Post-Game Discussion: Arkansas at FLORIDA

My thoughts exactly. We are nowhere near where we need to be talent-wise. Love him or hate him, Kirby Smart is absolutely right about recruiting. It is THE most important factor in building a program. You can be the greatest Xs and Os guy out there, if you don't have the players, you have nothing. Put a few more 4 or 5-stars on the field but with the exact same play calls and mistakes by BN and his staff, and we slaughter those pigs yesterday.

 

I'm with Bazza on this one. We have some ballers, but the coaches need to coach them up AND put them in a position to win. Losing at home to a 2 win team blows beyond belief, BUT... time to move on.

Beat someone now we're not supposed to beat.

Things to work on: Clock management. coaching. Protecting the QB, stopping the run. Passing the ball downfield. The running game. Have special teams. Block a kick. Try at least!! (Kick returns improved as did punt returns) Yay. Things to do: Take accountability quit the mirroring politicians responses, (avoid the issue coach speak babble). Make change. Let Mertz pass rolling out of the pocket. Win. Put a spy on running QB's. Throw the ball somewhere other than behind the line of scrimmage. I know nothing about FB but these things come to mind FWIW.

Go Gators.

 

Great post!
This post indirectly refers to the revolving door that UF football coaches have spun through in the past 13 years. In that time frame we had 4 coaches who came and exited. 5 coaches when you count the hiring of Napier.

You cannot build a well seasoned coaching staff like Kirby/UGA has done with bad coaching hires. Since 1964 (almost 49 years), UGA has had only 5 head football coach hires. When Kirby Smart checked back in with UGA, he walked into a very stable situatiton. The prior HBC (Mark Richt was at UGA for the prior 15 seasons. Kirby has now been the HBC at UGA for the past 8 seasons. It is very easy to see that Smart and the UGA Athletic Department has not let any grass grown under their feet.

At the end of this season (which most likely be 3 weeks from now), Napier needs to take a good, long, and hard look at his coaching style and staff. He needs to evaluate every one on his staff. Also, he needs to decide on who will be his Offensive Coordinator and Special Teams Coach.

 

Florida reminds me of some of the great past programs like Nebraska, USC, Minnesota and Miami. All of these teams were very successful at one time but none of them have returned to any sense of prominence.

 

We're comparing Golden, not BN, to Billy D although I understand this is the football forum.

You are wrong. I was there and I remember it clearly. His record as a young coach at Marshall was just decent, but most of all, people were excited about getting a former top assistant for Pitino at Kentucky, which at the time was a powerhouse. Plus, his style of play was exciting and he was bringing in Jason Williams with him. There was a lot of optimism for the basketball program when he was hired.

 

This is where I'm at. Arkansas was essentially a must-win, but instead we allowed a team with six consecutive losses to get their mojo back on our home field. We gave up 33pts in regulation to a team that scored 3 its last game . And once again, ST had a couple of crucial misses that prevented us from winning in regulation. This HAS to be the low point in the Napier era. And no, I'm not discounting the fact we might go 5-7. I'm saying this was the game we shoulda won and if we indeed go 5-7, this is the game that lead us there.

 

If we finish 0 - 5 I agree with everything you say. Billy is fast getting to a 3 year expiration date at this point.

While my expectations were low this year, Billy is not doing himself any favors with repetitive errors at several levels.

 

You know it was a terrible game when the post game thread is 40 pages and still going strong on Sunday.

 

Uh I was there too dude. The excitement didn’t come with the hiring. It came with his recruiting.

 

Yeah Davis, honestly, after 9 games, I find the players (talent) assistants and head coach are really at a very middling level in the SEC. Bottom third is my impression.

It's hard to keep blaming all this on Mullen. That clarion call is fast losing its luster.

My take, barring some success in the last
Three games (unlikely), is that Gator Nation will not be patient beyond next year.

Napiers time clock took a huge hit yesterday.

 

Maybe BN suffers from over analyzing. With the amount of staff he hired we shouldn’t see all of these game time errors with clock, ST etc. it’s weird.

Guy seems to talk a good game during the week but doesn’t deliver on Saturday.

 

I know there might not be too many on this board who would agree, but I am excited to see what this team will be in the future. We are a super young team atm and everybody knew we were gonna take our lumps this year--and I'm sure this was conveyed to our recruits prior to the season. I think we were given a lot of false hope after the big Tennessee win and comeback at USCe, but these guys are still growing up and have a ton of potential.

I don't think there is anything we are seeing on Saturdays that is not correctable, the question is whether Billy will actually correct them, like hiring actual OC and ST coaches.

 

Ha! I thought the same thing.

2nd quarter and 4th mostly. The piersall/tre pass was a poorly designed play.

The no call on KJ was atrocious

boardingham down the stretch impressed me. Why didn’t they use them in the first half

I don’t understand Hansen in motion. Just get him in one spot and let him do his job.

 

If this team doesn't dramatically improve, next season could be a three or four win season at best. They will be favored against Sanford, probably against UCF & Miss St, and maybe Miami but dogs against everyone else. Ugh!

 

I agree with you Marine. Sometimes you can’t see the forest for the trees.

 

You may have seen things differently than I did, sure, but the fact is, people were excited about hiring Pitino's top assistant to run the basketball program

Serious question: how would you compare the level of excitement for the Billy D hire in 1996 to that of Golden in 2022?

My point is, in 2023 and after multiple national championships in football and basketball, we should not be hiring unproven coaches anymore. It's a travesty at this point that our current football and basketball coaches are Billy Napier and Todd Golden, respectively.

 

If for no other reason than he owes it to his players. After this game it is painfully obvious that the staff, including the head coach, are limiting their potential.

 

For me it’s the same. An unproven coach is an unproven coach. Like it or not, Spurrier and Billy D were test cases showing it can be done successfully and that has dictated most of our hiring since. I can’t remember is ever hiring a proven P5 coach for any sport.

 

I think the overanalyzing has led to players overthinking on the field. We really weren’t playing to win, but to not lose generally.

 

I don’t think UF is attractive to those guys. Sure it pays well, but a lot of schools are paying well. It’s consistently a tough schedule. It’s a pressure cooker. Unless they have a direct tie to the school or area it doesn’t make sense. Of the proven P5 coaches with success I don’t see any that UF could attract.