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

^^^ polar opposites on Too Hot; steals the words from my fingertips on RayGator's Swamp Gas.

 

Nobody should ever shame you for not wanting to believe something that isn't there.

 

I’d say those who consistently post on GC to trash the Gators, specific players, and denigrate and name call fans who support the Gators (all of which used to be against the rules and brought about bans) have more in common with our rivals than they do with being Gator fans.

 

Yeah I don't see a lot of that here to be honest.

 

You stepped in it so here goes:

Yep we took Tennessee to the very brink but we should have won. Napier himself was the blame for the loss in multiple points in the game, first with the worst 2 minute offense I've ever seen in football. 1st down at the UT 11 yard line with 1:11 left and after numerous comedy of errors and Napier getting slapped in the face with a 10 second run-off because of yet another dumb penalty, we never even got a chance to attempt a field goal and we came away with zero points. Then late in the game we had chances to win the game but Napier didn't have the balls to go for 2 only to lose the game in OT. It was an ugly time after the Tennessee game. Pretty much every pundit in sports, from On3, to 247, to Ali Peek, to ESPN, CBS Sports, etc. all were writing his epitaph. The same issues plaguing his program were rearing their heads.

I was one that wanted to go ahead and dump him. Tired of the same crap week after week, so many downers that even SEC Shorts felt sorry for us and didn't rub it in. We just became insignificant by then based on the producers of the series, no reason to rub it in because the SEC no longer saw us as good drama, so Vandy's rise took our spot. But, looking deeper, it made sense to keep him for 2025. Who would we replace him with? With another Napier? Paying a huge buyout, paying $$$ to get the next coach, lose the entire 2025 class and the current team would have been gone leaving the new coach with no one on the team. Then no money to buy a team from the portal. It would have been an uglier 2025 than probably the last 4 years. So let's see if Napier can build on this success and hopefully he's here in 2026!

 

These rankings don’t take into account transfers. I give Billy credit in landing some transfers that have been very helpful. I just think to reach the level most of us want, it’s going to take multiple top 5 classes. Can we win 8 games with classes in the 10-15 range? Sure. But those national and SEC championships were built on a few #1 classes.

 

You mentioned the debacle at the end of the first half of the Tennessee game. One of the things I'm sure you noticed as well was the referee having to explain the 10-second run off rule to Napier on the sideline. With this in mind (along with all the other things you noted about that game), I can say with utmost certainty that there is/was a replacement coach out there who would not have made all of those mistakes in the Tennessee game. And if we're being honest, the Tennessee game wasn't the first time.

Whenever this band-aid is ripped off, it's gonna sting. The longer the band-aid is on, it's going to sting even worse. It's never a good time to fire a coach and hire a new one. But Florida has the rare advantage over most programs who go through that transition in that we have so much in-state talent. A good coach can turn the program around in an instant. We've seen it done before.

I think at the end of the day, it was the buyout which pumped the brakes and if so, we're just delaying the inevitable to save some money. I would still argue that it's likely retaining him will end up costing more than the buyout, but I digress.

We all remember how lost Ron Zook was as a head coach, but he still won some games in the SEC, because the roster was chalk full of raw talent. Likewise, Napier is going to win some games as well, because we have some really good players.

Napier is who he is. In terms of coaching acumen, with 3 years of work put in now at UF, I would rate him lower than Ron Zook. Recall Zook beat Georgia in 2002 (which served as UGA's only loss of the season), LSU in 2003 (their only loss of the season) and beat 3 highly ranked teams on the road in 2003. Yet, we still fired him after 2004, because the incompetence was so clear to see. And Zook could recruit. What happened to his last recruiting class? What happened after we fired Zook? I don't buy into the "it would have been a bad time to fire him" narrative regarding Napier. If he's not the guy, he's not the guy. We're better off moving on sooner rather than later.

 

I’m still bumfuzzled over how unprepared we looked for the first few games of the season. This was after we were led to believe that this year would be a breakout year even with the tough schedule. I’m not convinced Napier can be an “elite” coach due to this lack of preparation and the lack of 4th quarter game management. I sincerely hope I’m wrong.

 

I dont hate kiffin at all. I actually like kiffin, thought he has done well throughout his career with both lows and highs, I was just pointing out that they all call dumb plays, but naturally we as fans don't harp on them or notice them when they are not OUR coach.

I was also just pointing out that if Napier had called those plays and they kept failing and someone notices it's because Mertz was the lone blocker for a Caleb Banks short yardage 4th down run CBN would have been rightly destroyed by fans. And make no mistake, I'm absolutely sure Ole miss fans let kiffin have it, but because Kiffin is that new shiney toy we don't have but want, many act as if he is above making those gaffs. Lets Just keep it consistent.

To be honest, He is a very good coach, but all the things we seen posted as to why Kiffin was the best option for the Gators and why he is superior to CBN, I didn't see any of it when those two faced off on the field and CBN came out victorious, holding Ole Miss to season lows across the board on offense and surpassing their season defensive averages, (most by half time).

And Don't take anything personally, I was just having a conversation with ya.

 

Oh man what next? You gonna tell me Santa isn't real? Please don't ,I can't find out my childhood was all a lie.

 

I just typed in Google "JJ pegues TD runs" and they came up with the 5-10 second video clips. Took me all of a couple minutes. Trust me I've got way too much time that I have already committed to wasting here on GC that I definitely don't have any extra to waste rewatching any football games let alone a Ole piss game. Lol

 

Soooo, you're conflating this discussion with Santa Claus. K..

 

If BN produces a champion of any kind I will still be shocked. His O is still a dinosaur and his in game decisions questionable. The D did look much better after the first 3 or 4 games though. Not sure how much of that had to do with BN though. I was happy to see us play better and wind up with a winning record but sad that we are retaining BN.

 

you are aware that this was his third season, right?

 

Weird post. First, you take a veiled shot at n_sc with a dose of self importance. Next, you don't appear to get the point. If Billy coached the way Kiffin did in that game, folks on here would crucify him. I don't believe n_sc wrote anything suggesting Kiffin hate. Perhaps there's a reason you're being defensive.

 

Might be true, but Zook was a coaching acumen disaster. His teams consistently blew big games at the end. He was far from the brightest bulb. You also completely ignore the fact that FL football was at the top of the mountain in 2001. Zooker inherited Rex Grossman, running backs Earnest Graham & Ciatrick Fason, pass catchers Taylor Jacobs & Ben Troupe (monster!), corners Keiwan Ratliff & Vernell Brown, among other studs.

 

Revisionist and completely false. If you believed this, you were listening to homers & drinking the Coolaid.

 

Good Lord. This dude could steal the fun out of a Brazilian Carnival; suck the life out of a Vegas party; spoil the grandiose of the world's greatest adventure spots. Try and bring some joy in yer life, jeez.