As another coaching regime crumbles, I thought it might be useful to assemble some broad lessons we should learn from the post-Meyer experience at Florida. These aren't explicitly football related, beyond the obvious things like "Having good football players is really important." Instead, I think they're important takeaways that can maybe guide how we think and talk about Florida football moving forward. 1. No one knows who'll be successful: The four coaches we've hired since Meyer resigned all had compelling resumes. Well, McElwain was a bit of a stretch, but even he had plenty of positives. Muschamp was a brilliant recruiter, a universally well-respected defensive mind, and was as well-credentialed as any assistant coach could possibly be. McElwain had a reputation as a quarterback developer and had success in the SEC. Mullen was the "safe" hire, a creative playcaller and offensive mind who knew what it took to win in Gainesville. Napier understood the necessity of building a modern organizational structure and recruiting like a fiend. There was every reason to hope they'd succeed here, to a greater or lesser extent. And yet they all failed. The reality is, there's no magic bullet for a great coach. You can't just look for a single variable and say, "This guy has X, therefore he'll succeed." It's a unique environment, and you never know how a coach will handle it. 2. Just because someone is coaching at Florida doesn't mean they're right: Intellectual humility is important, and I have no problem deferring to coaches' judgements from time to time. But we now have 14 years of evidence that becoming the head coach at Florida doesn't mean your judgements are always correct. We should be past the point where we say "Trust the coaches" in response to any criticism or questioning. It's one thing to defer to a coach's judgement when they offer a three-star prospect no one has heard of. It's another thing to say, "How dare you question Jim McElwain's strategy." 3. The critics probably aren't stupid: Going back to National Signing Day 2012 (Muschamp's first recruiting class), there have always been groups of fans who have been deeply critical of the current coach's performance or some element of the current coach's performance. And those groups of fans are always widely derided as irrational lunatics who possess wildly unrealistic expectations and don't understand what they're talking about. Sportswriters mock them, other fans mock them, they're treated as examples of everything wrong with Florida football. And every single time those critical fans have proven to be completely and totally correct in their assessment of the current head coach's performance. They were right about Muschamp, McElwain and Mullen and now they're right about Napier. How many smug, self-righteous lectures did we read about Billy Napier's fiendishly clever long-term strategy and refusal to cut corners or take shortcuts? How many times were critics told that they didn't understand what Napier was doing and they were childish for daring to question it? And yet, here we are. Hopefully the future will turn out better than the past -- hopefully the next coach won't face the same criticism because he won't make the same mistakes. But if he does face that criticism, I think it's pretty clear by this point that the critics shouldn't be dismissed as Looney Tunes who don't understand big boy football.
No one knows who'll be successful and intellectual humility is important so stop trying to interrupt our temper tantrums. This board (and the internet/world in general) would be so much more tolerable if people would stop insisting that everybody else share their opinion (whether optimistic or pessimistic).
To be clear, I am definitely stupid. Absolutely no one should listen to me. But other people might have good points.
Attacking the fan base isn't a good look. in real life, if I voiced my misgivings about Napier, but coming on here and typing the words made zero sense. All of it it is beyond my control. please don’t come on here and gloat and say “I told you so “while the program was burning down during various regimes It’s entirely appropriate to be critical of a coach, I get it. discussing it objectively makes perfect sense many of the comments on the previous coaches turned deeply, personal and unfair. If a fan stood up for a coach, they were torched. It’s a shame it’s come to this point that fans are laughing at other fans and saying I told you so but here we are
muschamp had many red flags and shouldn’t be hired. he was Saban dc at lsu and went to dolphin with him as a position coach, not a dc. That’s the first red flag. He left dolphin before Saban did and became a position coach at auburn. Perhaps saban pushed him out of the door. He was promoted to dc at auburn. He left auburn to become Texas dc. Then when Mack brown was only 55 years old they made champ coach in waiting. It’s a promo and more money for sure but he wa not going to become a head there any time soon. he should be a candidate. During the interview process someone needed to ask him about the offense. I think he would propose about his ancient pro style offense and we should have stopped right there. He wasn’t for the job. jim? That’s even dumber. We had to hire an offense guy while Kirby smart was available. mullen was a third choice and I think he was a good hire considering the circumstances. Napier? When kiffin was available???
I never expected the degree or level of ineptitude Napier has displayed. Everyone, no matter how great has at least some deficits. But Napier has many, and we all saw them early. We largely ignored them, in favor of blaming the other known problems with the program. But even/if/when those other issues got corrected he would still be there holding everyone back. Becoming the ever more obvious issue. Sadly you cannot steer a battleship like a speedboat. And CFB HC jobs are battleships, not speedboats. This will get ugly now, and Napier will lose this team before it is over.
After Urban left, we had a team and a chance to have someone come in and be fairly successful (similar situation to Kalen Deboer - although time will tell). Once Muschamp failed, destroyed our O identity and personnel, that chance going forward of immediate success was lessened. Unless we have a SOS, Meyer, or Saban walk in the door, the new HC will need some time to rebuild. Muschamp and Mac were bad hires that should have never happened. Mullen on appearance had most of the boxes checked, however the interview process obviously didn't flesh out his lack of long term desire to rebuild, and his boredom with continuing at the collegiate level.. Mullen lost interest and wanted out. Had he been motivated to do whatever it takes to rebuild and win, and the fans and administration saw that, he wouldn't have been fired. The point of all this is no matter who we bring in, unless we open up the bank and get a great coach... It's going to take some time to become successful again. At first glance, CBN appeared to be the coach who would need some time. My feeling is he should have gotten at least 3- 4 years, (barring some catastrophe), and here we are in year 3 - catastrophe year. No point in blasting him in years one and/or two IMO. I think myself and probably many of the critics expected this year, after the offseason moves he made, to be that start of good times. Obviously we were all wrong.. And now is the time for action. He probably has a 1% chance or less to save his job, maybe the same chance as a devastating meteor hitting the earth. And the odds are 3-4 years from now we will be having this discussion again, unless the administration and boosters surprise us and get it correct this time.
I don't think it's nearly has broken as the perception -- look at all the players who transferred out who are doing well -- we have talent. College teams are only as good as their assistants -- and it similar to muschamp, we have a head coach who has zero idea how to call plays or institute a successful offense. his in game management has been the worst in the league since his arrival. any human with any sort of intelligence would have realized early on, they need a true offensive play caller and a legit defensive coordinator to be successful. He refused to hire a competent individual for either position, and he was the most incompetent of them all. My guess is some of these analyst he hired probably are doing a good job -- he just doesn't listen to them..... muschamp had potential, refused to keep his hands off the offense mac is and always was a joke, but yet he still made it to 2 sec title games -- granted, that was pre-georgia dominance mullen -- like others said, quit on the team, school and fanbase a real coach could turn this around, one who actually listens to his staff, one who actually hires a good staff, and one who actually knows how to make in game adjustments, and one who knows how to manage the game clock, and one who knows how to line up 11 players after a timeout...
