It is hard to understand 18-21 year old college athletes. Florida’s QB depth chart in 2023:
- Graham Mertz, Tr-Jr, 4*
- Max Brown, RSo, 3*
- Jack Miller, TrSo, 3* (injured)
- (Walk-On) Micah Leon, Gr, unrated
- (Walk-On) Parker Leise, Fr, 3*
Compare that to Alabama or Georgia who carry up to five QBs on scholarship, all 4* and 5*. I do not understand why Gator fans think we should only have one scholarship QB on the roster nor do I understand why we get upset when a 3* QB leaves. Florida has not kept more than two 5* QBs on its roster since it had Tim Tebow, Cam Newton, and John Brantley IV in 2008. One could argue that the Cam Newton laptop incident ended the Gator dynasty, because Florida only got one 5* QB on campus since then, Jeff Driskel. Even with Driskel, he was recruited by Urban Meyer’s staff and he grew up a Gator fan so he was likely to commit to Florida no matter what. Without Meyer’s staff the Gators have failed to get a single 5* QB since 2011.
If Max Brown left due to lack of NIL money then that is a different matter. No college QB in their right mind should expect to be a starter on a winning SEC team unless he is a 4* or 5* QB—especially in this era of NIL.
Alabama has three 4* QBs and one 5* on the depth chart for 2024. Georgia has three 5* QBs and a couple 4*. Florida will have a transfer 4*, a freshman 5*, and a walk-on. Brown should have returned. Furthermore, Florida will need to grab a former 3* QB for depth, maybe an injured 4*. Yikes. Florida’s QB depth chart in 2024:
- Graham Mertz, Tr-Sr, 4*
- DJ Lagway, Fr, 5*
- (Walk-On) Parker Leise, So, 3*
Pretty grim outlook, really, when you step back and look at it all with clear eyes...but that IS my point about Max Brown specifically: "What is he THINKING?" Given everything, being the 2024 Gator backup is as good a chance as he has any right to expect--especially factoring in his baseball interests. As you say, though, who KNOWS what an 18-yr-old kid is thinking?
I don't care to revisit that whole Cam Newton sequence/fiasco a dozen-plus years back, don't even wanna GO there. I have often wondered in intervening years how everything might have gone completely differently had THAT mess (mixed up kid, petty criminal old man and all) not played out on the dark side of the Urban Meyer watch.
Moving on, things may well have been different NOW without that NIL stumbling confusion back before the 2023 season--and ANOTHER young kid and his family (in THEIR greed and inexperience) playing on our ignorance and inexperience, this time in the new realities.
But that thinness at QB was and is only ONE of many mounting problems for this team and program. "THINNESS" everywhere, if truth be told--and possibly threatening to get WORSE, if anything, as we well know.
Then I held my nose and took a deep dive, thumb on fast-forward, watching the replay of our last game last night. Yikes. I won't go on at length--in fact, for the moment I will simply start and end with our Coach's play-calling/game-planning:
He was mostly conservative (playing "not-to-LOSE") when he often needed to be aggressive--and then, at a crucial moment that turned our last chance to seize control of the game into the turning point that turned the tide against us, he gave it all away: He suddenly goes AGGRESSIVE and calls that "Play That NEVER Works" again, and turns our big "drive to end the half", STARTING on their side of midfield (after a SAFETY by our defense!), into a punt from way back--and the ensuing first collapse by our up-til-then actually decent-looking D.
Though that D tried to do what it could after that, Coach's offense was a no-show for the balance of play.
My gut-level impression was more or less confirmed by this review of the flow of this one game: THIS is EXACTLY why I have lost so much faith in Billy Napier...
I just no longer have any confidence in his ability to plan or call a game on offense--and HE fancies that his own STRONG SUIT!
So, repeating the obvious, with all the evidence that he will be our Coach at least another 2 seasons, THIS is why his naming a new OC is so important. It is perhaps our ONLY CHANCE to make any real progress from here.
Sure, it might have come at a better time, but we damn well better somehow pull a winner out of the hat--or we will be in an even DEEPER hole when this Coach finally "comfortably retires".
That's right:
Billy either (1) somehow "lands on his feet", recognized as the "Ideal Coach/CEO" who "gathers the right mix of staff and players together", "molds them into a tight and talented unit", and eventually returns Florida Football to SEC DOMINANCE (!), or (2) Well, no need to go on at great length about it: We all have a pretty fair picture of where this all could be headed.
Should he manage to pull off #1, no one will be better pleased than I...HOWEVER, I cannot say that I am presently brimming with confidence.
Believe me: I have NO interest in "Being RIGHT."
But I won't lie to myself and/or y'all either.
We must judge by RESULTS.
And so far...?
