Bama wasn't loaded but they weren't a mess like us. Their classes were consistently top 15ish until Saban came in and along with a program commitment started buying players and locking down local recruits immediately. A lot of their early success under Saban started with Alabama high school players. Shortly after they started robbing florida and the rest of the country for players as well.
I've been wrong twice about Harbaugh. When he was hired I thought he would be Urban-esque in his success. That clearly has not happened. But after we beat them in 18, I thought he was done. He re-invented himself and his program. What stands out, for me, is how much the UF job chews up and spits out so many coaches. The only coach who has been able to handle the pressure was Spurrier. (And even he wasn't doing so well at the end.) It seems like all others imploded/ went beserk. Also- recall that we almost signed Kelly and he pulled out at the end. Rumor was he didn't think he could handle the fishbowl existence. (He's hardly in a fishbowl in LA.) It's a tough job- I don't think that should be underestimated. It makes me more patient with our coaches, but I'm not in the majority. Harbaugh doing so well makes me more patient.
Robbed is a strong word...I think purchased might be a better fit . And his biggest first purchases were Julio Jones and Trent Richardson.
I would be okay with it but there are some that think anything other than a national title isn't good enough. The same kind of fans that complained about Spurrier.
I really thought Mullen would be here much longer until the year he was fired. Fired for losing control of the program. Offensive genius doesn't always equate to a championship caliber coach. Napier will get it done.
The SEC title is the gold standard in my book. They still mean a lot around here. Get one of those and you'll be playing in your fair share of Nat Champ games too. Winning one of those is just gravy.
Even though it sucked to lose so many games I kind of like Napier and how he’s not afraid to take drastic action. Not much he can do when his defensive backs struggle so much and when Richardson is having one of his patent pending vacations from remembering how to throw a pass or run. But there were some bright spots. If he can recruit he can win. I’m a patient fan so I hope to be rewarded lol.
We actually did better than that based on the current rankings. Teams ranked now on our schedule... 1 UGA 7 tenn 11 lsu 12 utah 14 crims 20 usce So we went 2-4 vs 6 ranked teams. I think UGA played 4- Tenn, Usce, oregon, Miss state. And will play 5 by Saturday.
Coaches like Jim Harbaugh and Dabo Swinney were likely hired with an understanding between them and the athletic director that they will be granted a longer leash as long as they rebuild the core of the football program--the part where the results take 3-6 years to see on the field. I believe Napier was hired under a similar assumption. Scott Stricklin understands that the previous coaches focused too much on the short-term goal of winning games and seemingly lost focus on the long-term goal of winning championships. Napier might fall into the same trap as Mullen by trying to balance head coaching duties with offensive coordinator, quarterback coach, and passing game coordinator duties, so he should be careful in that regard. I do think Gator fans can be patient and wait 5 or so years for Napier's plan to take root, but there will be a lot of noise from the vocal minority in the meantime. The last time the Gators waited 6 years on a coach was under Charley Pell almost 40 years ago. We certainly were spoiled by Spurrier and Meyer--so much so that we forget that Muschamp, McElwain, and Mullen have put us in a decade-plus hole. Urban Meyer declared the program broken in 2010 or so, that is 12 years of broken crap that might take Napier 6 years to fix.
6 years to be a winner, absolutely not. We'll know the answer to that question after a couple of years. 6 years to win a Natty, now that's another story. And it may take that long in this current landscape.
