**Buzz Buzz Buzz** - How did we get here?

Anyone who judged Florida in a road game against top 5 team with this QB situation is a clown. Was a hopeless game; best you could hope for is some people back from injuries and no new injuries

 

NIL's as we know them today were started in California in 2019.
In 2020, Florida and some of the other states passed NIL legislation.
The Florida NIL legislation was so flawed that the State colleges found it next to impossible to use (in fear of violating the laws).

In the July of 2021, the state of Florida amended its NIL law of 2020..
In February of 2023, the state of Florida amended the NIL law again.

Since the 2022 season the Gators have improve in the NIL signings.

 

Their section about us is absolutely correct. Everybody with a clear understanding of college football knows that the jig is up with Billy Napier. You’re just ensuring that we will be in an even bigger hole next year.

 

NiL started in California and yet didn't help out any California teams rise to prominence. It was in its nascent stages and didn't change much anything about college football recruiting overall until later on. If anything, Napier and the other florida schools were the first victims of the imbalance in NIL laws from state to state as they were subject to the most strict restrictions from university involvement of any sort.

None of that had any affect on Mullen not being able to recruit QBs, WRs, Tight ends or offensive linemen which is bizarre considering his reputation as an offensive guru...

 

Anyone who says they wouldn’t trade Nape for Lane (or 15-20 other coaches - Lee, Key, Cignetti etc etc)
Is crazy
But really until UAA gets cleaned up it doesn’t matter.
I feel like this week was a stake in the heart of Florida sports program.

 

His line of thinking is this I believe:

Michigan's offense makes ours look like the KC Chiefs. They have a hard time moving the ball, especially through the air, so they have to take every opportunity when they have good field position.

4th and short on your opponents side of the field is supposed to be a go, but he punted because that's who he is. A fireable offense? No. It's just his uber conservative approach to everything about football. You finally have good field position, use it.

Okay, int, your punt idea actually worked in your favor. You're inside the 10, down 2 scores, your offense hasn't done anything all season, punch it in and get it to a 1 score game. Okay, 3 bad play calls and it's 4th and goal. We could go for it or kick a field goal. If we go and score, it's a 1 score game. If we go and fail, it's a 2 score game and they have bad field position. If we kick and make it, it's still a 2 score game and we are kicking off. So what's the point of kicking it?

Taking that sequence in isolation, it doesn't make much sense, but we've seen coaches do dumber things. But Moore makes Napier look like Dan Campbell. Yesterday, down 2 scores in the first half, 4th and 2 at the Texas 7 and Napier decided to kick and this board melted down before the false start and missed kick. In a vacuum, not the worst decision, it's the 1st half unlike the Michigan game. But knowing it's hard to move the football with QB3 in the game, and years of watching scared money, fans were angry.

I honestly don't know why Moore got the job. I know that Michigan is worried about making a bunch of bad hires outside of the program like they did after they forced Carr out, but when Harbaugh was suspended last year, the team looked like a shell of its self under Moore. They had a 1st round QB and were afraid to throw the ball. The guy is just bad.

 

I'd say that the only thing he judged about yesterday was the effort, which even Napier agreed was bad. The rest of the analysis was about the current state of the program and how everyone sees Napier as a dead man walking and how that kills recruiting and getting players out of the portal.

 

They got lucky to get the ball back in the opponent’s red zone after that punt. I wouldn’t attribute that INT to the coach making the right decision, but getting lucky. But punting on 4th and 3 while on the opponent’s side of the field while down 2 scores can be viewed as “scared money” and the coach lacking aggression.

But being down 2 scores and kicking a FG in the red zone is absolutely playing conservative and not playing to win. I can see where those kinds of decisions would drive a fanbase crazy.

 

Let's be real, you wouldn't attribute the INT to the coach making the right decision because it goes against your priors. The FG call seems much more complaint worthy.

 

Nope

 

I wouldn’t give any coach much credit for getting a turnover in that situation. The coach was playing a conservative field position game down 14 and got lucky. The most likely result in that situation is a punt with the offense getting the ball back around midfield.

To be clear, there are two types of luck: 1) sitting back and hoping the game goes your way, and 2) forcing the game to go your way through pressure or aggressive coaching. I prefer controlling your own destiny versus sitting back and hoping things go your way. When you play the averages, don’t be surprised when your results are average as well.

 

Hilarious. Defense is "sitting back and hoping the game goes your way" and apparently any turnovers created are just luck.

 

Here the CBS Sports excerpt from the article posted above: ( can’t say I disagree)
Florida is burying itself in a hole it won't soon dig out of
Saying that Florida should fire Billy Napier isn't an overreaction at this point. It's a commonly held belief everywhere except for Florida's administrative office, apparently. Just two days after Scott Stricklin gave Napier a renewed vote of confidence, Napier's Gators lost 49-17 against No. 5 Texas.

Somehow, the game was even more of a blowout than the final score might indicate. Sure, no one expected Florida to actually win, or come close to winning for that matter. The Gators are down to their third-string quarterback after unfortunate injuries to Graham Mertz and DJ Lagway.




That doesn't excuse all of the other problems that plagued Florida against Texas and have plagued them all year. Let's not mince words: the Gators looked like an FCS team.

They were slow on defense. They displayed a startling lack of effort that even Napier called out in his postgame press conference. All of this raises a legitimate question: what's the point?

Ostensibly, Florida wants to retain Napier to hold onto a lot of the roster's young talent from consecutive top-15 recruiting classes, including Lagway, who is an excellent player to build a team around. But Florida is sacrificing its long-term future by shying away from what needs to be done with Napier.

Sure, he's done a good job of bringing talent to Gainesville in recent years, but the development just isn't there. Why should we believe that Florida is magically going to turn a corner in 2025 after three years of contrary evidence?

And that talent pipeline is starting to dry up. Florida's 2025 recruiting class ranks 51st in the 247Sports Team Composite with less than a month to go until the early signing period. Napier doesn't have an upward trajectory to sell to prospective recruits now that he's careening towards a third straight year without a winning record.




In similar fashion, transfers won't be knocking Florida's doors down if Napier is the coach in 2025, given that every rational mind will operate under the assumption that he's one bad game away from getting the boot. By kicking the can down the road, Florida is tacking years onto what will undoubtedly be a massive rebuild. Especially since Stricklin's job is likely also hanging in the balance, and the university doesn't have a full-time president.

The longer they let this whole charade go on, the more damage they're doing for whoever inherits the leftover mess.

 

Even I hadn't realized how far our recruiting has dropped. This is so monumentally bad. Rivals and 24/7 both have us 15th out of 16 in the SEC rankings. But wait... it gets worse. Rivals has us ranked #59 in the nation, 24/7 #50. Now, look at the below. All of these SEC teams with Top 10 classes... that leaves us no chance of becoming successful in the SEC for at least 2 or 3 more years.

 

We have no QBs committed. Losing Mertz obviously. Is Warner our backup QB going into 2025? Are you f'n for real?

 

Napier hasn't done a good job of bringing talent to Gainesville, ever. Mullen, Muschamp and McElwain ran circles around Napier's recruiting. A top 15 class is nothing in the SEC. In any case, what we're seeing now is an unmitigated disaster. I knew it was bad, I just didn't realize how bad. When there are 8 SEC teams with Top 10 classes, you know we won't compete for a long time.

 

So a QB under no pressure that overthrows a receiver for an INT would be a TO forced by the defense? Would a snap over the QB’s head for a TO also be forced by the defense? There is a middle ground there between the defense forcing a TO and the offense gifting the defense a TO.

On the INT by Michigan, the defense was sitting on the slant and the QB threw it anyway. There was no pressure at all on the QB, he just faked the ball and immediately threw the slant.

 

also no o-linemen committed (with extra money and resources with two o line coaches). Teams sign 3-5 per year. We have zero.

of 132 FBS schools only 1 has two o-line coaches. If it had been working it would be a genius move. Looks to be the complete opposite.

 

One of the problems with retaining him is even if the class improves and he picks up some portal talent there is no guarantee he has a solid season going against the same schedule. Then say he’s let go and the core group of talent he brought in likely leaves and that leaves the next guy to start from scratch. So you could possibly be looking at 6 losing seasons in a row worst case scenario. Obviously he could have a tremendous year though I think he’s shown enough that he has a ceiling and it’s probably not championships), but will likely have a drop off the following year as players move on.

I’m just think UF has no choice but to kick the can another year. It’s a mess.

 

Offensive coordinators tend to recruit a lot. How do we fall behind Mississippi State in recruiting?