Obviously I'll get attacked by the mob, but the team will be better next season - a lot of young recruits will make an impact. No one wants to hear it because they want Billy gone, but to completely dismiss the idea that this team can win 7 or 8 games next season is a mistake, no matter what the schedule is.
Napier isn't getting fired next year. Settle in.
Stricklin sure as HELL isn't getting fired, so put that idea out of your head no matter what happens to Billy.
There is zero chance that Napier stays on as a coach if he goes 7-5 in Year 3. What possible reason would there be to keep him around?
His W/L record would be 18-19...which would be the worst 3 year return in at least 50 years. Winless against georgia and f$u as of now and doubtful to turn that around next year.
Recruiting? It's been better, sure; but he's struggling to develop the guys he has recruited and losing some of your top players in a critical offseason doesn't exactly inspire confidence that he'll be able to keep the guys he brings if he continues to struggle in an age where people can transfer for any reason under the sun.
Coaching? What have you seen that shows improvement from Year 1 until now? He's still garbage at time management--which has directly cost us at least 2-3 games over his tenure--and has gone from something that you kick people out of the gameday box for daring to point out to where even you saying "yea, he sucks there." That's how bad it is. Finding ways to win? A losing record in close games, just 2 wins vs Top 25 teams and a laughably bad record on the road.
But wait...there's more.
Program management? None of his assistant coaches have been amazing hires--and I struggle to identify ANY unit that's demonstrably improved during his tenure. Letting players go? Look at some of the OTs and LBers who were allowed to xfer and start/do well at other schools. That's poor evaluation--which is on him to correct. As a program manager, put your ego aside and put efforts into keeping leadership and talent. For that matter, one thing that is an absolute MUST is to get a ST coordinator or to make it a full-time focus. These past two years have been utterly ridiculous. Frankly, the fact he hasn't come out immediately after the season ended to say "there will be a full-time coach overseeing the unit next year, not a grad asst" is concerning to me. At least *acknowledge* that "yup, this approach isn't working and I will fix it." He hasn't. That could still change...but it's a glaringly obvious problem that he could immediately get in front of...and instead, his attitude appears to be as clueless as his fiddling response of "can you give examples?" (When asked about ST costing us this season).
Our schedule next year isn't for the feint of heart and Napier has shown us absolutely no reason for optimism. Mertz--Bless his Heart--is a better QB than we thought...but he's not an elite QB and his lack of an arm hurts our entire offense. Without Etienne and Pearsall next year...our offense is going to look even more suspect.
The only thing that would keep Napier around ia a 9-3 type season where we score many wins, including going 4/6 vs our FL rivals (f$u, scUM, and UCF) and our traditional rivals (georgia, f$u, Tennessee, LSU).