Post by tapsgator on Apr 14, 2023 12:32:13 GMT -5
2 observations from this offseason, and I put 75% of this on Muschamp and 25% on Napier but that will continue shifting towards Billy if these trends continue:
1) Anthony Richardson is likely to be a top 5 pick and may be the most physically gifted kid to play Quarterback in the history of football. In 3 years he started 12 games and is considered so raw that the smartest people in the world when it comes to talent evaluation are willing to overlook his completion percentage and results generally and make a multimillion dollar roll of the dice because they attribute it to lack of development/bad coaching. There's an easy comp for Richardson in terms of overlooking results due to lack of reps with real coaching, it's Josh Allen. He played at Wyoming. You expect a lack of coaching there. Not at UF. Richardson might succeed or fail, likely spectacularly one way or the other, but it won't change the messaging from NFL personnel people. "We think in 6-12 months we can fix issues that you couldn't address in 3 years." I really can't think of any other blue blood program where that would happen.
2) Kirby is really pushing for a home and home rather than Jax for the OCP. Significantly he wants games in Athens and Gainesville not Atlanta and Jacksonville. That is a not so subtle indication that he thinks that even in the Swamp recruits on BOTH sidelines are going to watch the game and, if they're good enough, want to go to UGA. He's fine going into the Swamp because he has no fear or really respect for the UF program on or off the field. Why would he? He's been winning on damn near every blue chip battle for the top kids in Florida and when he's lost it hasn't been to UF. He can talk about how impressed he is with Napier from their time in Tuscaloosa all he wants, he doesn't consider this incarnation of the Gator program a threat. At all.
That's the top football people at both the NFL and NCAA level taking actions that say "you can't coach." Just to give everybody equal consideration, the fact that other than Richardson and probably Etienne the last productive offensive recruits (at least in Gainesville) that will play on Sundays came in the class of 2018. That means high school kids and their coaches don't care for the offensive gurus calling the shots at UF.. That's not good and something has to change if Gator football is ever going to seriously contend for championships of any kind. I don't care if it's a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10 year plan, if these perceptions don't get flipped the program will continue to produce similar results.
1) Anthony Richardson is likely to be a top 5 pick and may be the most physically gifted kid to play Quarterback in the history of football. In 3 years he started 12 games and is considered so raw that the smartest people in the world when it comes to talent evaluation are willing to overlook his completion percentage and results generally and make a multimillion dollar roll of the dice because they attribute it to lack of development/bad coaching. There's an easy comp for Richardson in terms of overlooking results due to lack of reps with real coaching, it's Josh Allen. He played at Wyoming. You expect a lack of coaching there. Not at UF. Richardson might succeed or fail, likely spectacularly one way or the other, but it won't change the messaging from NFL personnel people. "We think in 6-12 months we can fix issues that you couldn't address in 3 years." I really can't think of any other blue blood program where that would happen.
2) Kirby is really pushing for a home and home rather than Jax for the OCP. Significantly he wants games in Athens and Gainesville not Atlanta and Jacksonville. That is a not so subtle indication that he thinks that even in the Swamp recruits on BOTH sidelines are going to watch the game and, if they're good enough, want to go to UGA. He's fine going into the Swamp because he has no fear or really respect for the UF program on or off the field. Why would he? He's been winning on damn near every blue chip battle for the top kids in Florida and when he's lost it hasn't been to UF. He can talk about how impressed he is with Napier from their time in Tuscaloosa all he wants, he doesn't consider this incarnation of the Gator program a threat. At all.
That's the top football people at both the NFL and NCAA level taking actions that say "you can't coach." Just to give everybody equal consideration, the fact that other than Richardson and probably Etienne the last productive offensive recruits (at least in Gainesville) that will play on Sundays came in the class of 2018. That means high school kids and their coaches don't care for the offensive gurus calling the shots at UF.. That's not good and something has to change if Gator football is ever going to seriously contend for championships of any kind. I don't care if it's a 2, 3, 4, 5, or 10 year plan, if these perceptions don't get flipped the program will continue to produce similar results.