A Nod To This Team

[DRU2012]

An inescapable nod is due this team--and yes, in this case, their Coach as well:
THIS is a TEAM. They do indeed love each other and stick together no.matter WHAT. They hold themselves AND each other responsible, without pointing fingers. And, much as I hold the Coach responsible for so MANY failures and let downs since he got here, I must give HIM credit for all THIS too.
I almost get to thinking that maybe if we somehow COULD get the right "GM/OC"-type to come and take over the offense, AND get BILLY to fully accept and ALLOW that person to fully and properly do his job, then MAYBE that might be a way to move forward...but then I remember all the evidence we ve already seen--and beyond THAT, our bad-and-getting-WORSE 2025 recruiting class, FROM A GUY WE CHOSE ABOVE ALL DUE TO HIS SUPPOSED RECRUITING ACUMEN!!!
And then I reconsider.
Yes, this is a tight team that plays for each other AND their Coach--but that isn't ENOUGH.
A certain amount of that is one ingredient of potential success, but never is it the sole component.
Does anyone truly believe that all these kids whom are DEcommitting are going instead somewhere that has "better teamsmanship"? Will the ones who leave our program if Billy is fired go to teams that have better "love" for each other?
Of course not--"NO!" to both questions.
They are looking for winners and/or (more and more nowadays) bigger NIL deals!
We simply have to do a better job of BOTH!!!
How we manage that is our singular path forward.

 

[DRU2012]

@Escambia94, @Leakfan12,
(...and everyone ELSE who happens by...)
For a sharply drawn, objective summary of where things are at for this Gator team and its fans, please see Matt Hayes' USA TODAY NETWORK post entitled, "Florida Played its best game...and it's still over for Billy Napier" (Sunday 10:02pm, Nov. 2).
It's all there.

 

[DRU2012]

So...
DJ is apparently "gonna be OK"--his hamstring injury "not as significant" as first appeared, according to Coach Billy Napier...WHO, by the way, actually gave frank and open, well-reasoned responses to inevitable questions at his Monday presser. I was able to absorb his talk without rancor, for a change of late.
I don't know WHERE we go from here.
One thing we DO know: With Warner, our offense is back to being a sort of second-rate version of what it looked like with Graham Mertz at the helm--only with less solid experience and ALL Napier as far as plays called. Coming in for DJ Lagway in your first start, on the road against TEXAS no less, well, not exactly what anyone (even Warner himself) had in mind.
DOES make me wonder exactly how and why Billy left himself in that particular bind in the first place. Yeah, we have had a LOT of "poor luck" (ridiculously so) with quarterbacks over the years, no less so these almost-three seasons under Napier, but it remained by Billy's choice that the 3rd string QB, the "back-up to the back-up", was next in line when first Mertz (QB-1), then Lagway (QB-1A) went down.
However, how this all fits in any discussion of Billy's future here is just further baffling amidst the ongoing chaos. I don't care to get back into all that right now.
I had once SO looked forward to our Gators finally coming to Austin, my longtime home. Now it looks like I'm not even gonna BE at DK Royal for this one. I MAY well head out to the Gator Watch Party out in Del Valley at the Beer Gardens--watching the whole damn expected-debacle through multiple pitchers of beer and fingers in front of my eyes!