Sorry Cg1, but I do have hope, it springs eternal.
We are just hoping for different things at this point.
I can remember back to the days when the Gator's yearly motto was,,,,
WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR, so I'm not new..... 🤓
Florida @ Utah - 8/31 @ 8pm...
- Thread starter Gator Fever
- Start date
We are just hoping for different things at this point.
I can remember back to the days when the Gator's yearly motto was,,,,
WAIT TILL NEXT YEAR, so I'm not new..... 🤓
Tough, but fair…Here's another good analysis of Napier's situation, IMO.
Utah loss puts pressure on Napier to prove his model works | GatorCountry.com
www.gatorcountry.com
Others have mentioned it, but it is inexplicable that we do not have a Special Teams Coordinator.
This article sums up perfectly what we see on the field. It's not a lack of attention to detail, it's a combination of nobody assigned to pay attention to certain details or as mentioned Napier has put way too much on his plate. What the hell. Interesting that Frost had a similar structure in place.
You would think with the 1000 member staff that the guy would have more than enough time to get stuff done…maybe he is just a micro-manager…if so, also not good.
He’s probably making coffee for the grounds crew and blowing up floats for the Heavener Center pool every morning by himself…lol
He’s probably making coffee for the grounds crew and blowing up floats for the Heavener Center pool every morning by himself…lol
That is crazy the special teams coach with that silly title is a limited game day coach.
Getting all of this out of the fans system,,, then moving on to the rest of the season....
From Brandon Cattoll of Sports Illustrated
Falling 24-11 to Utah in the 2023 season opener, Florida flashed little improvement from the 2022 version of themselves in a discombobulated effort riddled by inefficiency and mental mistakes.
https://www.si.com/college/florida/...ll-uninspiring-defeat-utah-utes-good-bad-ugly
====
So, it's not all Mertz fault for sure, but then who?
Mertz = 1 TD, 1 Int, 5 Sacks.'
I believe this is a case of stats being slightly misleading. Florida could move the ball at times, but the quarterback and offense as a whole failed to make routine plays when necessary. That is not to say it was all on Mertz; Florida’s line and wide receivers didn’t lend much help. But we saw last night many of the same issues that plagued him during his time at Wisconsin. -- The Gators only converted 1 of 13 third downs and 2 of 5 fourth downs while totaling 13 yards rushing on 21 carries, 0.6 YPC.
Florida drove inside the red zone four times against the Utes but totaled only 10 points on those drives. Florida outgained Utah 108-5 in the third quarter and the Gators were still outscored 7-0. (Pat Dooley - "Mertz was not good in the first half and took advantage of Utah playing a soft defense in the second half after taking a 24-3 lead.")
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nc...-set-a-career-mark-thursday-night/ar-AA1g5WRV
=====
The loss was certainly NOT all Mertz fault, so who else?
RT Damieon George Jr = several false starts (why he's not still at UA)
WR Marcus Burke = several illegal procedures -- WTF?
WR Marcus Wilson & RB Trevor Entienne = taking kicks inside the 10 yard line. WTF x2
#3 Marshall and #3 Wilson on the field at the same time = WTF #3
The defense made some mistakes, but they played well enough to win, (24 Pts).
So where does the responsibility fall? The leadership - HC/OC/QB's Napier & QB Mertz.
Billy's Game Plan? The Gators only ran their two star tailbacks 10 times in the entire game while Mertz threw 44 passes. And if you want to take that further up the responsibility line, then the AD and the UAA....
=====
Gator football tops USA TODAY Sports' misery index for Week 1
In college football, you generally know what you have in a coach by Year 2. There are exceptions, but the second year is when the culture should start to take hold and the improvement should be noticeable.
It’s only one game, sure, but the opener of Billy Napier’s second year was so unimpressive that his $31.9 million buyout is now a topic of conversation in Gator land coming off the back of a 6-7 debut season. At some point, though, is it the (6-8) coach, or is it the school? 🤓
https://gatorswire.usatoday.com/202...ign=internal&itm_content=BelowArticleFeed-SMG
Florida should be happy that the Pac-12 is about to disintegrate. The Gators ended last season with an embarrassing (3-30) loss to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl and started this season with an 11-24 loss to Utah. (14-54 combined) 😳
From Brandon Cattoll of Sports Illustrated
Falling 24-11 to Utah in the 2023 season opener, Florida flashed little improvement from the 2022 version of themselves in a discombobulated effort riddled by inefficiency and mental mistakes.
https://www.si.com/college/florida/...ll-uninspiring-defeat-utah-utes-good-bad-ugly
====
So, it's not all Mertz fault for sure, but then who?
Mertz = 1 TD, 1 Int, 5 Sacks.'
I believe this is a case of stats being slightly misleading. Florida could move the ball at times, but the quarterback and offense as a whole failed to make routine plays when necessary. That is not to say it was all on Mertz; Florida’s line and wide receivers didn’t lend much help. But we saw last night many of the same issues that plagued him during his time at Wisconsin. -- The Gators only converted 1 of 13 third downs and 2 of 5 fourth downs while totaling 13 yards rushing on 21 carries, 0.6 YPC.
Florida drove inside the red zone four times against the Utes but totaled only 10 points on those drives. Florida outgained Utah 108-5 in the third quarter and the Gators were still outscored 7-0. (Pat Dooley - "Mertz was not good in the first half and took advantage of Utah playing a soft defense in the second half after taking a 24-3 lead.")
https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nc...-set-a-career-mark-thursday-night/ar-AA1g5WRV
=====
The loss was certainly NOT all Mertz fault, so who else?
RT Damieon George Jr = several false starts (why he's not still at UA)
WR Marcus Burke = several illegal procedures -- WTF?
WR Marcus Wilson & RB Trevor Entienne = taking kicks inside the 10 yard line. WTF x2
#3 Marshall and #3 Wilson on the field at the same time = WTF #3
The defense made some mistakes, but they played well enough to win, (24 Pts).
So where does the responsibility fall? The leadership - HC/OC/QB's Napier & QB Mertz.
Billy's Game Plan? The Gators only ran their two star tailbacks 10 times in the entire game while Mertz threw 44 passes. And if you want to take that further up the responsibility line, then the AD and the UAA....
=====
Gator football tops USA TODAY Sports' misery index for Week 1
In college football, you generally know what you have in a coach by Year 2. There are exceptions, but the second year is when the culture should start to take hold and the improvement should be noticeable.
It’s only one game, sure, but the opener of Billy Napier’s second year was so unimpressive that his $31.9 million buyout is now a topic of conversation in Gator land coming off the back of a 6-7 debut season. At some point, though, is it the (6-8) coach, or is it the school? 🤓
https://gatorswire.usatoday.com/202...ign=internal&itm_content=BelowArticleFeed-SMG
Florida should be happy that the Pac-12 is about to disintegrate. The Gators ended last season with an embarrassing (3-30) loss to Oregon State in the Las Vegas Bowl and started this season with an 11-24 loss to Utah. (14-54 combined) 😳
It is what it is. Coach Napier ain't going anywhere for at least another 2 years, IMO. Our schedule is brutal and the team needs to be better talent-wise and also play better and more consistently than last year in order to improve on last year's record. And Napier himself admitted that he needs to coach better. We'll see how the season plays out and I'm hoping for the best. The Tennessee game now becomes BIG.
Unless we are saying we aren't a serious football school anymore he certainly will be going somewhere after 2024 if we have 3 straight bad seasons with him showing he can't even do the basics high school coaches have no problems with. No modern coach has ever been an SEC championship coach/playoff level type coach that didn't show a good season somewhere in their first 3 full seasons. I hope he turns it around but we heard this stuff with the last 2 also and they were booted out when half the people said there was no chance they could be booted that season.
We would have lost against Utah if Mahomes or Burrow would have been our QB. The team just as a whole played ugly football.
Mertz was one of the few bright spots. Only an idiot or someone with a complete lack of football knowledge would say otherwise. The offensive line was awful, Mertz was under constant pressure, we couldn't run the ball which put additional pressure on Mertz. Napier needs to stop calling plays, and I guess hire a 3rd offensive line coach because our line is a serious issue.
Well he only got a QBR of like 30 on the newer 100 scale one due to the way the passes were and lack of much scoring etc. and that is below average on that scale. Now most SEC QBs played easy games but his was near the bottom for SEC QBs this week.
A $26 million buyout after 2024? Not happening. We're stuck with Napier till after 2025, at least.
If we are a serious football school still it would happen. Just like if Jimbo went 6-6 at A@M this season.
God I really hope we’re not talking about a buyout by mid season. I can’t believe I’m seeing rumbling’s everywhere about Napier especially with the class coming in next year.
Muschamp
McElwain
Mullen
__________ may the last box stay empty please.
That rating is based almost entirely on points. Noticed that Sanders from Colorado didn't crack the top 10 and there wasn't a qb this weekend that played better than he did.
One guy who I like how he rates the QBs also had him below average and said it was basically his Wisconsin stuff with just more pass attempts and a slightly higher number of higher % passes overall.
Let’s see what happens with Charlotte:
Under old QBR he is 17th. He played very well. Again, put Tom Brady behind our Oline Thursday and he wouldn't have faired much better. Not sure why you are so obsessed with Mertz when our Oline was absolutely atrocious. They not only couldn't pass block but they couldn't run block either. Did Jones and ETN suddenly turn into crappy running backs? Use a little common sense and put aside your agenda.
I agree with this O line if it doesnt change we will wish we had a really mobile QB that could roll out fast and scan the field when needed. Mertz can run just a little but not nearly enough to be effective doing that. Brown probably can but if rumors about his passing in camp are true it won't matter.
Got to get the Oline problems cleaned up or it won't matter who's behind center. It was bad Thursday. Get our starting center back should help some. And if we can just not false start and get lined up correctly that should help too.
Jimbo has been there much longer than Napier at UF and he's been mediocre the entire time so not an analogous situation.
Jimbo has been at TAM since 2018. Napier will be given 4 years minimum at Florida, like it or not.
Did Jimbo go 6-6/7-5 his first 3 years? I mean the big money people could say screw it and the University would be happy just getting the big TV checks while we are a KY level football program. It would be crazy seeing that happen though. My guess is if Napier doesn't correct the game management stuff and the QB situation etc. we could get a loss to someone like Miami at home along with another mediocre record in 2024 which would spur action. I hope he at least goes 6-6 this season and fixes our most pressing concerns with the portal and goes 8-4 at least in 2024 because if he doesn't a lot more people will be gone before the Gators are back in contention.
It looks like Jimbo took over a 7-6 A@M team from the year prior and went 9-4, 8-5 and 9-1 his first 3 seasons and has had at least 8 wins every year except the 5-7 last season and supposedly he is on a very hot seat if they go 6-6 or worse this season.
Many of you guys are miserable to bear with. It's only one game into Napier's second season and it was a loss on the road vs a habitually solid team year in year out.
You know who also lost to Whittingham's Utah squad in his second season as coach albeit at the end of the season too so with more games experience coaching his team than Napier and lost to them in SEC country in New Orleans? I'll give you another clue, it was the same coach that lost their homecoming game to UL-Monroe in his first season there.
You know who also lost to Whittingham's Utah squad in his second season as coach albeit at the end of the season too so with more games experience coaching his team than Napier and lost to them in SEC country in New Orleans? I'll give you another clue, it was the same coach that lost their homecoming game to UL-Monroe in his first season there.
lol..comparing Saban to Napier so far. Saban implemented his plan year 1 and didn't care the struggle it might cause that year and Saban wasn't making rookie mistakes most games with game management and clock management. Saban made Bama a power in year 2 while unless we pull a miracle off we are going to be a crap show once again with the sunshine pumpers trying to seed the thought Napier should get away with looking clueless 3 straight years even if 2024 is a disaster KY like season also. I am not a crazy doomer like the majority at some other forums but we damn sure better expect some wins in 2024 or we will just be extending mediocre coaching. It's a shame UF has found itself in a situation like this but Napier has to fix it for 2024 using the portal, getting a good proven QB for one year if he can convince one to come here after what might happen this season. It's 100% on Napier we didn't sign a blue chip QB his first 2 classes and we got Miller and Mertz in the portal.
The point he's making there are only a handful of teams that could roll into Utah game 1 and beat them.
I guess I am jumping the gun before we have played Tennessee etc. but just have a bad feeling on that already.
Saban's "power" team, as you say, in his second season with more games experience than Napier's second season team lost to a less experienced than now Whittingham's Utah squad in New Orleans, which is not akin to playing Utah in Salt Lake City.
Was that team playing a walk on QB and a Utah team missing like 5 or 6 starters like the Utah team we played? A more healthy Utah team with Rising etc probably wins by 24+.
McNeese St. lost to powerful Tarleton St. 52-34 in their opening game. This should be a pure romp and a chance for everybody, especially Max Brown, to get some real game experience.
It’s not that they lost the game…
It’s that they played with a preparedness level (or rather lack thereof) that made it appear as if they had only been told they were expected to play the game on the morning of the game.
