Gators have toughest overall Power 5 schedule: ESPN

[Mojave Gator]

2023 CFB superlatives: Who has the hardest, easiest schedule?

How would you like to play the nation's toughest schedule as a second-year coach coming off a losing season in Year 1? Welcome to Billy Napier's world. Florida opens the season on the road against two-time defending Pac-12 champion Utah and closes at home against bitter rival Florida State, which is ranked No. 3 and is one of the favorites to win the ACC. In between, the Gators have trips to Kentucky, South Carolina and LSU. They face No. 11 Tennessee at home two weeks after opening the season at Utah, and there's also the annual clash with No. 1 Georgia in Jacksonville -- two weeks before visiting LSU on Nov. 11. If you're counting, that's six preseason top-25 opponents, with four in the top 15.

Ole Miss isn't far behind Florida on the challenge meter. The Rebels are the only SEC team playing both Alabama and Georgia on the road.

[tapsgator]

It's all part of the process, sustainability and repeatability from a perspective of a thing. And that where, you know------------we can do some things from a process standpoint that are going to manifest sustainable, repeatable, things that do progressively more stuff. And that's a deal, right? The deal and process is part of what we're doing to make it University of Florida tradition and mentality. Right?


Seriously though, I think this is going to be a bumpy ride, gun to my head I'd take the Under at 5.5, our best players are our running backs, a corner, and a Defensive end while we've lost 80% of our offensive line, a freak athlete at QB, and I don't think there will be much reason to throw against us. Napier is going to be the 1 coach in the SEC calling his own plays with arguably the least relevant experience of any head coach in terms of calling plays. Before anybody says "what about Saban or Smart or (insert HC with a defensive background)," in his one prior stint as a play caller (or having any real input) Napier was fired by his mentor before the end of year 2 13 years ago and then worked 1 season as OC for a 7-5 Arizona State team. The Head coach and even the DC has more impact on the offensive gameplan at Bama/Georgia than a WR coach or analyst and Louisiana when you have the best team in the Sunbelt doesn't count. Real Deal Billy and his steady hair don't care and he's gonna keep doing it, for the sustainability and whatnot.

Honestly I'm fine if this season goes off the rails IF 3 things happen:

1) If it's not working with the play calling he doesn't refuse to call a spade a spade and bring in a real OC
2) we actually show progress consistently over the course of the season
3) we hold onto a top 5 overall class (this one is most important)

Maybe he pulls a rabbit out of a hat but I'd rather see something real that we can build on than McGoober style fool's gold. Either way we need to see some signs of life and I'll deal with all the word of the day pressers with pregnant pauses and non sequiturs you can throw my way.

[Mojave Gator]

I would pay real money to see you do parody Napier press conferences after games. You have his clichés down.

[SoTxCaiman]

Hate to say it, but if 1 and 2 don't happen then 3 (agreed, by far the most important) will be next to impossible.....

[tapsgator]

Aug 2, 2023 15:01:10 GMT -5 SoTxCaiman said:

Hate to say it, but if 1 and 2 don't happen then 3 (agreed, by far the most important) will be next to impossible.....

Sadly this is very true. I think the days of Ron Zook may be gone for good, kids have too many options and are too savvy. Too bad because I don't think Napier is nearly as dumb as the Zooker (although the whole "As acting OC/QB coach look at the savings that I've used to appoint an administrative assistant to the assistant player director of hydration" or a 3rd string water boy as the normal people call it thing gives me heartburn) and I think if he had that talent he wouldn't squander it at nearly the level Zook did.

I think he's going to have to pull a rabbit out of his hat to swim rather than sink. Based on the current CFB landscape, his approach, and his track record, I really think the only path is through recruiting or basically getting the chicken and then laying the egg. Game managing QBs, run first offenses, and Defenses where the sack leader had 4.5 and 2 guys tied for the team lead with 2 INTs are not big selling points to kids who all think they're going to the next level. Last year proved that if you had the best arm in the draft, were the tallest, heaviest, most explosive and fastest QB and had a perfect athletic score for the first time in Combine history you could be a top 5 pick (although still the 3rd QB taken). The DBs running 4.7s and O'Cyrus dropping out of the 1st round based on being out of shape are terrible looks for the S&C department, give them a pass for last year, but starting this year kids that have been in the program for 2 years are Real Deal products. I'm looking at you Desmond Watson.

At any rate, he has to hold this class together. The kids seem pretty sold, but the specter of a potential 3rd straight losing season with personnel that includes Mertz and Desmond Watson, schools like Bama only having 15 kids and lots of room in the class, and the fact that out of our top 10 ranked kids 30% are from Florida including Myles Graham who moved down recently so he could enroll early (that's huge, thanks Ernest), me thinks we need to hold off on the anointing oils until the ink is dry on LOIs. We'll see what we see.