Tired of Worrying; Sick of Disappointment

[DRU2012]

It's still not even summer, and I REALLY don't wanna go the current "typical Gator-fan hand-wringing"-route over us GETTING bigtime visits but little in the way of actual commitments (top receiver TJ Moore being the latest let down, having put off his high profile visit to Gainesville LAST weekend, only to then go to Clemsen and solidifying his previous verbal commitment there instead).
Meanwhile, NO commitments materializing thus far after the much ballyhooed "major recruiting weekend", with so many top prospects having taken official visits here as promised. So far we seem to still be too many prep players' "filling out their dance card"! That's better than any of our last few Coaches managed, so at least we appear to be generating "buzz" out there--and "where there's smoke there's (hopefully) fire", as the saying goes.
To tell y'all the truth, I'd managed to tamp down my normally somewhat obsessive recruit tracking this off season--right up until my in-box filled up lately in anticipation of that "upcoming HUGE recruiting weekend"...
I got hooked in IN SPITE OF MYSELF, to be honest. Sure enough, all for nought.
Guess I should KNOW better by now.
Let's just settle down, wait to see how things settle out, how the roster looks by the time we're into full on "Summer Camp", at the very LEAST!
For the moment, I will stay with my ongoing impression since early spring:
While I tend to hold "realistically reserved" views of our likely eventual record entering such a tough 2023 schedule with the growing, consolidating and evolving squad that Napier continues to develop here, I am more and more optimistic regarding its future, and our eventual success.
The season ahead could be a bit of a rough road, somewhat a "trial by fire", even--but handled correctly, it could be just what we need to begin our eventual rise as a team--a program's return to greatness.

 

[Escambia94]

Set your expectations at 5-7 and pray for the best. If you are not religious then it is time to sacrifice a Georgia Bulldog puppy to the pagan gods.

 

[Leakfan12]

Honestly, it's too soon to worry about the 2023 season. We won't know for sure until the games are played. I'm more worried what's going to be on the Netflix doc. Saying that I'll predict 6-6.

 

[Escambia94]

Honestly, it's too soon to worry about the 2023 season. We won't know for sure until the games are played. I'm more worried what's going to be on the Netflix doc. Saying that I'll predict 6-6.

Meh. It is never too early. I posted this in May: https://www.gatorenvy.com/threads/2023-schedule-fpi-and-win-probability.21154/

Recruiting for 2024 is getting better overall, but the team missed some critical recruiting targets in 2023--most notably two whiffs at QB. Political correctness lost the Gators one decent QB prospect and the NIL mess caused them to lose the other. Neither situation is 100% repaired, so we are really hoping that the next two QBs on deck for 2024 and 2025 are nice guys like Tim Tebow, which is a hard bar to clear in today's environment. The 2023 roster overall is still one of the most talented in the country, maybe around #10 or so, but it has a hodgepodge of recruits brought to the program under different coaching philosophies. We have seen that teams with roster turmoil generally as bad as Florida's over the past decade tend not to do well. This roster mix looks like a 5 to 6-win team.

 

[DRU2012]

Set your expectations at 5-7 and pray for the best. If you are not religious then it is time to sacrifice a Georgia Bulldog puppy to the pagan gods.

I am too fond of animals to go there--but then again, I have never quite been able to take much of a shine to "bulldogs".
As for prayer, the current and recent trend in the SEC has had me, to quote those other sons of Athens, "losing my religion"...

 

[DRU2012]

...Aaaand, we just lost ANOTHER ONE:
After a much heralded and supposedly encouragingly positive official visit to UF, top rated TE commits to USC THE VERY NEXT DAY!
I am damn sick of this pattern, but the only thing to do is to suck it up and move on.
Back to hunkering down, TRYING NOT TO CARE QUITE SO MUCH, and generally just waiting this all out another coupla months--then see what we've got.

 

[DRU2012]

A whole BUNCH has happened since Friday and the above comment...
See my latest post (and any subsequent additions) on "Gator Recruiting 2023" thread.

 

[DRU2012]

And it all just KEEPS on acomin'!
After all weird developments at QB (ANOTHER so-called "verbal commit" jumps ship (and once again the parent getting involved, complete with post-move online comments that don't really make much sense), this last weekend turned out to finally live up to, even surpass the supposed promise of all the important incoming recruitment visits.
After all the ups and downs, the excuses and the hype, somehow we land here Tuesday riding high. The one thing we can say is that it finally looks like Napier & Co. are delivering on their promises and hard work. We all felt (KNEW) what was definitely lacking during Mullen's regime; gotta say that all the signs now point in the right direction...This group didn't just "GET it", what "NEEDED to be done"--They are DOING IT!
We haven't seen a recruiting week like this since Urban's first complete offseason.
Now, gotta KEEP 'em, keep it going--and then of course there's COACHING to be done, and the young men themselves have got to show the pride, character and follow through to come together and realize all that talent AS A TEAM.
But it looks like we'll at least soon be competing with a full deck once more.