Lane is a great coach but there are limits to his abilities. Half of his 12 seasons had 5+ losses. If you throw out the 5 game USC season it’s 6 of 11. I purposely omitted his 2 NFL seasons to be fair. Also worth mentioning his USC years were impacted by sanctions.
I do think a big name like Lane will be given more leverage than a smaller name to make changes. I also prefer an offense-minded coach that can leverage Lagway and think Lane is a good fit for that. I like the idea of a splash hire with Lane. Would be easier to unite the base.So all things being equal I prefer Lane right now, but the timing has to be overcome.
The problem is he likely would not join UF until mid Jan when Spring portal mostly closed. Hard to build a team with Summer portal as we have seen. There may not even be a summer portal, lots of talk of having only 1 window. Even if the NCAA adjusted or extended window the problem is getting them enrolled for Spring semester. Ole Miss is losing most of their team, they will not be able to wait until mid Jan to replenish so Lane will have to be active in portal in December for OM, so that’s likely the giveaway if we are getting our chain pulled. To have a great portal class (both UF and OM will need) you need to do major work in Dec. Will Lane do major work for OM (lie to recruits) and then bolt in Jan? I don’t think it will be a great sign if you see OM working the Portal hard in early December, conversely if they half ass it could be a great sign he’s not fully committed to their future.
The concept of timing not being as important as getting the right coach ignores that the likelihood of success is less than even money regardless of who you hire and then if you overlay the timing costs the odds get even worse. And this assumes NIL alignment which is very much in doubt. Don’t think he can overcome that. He more than others is at risk to that because he’s not really a top recruiter. I do give him credit for recognizing the value of the portal but that needs lots of money to execute. The real NIL money doesn’t come in until AFTER the new coach comes in and boosters pay top dollar to get access to him, in case people were hoping a GM could come in and work the Portal before the arrival of the new coach. Until then we probably have LESS money than we have had in the past with little to sell from a vision or scheme perspective. Raising the money for these buyouts (Napier and staff) and for new coach contract is likely to strain NIL donations with the University not taking over NIL deals I believe until next Summer (I may be wrong on this point). Don’t think people are fully digesting the costs of waiting for a coach. Even announcing in Dec of a January arrival is not ideal, though it could help the retention rate (despite no face to face contact, and uncertainty on assistants), but would likely limit your ability to pull from the Portal.
We need a new coach in here as soon as possible and he needs to raise money and use his early leverage to enact change throughout the organization. It’s also possible there are no good December options and the January timing can’t be avoided and that scenario would boost Lane to the top or at least near it. I would encourage everyone not to have a Lane or bust mentality that could have an impact on our digesting of a new coach if it’s not Lane.
I do think a big name like Lane will be given more leverage than a smaller name to make changes. I also prefer an offense-minded coach that can leverage Lagway and think Lane is a good fit for that. I like the idea of a splash hire with Lane. Would be easier to unite the base.So all things being equal I prefer Lane right now, but the timing has to be overcome.
The problem is he likely would not join UF until mid Jan when Spring portal mostly closed. Hard to build a team with Summer portal as we have seen. There may not even be a summer portal, lots of talk of having only 1 window. Even if the NCAA adjusted or extended window the problem is getting them enrolled for Spring semester. Ole Miss is losing most of their team, they will not be able to wait until mid Jan to replenish so Lane will have to be active in portal in December for OM, so that’s likely the giveaway if we are getting our chain pulled. To have a great portal class (both UF and OM will need) you need to do major work in Dec. Will Lane do major work for OM (lie to recruits) and then bolt in Jan? I don’t think it will be a great sign if you see OM working the Portal hard in early December, conversely if they half ass it could be a great sign he’s not fully committed to their future.
The concept of timing not being as important as getting the right coach ignores that the likelihood of success is less than even money regardless of who you hire and then if you overlay the timing costs the odds get even worse. And this assumes NIL alignment which is very much in doubt. Don’t think he can overcome that. He more than others is at risk to that because he’s not really a top recruiter. I do give him credit for recognizing the value of the portal but that needs lots of money to execute. The real NIL money doesn’t come in until AFTER the new coach comes in and boosters pay top dollar to get access to him, in case people were hoping a GM could come in and work the Portal before the arrival of the new coach. Until then we probably have LESS money than we have had in the past with little to sell from a vision or scheme perspective. Raising the money for these buyouts (Napier and staff) and for new coach contract is likely to strain NIL donations with the University not taking over NIL deals I believe until next Summer (I may be wrong on this point). Don’t think people are fully digesting the costs of waiting for a coach. Even announcing in Dec of a January arrival is not ideal, though it could help the retention rate (despite no face to face contact, and uncertainty on assistants), but would likely limit your ability to pull from the Portal.
We need a new coach in here as soon as possible and he needs to raise money and use his early leverage to enact change throughout the organization. It’s also possible there are no good December options and the January timing can’t be avoided and that scenario would boost Lane to the top or at least near it. I would encourage everyone not to have a Lane or bust mentality that could have an impact on our digesting of a new coach if it’s not Lane.
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