Some of the comments wondered why Princely and others didn’t just conduct weight workouts on their own instead of blaming Hocke or making excuses for poor season(s) performances? I guess they should have, a la the McElwain plan under Izzy Mandelbaum, or whatever that clown’s name was. But that’s not a plan to get your teams ready to lineup and compete in the SEC. In addition to having a precise in- and off-season program for each player / position group to include both strength and speed development and maintenance, there’s also the team accountability and bonding that occurs during these required and managed workouts.
Hocke’s philosophy may well have been bent more toward speed development, but Billy has to bear the responsibility for the strength deficiencies that were pretty obvious to even the casual fans. It looks like he’s taking corrective measures with the hiring of Fitzgerald (and to an extent with the NFL Nutritionist). Will it be too late is the question? The only reason that this could have been overlooked was that he was too engrossed in offensive game-planning, strategy, and review. I don’t think he was busy hawking barbecue sauce or shopping for outfits at Belk’s like McElwain (though I sometimes have wondered just how aware of the big picture of UF / SEC Football he really is).
I haven’t looked up the stats, but I’d suggest that sacks and pressures allowed by our OL were high and sacks and pressures recorded by our DL would indicate us not being as physical as we needed to be. Missed tackles, which probably set some kind of modern CFB record, can also be tied to a lack physical strength and not simply technique. If Billy is canned, I believe if he’s as honest and analytical as he has claimed, he’ll kick himself in the butt for not paying attention to this part of the program, or “process,” like he should have.
