The Future of Gator Football is...

The future of Gator football is opening day in the Swamp versus Miami.

 

The future of gator football is the rise of a once proud and dominate defense.

 

There's no individual replacement for Pearsall's perfect routes. But, collectively, I'm hoping these guys can fill the void.

 

I just hope Mertz gets an extra second to go through progressions. It’s hard to find that third receiver wide open when your running.

 

That’s what she said

 

Play calling can be limited by who you have to work with, and how much (or little) confidence you have in your defense. I don’t think we’ve seen enough to judge Billy’s play calling yet. This year should be a better indicator

 

She was lieing

 

I like for the defense to become dominant again and dominate our opponents.

 

Paramount, has to happen. And if the OL isn't protecting, Napier has to have something dialed up, from practice and preparation, that keeps him from being... hammered.

 

Quick throws is all you can do

 

There really isn't reason we don't have a solid defense this year. We have the jimmy's and joes and now the coaching.

 

The future of Gator football is...

Uncertain.

Remember, in 2003, Zook went 9-4 on the field with probably a tougher schedule we will have this year, with a defense ranked 51st in the nation (we were ranked 69th last year) AND with a true freshman quarterback. Sooner or later, we have to focus on the staff. Billy has a leash that Zook would have killed for. I want Billy to succeed, but...

 

Zook never went 9-4 and did not have a tougher schedule. Zook took over a winning program that had a huge name after 12 years of dominate football and championships, which made it easy to recruit and he had plenty of talent still on the roster. The situation could not be more different.

 

On the field. Does any REAL Gator believe The Swindle At The Swamp was a loss?

2003 top 8 opponents, record final AP poll rank minus our head to head game:

LSU................13-0 (MNC)
Miami.............10-2 (5th)
Georgia...........11-2 (7th)
Iowa................ 9-3 (8th)
FSU.................. 9-3 (11th)
Ole Miss.............9-3 (13th)
Tennessee..........9-3 (15th)

plus

Arkansas............9-3

Total:.................79-19 (.806)


To put in perspective, Spurrier's winning percentage at Florida is .817. Meyer's W/L record is .813. Imagine playing eight teams with a cumulative average of .806. Do you think this year's schedule will match THAT? Doubtful. Making the huge assumption that these preseason rankings reflect the final rankings:

* Georgia plays five top 16 opponents, plus a possible SECCG and a top bowl opponent. You think they would run the table against 7-8 top 15 teams?
* LSU plays four top 25 opponents, including #2 Alabama. Add a bowl game and that makes five. Are they going 4-1?
* FSU plays only three top 25 opponents plus perhaps the ACCCG and a good bowl opponent. They lost a ton of players. Are they going 10-3?
* Ole Miss plays only three top 25 teams, but all are in the top 11, including Georgia. Will they match 2003's record?
* Tennessee plays four top 25 teams, including both Alabama and Georgia. They also play Oklahoma and NC State. Neither are gimmes.
* Texas plays only three top 25 teams, but two are Michigan and Georgia, plus the Red River Shootout.

We also play the Canes the Aggies and the "Cats, whom are considered better than we are, but are they really as good as people think? Dunno. Either way, I don't see eight opponents with a cumulative W/L winning percentage over .800. Do you?

You mean the program where SOS admitted "the cupboard was bare" because our 2001 class was ranked 31st, and many of our top-ranked 2000 class left the team? Where we had 13 news starters each year of Zook's tenure? No one ever said Zook had it easy recruiting here. For whatever faults this man had, talent identification and recruiting wasn't among them. In 2006, 23 of 24 starters on Florida's MNC team were Zook's recruits. Zook was SOS' top recruiter, which was why Foley hired him in the first place.

As for the talent, the offensive talent was great with the FnG, but Ed Zaunbrecher's system was more horizontal, similar to Spurrier's offense with the Redskins. Our 2005 offense was different than Fedora's offense in 2004, which caused our offense to dip to 61st in the nation while Meyer went...yes...9-3. Defensively, we lost 8 starters on defense in both 2002 and 2003, which explained the dip in performance. Charley Strong did a helluva job keeping the defense together.

Then there was what Billy inherited. Yes, Mullen's last year was 6-7, but the three years prior was 8-4, 11-2 and 10-3 for a 35-16 (.686). Spurrier's record his last four seasons were indeed much better (10-2, 10-3, 9-4, and 10-2 for a 39-11 total (.780)), but don't make it out to think Florida were bottom feeders during Mullen's time here. Folks said Mullen's recruiting sucked, but he had national rankings of 14th, 9th, 8th and 12th. Yes, I am prepared to hear the tried and true "Rankings suck," "They all didn't stay," "Many were busts," ad nauseum. That happens with most teams. Billy's rankings were 18th, 13th and 13th. Are we absolutely sure Billy is a better judge of talent than Mullen?

How about player development? The best way to figure that out is to look at the number of players drafted into the NFL. I need not elaborate on this.

And I suppose, the final analysis for Gator fans is that Zook went 8-5, 8-5 and 7-4 (.622) his only three years here. Billy went 6-7, 5-7 and what? If Vegas is accurate and we win 5 games this year, it will be three losing seasons in a row. We may have a much better team than our record indicates, but schedules help determine that. One thing for certain. If Billy has a third losing record in a row, he won't be here in 2025. If Zook was the Worst Head Coach Going Down To Pop Warner Level after finishing .622, what will that make Billy?

"You are what your record says you are." Bill Parcells

 

An awful lot of stats in your post. You might want to double check them because you got off to a bad start. Lsu was not 13-0, Zook beat them in Red Stick with a freshman QB.

 

I wish I had so much time to prove zook>napier. Come on August!

 

Minus the head to head game. Tennessee, Ole Miss and Iowa were actually 10-3 that year.