Dan Mullen Fired as Head Coach - Poll: Who Should Be the Next Gator Head Coach?

[DRU2012]

This just shows how well Sexton is connected in the college football market. Those connections help in cases where the schools cannot contact candidate coaches directly due to NCAA rules. The agents can talk to one another--and if one agent represents both sides it is super easy. This has happened a few times in college football.

Yes, I see what you mean. Talk about “insisting one hand not letting the other know what it’s doing”! Just another example of the fork-tongued nature of so many NCAA rules and realities.
So in some situations, this guy and his clients have certain advantages, through unofficial “open channels” NOT available to everyone.
But if it somehow worked for us here, I guess I’d be all for “looking the other way”...I don’t see how it would, if Bob Stoops is our first choice, but in the case of the apparently “hotter and hotter commodity” that is Billy Napier, perhaps a different matter. Maybe Lane Kiffen too. But all these guys have their OWN “personal agendas” as well!
Just one more wrinkle in an already complex jumble of priorities and motivations among both suitors and their targets.

 

[DRU2012]

Note:
As of this morning, November 24, the day before Thanksgiving, word is that BOB Stoops’ candidacy for the Head Coach job at University of Florida appears to be gathering momentum.
It IS still in the “arena of media public opinion”, but presumably there is SOME significant underlying reasoning therein.
I personally hate to find myself emotionally investing in the idea, but I must tell you that my personal view is that this would be the one such prospective hire likely to be a “slam dunk”.
Is there ANYONE here who WOULDN’T be excited, immediately energized to hear that HE would be our next Head Coach?
MY immediate reaction, quite honestly, would be something along the lines of,
“FINALLY!”

 

[DRU2012]

Sexton NOT Stoops’ agent though, so from that perspective there’s perhaps an “us vs THEM” aspect to this process now here? Who knows how that crosses things up a bit after all? Personally, I’m gonna ignore it, simply trust the parties to do the same: think and act responsibly.

 

[DRU2012]

Meanwhile, lots of differing opinions out there, names mentioned that are similarly described in glowing terms (Cristobal, Napier), others that are already off the table, it would seem.
Sigh...
Just go on outvthere and enjoy the game, Gator fans!
A “SPECIAL SHOUT OUT” to our own @Escambia94,
who will be there...

Make sure you “make the rounds” in G-ville, night’n’day, before/after (depending on the result and overall experience?), bra’?
Up to you, but some description and/or a pic or two (?) would of course be much appreciated...
But main thing is to HAVE FUN and “GO GATORS!!!”

 

[Escambia94]

Meanwhile, lots of differing opinions out there, names mentioned that are similarly described in glowing terms (Cristobal, Napier), others that are already off the table, it would seem.
Sigh...
Just go on outvthere and enjoy the game, Gator fans!
A “SPECIAL SHOUT OUT” to our own @Escambia94,
who will be there...

Make sure you “make the rounds” in G-ville, night’n’day, before/after (depending on the result and overall experience?), bra’?
Up to you, but some description and/or a pic or two (?) would of course be much appreciated...
But main thing is to HAVE FUN and “GO GATORS!!!”

I have a reservation at Spurrier’s Grille. I will be meeting up with some military buddies I worked with in Los Angeles.

 

[DRU2012]

I have a reservation at Spurrier’s Grille. I will be meeting up with some military buddies I worked with in Los Angeles.

Excellent! Am envious—Sorry!—but in truth, just TOTALLY SUPPORTIVE: Maybe NOT what you originally hoped for in choosing what had once been anticipated as the climactic victory in at least a higher-double-digit winning season, but given the actual circumstances it sounds as if you’ve maximized your positives here, bra’!
Have FUN, and GO GATORS!
(It is possible you may even be there when a Coach is named; at the very least, you’ll have a first hand take on the overall “vibe”.)

 

[Leakfan12]

I have a reservation at Spurrier’s Grille. I will be meeting up with some military buddies I worked with in Los Angeles.

Let us know how it is.

 

[DRU2012]

Now that Bobby Stoops has publicly denied interest in a coaching job (though not necessarily a complete shut down, as such things go in today’s world, for the moment “that would SEEM to be THAT”) you’ll notice that I have checked Napier’s name above:
Having noted elsewhere that the rest of the names amount to either “dead at the starting line”-unlikely OR “crapshoots-at-BEST”...Napier in truth falls into the latter category, imho, but has lots of the desired “exciting potential upside” I guess we’re all looking for:
It either works, in a spectacular sort of way, or NOT—perhaps JUST as “spectacularly”.
Stoops is/was the only one that smacked of “great hope and promise”, rather than “desperation”.
Oh well...

 

[DRU2012]

...and MAYBE “worth noting” right about here:
I proceeded to spend the last couple of hours since “before dawn” this Thanksgiving Day morning in a quiet house, quiet neighborhood in Austin, Texas, 2021, delving deeply into the many varied names that have shuffled themselves up and down in public discussion and consciousness the last week or so...and, instead of joining into the confusing jumble of positives and negatives, arguments and counter-arguments that any such effort seems to immediately engender, I will instead at least TRY to settle back towards a kind of “calm at the eye of the storm”:
If I were to even HEAD in that DIRECTION it would be to reduce things to a collection of “TYPES”:
There are the “CEO/managerial” ones (Bob Stoops was/is the seeming TOPPER here—but seems to have taken his hat OUT of the ring...leaving a handful of mostly younger guys who, though “quieter-tracked candidates”, are more of “THAT kind of character” than the alternative, aggressively “higher-profile CHARACTERS” out there who to varying degrees might be more “off-putting” to more conservative “back-office”, University bureaucracy-immersed officials with titles like “President” or “Regent” and the like!
Anyway, for all the time and effort so far, that’s about as far as I’m ready to commit right now, if pressed—and you’ll note I HAVEN’T actually even DONE THAT!
For the moment, you’ll have to go through the names listed here above yourselves in order to sort through and GET THAT “list” of possibilities FOR YOURSELVES now...Then maybe choose your OWN “final boiled-down LIST of names” of your own for a “final list”.
Me, I’m gonna TRY to just STOP RIGHT HERE,
SHUT UP,
Let the last week of play
PLAY OUT
and let TALENT,
TIMELY EXCELLENCE”,
and ASSUMED COMPETENCE hopefully (but certainly NOT CONFIDENTLY) rule the day—and our hopes for the future!

 

[DRU2012]

Napier looking more’n’more like “THE guy”...
He looks like he should have been the “slam dunk” target of LSU, who’ve known they were “looking” for WEEKS already...
So it is somewhat surprising that they haven’t long since at LEAST made a more aggressive move to land him, but at this point it sure LOOKS like UF will get him—possibly to be announced this weekend.
And yes, he has done amazing things at (previous relative backwater) Louisiana, and “EVERYONE” says he’s “ready for “the BIG STAGE”...but for ME, THAT is the problem—the supposed “buzz” surrounding his name that has suddenly risen from the mythical “EVERYONE”.
The very same media commentators who are trumpeting him are ALSO the very people who warn (in this case at least, in my view without-a-doubt correctly) that we “damn well better get this hire RIGHT”, or likely find ourselves stuck out in the wilderness for a very long time.
Meanwhile, others among the list of those first mentioned either already have been negated in various ways and/or to varying degrees—or turned out to be non-starters in the first place! In fact, the remaining “top names” are so far relatively few after all—and that “group”, if anything, is already shrinking...and to be completely honest, I cannot say that I was all that familiar with ANY of these guys in the first place (Napier included!), nor am I especially further sold on them (or find their stature growing, in my view) now.
And yet “the pressure is ON”, from without and within, from many directions, for many reasons—and the “reasons” for THAT will only INTENSIFY hour-by-hour, day-by-DAY from here.
I would prefer us to SLOW THINGS DOWN:
THINK. CONSIDER.
Talk to our players, and assorted longtime Gators, etc, before pulling the trigger on this one. It shouldn’t be rushed, and it sure as HELL SHOULD be “mutual”—THIS hire THIS time needs to be a “coming together”!
In past years, the hires that have WORKED have been the ones where we WANTED EACH OTHER equally badly, it seemed. It just FIT.
It seems fair to at least put this out there NOW, to ask, with respect to WHOMEVER we ask to take a barrel-full-of-CASH to be our next Coach,
“IS THIS THE RIGHT ONE?
Is this the guy we want?
Does HE want US??!
Can he not only WIN, but do it through the highs and lows:
IS HE IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL?”
These are REALLY the questions for our NEXT Head Coach at the University of Florida, BEFORE he is hired.
How THAT exchange goes, how it FEELS to the people who will offer the contract and ultimately sign the checks is what counts here.
I can only ASSUME THAT Y’ALL ARE CONFIDENTLY UNIFIED IN ALL THE REQUIRED “YES”s between “there” and “HERE”.
Otherwise, STOP!!!
Never MIND the pressure, never MIND “the other teams”.
NEVER MIND THE RUSH!!!
If we don’t get it right NOW, if we somehow “MISS” this time, well, it’s gonna be “a LONG ways back”, a hard road, a rough, protracted journey strewn with trials, setbacks and obstacles for years to come—that much “EVERYONE” agrees upon! So though there’s a LOT “on the line” here, there is little reason to rush things, to NOT be careful and deliberate in how we do this now.
So...
Maybe, just MAYBE “LSU has it RIGHT this time around:”
Perhaps it is best for US TOO to be careful and deliberate OURSELVES:
Let’s make sure we are making a solid, thoughtful “CHOICE AMONG GREATS” here—That it truly WILL BE from among a group of singularly “WONDERFUL CHOICES” that our NEXT SUCH “COACH” is to be CHOSEN...and here we are.

Aside from everything ELSE, there are my previous notes and comments and general fascination concerning “Ambrose Bierce”...not to mention HIS curious involvement with such ideas of time, space and “infinite possibilities”...
(I’ll say no more,
at least for now.)

 

[Escambia94]

My guess is that Napier is looking for a job where he will not be fired only two years after winning a national championship. He said something about job stability. Note that most folks do not appear to know that the Title IX and FBI investigations also factored into the release of Orgeron. Napier might still be under consideration at LSU, so I will be careful with all the rumors.

 

[DRU2012]

My guess is that Napier is looking for a job where he will not be fired only two years after winning a national championship. He said something about job stability. Note that most folks do not appear to know that the Title IX and FBI investigations also factored into the release of Orgeron. Napier might still be under consideration at LSU, so I will be careful with all the rumors.

The Florida job CAN be “stable”: “Just WIN”, as they say.
The last two Coaches who did WEREN’T run out of here when or because they hit subsequent “rough patches”, but rather pretty well only left when and because they then CHOSE to.
Anyway, nowadays that’s where contractual “Big Buyout” numbers come from. At which point, of course, “the worst case scenario ain’t so bad!”.

 

[DRU2012]

From what I gather, Napier doesn’t wish to abandon his current team (Louisiana “Ragin’ Cajuns”) until at least their playing in their league’s Championship game, still a week away...That’s why NO ONE has his answer, if and/or whenever that is otherwise gonna be forthcoming...

 

[Leakfan12]

Do we really want Lane Kiffin let's be honest?

 

[DRU2012]

Do we really want Lane Kiffin let's be honest?

Lol. Yeah, I know what you mean...but I gotta at least give him credit for clearly having come ways guan the road to “maturity” over his last few postings—and he has done a BANG-UP job this season at Ol’ Miss, no doubt about it.
But is he the right “fit” at Florida? Well, FIRST, I have a feeling he ISN’T “the right fit” with our current A.D.
But DAMN! I think E— has it right when he recommends a “CEO”, long as it’s one with a passel of Assistants he can call upon to well-cover all the various aspects MISSING in this last regime...but BOB Stoops isn’t coming, and failing someone else (not mentioned so far) who might have similar credentials, maybe we have to try a young guy with talent and FIRE in his belly—a good recruiter who can attract talent AND lead ‘em...He may not be the ONLY such person out there, but I think Lane is at least starting to show HE is ONE of them!
Now, unless Spurrier himself gets involved and personally recommends him to Stricklin, I doubt Kiffen even gets s as n interview.
But I also think that at THIS point, we could do worse.

 

[DRU2012]

(@Leakfan12,
Here’s ONE way of approaching your question:
“How would a Lane Kiffen-coached Gator program likely fare against Kirby’s Bulldog teams, starting from here?”
Do you think he’d have us competing against them decently in direct competition anytime soon?
I am ALREADY SO SICK of having their (finally, after multiple high-ranked recruiting cycles) much-hyped program rubbed in our faces, their weekly success now trumpeted everywhere without END...
This has got to STOP!
And I THINK Kiffen makes AR his starter right up top, then (after completing just the first of what should be many aggressive annual recruiting efforts of his own) on his then targeting UGA IN PARTICULAR as the team we set our eyes on catching, then BEATING—and beyond THAT then let the rest (Alabama et al!) “take care of itself”!
Now, it’s likely he isn’t the ONLY guy who would choose a similar path to the same ultimate destination, given the circumstances here in the SEC coming INTO this job, but maybe he not only GETS IT DONE, but maybe he manages it the soonest?
I don’t know—but it is worth asking ourselves, rhetorically speaking, as the decision hangs in the balance RIGHT HERE AND NOW, doncha THINK?)
I’m not necessarily pulling for his choice, and in truth (as I’ve noted elsewhere) doubt that (given the situational and personality details here at UF) he of all people even has much of a chance of being “the Guy”, but it IS one more line of thought that reminds us ALL to be comprehensive and open-MINDED in our thinking when it comes to THIS hire and the “crossroads” we are at now.
One can only HOPE that our AD (and the men he trusts and consults with) are flexible, open and clear in weighing the various factors involved with and likely to lead to our best chance at longterm success as a result of whatever choice is made now.
The main thing at this point is NOT to get bogged down in any longterm wrangling...
My main HOPE at THIS point is as much “How?” and “When?” as “Who?”...That they already KNOW WHO they want, and are necessarily (due to “circumstance”) waiting for some time and situational factors to fully “mature” before making their move; their chosen “preferred target” may have already set those very terms.