SteelGator53

I meant to say... ...Florida just ended LSU's chance at making the playoffs...

GFA I tried to find the press conference where he said this and I have not been able to find it either. People can say what they want about Napier, but he has never been one to come out of left field with comments like Mullen used to do. If I had to guess, I would say someone probably asked him about it. I could see them asking in light of how Florida just ended LSU's chance and if we beat Ole Miss Saturday it would impact their chances as well. No matter what, his "blunt advice" is still nothing but coach speak. It's the same thing coaches say about officials. Handle your business and you won't have to worry about things like bad calls or the playoff committee's tough decisions.

I agree!! I have said the same thing. Our Defense has never been the same! We are showing signs of life on defense now, but how many more picks could we have gotten with the "Gator Bait" chant!?

I was 100% ready to get rid of Napier a couple of weeks ago. However, I agree that he has built a good culture and the fact that we were able to compete with Georgia even with all the injuries shows that we have started to build some depth and players are being developed. In my opinion we looked liked a very well coached team on Saturday and if we did not have all the injuries, that game could have easily gone the other way. I am a little worried about the recruiting, but unless Florida comes out and says that Billy Napier is safe no matter what happens it is going to be difficult to recruit. All of the media is talking about Napier being on the hot seat and there are tons of articles about who should replace him. High school kids are probably too nervous to commit even if they really like him because they are not sure he will still be there after the season. In my opinion if we want to keep the core players like Lagway we have to give him one more year and be clear about it now. With a third string QB, the next couple of weeks are probably going to be frustrating, but if you consider how many guys would be back and ready to play at an elite level next year, you have to try and keep those guys together.

Thanks, and good luck to the Volunqueers this week as well!

vols247, we are very "Petty". So much so we sing "I Won't Back Down" at the end of the third quarter. Also we are 17-3 in the last 20 years and you have only won 2 games in Gainesville in the last 50 years. The last time you won in Gainesville was 2003. That means Daddy can be as petty as he wants son!

What is so frustrating to me is that he and his staff seem to be doing a solid job of coaching during the week because the players seemed prepared and ready to play. It's his gameday decisions that are so bad. I think his problem is he is too wrapped up in analytics and predetermined plans. The best play callers are the ones that have a well thought out plan, but during the game they just have a feel for when to stick to the plan, when to deviate from the plan, and when to throw in a wrinkle or two. Mullen was good at knowing when to throw a trick play or wrinkle into the offense to catch the defense sleeping. Les Miles was good at feeling when to go for it on 4th down or to fake a field goal. Napier does things like rotating QB's every other series in the A&M game even though Mertz was clearing playing at a much higher level. It would be like a basketball coach sitting a player down while they are really hot and hitting every shot they take. It makes no sense.

No doubt about it!

I would love to see Lagway ball out in the remaining games and maybe even pull an upset or two. The reality though, is it's probably going to be a rough road to the end of the season. It will be invaluable for Lagway to have this trial by fire experience and it will certainly help him prepare for year 2. Unfortunately for us it will probably be with a different team. I hope I am wrong about that!

Mertz is a great QB and an even better leader and person. Class act and great Gator for sure! We should have him start coaching Lagway full time right now and go ahead and let him start calling plays too. I'm pretty sure he would not call a jet sweep on 4th and 1.

I agree with what you all have said as well. I am not saying that Napier is the guy or that he should not be fired. I just want to be fair and point out that there have been some improvements. I definitely think we lost the A&M game because of Napier's stupid QB rotation. If Mertz plays the entire game, that would have been a different game in my opinion. So I 100% agree there is plenty of reasons for Napier to go. I also thought it was strange that Napier changed his mind. Maybe Heupel's timeout froze Napier like a field goal kicker! I think the improvement in the defense is a combination of getting some injured guys back and "Napier's guys" starting to grow up. While these are Napier's guys, they are still relatively young. However, if they play at this level for the rest of the season especially considering the upcoming schedule, then you have to attribute that to the players growing up and becoming comfortable enough in the system to not have to think so much and they are able to just play ball. I do think Napier has done some good things for the program off the field. I truly believe his biggest mistake was not totally giving up the offense to a true offensive coordinator. If he had done that, he could put his focus into the game time decisions he seems to make like he is preoccupied and only halfway thinking it through because he is! I just want to make sure that we try and keep some of the positive culture and things in place instead of driving it so far into the ground that it has to be another complete rebuild. If Napier can keep the locker room for the remainder of the year in terms of effort and buy-in, we will have a chance to hand a solid structure of a program and some decent players to work with to the new coach. I know we will lose some to the portal, but it should still be better than a locker room full of quitters and guys only out for themselves. Just to be clear, although I do see some of the positives, Napier is not meeting the expectations in the win column at this point. If you aren't winning, something needs to change. I do think there needs to be some major changes to the UAA and University leadership first or I don't think it will matter what coach we have.

I was at the game and the feeling I had was that we should go for the two point conversion. If Mertz was healthy, I would agree with going to overtime. In that environment with a freshman QB, I think our best chance was to hit a 2 pt conversion. That being said, Napier was showing complete trust in Lagway and our defense by taking his chances in OT. Based on the way they played in the game to that point and even the analytics might support that. That decision was as much of a gamble as going for two in Neyland in the student section endzone. I think there were some very obvious coaching blunders like 12 men on the field, the sweep on 4th and 1, and earlier in the game putting Lagway in backed up to the student section just because it was "his turn" was dumb. Mertz was playing so well I think we should have stayed with him until he got hurt. DJ went three and out and we were unable to flip the field position making it even more difficult on our defense. In defense of Napier though, the team was prepared, they played hard and they played with intensity. We basically took the crowd out of it for almost 2 quarters and I did not have to hear Rocky Top until the end of the third quarter! Players being engaged, prepared, and a solid game plan in that environment all goes back to coaching as well. So while I do think Napier still has some major things to improve on, you can't deny that the players have bought in and they are playing hard and getting better. When Mullen was the coach, the players started to quit at the slightest sign of adversity and press conferences and the off field stuff was a circus. That is not the case with Napier. The other thing a lot of people are not thinking about when comparing Napier's record to Mullen or other coaches is scheduling. Napier didn't have to luxury of padding his record with 3 cupcake games to start each season. His first two years he opened with highly ranked Utah teams including one on the road. This year he opened with a now 6-0 Miami. Should we be winning more, I do think so, but if he had the 2 or 3 cupcake games to pad stats the optics may be different. I think Tennessee is finding out that they are not as good as everyone thought after blasting a couple cupcakes. I honestly think Florida is probably the best team they have played. Oklahoma has zero offense and Florida's defense is showing signs of life for the first time in a long time. I honestly think Heupel looks worse although they won. Two weeks in a row of terrible offensive production and they just didn't seem well prepared. If Mertz doesn't go down and/or one of Tennessee's defenders doesn't strip the ball on the goal line, I think we are having a very different conversation this week. One of those two things goes the other way and even with the bonehead calls by Napier we still would have walked out of Neyland with a win. Tennessee fans should be very worried about Bama next week and about Heupel moving forward. If Napier is as bad as everyone says he is and Heupel is as good as everyone thinks he is. Why did UT have to go to overtime and barely squeak out a win against a Napier team with 100,000+ fans in Neyland helping you out?

Paul needs to go away. No one except the predetermined hillbilly rednecks they have call into his show cares what he has to say. I'm not saying Napier is doing amazing, but you can not say this is similar to where Dan Mullen was. Dan Mullen was in year 4 and did not have anywhere near a #3 recruiting class in any of those years. Blueblood or not, if the majority of your on the field team is made up of freshman and sophomores you are going to have a lot of ups and downs. If Florida comes out of the gate on firing on all cylinders next year, Paul will be acting like he saw this all along and he knew it was just a matter of time. Paul is a Master (click) Baiter!

I am not a Herbstreit fan. He's an Ohio State and Big 10 fan boy. That being said, what was his pick for the Tennessee vs South Carolina game? I am pretty sure everyone was picking Tennessee to win that game big, but instead they got blown out. After watching Tennessee in that game, it wasn't crazy to think they could lose again, especially without Hooker.

What does criticizing players publicly do? I have no problem criticizing players based on poor behavior off the field or even poor self control on the field. However, I don't see how criticizing players publicly on their performance in a game is helpful. I hope no Florida fans even think of being critical of Napier for his "coach speak". It's called "coach speak" for a reason and after 4 years of Mullen, I love to hear "coach speak" in press conferences. I can't remember the last time we have had young recruits proudly naming UF as one of their top picks and we have had a good number so far verbally commit. The players that aren't committing based on money are doing so based on the culture they see and experience first hand on their visits. There has been a major culture change, the football will improve as the talent improves. Coaching will improve as well. Norvell is in year 3, Napier is in year 1. Norvell lost to us last year with an interim coach. This year they pulled out a 7 point win that felt more like a game Florida lost then a game FSU won. By the way Napier in year 1 is out recruiting Norvell in year 3! Go Gators!

gwhite, I think you mean you're not your. They must not ask that question on UT's entrance exams.

I am pretty sure it was Mark Long. He is a terrible reporter and he always asks stupid questions. He sounds like he should be covering men's gymnastics or ice skating not football!

Obviously he is chasing money and lots of big talk from "The U". The problem is he is being very short sighted. He would still make good money at Florida and Alabama. The difference is he could have been playing in college football's premier conference at schools whose home environments are both in the upper echelon of college football. Instead, he will play in front of small home crowds in matchups that no one in the country cares about (other than laughing when they lose to MTSU at home). But, he will have money...Young kid from Polk County in Miami with money, what could go wrong?!

I think he is fine in that regard. Level headedness and calmness in the storm is not the same as being weak. He has shown plenty of fire and passion. Don't forget his assistant coaches had to pull him back off the field against Tennessee.

VFL_88 I was not able to reply to your comment for some reason. I like what you did there with the golf balls and mustard. haha

Just like they stopped the "Gator Bait" chant for Florida. Now that Tennessee is in the spotlight, they will probably find some reason that singing Rocky Top is racially insensitive or derogatory in some way. I say that as a joke, but with these woke folks, you truly never know what they will go after next!

It's so refreshing to have a Coach that can do a press conference without saying something weird and/or stupid. I have not worried one time this year about Billy Napier giving other teams bulletin board material with his comments in press conferences.

I thought the same thing in terms of Bama being the much bigger game. But, with old rivalries like Tennessee vs Bama, sticking to traditional unis makes sense also.

The last time South Carolina came to town they had Tom Petty's family down on the field for the tribute and South Carolina's band started playing over it. It was not a good look for them! I will give them, LSU, a pass for their first trips after starting the tradition since they may not have known what was happening. It's not a secret anymore so if a band plays over it now, they are just being disrespectful!

This is exactly what I was thinking Marsh. Tebow is a proven leader and motivator. He would be a great asset in this way to any team! On the business side of things, he has proven to sell tickets and tons of jerseys no matter what team he was on. He may be 33 years old and he may or may not be a skilled TE, but I bet he will still out work every guy on the team!

Jalen is definitely a class act in every way. Young players looking for a role model, look no further!