docgator

Makes sense for him to sign with LSU. Hope they can amend his apparent capricious interpersonal style; if so, he'll probably find a home with the Tigers and be a contributor. If not, unsure he'll be trusted as reliable in the future.

Berwin, mrtruth spoke the ground reality and you nailed it to the wall right there. We're still a year away from probable redemption and turning the corner is the realistic task for this 2024 edition of the Gator team with or without a super-star. Good to keep in mind before we start drooling all over ourselves prematurely!

Somehow, I think that TDOW does not yet grasp that he is irrelevant on the Florida page. :)

Very fair article. Lagway will be hard to ruin in as much as he evidences the character that champions are made of and has native talent galore to boot. You can bet your bottom dollar, though, that when facing SEC competition opposing teams will do their best to test him and bring him down. That's just a natural product of all the hype surrounding him - which fortunately he doesn't appear to be part of himself. He'll stumble occasionally when he comes in - that's a function of being a freshman in the SEC, and as good as he is I hope frustrated Gator fans can refrain from making too much of it. Like Gaga, who will predictably and reflexively start bleating, "SEE, I TOLD YOU NAPIER WOULD RUIN HIM AND YOU WOULDN'T LISTEN!!". Sure, it's still a free country with free speech so far still codified into our DNA, but while virtually all things are permissible, not all things are beneficial. IMO, his relationship with Mertz will be key. I can't think of a better peer mentor than him, and his value won't just be on the field.

Agree. 8-4 in the regular season is NOT a high bar with this much talent on hand. The schedule may be a blessing in disguise if it gets heads out of butts, and I'm primarily referring to the coaching staff there. Players will always play to their standards as none other than Dan Mullin proved once and for all.

MRTRUTH: LOL!! I think the point being that successful coaches drill the fundamentals over and over again until they become a reflex in any situation. That's essentially what a master at any position is made of, and once mastered you move on to the advanced techniques. At least that's how you train infantrymen for combat, so the corollary ought to hold for football players. Gadgets have their place, but you can't build a whole offense on them - especially when players haven't even shown that they have mastered the fundamentals yet. I'm with GFA though - I think this team has matured in the last year. I just hope their coaches have too.

Cojones - Don't sell yourself short! Nash, StL, and Marsh are in a league of their own and we all go to school on then .... I had the opportunity to sit in the backseat of Nash's luxury hot rod last fall (shorter legs) and listen to Emilio and him talk football on the way up to Waco (and got out feeling like a dummy myself by the time we got to Baylor). You, GFA, Les and old Mr Truth pick up things all the time that I don't see at first blush - keep it up! It all counts except for Gaga & Negan. :)

I do too, Les - but as Emilio always says, "we'll see". I don't like the negative report on the secondary being week, gave me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, but not drawing any conclusions until the season is under way and things are not scripted. I do think though that if Mertz rises to the occasion again at this late point in his college career, his secondary role as peer Motivator-in-Chief will be a combat multiplier for sure. Absent that, maybe CBN ought to post some of Gaga's scree on the locker room bulletin board, or maybe use his name, image and likeness as a tackling dummy!

GFA: Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how one sees the current problem, I'm afraid 6 wins won't cut it for CBN's future with the Gators. That said, with this schedule in 2024, if he pulls out an 8 win regular season and wins a decent bowl game ..... I think that would be evidence that the corner will have been turned for most everyone except for Gaga. Either way, for Lagway's sake, I hope he doesn't get thrown to the wolves prematurely. The line about Mertz being an extension of the coaching staff at this point is SPOT ON.

GFA - You spoke volumes there! Extending it a little bit further, and consistent with StL's earlier comment, great teams (Georgia and Alabama being prototypes) always seem to have not only strong leaders on the coaching side, but also at least one strong leader at EACH position group on the field. The QB can't do it all, but when that is in place and consistent up and down the chain suddenly the magic wins seem to appear. Talent is always important, but that type of leadership is what gets players (troops) to do more than they simply have to. If the Gators break that code in this transition period........

Good to know, Dawgtime - sounds like the second coming of Tebow in some ways, at least a similar ethic. The Gators sure need a leader to get us out of the wilderness we've been wandering around in for the last decade.

Dawgtime - No doubt he is a baller and a great kid as well by all reports. I don't relatively live all that far here in Central Texas from Willis (in fact my Bloodhound is named Willis since he came from there), so keeping up with him is pretty routine - worth mentioning that his entire family is prominent in that area of Texas for good character as well. All that said, his value is in 2025 and I think it would be a disservice to him if he's pressed into SEC action too soon as a starter in 2024. Mertz will make a great mentor for him, and he'll certainly see some action while he develops and adjusts to this level of the game. Humper - I've given up predicting what any young man will or will not do in this day and age, but I think at least he has strong character.

Time for subjective and/or emotional assessments is running out in 5 months, leaving only Gaga. Objectively, the talent is there; logically, coaching lessons have been learned (or not) from previous defeats; and by history, player motivation still comes in many forms despite this mercenary environment CFB is saddled with now. I'll simply say that I for one am glad that Mertz is going to be our starting QB - beyond that, I have no idea what the 2024 outcome will actually be once all is said and done. What I do know, however, is that either way the buck always ultimately stops with the head coach.....and that while you can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear, you can indeed make a sow's ear out of a silk purse.

Nash, it really makes me miss the old days on Gator Sports before they somehow decided to "improve" it and everybody left. That was a great site despite the infamous know-it-all, Tampa Gator. Always wished our old pal, Daz Wazzle, had come over - but I still hear from him occasionally. Nevertheless, I'm here for the commentary of the core and definitely not the articles.

To dignify this tripe with a response would be ungentlemanly. Fortunately I'm not a gentleman, but it's probably best to leave it there.

Classic, Humper - truly classic. The voice of truth and reason in a sea of malice punctuated by waves of temporary giddiness. (Sure hope this makes it past the moderating SDS Brits with bad teeth)

The goal of course is ~MFGA~. To Make Florida Great Again. Muschamp couldn't do it, and neither could McElwain or Mullen. Can Napier? Thus far he hasn't, and right now the deck is stacked against him even without ex-player criticisms. The Gators have wandered around in the wilderness for over a decade now, and for the last two years nothing has changed except for the landscape of CFB in general and the SEC in particular. The only thing clear at present is that the clock continues to run. Princely is either a mouseturd in this latest "drama", or a clarion bell for somebody to wake up. I don't know which it will turn out to be, but if we go 7-5 in 2024 and start doing backflips over it, it's going to take a helluva a lot more in 2025 to avoid hiring yet another new head coach. I like Napier, but the buck always stops there.

GFA: Totally agree with you - the way our culture has "progressed" seems to be a contributor in some ways, and the old saying, ~There is no 'I' in the word 'team'~ appears more obsolete as time goes by. To be fair, of course, the notion of self-first being foremost has always been present at the individual level - but at the same time appearing more pandemic at present. Emilio: The confounding cr*p shoot may be that by increasing one's willingness to also be good at pass blocking, one also increases the chance of injury ..... which would therefore decrease one's ability to get all the carries one thinks one deserves. It's like a double-reverse approach-avoid conundrum with a lemon on the top. :)

Right on, AFan. As far as him rejoining Billy back at the Swamp, as hilarious as that would be I doubt the door would be open in any event. I don't think ETN's transfer was due to the rebuild per se or even Napier specifically, but it appears that he felt he was too talented and was therefore entitled to the bulk of carries instead of sharing. My guess is that he burned too many bridges if that attitude is accurate. Then again, who could blame him for wanting to run behind that OL at Georgia? I don't think he'll get much of an increase in load though, as Kirby doesn't seem to play that game either - but on the other hand, he'll definitely get a chance to showcase his skills on a National Championship team anyway before he graduates.

Maybe so in the final analysis, TrueGrit ..... but let's go for a moment back to the LEO who wrote the citation(s). We don't know him, of course, but with modern police standards and training so high in the present day and age, I'm willing to bet that there was probably more than meets the eye in print to what was surrounding the stop in the first place. There's a wide gap between officer discretion and staking charges, and I have to assume that the LEO in this case exercised the level of professional judgment warranted by the event. In fact, I'd be astonished if he didn't. But, you're absolutely correct that at the next level, other unrelated factors may indeed play a role in the ultimate outcome - as they often do in cases involving well-known people. Sadly, Lady Justice is far from blind. ETN's case will unfortunately be decided in a fishbowl, but even so I'm betting that even in Athens, Georgia, it'll be fair. At least, I hope so.

20 is an awkward age for the jurisprudence system when you factor in adult judgement standards with any type of law. That's for the trial counsel and trier of fact to sort out - more of a nuance though, rather than being exculpatory. The "safe driving" provision in Georgia law has definite value, but application to an instant offense of either reckless or negligent driving depends on third-party LEO judgement which can of course be challenged by defense counsel. In short, it's tricky to add substance impairment when B-A levels do not meet the legal threshold for impairment in the first place, even when the subject is a celebrity. In the end, I wouldn't be surprised if the DUI charge is dismissed, and the other charges receive maximum allowable penalty. What's more interesting is how the university administration and Kirby Smart deal with it. My default setting indicates that both will be reasonable, vested interests notwithstanding, and that life will go on for all involved.

Humper, I think the most interesting story - as yet unmentioned - is Georgia. The Dawgs were denied the 3-Peat, yes, and it no doubt would have cemented Kirby's legacy in an incredibly short time frame. So, what's the story, you ask? That Kirby doesn't care about legacies! Neither did Nick, for that matter - simply about winning games while developing young men. Now THAT my friend, is about character, leadership, and relentless pursuit of excellence with no whining or cheating involved. Regrettably, that doesn't sell newspapers, increase viewers, or enhance the number of clicks. Not in this day and age, but it was once the American standard when facts were valued instead of hyperbole and drama.

Humper: No obvious bias. Just more, probably still manufactured, drama given the coaching change. Can't imagine much can really be told about BAMA anyway from the Spring Game, but rest assured we'll get an earful anyway.

AFan: Again my apologies for my comment appearing way down here instead of under yours way up yonder, but that is a function I presume of my ad-blocker - without which I'd be totally and incoherently lost in pop-ups for everything from Preparation-H to hair tonic. Anyway, here goes: My observation is that it's not so much that Napier licks fire-in-the-belly or a sense of urgency during a game, but rather that he has an amazing ability to control his autonomic nervous system. Compare him to AR-15 or Urban Myer, for instance - "yips" in the former and ultimately a somata-psychic breakdown in the cardiovascular system in the latter. So, while he can admirably keep his head under pressure (an asset), it matters little when the head is about to be decapitated. (Bet that last comment draws time in moderation jail)

Going backwards for a moment, it seems as though Delandman answered his own question.

What we've been waiting for (Gator fans anyway, other board or journalistic comments being superfluous) is Spurrier's take on the situation. Now we have it. Doesn't require a CEOI or VINCEN unscrambling - so what does it mean? The REAL pressure is on now, that's what it means. I imagine Stricklin just dropped a load in his panties.

GFA - While Gaga has already rendered himself irrelevant to the conversation and nothing he can possibly say at this point will reverse that, LSUSMC is correct on "stubbornness". Despite CDM's otherwise sterling assets, that trait was a liability that eventually resulted in his demise - not a character trait that will result in a different outcome for Napier either in the end. By the 3rd season, just into account all the residuals after Mullin alone in the first two seasons as mitigation, the expectation now of a major turnaround is entirely reasonable. There should be no dispute by now that this is HIS team - stocked with talent and the type of schedule to prove that he's the right head coach. I never endorsed the notion that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly with the same chaotic results - but it will apply here if 2024 is anything short of 8-4. Of course, we all hope for even better, but it remains true that hope is NOT a strategy. Wish it were different, but neither is a wish. That said, I hope for the same spark as you. GO GATORS IN ALL KINDS OF WEATHER!

Delandman, in answer to your unmitigated temerity to ask such a question, NO! YOU MAY CERTAINLY NOT BRING EITHER JANE OR BABY WOKE FOR THAT MATTER TO SPURRIER'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is a fine, All-American establishment where the women are always treated like ladies who can properly define what a "woman" is, the men are men, and the sheep are always nervous. Besides, you failed to mention that he makes a carbon-rich cheeseburger that will not only cause your ears to involuntarily wiggle, but your lower anatomy to tighten with ecstasy. I swear, the nerve of some guys!

Marsh - if you're anywhere near Austin, shoot me an email (think you have the address) and I'll get ahold of Nash. Steaks on me.

ALgator - When there are more staff than players, maybe the tipping point to complete incoherence will be reached. Come to think of it, perhaps it already has been.