@SRGators had a great post on Napier. I had a few comments on his post. A couple things I wanted to mention in regard to the post. First is look at where the players that transferred from Florida that were Mullen recruits ended up. I can't think of one player that left for a better football program. Also speaking of Mullen, some of those players transferred to UNLV and they have yet to produce in college. To me, this is lazy recruiting by Mullen to take players that have not been productive and let them play at UNLV. This would be a red flag if I were a UNLV fan.
I love to hear SRs opinions of Napier. It sounds like you he is still a big fan of his with some of his elite traits. I think he has made some good to great coaching hires with Will Harris, Gerald Chatman, Russ Callaway, Billy Gonzales, Rob Sale, Mike Pete ( need 1 Gator on staff). Imo we need a new DC and a true offensive coordinator but just putting myself in his shoes I can see why he would not want to hire an OC. A couple reasons why:
1. He mentioned he loves coaching and the two things he really enjoys are the xs and os and talent evaluation. By being the OC, he can continue to have a heavy day to day influence in the xs and os. Its when he calls the plays, some trick play creativity and most importantly his passing schemes that can improve ( 4 wide, 2 running back sets, using the running backs in the passing game etc). @SRGators can you ask him when you meet with him how much studies other offenses in the off season and implements some of those plays or schemes into his offense year to year. Another area I think he can improve calling plays against the weakness of the defense. I feel Napier will call plays not attacking the weakness of the defense. This is where his responsibilites day to day outside of schmeing up against a defense hurts him bc he has his hands full with other things. During the week I'd be curious how much of his time is scheming up plays and what he wants to call against a defense or if he delegates that to someone else. An OC should spend the majority of his time doing this and most head coaches don't have time to do this effectivly.
Also, our plays have become predictable. How many times have we rolled out to the left instead of the right with Mertz, Lagway or Richardson. I can't remember doing ths one time. Yes our qbs are right handed, but you need to go against tendencies to become less predictable. The Flood play is our bread and butter passing play but we need wrinkles to that play.
2. He already has two co OCs on the staff in Rob Sale and Callaway, both coaches I believe he wants to retain. By bringing in an OC, there are chances these coaches look elsewhere. An OC will want to bring in his own OL coach and I don't believe Napier wants to shake that up. If this is the case, I would let Russ Callaway call the plays so you can keep the staff intact. Also Napier likes Ohara working with the qbs and an OC coming in would probably also work with QBs which is too many cooks in the kitchen. You don't want to disrupt what Napier, Ohara and Lagway have done so far
3. A good OC might change up the scheme and going on his 4th year, Napier doesn't want to change up the scheme as his current roster knows the scheme extrmely well. Sr, in your opinion what offense would you like the Gators ro run and which OCs would be a good fit here if the decision was yours.
As far as DC, its already mentioned that Ron Robers is most likely gone. Why there is a hold up in letting Roberts go I don't know bc he is on a multi year contract from my understanding so might as well let him go. The delay in a new DC also tells me more than likely we are going to go after an NFL guy and a fired NFL DC or position coach in the NFL would be the only reason imo an NFL coach would take a college job. Personally I would have like to see us hire Ryan Walters who was hired by Washington. He was an elite DC at Missouri and Illinois before getting the head coaching job at Purdue.
@SRGators in regards to transfers, do you think we sign a few before Spring Practice, in the Spring Portal or both. I still think we need a backup QB, an OT, a DB, a S and a DT. Do we have a decent amount of NIL to spend on these positions? DB is where we need the most help bc we have guys who are injury prone at that position. I know we wanted the NC state players to visit. Were we too late in the game or they were asking for too much in NIL.
I love to hear SRs opinions of Napier. It sounds like you he is still a big fan of his with some of his elite traits. I think he has made some good to great coaching hires with Will Harris, Gerald Chatman, Russ Callaway, Billy Gonzales, Rob Sale, Mike Pete ( need 1 Gator on staff). Imo we need a new DC and a true offensive coordinator but just putting myself in his shoes I can see why he would not want to hire an OC. A couple reasons why:
1. He mentioned he loves coaching and the two things he really enjoys are the xs and os and talent evaluation. By being the OC, he can continue to have a heavy day to day influence in the xs and os. Its when he calls the plays, some trick play creativity and most importantly his passing schemes that can improve ( 4 wide, 2 running back sets, using the running backs in the passing game etc). @SRGators can you ask him when you meet with him how much studies other offenses in the off season and implements some of those plays or schemes into his offense year to year. Another area I think he can improve calling plays against the weakness of the defense. I feel Napier will call plays not attacking the weakness of the defense. This is where his responsibilites day to day outside of schmeing up against a defense hurts him bc he has his hands full with other things. During the week I'd be curious how much of his time is scheming up plays and what he wants to call against a defense or if he delegates that to someone else. An OC should spend the majority of his time doing this and most head coaches don't have time to do this effectivly.
Also, our plays have become predictable. How many times have we rolled out to the left instead of the right with Mertz, Lagway or Richardson. I can't remember doing ths one time. Yes our qbs are right handed, but you need to go against tendencies to become less predictable. The Flood play is our bread and butter passing play but we need wrinkles to that play.
2. He already has two co OCs on the staff in Rob Sale and Callaway, both coaches I believe he wants to retain. By bringing in an OC, there are chances these coaches look elsewhere. An OC will want to bring in his own OL coach and I don't believe Napier wants to shake that up. If this is the case, I would let Russ Callaway call the plays so you can keep the staff intact. Also Napier likes Ohara working with the qbs and an OC coming in would probably also work with QBs which is too many cooks in the kitchen. You don't want to disrupt what Napier, Ohara and Lagway have done so far
3. A good OC might change up the scheme and going on his 4th year, Napier doesn't want to change up the scheme as his current roster knows the scheme extrmely well. Sr, in your opinion what offense would you like the Gators ro run and which OCs would be a good fit here if the decision was yours.
As far as DC, its already mentioned that Ron Robers is most likely gone. Why there is a hold up in letting Roberts go I don't know bc he is on a multi year contract from my understanding so might as well let him go. The delay in a new DC also tells me more than likely we are going to go after an NFL guy and a fired NFL DC or position coach in the NFL would be the only reason imo an NFL coach would take a college job. Personally I would have like to see us hire Ryan Walters who was hired by Washington. He was an elite DC at Missouri and Illinois before getting the head coaching job at Purdue.
@SRGators in regards to transfers, do you think we sign a few before Spring Practice, in the Spring Portal or both. I still think we need a backup QB, an OT, a DB, a S and a DT. Do we have a decent amount of NIL to spend on these positions? DB is where we need the most help bc we have guys who are injury prone at that position. I know we wanted the NC state players to visit. Were we too late in the game or they were asking for too much in NIL.
