Fixed special teams for Florida Football also reveals Billy Napier's core flaw

I'm not as harsh as this but my take as a CBN supporter is he doesn't have a sense of urgency regarding these problems.

Coaching is a people business and it's good to value people- but as a manager you have to make tough choices and not accept mediocrity.
I haven't seen CBN pursue and demand excellence as someone like Saban or Spurrier or Meyer did.

But let's not pass judgment on the QB thing yet. We don't know right now.

 

I don't say this sarcastically but he believes in his process... it will just take time. I'm not as hard on some of our staff as the rest of the board. BG has put a ton of talent into the NFL. Robert's coached some excellent defenses in the past. But Napier initially brought in a lot of staff from Louisiana. I thought his time next to Saban and Dabo assuaged any concerns with his staff being too green at this level because surely Napier knew the difference in sun belt vs SEC but results say otherwise. Saban had a staff of former head coaches along with veteran coordinators. We really did roll in to a gun fight armed with knives...

 

This is a true and important observation. And it's really, really difficult. It's the art of coaching that is difficult to quantify and constantly filled with complicated, competing issues. That's why there are so few coaches, especially at this level, considered truly successful, if not great. And it's part of the reason it's so incredibly well compensated at this level. Everyone is chasing great and there's no singular magic formula or scientific process. A very select few consistently pull it off while a different person following their same plan could easily fail. It's art and science, hard work and giftedness.

 

Great post and if I could add a story.
Once someone on here posted that "coaching football was not rocket science."
I replied actually its much harder to be a successful SEC football coach than to be a rocket scientist.
Because how many successful SEC coaches have there been- Saban, Meyer, Spurrier, Smart...maybe 1-4 more.
So 6-10 in the last 35 years?
There's far more rocket scientists and brain surgeons than 6-10 in 35 years.

It's hard stuff...

 

Or, you could make friends with really good coaches that share your drive for winning and not settling for just "OK". Then keep them around.

 

To use a military analogy, as you become the commander you have to accept that there will be casualties under your leadership. Some decisions will hurt more than others but its all for the betterment or survival of the entire group.

 

Not sure I agree with this entirely. Special Teams was broken. He fixed it (apparently). That is a good thing. CBN keeping the old ST coordinator on isn't necessarily a bad thing, it just depends on where he lands and what kind of responsibility he has. Some people are good at some jobs and not others. Now, if CBN had promoted the guy to DC or something, that would be a whole different story.

As far as the QB situation is concerned, I actually believe that CBN will do the right thing. I say this because I'm thinking about the Etienne situation in year 1. Etienne started out as RB3, behind Trell and Wright, IIRC. It was pretty clear that Etienne was really good, and it didn't take long for him long to become RB2. It didn't happen overnight, but it happened in a timely manner from what I remember. I actually would love to see some old depth charts from 2022 to see exactly how it happened, but I would expect something similar (assuming what we all have seen to be true as of now with regards to Lagway's abilities).

 

He thinks he's helping by fostering a nice guy, everyone wins environment but he fails to realize these choices negatively impact the other 12,645,812 people on the team and staff. All it does is pull everyone else slightly down.

 

I think the idea involves the specific issue of special teams and potential trend of reassignment rather than release. The struggling special teams/game changer coordinator was maintained but an additional coach was hired. The struggling strength and conditioning coach was given an administrative promotion and a new coach was hired. And the struggling young defensive coordinator was given a "coach for the coach" who at least the TV camera operators think is the actual DC based off who gets video coverage during the games.

 

Yes, Saban is right that Napier needs to fix the culture. That’s a work in progress and we need to see signs of it really soon.

Premise for the article is flawed though. Napier fixed the special teams issue and you’re going to criticize him on his approach? Team sports has always been about the people in the building and maximizing what you got.

Is he a little too nice to his coaches and players? Sure. Is he probably overvaluing rotating players too much maybe because of the transfer portal? Sure. But if he wins, we wouldn’t be having these discussions.

My point is fixing special teams is a win and his approach worked. We just need to see it work on offense and especially defense now.

 

I agree with what you say here... My issue was more with taking some exception to the premise as stated in the article about keeping the previous staff member around. In my opinion, CBN has done fairly well in replacing people that needed to be replaced.

As far as the "system" is concerned, I don't even know what the "system" is; does anyone besides CBN? But you're correct in that it damn sure isn't working! Maybe the "system" kicks in against TAMU! I'm not betting on it though.

 

Saban did not fire Kiffen for not being good enough; he was un willing to tolerate a coach whose attention was divided as they prepared to play for a national championship.

 

Kiffen wasn’t good enough? I doubt that. I’d like to hear what really went down.