My take is you pretty much answered your own questions. But WTH, I’ll weigh in too.
Negative Nellies here? Sure and not without some justification. Some unhappy no matter what? Sure; for better or worse this is a bunch of individuals who freely (thanks to you I might add) speak their collective minds.
I freely admit to not liking the three previous hires, but getting suckered into thinking they might work out anyway. By the time of the last one (Mullen), I was jaded enough to be slower to come around, but at some point early last season totally buying in. Of course the LSU game turned me the other way and Kentucky this year was the end. Mrs G actually had to talk me into going to the Vandy game (and I love going to the games) and if our son wasn’t a student I seriously doubt she would have been successful.
Most of us all had a preferred candidate (and some of us apparently despised anyone who was not that guy). Mine was Lincoln Riley. I thought we needed a whale and he was both that and guy who would give us possibly the best offense since SOS.
The hiring of CBN bothered me only because I thought once again we had gone cheap and we were doomed to 3-4 years of same old, same old. Perhaps I’ve been fooled again, but I like seeing the structural changes he’s making and how seriously he is taking recruiting. As he is now our head ball coach, alea iacta est (as Caesar might say were he a Gator fan); so I’m now a Napier fan and will believe this hire is going to be different. And due to the messy roster the previous guy left behind, we may need to be patient. Having said that, there will be bytching from some folks along the way; I fully admit I’d be disappointed if there wasn’t.
As for GCMB, I think I probably said this last year in the “state of the board” thread, but I wouldn’t change a thing. This place may be viewed as “negative” around Gator Nation, but do we really care? (I get why you Ox might, but don’t think you do either.)
Oh and Swonk? A hundred Oxbucks says he’ll be back. Where else would he go? He’s a junky and this place is his crack. (FTR - I too often find him tiresome, but he’s clever, funny, and knowledgeable on quite a number of topics. He’s also arrogant as hell, but then he’s an attorney, so that’s to be expected.)