Is Fan apathy setting in?

Come on, we both know Willie was going to turn it around. He just needed more time.

 

As far as "programs" are concerned, we're in good company. Notre Dame and Texas made the list too.

We'll be okay. One of the things that made me passionate about UF sports in the first place was stories from my dad. He characterized UF as some of the best times of his life, best sports atmosphere he's ever witnessed, loudest stadium in the country. I don't think I'm alone when I say these are things worth preserving. Keep sending that message to your kids and current students.

But when your fanbase is monstrously huge, and you're the most successful team in the country for 20 years, you're going to attract some bandwagon fans and some casuals... and when the winning goes away, so will the bandwagon fans and the casuals. This rule applies to any program with a national brand. It took a while, but the aura of the Urban Meyer and Tim Tebow Gator standard is completely gone. The expectations and standards have changed. We act like they haven't but they have. We'll be back.

 

No coach is ever going to say they "gave up."

Call it what you will, but the on-field results in 2021 paired with the rapid deterioration of recruiting... it tells a story... and that story was that a small leak in Mullen's ship had now become a gaping hole in multiple parts of the ship. And even if he hadn't given up, the ship was lost. Our options were to wait until the ship sinks to the bottom or try our chances with the life boats. No guarantee the life boats will save us, but they give us a chance.

This is all with the caveat that Mullen was going to remain who he was moving forward. The game changes when a coach is willing to change, but I think Mullen was probably the most stubborn coach we've had in the last decade and that's saying something. Dude had warning signs about the defense throughout his whole tenure here and did nothing about it.

 

You're right, but because QBs don't grow on trees you need to build a system where you're good even with merely an adequate QB.

College doesn't have a salary cap, it can be done.

 

Meh... Our entire schedule was conference opponents and we only played 10 games. Saying we only won 8 games makes it sound much worse than it really was.

What killed the 2020 team was stupidity in the LSU game and bowl game opt-outs. I'm not going to look at a road loss to Texas A&M and a heavyweight respectable loss in the championship game to Bama as a complete failure.

 

Yep, in hindsight he made the right call.

Just wish we could've turned that potential into production more with him, but I know it wasn't due to a lack of effort. He cared.

 

The two best teams in the country in 2009 played each other in a game that would decide who would play in the National Championship game (the SEC Championship), rather than the National Championship game itself.

 

That’s the case many years

 

The belief I'll take to my grave is that had Stricklin stuck with McElwain and provided him cover for the stupid death threats comment, we'd be slugging it out with UGa now. He could recruit, ran a system that was attractive to NFL-seeking players and wasn't a bad gameday coach. He lost his best QB and tried to make it work, then got hit with the credit cards, then he said something stupid and BOOM!. He apparently was also not liked in the building and not liked by his boss, so that didn't help. But had Jeremy stayed another year or so as AD, I think Mac would have built something here. Maybe Napier will do the same.

 

Meh... Mac's tenure can be summarized by plugging one hole, two leaks emerging (fix recruiting, defense turns to crap). Mullen's can be summarized by a little water that would've been manageable early on had it been addressed, got out of control because he pretended there wasn't a leak (recruiting and defensive issues that really got worse with time).

Mac also had the luxury of a really down SEC East when he was successful, and I'm one of the first to give him credit for winning the East two years in a row. But he was consistently outmatched whenever we played the big boys. The only outlier is when we had Will Grier and we beat Ole Miss when they were top 5. He'd almost always win against the bad teams (which is something), but he'd rarely even look competitive against the good teams.

 

Judging from the tone of this thread, it is clear Gator Nation is plagued by the same disease as infects all other programs, in fact, I think, is a pretty good indicator of the Ethos of current American society.

The word of the day is instant gratification.

I find it funny how people are pointing to TN as an example of "what could be". Funny how those same people seem to forget it took UT over 20 years to rise from abject mediocrity. Sooner or later the law of averages will "give you one".

Lets see how things are shaking in Knoxville in 2 years.

Everyone has opinions, and most people are looking for that instant gratification coaching savior that can turn water into wine.

I will be interested to see how Neon does at Colorado this year. Perhaps coaching miracles do happen. We shall see in his case.

I do not pretend to be an expert, simply a Gator fan. But remarkable changes have happened recently. The foundation and tradition of amatuer collegiate football has been rattled to the core. Many people have opinions, but from my perspective it's strictly a business now. "NFL Light". I think Napier was confronted with the double challange of a program in disarray AND the "talent aquisition business" completely changed.

I happen to believe - and dare I say it - the model to pursue for success is recruiting. Sadly, the best examples of that model reside in Athens, Tuscaloosa and perhaps Columbus.

And why is that? Because the above three are PILLAGING Florida HS talent and beating everyone, including US, with OUR OWN.

So I believe the model for success is recruiting and keeping talent in state, particularily in Gainesville and I don't think that happens in one or two years.

 

I also understand McElwain shut-out the OBC in addition to everyone else in the building. That screams "undeserved arrogance" to me. Those kinds of people make their own beds and when things turn south, they look around for help and find they have alienated everyone.

 

Then that make up stories about threats... get fired.

 

The point of my post was that 2020 was an extremely successful season (not a disappointment) with a QB who clearly executed Mullen's offense to an extremely high degree of success and it equated to 8-4. Making a leap in logic that AR in Mullen's offense wins 10-11 last year is as I said, absurd.