By: David Wunderlich -- April 14, 2023 The first rule of spring games is not to take too much from spring games. You never know what the head coach is trying to get out of the thing. It is, after all, a practice. A public exhibition too, of course, but also a practice. If Coach wants to work on a few specific things instead of putting on a good show, then tough. Billy Napier is nothing if not a meticulous planner, so you’d better believe he decided ahead of time what would and wouldn’t be going on in the Swamp on Thursday night. Give Florida’s offense a grade of Incomplete for 2023 Orange and Blue Game | GatorCountry.com
Incomplete grade? As in our QBs throw incompletions, then yes I agree. But, seriously, an Incomplete is inaccurate. Like giving CBN an incomplete for a complete 6-7 year. No, give it the real grade... D - or F.
There’s something I guess I’m missing. Mertz is said not to have performed badly. He was 18-29 for 244 1 TD no int. Those kinds of numbers, assuming a solid running game and an improved defense signals a better 2023.
It’s a freakin spring scrimmage game, where we clear the bench and give all 106 players on the roster an opportunity to experience live action football (against each other), to see who can handle what. ALL spring games are an incomplete. I remember Luke Del Rio in his 2016 spring debut carving up the defense …then come fall it was the defense that actually carried us all season. Yes! …an incomplete. Some keep looking at the macro and not the micro. The micro is what coaches are looking at.
Yep… it is what it is. If the offense would have put up huge numbers (seen that before in spring games.. with TD passes to alums coming off the sidelines) then everyone would be excited about the potential of the offense but would be worried about the defense. This year it’s the opposite and I’m kind of glad CBN took a serious approach regarding the game. The team needs serious work and he knows it. When our players are playing against each other, one unit is probably going to look better than the other, therefore the other must look worse. That’s about all we can take from it
And the fake sacks in a real game with his actual starting line would alter those numbers. Maybe he makes some throws, maybe he gets thrown on his head a few times. It’s a scrimmage with mismatch players in the spring.
Here's a more brutal assessment: Hayes: Gators’ Spring game reveals painful truth: Time for Billy Napier to head back to portal to find a QB
Not sure I agree that there were a bunch of sacks that weren’t called. If anything, I would say Billy wasn’t cutting the qb’s any slack on that at all. If a defender got close, they whistled it dead.
"Remember, Napier and his staff evaluated 24 quarterbacks from the winter portal and chose Mertz — an enigmatic former blue-chip recruit who never met expectations at Wisconsin." I think this needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Yes he said it, but what he supposed to say "we liked about a dozen guys better but couldn't land them so we're stuck with who we got"? If you want to fault Billy for not being able to land someone better that's fair, but it's not like Sam Hartman (who like most of the transfer QBs doesnt excite me that much either) was begging to come here and we said no we like this guy better.
Didn’t land a top flight HS QB in the first 2yrs either. Sam Hartman is far-far better than all the current QB’s on the roster, imho.
