Hard to say at this point what considerable improvement would be IF a losing record. I suppose injuries and some really bad officiating could contribute to that. If only we could win 7 regular then a bowl. That to me would be solid improvement and really help his efforts recruiting.
This is a spot on assessment of the mechanics of the program as a whole. I think CBN has absolutely won the offseason but this does not TOTALLY account for in game issues. Some of it was talent, some was assistant coaches but some of our miscues and lack of aggression, scheme, tempo, player usage, field usage etc is squarely on Billy. He has GOT to be better on gameday. And the 1st time it rears its ugly head or loses us a few games/ folks will be chastised for “being impatient and critical and needing time for Billy to develop” we need to get cleared up the 2 different issues - off field (which he is crushing it fixing) on field (remains to be seen)
I think Billy has done an A+ job figuring some things out this offseason but yeah- ON gameday he’s gotta be better. There’s no doubt some of his coaching or emphasis on program building over scheme has lost is some games. I actually think we are going to be sneaky good this year- like 8 or 9 wins good I think he’s here another 2-3 years unless we go like 2-10… I think he’s been promised 5 years to build it… so I don’t think it matters what ppl think about what should happen at the end of year 3 anyway. What are we all agreeing on as progress though? 7 wins? 6 and a bowl? Wins over rivals? Not losing to UK or UCF? What is the measuring stick? Because I’d like to know when we as fans are allowed to be critical? It’s been the same rift for the past 3 coaches. Half fans want them gone. Half of them call the other half bad gators and then pretend they wanted him fired after he’s gone lol. I wanna enjoy this season so I’d like to hear a consensus from the board on when we criticize?
I think you should do some homework and consult the SEC leaders on defense, check our schedule and their schedules, and the points we scored on them compared to other teams on their schedule and get back with us. Hint: we were among the highest scorers against each of the defensive leaders in the SEC on our schedule.
I looked at the schedule that was posted above and I see about 6 wins and that's with the mindset of how good we were last year, just minus the head-scratching, bone-headed, stupid mistakes we saw. If we take some strides forward, based on numerous insider reports a clear possibility, we are definitely capable of one or two more wins so 7 or 8 seems doable. I'm hoping we can win the first 5, then the 6th is at TN. They're good and they want revenge at home. I'm hoping but we probably lose that one. After that we scratch and claw our way to 2 - 4 the rest of the way. That spells about 7 or 8 wins.
A stat that I find very meaningful is that of the first 7 opponents, the 6 who are P4 opponents do not have a returning full time starter at qb and 2 have a new coach. However, brutal the schedule may look, we are meeting those teams at the right time.
I think the offense picks it up some this year. Last year we still a rebuilding year on offense and defense.
Let's see how much more overall experience our team shows this year versus last year. We made upgrades in the offseason in talent... the depth... the coaches. All of that bodes well for our team.
I have to agree with some of this, and it's still a work in progress. But you can't have some of that without the depth that you need to keep every position unit on the field fresh. This will be the first year that Napier will be close to set at every position, although I would like 2 more superstars on the receiving corp, but we have enough to get closer to where we need to be.
You may get your wish/ I think there’s a chance Tank, Mizell and Badger do some special things in addition to solid Jackson, Dike, Burke and that will take pressure off Tre we gotta open it up and have more tempo though. The team feeds off the rythym
I'm glad you mentioned Jackson, too many people are overlooking him for the new guys. He might not start but he will see plenty of playing time. But I do like the receiving corp as a whole. I can't wait to see who besides Wilson steps up this year. We should be at least 2 deep in talent... That would be something special. I won't presume to put them in order at this time. But we have at least 6 (some you mentioned) talented receivers that will make up a great corp of receivers.
I don't plan to judge this season on W/L straight up. It might wind up an historically tough schedule. As a thought experiment: imagine we only get 6 wins, but have 3 losses by 1 point to teams that finish in the top 7. And along the way, we look like an actual football team. As someone taking the long view vs. win-now, I'll take it, and feel like Year 4 could be lining up nicely. I'd absolutely take that over rolling the dice on another coach and likely AD change.
That's the best "low-bar" expectation one could have for this upcoming season. I like setting myself up for a disappointing outing this coming season by ridiculously over estimating our wins. Lol... I think 8 wins is very doable.
