Mullens classes were awful. Go look at how many from 19 contributed. He specialized in taking stars irrespective of needs or cast-offs that were never going to qualify. I have concerns about Napier but you never gave him a chance starting from the summer. That said, changes need to be made and definitive improvement needs to be seen next year. No excuses. I'll be on board with you then
We hired a guy and his buddies from a sun Belt team and probably quadrupled their salary from last year. And 15th highest is probably 7th in the SEC? How bold of us. LSU hired ND’s coach and gave him a mega contract. USC hired OK’s coach and gave him a mega contract. We continue to find these “up and comers” that require little effort in prying them from their current situation. And we just hired like a 30 year old basketball coach from San Francisco Colllege. The University of Florida making weak hires like this is ABSOLUTELY scared money. That said, I hope they just let Napier coach the full 7 years of his deal. They’ll just replace him with another dude from the Sun Belt. Might as well not waste our scared money on buyouts.
Gators in football and basketball currently have the 11th best record in the SEC. Not much to get excited about. Thank goodness gymnastics and spring sports are quickly approaching.
Offensive line play was the worst I’ve ever seen from a gator team. The illegal procedures and lack of blocking were atrocious..
Mullen had 1 class in the top 10 and it fell apart immediately after signing day when 4 kids failed to qualify and the top recruit transferred out before even playing a down.
Yep I was critical of Napier almost from the word go, I could see it on the recruiting, and the portal (lack of getting dudes unless they played for him). As the season started I was critical of in game calls, the offensive scheme and use of time outs. As far as Mullen’s classes there have been posts here showing they weren’t as bad as some here have believed,(not top 5 but damn well good enough to beat UK and Vandy and not need a missed FG to hold off USF). I’ll argue it’s people wanting to feel better about firing Mullen and hiring a mid level unknown. Time will tell for sure but unless there are big changes in all 3 areas of the game next year 2024 will have a seat hotter than hell. For the record I’m not expecting 9-3 to say it’s a success. But how the game are won and lost will help gel my thoughts. Funny the things many more here are complains about are exactly what I saw after game 3…
I have seen the opposite here regarding Mullen's classes. There have been posts showing his classes were far worse than their ranking. We took several kids that never saw the field and several other high ranking tweeners that never grew into their positions. We didn't come close to capitalizing on the success of the 2019/2020 offenses at ANY position. We put maclweins WRs, running backs, QB and one of the most prolific TEs in the NFL and yet recruited their positions with who? That was maybe the most egregious example of the recruiting under him if not the total whiff on linebackers and linemen. I'll agree with much of the rest though. I'm willing to give Napier time and I think the hyperbolic negativity on social media that used to be just fan banter has taken on more weight in today's world and creates an atmosphere and narrative of a floundering program that media and fans propagate. It serves no purpose other than harming our own program. With that said, I don't think this season had to play out as it did. USF, Kentucky and vandy shouldn't have happened and honestly the fsu game shouldn't have either. That 3rd quarter is a problem and given the state of the program was a much needed momentum game. The staff is trying but it seems like they don't coach with their backs against the wall at times during game stretches or regarding certain games themselves.
They have a play calling process, but when that process pocket collapses, the switch to plan B is missing.
The Mullen recruiting thing is such a weak excuse. Even with his weak recruiting, our talent level is better than Vandy, Kentucky, Oregon St, USF. You would think there would be progress as the year went along, but the offense was erratic and the defense was abysmal. Maybe, just maybe the coaching has something to do with it. I’m not saying fire Napier. But why are we trying to give him a free pass. Let him hold some accountability here.
I suspect the only way he could get Rob Sale was to give him the OC title and pay him $1mil. Got a bunch of $$$ invested in 2 OL coaches, sure hope it pays off. The co DC coordinators is what I don’t get. If Toney is your guy, why do you need a co-coordinator? Was it the only way he could get Sean Spencer too? Way too much $$$ for 2 guys, should spend the $2mil on one top-shelf DC, imho.
About our punt that got blocked. For the life of me I can't understand why coaches let their punters nowadays run four or five steps straight toward the defense before kicking the ball. It got blocked? Oh, how in the world did that happen? Where and why do they find these step-happy punters? Tell your punter to catch the snap and kick the damn ball! If Napier can't fix something as stupid and obvious as that, there is no hope.
I don't disagree with you in that I would have vastly preferred a proven coach rather than trying to find the next big thing. It's a great payoff when you do find the next great up and coming coach but after going 0-2 with Willie and Jimmy the UAA did find what was thought to be a proven winning SEC coach in Dan Mullen. As much as he screwed it up he did well at MSU, a school that historically is not good. So you can't say the UAA never goes for proven commodities but I do get your point. Anyways, if you look at the college coaches making more than BN and then compare their accomplishments vs his I'd say we are compensating very generously. I don't think your comparisons to Kelly or Riley are valid since I have a feeling neither were interested in UF, Riley ran to the weakest conference in NCAAF to escape the SEC and Kelly probably went to LSU to avoid being impeded by any academic/administrative roadblocks to win a title before retiring. UF plays in the SEC and has more academic/administrative roadblocks than LSU does. I also think USC overpaid drastically for a coach that won't be able to compete with schools outside of the PAC12. Spending $7M+ on a shot in the dark is not cheap at all.
Maybe not the case. Both are represented by Trace Armstrong btw. “Kelly was actually open to dancing with several programs. When Florida’s job opened, its officials were alerted that Riley and Kelly were willing to move, sources tell SI. The Gators were already set on their No. 1 target and the coach they eventually hired, Napier.”
Pretty sure Mullen didn't want to be here the way he let things fall apart. Who knows how hard he would have worked if we gave him more time after forcing him to fire his buddies. The book hasn't been written on Billy yet but the first chapter is a terrible read. We'll have a better picture next season and what he does coaching wise during the off-season.
