Sorry, Billy

[DRU2012]

I really LIKE Billy Napier, and I really want to see him do well as Coach of the Florida Gator Football Team...I think he could still pull that off as our program's "CEO"...
HOWEVER:
I just watched ALL FIVE GAMES (albeit with my thumb on ff between plays), and each of our Coach's postgame pressers, and I must concede that now I too find myself in "Uh-Oh Mode".
And of course I'm not alone:
All too many up-til-now strong supporters of team, program and Coach unexpectedly find THEMSELVES similarly worried, on a level that goes BEYOND "not just losing but how we LOST that last one", and more about how this Coach we like and WANT to believe in is NOT DOING HIS JOB--on OR off the field..
There it is. No point or purpose in belaboring it. I don't ask y'all to agree with me here--I simply invested extended time and effort only to find that it is all adding up a certain way...and now I have voiced it.
A coupla wins will STILL go a long way towards "calming troubled waters" on a short term level, but none of that changes the larger issues underlying my point here.
And let me be clear:
Either Coach shows he can adapt effectively especially in his play calling and game management--and I mean THIS SEASON, he HOLDS (even improves on) the 2024 recruiting class, AND he and his people somehow not only carry that recruiting momentum into '25, but begin to more aggressively use the TRANSFER portal in the NEXT (post 2023) cycle, do ALL of these things, or I predict he AND our AD will likely be gone BEFORE 2025.
It's NOT necessarily what I want to SEE--the repercussions and consequences will affect this program negatively for years to come, but it may well become NECESSARY if we are to EVER see the proper RErise of the Gator Football Program.

 

[Escambia94]

It is too early to write off Billy Napier, but I am doing it anyway. The only way he can prove me wrong is to beat Vandy 71-13 (record for largest margin of victory, 2001), then beat South Carolina 63-7 (record for largest margin of victory, 1995), etc. Napier wants us to trust his process? Well, he needs to trust that the Gator Nation knows a bad coach when we see one, because we have seen many. Honestly, if Napier really is a CEO coach then he needs to act like a CEO by adjusting the business plan in the middle of the "sales quarter", and coming up with a plan for a splash hire "senior vice president of offense" in December.

 

[DRU2012]

It is too early to write off Billy Napier, but I have doing it anyway. The only way he can prove me wrong is to beat Vandy 71-13 (record for largest margin of victory, 2001), then beat South Carolina 63-7 (record for largest margin of victory, 1995), etc. Napier wants us to trust his process? Well, he needs to trust that the Gator Nation knows a bad coach when we see one, because we have seen many. Honestly, if Napier really is a CEO coach then he needs to act like a CEO by adjusting the business plan in the middle of the "sales quarter", and coming up with a plan for a splash hire "senior vice president of offense" in December.

Well, there it is.
I thought you might crucify me for jumping ship so suddenly and seeming early, E--, but I see we are pretty well on the same page...you maybe even further along.
Since by your own prediction YOU don't see any of the above "re-emegences" happening, I guess we are pretty well just suffering through this regime's death throes now. It could get very bad.
I still so want to be wrong--but somehow have this ominous, building feeling that we are not.
Hence, the title...
Sorry, Billy--and "Sorry, Gator Nation...Here we go AGAIN."

 

[DRU2012]

..."...and the horse you rode in on!"
That's what they say in westerns when the sheriff/townspeople are kicking someone outta town, and so it oughtta go here--as in getting rid of the AD while we're at it.
He brought this Coach in here, handed him that "huge buyout contract' and all. He's probably the main one standing between fans, boosters, "upper institutional powers" and a "rip-the-bandaid-off" move even now.
So while we're at it...

 

[DRU2012]

Just to be clear:
To "all" (well, maybe "the shrinking few left" is more accurate) who still cling to "staying the course" ("beaten horse" images notwithstanding), we DO understand and likewise bridle at the thought of what an immediate disaster and resulting extra-longterm hard road back will face us, but it is our fear and deep suspicion that we are already ON that road...
Again, ironically enough WE are probably MOST aware of all the negatives, and if anything (though it may not seem like it) still hope very badly that if we are indeed now facing this period of basically being trapped in some slow-motion crash (one that we see but cannot stop nor escape from), and that those in positions of responsibility who are for now steadfastly holding us IN that pattern somehow turn out to be RIGHT, and things soon DO dramatically come around--well...
WE are by now sure that they are wrong on too many levels to continue, and rather than suffer through an even longer slide, where the very folks who got us INTO this bind even now cling to the same sinking hopes for the sake of their OWN reputations and jobs, WE want instead to see us on "that long road back", ASAP.
I really HATE this. It has been a long time--FAR, FAR TOO long--since it was FUN to watch this team play. Billy uses that word a lot too--"fun"--but like some of the other things he says (and maybe THAT one more than all the others!) I wish he'd take it to heart and make it a real PART of the goals and ultimate reality of what he envisions this team and program to BE.

 

[Escambia94]

I will stop here and say that I appreciate what Billy Napier is trying to do by building a stable program with a clean culture and a platform for cultivating young men and turning them into successful adults. Napier is the right guy for this job… but… Gator fans are friggin’ crazy and also want wins now.

 

[DRU2012]

I will stop here and say that I appreciate what Billy Napier is trying to do by building a stable program with a clean culture and a platform for cultivating young men and turning them into successful adults. Napier is the right guy for this job… but… Gator fans are friggin’ crazy and also want wins now.

That's the thing, right?
I mean, we really LIKE this guy, but more and more "cracks", fatal flaws, continue to appear in this solid "foundation" he is trying to lay down.
ARE we "crazy"? I mean, we sure as hell aren't "patient" or "reasonable" in the face of the very adversity and hard times we were warned from the START may be ahead.
When I lay it all out that way I begin to second guess myself once more--but then we plunge into another game full of the same old sh*t--and even WORSE, postgame pressers where we are lectured like wayward children.
I guess it comes down to some simple guiding principles:
IT JUST AIN'T FUN ANYMORE, folks.
What we're seeing on the field in the most basic terms neither satisfies nor entertains. Worst of all, it often looks AMATEURISH--where MILLIIONS are being spent!
And his postgame responses to inevitably worried questions are more and more out of WHACK with "the evidence of our own two eyes"!
Meanwhile, we continue to be TORN between hope and disillusionment.
Something must, and I'm afraid soon WILL, give.

 

[DRU2012]

For the benefit of those wiser than me who continue to "withhold judgment", judge ME by this:
I think that not only will we lose TOMORROW'S game, but if we continue to play the sloppy, ill-disciplined way we have in all but one game, with this "ill-concieved for the tools-at-hand" offense, we could easily lose ALL THE REST.
So go ahead and judge me by how close on or far off I am here in my current state-of-mind...
If I'm right (and only you can say at what point it is time to accept and agree with me), we are ALL screwed. If we win, especially in a manner that shows a spirited return to clean, sharp play, tight defense, AND creative use of our now somewhat limited arsenal on offense, you may with (SOME) valid reason at least CONTINUE to reserve said "judgment".
Otherwise--well, you know...

 

[Escambia94]

Florida (3-2) might win this weekend but I would not bet money on it. The probability of win for the rest of the season:
Vanderbilt 94%
@ South Carolina 54%
Vs Georgia 7%
Arkansas 63%
@ LSU 20%
@ Missouri 48%
FSU 20%

 

[DRU2012]

Florida (3-2) might win this weekend but I would not bet money on it. The probability of win for the rest of the season:
Vanderbilt 94%
@ South Carolina 54%
Vs Georgia 7%
Arkansas 63%
@ LSU 20%
@ Missouri 48%
FSU 20%

I understand WHY you'd have that kind of "favored" percentage for a win at Homecoming against Vandy, "BUT":
My feelings here go beyond numbers, talent, home field and everything else.
It's a bunch of "incalculables" that have piled up, in my view--to the point that we are no longer any semblance of a coherent team or program.
If there were ANY team in the SEC that we MIGHT beat now it ought to be Vanderbilt, I'll grant you, but things have deteriorated so far so fast and in so many ways that the best odds I'D give us now is "50%"--and I think we are currently EXACTLY the kind of squad that in a close one BEATS ITSELF!

 

[Escambia94]

This team find creative ways to lose. Each week is something new. One week it is doubles of the same jersey. The next it is lining up with 8 players. Next week is 10. The next week is 12. One week they are the best defense in the NFL, and the next week they miss a season’s worth in one game.

 

[DRU2012]

Of course, now that I have gone and picked us to lose (when I hardly do any "pregame picking" to begin with), we probably go out and WIN this one after all...Not only that, but seeing how I have lately come down so hard on this team which I love so well, on further reflection a perverse part of me now more than half expects us to go out and DOMINATE, like we haven't done since from about five minutes into the Tennessee game right through to the half.
In which case, GOOD ON 'EM--and in a paroxysm of reverse superstition I may well take to full on castigation before every game left on the schedule.
It should be clear by now that this team and its contortions has left my once serviceable brain a twisted heap of steaming dung.
Do NOT listen to my ravings; you are better off taking a list of the weekend's pairings, a blindfold, and a handful of darts in order to analyse and choose the winners.