The sun came up today!!
All joking aside, yesterday sucked, but it is irrelevant in the long run. It showed us a few things we knew and a few we weren't positive about.
- We realized that while AR is imperfect, his athleticism and ability to break open any play kept defenses on their heels and allowed our OL to open holes for our RB's all season. With a less athletic threat at QB, OSU was able to pin back their ears and come at the QB as well as stack the box and stop the run. Miller may be a able capable backup QB but he will not take us to where we want to go.
- Missing O'Cyress and AR hurt a lot yesterday. Missing 2 of our top 3 players on offense severely limited us on that side of the ball. We did not have the big man to run behind and we didn't have the RPO we had all season.
- Penalties were an area that we had improved upon throughout the year, but the last few games and especially yesterday they reared their ugly head and hurt us badly.
- Special Teams are not special and need a major overhaul in the offseason.
- Defense was missing its best player, in Miller, but they are young and if we can bring in a couple LB's and DT's we should be better. The jury is still out on Toney and Coach Savage from a coaching standpoint, but if they can bring in high level talent it will help offset the coaching deficiencies.
- And this team is young. Very young.
- As far as Coach Napier goes, I believe he is they guy to get us back. You can complain all you want about his time management, his deficiencies at in game coaching, etc.. BUT he is acting like a CEO which is what you need in college football these days. He took less personal compensation to elevate his coaching staff, he demanded an upgrade to the facilities and support staff, he has made recruiting a priority, he has already brought two 5 stars into the fold, which is the most important position on the field and is changing the culture.
- All that being said, this year was tough, but should have been expected. We all got our hopes up after the Utah game, but it was fools gold. we definitely need to close out our HS recruiting strong, need to strike some gold in the portal, need to hire a special teams coach and seriously reevaluate some of the in-game coaching throughout the year and make improvements.
- Billy is playing the long game which is what any good CEO will do. He is not going to get into a bidding war for HS kids that makes no sense as that would undermine the culture he is creating. Those HS players he may miss on now due to $$$ will ending up leaving those programs in a year or two. We need to have patience. All those fans who just complain are not looking at this strategically and just want band aids to cover the problem rather than finding the cure. The cure takes time but is the right choice in the long run.
- Next year, we probably won't win more then 8 games, but I suspect we will see glimpses of what is to come. I expect we will close strong in HS recruiting and do well in the portal. Billy and his staff have a chance to evaluate how their coaching stands up to SEC coaching, which we all know was below par this year, but I believe he is smart, hungry enough and humble enough to honestly evaluate and hold himself and his staff accountable and make adjustments.
- I believe that judging Napier and his staff this year is premature. Judgement of Napier and the program he is building starting with this class and moving forward is warranted. We paid the price this year for previous poor hires. The evaluation starts now. Let's see how he does.
GO GATORS!!
All joking aside, yesterday sucked, but it is irrelevant in the long run. It showed us a few things we knew and a few we weren't positive about.
- We realized that while AR is imperfect, his athleticism and ability to break open any play kept defenses on their heels and allowed our OL to open holes for our RB's all season. With a less athletic threat at QB, OSU was able to pin back their ears and come at the QB as well as stack the box and stop the run. Miller may be a able capable backup QB but he will not take us to where we want to go.
- Missing O'Cyress and AR hurt a lot yesterday. Missing 2 of our top 3 players on offense severely limited us on that side of the ball. We did not have the big man to run behind and we didn't have the RPO we had all season.
- Penalties were an area that we had improved upon throughout the year, but the last few games and especially yesterday they reared their ugly head and hurt us badly.
- Special Teams are not special and need a major overhaul in the offseason.
- Defense was missing its best player, in Miller, but they are young and if we can bring in a couple LB's and DT's we should be better. The jury is still out on Toney and Coach Savage from a coaching standpoint, but if they can bring in high level talent it will help offset the coaching deficiencies.
- And this team is young. Very young.
- As far as Coach Napier goes, I believe he is they guy to get us back. You can complain all you want about his time management, his deficiencies at in game coaching, etc.. BUT he is acting like a CEO which is what you need in college football these days. He took less personal compensation to elevate his coaching staff, he demanded an upgrade to the facilities and support staff, he has made recruiting a priority, he has already brought two 5 stars into the fold, which is the most important position on the field and is changing the culture.
- All that being said, this year was tough, but should have been expected. We all got our hopes up after the Utah game, but it was fools gold. we definitely need to close out our HS recruiting strong, need to strike some gold in the portal, need to hire a special teams coach and seriously reevaluate some of the in-game coaching throughout the year and make improvements.
- Billy is playing the long game which is what any good CEO will do. He is not going to get into a bidding war for HS kids that makes no sense as that would undermine the culture he is creating. Those HS players he may miss on now due to $$$ will ending up leaving those programs in a year or two. We need to have patience. All those fans who just complain are not looking at this strategically and just want band aids to cover the problem rather than finding the cure. The cure takes time but is the right choice in the long run.
- Next year, we probably won't win more then 8 games, but I suspect we will see glimpses of what is to come. I expect we will close strong in HS recruiting and do well in the portal. Billy and his staff have a chance to evaluate how their coaching stands up to SEC coaching, which we all know was below par this year, but I believe he is smart, hungry enough and humble enough to honestly evaluate and hold himself and his staff accountable and make adjustments.
- I believe that judging Napier and his staff this year is premature. Judgement of Napier and the program he is building starting with this class and moving forward is warranted. We paid the price this year for previous poor hires. The evaluation starts now. Let's see how he does.
GO GATORS!!
