Billy Napier explains what it means to him to stay on schedule in Florida rebuild

7 RS then a bowl win would be a marked improvement. If he can do 8 RS, all the better.

Going to ruffle some feathers but the outcome is what matters. We have the players- QB, RBs, WRs, hopefully OL and I believe a much better Defense.

Sounds good Coach but you and your staff have to be ready to close games out.

 

We can do it. With our team playing the most minutes to freshmen in the country we were an injured QB and 2 defensive stops from 8 RS wins last year. Also, we have advantages over last year:

Massive number of 1st year in system qb opponents.

LSU won't have a Heisman qb.

Tennessee's defense is likely to take a step back if not their offense also.

We play Kentucky later, so we get an idea what their offense will be.

FSU relies mostly on the players that were destroyed by Georgia, except portals, the best of whom are in positions they already had good players such as LB and Edge (needed Richie Leonard, really?)

We get KJ Jefferson this year on a team that has a much, much worse run defense, so we can run up the score against him if the defense can tackle.

S&C has improved under Miles on this team that led in the 4th quarter in 5 close games of which we lost 4.

Mertz is experienced in the system, so early year offensive problems are less likely.

We have depth at OT, so we won't have to play 2nd team OT who arent fully recovered, as in Mizz and FSU losses.

We don't need to wait 4 weeks to know who our go to receivers and place kicker are.

Special teams analysts will be on the field to avoid gaffes.

Defense will be much more experienced and has depth at every position and key personnel healthy: Boone and Moore. Tackling has been the primary focus over learning the system.

 

It'd be nice to crush some opponents and not have to worry about hanging on to close out games. It'd also be nice to be dreaming about double digit wins and not hoping/praying for a miraculous 7 or 8 win season. Big year for Billy & staff.

 

Destroyed them with their backups. Not much was mentioned about that after the slaughter.

 

Fair. But I think most would agree they would have been blown out anyway. UGA played to prove something, FSU didn’t. I think it still would have been a 50-something to a 20-something score regardless, if the opt outs would’ve played.

 

I don't really get it that Georgia would have anything to prove more than FSU. You would think these FSU opt outs would want to prove themselves against their best competition that year to improve their draft status. But after Travis went down, they showed what mercenaries they really were. No love for FSU at all. Just a stepping stone. Norvel is back to square one but with better record to recruit with.

 

Just checked the fpi, which is interesting. Good news: It rates Florida 20th. Bad news: Eight of our opponents are ranked higher. EIGHT! I wonder if there's a team with more than five higher ranked opponents.

 

Vandy

 

This is where Napier loses me on his philosophy. It is the antithesis of the Spurrier game plan. What happened to get a big lead until the other team is totally demoralized and then lean on your running game after they've been pulverized on the scoreboard?

The win a 4th Qtr game philosophy speaks to me as a plan for under-talented teams vs. the competition. Is this what we the fans are subtly being told to expect in the near future? Sure there are going to be some 4th Qtr games that are going to have to be won in a league as good as the SEC, but it would be a much better plan to score as fast and often as possible and get your younger back-ups some valuable game experience when the game is no longer in doubt.

 

Playing to keep it close is not a winning mentality. Maybe when he has more trust in the team (o-line, Mertz downfield, or defense at all) he won’t be so conservative? Otherwise that’s just not a way to win in the current game.

 

That would be great but we just need to be in the game at this point with our schedule. There won’t be many double digit leads much less blowout.

 

I really had no problem with Mertz doing that. He was chosen by Napier among various options, all of which ended up not being as reliable as Mertz last year. But his one problem was a high number of turnovers at UW. Mertz reined that in while nearly getting us 30 points per game in his first year. He was more successful than an overwhelming majority of fans thought he would be thanks to CBN and Mertz.

 

As I said at the time, process guys scare me. Most are unable to break free and see the forest for the trees. Keeping hope alive

 

“Okay guys for this last quarter and a half I want to do something besides what has been working great so far.”