Thoughts on this Florida team moving onto 2024......
- Thread starter Gator Fever
- Start date
The current OC/QB's Coach had QB's at his disposal:
The #4 NFL draft pick QB-dt and went 6-6
He had 4-star Miller and had a 3-30 loss in a crap bowl.
That 'new & improved' HC finished as a 6-7 loser.
Then he had 5-star Mertz and he still went 5-6 + injured out.
He had 4-star potential Brown and were winning 12-0 to begin,
before blowing the lead and losing 15-24..
The 2nd year HC finihsed 5-7 with no bowl.
Now about 1/2 of the players on the roster are guys that he brought in.
None of those 4 QB's are leaving as winners.
That's due in the iG's OHO's, to the current OC/QB's coach's choices.
So, what's the prognosis for 2024, no matter who the QB is????
The iG has already boldly guessed that it's somewhere between 4-8 and 1-11.
So, I guess if we live and the creeks don't rise,,, we'll all find out eventually....
Remember, you ARE what your own film and your W/L record says you are.
And oh BTW, none of us old or new fans put them where they currently are... 🙃
The #4 NFL draft pick QB-dt and went 6-6
He had 4-star Miller and had a 3-30 loss in a crap bowl.
That 'new & improved' HC finished as a 6-7 loser.
Then he had 5-star Mertz and he still went 5-6 + injured out.
He had 4-star potential Brown and were winning 12-0 to begin,
before blowing the lead and losing 15-24..
The 2nd year HC finihsed 5-7 with no bowl.
Now about 1/2 of the players on the roster are guys that he brought in.
None of those 4 QB's are leaving as winners.
That's due in the iG's OHO's, to the current OC/QB's coach's choices.
So, what's the prognosis for 2024, no matter who the QB is????
The iG has already boldly guessed that it's somewhere between 4-8 and 1-11.
So, I guess if we live and the creeks don't rise,,, we'll all find out eventually....
Remember, you ARE what your own film and your W/L record says you are.
And oh BTW, none of us old or new fans put them where they currently are... 🙃
I can't imagine going through life and being that negative about everything posted.
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That opinion depends on what you see as being negative, and what you see as being positive. 😏
If we go 1-11 to 4-8 Napier won't even make it to the Ole Miss game.
Is Napier worse than Doug Dickey you think?
I was a little too young to remember him as a Gator player, but I was there for his time as the Gator HC.
Dickey is a native of South Dakota, but he was raised in Florida. He was a quarterback and defensive back for the Gators from 1951-53. As a player, he led Florida to a victory over Tulsa in the 1953 Gator Bowl. He is a member of the Gator Bowl Hall of Fame as he coached both the Volunteers and Florida in the postseason tilt.
Doug Dickey was a walk-on defensive back from across 13th Street at P.K. Yonge. He was on the field for that '51 game, a tough 7-6 defeat. But he was on it the next two seasons as a converted quarterback, leading the Gators to their first back-to-back victories over the Bulldogs in the program's 20-year SEC history.
Doug Dickey spent 15 seasons as the head coach at Tennessee and Florida, winning two SEC titles (at UT) and playing in nine bowl games in those combined 15 seasons. In his 9 season at UF, he led the Gators to 4 bowl appearances, and had an overall record of 58-43-2 (.573).
--->> Napier is currently sitting at 11-14 (.440) with one Ug-glee bowl loss.
Twenty-nine men have served as the Gators' head coach since the university first fielded a team in 1906, including five who served as interim coach for a portion of a season. [1] Of these, Charlie Bachman, Ray Graves, Doug Dickey, and Steve Spurrier have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.
So I guess it's what qualities you as better or worse in each persons OHO.....
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Just a note on the incoming offensive class, the replacements for those leaving....
#29 WR Hawkins 5-9 165 ****
#36 WR Abrams 5-11 175 ****
#53 WR Williams 6-0 172 ***
#28 RB Daniels 5-11 190 ***
#9 TE Jackson 6-4 223 ****
#10 OT Westphal 6-8 335 ****
#31 OT Williams 6-7 310 ***
#80 OT Mascoli 6-4.5 292 ***
#82 IOL Portnjagin 6-5 334 ***
Xfer OT Crenshaw-Dickson 6-6 310 ***
So, with that 50+ staff and the NIL $$$ recruiting, the Grad-Sr QB-pp shouldn't have any trouble with his quick release dink & dunk passing in CBN's inspired offense....
Just attempting to be both honest and positive for TT (difficult to do), about how things are looking....
#29 WR Hawkins 5-9 165 ****
#36 WR Abrams 5-11 175 ****
#53 WR Williams 6-0 172 ***
#28 RB Daniels 5-11 190 ***
#9 TE Jackson 6-4 223 ****
#10 OT Westphal 6-8 335 ****
#31 OT Williams 6-7 310 ***
#80 OT Mascoli 6-4.5 292 ***
#82 IOL Portnjagin 6-5 334 ***
Xfer OT Crenshaw-Dickson 6-6 310 ***
So, with that 50+ staff and the NIL $$$ recruiting, the Grad-Sr QB-pp shouldn't have any trouble with his quick release dink & dunk passing in CBN's inspired offense....
Just attempting to be both honest and positive for TT (difficult to do), about how things are looking....
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I was only 10 years old back during our 0-10-1 season yet the last 4 coaches made it far more sufferable than that 1979 team.
We are the same age. First year I remember paying attention to Gator football with my dad. He was pretty worked up but loved the quick turnaround by Pell the next season. Those were some strong teams in the early 80s.
I think he is a better passer than Brown was. Also, we saw much worse during the SEC games we played. We were spotted 12 points and I also believe Mertz would have connected with Pearsall more, thus being able to score more points, Maybe he could have gotten us some points when we were given great FP after the safety, JMHO
No Georgia was the only game we had near that many plays where guys were literally coming through without being slowed down at all. FSU in the 2nd half actually dominated our line worse than Georgia did.
Graham Mertz has as much character and works as hard as anyone on the team. I think we were damn lucky to have him this past year. If more players follow his leadership in the coming year this team will succeed. JMOHO of course.
It’s a pretty dumb conversation at this point but the guy threw 20 tds to 3 picks behind a line everybody agrees was terrible and he separated his damn shoulder trying to get us a first down to win a game. I don’t think there’s much more you could ask of the guy.
DJ Lagway named 2023 MaxPreps Player of the Year
DJ Lagway is the No. 4 prospect in the 2024 class, according to 247Sports
247sports.com
Hoping he is on his phone trying to get guys to come play with himDJ Lagway named 2023 MaxPreps Player of the Year
DJ Lagway is the No. 4 prospect in the 2024 class, according to 247Sports
It's easy to do that when you play scared and won't release the ball unless things are pretty open. Watching the good SEC QBs compared to Mertz is night and day. Where he hesitates and then finds some checkdown short of the chains they fire the ball in there with smaller windows. Mertz is how you get hardly any picks and a high completion % but yet be very pedestrian as a QB. It's almost comical watching the replays and how many times he takes the wide open throw guaranteed not to get a first down on 3rd and 4th downs.
To the contrary, it’s falling apart faster than planned. Getting ugly for CBN, and quickly
This staff may need to institute a commitment policy of “if you commit and visit somewhere else we accept the fact that you will decommit or flip last minute so you are no longer committed and we will look for someone else.”
Can’t think of too many instances where a Gator commit visited multiple other schools and honored his commitment.
Can’t think of too many instances where a Gator commit visited multiple other schools and honored his commitment.
I don’t think much is happening at this point but everything that has happened has been bad. LJ McRay saying he’s not going to commit today is a disaster. Ship be sinkin.
I anticipated recruiting would be a disaster because how could any kid with plans to make a bunch of money playing football look at that mess last year and be like “yeah this looks like the place to get it started.” And the more kids that bail out the worse it looks. And these kids all know Napier’s a dead man walking.
But I was like calm down Napier has always surprised to the upside in recruiting. But it’s going exactly how I thought it would.
I anticipated recruiting would be a disaster because how could any kid with plans to make a bunch of money playing football look at that mess last year and be like “yeah this looks like the place to get it started.” And the more kids that bail out the worse it looks. And these kids all know Napier’s a dead man walking.
But I was like calm down Napier has always surprised to the upside in recruiting. But it’s going exactly how I thought it would.
DJ Lagway, 5-star QB committed to Florida, picks up national honor
DJ Lagway picks up national honor for stellar senior season.
www.saturdaydownsouth.com
When is he supposed to sign?
Lagway is scheduled to sign at 4:30. Take a look at this article:DJ Lagway, 5-star QB committed to Florida, picks up national honor
DJ Lagway picks up national honor for stellar senior season.
When is he supposed to sign?
Gators' 5-star DL commit might not sign on Wednesday
This is the kind of news that makes the Gator Nation very uneasy.
gatorswire.usatoday.com
DJ Lagway, 5-star QB committed to Florida, picks up national honor
DJ Lagway picks up national honor for stellar senior season.
When is he supposed to sign?
4:30
And he seems solid on his commitment. But the problem is we have had a 5* QB locked up in this class for 1.5 years and if Amaris and LJ bolt, we will end up putting about the 20th ranked class around him. That is an unprecedented level of bad.
4-star Edge Amaris Williams flips to Auburn
It had been expected, but a four-star flipped from Florida
247sports.com
4-star LB Adarius Hayes flips from Florida to Miami
A longtime Gators commit flipped his verbal pledge elsewhere after visiting there
247sports.com
Williams said:
"I'm really big on culture and how people are to me," he said after his official visit to Auburn. "That's really one of the reasons I committed to UF. But seeing all the changes that they've had and everything like that, it's really a downfall for me. So knowing that Auburn has really good people and knowing they have a sustainable staff when it comes to the next 3-to-5 years is really good for me. It's good to know I can come here and be around really good people and have coaches who are going to be here for a very long time."
Right now 247Sports has dropped our signing class to #15, 8th in the SEC, and it could drop more before it's all over. Napier's first class, which was rushed and patched, was ranked #18, while last year's class was ranked #13. 2 months ago our commit ranking was as high as #2. With something like 18 guys hitting the portal, 3 transfers in from the portal and a current class that's looking more and more average, how can anyone think the program is doing anything but regressing?
Two ways to go…fire Billy and start all over and have misery until 2030 or ride this out. Hope it’s like a Norvell Drinkowitz Harbaugh thing and in year 4 it starts to turn around. Going to have to accept 2024 isn’t going to be fun either.
Unless you have the grand slam coaching hire (which this school hasn’t done since December of 2004) we just have to ride it out and hope it starts to pay off in 2025.
Unless you have the grand slam coaching hire (which this school hasn’t done since December of 2004) we just have to ride it out and hope it starts to pay off in 2025.
Gators land commitment from in-state ATH Gregory Smith III
Florida adds an in-state athlete to their 2024 recruiting class
247sports.com
I just don't see it happening. He had built up an elite recruiting class for this year, as high as #2 at one time, but as these recruits saw the season play out, saw how many of our players left the program and maybe talked to some of them, plus maybe had a lot more NIL money thrown their way than what Florida was willing to spend, this class fell apart. And the portal guys we have committed so far are not going to make much difference, IMO - a DB from Oregon whose playing time diminished as the season went along because younger guys were better; a third team Mountain West Conference OT; and a highly sought after D-linemen from any Ivy League school that has proven nothing against SEC competition. Meanwhile, Alabama gets a 5-star from Texas A&M to transfer in and other top tier schools just fills gaps with proven, quality players. So how does Napier bounce back with a recruiting class for 2025? I just don't see it happening because next season is going to be flat out U-G-L-Y!
All of your points are correct. But who is the hire that fixes it? Who can come in and create positive vibes? Unless it’s a slam dunk grand slam it’s just another hope and pray hire. The last 4 hires only 1 was a proven SEC caliber coach. This school not just the athletic department better wake up (if they care at all) and realize what it takes.
But hey maybe they don’t care and we are suckers. That really isn’t far off from being a reality.
But hey maybe they don’t care and we are suckers. That really isn’t far off from being a reality.
Your questions are all valid and realistic. I don't have the answers, but then I'm not being paid to come up with them. The UAA, UF President and the AD are. While most of our other sports programs are in pretty good shape, it's football that drives the money train and those with the power to do so need to get it fixed ASAP. I See A Bad Moon Rising!
If Billy was a remotely functional on-field coach your argument would be valid. He is proving to be a poor recruiter, an abysmal game day coach and the worst “CEO” I have witnessed.
He is Scott Frost, where everything got worse each year he was at Nebraska, and that red flag was evident the day he decided to bring all the ULL staff and players with him.
So you can do like Nebraska did and just “hope” it gets better or you can act. But after a third straight losing season next year there will be no “turning it around” in 2025. And by “turning it around” I assume you mean hoping for 6-7 wins in the guy’s 4th year? Tell me the last coach who was successful after two losing seasons to start?
