No, not just the loss. My wife and I are both UF grads and football boosters. She soured on Napier during the 2023 season. I kept telling her to be patient, give him time, let him complete the roster, get some upper classmen leaders in the locker room that know what he requires of them. That we need him to succeed, because firing him means huge roster turnover and another 3-5 years of suck. I mean, we debated this....and she's a frickin' attorney. And she's my wife..... I'm way over my head here! Coming into this season, I read the articles, watched the press conferences, had all the optimism. I drank the koolaid. This year was gonna be different. So this weekend at the game, we all saw what happened. When I said to friends after the game "Napier isn't the answer....", she gave me this smug look. Silent. Just a smug grin. So now, I'm not only mourning the loss, staring down the barrel of another losing season, and everything that normally comes with that. Now I have to admit to my wife that she was right..... Thanks a lot Billy....
You should never be ashamed of trying your best to support the team and it’s coach. Even if it makes her right.
I was agreeing with your wife. The really good to great coaches almost always show big improvement in year two. Didn't happen with BN.
As the great American philosopher Jerry Reed once said, “when you’re hot, you’re hot and when you’re not, you’re not.”
You are never wrong to do the right thing. She quit on supporting our coach when no one could accurately determine his efficacy from outside the program. There was only conjecture. She may be proved correct (likely so), but you were right. Just tell her she was correct and know the truth of it all!
IMO, there was reason why you could have thought that with the new coaches, recruiting class, year 3 we would be successful.. Maybe not playoff successful but at least competitive and winning our share of close games. That's what i too believed. I always had in the back of my mind that he may not be a championship caliber coach, however i never believed or considered we would be this bad in year 3, which is also directly attributable to the HC. So, barring some miracle, it seems your wife was correct.. I always take the optimistic approach and try to give these guys as long a leash as possible. End of the day actions that will ultimately be taken have nothing to do with what i believe. The absolute one move that must be made is Stricklin should be fired. He really screwed all of us.
Yeah, sounds like a smart woman who knows not a single SEC Championship winning coach has had a losing record in year 2, and only 2 had a losing record year 1.
