What saved the season the most for Billy Napier?

I didn't get to the boards until the Zook years. I was in Oregon for a few years and homesick and stumbled upon the GMSB and Swampgas. At the time I thought swampgas was a bit too heavy handed with the moderating and I enjoyed the more free conversation at GSMB but nowadays I'd much rather be on swampgas than the other boards. There was still plenty of negativity during the Zook and even the Meyer years but not like today.

 

And that was not even a bad football team. I believe Booger and Kevin Faulk were on that team. FLORIDA was just laying the wood to teams back then. There were never more Seminole fans in the South than when Spurrier was whipping everybody's butts. You knew the game was out of hand when the opposing fans would break out the chop and warchant.

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS

 

I haven't read the thread and it's probably mentioned, but the main factor in the recent turnaround is the physicality along both Gator lines of scrimmage. Our guys competed with some of the better units, held their own, and dominated enough to get some big victories. Sacks, tackles for loss, big plays made by the front end and blitzers have made a big difference for the D, but the run game has been strong too. Take a look at how we've run the ball and defended the run against good competition. There was a clear turn around after the MS st game. I included UCF because they started the season as one of the top rushing teams.

Opponent....yds.....FL
Miami...........144.....139 (We couldn't stop their pass game.)
A&M.............310.....52
UCF..............108.....130
TN...............143.....138
KY................144.....197
GA...............146.....115
TX................210.....197
LSU..............130.....113
MS...............141.....164

We gave up a boat load of yds against MS st (also rushed for our season high of 226) and aside from TX, it improved. Didn't do quite as well against LSU, but the D line harassed Nuss relentlessly. Now we go to the #105 rushing defense in FSU. The Gators will be focused on winning the run game in Tallahassee. Might need to be patient in that game, but if we get out to a lead it will be a run heavy attack for the Gators.

 

I love Mertz, but Lagway has put this team far beyond what I thought they were capable of. And he’s only a Freshman.

But the defense also looks night and day better.

Hard to pinpoint any one thing. The team just looks much better now. I still can’t fathom how we’ve improved this much since game 1, but I’m certainly not complaining.

 

Is the play calling better, or does DJ just read high to low better? Napier has had his moments, screen pass to baugh and wildcat this pass weekend both for TDs, but I think overall it's pretty much the same. DJ has confidence throwing downfield and Mertz just never seemed to be confident in his reads. I give Napier all the credit in the world for not losing these guys though, I think he could be great if he got away from play calling and just focused on being the head coach.

 

I voted Billy figured it out but only because what I think wasn’t on the choices.
To use a phrase that CBN overuses, I think complementary football is developing and the overall team concept seems be coming together. Add to this the team is playing with confidence and seems to me they are having fun. But then winning is fun.
Our kicking and punting game is solid, making fewer mistakes, dumb and otherwise. Crawshaw and Smack may well be playing on Sundays next year. Return game solid too, and we aren’t giving up big plays on punts or KO returns.
Playing much more disciplined and inspired on defense. Guys flying to the football.
Our offensive line has improved and gone from being a team liability to a team strength.
And even though Lagway has only scratched the surface of how great a player he is/will be, he has stretched the field for our offense and made opposing defenses have to respect our long passing game.
I think it’s a combination of all of the above.

 

I think it is the defense, at least "Situational Defense". We are still pretty bad statistically, but we are making plays with turnovers and redzone stops, which has helped us big time. Very much Bend Dont Break type right now. But man we are BEEENDING!

Also the run game has been great. Bill really does scheme up some good run blocking. Also it is contributed by DJs deep ball ability. Teams are not stacking the box all game daring us to throw deep. Lets us run at them.

 

I mean the one anomaly is the defense. We've seen the run game work. We've seen managerial style passing offense as well as explosive play offense with Richardson and now lagway. Our kicking game has been consistent with exception of the occasional bone head penalty.

What we haven't seen until recently are sacks, tackling, gap discipline and turnovers. I believe we were dead last or near there in turnovers last year. Whether from intangibles like effort, teamwork, belief in Napier etc or not the tangible results on the field are from defensive improvement. Hopefully we can start making some more stops because the turnovers and 4th down stops will not always be there.

 

Voted DJ. His ability to stretch the D and hit extremely tight windows overcomes some of the deficiencies of BN's offense. D is a very close 1A.

As others pointed out cutting out the 85 man roster rotation junk would actually be at the top of my list.

 

Agree, Rick. Hence my occasional pleadings for us to implement our tight ends more often.

We have 9 Tight Ends on our roster. Including Bordingham and Hansen.

Lets us them more in situations as you describe!

 

Yeah, DJ did not have the time to make the long developing plays that we kept calling in the 3rd quarter, and it was obvious that we needed quicker developing plays. And as a result, we got less than 50 yards of total offense in the 3rd quarter. I would like to get that glarring oversight fixed so that we don't get DJ sacked, and we do NOT put him in unnecessary danger of being crushed by the blitz.

 

what has surprised me is that all during Napier’s tenure, despite losing records, the fans kept filling the Swamp. That didn’t happen in the late era of any of the M’s: Muschamp, McElwain, Mullen. Not sure why it happened except that people sensed that Billy, whatever his perceived numerous faults, was fully dedicated, and so were his players, who kept playing hard even when getting smacked down.

 

I'll take your word for it but I can't remember the last days of any of them. I could see that with muschamp but I want to say Mac and Mullen's fall happened so fast that it hadn't hurt fan attendance. Point stand either way as the fans haven't budged from their seats with Napier

 

The defense and the fact that the locker room remained unwavering in his corner.

 

Not sure either but it certainly isn’t beyond the realm of possibility.

I can also envision him pulling a Jeff Spicoli and having a pizza delivered to the locker room at halftime.

 

Its on DJ to develop the short quick passing game . Mertz did it almost exclusively so its not Napier.

 

I disagree about the Mertz piece. Mertz not being able to take shots had become a problem. I love Mertz. Dude gave 110% but Miami showed the blueprint for stopping Billy’s offense… and honesty, it’s an ongoing issue but at least DJ gives you this big play ability

 

In current times, almost every successful team, NFL or college, has a mobile QB. These teams that are consistently winning have a QB who at minimum is nimble in the pocket and can force the D to stay in there lanes. Mahomes, Jackson, Allen, Hurts, etc. College is similar. The nimble QB can buy an extra few seconds in the pocket, which can make all the difference in the success of a play.
DJ, even on one leg, can buy that extra second or two to complete his pass.
Mertz has been great as a leader. Dedicated, hard worker, selfless and fantastic for DJ's development. The one quality which is average at best is mobility. The lack of mobility limits what can be done, and I believe the shorter passes are due to the fact that most of the time he didn't have time to stand in the pocket and wait for the opening.
AR was mobile but he was raw, and at best at that time, average as a passer. You can't change history but going forward if we ever have to go to the portal again for a QB we definitely need someone who is somewhat mobile. So i'm going with getting the right QB ( DJ ) was a good part of the turnaround.

In retrospect, if we didn't have Mertz maybe we don't get DJ, so i'm fine now if we move forward in a positive direction

 

Quick reads and pocket movement can offset the lack of escapability. We keep prefacing our critiques of Mertz with platitudes because he deserves them and beyond being a great Gator and a stabilizing aspect for the offense he was limited in his ability to push the ball downfield. Graham struggled in the pocket when there was any pressure but was mobile enough to keep a play going here and there with a rollout. The exciting thing about DJ is his pocket presence and ability to climb a pocket while keeping eyes downfield. The potential for him once he sees the field faster and develops a better mid range game is crazy.

 

I choose DJ, but as many have noted it’s really multifactorial.

Having DJ being able to flick his wrist for a 35 yard dime, having the D play tighter on ball and having RBs that can break a tackle and get yards after the initial tackle all have been huge factors in the mid to late season turn around. I’ll argue not losing Mertz and MJ vs UT we win that game and not losing DJ and parts of the D vs the mutts and we win those games.

I’ve never been high on BN but after the turn around and the way the players play for him he’s not going anywhere any time soon.(baring some unforeseen issue).