Buddy Martin is as reliable a UAA mouthpiece is there is out there, and he's been critical of Napier since the Utah debacle. I certainly don't remember a time when UF beat writers were as openly critical of a coach that wasn't a dead man walking, but these are strange times indeed.
What strikes me is that fans from other programs have been commenting what a dumpster fire we are, not from a making fun of type stance but more of a disbelief at what Gator football has become. You can't use the typical "entitled Gator fans" excuse on them either.
What's truly remarkable to me is how many people still don't know how this is going to end despite the fact that we have all seen this exact same movie 3 other times in the past 10 years. The only thing we achieved by not firing him after the FSU game was ensuring we set ourselves back another...
I shouldn't be surprised I guess, same energy as calling a stupid flea flicker after a safety in a game we were dominating. Absolutely zero reason to do it and yet he thought, hey, what a great time to run a desperation play.
I'm not sure how anybody who watched/watches that could think "yeah man, this is our guy right there." I mean holy geebus what in the world was going through his mind when he thought that would be a good thing to do.
Like you, I won't question his sincerity, but its an undeniable fact that he used it (and his "aww shucks, I'm just a dumb redneck" schtick) to shield himself from a lot of criticism that otherwise he would rightfully have received.
So either we're starting into the "Stricklin is making me fire people" phase or he's doing it on his own in an effort to save himself. Either way, the Titanic is taking on water.
If you were a player why would you want to go there? You saw what he did to the entire roster when he got there ("ya'll aren't good enough for me, now get the hell out of here"), you've seen him repeatedly throw the players under the bus for every loss, question their heart, never take any...