LBs were the weakest part of the defense and were an incredible liability. Virtually always out of position, couldn't cover receivers, couldn't get off of blocks, rarely tackled anyone. Either the talent was weak or they weren't being coached very well. If Bateman couldn't coach one position well, how will he ever be able to coordinate all the positons to work a gameplan successfully? He left being DC at UNC to be linebackers coach at UF. How good was he at Carolina then? Also, the last coach we hired that was DC under Mack Brown sucked big time, and he started the Gators freefall from the top of the heap to where we are at this time.
I'm all for it. Proven track record. Having said that, all the Sun Belt naysayers on the board would lose their sh!t over the hire.
Sounds like he’s been a part of a successful defense for some time. Bring him on and get him the talent.
And now they've pissed off Earnest Graham. What the hell are they doing? Did Billy know about Bateman leaving? Hopefully not.
I'd rather they simply make Armstrong DC/LB coach since that is his forte as a position coach. That way we can stop pretending he is a safety coach and go get a real one.
Looking at that twitter thread, some of our fan base on twitter are an embarrassment….with twitter any trash can communicate with the university president and HC…damn
I trust Napier to do the right thing. He showed that with letting coaches go BEFORE signing day. I don’t think he hid this. That being said/ it has the APPEARANCE of a dumpster fire… again. It’s not always what the truth is… it’s what the perception is. The perception is here is yet another thing/ (Rashada, ETN, decommits, players wearing the same jersey number, not knowing when to run a FG unit out…) that Napier is running the Titanic.
He is the new DC at an SEC school. It was a promotion that likely doubled his salary. Let’s not get our panties in a wad over this.
Well this doesn’t help. How about picking up the phone, instead of going freaking twitter. This just makes shit worse.
I hope a fervent supporter and former player like Graham will make a public comment in support assuming this gets ironed out. Social media is such a damaging thing right now and as much as I love the graham's contributions to the program I would have hoped he would have dealt with this internally rather than publicly. Just terrible timing.
OMG. Some of you are way to anxious to blame Napier for everything. Get some proof please before you post. You have zero clue what happened. None of you are that tight with the program but your first reaction is blaming the HC. As for Bateman, I don't blame him a bit. Looks like a nice promotion. Good for him. Claiming the perception is that Napier is running the Titanic when someone takes a promotion is beyond sad.
