NashvilleGator

Hump, I understand and appreciate your argument, but it's just not relevant to the core issue of building a program through high school recruiting, as starkly contrasted with having a one-off good season via the transfer portal. The best measure of PROGRAM building is high school recruiting. Period.

AFan, I think my 20-20 hindsight on Mullen is that he struck gold on a few overlooked players at MSU, especially at the quarterback position, and coached them up with something akin to the Stoops-Kentucky developmental approach. In nine seasons at MSU, he had two seasons with nine wins and the 10-3 2014 season with Dak Prescott. I supported him once he got to Florida, and I don't think there's any dispute that he's a great offensive coordinator, but he never should have been given the Florida job. He's just too eccentric. Didn't matter in Starkville. Did in Gainesville.

In case you failed to remember he had a pretty good roster comprised largely of Richt recruits. And incidentally, getting back to the topic of the article, now that Georgia has finally experienced some of the same levels of success, it is also experiencing the arrests, disciplinary issues and tragedy that seem to follow.

LOL.

My, what a short memory you have.

It will be a hit piece. They'll milk it for every bit of sensationalism they can. But regardless of how negative it is, it will help recruiting because it will remind 14-18-year-old high school kids of Florida's championship years. It's the George M. Cohan (not P.T. Barnum) rule of public relations: "I don’t care what they say about me as long as they spell my name right."

Yes, I know. But a writer can't assume that his readers know that (a) you need consensus to adopt a conference policy, or (b) lesser programs don't want to reduce their chances at a winning season.

"High speed-low drag procedures..." Priceless.

Hump, I'm not sure how posting data directly from the 247 recruiting class rankings constitutes manipulation, but whatever. Your punter/kicker argument is theoretically true but numerically meaningless. For example, if you have a class of 20 with 19 recruits all rated at 90.0 and a 20th rated at 83, your average player rating drops just 0.35 points. And as average player rating falls, the impact of a punter/kicker on the average is even less. As for your effort to devalue the obvious by mixing in the transfer portal, that argument is only valid for full roster rankings. In any event, StL is correct (below) that I was focused on high school recruiting. Ranking entire rosters for previous years is also problematic because the 247 data tend to be incomplete and unreliable, unless you captured the data at the start of each year in question. The reason is because 247 removes players who age out, graduate, etc. The recruiting rankings data are more stable. You are correct that the 2024 class is currently "wait and see," but I can tell you that no Florida coach since Meyer has been in the position Billy is in at this stage in the cycle. I suspect you probably know that. And Billy is doing what he's doing in an environment that Nick and Kirby -- and all Gator coaches of the last 15 years -- didn't have to deal with: an environment with not one but two programs enjoying increasing returns to success, stockpiling 5-stars on the heels of NC-winning momentum. This is considerably more challenging not just because the other team has a deeper roster of elite players, but also because the pool of elite players is a zero sum game.

I can certainly read between the lines and understand why Kentucky, Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt wouldn't favor a nine-game SEC schedule, but I've been busy. If they in fact "scuttled" the possibility, I would appreciate the writer telling me how they managed to do that.

Horse hockey. The intra-conference competition speaks for itself, and the top third SEC teams are increasingly each scheduling a couple of strong out-of-conference opponents in future seasons. Quality always wins. If your argument were true, no ACC, Big-12 or PAC-12 team would have played in a national championship game to date

Sorry; last 15 classes.

Here are the average player ratings for the last 14 recruiting classes for Florida and Georgia. Year -- Florida -- Georgia -------------------------------------------- 2010 -- 93.99 -- 90.41 -- Meyer -- Richt 2011 -- 90.51 -- 89.86 -- Muschamp -- Richt 2012 -- 91.78 -- 91.51 -- Muschamp -- Richt 2013 -- 90.74 -- 88.51 -- Muschamp -- Richt 2014 -- 89.61 -- 90.97 -- Muschamp -- Richt 2015 -- 87.26 -- 89.74 -- McElwain -- Richt 2016 -- 88.72 -- 90.77 -- McElwain -- Smart 2017 -- 89.11 -- 92.27 -- McElwain -- Smart 2018 -- 90.75 -- 94.23 -- Mullen -- Smart 2019 -- 90.77 -- 93.45 -- Mullen -- Smart 2020 -- 90.74 -- 92.95 -- Mullen -- Smart 2021 -- 90.51 -- 93.59 -- Mullen -- Smart 2022 -- 88.88 -- 93.01 -- Napier -- Smart 2023 -- 92.03 -- 94.06 -- Napier -- Smart 2024 -- 94.04 -- 94.14 -- Napier -- Smart If you look at the data above and still say Napier can't recruit, especially in the face of Alabama's and Georgia's recent momentum, you're either being disingenuous or you're muy estupido.

Hump, as you often do, you ever so deftly shift the subject in your answer. I didn't ask which conference was more competitive, but rather how coaching football against peers is different. It isn't. It will be tough for Florida in the current environment, wherein Alabama and Georgia have momentum and are enjoying increasing returns to success. But it can be done. If you're referring to the 2023 class, the correct "entire" class numbers are 21 commits at an average player rating of 92.03. The two 3-stars are quite large offensive linemen. 20 are enrolled and the 21st is signed.

Funny. And likely true.

Can someone, anyone, please explain to me how coaching football is different in the Sunbelt Conference than in the SEC? As for his recruiting, Billy & Co. currently have the third highest average player rating in the country for 2024 commits. The top four: 95.40 Alabama 94.14 Georgia 94.04 Florida 93.05 Ohio State

As Doc noted in a more general sense above, I think the other team scored more points.

Vintage Doc. Yes!

StL, you are indeed wise. It's all about the line of scrimmage.

Details, details.

If anyone at SDS happens to read this thread, your page reload code change after comment posts (reloading to the top of the page rather than at the comment post) is going to reduce clicks and average time on page.

I guess we shall see how Napier turns out in the SEC, won't we? Hump, I don't think "anti-depressants" means what chu think it means.

Not sure I understand why we needed another running back. Seems like that room's getting kind of full. But as for the trolling comments, they remind me of the exact same sort of comments about Montrell Johnson.

I don't believe I said anything about the UGA 2007 blackout game, but rest assured that I will continue to be me.

Gaga, have you considered increasing the Vitamin D3 in your diet, or perhaps a prescription for anti-depressants?

So you're comparing one of UGA's uniform colors to SS uniforms? The British SAS wear black. The Indian armored corps wear black. United States Navy SDBs look black but are actually very dark blue. Iraqi special forces wear black uniforms. And spec ops operators may wear black on night missions.

I heard a rumor that Coach Prime took a new job.

1. Nick Saban, Alabama. He's the best until further notice. Even with Kirby's recent success. 2. Kirby Smart, Georgia. Kirby's as good as it gets in recruiting, but I'm not quite ready to annoint him as best overall just yet. 3. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M. Can't stand Jimbo, but as long as college football is recruiting driven, he ranks this high. 4. Brian Kelly, LSU. He'll get to prove if he's better than Jimbo over the next couple years. He had some elite talent last season, but he also did a heckuva coaching job. Now do it twice. 5. Billy Napier, Florida. Yes, this is high and looks homerish. But he's built a winner and won a conference. I would want him above the nine guys I ranked behind him. 6. Hugh Freeze, Auburn. What he did at Ole Miss and Liberty gets him this high. What he also did at Ole Miss gets him this low. 7. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss. I have him ahead of Stoops because offense today is more valuable than defense. 8. Mark Stoops, Kentucky. He's a very good coach, but I am starting to wonder about his apparent lack of interest in a bigger job. 9. Sam Pittman, Arkansas. It's a line of scrimmage league and he's the ultimate line of scrimmage coach. And seems to be a great leader. You can't not like him. But his schedule's a buzzsaw. 10. Josh Heupel, Tennessee. He had four special skill players last season, like 2020 Florida. Let's see if he can sustain it. 11. Shane Beamer, South Carolina. Clearly a player's coach and a motivator but has the odds stacked against him. 12. Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri. Reportedly very cerebral. But nobody's building a contender at Missouri unless they leave the conference. 13. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt. Shane Beamer Lite. 14. Zach Arnett, Mississippi State. Insufficient data.

Doc is recovering from a health issue.

No. It will not. The Florida fan base would go insane.