Has someone said, “Fire Billy!” and I missed it? I haven’t. I believe he deserves this season to succeed, and I would very much like him to succeed. What I have said — and it’s hard to disagree — is that his performance has been unacceptable to this point, and it can’t continue. When I hear language here and there that suggests he should get a Year 4, deserved or not, then, yeah, I push back. He needs to go out there and earn a Year 4. And the only way to earn it, from my perspective, is with seven wins. I hope he does it. It all starts with Miami.
uftaipan - I was referencing Gator Podcaster discussions where the topic is what does Billy have to do to survive season 3? The answers generally speaking seem to go like this: Wins and losses: 6 - 6 minimum, bowl eligible, win the bowl, go 7 - 6. Most like to use the 7 - 5 mark as the "safe" win total to keep the job. Some, think if UF attains 8 - 4 and he's a dead lock cinch to stay. Of course there are the proviso's: Locker Room attitude has to stay positive, players staying out of trouble. Recruiting "ticks up" Some say - I can deal with 6 - 6 but the coaching and play on the field has to show marked improvement. Also of interest: Podcasters are saying Billy is making significant moves to create relationships with the mega boosters, is laying out his plans for the program, to them, and supposedly has made a very favorable impression by doing so. This is compared to Dan Mullen, whom the same Podcasters say boosster attention was not Dan's balliwick, and Dan did little to foster those relationships other than superficially at events, meet and greats, booster meeting etc. His performance has been unacceptable to this point, and it can’t continue. When I hear language here and there that suggests he should get a Year 4, deserved or not, then, yeah, I push back. Can't disagree at all. 11-14 SUCKS! I won't be pushing narratives to keep Billy at 4 or 5 wins either. While I am on the side of those that suggest Mullen wrecked the program, this is year 3, Billy had 3 recruiting classes, the transfer portal, and I recall someone (Monk?) posted 83% of the roster are Billys boys. Paidinfull? - made what I consider an astitute comment that due to all the game changes the "time scale" should be pushed back 1 year. That year 2 is really now year 3, in terms of monitoring a coach and teams progression. Anyway - Sorry for the book.
The thing that worries me is that if that 83% that are Billy’s guys is that the program changing players that are going to be capable of competing with the big boys are still freshmen and sophomores. There’s a very small group in Shemars class that are actually third year guys capable of leading a team. The rest are transfers and guys with little to no actual playing time. The bulk of our schedule is all tossup games and maybe only one or two sure wins. A freshman five star may elevate the talent level of the team on paper but will not show up as affecting the outcome of games for another year or two.
I am certain that some people have said “fire billy”, but I’m not going to spend any time digging them up, and I’ve heard it more in person probably than I’ve seen it in writing. However, what is very common is the constant hypothetical scenarios that “could” get him fired. I don’t understand why people choose to live in this headspace where they only think about the worst case scenarios, and rarely/never talk about the possibility of success. The people who ultimately have to make the decisions should be contemplating different scenarios and have some stuff in their back pocket on how to handle things if everything doesn’t go the way we want. As a fan, we won’t be making those decisions, and have the luxury of just being able to kick back and see what happens in real time. I don’t have to make plans for the championship game nor do I need to worry about hiring a new coach right now.
Speaking of Dabo…he is the better prototype for BN than Urbs or SOS. Took him 4/5 years to get Clemp going, including losing to SOS 4 years in a row and a 70pt beat down in the Orange Bowl. BN has to show improvement this year and then we point to 25. But to compare him to Saban(Shula), Smart(Richt), Urbs(Zook) or SOS(Hall) is apples to oranges. Every one of those coaches walked in to a ton of talent at their respective schools. BTW SOS at SCAR was averaging 7 wins a year after 5 years. Think about that. The SEC MT Rushmore coach took five years to get SC going. i can’t predict the future for BN and I’m pulling for him but comparing him to those coaches’ second year is overly simplistic. Life is far more complicated than that. “Wes Chandler was Percy Harvin before Percy Harvin was born.”
Well, 6-6 cannot be marked improvement but I suppose it's better than 4-8. Seems like Napier is good at relationships, foundation, and recruiting but might be a terrible game day coach. And really, relationships do not matter so much because if you win, the money and support will come. Lose because you and your staff aren't prepared to manage games and financial support will likely disappear. Not unfair and always going to be that way. People love winners, despise losers. Napier is very conservative, perhaps to a fault. Wish he would have hired a sharp OC, but he wants to be the guy.
What do you suspect is the relationship between an AD and HC in terms of direction, advise, expectations? I imagine Stricklin has at least suggested an OC might make the team better and give him the freedom to do more or manage games more like a HC.
I don't know Die, 6-6 with this schedule may suggest improvement, but I understand your point. 6 - 6 is NEVER where we want our Gators to be. It will be an interesting season. I consider the Miami contest to be tantamount to an SEC championship or playoff game. It's that important for both teams, IMO. I know one thing, one board is going to be screaming in delight and the other board is gonna be a platform for a noose and a hangin.
IF a change was made and a known quantity guy was hired who himself was a great OC/QB coach or communicated that he's bringing one with him, Lagway likely stays. I think we had an issue when Napier was hired that they wanted to secure the recruiting class and did not communicate with our then current players. A smart new coach would take over more professionally to prevent losing good players. Also, Lagway and the rest of the team want to win and be coached and developed by competent people. IF we were to go 5-7, there's no way the roster would believe they have the staff they deserve. So I would think they would be open minded.
Agreed, Napier looks to be able to run a program but has yet to show he has the nastiness to coach/win at an SEC. So far he has shown to be affable. 7 wins including a bowl win should be the minimum. As far as people saying we lose Lagway if BN is let go, I just don't see it. He would be guaranteed to be the starter in 2025. What other P4 program would he automatically start at! Plus the collective would throw the kitchen sink at him to kept him.
Wanne, we share the same concerns. Your right, Billys first class was "so-so" and those that are still here have the most maturity in the program. Classes 2 and 3 were good, and in terms of need, perhaps a bit better than originally thought. But your right, still green and young, and with this schedule it worries me bigtime. Shemar has to heal and be ready. I love our new lb additions in our last class but they are freshmen and asking them to be "bigtime" as Freshmen is unrealistic. Really need Wingo to show up this year. I love the kid, I hope he can avoid injury this season, UF needs him to demonstrate why he was so highly touted out of H.S. And this same scenerio applies to literally every position group. Look at recievers, we need the young uns to step up big time. Makes my head spin. Thats why we need to beat the hated Canes and win game 2. Gotta start 2-0 and build up confidence. Thats why I hope Napier can hold on, I still think his program needs to reach next year (25) to really show us the goods.
I hope it does not come down to such a decision, but I could not see any scenario with any team in any sport where you would say, "We really need to make a change at head coach, but we won't because a key player might leave." I mean, where would you draw the line on that? Would you keep an underperforming coach for three additional years and defer firing until that player either goes to the NFL or graduates? Do you fire that head coach as soon as that player fails to meet expectations but not before? Players come and go all of the time, some good and some bad. With the exceptions of decisions related to misconduct, you make coaching changes intrinsically with respect to how well they are performing, not due the desires of any individual player. Besides, if Lagway or anyone else would leave because of that, then they will leave for a host of other reasons, too. Look at how Etienne knifed us right in the back.
There are probably a lot of better guys to ask than me about this both in terms of football strategy knowledge and with inside information on how our program runs. I'll take a stab at the question from the perspective of how I understand strategic leadership. In general, a strategic leader (in this case, the AD) should hire good people, get them what they need, and let them run their programs their way. But what do you do when one of your good people just is not getting it done? The answer usually is you bring them around for a counseling session, get their take on what is not working, help them come up with solutions, maybe provide some advice on what you have seen in the past work as a best practice. If I were the AD, I would have helped my head football coach see the light not only on playcalling but also on the bizarre decisions to not have an on-field special teams coach (but rather an off-field analyst you decide to call a Gamechange Coordinator!) and to have a two-headed beast coaching OL. If he still wasn't seeing the light after counseling, then I would make it a directive. I don't know if any of that has happened, but the last part clearly has not. Special teams was one of the areas we looked most ridiculous last year. Does anyone have any idea if any real substantive changes were made in leadership during the offseason? If there were, I have not seen it discussed in great volume.
A generational QB is really important. We hope Lagway will turn out to be that guy. But who knows? So I would agree that if things really went South a change should not be determined by whether or not Lagway approves. IF a change were made, we hope it would be one that he is comfortable with and excited about.
It may sound odd, but character of losses matter. To lose 6 truly close games where none were attributable to coaching inability is not the same as losing those same games by several TDs. One scenario says we are almost there, the other, not so much.
Look if CBN loses games because of far superior talent ok. He was at a disadvantage personnel wise thanks to Mullen. I believe he is trying to build a culture at UF. If this is the case I don't support letting him go and the end of this season regardless of record. My opinion changes because of stupid mistakes. Like using timeouts poorly. Bad player positioning. You guys know the others. If that happens all bets are off
As you suggest, it's situational. Close losses to Kentucky, Mississippi State et al will not indicate anything positive for the trajectory of this program. The close losses to Missouri and Arkansas last year merely indicated a team that couldn't close the deal despite multiple fair opportunities. My biggest concern is game preparation. We just so often looked as if we had not practiced coming into games. Utah and Kentucky last year were two games that stuck out in my mind where I wanted to ask, "What have you been doing with this team all week?" Tennessee was the only game I recall where the Gators looked truly prepared and it showed. Miami is going to teach us so much about how this season is going to go, one way or the other.
Wingo being somewhere near all SEC would be a huge shot in the arm. If he is injured or subpar, we are relying on true freshman linebackers. Linebackers are the heart and soul defense, and if they are less than average, the defense will be less than average.
