drumlin

Texas was allowing 105.5 rushing yards per game and Florida had 197. I believe there is one senior on the offensive line, so next they will return a pretty good group along with talented running backs. Add Lagway, and it becomes a pretty decent offense. If the defense can keep playing as it has, I see potential for better results next year.

There was a nice proposal I heard for a board of directors made up of past coaches (SOS), players to hire a new coach instead of Stricklin. With the House settlement, NIL, and the transfer portal, I think that football should become it's own entity nominally outside the athletic department. I like the BOD idea, and have them hire the GM to manage budget/personnel, including hiring/firing the head coach. There is too much money involved now to have the head coach manage all of this. College football has changed so much in the past few years that the old college football model does not work anymore, and something like the NFL model needs to be used.

All this is well and good, but there is something even more important than Napier being retained and this reported buyout money being re-allocated for NIL purposes. Unless I missed something, Florida has yet to hire a GM to replace Mark Robinson who left a few months ago. It's becoming more and more apparent that a position similar to the GM role in the NFL will be needed at top programs and Florida is yet to hire someone. It's nice to have all this NIL money to spend, but who will come up with a strategy on who to spend it on and how much to spend?

"I will not be attending any future games & Will be taking my funds & support elsewhere ..." Some of these comments are hilarious. I am guessing this moron does not donate to the athletic department at all. All the home games have sold out, so I am not sure what this one "fan" lack of attending games will mean.

Yeah, I agree. I am still not quite sure he will be successful in the long term, but people tend to forget that the football program was a mess for a long time - mostly in terms of lack of support from the administration as evident by poor facilities and support compared to other SEC programs. The team is playing hard and the hope that the results will follow, although there are more games to be played and it will be interesting to see if the team continues to play hard or quits. It would nice to see the buyout money that has supposedly been collected go to NIL to help fill in some roster spots, since there seems to be a nice solid foundation in place.

I never thought that Napier had to have a certain amount of wins to stick around another year. I thought if the team showed improved play on the field, that should be enough. And so far, the team has played much better compared to last year and the first two games, especially the defense and discipline, where the penalties have gone down. But we also have to see how the team performs for the remainder of the season. If he doesn't lose the team during this tough stretch, and they continue to play hard, I think he stays.

Good point. At the beginning of the season, I felt Florida's starting talent level was enough to beat any team on their schedule. The issue I felt was their depth, which wasn't up to Georgia's level. I think it a lot will depend on the injury situation, Marshall, for example, for them to have a chance to beat Georgia. But this article does also point to the fact that QB play can overcome many shortcomings.

I've often criticized O'Gara, but this was an excellent article. Also, kudos for admitting a mistake. One rarely sees that in the media these days.

Yes, but in using the SLT, you must also consider your variables. In other words, if you want to invoke the SLT, then you should start your time clock at the beginning of this year, when the roster finally had Napier's players he recruited instead of Mullen's. So you only have five sample points, so far.

I agree with many things in this article. Here are some things I disagree with .... "But after Florida fell a touchdown short against eventual national champion Alabama in a riveting 2020 SEC Championship Game ... the Gators ... never again looked like a prepared or cohesive program." There were signs already before this game. The best clear indication was when Marco Wilson tossed a shoe in the loss to LSU that cost the team the game, and yet did not face any sort of disciplinary action. That would never have happened to a Saban-coached team. This showed there were still culture issues remaining in the locker room from the Urban Meyer regime. " ...the job at Florida...is to consistently compete for SEC and national championships." This keeps being repeated as if it is some sort of God-given right. It's a nice sound bite for rah-rah coaches, but it gives an illusion of supremacy to the fan base. The reality is that Florida started playing football in 1911 and didn't win it's first SEC championship until 1984. That's 73 years of futility and that's the reality. The fact that the administration did not support the program and upgrade facilities until two years ago makes the job of bringing the program up to even mid-tier SEC level very difficult, especially with neighboring Georgia with an established program and coach. "Against UCF, the Gators played their best defense of the Napier era ..." I thought last year against Tennessee was even better, considering the quality of the opponent. "On the other hand, the Gators haven’t yet played a complete game, where all 3 phases are clicking and everything seems to come together at once." What is almost never mentioned is the game between the ears. Most of the Florida problems, I feel, are mental - lack of focus, discipline. They played a good game Saturday, but still had too many penalties. That to me shows a lapse in mental focus. This needs to improve if Florida wants to beat Tennessee on Saturday.

"..short screen passes behind the line .." This is dependent on two things ... one is the physical limitations of Mertz and two is the inexperience of Lagway. We saw against Miami and Texas A&M the result of Mertz trying to pass down the field. If Napier is still coaching the team next year, and with Lagway having one year experience, I think the downfield passing game will open up. It's not as if all the receivers are waiting for passes behind the line of scrimmage.

There may be some truth to this article, but I don't understand how Wasson arrived to some his conclusions. "The gigs at Alabama, Georgia and Texas are certainly top tier, and coaching at Tennessee, LSU and Oklahoma aren’t far behind at all ..." First, the six schools mentioned do not have open positions, so any potential new hire would have to follow a successful coach. Yet Wasson notes this about Zook ... "Granted, no one wanted to be the guy who followed the guy ..." So I am not clear how this applies to Florida but not any other program. How is LSU listed as a better SEC gig when they fired a coach two years after winning a national championship? All six of these schools listed have gone through a similar cycle that Florida is currently experiencing. I think a few people here have already mentioned that what distinguishes Florida from other schools is the talent available in-state. Without looking at any other factor, I believe this makes the Florida job rather attractive. The only difference between Florida and the other schools listed (except for Texas) is that Florida will have to compete with other in-state programs (FSU, Miami) for in-state recruits.

True, and I've said this before ... Florida has been playing football since 1906, yet did not win an SEC until 1984. Florida fans can be arrogant without any real foundation.

There was a recent article by Jesse Simonton on On3 (I'm not sure if one is allowed to post links here) on problems within Florida's UAA coming from Foley holdovers. He did not imply that these were bad people, but that they mostly had outdated ideas. I think Stricklin gets too much criticism and Foley gets too much praise. It was during Foley's administration that the facilities decayed to the point of being a laughing stock within the SEC. Sticklin was hired to update the facilities in all sports, and this is exactly what he has done. The campus is completely different now, and football operations/facilities are now at least up to par with the other heavyweight programs. The next coach will have most of what he needs in place already.

Foley did not hire Spurrier. Bill Arnsparger did.

Here's the thing that I can't understand with most in the Florida fan base and media. For some reason, they believe that it's normal for the Florida football team to be playing for championships ignoring the fact that Florida has been playing football since 1906 and didn't win an SEC championship until 1984!

It's both amusing and sad to read columnists who have no clue about what it's like to compete at the highest levels. As an example ... "Contrary to what Napier said at SEC Media Days, the Gators are not on schedule." I am guessing O'Gara is comparing the program to others that either had established culture and facilities or hired hot-shot coaches who continuously replenish through the transfer portal, or both. Florida hired a coach who was an offensive wiz, but lacked social skills to recruit and did not have the facilities in place to attract recruits. Mullen was successful and won quite a few games for a couple years, but there was no underlying foundation to the program to maintain long-term success. Napier is trying to establish a foundation built on culture and discipline, which should in the long run yield long-term stability. I am not necessarily pro-Napier, since I believe it's still yet to be determined if he will be a successful coach in the SEC, but I am more a believer in that he is building a program that will eventually yield good results. He is not relying on smoke and mirrors as other coaches. O'Gara and many vocal minority Gator "fans" seem to lack the appreciation of what Napier is trying to do. Fortunately, Stricklin understands all this. which brings us to ... " ... the midweek firing of Stricklin..." is not going to happen. He will not be fired by the president who hired him for the purpose of improving the sports facilities at Florida. The campus looks completely different now compared to when Stricklin started, so he has done what he was hired to do. Funny how morons tend to tie the job performance of AD solely to the W-L record of a football team when he oversees much more. As for O'Gara's predictions, I can't comment too much since there are a lot of unknowns. I believe Florida's fortunes will be dependent on the defense (they need to improve their tackling) and cut down on their penalties (showing improved mental focus). One thing I will predict, is that if Etienne starts for Georgia, Florida will get six sacks in the game.

Wow! You rely on O'Gara to back up what you write? This is your idea of research?

What is interesting to me is how people choose to pick a point in history to argue a point. People tend to ignore Napier's whole history as head coach ... he's won a couple of conference titles.

"Ah, the culture is different ...perhaps you’re nodding your head along with that and saying that Dan Mullen’s stench still lingered over the program." Actually, it was Urban Meyer who broke the culture, as he himself admitted. This fact seems to be ignored all the time. "I suppose McElwain’s ominous chatter before 2017 was less about his performance and more about his shark-mounting doppelganger and the credit card fraud case" - no ... McElwain had an abrasive personality, who publicly criticized his employers. I think that had more to do than anything the media likes to obsess with.

In reply to both @gagatorlakelife and @gatorfan8115 ... First, I am not one of the "Napier worshippers", so I am not emotional one way or another. I try to look at things realistically. I don't think we know enough about Napier to judge whether or not he will succeed in the SEC. I think this year we will be able to judge him as the HC for UF. Let's not call him a bad coach, since he did succeed at Louisiana. We also should stop comparing him to other hires such as Kelley at LSU since the state of the two programs at the time of their hires were on completely different ends of the spectrum. "Go look at some of the Florida football message boards ..." ... I read some of these boards occasionally and find the toxic messages come mostly from morons. I've written this before, and people tend to forget how bad of a program UF football had become, and not all due to Mullen. Spurrier changed the program, but the university leadership did not do anything to upgrade the facilities while every other school in the SEC did. This set the program back and is only now beginning to catch up. Meyer broke the culture of the program, as he himself admitted. The coaches hired after him were unable to change this, and while each coach hired after him had some flaws, they were unable to mask the flaws due to the continued bad culture. Napier was hired to first fix the culture, which he seems to have done - this season will show us one way or another. The facilities are now on par with the rest of the SEC. "You’re going to see numerous posts of fans who are so sick and tired of him they’re ready to quit watching football all together." ... how many fans are you talking about? It seems like most of the home games last year were sellouts and I would not be suprised it all but one of the games this year will sell out. Statements like this from you and the morons who post such drivel only show how foolish you are. I don't think anyone from the UAA will lose sleep over the vocal minority not watching football. "...Scott Stricklin has failed..." ... Stricklin was hired to improve the facilities for all sports, which he has done. The campus looks completely different now than compared to when he was hired, so he has done his job. " ...recruiting is not going well ..." ...I think last year at this time, everyone was singing praises of Napier with all the top end commits he received. By December, some of those commits signed elsewhere. People were up in arms when Cormani McClain committed to Colorado, but here he is with the Gators this year. The point is to not get to uptight about recruiting in July ... things can turn out to be much different in a year or two with the transfer portal and NIL. As for Napier, I think this year will begin to show us what he brings to the table, since he has gotten rid of the me-first type that were in the locker room. He did make some mistakes with staff hires, but he has made changes in his first three years to correct those mistakes. Regardless of how recruiting goes this year, he has an ace in his pocket with DJ Lagway. If he is as good as advertised, I think Napier stays even next year.

Florida fans somehow think that because it's Florida, that there is no reason they should not be competing for championships. Hayes and everyone ignores how broken the program has become since Urban Meyer, who admitted he broke the culture. Administrators failed to keep facilities up for years, and only now have caught up with the rest of the SEC, as other schools are now upgrading the facilities that were way better than Florida's for years. Both Napier and Stricklin knew how bad the program has gotten, and both knew it would take time to rebuild. Hayes is taking Spurrier out of context here a little bit - Spurrier says that "Gators" - whoever he is referring to - are asking some ambiguous question. The fact that Spurrier can't answer only indicates he is probably, as Hayes mentions, playing too much golf and not really involved in the internal daily operations of the program. Hayes also ignores the many former Gator players who have been coming around, are in fact supporting Napier and the program he is building. Players like Wuerffel, Tebow, Spikes, etc. Hayes' writing is an example of a journalistic practice that is common these days that I refer to as selective ignorance.

1. "Such a move is rooted in interest and excitement, ..." No, every move so far has been rooted in money. Had it been rooted in interest, there would have been playoffs a long time ago like in the other football divisions. The money from bowls has been holding college football hostage for many years, and now TV money has taken over. The root of all problems in college football lies in greed of college administrators. 2. "The number of blowouts from the history of the 4-team Playoff is enough to illustrate that,..." There have always been blowouts in big bowl games, even before the 4-team playoffs started. I believe the problem there is the long layoff between the last regular season game played and the actual bowl game, which can be over a month. These games need to be played no later than 2 weeks after the last regular season game. I really believe that players are no longer in game shape with such a large layoff, and too many distractions can occur to mentally alter their performance. Play the games sooner!

"It’s about the players, not the universities." There are some good points made in this article, but I somewhat disagree with this premise which is comparing to the NFL. With pro leagues, it's possible a player plays for one team for over a decade and is identified with the team. With college, it's a maximum of four years, and usually the first one or two, the player is a backup. I look at the college model in these terms: in the beginning, you had a field and players with a few people coming to root for the hme team. More people start coming to games, and you maybe start having them pay to attend games, or you build bleacher seats to allow more people to attend games. Larger stadiums follow, and then TV enters the picture, on a regional level. In my opinion, all this is OK. It's really in the last 40 years or so where there has been a huge increase of exposure on national TV networks that the game has changed. You went from a sort of natural progression of management, to one of greed driving every decision. I think it's this point of (over ?) exposure on TV that you can start saying that because there is a strong motivation to make money over any consideration of the student athlete that the argument can be made that they are employees and must now be given the right to bargain over the university administrators' obvious exploitation of their talents.

I find it amusing whenever someone assumes that the only duties of a school's AD is to hire and fire football coaches. O'Gara tries to fend off critics by acknowledging that other sports at UF exist, but ignores the fact the UF finished fifth again in the NCAA Director's Cup rankings, and has been as high as second and never lower than fifth under Stricklin. He also ignores the new facilities constructed under Stricklin in many sports, including football, baseball, softball and upgrades to other sports' facilities as well. The UF athletes had the highest GPA in school history. Football games still sell out, and the school is still bringing in lots of SEC $$$, so by most measures, the athletic program is doing very well. The other amusing thing is the constant criticism of Napier calling plays. Any cognizant being who watched any games would know that the offense was not the problem. Had the defense made a couple plays against Arkansas and Missouri, we would be looking at a 7-5 season. This article really wasn't worth the time used to read it.

I think this article is a decent effort in outlining the issues, but I don't understand how Hayes arrives at his conclusions. People are ignoring what is happening across college campuses more and more as graduate teaching and research students are forming unions. The argument has always been that the research and teaching they had been doing was part of their "training". Analogous to the student athletes that Hayes outlines very well. It's not a matter of if there will be unionizing and collective bargaining, it's just a matter of when. And the future of college football, basketball, and who knows which other college sports, will be decided by attorneys, and not the fans, Kirby Smart, or Matt Hayes.

Dawglb: College football is dead now. The bowls currently are a poor excuse to make some money. The first true Division I national champion won't be decided until next year after the first playoff. Football players unionizing will happen - it's just a matter of time. It doesn't matter whether you or I think it's a good idea or not, it will happen.

Yes, one can argue that opt outs are selfish and only care about themselves. But they have excellent examples in the school presidents who opt out of leagues to go chase TV $. The whole system is broken. Nothing will change until athletes get paid real money with a share of TV revenue. The football players need to form a union and collectively bargain to be paid as employees. Only then can the be forced to play in playoff games. I myself think there's no point in any other bowl game outside of the playoffs.

I think this article misses a key point in "Bowl Season" that I never really liked. O'Gara completely ignores the time element involved in keeping players motivated. I think it's ridiculous that some teams have to wait weeks to play in a meaningless bowl game after playing in their last meaningful game. At most, there should be a two week layoff.

I still think Napier gets at least two more years no matter what. I believe the plan all along was to gut the roster, accept losses in the first few years until the first couple of recruiting classes mature. I understand there is the transfer portal, but I think the belief is that for long term stability, you have to stock the roster with HS recruits. And I think Stricklin signed off on this plan when Napier was hired. I don't think there are other options available except to let him coach his roster for the next couple of years. My guess is Napier is safe through 2025.