Piling On

[DRU2012]

A whole lot of folks circling a seemingly struggling Billy Napier in what are apparently blood-filled waters of late...
Though I have been feeling some of those vibes myself, I tended to be dismissive, even somewhat disgusted by Trevor Etienne's desertion--and even more his recent wholly, unabashedly self-serving public rationale for his move.
"Screw that little weasal!" had come to be my bottomline judgment, emblematic pretty well of his whole generation, it would seem.
But Spurrier's exasperated recent public statements are harder to shrug off. I mean, I find I cannot simply dismiss it, say he's wrong and move on.
Quite the contrary: When he speaks, Gators of all stripes listen--and as I say, in this case I can't shake off the overall feeling that there is a complex ring of validity to this one.
No matter what, it's gonna hit HARD the ongoing effort to get our balance and bearings amidst recent chaos, as we approach the lead up to what was always going to be a tough season--and which at this point is shaping up as a do-or-die crossroads for Napier AND the whole, Florida PROGRAM.
Never mind all the talk and complicated analysis:
All that matters is winning. Manage more wins than losses somehow, and we go on--BILLY goes on as our Coach.
Otherwise, what? "Forty years in the wilderness?" Russian-novel material?
IS there another SS out there gathering the knowledge, talent and prestige together for another magical shot at "RE-EMERGENCE"??!

 

[Escambia94]

The piling on by social media will only get worse the more Napier’s staff cuts out social media. The shocker was Spurrier publicly siding with social media. That alone was the nail in the coffin. This is not a good time to be a Gator fan. Oddly enough, this is a great time to be an FSU fan. No matter how bad things are, their fans and administration are not turning on Norvell—even when he had a worse winning record through three years than Napier.

On that note: please refrain from negativity on this site. If Gator fans want negativity they can get it everywhere else. If I cannot escape that crap here then I will move all my content elsewhere.

 

[DRU2012]

The piling on by social media will only get worse the more Napier’s staff cuts out social media. The shocker was Spurrier publicly siding with social media. That alone was the nail in the coffin. This is not a good time to be a Gator fan. Oddly enough, this is a great time to be an FSU fan. No matter how bad things are, their fans and administration are not turning on Norvell—even when he had a worse winning record through three years than Napier.

On that note: please refrain from negativity on this site. If Gator fans want negativity they can get it everywhere else. If I cannot escape that crap here then I will move all my content elsewhere.

I agree completely--in fact, to some extent I am already "THERE": I am here (and continue to hang in, THROUGH IT ALL) because I believe this site provides voice and forum to those who remain "Gators through and through, no matter the weather..."
But SPURRIER'S latest public assertions really WERE in effect the unexpected "nail in the coffin" (I can only imagine how it must have blindsided Billy!).
If WE go (you and I, E-), that will pretty well be IT for GE...in fact, I don't think it overstating the matter to say that if not "the heart", but perhaps "the CONSCIENCE" of online Gator analysis and reflection will have been ripped from the scene.
So I neither say nor DO anything LIGHTLY in this regard. But we are dancing on the edge of a yawning chasm, flirting with obvious disaster.
We NEED some "POSITIVITY"--clear and unequivocal signs that things are turning our way.
Now, having said all that, there IS a sort of "elephant in the room"--an unavoidable reality that could more or less bury all other thoughts and/or rationales:
I am really starting to despise College Football, and where it is headed. This latest business with Trevor Etienne is a particularly raw example of what I'm talking about.
Here's a guy I was cheering for just a short time ago--and weeks later he's publicly shitting on former teammates, fans, Coaches--the WHOLE SCHOOL AND PROGRAM...it may well get harder and harder to relate to ANY of these spoiled, coddled, two-faced weasels!
In this way it's getting like the NFL--which I don't really follow anymore.
Is this our future?

 

[DRU2012]

...and now come Saban's recent comments, his supposed rationale for suddenly walking away.
Amazing ti find myself saying it, but those comments do NOT sound a whole lot different from my last post HERE (directly above)--His are only, if anything, more detailed and specific.

 

[Escambia94]

There is a reason that many great college football coaches struggle in the NFL. Although on the surface college football looks like the NFL, they are very different sports. Modern college football is becoming a bad impression of the NFL and many coaches do not like it.

 

[DRU2012]

Just a note...I wasn't sure where to post it here.
Was tempted to simply open a whole new thread, but it sort of fits HERE too--so I will tentatively leave it here to start:
Upon my first look at next season's schedule, it was immediately apparent that our outlook for the whole YEAR will likely be somewhat revealed simply by all that happens in Game One, when Miami comes to the Swamp (!).
Need I say more?
I mean, we will know a WHOLE lot more than anyone can claim to know now I think before that one is even over.
Wow. The schedule itself comprises such a tough potential "turning point" of a season to start with, it is an amazingly appropriate situation to discover that it will begin in this way.
One MORE reason I am already tired of all the advance discussion...We simply won't KNOW "what we really got" til that one is in the record book.
That won't stop the static--but a WIN sure as hell ought to!!!

 

[Escambia94]

No need to start another thread. Just pile onto the “Pile On” thread. Game 1 will give us a good idea of where Napier has the program. Both Miami and UF are in similar stages of program revamping. Unlike previous years there will be no cupcakes on the schedule after week 2 to retune the offense and defense after a loss. I would say that if Miami crushes Florida at the Swamp on August 31, then all 90,000 fans need to grab Napier, carry his ass over to Lake Alice, and toss him in. It really is that simple.

 

[DRU2012]

LOL. GOOD one E-!
I dunno...I mean, of COURSE I'm sweating this one out already, with no real feel for WHERE "Napier has the program" right at this moment.
But know what? Even with that being the case. I do still now have this strangely upbeat vibe, the unexpected, out-of-left-field feeling that maybe, in the face of what "EVERYONE" agrees is the toughest schedule in the land, Coach and team are positioning themselves to SHOCK THE WORLD--beginning with a strong win to open things up in the Swamp.
Yes. I may well be WAY off. It's just this FEELING, one I cannot explain with logic or history, but there it is.
But here is "Step One", the First Hurdle.
Swat away Miami, beat them rather handily, and maybe we establish some modest early momentum, eventually find ourselves in range of at least a winning record by the time we face the towering challenge that the 5 games the 2nd half of the season comprise.
And I don't care what anyone ELSE says: We come out of 2024 with a winning record, and not only is Napier still our Coach, but with another improving high-end recruiting haul fans will be feeling, BASKING in the return of OPTIMISM at that now still distant dream: "FULL ON TURNAROUND"!!!

 

[Leakfan12]

There is a reason that many great college football coaches struggle in the NFL. Although on the surface college football looks like the NFL, they are very different sports. Modern college football is becoming a bad impression of the NFL and many coaches do not like it.

It's one thing coaching 17-24 year olds but it's another coaching guys in their 30s.

 

[Leakfan12]

Speaking of piling on

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/12/1238108601/naacp-black-athletes-florida-desantis-boycott#:~:text=Black%20college%20athletes%20should%20rethink,equity%20and%20inclusion%20efforts%20statewide.

 

[DRU2012]

Speaking of piling on

https://www.npr.org/2024/03/12/1238108601/naacp-black-athletes-florida-desantis-boycott#:~:text=Black%20college%20athletes%20should%20rethink,equity%20and%20inclusion%20efforts%20statewide.

I'm glad you raised all this, Lf--and the ONLY reason I didn't give it a "Like" is so that there is no confusion in separating my approval of our addressing all this here, now that it's been raised, while DISAPPROVING of DeSantis' mouthy meddling WAY beyond whatever the citizens of The Sunshine State generally supported in voting for him--the ones that DID.
I am FROM FLORIDA. IT IS, ALWAYS WILL BE, on a certain fundamental level, my "childhood home". I don't live there anymore, haven't for years (and though I still love the place itself and of course our Gators things will probably have to change in big ways socially before I'd consider moving back, even retiring there like I always thought I would.
We go way back, Fla and me--and even as my "horizons expanded" with events (positive AND negative) that dramatically affected my life and circumstances in and around me in my early teens, there was never any real doubt as to where (and WHY) I would return to attend college.
So I come by MY resentment and rejection of Ron De honestly, let me assure you.
Mostly wish he'd just shut up and stick to messing with the things he came IN mouthing off about! No such luck, though.
I understand why folks at the NAACP would start OUT feeling that way--and why it would only get worse from there, given his statements, efforts and proclivities...But THEY need to take a closer look and instead take a broader view: Recognize that there are a LOT of folks, from all backgrounds, who've attended ALL those "State of Florida Universities" who agree and will STAND with them...There is STENGTH out there, if you have the patience and determination to build bridges, man ramparts.
At the risk of brushing up against things we mostly STAY AWAY from here at GE (for good reason: Politics can mostly only divide us as Gators, as it does everywhere and everyone ELSE nowadays--which all too often appears it's main effect and USE among those folks nowadays who STYLE themselves "POLITICIANS"...
"A POX ON 'EM ALL!!!" is my view.
Regardless, we can, and when it comes right down to it, we MUST sweep aside our differences and instead reestablish the "common ground" that recognizes how much we SHARE.
Feeling "angry and isolated"? I assure you, you are not alone: Stand, and you will perhaps be surprised not just at how MANY but how WIDE your support will be.

 

[DRU2012]

...and this thread CONTINUES to be the seeming "right place" to bring all the odd, "out-of-left-fieid" questions and topics that come up as spring gathers steam:
As we work through the he seeming "annual bummer" of another early exit from the dance (this year it's a #7-seed Fla losing to #10-seed Colo in the first round) comes the somehow darkly edifying news that "Mr Loyalty (NOT)" T. Etienne was busted up in Ga Sunday for DUI (along with a host of other charges, some related, some not)--a charge that (for a BUNCH of reasons) they take PARTICULARLY seriously nowadays at UGA--at least they have recently henceforth CLAIMED to do so. Guess those around that program will now SEE...
I frankly "turned the page" on any interest in this guy's life and/or career given not just the fact but the MANNER of his leaving, but I admit to a bit of an ignoble "good on ya!" flash upon hearing of it. Probably small, even petty on my part, sure--but there it is.
"Do your sulking on the bench, team-guy..."

 

[Leakfan12]

I hate to throw around the P word but the P word could hurt the programs in not only UF but other schools in the state maybe outside the SOW over something that shouldn't be politicized and that's diversity. The two biggest money makers in College Sports are Football and Basketball and that's mostly played by people who are non-white student athletes. I wish those politicians who claimed to be Christians would follow the bible in loving one another and last I checked there are no exceptions. Not to mention, how many in the state legislature went to the Big Three schools at one point or another? Sorry to talk about Politics and Religion but I don't like what's going on in this state and Billy Napier deserves better and not lose recruits because of the actions of Politicians catering to their base.

 

[Leakfan12]

and it got worse

Rashada sues Napier, UF booster over NIL deal

The former Florida football recruit is suing coach Billy Napier, along with a big-time Gator booster and others, claiming they defrauded him by backing out of a promised $13.85 million agreement after he had turned down offers tied to other programs.

www.espn.com

 

[DRU2012]

I had the exact same thought the moment I first saw this headline and accompanying story, Lf.
I mean, talk about "a little weasel"--Rashada (and family) eclipse even Etienne for "convenient timing"...Interesting that BOTH ended up there just up the road in Athens. Hardly a "random coincidense", don't you think?
This is, has been from the START always simply been all about GREED, right? And like so much else about this still-revealing-itself "new world of CFB", so much seems part of a kind of "inevitable consequence" of the NCAA's "dereliction of duty", the vacuum of responsibility created when NO ONE (them, above all) stepped in to even TRY to offer some semblance of organization, a governing set of "RULES" and/or regulations, at the very least a formalized "sit down" among representatives from the major programs from which a "governing body" might have emerged.
Too late now. In their desperate fear of losing what little relevancy they had left, the NCAA dropped the ball--did NOTHING...So those "major programs" were and ARE left with having to see this all left to the courts to somehow adjucate what is now growing into a tangled mess, ITSELF resulting from a failure to face things in forthright manner, using COMMON SENSE, in the FIRST place!
It shouldn't have happened: it shoukdn' BE thus way. But as comedian Lenny Bruce once put it, "What SHOULD be" is a LIE!". The rest of us are left with an imperfect, messed up world where things get done in this clunky, uneven, unfair and inefficient way that somehow eventually results (hopefully) in something resembling "OK".
Often thanks to unsatisfied troublemakers like us "creative types" here at GE, always whining and "sticking in OUR TWO CENTS", right?

 

[DRU2012]

And returning once again to the title of this thread, and why I came up with it in the first place, perhaps the most surprising and egregious example of just what I was referring to came recently when Spurfier himself chose to join the chorus of even staunch Gator supporters choosing to kick Coach and team when as down and vulnerable as they've been in a generation.
Not sure what motivated SS here, nor what "good" he thought could possibly come of it all, but I am certain that it surprised (and HURT) Billy in particular--if only its unexpected timing and source. I mean, one has to have a thick skin as a Florida coach (especially after two losing seaaons!), but to having it come NOW, and from the guy who pretty well SET the standards everyone since has had to try and live up to--and who himself actually pretty well LEFT because he resented the unrealistic expectations and resulting pressures arising as a result, well, I just think he might have reconsidered and at least TEMPERED such comments before choosing to utter them. As it is, THAT seems like "Piling On” for SURE itself .
I don't know what the season will actually bring; opinions at this point vary wildly--BUT, considering how (particularly in taking into account the difficult schedule) uniformly negative expectations were lining up until quite recently, and NOT just nationally but even among Gator FANS, the way that has more and more of late been met with a rising tide of "guarded optimism", with assorted positive developement both organizationally and in the aggressive gathering of onfield talent and depth, it is no exageration to say that there is now a strong and growing note of "NOW WAIT a minute..." among Gator fans, and lately even among the so called "neutral prognosticators.
As a UF alumnus and lifelong Gator Football fan, I of course DREAM of some "Shocking Return to Glory", where we somehow pull double-digit wins out of this brutal schedule...but there is no WAY I am "expecting" anything of the sort in 2024.
Naturally, I am HOPING we can somehow pull a winning record out of all this, in so doing giving Billy, staff, and what is beginning to emerge as a tight and talented TEAM a little more time-- another season or two to continue what is now finally a "rising Gator Tide" that will I believe soon put us in the multi-team CFB Playoff on an annual basis.
The way it is SUPPOSED to be.
Don't worry, Gators: It won't be TOO long before they all hate us again!

 

[DRU2012]

This seems as good a place as any to reflect on ALL of the above—the once uniform negativity AND the recent growing “counterpoint of positivity” that suddenly seems to be growing among what remains nonetheless a minority of both Gator fans AND national CFB experts that perhaps this team and program might just be readying a surprise for everyone after all.
Frankly, I fervently hope it REMAINS a minority, a near-hidden and much-ignored “undercurrent” that keeps us mostly “under the radar”. This kind of team ALWAYS benefits by carrying somewhat of a chip on its collective shoulder.
Over the last few days I have been watching game replays from some of our various “golden era” teams: The Urban Meyer years AND the rise of the modern Gators under SS.
There’s a lot to take from all of it, but what has struck me most is the overall BALANCE of strengths that contributed to that rise and eventual dominance: Greatness both on and OFF the field…The growing talent level and depth ON the field was undeniable. By Tebow’s junior year we were strong and FAST virtually everywhere on the field!
But good as we were in all phases of the game, that did NOT just “happen”: Look at the coaches. Under Meyer’s undeniably shrewd and thorough attention to detail in building and guiding the program, he had Dan Mullins (“QB Whisperer”) as OC, Charlie Strong as DC, and young, hungry and hot young up’n’comers everywhere ELSE around and beneath them.
By ‘08 this was a MACHINE.
No WONDER TT was so upset at their having managed to let that Ol’ Miss game get away from them: When he said they had HOPED and EXPECTED to finally get UF its first full “Undefeated Season”, it was simply a statement of fact.
Of course, as the leader he was, Tim made sure that loss turned out to be what drove (even perhaps INSURED) them to damn well win every single game left that season.
Man, that was fun to watch. Almost as much AGAIN seeing them now.
And THAT is what we are, we MUST be slowly building towards again. That it would be a “slow build” at this point, after all the missteps, is to be expected. I don’t know if BILLY is “that guy”, but he appears to be aware of what is required, and (albeit slowly, fitfully) appears to now finally fitting the pieces together—upgrading talent, depth and coaching in steadily accelerating fashion.
Facing the acknowledged “toughest schedule in CFB” with more in every area than he has had so far as his team and program enter its third year, this will be a turning point for the Gator Program no matter WHAT the actual results.
I enter WITHOUT expectations, devoid of any real insight as to how things will go.
And somehow that’s OK. I am ready to just let them coach, let them PLAY—judge them by what they SHOW us rather than by what has happened or what everyone else has had to say.
Quiz One: Miami, at home, opening Saturday of 2024. Lots of hype around this ‘24 U team.
OK. Bring it ON.

 

[Escambia94]

At this point I will say that Billy Napier and the administration have fixed most of the issues off the field. Napier and the coaching staff need to do some magic on the field. Win 6 or more games to win over the rich donors. We poor people do not matter. Complaining gets you nowhere. NIL gets you a meaningful vote.