Opinions

We are Florida, we are great, and our best years have yet to come.

 

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I don't think people are willing to admit just how good Smart is in addition to how young he is and seemingly how personally stable he is. He is set up to dominate for a length of time you just don't see anywhere. The most comparable coach I can think of is Bobby Bowden. Bowden brought his A-game every year from 1987-2000. Except when Bowden started that run, he was 57. Smart is 46 right now and is probably about to win his second NC. He graduated from the school he coaches at. He does not seem to have any interest in the NFL. There is no indication he will ever have a freakout incident like Urban Meyer. There is nothing that says Smart can't be doing what he is doing for 20 years. He's going to be a problem for the kids of our current players.

 

I like BN.He's rebuilding an old house and every time he tears down a wall he finds another problem. I feel for the players leaving (except for those who left on their own) because most of them just want to be Gators. I fervently hope Billy has players lined up to replace the draftees, transfers and others because if he doesn't fill those slots we are dead in the water.

 

Yep. He could be making a Saban-like run. The machine is running smoothly just need to feed it.

 

Never fear, my brother. We are in great hands with Napier, and all is going to be great, and a lot faster than most think. Napier is together, a tireless worker, driven, knows the map, organized, great family man, stands for the right things, walks the talk, and is tough as all get out without needing to be a belligerent a--hole.

Losing some good people (Chief Borders) in the process hurts, but the future is sustainably strong.

 

Nobody is knocking Spring sports.

My point is there are so many sports that winning a title isn’t impressive in terms of an overall athletic program. Many schools win titles as I showed.

The elite programs win multiple titles or are highly competitive in nearly all sports. Oklahoma is the example. Bama isn’t far behind.

We are in the next tier at best.

The other argument is 16 v 5. The reality is it doesn’t influence football. Michigan is a similar academic school as we are and they have a great football program now.

I just don’t see how being 5 rather than 16 helps 99% of the alumni base and 98% of the student base. It just isn’t a big enough difference. I have a signed Tebow jersey behind me in my office… that gets plenty of conversations going. That’s worth more for my career than being 5th vs 16th.

 

IMHO-some previous coaches took the money and ran... (practically criminal)

Academics are upper tier at Florida, Football and basketball, baseball, Swimming and diving, gymnastics, women's soccer, tennis, track...all upper level. The biggies; football and basketball have struggled to regain their dominance, but hopefully will be back there soon. Crap, golf used to be super good too, haven't heard much about that. Womens lacrosse is always in the mix.

We are fortunate. Great coaches and great academics. But...football and basketball..can we please be good again?

As Gatorhead mentioned, one of the keys to this is adjusting to the new paradigm in sports with Nil $, transfers, super conferences etc. It reminds me a little bit of back when schools were flying around highly questionable kids with bad attitudes that were simply milking the system. They changed that after a bit, and for the good. But now we have a new monster and some adjustments will need to be ushered in. I'm not suggesting the kids are milking the system (although, I'm sure some are) I'm just saying this will need some type of governance.

Eventually, the townspeople will bring the torches to the monsters mansion. But in the meantime, as mentioned, the coaches that can understand, navigate and make the best of the current situation will be the winners.

Go Gators.

 

So if "Chump" took a Ferrari and drove it into a ditch because of the desire to have a pro set offense, how did Meyer turn in a Zookian 8-5 in 2010? And no, it wasn't because of his spazzed head, asst coaches or other distractions.

Put another way, had Cam not been kicked off, does anyone think the Gators would have lost five games?

No.

Newton was to be a continuation of Tebow in the spread option. John Brantley, bless him was a pocket passer who, unlike Chris Leak, didn't have the experience or football IQ to make the transition to the spread option.

Muschamp was a weak head coach, but the collapse was not all his doing.

 

Lots of good points.

1.) Say what you will of Muschamp, but there were no obviously great coaches out there waiting to be hired by us. Look at all the other new hires for the 2011 and 2012 seasons. All the ultimately successful coaches had even shakier resumes than Muschamp.

2.) Brantley just wasn't very good in any offense.

3.) The first sign of the collapse, even before Cam Newton's dismissal, was probably the busted 2008 recruiting class. It was supposed to be a top class and the only really good player who came out of it was Janoris Jenkins. Those are the players who should have carried us in 2010 and 2011.

 

Do you even know what a 'midline' is?

 

You do realize that Cheeseburger Charlie was brought in specifically to convert the O to a pro set. Chump didn't want to run the spread. Meyer's O (actually using the zone read) was way ahead of its time and people were skeptical that it could work long term in the SEC.
Meyer had already checked out in 2010 and the dazzler was obviously not a solution. Do you seriously think that Chump with Cam would have been a solution? The whole Cam Newton affair hurt us big time, however had Foley brought in a dynamic coach instead of Chump we would have never crashed and burned like we did. We did have Jordan Reed who would have won us a few more games with the right coach.

 

Cam Newton won a NFL MVP playing for conservative Ron Rivera. He’s that darned good he would have won with Muschamp.

 

Much revisionist history.

This whole discussion about cam newton is ABSURD relating to Chump. Newton left florida in the spring of 2009. Had he stayed he would have graduated end of 2010. Meyer was gone after the 2010 season, Chump was hired in 2011.

 

Two questions:

1) Who would be the coach that would run Meyer's Spread-Option without Meyer or Mullen?

2) Who would be the quarterback that would have the required skill sets? Not John Brantley.

I do agree that Muschamp preferred a pro set offense in order to better control the ball and keep the defense rested, but again, why did Meyer go 8-5 in 2020?

Yes, the conventional wisdom. If Meyer didn't check out, he would have gone 11-2 even without Tebow or Newton, and that Addazio simply disallowed Meyer to interfere with HIS offense. Nah, that excuse is too pat.

Hard to say. Even with John Brantley, Florida went 7-6. With a superstar like Cam? Who knows, perhaps he would have had back-to-back 11-2 seasons? You don't know he wouldn't have. Hell, Cam led Auburn to an undefeated season in spite of having a defense nowhere near as good as Boom's. Was Malzahn's offense that innovative, or did Cam MAKE it innovative?

In 2010, Auburn's offense was 7th in the nation.
In 2011, Auburn's offense was 100th in the nation.

Both with Malzahn. What happened? did Malzahn "check out" as well?

In 2012, Auburn's offense was 115th in the nation, after Malzahn left.

Don't buy it. Muschamp went 7-6 in 2011, followed by 11-2 in 2012. No "more dynamic coach" would have turned 2010 into a continuation of the Tebow years.

So you think the "right coach" would have made him a quarterback? Sheer speculation.

I'm not absolving Muschamp as a coach at all, but a time-honored tradition among fans is to break out the scapegoat horns for a head coach they happen to dislike.

 

From Wiki:

Once Auburn received the ball, Newton drove the Tigers down the field to win the game on Wes Byrum's last-second field goal. Media outlets wrote Newton was upstaged by teammate Michael Dyer, the game's Offensive MVP, and Auburn's defense, which held the high-powered Oregon ground game to just 75 yards[64] On January 13, three days after winning the BCS National Championship, Newton declared for the 2011 NFL Draft, forgoing his senior season.

I'm not sure he was a senior in 2010.

The 2010 Auburn Tigers football team represented Auburn University in the 2010 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The Tigers, led by second-year head coach Gene Chizik were members of the Western Division of the Southeastern Conference and played their home games at Jordan–Hare Stadium. The Tigers completed a 12–0 regular season record and defeated South Carolina in the 2010 SEC Championship Game.

On January 10, 2011, Auburn defeated Oregon in the BCS National Championship Game in Glendale, Arizona, 22–19, to win the second consensus national championship in school history.[1]

The Tigers were led on offense by junior quarterback Cam Newton, who became the third Auburn player to win the Heisman Trophy, distinguishing him as the best player in college football. Newton led the nation in touchdowns responsible for, finishing with 30 passing touchdowns, 20 rushing touchdowns, and one receiving touchdown for a total of 51. He also led the Southeastern Conference in total yards and passing efficiency rating.

 

He might have taken off a year when he transferred out in 2009. He was a sophmore in 2008, had he stayed he would have been playing and would have graduated in 2010

2008 Football Roster - Florida Gators

 

He was a junior in 2010 and chose to forego his senior season. Probably did just that. In 2009, he played for tiny Blinn College, a JUCO. Perhaps that didn't count...

 

Yeah either somehow Blinn didn't count or maybe he was able to retroactively redshirt in either 2007 or 2008 if he didn't play enough snaps or games.

 

It’s a great athletic program but not getting into the football playoffs ever is getting old. I don’t expect to get there in tge next year or two but we need a coach that can sustain a program and hopefully we have it.