For all you naysayers, who berated our coaching staff most of the year:

Dude!! Okeechobee Joe isn't a troll?

That scotch of yours is powerful stuff.

 

Until they get tampered with and portal out for more money. We're seeing it more and more each year, if a team will pay and give them more playing time, a player will leave in a NY minute.

 

But at least we have something to build on which few of us expected or would have projected after the scUM game. I'm somewhat upbeat. I just wish Napier would listen to his staff and pay attention to vibes but also demand more. He has to be the easiest going HC in the SEC and from my POV that's not good.

I'll take Billy Napier for 8 Ken.

 

I never thoight he was going to be fired this season, and tried to get people to at least come to grips with him being here next year.

But it was also hard to disgree with people who wanted him gone.

I'm happy for the improvement but still think it is about a year late, and I'm still troubled by all the questionable game day tendencies we have witnessed.

So forgive me if my optimism is rather tempered. Three years to get here means I need at least another half a season to start feeling really confidant about him getting us to any kind of championship.

Still too many ways for this to all go TU.

 

Because your post was about the response people had to the bad start

 

The 2022 class sure wasn’t. Did you miss the article about it? There’s only 2 guys from that class who have really contributed to the program and one is in the transfer portal now.

 

If Zooker read this, he would be ROTFL...

 

Come on man, so his transition class, with only days to resurrect something - anything out of the recruiting vacuum left by Mullen, wasn’t great. Way to select your self-serving sample set. I’m talking 2023 and 2024, and now 2025.
Sheeesh!

 

We’re really gonna do this us vs yall stuff?
I wonder if the mods would let it stand if it was “for all you sunshine pumpers who thought Cbn was the guy” ?

listen- in a instant reaction, prisoner of the moment world- there were a lot of ppl - me included that were devastated after the Miami loss. And they were right. Getting BAAHLOWN out at home is NOT ok here. And after 12 years, 3 failed coaches and a 5-7 finish last year … after hearing all off season that “this is our best team” from Billy himself/ it was absolutely the right call to say “this isn’t working”
But to say “we’ve righted the ship now” is also a little premature. It was AMAZING to see Billy hold this team together and finish 7-5 … but it’s still 7-5. And while it really looks like the defense figured it out and the offseason coaching moves worked… AND Lagway and Baugh make the future bright… it’s 7-5. And we finished in the bottom 3-4 of every single offensive statistical category. To think you’re gonna compete for championships winning games consistently 24-21,and forcing your defense to make stop after stop in the SEC to close out a game because you refuse to run tempo/4-5 WR, spread concepts, clock mgmt, even ATTEMPT to run anything but 3rd and long hero plays… well that’s premature. lets see how they do in the portal and if they hire an OC before we say “told ya so”.
And let’s not do the thing where we point fingers at each other as Gators,
We have reasonable, smart fans who watch the games and know stats and facts … it’s not a bunch of bums with pitchforks calling Finebaum

 

They call this season and upward trajectory, a marked improvement in performance. This team got better as the season went on, and we started playing our best ball vs. The toughest part of the schedule. The team learned how to play more complementary football and becausebof that all 3 phazes , Off, Def, Sp.teams. contributed to the teams improvement. we learned how to close out the season with momentum. And with that we ended with the best recruiting class in the state. It's hard to ignore the direction this team appears to be heading now that the stigma of a lame duck coach has been put to rest.

 

247 has stated they rate 5 stars based on first round nfl draft potential. From 247 sports….


247Sports Rating Explanations

Five-stars (98-110 rating): The top 32 players in the country to mirror the 32 first-round picks in the NFL Draft. These are 32 players that we believe are the most likely to be drafted in the first round from each recruiting class.

 

Perhaps the mods can arrange for crow icons to be tagged next to the names of those screaming to tar and feather the coach and his staff. Keep it there until, let's say, August?

 

May have been a transition class but it’s really the only one we have a multi-year scope to look back on and no matter how you slice it, it was a disappointment to say the least. Saban’s transition class was a building block to multiple national championships. You’ve got to be balanced about this. You look at Napier through an orange and blue, one-sided lens.

 

Maybe someone should let our special teams coaches in on the importance of special teams?

 

To compare BN’s 2022 transition class to NS’s transition class of 2007?? shows a complete lack of understanding recruiting period. 17-18 years ago there was no ESD and NSD was in early Feb. Incidentally, that was the same time frame for the initial class of BN’s. You conveniently ignored that most 70%+ of the 2022 class signed with other programs in ESD there was zero time to recruit that 1st class, that historically any other coach had 8 weeks to try to make any impact on committed players. You also dismiss the fact that Dan M had notoriously stated he would recruit after the season, that year he didnt get the chance. So there wasnt much of a class to hold together like there was following JM aka shark boy

 

Our special teams has been great all year. Punting, FGs, return defense. We allowed only 82 punt return yards all season.
Trey Smack was 14-17 FG(82%)and 41- 41 XP (100%)
Was 3/4 on 40-49 yds
4/5 on 50+
Season long of 55 yds

Also Got one of the best punters and longsnappers in the country.

What's your gripe about the special teams this year or are you just still beating last season's favorite dead horse?

 

"I'm happy for the improvement but still think it is about a year late, and I'm still troubled by all the questionable game day tendencies we have witnessed."

Seems like several coaches who are successful now had rough starts to game day decisions. Kirby and Dabo are two who that come to mind immediately.

 

I am becoming convinced the staff can recruit above-average talent. I am still not convinced BN can be the in-game coach required to put the players in the best position to be successful against top tier teams.