I think you have it backwards.. Struggling in the portal means in order to be successful you must hit the portal hard. As i said before, we will find out. Only a fool thinks they know all the answers. The future is uncertain thats for sure.
Weve played well a couple weeks. DJ is good. Those lb's are prom too. Theres pieces to make a good team next year. Not champio but a decent record and beating some good trams is definitely a possibility
He is undefeated against teams with similar or better talent. What's Billy's record vs those same sorts of teams?
ask and you shall receive… in his time at Florida, using the 247 talent composite , Napier and staff have beaten 1 team with a higher talent composite than UF, 2022 Texas A&M. Florida has had a team talent rating of 14, 15, and 12th in 2022, 2023, and 2024. the gator staff is: 1-7 vs teams with more talent per the composite 4-7 vs teams rated 15-30th in team talent composite 3-4 vs teams 31-57th in team talent 3-1 vs teams >58th in team talent 3-0 vs fcs
There is still limited info in regards to DJ, I wouldn't make a stong prediction until I've seen some more. He could be undefeated and win the heisman. He could be solid and win 7-8 games. He could transfer. He could get injured. He could be Jayden Daniels and the D gives up 50 a game and they still go .500 despite his efforts. I will remind you I asked for him to be the guy after Samford. Had he been the guy maybe we would know a lot more by now.
This encapsulates my concerns with BN quite well. I was thinking before UT that surely we would run wildcat and trick plays to try to steal points. 1 play out of wildcat. The 2 qb rotation - he simply cannot imagine starting with a plan and then going with the hot hand. The next time I see BN do an out of character play to fool another team will be the first time. Compare that with what I consider one of the greatest coaching jobs in college football history: Saban benching his starting QB for a freshman at halftime of the national title game. And winning. Not saying BN needs to be Saban but the grand canyon exist between the approaches of the two men in terms of adjusting to your personnel and the opponent.
I don’t see it, it’s assuming a lot of things go right (elite portal pick ups, healthy DJ, retaining existing talent, a good OC). We’ve essentially just advertised to the world that we are going big in the portal. That alone is gonna drive the price and competition up.
It's not all on DJ. If he doesn't have more help, he can't win that many games in the SEC. And you're right... we've only seen most of what we have of DJ because the injury to Mertz forced Napier to play DJ every snap. We haven't seen Lagway enough against high caliber opponents to decide he's that good. Chris Leak was awesome, but Ron Zook found lots of ways to lose games with Leak at QB. (with a more talented roster)
Ouch. Napier with Lagway next year might win 8-10 games and would certainly not be fired. The question, however, is whether Lagway is his Travis - leads him thru absolute talent to his apex (8 wins)? Is that what we want? What have folks seen that makes them think Napier builds a dominant offensive and defensive line, linebackers that fill gaps, and secondaries that do not blow coverages. An offensive scheme that maximizes personnel for wins over equally or slightly superior talented teams? I ask this question sincerely and abstracted from the reality that we may keep napier for many non-football reasons (money, turnover, no president), but what 3 games in the three year Napier tenure do you point to and say "this was A+ coaching that brought home the win?" You can do that with Spurrier easy (emory/henry, danny shotgun, Fred taylor 97) or Meyer (mercy percy arky, tebow jump pass okla, hernandez inside pitch). Even Mullen ran the wheel route infinite times to beat a superior uga team and maximized trask to win multiple games. What are BN's bona fides for in game coaching that make folks think "when the chips are all in, I want this guy making the call?" I would love for BN to succeed and I see no reason to believe he will. Please explain why folks think he has a chance to be a championship coach based on him coaching us to wins?
You can argue that is what Texas did after Mack. They hire Strong (16-21 record), and fired him 3 years later. Hired Herman (32-18 record), and fired him four years later. Hired Sarkisian in 2021, who has a 33-15 record so far in his fourth year, and who reached the playoffs last year. If Texas had retained Herman, would they be in the same position they are now, as their overall records are very similar.
I'm cautious to even talk about DJ staying another year. After AR's remarks about the coaching staff, if we see some defectors on offense, Lagway may decide to take it to another college town for next season. AR's performance in the league isn't helping matters. Scouts will begin to doubt Napier's ability to mold a competent pro quarterback. We're talking about all this momentum Lagway might carry into next season, but the momentum isn't there anywhere else.
