A Mike Farrell Sports Columnist Said Gators would be better off if Dan Mullen was still here

I don't agree but given that recruiting is actually now just seeing who can give some HS players more money in a desperate beg to get them to play instead of recruiting he might have a point. Mullens offense combined with enough old guys trying to live vicariously through 18 year olds who wouldn't talk to them on the street would be pretty good. CFB is weird now.

 

Pro-Mullen? Hardly. He was a failure. But it doesn’t preclude Billy from being a failure either. Neither of them recruited to the level we need them to.

 

Yes, it is. But PD, magnificent Gator that he is, had indicated that a goalpost was moving with a certain segment of the fanbase. We have gone from “Napier’s incoming #3 class proves he is superior to Mullen, and we must keep Napier for the long haul” to “Napier’s #15 class is superior to Mullen’s #15 class. And PD’s answer to my question on that more or less confirms my suspicion.

I love you, man. Always have. If there is a finer Gator than you out there, I have not met them yet. But a third losing season is not a “long” rebuild. It’s a non-rebuild. And if he can’t show basic progress in three, then he won’t show it in four or five or six. This season will be his last sans a winning record, and that is a prediction not a prescription. The noise will get unbearable for the decision makers, and they will fire him.

 

Yet to be determined for Napier. Doesn't look great at this point but he hasnt stagnated and he's making changes along the way. He needs to show results this year for sure or he'll be the next one out. Results meaning consistent improvement not the up and down mess we have seen for two years. I don't think it's impossible.

 

At this point in Billy's tenure, you can only judge progress. Whether he is a success or failure (comparing to Mullen) is premature now. If the rebuild takes another year, two or three, which the responsible parties will decide when, then at that point we will all have a better idea of how the CBN era will have worked out.
At this time, lots of changes going on in our roster, coaching staff, NIL, etc. This is all very fluid. I view this years haul as potentially a game changer for us... With Lagway, McCray, and Graham...

 

You really don’t pay close attention, do you? You should have taken better notes because you got schooled on that thread. But I guess some are just slow learners.

 

Napier's recruiting to this point smokes what Mullen brought in. Mullen brought in elam, Dexter and a handful of others. His QB room was terrible. He never capitalized on Pitts success with another tight end except for Zipperer. His receiver recruiting was atrocious. For all of his offensive playcalling prowess he brought in next to nothing.

The people that don't see a difference in recruiting between Mullen and Napier are choosing to see what they want to see. Granted Etienne may leave but he has already had several young and talented players flash with more to come.

Again, where would the offense be without the contributions from Pearsall, Wilson, Johnson, boardingham, Etienne, Mertz and company only 2 years removed from Mullen? That dude left the program with next to nothing.

 

I liked Mullen and wanted him to succeed but the team quit on him when that happened he had to go. As bad a things got this year, the team played hard all year and never quit on Napier. They were 2 plays away from 7 and 5 . They need about 5 or 6 decent players in the portal and they will have the makings of a very competitive team next year. We will see how it goes .

 

I think we mostly agree, if there's no improvement this coming season a 4th year for Billy probably won't happen. Especially if he gets verbal & then everything falls apart last minute. My disagreements are the class comparisons. Mullens was loaded with non qualifiers, and then the other half never saw the field. Billy's otoh did qualify, and beat out the guys that stayed for the most part. But appreciate the kind words, I'm always the optimistic one until I can't be. I loved Mullen for example until he kept TG, Knox, & the OL coach and it completely annihilated this program that is still haunting UF.

Now if Billy ends up not being the guy, Stricklan HAS to go too & UF had better go find the best AD in the country & hire the best HC money can buy. If the university cares anything about CFB anymore that is.

 

We would be better off with stability in our coaching staff. On our second DC, second DL coach, second LB coach, second secondary coach, second TE coach, and only 3 years in

 

Yes thank you! This team NEVER quit on Billy, but the players absolutely quit on Mullen.

 

I agree that Billy still has a chance to pull this out if he makes a big turnaround this year. From what has been rumbling on in the background, he doesn’t have another 2 or three years to do it. It’s do or die this year. He needs to get some difference makers in the portal.

 

Mullen would still be here if Mullen wasn’t Mullen

 

They definitely like the money! I don't really think they care if the football is average as long as the gravy train keeps rolling.

 

Late to the party but hard to disagree with him.

We thought Grantham was rock bottom. And then Toney and Armstrong produced nauseating defenses.

We knew Mullen was a lazy recruiter, and yet Billy’s recruiting rankings are no better.

We thought we had a culture problem with Mullen, and yet after two years we are a complete disorganized mess on gamedays.

Right now the only thing Billy has going over Mullen is that it looks like he will get most, if not all, of his recruits on campus. However with the transfer portal that can be a short-lived thing.

If you take all emotion out of that argument and put aside how we feel about Mullen and the hope we have for Billy, the numbers don’t lie. This is a draw at best. If you mask the name of the program and the name of the coaches and look strictly at numbers, you cannot come to a conclusion where Napier is better than Mullen and Mullen merited firing in favor of Napier.

So we must inject emotion into the argument in order to justify what transpired. Not a good place to find yourself in.

 

Yes. You injected emotion into your argument and ignored some numbers I agree.

 

Just because firing Mullen was the right thing to do does not equal hiring Billy Napier was the right thing to do.

I still have hope for Napier, but not based on the numbers, stats, and records he has produced. I think getting this entire recruiting class to campus and some portal additions is something to build on.

 

Only thing I don't agree on is the recruiting comparison. We actually have talent to build on. Mullens numbers were inflated and not based on any substance. Totally smoke and mirrors. Billy shortened his leash quite a bit with starting with Arkansas but he's adapting at least. Had Mullen fired Grantham and tried to recruit then he would still be here. Muschamp could have been here still if he adapted and just got out of the way of the offense. Adaptability is one of the main reasons I have hope although if he doesn't get an OC all bets are off.