2020 Prediction Thread

SeabeeGator

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2019 is in the books and only the most dumper of posters would contend it wasn’t a success. Perfect? No. Staff adjustments needed? Yes. Improved recruiting required? Of course. But hard to hate an 11 win season, especially just two years removed from a 4 win season and still using many of the same players that contributed to that fiasco.

So what do you have for 2020? Which staff adjustments do we make? Do we plateau in recruiting or improve/get worse? Do we finally beat UGA and take the east? Does @Swamp Donkey stop braying non-sense that’s been proven false numerous times? Does @ThreatMatrix completely lose touch with reality and get absorbed into his spreadsheets? Does @ltraz finally address his daddy issues with Papa Mullen? Gonna be a great year!

Bold predictions: 11-1, beat the dawgs, take the east. Lose to LSU. English is shown the door as is Billy G. Knox stays and I melt down. Grantham stays for 2020 and is the cause of that 1 loss. Recruiting stays the same but we finally land a consensus 5 star, non-transfer edition. We pick up 2 former 5 star transfer and Donk melts down. Billy G’s replacement is from a more modern offense and @ltraz celebrates... only to be disappointed when nothing changes.
 

SeabeeGator

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Thank goodness, a dumper came in to make the first post. I notice no predictions from you which makes me think you’re not feeling good about your relationship with Papa Mullen. :grin:

If your metric for success is championship based, then yes - bad year all around. And you probably hate being a sports fan because it leaves no room for joy in non-championship season. But for those who can appreciate progress and understand it takes time to right a disaster, an 11 win season is a success. Plus, recruiting is better - about the same rank as last year but doesn’t look like we took as many reaches and it looks like the transfer market will be fruit bearing again. And before Donk or someone comes in with moral victories or the joy of second place.... not what I’m saying at all. Just appreciating a season that built on the last with real progress towards the championship goal.
 

CaribGator

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We should run the table with the schedule. Then beat LSU for the 2nd time in the SECCG, then take care of business in the CFP...

2020 National Champs



<------- see my sig
 
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YLGator

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Thank goodness, a dumper came in to make the first post. I notice no predictions from you which makes me think you’re not feeling good about your relationship with Papa Mullen. :grin:

If your metric for success is championship based, then yes - bad year all around. And you probably hate being a sports fan because it leaves no room for joy in non-championship season. But for those who can appreciate progress and understand it takes time to right a disaster, an 11 win season is a success. Plus, recruiting is better - about the same rank as last year but doesn’t look like we took as many reaches and it looks like the transfer market will be fruit bearing again. And before Donk or someone comes in with moral victories or the joy of second place.... not what I’m saying at all. Just appreciating a season that built on the last with real progress towards the championship goal.
I understand your perspective and as much as I'm a championship or bust kind of guy, I also realize it takes time to get there. Where we seem to differ is I didn't see any real progress this year. Instead, I saw us plateauing. We're a good, solid 8 - 15 ranked type team that will wear down lesser talented teams but can't hang with the top teams. I didn't really see any signs this year indicating we're making the leap to top 5 either on the field or on the trail. Our best win was at home against a true freshman QB. Great game, but those are the kind of games we should always win. We played our best game of the year on the road against LSU and hung with them, but the talent gap and questionable coaching did us in. Then in the biggest game of the season, we laid an egg. Got outplayed and outcoached all day long. We did a nice job playing out the string, but I didn't see a future juggernaut in the making.

Bottom line for me is that Mullen has clearly managed to stabilize the program. Now its time for him to take the next step and start winning something. Next year is set up perfectly. The schedule is very manageable. If Mullen is the right guy, we should be looking at 11-1 with a win over Georgia and a trip to Atlanta. If we're sitting at home on the first Saturday in December again, then the Mullen ceiling will be upon us.
 

deuce

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If the only definition of a successful season is winning the Championship, only one team will be successful every year, that's just stupid.
 

YLGator

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If the only definition of a successful season is winning the Championship, only one team will be successful every year, that's just stupid.
Winning isn't everything, its the only thing
Second place is the first loser
Just win baby
 

deuce

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Sorry, I don't refer to Meyer about anything that represents real life.
 

deuce

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Winning isn't everything, its the only thing
Second place is the first loser
Just win baby


Cried every unemployed Football Coach.
:shakehead:
 

SeabeeGator

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I understand your perspective and as much as I'm a championship or bust kind of guy, I also realize it takes time to get there. Where we seem to differ is I didn't see any real progress this year. Instead, I saw us plateauing. We're a good, solid 8 - 15 ranked type team that will wear down lesser talented teams but can't hang with the top teams. I didn't really see any signs this year indicating we're making the leap to top 5 either on the field or on the trail. Our best win was at home against a true freshman QB. Great game, but those are the kind of games we should always win. We played our best game of the year on the road against LSU and hung with them, but the talent gap and questionable coaching did us in. Then in the biggest game of the season, we laid an egg. Got outplayed and outcoached all day long. We did a nice job playing out the string, but I didn't see a future juggernaut in the making.

Bottom line for me is that Mullen has clearly managed to stabilize the program. Now its time for him to take the next step and start winning something. Next year is set up perfectly. The schedule is very manageable. If Mullen is the right guy, we should be looking at 11-1 with a win over Georgia and a trip to Atlanta. If we're sitting at home on the first Saturday in December again, then the Mullen ceiling will be upon us.
To your first paragraph, I felt like we weren’t competitive in 2 games last year - UGA and MIZZOU. Didn’t feel that way this year. That’s my opinion though and I can certainly appreciate yours.

To your second, I had my expectations at 8-9 wins this year so I felt there was progress from that. And my predictions in the OP was 11-1/East win which will also double as my expectation. Think we in line there. Thanks for the thoughtful post!
 

SeabeeGator

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We don’t have inside info on the program so no prediction is based on much. Won’t know the depth chart until august. We do know the schedule and most of the class. Just a fun exercise based on where we’re at today. But you don’t seem like the fun kind of guy when it comes to Gator football so I can understand how’d you miss that.
 

SeabeeGator

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Who, Ron Zook? And IDGAF if you think like me but I’m certainly not required to agree with you...

And I’ve been a part of major unit turnarounds - even brought in to my last one to assist with it. We knew how to appreciate the successes even when we weren’t “best in type”. But after a lot of hard work, we won it twice... That’s what I’m seeing with Mullen and you don’t need to be a football guy to appreciate a strong leader. To become a great one, he’ll need to start making hard decisions. We’ll see if it happens this year.
 

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