Billy Napier - UF Head Football Coach

[GatorKen714]

For what we pay him it's not a learning position. We lost not because of the oline but we have no separation in the receiving corps and AR was clearly out of his league reading the defense. The second half was almost as hard to watch as the last 3 minutes before half time of the Ga game last year. Clearly, we used our best 6 pass plays last week and KY was ready, and we didn't have anything new.
BN not equal to SOS, AR not equal to Shane Mathews

 

[lagator]

There is also a monster "coaching candidates" thread in which Billy is destroyed even harder than what we've seen in this one. That comes next. Then I'll revisit the recruiting thread.

Are we still going to be seeing this one next?

 

[YLGator]

What would you rather him have said? I'd rather him not sugar coat it. Say "we screwed up" and move on. Now he's gotta learn from it

I'd rather he was bemoaning the mistakes his team made in a hard fought win against lowly Kentucky. Nothing he can say after being only the second coach to actually lose to Kentucky in over 30 years.

 

[t-gator]

I'm still excited about what Napier's building here. Saban and kirby both had rough 1st seasons

 

[Bullag8r]

The ugliness on the field tonight is only exceeded by the ugliness of many comments on the board. A new coaching staff has a bad showing and some of our great chatter members want to fire, castrate, crucify and/or execute all involved. Clean house and start from scratch every time we hit a bump in the road. Like I said when Napier was hired ~ give him a chance and if he fails I will join the lynch mob. Two games does not constitute a 'chance'. Meyer was 9-3 his first year with 100 times more talent and Mullet calling the plays. Saban lost some terrible games his first year at Bama

 

[AnObfuscator]

The ugliness on the field tonight is only exceeded by the ugliness of many comments on the board. A new coaching staff has a bad showing and some of our great chatter members want to fire, castrate, crucify and/or execute all involved. Clean house and start from scratch every time we hit a bump in the road. Like I said when Napier was hired ~ give him a chance and if he fails I will join the lynch mob. Two games does not constitute a 'chance'. Meyer was 9-3 his first year with 100 times more talent and Mullet calling the plays.

Shhh, now is the time to overreact and dispair, not consider things rationally and reasonably.

 

[TheDude]

Good lord, one bad game and everyone is ready to burn the guy at the stake.

 

[AnObfuscator]

I'm still excited about what Napier's building here. Saban and kirby both had rough 1st seasons

So did Urbs

 

[MertzJay26]

I hate the “well, (insert elite coach’s name here) had a rough first year and now look at them”

We’ll ya, and a lot more terrible coaches had rough first years too. Not saying I don’t think Napier pans out or anything, just think it’s a dumb argument tbh

 

[Gatormac2112]

I learned more about AR than I did about Napier. I’m still on board….anyone thinking this was going to be perfect immediately was fooling themselves. AR is the sole reason we lost today, not Napier. I hope AR can get past this and learn from it.

 

[Bullag8r]

Stoops has been building Kentucky football for 10 years. Getting better each year. It takes time to build and in our case it takes time to rebuild.

 

[RocketCityGator]

But even if Napier fizzles...unlike the others...he's bringing in talent.

will the recruits hold after seeing this performance?

 

[t-gator]

I learned more about AR than I did about Napier. I’m still on board….anyone thinking this was going to be perfect immediately was fooling themselves. AR is the sole reason we lost today, not Napier. I hope AR can get past this and learn from it.

Exactly plays were there to be had. I was at a watch party. The deer in the headlights look was mentioned by quite a few. Pretty discouraging. Where do we turn from there?

 

[Born2beagator]

Im not sure what people expected. An sec championship? 10 wins? We are coming from crap right now. It was going to be ugly at some point. Not saying its acceptable. But unexpected? Not at all. Now...do they show growth. That's all I care about this year.

 

[Swamped Gator]

As pissed as I am, I'm going to focus on a few positives from tonight.

1) The defense is pretty solid. They played well enough to win. They really couldn't have done much more and got screwed by the offense multiple times.

2) It's nice to see a disciplined football team. No dumb penalties. No shoe throwing. Pretty solid tackling. No false starts.

3) I'm not going to bash AR after one game. It was horrific, and he has a lot to improve on, but his ceiling is still high and there's a good chance we get him back next year. Is he nursing an injury? Did he party last night? Did he let the hype go to his head? I don't know, but he was one passing TD this year and it's for the other team. Hopefully he picks his head up and puts in the work to be better next week.

 

[GatorFL]

I learned more about AR than I did about Napier. I’m still on board….anyone thinking this was going to be perfect immediately was fooling themselves. AR is the sole reason we lost today, not Napier. I hope AR can get past this and learn from it.

I was shocked AR didn’t get pulled for Kitna.

 

[soflagator]

Im not sure what people expected. An sec championship? 10 wins? We are coming from crap right now. It was going to be ugly at some point. Not saying its acceptable. But unexpected? Not at all. Now...do they show growth. That's all I care about this year.

We won 10,11,10(if we had OOC) games from 19-20. Last year was an outlier because the coach quit. So yes, we should absolutely expect 9-10 wins. No interest in doing the ut constant rebuild mode. We are less talented than 2-3 teams in our schedule.

 

[MertzJay26]

Requests:

- Please stop insisting Wright gets meaningful snaps over Johnson and ETN
- Please stop throwing screens to Henderson and Shorter. If it’s going to be a screen (prefer it not to be), throw it to Pearsall
- Get me new KO and PR men
- Let AR run
- Tell AR if he’s gonna pout/mope around on the sidelines when he’s struggling, you’ll find somebody else

 

[RocketCityGator]

I didn't know what to expect when Stricklin hired Napier. I suspect that was true for most on this board. But one thing I liked from the beginning was his demand for the resources needed to run a championship caliber program. He then started hiring his staff but honestly, I did know anything about most of them. Raymond seemed like a good get, so check that box. Then he started executing his plan. And it seemed like a real plan not a by the seat of your pants thing, it have purpose and culture. Check that box. I didn't really learn anything from the spring game so on to recruiting. This summer was awesome. It sounds like we have a shot at top 5. Wow, check that box. So we have check boxes on staff, functional program, recruiting, probably others.

So for me the next thing to watch was game management and playcalling. Game 1 had some head scratchers. But we won and the team looked more disciplined. Overall, I liked the product on the field. But it's one game. And I'm not ready to get "In Napier I Trust" tattooed onto my bicep just yet. Maybe penciled in? Or maybe something more like, "In Napier I Have Hope"? Certainly not something I could say about McElwain or Mullen.

Go Gators!

I'm glad I held off on the tattoo. Game management and playcalling are still in question!

 

[MertzJay26]

Red flag with this hire (and any hire of his) is that Stricklin really liked him.