Reason I am slowly losing hope

cemcemgs · Sep 1, 2023

Our program/roster wasn't in the best spot when Billy accepted the job. We all knew it, we all agreed it would be a long rebuild, we all were fine with it because he brands himself as detail oriented, analytical coach who analyzes every small detail and isn't afraid to make changes.

After 20 months on the job I am losing hope because I am not 100% sure this is factual anymore:

Special Teams: Were one of the worst I had seen at UF, no changes were made and it was somehow even worse with 2 players with same number on the field, defending a FG with 9 players only, missed easy FG, 21 yard punt. The only things that looked decent was punt coverage.
Offensive play calling: Left a lot to be desired, no changes were made and it was still the same
1. No hurry up: We don't seem to have a 2 min offense and can't go hurry up.
2. Screens to the wrong side: Last play of the game, 4th and long, we run a screen where we don't have numbers and we had Trey blocking for Douglas.
Portal: First year we were slow on the portal. Pretty much our only impact players outside of ULL transfers was Pearsall. We had a super similar portal approach this season where we supposedly had a very thorough analysis by Bird and staff, while all the top talent kept committing to other schools.
Detail Oriented: No staff, with or without an army, detail oriented or not, would let the players with same number be on the field at the same time at this level.
Staff changes: It's been obvious 2 OL coaches experiment isn't working at UF but we are still going with it. We had a bad season in 2022 and also below what we all expected from Billy in terms of recruiting (2023 is good so far). With these results, I expected more staff changes. We had 3 and all 3 happened after they left for NFL.

So I really want to believe but I am not sure if I have evidence that makes me think Billy is learning from his mistakes and will make the necessary changes. This literally is the main reason why Mullen didn't succeed here. Everyone also keeps saying "Billy has Stricklin's full support and will have all the time he needs", which is the right strategy even as of today in my opinion but the issues is that he has to! No AD survives his first 2 football hires being this bad in any big time school. His coach hiring resume at UF across all sports has been below average in terms results on the field.

Noel in the 305 · Sep 1, 2023