If You Could Go Back to November 2021, Who Would You Hire?

Oh, no doubt, but this thread is all about a hypothetical. I was addressing what I would have done with what I know now.

 

Hire Lane Kiffin. Give him the proverbial blank check. Enough with the games and unproven coaches. If we’re going to give buyouts like Napier has, might as well splurge and get the closest thing to a sure fire bet there is. In fact, I can’t think of a more sure fire bet in a head coach in the past 10 years. And the only reason he’s available (in theory) is because he’s at Ole Miss. But he’s available. It’s Lane Kiffin. We know from history that he can’t help himself but to listen to an offer. Works in our favor this time around and he can call UF home.

To answer the question in the OP, the answer is obvious. Should have hired Lane Kiffin. He is a Spurrier clone. An offensive genius.

 

What kind of offense does he run?

 

Kerwin Bell

 

Hindsight is 20/20. Muschamp's record as a DC was extraordinarily strong:

Total Defense

Year--------Team-------Rank

2002............LSU..........8th
2003............LSU..........1st
2004............LSU..........3d
2005............Hired by Saban at Miami
2006............Auburn......19th
2007............Auburn........6th
2008............Texas.........51st
2009............Texas...........3d
2010............Texas...........6th
2011.............Florida.........8th (HC)
2012.............Florida.........5th (HC)
2013.............Florida.........8th (HC)

He was HC in waiting at Texas, and was mentioned with offers from Clemson, Tennessee, Washington and Auburn. Folks with football knowledge like Spurrier recommended him to be HC at USCe, and Smart hired him as an analyst, then promoted him to co-DC. Say what you will about Muschamp's head coaching skills and utter inability to run an offense, but his defensive credentials are virtually unmatched. He was in high demand when Florida hired him to be the head coach.

 

As for who to hire. based on Gator Nation's history, the obvious choices are:

1. Steve Spurrier (he's 79, but he is a young 79, and hey, he's Da Ball Coach!)
2. Bob "Stoopsie" Stoops (Ya know he always was coveted at Florida, and we were delusional enough to think we could pull him out of the dynasty he rebuilt at Oklahoma to come here)
3. Kerwin Bell (yup, he's 59 and never coached in a P5 conference, but he's a Gator and an offensive coach, just like Da Ball Coach)
4. Urban Meyer (Show me someone else who won two Natties here. Okay, he's a bit high-strung and domineering, but he wins!)

Who did I forget?

 

I will go even further back. Hire Mullen instead of McElwain. Get a Dan Mullen offense with Grier or Treon Harris. Likely Geoff Collins comes over anyways with Mullen so we get that nasty defense we had with him.

 

I have to ask yall.... do you REALLY think DM gave one crap about recruiting enough to change, even after having his AC's fired because he wouldn't do it? DM would have drove a death-nell into UF worse than Billy has done given 1 more year. Maybe Kiffen comes, but why would he with no SEC talent on the roster??

 

He was also about the 20th guy they got to and was on a pretty significant downward trend at UCF.

 

Find an ahole with no moral compass as they seem to have success in college football....Saban, Smart, Harbaugh, Kiffen etc.

 

I need to chime in here to correct the Mullen talk.
Before I start I have to confess I was a HUGE Mullen guy- defending him over and over. Recruiting, Emory Jones, whatever.
I thought we had Spurrier 2.0 and he'd get it right...

But the naysayers were right, I was wrong.
And yes Mullen did quit on us. He was making millions yet he just stopped caring.

The USCe loss after UGA was hitting bottom, and the whole team following.
There was talk that Mullen didn't even watch film before the Mizzou game (which was his last.)
He was almost begging to be fired- so he could walk away with his buyout.

A reasonable person could ask why...
This next part is conjecture, but I would bet real dollars that its partially/ mostly true...
After the 2020 loss at TAMU Mullen made the comment about "packing the swamp" even though much of the country was shut down due to covid.
This caused a nationwide reaction- even non- sports people.
A few weeks later we played Mizzou and he looked like he was about to fight Mizzou at halftime.

My theory is that the UF admin came down on him for one or both of these pretty hard.
UF Admin HATES HATES HATES bad publicity. they are very publicity conscious. Even more than most.
(A former UF head coach told me this)

Mullen being mullen he bristled- how dare they tell me what to do...

That led to the LSU fiasco, then he tried to win the SECCG as a final resume builder and then in December he put out feelers into the NFL.
When that came empty, he quit. Not fully, not at first, but he was going through the motions.

so yeah- Mullen is not a guy you want to hire again...And he needed to be fired.
It was just going to get worse.

 

I'm on board with this entire post as I also defended DM as much as I could. He definitely lost me after he refused to fire TG after that disaster of a 2020 D that ruined Trask of winning the Heisman he deserved. That man has no business being mentioned of getting another year, I honestly think when he had almost immediate success after CJM his ego exploded and that was the beginning of the end for him. Billy definitely fooled me more, he made changes and while not lights out recruiting... his classes are loaded with talent, but whatever his "process" is it's not P5 worthy, hell probably not Ivy league worthy.

Also the players that left throwing shade at him along with AR's recent comments really put into perspective what's really happening here. And it just hit me maybe the Rashada situation is bigger than we know? I bet Billy spent more sleepless nights on that than he ever put into the Miami game.

 

Im not sure where the no SEC talent on the roster comes from...we are plenty talented to compete right now but the coaching is atrocious. The play calling...playing to team strengths...attacking your opponents weaknesses...that crap is non existent. There are a handful of teams in NCAAF with the talent to be successful running antiquated schemes both offensively and defensively. His systems just flat out suck unless you're 3 deep with 5 stars and can impose your will with 5 plays run perfectly over and over. This garbage we're seeing isn't because of talent it is because he doesn't know what he is doing....all the way down to open a freaking water bottle. Hand this same team off to Spurrier in his heyday and the guy goes on a 5 game win streak and rights the ship entirely in a year.

 

Totally agree. Which makes the whole situation with him so much more brutal. Muschamp and McElwain were fired for glaring deficiencies. Mullen was our man, had us doing well, and then just f’n bailed on us. The fact that we’d finally found our man after almost a decade of wandering, and then he defrauds us makes it so much more tough to digest. And now look at us.

 

Kerwin Bell. He is SOS part deux!

 

The Gators have a top 15 roster in regards to Blue Chip percentage. That's what makes Napes resume here so poor.

 

I think the OP was asking posters' opinion not necessarily who Stricklin should have hired.

 

Definitely. Just giving you a hard time.

 

I know. That's why I gave you a chuckle. I can dream though, right? Just hope they find the right guy if and when UF décidé to partways with CBN.

 

You can dream. I’ll just be over here poking the cloud above your head with a stick.