Please Read: Welcome to the new-look Inside the Gators
- Recruit Reaction: I thought the atmosphere was electric
- Parental Perspective: Florida Football Commits Parental RoundTable
- OTM: Is there a path to a fourth year
- Ranking UF’s commits from least to most likely to jump ship
- What names are on your Coaching Hot Board
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Last October, a former Florida football player shared his 10 observations on Gators football. He returns again today to give his opinion on Billy Napier, the defense, DJ Lagway, the state of the Florida football program, and much more.
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1) First, let me put on my cape & transform into “Captain Obvious“: This past Saturday we got our first thorough game since Billy Napier‘s arrival! It was awesome! It was spirited! It was physical! It was….complete! We started, we held steady, & we finished. Job well done!
2) If there’s been ONE consistency since the transition from Dan Mullen to Billy Napier, it has been our running back play. Can we please recognize Jabbar Juluke for identifying talent, developing guys early & displaying consistent results in how that group has looked since his arrival? Our backs don’t fumble much, hit holes with authority, run with great pad level & make solid decisions on cuts or running to daylight.
3) All those screenplays and three-yard slants disappeared -thank goodness- from this past game. Now, utilizing Tre Wilson more downfield has been something I’ve been screaming about for a while now One glaring weakness to Billy Napier as an offensive coordinator is that he has been unable to properly utilize skill sets. It reminds me of watching long-legged, long-stride Xzavier Henderson try to quick-foot all those unsuccessful screens, in restricted spaces; with minimal success, during his first year here. It had me scratching my head. While Wilson is definitely the type of in-space receiver to run those plays with success, BUT, he also has top-end speed & amazing leaping ability to high-point the ball down the field as well. He showed that last game.
4) He’s only a freshman, but DJ Lagway already knows how to keep his eyes downfield & deliver deep, effortless throws with accuracy! His future is bright, as long as we display the ability to develop our offense to his best attributes & not try to fit him into a “system”. Let’s keep in mind that we only attempted 14 passes & completed seven monster plays. There’s a ton of room for improvement & that is great news for upcoming games.
5) I’m willing to bet if we can somehow develop a quick-tempo offense with some additional quarterback runs, that we will shock Texas & Georgia for at least a half in our upcoming games. Then, it’s just about maintaining second-half adjustments. However, modifications to our approach hasn’t been in our repertoire since Billy Napier arrived. He is so married to his system, and doesn’t deviate from the plan, and it can be frustrating to watch. We’ve needed to run hurry-up in a lot of situations in the past, but it has rarely happened. Let’s shock one of these two teams & that will change the trajectory of the season.
6) I believe our defense has turned a corner in the last two weeks. We appear to be a lot more physical & active, pre-snap. I’m a bit nervous as we prepare to play veteran quarterbacks who are strong at blitz & pre-snap reads. However, I enjoyed the big stops on short yardage throughout the game on Saturday! Those were statement moments against Kentucky. Those plays set a tone. We can build off that momentum & man-up style of play. We have to get constant pressure with our front four players so that we don’t have to live or die by the blitz!
7) Additionally, our tackling (specifically open-field) has shown vast improvement in the trenches and on the second level. I’d now like to see some added ball awareness by punching out the ball at tackle mesh points & stripping from behind instead of only sacks/tackles. That’s the next level in development & game-changing opportunities.
8) Georgia/Texas/LSU/Ole Miss… Because of our season opening takeoff (when we were stuck on the runway), we must win a minimum of two of these four games! We can’t be blown out by any of these teams either! Why? Because we exhausted our margins of error against Miami, Texas A&M, and Tennessee. We cannot go into our last game trying to be a six-win, bowl-eligible squad (I can’t believe that I have to keep continually repeating that about our program). We have to create an offense for Lagway to flourish & not restrict his skillset.
9) I’m over piss poor clock management! I’m over blown timeouts for no reason! I’m over coming out of TV timeouts, then having to call immediate timeouts! I’m over never seeing up-tempo playcalling when we have to/should be doing it! I want to consistently see high-speed, fast-processing, quick-witted decisions from our HC (while he continues to stare at the play card in his hand). We’re in no man’s land. We can’t afford to buy another coach & can’t stand to weather the storm while our program is on the verge of a terminal disease.
10) Napier hasn’t been great, or even really good, but I DO NOT want to be on a coaching search at the end of this season! I want stabilization & acceleration with all of the resources we’ve allotted this HC. It’s okay to spotlight the major issues, visible from the least discernible eye. We all would love to amass wealth for poor work quality; but, the majority of the workforce doesn’t work that way. His life is forever changed -for the better- and multiple generations afterward will live off of what our university provided for him. At this stage, for the return he has provided us on the investments we’ve made in him and the program at his bequest, we would be bankrupt on a real business balance sheet! Indiana, Texas A&M, LSU & a few other programs did not need a long transition to “show cause” for their body of work to “fix” big-ball” programs. There are always 6-7 wins worth of talent on most of the upper level Power 4 programs. The recruiting budgets are too big to not always have a roster capable of 6-7 wins. That +/- grows exponentially when you recruit & operate within Florida (and the Southeast). Stop letting people justify their failure to thrive in a pristine environment by blaming kids that they fully control, develop, recruit & mentor!
Bonus…
11) This brings us to my conclusion: I don’t ever see us playing for national championships under this coach. I do, however, feel that he can get us to 9/10 wins multiple times & get to decent bowl games. That will at least keep the brand relevant and stabilize it. He has some really good strengths as an even-tempered personality & process-oriented individual. Those are great facilitator traits! However, he won’t win many chess games in a timed format; although, an untimed format would give him the upper hand because of his slow, methodical approach!
Go Gators!
In the real world of business he would have bankrupted us by now with what we've spent on him and in the company he runs without seeing any return on those investments.
I appreciate all the feedback but our choices are to keep a coach who can get nine or ten wins but not win championships or starting over again.
I'd rather start over.
If coach Napier gets us to a bowl game against this schedule he should get another year to show what he can do with DJ Lagway as the starter for a whole year.
If we win nine or ten games, that means we're going to
be in the playoffs, and that means we're playing for championships.
Also, nine wins won't necessarily mean Florida is in the playoffs from year to year. It depends on who they beat and lose to.
I mean look at Texas. There is talk that they might not make it with 10 wins because of their schedule.
Historically, the SEC has 5-6 programs a year that win nine or more games. The SEC (or any league) getting more than four playoff teams would be a stretch. So, that would mean that 1-2 or maybe even more SEC programs would be left out despite a nine win season.