back in time a bit, but if you want Gator football to be like the Ray Graves and Doug Dickey era, maybe even Ron Zook, then BN is your man. Decent teams, some good talent, won more than they lost, but were never able to beat the really good teams or win the big games needed to move to the next level. If you want more of a Stever Spurrier or Urban Meyer type era, then you fire BN at the end of the season. He doesn't have "IT". The President, the AD, whoever, needs to decide what they want. Average to slightly above average or exceptional?
