I’m not so sure. We don’t have one player listed in the top 150 players in college football by most publications and we don’t have a single first team SEC selection. We have a few above average players but outside of true freshman DJ lagway, I don’t see a real difference maker.
What I said was that the last team the vast majority of GN said was clearly the better team was the 1995 Cornhuskers. Being on the various message boards for nearly 30 years provides a wealth of excuses and rationalization, something EVERY team's fanbase does.
Its easy for pundits to re-rank the players and downgrade ones from losing teams, but the facts are that UF has consistently recruited in or very close to the top 20. The more important metric is what has been done with them once they signed here. A lot of Mullen's recruits never made it to campus or left (or were run-off) during the transition. Napier has signed difference makers. One of them plays for UGa. There are at least a few still on the team (James, Lagway, Wilson, Castell), but are very young. Will they be developed and retained? One of the real issues is that there really haven't been any difference makers on the lines of scrimmage. If they had those, they would make all the other position groups look a lot better.
If both lines were good/great, we have the talent to get to 7 or 8 wins. The lines takes the most time to develope... especially the O-line.
Most of the sec has top 20 nil cash so that’s not really an advantage. How many sec teams are spending more than us? It’s not all about money but success won’t happen without it. Top twenty in nil isn’t going to win many games in the sec.
NFL draft is also a good barometer of talent. It says we didn’t have much last year and I bet we don’t have many names called at the end of this year either. The nfl talent we have are just getting their feet wet.
Depends on who is doing the coaching. Whether you have talent or not, by year 3 it's on the coach imo.
In any year, the talent th was bought or not is going to affect the product . Talent is purchased then coached. We didn’t buy enough talent. I’m been saying our offensive line talent isn’t good enough forever and it’s not.
Two comments. First, UF was competing cash wise the last 2 years. This trope about us not buying talent is inaccurate (look at Lagway). Second, you say “we didn’t buy enough talent.” Enough talent for what - getting blown out twice at home and looking at a 2-3 win season? Sorry, no, we did buy enough talent not to be a joke and to be competitive.
Everybody sees the poor offensive line play. That's not really news. Continually blaming losses on facilities, UF administration, Mullen, no NIL money, etc etc is just more excuses. At this point it's on the coach. He decides who gets recruited and who gets the $$$. I'm confident Lagway got a nice $$.
Has there every been a coach fired in the middle of September, except for ones that there were either NCAA violations or personal conduct issues?
Arkansas fired Jack Crowe after the 1st game of 1992 USCw fired Clay Helton 2 games into the 2021 season and Kiffin was fired 4 games into 2013, that was late September though.
