Monday Morning QB - "Florida: Facing the music"
Nov 20, 2023 13:46:44 GMT -5
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Post by bimigator on Nov 20, 2023 13:46:44 GMT -5
Worth reading in its entirety (from www.saturdaydownsouth.com/sec-football/monday-down-south-georgias-bid-for-a-3-peat-is-in-a-class-of-its-own/):
1945, ’46, and ’47. If you’re keeping track, that’s the last time Florida endured 3 consecutive losing seasons: In the immediate aftermath of World War II. After Saturday’s 33-31 loss at Missouri, the Gators’ 4th in a row, they’re just one L from the 2021, ’22, and ‘23 teams officially resetting that clock at zero.
There’s never any shortage of blame to go around when you’re 5-6, all of which Billy Napier will be forced to confront over what promises to be a very long offseason. (Let’s skip the drama for now and assume Napier is back for Year 3.) In this particular case, though, a good place to start the autopsy might be a defense that has spent much of the season living out the Man Kicking Gator meme on a weekly basis. In SEC play, Florida ranks last or next-to-last in the league in:
• Total defense (14th)
• Scoring defense (13th)
• Rushing defense (14th)
• Passing defense (14th)
• Pass efficiency defense (13th)
• Yards per play allowed (14th)
• Plays of 10+, 20+, 30+ and 40+ yards allowed (14th)
• Sacks (13th)
• Tackles for loss (13th)
The best thing you can say about that unit is that it hasn’t been on the field all that much, facing just shy of 60 snaps per game for the season. When it is, though, it’s usually hanging on for dear life. All 8 SEC opponents averaged at least 6.0 yards per play, with 5 of them — including Missouri on Saturday night — averaging more than 7.0 yards. In those games, the Gators have allowed more yards per play (7.44) than any other FBS defense against its own conference slate.
It probably goes without saying, but given that “recruiting” tends to show up near the top of the list of Florida’s woes, it’s worth noting that, on paper, anyway, the defense is still a relatively blue-chip group compared to any SEC lineup this side of Georgia, Alabama and maybe Texas A&M. It’s not an especially green one, either. Of the top 10 defenders in terms of snap counts against Missouri, all 10 are former 4- or 5-star prospects, and all but 3 are in at least their 3rd year in college football. (The 2 most notable absences on Saturday, linebackers Scooby Williams and Shemar James, check both of those boxes, as well.) This was supposed to be the group that took a step forward this year opposite a nondescript offense. Instead, while the offense has trended in the right direction over the course of the season, the defense has only regressed.
The consensus in Gainesville is that Napier’s bosses are reluctant to cut bait after just 2 years, especially at a program that just went through its third spin on the doomed head coach cycle in a decade. No one is in any hurry for Napier to make it 4-for-4. A good old-fashioned coordinator purge, however, may be unavoidable. The low-hanging fruit on that tree is the so-called “GameChanger Coordinator,” Chris Couch, whose duties include overseeing Florida’s cursed kicking game; his departure could make room for Napier, who handles play-calling himself, to hire an actual offensive coordinator to take over those duties. (Also: Does the staff really need a second o-line coach?) Then there’s the defensive coordinator, 30-year-old Austin Armstrong, he of the rapid rise from a quality control role at Georgia to being handed the keys to an SEC defense at $1.1 million a year in under 4 years. Based on the initial returns this season, maybe a little too rapid.
Armstrong spent 1 season on Napier’s staff at Louisiana, as linebackers coach in 2020, before going on to serve 2 years overseeing the defense at Southern Miss. Before Napier tapped him as the Gators’ DC in February, Armstrong was on his way to Alabama to take over as inside linebackers coach under Nick Saban, a more conventional trajectory for an up-and-coming assistant. The money was better in Gainesville; the results, clearly, were not. If Florida does decide to move on, Armstrong’s road back to a million-dollar coordinator gig could turn out be a lengthier one than the track he was on in Tuscaloosa. (And yes, typing the words “million-dollar coordinator” makes my fingers break out in an allergic reaction.)
At any rate, there is one last chance to swerve from the abyss this weekend against still undefeated but suddenly shorthanded Florida State. The Seminoles’ offense with anyone but Jordan Travis behind center is a mystery; ditto Florida’s offense minus Graham Mertz, who exited in the second half at Missouri with what Napier described as a “significant” collarbone injury. Their respective understudies, Tate Rodemaker (FSU) and Max Brown (Florida), both saw the first meaningful action of their careers off the bench on Saturday, and are both due to make their first career starts in a pitched environment in The Swamp. It’s much too late for the Gators to paper over their longstanding issues heading into the offseason, but if the defense is capable of anything like a high note, this weekend would the ideal time to hit it.
1945, ’46, and ’47. If you’re keeping track, that’s the last time Florida endured 3 consecutive losing seasons: In the immediate aftermath of World War II. After Saturday’s 33-31 loss at Missouri, the Gators’ 4th in a row, they’re just one L from the 2021, ’22, and ‘23 teams officially resetting that clock at zero.
There’s never any shortage of blame to go around when you’re 5-6, all of which Billy Napier will be forced to confront over what promises to be a very long offseason. (Let’s skip the drama for now and assume Napier is back for Year 3.) In this particular case, though, a good place to start the autopsy might be a defense that has spent much of the season living out the Man Kicking Gator meme on a weekly basis. In SEC play, Florida ranks last or next-to-last in the league in:
• Total defense (14th)
• Scoring defense (13th)
• Rushing defense (14th)
• Passing defense (14th)
• Pass efficiency defense (13th)
• Yards per play allowed (14th)
• Plays of 10+, 20+, 30+ and 40+ yards allowed (14th)
• Sacks (13th)
• Tackles for loss (13th)
The best thing you can say about that unit is that it hasn’t been on the field all that much, facing just shy of 60 snaps per game for the season. When it is, though, it’s usually hanging on for dear life. All 8 SEC opponents averaged at least 6.0 yards per play, with 5 of them — including Missouri on Saturday night — averaging more than 7.0 yards. In those games, the Gators have allowed more yards per play (7.44) than any other FBS defense against its own conference slate.
It probably goes without saying, but given that “recruiting” tends to show up near the top of the list of Florida’s woes, it’s worth noting that, on paper, anyway, the defense is still a relatively blue-chip group compared to any SEC lineup this side of Georgia, Alabama and maybe Texas A&M. It’s not an especially green one, either. Of the top 10 defenders in terms of snap counts against Missouri, all 10 are former 4- or 5-star prospects, and all but 3 are in at least their 3rd year in college football. (The 2 most notable absences on Saturday, linebackers Scooby Williams and Shemar James, check both of those boxes, as well.) This was supposed to be the group that took a step forward this year opposite a nondescript offense. Instead, while the offense has trended in the right direction over the course of the season, the defense has only regressed.
The consensus in Gainesville is that Napier’s bosses are reluctant to cut bait after just 2 years, especially at a program that just went through its third spin on the doomed head coach cycle in a decade. No one is in any hurry for Napier to make it 4-for-4. A good old-fashioned coordinator purge, however, may be unavoidable. The low-hanging fruit on that tree is the so-called “GameChanger Coordinator,” Chris Couch, whose duties include overseeing Florida’s cursed kicking game; his departure could make room for Napier, who handles play-calling himself, to hire an actual offensive coordinator to take over those duties. (Also: Does the staff really need a second o-line coach?) Then there’s the defensive coordinator, 30-year-old Austin Armstrong, he of the rapid rise from a quality control role at Georgia to being handed the keys to an SEC defense at $1.1 million a year in under 4 years. Based on the initial returns this season, maybe a little too rapid.
Armstrong spent 1 season on Napier’s staff at Louisiana, as linebackers coach in 2020, before going on to serve 2 years overseeing the defense at Southern Miss. Before Napier tapped him as the Gators’ DC in February, Armstrong was on his way to Alabama to take over as inside linebackers coach under Nick Saban, a more conventional trajectory for an up-and-coming assistant. The money was better in Gainesville; the results, clearly, were not. If Florida does decide to move on, Armstrong’s road back to a million-dollar coordinator gig could turn out be a lengthier one than the track he was on in Tuscaloosa. (And yes, typing the words “million-dollar coordinator” makes my fingers break out in an allergic reaction.)
At any rate, there is one last chance to swerve from the abyss this weekend against still undefeated but suddenly shorthanded Florida State. The Seminoles’ offense with anyone but Jordan Travis behind center is a mystery; ditto Florida’s offense minus Graham Mertz, who exited in the second half at Missouri with what Napier described as a “significant” collarbone injury. Their respective understudies, Tate Rodemaker (FSU) and Max Brown (Florida), both saw the first meaningful action of their careers off the bench on Saturday, and are both due to make their first career starts in a pitched environment in The Swamp. It’s much too late for the Gators to paper over their longstanding issues heading into the offseason, but if the defense is capable of anything like a high note, this weekend would the ideal time to hit it.
