**The end is not near, for Billy Napier at Florida**

The yards per play differential was .73 in Florida’s favor. Setting aside the noise (“Napier should only run it up the middle but only when it works and if it doesn’t work it means he’s an idiot”) the difference came down to turnovers, which is the one stat that nearly always supersedes YPPD. Both of our turnovers resulted in either not scoring or a Tennessee score. Tennessee's defense was stout in the red zone (sorry, I mean “Napier is incompetent and should be fired immediately”) which is not surprising given that they were playing at home. I’m in the minority but I think Napier’s mess ups were roughly equivalent to Heupel’s but two turnovers leading to 14 points of swing was by far the determining factor. But, of course “Napier has no idea what he’s doing and we need XYZ immediately and he will definitely recruit a new, much better team, in the few weeks of recruiting he’ll have.”

 

I think Kiffin would be an outstanding hire. We're not going to find a coach with natties on their resume already. Kiffin put in the time as OC @Bama and you know the expectations that come with that. Not just Saban, but those fans. Then he went to FAU and turned their program around. I've talked to a couple of parents who had boys play for Kiffin at FAU. Players love him and have only good things to say. At Ole Miss, he has them about as good as they'll ever be for an SEC school. With Texas and Oklahoma coming on board, even elite SEC schools are going to lose two games every year. If someone runs the table in the SEC, good god, but they would have to be extremely lucky. But it ain't happenin' at Ole Miss. Kentucky appears to be the ultimate trap game in the SEC this year after holding UGA to 13 points. Kiffin would excel at UF.

 

Don't talk about robots like that.

 

I mean no offensive coordinator...no special teams coach....two defensive coordinators.....two offensive line coaches...etc.

How Scott Stricklin as an AD at an SEC program gets away with the out of control incompetence is mind boggling.

 

Bottom line: With the game on the line, Napier doesn’t show the situational awareness nor the command of his team that is necessary to win games. He has shown that to us over and over again for going on three years.

 

The difference came down to putting 12 men on the field to kick a field goal. Not even mentioning jet sweep on 4th and 1, running mertz instead of a rb or at least dual threat qb, and going for it on 4th at midfield. In short coaching decisions.

 

The dude tries so hard to "outsmart" his opponent, when going for higher percentage plays would have been the better decision.

 

No need for a well reasoned anaylsis of the game needed here. Rereading the score prediction thread had many here predicting 10+ point all the way up to boat raced.

No surprising these same were predicting players quitting and sitting out post Tam. The gators showed up and should have won in hind sight. With that same hind sight BN would gave also kicked 3more 1st half FGs for the win.

If anyone would have said pregame we have 2 TOs one at ut GL the other deep in out territory and we lose GM and MJ during the game and were a non-attempted 2pt try with 2min left to play. Most would be less disgusted today.

Unfortunately, many allow expectations to rise during the contest despite being woefully pessimistic prior ko

 

I get your points. If the jet sweep works, he looks like a gutsy genius. Mertz probably needs to have better awareness and ball security at the goal line. Etc etc

The problem is he has no positive reputation to fall back on in cases of games like last night. Every coach is going to have their dumb calls, but how often is that versus calling a good game? BN has 3 years of the same tendencies that we saw last night. That’s why the reaction is way louder than what it would normally be. Is BN receiving a fair assessment right now? No. Has he earned a fair assessment? No.

 

That’s all great in year one or two, not year three. He is what his record says he is. On the road, at home and against ranked teams. It’s not going to change.

 

So how many more losses before you find another favorite choice? LK is doing what he does, a Dan Mullen imitation with much more appealing personality.

 

Dan Mullen was a pretty good coach and developer of talent. If you can give me a Dan Mullen who loves to recruit and won’t lose the flame, I’d take that every day of the year over what we have had since Meyer left. It’s not like we’re going to be able to bring Nick Saban out of retirement or hire Kirby Smart.

 

The expectation is to win games. That is not unreasonable- especially at UF.

In 2.5 years Napier has an abysmal / losing record at UF. Napier has the on field performance so low that we were more than a 2 td underdog on the road even though our talent profile is higher than that opponent. The reason we are such an underdog is due to coaching. So yeah, lots of posters on this board and fans went into the game expecting little because the program is in dire straits due to the coaching.

The team played well enough to win and yeah, some of that is due to the prep and in game coaching - but then the same blunders that have been happening for years (timeout management, personnel decisions, untimely penalties, special teams mishaps, etc) reared it’s ugly head - all the positives from this game get forgotten when the dame coaches helped to blow the victory.

so I wouldn’t be blaming the fans for getting excited to see the team possibly pull off an upset and getting raised expectations because we didn’t get routed.

blame the coaches for lowering the expectations to begin with.

 

Not blaming thats the fans job.

just posting observations

 

So you have named 3 nonstarters
FTR DM was a square peg in a round hole looking to stepping stone from uf when he signed on

 

I've never seen Lane having to have the rules explained to him by a ref.

 

The only analysis you need is how many trips in the red zone for three points. There’s just no excuse for it.

 

1. He's a character guy and SS likes that. BN will not hurt himself outside of football that would prompt firing.
2. As part of BN's incompetence there really isn't anyone on staff really capable leading the team as hc for the rest of the season.
3. Firing BN now or before the season will most likely cause mental shutdown from players who obviously care about their hc.
4. With the D playing better I think the rest of the games will be fairly competitive without a major blowout. UGA game has the potential but I don't see it. So without an embarrassing loss he stays.
5. With BN finishing the season it lessens the buyout.
6. BN's staff must know the end is near so it gives them time to prepare for the inevitable.
7. BN is smart enough to know he will be fired at the end of the season and is preparing for that as to what his next move might be. He will have a plan in place as in finding a realtor, location to move to before the next gig and evaluating potential openings at other schools and which of those he'd be interested in or taking a 6 month vacation in Hawaii with all the money he has inherited. Meanwhile, SS or a group is already developing a list of potential replacements with a timeline of contacting these coaches when the time is right as to their interest. So, things are happening behind the scenes and hopefully the powers at top will forbid SS from making the pick

What can Gator fans expect for the rest of the season? More defeats, more heartaches, more embarrassing losses due to inept coaching and more decommits. BN was hired to build a program and in 3 short years managed to destroy a program. And to top it off he's getting paid royally to do it.
The season can't end soon enough!

 

He finishes the season because he is being paid to do so until he is fired. Then he collects his check.

 

You are correct jo excuse for a senior QB to lose a fumble at the 1 on a sneak, ST struggles again with FG and a questionable call 4/1. All of that plus losing your QB,RB1 and throwing a pick deep in your own territory and yet they potentially lost on a decision that should have been made last Tuesday in the office wrt (what are we going to if very late game down by 1) kick or go for 2?

If 2pt was the decision what 4 plays are we repping this week? This decision is shared Tuesday with the team. Extra emphasis is placed on the selected plays and their execution and above all else is the team buy-in of WINNING the game by aggressively attempting to controlthe outcome.

FTR
If BN had know 9pts would gave been enough he would have kicked the 3 FGs, hindsight is a bitch.