SocraticGator

Welp. Billy better win at least 7 or 8 this year because it looks like it's going to be hard to get 9 or 10 in 2024 and going .500 over 3 seasons +/- a few games won't get him a 4th (or if it does it'll be on such a hot seat that it's basically a waste of time).

No, barring a complete collapse and even then probably not. Napier's issue is going to be year 3. Even if he lands Lagaway he basically has to have him, one of the QBs currently on the roster or a transfer play well enough for Florida to win at least 8 games on 2024. Florida might uncharacteristically patient with Napier but they're not going to be cool with winning say 20 games in your first 3 years unless year 4 is a Playoff year.

Keeping that 2024 class together is all that matters; we'll hopefully have a new coach by the time their sophomores or juniors anyway.

This^. The defense looked markedly improved and really most of the fanbase would be okay with trading in Napier for a real coach once Lagaway sets foot on campus anyway.

To be real fair I think for a lot of Florida fans the hope with Napier is that he's a modern-day Ron Zook. A guy that will modernize systems and recruiting, and then when the roster's been turned over get canned so the Gators can hire a real coach to win games.

What I don't really get is why people seem so much more willing to cut an equally green and unproven Napier so much more slack than Golden. They seem to have put up roughly similar levels of success in their first seasons with roughly similar levels of inherited talent but questioning one is justifiable while we're supposed to cut Sun Belt Billy a break?

(whoops hit enter too soon).... Billy could end up being a great coach and his off the field management seems like a massive step forward (albeit without much in the way of tangible improvements in recruiting results) but he's a mediocre at best OC who never really had an elite or even really good offense at any previous stop. His passing offenses have basically always had low %s. To be real frank beyond disappointed expectations the main reason so many Florida fans are willing to toss AR under the bus is because it's far easier to do that than it is to push some of the blame on Billy who we're likely stuck with for another 2-3 years.

AR's 2022 season isn't an either/or situation- it's both- he struggled yes, and Napier very pointedly said in press conferences that he never believed in adapting his system to talent on hand. Mullen screwed up and/or neglected a ton of off the field stuff and should have fired his DC after 2020 but.... there's absolutely no way he doesn't have a better season in 2022 than Napier did. The fact of the matter is that Billy Napier is a good not great but

I have much the same thoughts with Richardson as I did with Driskel-- what if they'd been able to play in an offense more designed to maximize their talents instead of being forced into pro style garbage (that by this point would be considered archaic in the NFL). At least with Driskel it was Muschamp being dumb and choosing a Pro Style OC; with Richardson I think at least a good chunk of the blame should fall on Napier-- his offense isn't QB friendly. I have faith Billy will leave Florida better than Mullen did 3-4 years from now when he's rebuilt recruiting and we find a good HC (basically he's Zook 2.0 and will set the table for a title contending HC)-- but for this specific season, with Richardson....Mullen would have gotten a hell of a lot more out of the man. (Mullen for all his demonstrable flaws was admirably flexible in his offensive approach shifting from a Top 5 passing attack with Trask to a Top 10-15 rushing attack with Emory Jones).