Serious question - in year 3 do you really see significant progress? Discipline? Development? Scheme? Boosters who have paid tens of millions to BN for 2 losing seasons are hardly to blame IMO.
That was a nice win but let’s not forget that was UCF. This is not the type of win that is going to give us momentum or change things for Napier. We must wait and see how we do in the next few games. We have yet to beat a quality team. There are still a lot of red flags from last night albeit the defense played significantly better.
Yes. Last night our defense shut down a prolific running attack, limiting them to about 200 less yards on the ground than their record entering the game. We have sufficient offense to win games - our biggest problem is on defense, and they were much improved last night. Tackling was better. Our very young team has talent but damn little experience. It’s reasonable to look for improvement over time. Only thing that pissed me off last night was the way we came out in the 3rd. Again. Whatever they do at halftime is not working. It’s concerning and maddening. But yes, I see improvement.
Reality check: we beat a team that threw out potentially half the playbook and was shockingly one dimensional.
I said after the Miami game that the following 4 were crucial for Billy. He needed to go 4-0 to have a chance to save his job. He went 3-1. I do believe he still has a chance to save his job. It’s about 10% or less but it does exist. He will need to beat UT, Kentucky, F$U, and find an upset win somewhere. Most likely candidates are LSU and Ole Miss. It’s not impossible. It can be done, and it will require Napier to step out of his comfort zone quite a bit. But it’s either that or never having a HC job that matters ever again.
As of today, Napier has been pretty much Napier. Is it enough? I doubt it, but we shall see. He needs to win a game or two against an above-middling team. Kentucky is good start. Maybe Tennessee but not likely. LSU would be a VERY nice second win. Then, he needs to win against a BAD FSU team and it would be extremely helpful to win their Weedwhacker Bowl game, whomever we play. THEN I can see Napier getting his 4th year.
Don’t get your panties twisted and hear me out. I break the season into two. 2022: 5-1 2023: 4-2 2024: 3-2 so far I’d say 22 and 23 were DECENT (NOT AMAZING) starts. The problem with Billy Ball is the Ws are usually a struggle and they come against the weak part of the schedule. The back half of the schedule is when the real competition begins and the wheels fall off. He had to face two quality teams to start the season and we see how that went for him. It’s FOOLs GOLD. He can barley beat the teams he should and never beats a quality team. That was the premise of my post.
The rest of college football is helping out Billy. Have you ever seen a year with so many upsets? 7 ranked teams were upset yesterday with Miami pulling out a win by 1 point. Maybe NIL is bringing parody.
If history is any indication we are getting close to the part of the season where we get allergic to winning... I believe his fate has already been decided but it will become self evident to everyone if we go into our usual swoon.
Billy's mission this season is to keep good-great players on this team as much as possible for the next guy, and if that means building a brotherhood-bond and maintaining some morale through some meaningless wins then so be it.
Winning/losing a bowl game won’t be part of Napier staying or being fired. Any change in coaching will have to happen no later then end of the regular season. No program waits another month to make a coaching change decision based on a meaningless bowl game.
You make good points but NEVER beating good teams means 22’ Utah and 23’ Tennessee were not good teams. Don’t know why wingtee’s post was included here, I was responding to MarineG8R
Agree with all except that bowl games are “meaningless.” They are only “meaningless” to the schools that lose them. But you are imminently correct that any decision on Napier has to come before a bowl game. That’s why 6-6 regular season finish might be the worst possible outcome.
As I said previously, BN may get another year. SS should not be part of the new coaching hire. I DON’T think that BN is the guy for us for the record.
