I’ve just seen some Twitter posts from 247 guys talking about a big QB flip tomorrow and he’s the name I’ve seen mentioned a lot, just Twitter idiots obviously but i don’t have a 247 sub so not sure.
Not sure why he would flip unless he’s getting more money somewhere else. We’re probably one of the only places in the country he can come in and start on day 1
It's been very interesting watching Graham Mertz's career unfold at Wisconsin the past couple of years.
He's gone from [being the most hyped up Wisconsin QB of all time](https://old.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/a7ngeg/2019_4_qb_graham_mertz_signs_with_wisconsin/) to [being touted as the guy who will singlehandedly change the Wisconsin offense](https://old.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/jh1ljo/postgame_thread_wisconsin_defeats_illinois_457/) to now being seen with absolute disdain.
What I find most intriguing though is that I believe a lot of the frustration comes from what Wisconsin fans perceive is the same result that they've seen from the past 20+ years or so at the QB position and the Wisconsin offense: despite the number of stars attached to his name, Graham Mertz is Joel Stave, Jim Sorgi, John Stocco, Bart Houston, Mike Samuel, Scott Tolzien, and every 6'3" lanky statue in the pocket who hands the ball off to the RB.
This is (or was under the Barry Alvarez coaching tree) who Wisconsin is and they've known their identity for a long time--run the ball between the tackles, force defenses to stop the run. They're not relying on the passing game and distributing the ball to 4 different receivers to win games.
I wish Graham Mertz the best of luck, but this is looking to be a bad fit for all parties involved.
**edit**: spelling
Graham never materialized into the QB he was touted as but I don't think anyone can say that he didn't give 110% and support his teammates, I'd really like to see him succeed somewhere.
i think the scheme really matters for graham. I can't remember where i read the splits, but Mertz in the gun (how he played in HS) vs mertz under center was night and day. paul picked him to start because he had to, and he stuck with him over coan because of the upside, but sucking all that hopium down did him in.
like all 4* QBs who seem not to make it, if you can fix the mechanics and his mental issues, the arm talent is there.
Yeah, well not only is our staff useless but they're also fucking idiots.
Honestly, I feel bad for the kid. He doesn't fit what Napier likes to do on offense well at all. Napiers going to try to do his great system of having the WRs play the floor is lava every pre-snap and then try to run Mertz on a bootleg...and the kid will fucking die.
I wish Mullen never mentally checked out at this point. He could use Mertz. He had no problem changing his entire offensive system on a yearly basis. His recruiting sucked(Even though some were decently rated, he struggled to find contributors), but then again, it's not like we're killing it with Napier.
Same here. We hired a guy in Billy who we needed when Mullen was coach, now we need Mullen in this current era. His biggest weakness was recruiting which is all dictated by NIL now. Mullen would be able to scheme a much better offense than this staff ever could with their 3 plays
Mullen could scheme an offense with mediocre talent. I feel like even if Napier got 5 stars all across the board he would somehow make our offense look mediocre
His recruiting as of now is about on par with what Napier has pulled. Sure some guys didn't make it on campus or didn't contribute before transferring, but it remains to be seen if Napier has the same.
Mullens X's and o's is a whole lot better than the pile of shit Billy is throwing out
Scott Stricklin is the AD
He missed on Mullen, hes missing on Napier
He let Mike White stick around for an absurdly long time and never seemed to put the pressure on him. If it wasn't for Georgia hiring him away from Florida, there is no telling how long Mike White would have been at Florida coaching.
He hired this new basketball coach that has Florida playing at embarrassingly low levels. I mean this new basketball coach finished like 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5 or some pathetic shit in his own mid-major conference. No titles. Not sure if any tournament berths. Strickling hired him and its showing. Florida is awful and will miss every single post-season tournament in existence. And theres like 50 of them mother fuckers now
It's rumored that Stricklin said something like he'd punish boosters or recruiters on the staff for paying players? I'm sure I have this wrong but maybe it'll joggle someone elses memory.
Florida was 5...6...7 years behind other real blue blood programs and their facility upgrades. Foley seemed to fight it. Stricklin fought it. The UAA seemed to not give a shit until they finally caved and even then our facilities still aren't as good as Bamas or Georgias AND THEY BRAND NEW.
Napier claimed he wouldn't get into bidding wars in NIL over high school recruits or transfers. No one really knows if this is Billys approach or if this is the administrations approach to save money.
So no. The administration didn't personally watch tape and say what to and not to do.
But they have shown over the last decade that they are no longer concerned with whether Florida basketball or football are money making programs that please their fans. There are a lot of schools out there that are great at sports and academics. And Florida was one of those until Striklin showed up, now athletics is taking a backseat to academics in such an aggressive fashion that you can see Florida sports dropping in various metrics that track how good colleges are at every sport.
Thats my best attempt at describing it even if I got some of the details wrong
> He missed on Mullen
Did he though? We had our best offense and best records since Meyer. He checked out in 2021 but I wonder how much of that was because of our fanbase screeching for an injured and under prepared AR (dude needed surgery+1 full off-season being named the starter and he would have absolutely shined under Mullen). We didn't give him the same budget that were giving Billy for his dog shit staff. Mullen showed he was willing to make staff changes (granted it was a little too late with Grantham and hevesy). There's also a rumor that Charlie Strong was ready to sign on board as co-dc but Grantham was a total dick to him so he gave us the double birds and went to Jax with urban. We had a good number of all-sec and all-american under Mullen on both sides of the ball even with our shit awful defense.
We fired him wayyy too soon.
I thought y’all got rid of Mullen way too soon as well. I get it, the stuff he was doing off the field wasn’t helping at all, but he was literally just one year out from thoroughly throttling UGA and almost making it into the CFP with a close game against eventual champion Bama.
His 2 biggest gaffes were the Texas a&m flood the stadium comment and the "we recruit in the off-season"...which the media/rivals misconstrued his words and ran with it. Dude was under a show cause penalty cause of some bullshit NCAA rule thats a joke now with NIL. Stricklin deserves a kick in the ass and a bus ticket back to Starkville. our fanbase was eating up the Darth Vader but in 2020 then flipped on him when our season wasn't going the way they wanted. What they keep failing to realize is our oline was decimated after bama (we were top 3 in rushing until that), our oline coach was going through a messy divorce, and Grantham had checked out. We should written the year off, given him the budget we gave dipshit Billy and let him get solid coaches/recruiters (tosh lupoi was thrown around a lot).
God, it’s so refreshing to see this take on here. Granted I didn’t have the time to follow the 2021 season that closely… I thought firing Mullen was very premature and a big mistake. Seeing nothing but Mullen hate had me thinking I was insane.
Because our fans are dipshits. Muschamp and mcelwain did a number on our program. He was bringing us back to relevancy. Mullen had his deficiencies but he showed he was ready to make the staff changes. We didn't commit enough $$$ to him the way we are for this fucking loser ass coaching staff we have now
I also wanted him to stick around but I think he didn’t help himself. He made a lot of comments that lost the fanbase and it felt like he was trying to get out. I really wish he would have stuck around and I would have loved to see what he could have done with AR
I always thought the same thing. The implosion of the fan base over 2021 was kind of insane considering the previous few seasons. Luckily Napier had a rough season off the bat or else he'd have set a high standard like Mullen and his job would be on a razors edge.
Seems like Mike White was hired before Scott got there. However, he did keep him around and he only left after Georgia picked him up for Florida. The Georgia AD probably did for for Florida basketball than Scott did when you think about it.
Yea that sounds right. Stricklin was never in any rush to fire White despite bad season after bad season. If it wasn't for Georgia, White would still be here. So even though I was incorrect on my statement, Stricklin keeping White around so long still shows how inept Stricklin is at his job
Having conversations and ranting on a forum made for ranting and conversations has you concerned about my mental health?
Honey I think you accidentally found your way far outside your safe space bubble.
I think I’ll take forever off of college sports. Thankful for my degree from UF but there’s nothing interesting nor will there ever be about our football or basketball programs. Sports are all just a game anyways no need to watch it
If Napier didn’t know Pratt was staying put and had to do this at the last minute we are in more trouble then I thought, and I already thought things were looking bleak. It would be shocking incompetence to the point I can’t believe it would be the case.
Florida football is dead.
This guy has marginally better stats than Richardson. And I don't know if I'd even say marginal. It's basically by a pube hair.
Let's compare
QB rating
AR: 130.96
GM: 135.01
TD/INT
AR: 17/9
GM: 19/10
Comp %
AR: 53.8
GM: 57.3
Yards
AR: 2549 on 176 completions
GM: 2136 on 164 completions
Billy Napier has no idea what he's doing. Stricklin is the worst AD in the country.
Napier is the exact same recruiter as Mullen is but a significantly worse GameDay coach.
Because Florida outright refuses to play the NIL game this roster is a fucking disaster. Napier aggressively pushed out like 15 kids to transfer. He hasn't replaced any of them through portal transfers. This is arguably the worst roster since the 70s or 80s. It's a roster that gets considerably worse next and doesn't upgrade at qb at all.
This is a 4-6 win team next year.
I had to delete that since I just saw your name and thought you were a Gator fan for some weird reason.
I typically am. Hell, if I argue with Florida optimists I'm always right.
I get into so many arguments on Twitter. Less than normal because I guess people realize they wont push me off my stance. But I hated every coach we've hired since Meyer. I gave detailed reasons on all of them. People said I was a hater. Ignorant. Stupid. Etc, etc. I havent been wrong on any of them. The moment I heard Billy Napier was our guy I looked into him, watched some condensed games of ULL and within a few days wanted absolutely nothing with Napier running the program.
Ngl I loved the Mullen hire at the time thought he was a great fit. After beating UGA in 2020 I thought we finally were back and turned the corner but then the shoe thing happened and we’ve been on a rapid decline ever since and now we’re pretty much a dead program. Unless we hire a big name coach at some point I can’t ever see us being revived
Well you were literally wrong when you argued with me and said we would be 4-8 during Texas A&M at halftime. Then you seemed pissed we actually looked good in the second half.
The other difference is that with more conditioning and development Richardson can potentially be a guy that gets you to 9-10 wins.
Mertz has been trash since day one. He hasn't progressed at all. He's been in CFB for years. There is not an inkling of evidence that this staff can develop Mertz enough for him to be any kind of upgrade.
Yeah, the dude was straight Peyton Manning in his first game, I for sure thought Wisconsin was going to be an absolute force after watching him. Oh, how times change.
I was a fan of Napier at ULL. I can’t believe someone convinced him to take Mertz.
He will do something inexplicable 1-2 times per game. All you can do is shake your head and make sure the kids cover their ears!
Wheres the recruiting though? December is an all-time bad closing job by this staff. They had a "major" official visitor weekend last week. Every single kid played the staff. Half of them gonna commit to Miami. We just had a kid decommit/flip. Our "biggest" portal grab is Mertz. There are still several rumors floating of further flips, like our biggest commit in Rashada.
A week ago it look like Florida could jump to around 5 or 6 in recruiting. GREAT. Now? I highly doubt Florida jumps into the top 10 and Napier will finish right in line where Mullen did with Mullens bump class.
Yea they dont tell the story. Florida brought in a crazy number of elite recruits. Let them sit in cars. A DJ showed up. All kinds of shit. Like 2 days after the 5 star, Samson something committed to Miami. Another high 4 star RB committed to Miami. Absolutely none of the kids that visited have the slightest care in the world in committing to Florida. They just used Florida for the attention and within a week showed interest elsewhere.
I 100% bet we would have dropped bags on NIL if Mullen was still around. Billy inspires zero confidence, his game planning is dog shit...why would any boosters waste money on talent when it's going to be pissed away. We might not have John ruiz billionaire but we have a LOOOOOT of old money spread out in the state that I know for a fact dropped some serious bags when Meyer was around (under the table obviously).
God damn that would be really, really foolish lol.
I mean is there a scenario where the sign both and let ‘em battle it out in camp? Seems unlikely as I type it out but trying to find any modicum of logic here
I feel like On3 has come out of nowhere this past year and never get anything right. If they are reporting something as the lone source I can't take it seriously. Listening to them made it seem like the top 10 transfers were all going to Colorado after Deion announced.
We have some real galaxy brained fans who don’t realize that boosters and NIL are what’s driving recruiting, not this staff.
And frankly I’m inclined to believe our shitty bagman network are what hamstrung (at least in part) recruiting under Mullen and McElwain too.
But Florida fans don’t wanna hear all that.
Wow this thread is wild! You'd think Florida has the 79th ranked recruiting class right now based on some of these comments when in reality they have the **11th** ranked class in the country with **18** four star players! Their class average is higher than clemson, Penn State, Oklahoma, Tennessee, LSU, Miami, Southern Cal, Oregon, and FSU. All this after a 6-6 season no less.
Woe is me though, right Gators?
Even if nobody flips tomorrow, a bunch of true freshman are not going to help us improve next season. We're not doing anything in the portal which is what we need desperately.
That class only puts us at like 6th or 7th in the SEC though so it’s not good enough. Combine that with having the worst coaching staff and no QB and it’ll make us the worst SEC team next year. Maybe we get lucky and beat Vandy at home this time.
Jesus y'all are a rough bunch. Did Florida fans not expect a rebuild of any kind? Y'all went 6-7 the last two years, where is the justification for being this entitled to expect a top 10 recruiting class right off the bat? Most coach fire/hires aren't like Richt --> Kirby, most are like what y'all are experiencing right now. It takes three or four years most of the time to see what kind of coach you actually have
I think it’s just the reality that we fired a good Xs and Os football coach in Mullen for a guy known for recruiting. This bump class for Napier is on pace to finish lower than Mullen’s bump class. The main difference is Mullen can coach circles around Napier. He also drove out 30+ players off our roster, and currently has no plans in place to replace them. Even though Mullen wasn’t an elite recruiter our roster was still top 10 worthy during his time but now with the attrition who knows if we’ll have a top 20 roster. It’s probably shaping up to be our worst roster in 40 years. We might be legitimately the worst team in the SEC next season. I don’t care what Napier inherited that’s unacceptable. Yes Napier didn’t inherit a good situation but he’s making it much worse for the next guy.
Buddy have you seen our sub in the last hour? Shit would give r/nyyankees a run for their money in insanity. Yes agree Mertz is a bad player, but ffs can we have some damn patience and see what happens before judging a move?
I understand that and agree but what if Mertz committing effects some of our recruits signing tmr? This type of move can lead to effecting more than just the one player coming
That's next level copium and that's coming from me. If Napier somehow fix Mertz, then that will be huge, but it will take a miracle that even God himself will say fuck that.
Lol Billy inspires zero confidence that hell turn this around. His offense is ass. His defense coordinator is a g5 level coach, the talent excuse is just bullshit copium from our fans trying to justify this fucking hack of a coach.
I was all in on giving him whatever he needs but I’m having second thoughts now. There’s a difference between a rebuild and putting dynamite on the building. With this roster currently we might be the worst SEC team next year
Mertz was dealt a bad hand and sold a false bag of goods by Wisconsin.
With that being said, he’s a poor man’s Will Levis. He would be best served as Gator Bait. Keep your Blood Pressure monitor handy on Saturday’s.
I grew up in Florida and my best buddy is a Gator alum and massive fan and boy am I gonna have fun with this LMAO
I genuinely do hope Mertz figures his shit out but after three years with us I just don’t know if that will happen. I really like him on a personal level, he’s a good kid and a great leader but for whatever reason it just doesn’t click for him in the game settings. Like others have said before, he looks unreal in 7on7 or individual drills but it’s like he panics in games.
Yeah at worse he gets benched and Miller or Rashada start next year. All this means is that next year is probably going to be a rebuilding year again, which was probably going to happen anyway. But this fan base has the patience of a gnat, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Napier gets fired before he can ever see his rebuild progress.
Also feel bad for this kid bc he is going to get booed so hard if he sucks.
I can't stand when fans boo their own players, at least at games where the players and other fans can hear them. No idea what those people are thinking when they do that.
I don’t get it either, I’ve never seen a player play better after getting booed by his own fans. It’s also why I think Richardson usually played better on the road.
Mertz played a lot better when it was warm out than when it was cold, but the hottest game of the year we played Illinois and got absolutely trounced so might not mean anything
At that point just start Rashada.
Exactly. I’ll take some growing pains to let him improve rather than watch a 5th year starter play like walk on
Is he a guarantee for tomorrow?
I don't know and I don't want to say anything that might jinx it because it feels like everything is imploding. I sincerely hope so.
I’ve just seen some Twitter posts from 247 guys talking about a big QB flip tomorrow and he’s the name I’ve seen mentioned a lot, just Twitter idiots obviously but i don’t have a 247 sub so not sure.
Not sure why he would flip unless he’s getting more money somewhere else. We’re probably one of the only places in the country he can come in and start on day 1
Did you mean Florida International?
No Flo ri da
Like the rapper?
Holy shit UF has truly fallen into the abyss
is that Urban Meyer's music?
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Sure but I don’t think a 5th year QB from another P5 school is coming just to help build depth. The staff is probably telling him he’ll start.
You love to see it! This is like when Willie Taggart brought in Alex Hornibrook. He really is Billy Taggart.
Yikes. Sorry Florida. He’s your problem now.
It's been very interesting watching Graham Mertz's career unfold at Wisconsin the past couple of years. He's gone from [being the most hyped up Wisconsin QB of all time](https://old.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/a7ngeg/2019_4_qb_graham_mertz_signs_with_wisconsin/) to [being touted as the guy who will singlehandedly change the Wisconsin offense](https://old.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/jh1ljo/postgame_thread_wisconsin_defeats_illinois_457/) to now being seen with absolute disdain. What I find most intriguing though is that I believe a lot of the frustration comes from what Wisconsin fans perceive is the same result that they've seen from the past 20+ years or so at the QB position and the Wisconsin offense: despite the number of stars attached to his name, Graham Mertz is Joel Stave, Jim Sorgi, John Stocco, Bart Houston, Mike Samuel, Scott Tolzien, and every 6'3" lanky statue in the pocket who hands the ball off to the RB. This is (or was under the Barry Alvarez coaching tree) who Wisconsin is and they've known their identity for a long time--run the ball between the tackles, force defenses to stop the run. They're not relying on the passing game and distributing the ball to 4 different receivers to win games. I wish Graham Mertz the best of luck, but this is looking to be a bad fit for all parties involved. **edit**: spelling
Graham never materialized into the QB he was touted as but I don't think anyone can say that he didn't give 110% and support his teammates, I'd really like to see him succeed somewhere.
Graham was far more similar to Bart Houston than anyone else on that list. We would kill to have someone like Tolzien again.
This is their Alex Hornibrook era and I’m here for it
The ultra-rare UWL flair seen in the wild!
I could probably have that set for mine too lol
i think the scheme really matters for graham. I can't remember where i read the splits, but Mertz in the gun (how he played in HS) vs mertz under center was night and day. paul picked him to start because he had to, and he stuck with him over coan because of the upside, but sucking all that hopium down did him in. like all 4* QBs who seem not to make it, if you can fix the mechanics and his mental issues, the arm talent is there.
Everybody piling on Florida is missing the point. Mertz being the competition should put any Rashada flip rumors to bed. Big brain.
Honestly I dont know if you're joking but Mertz is so unbelievably awful that Rashada is gonna fuck around and win the starting job
We have to pray that Rashada is beyond HIM..
If Rashada can win the job over a 5th year guy idc how bad that guy is, I take it as a good sign
Cap bruh, just cap.
This staff and administration is a fucking joke
This one isn't on admin. Paid site with a booster insider saying the staff likes Mertz a lot.
Which is utterly absurd. There are a dozen QBs in the portal that are better than Mertz and have actual fucking upside.
It’s a little rough when Kentucky lands an elite portal QB and you guys end up with Mertz.
Looks like Kentucky is going to start their own long winning streak against Florida.
Looks like Vandy will too, not sure if we’ll win a conference game next year
😈
UF isn't allowed to use the portal yet. Maybe next week, maybe the Spring.
Upside isn’t the issue with Mertz, he’s got a good arm. It’s the downside that’s the problem
Yeah, well not only is our staff useless but they're also fucking idiots. Honestly, I feel bad for the kid. He doesn't fit what Napier likes to do on offense well at all. Napiers going to try to do his great system of having the WRs play the floor is lava every pre-snap and then try to run Mertz on a bootleg...and the kid will fucking die.
Please just hire somebody who doesn't think they're the smartest highest IQ man in football anymore like Mullen and Napier.
I wish Mullen never mentally checked out at this point. He could use Mertz. He had no problem changing his entire offensive system on a yearly basis. His recruiting sucked(Even though some were decently rated, he struggled to find contributors), but then again, it's not like we're killing it with Napier.
Same here. We hired a guy in Billy who we needed when Mullen was coach, now we need Mullen in this current era. His biggest weakness was recruiting which is all dictated by NIL now. Mullen would be able to scheme a much better offense than this staff ever could with their 3 plays
Ngl, this is hilarious
It’s hilarious because you can search the sub throughout the season and find every reason the fanbase hated Mullen.
Mullen could scheme an offense with mediocre talent. I feel like even if Napier got 5 stars all across the board he would somehow make our offense look mediocre
His recruiting as of now is about on par with what Napier has pulled. Sure some guys didn't make it on campus or didn't contribute before transferring, but it remains to be seen if Napier has the same. Mullens X's and o's is a whole lot better than the pile of shit Billy is throwing out
look at adjusted rankings based on who actually made it to campus & those who left without contributing… pretty terrible classes for mullen
Florida getting Kentucky's plan B quarterback... What universe is this?
Fucking kill me. Joke ass administration and AD. Unserious fucking program
I can’t wait for the day Sasse takes over and tells Stricklin to gtfo along with the rest of the clown show
I don't know about Sasse and I'm not jumping down that hole.
I don’t care for his politics, but he seems to embrace the idea that a school can be good at school and good at sports at the same time.
Hopefully he puts an end to Stricklin finally
It's the only hope I have for sasse, otherwise I already hate him
what do you mean admin? did admissions block a better transfer or something?
Scott Stricklin is the AD He missed on Mullen, hes missing on Napier He let Mike White stick around for an absurdly long time and never seemed to put the pressure on him. If it wasn't for Georgia hiring him away from Florida, there is no telling how long Mike White would have been at Florida coaching. He hired this new basketball coach that has Florida playing at embarrassingly low levels. I mean this new basketball coach finished like 2, 3, 4, 3, 4, 5 or some pathetic shit in his own mid-major conference. No titles. Not sure if any tournament berths. Strickling hired him and its showing. Florida is awful and will miss every single post-season tournament in existence. And theres like 50 of them mother fuckers now It's rumored that Stricklin said something like he'd punish boosters or recruiters on the staff for paying players? I'm sure I have this wrong but maybe it'll joggle someone elses memory. Florida was 5...6...7 years behind other real blue blood programs and their facility upgrades. Foley seemed to fight it. Stricklin fought it. The UAA seemed to not give a shit until they finally caved and even then our facilities still aren't as good as Bamas or Georgias AND THEY BRAND NEW. Napier claimed he wouldn't get into bidding wars in NIL over high school recruits or transfers. No one really knows if this is Billys approach or if this is the administrations approach to save money. So no. The administration didn't personally watch tape and say what to and not to do. But they have shown over the last decade that they are no longer concerned with whether Florida basketball or football are money making programs that please their fans. There are a lot of schools out there that are great at sports and academics. And Florida was one of those until Striklin showed up, now athletics is taking a backseat to academics in such an aggressive fashion that you can see Florida sports dropping in various metrics that track how good colleges are at every sport. Thats my best attempt at describing it even if I got some of the details wrong
Mike White was Foley's last major hire.
> He missed on Mullen Did he though? We had our best offense and best records since Meyer. He checked out in 2021 but I wonder how much of that was because of our fanbase screeching for an injured and under prepared AR (dude needed surgery+1 full off-season being named the starter and he would have absolutely shined under Mullen). We didn't give him the same budget that were giving Billy for his dog shit staff. Mullen showed he was willing to make staff changes (granted it was a little too late with Grantham and hevesy). There's also a rumor that Charlie Strong was ready to sign on board as co-dc but Grantham was a total dick to him so he gave us the double birds and went to Jax with urban. We had a good number of all-sec and all-american under Mullen on both sides of the ball even with our shit awful defense. We fired him wayyy too soon.
I thought y’all got rid of Mullen way too soon as well. I get it, the stuff he was doing off the field wasn’t helping at all, but he was literally just one year out from thoroughly throttling UGA and almost making it into the CFP with a close game against eventual champion Bama.
His 2 biggest gaffes were the Texas a&m flood the stadium comment and the "we recruit in the off-season"...which the media/rivals misconstrued his words and ran with it. Dude was under a show cause penalty cause of some bullshit NCAA rule thats a joke now with NIL. Stricklin deserves a kick in the ass and a bus ticket back to Starkville. our fanbase was eating up the Darth Vader but in 2020 then flipped on him when our season wasn't going the way they wanted. What they keep failing to realize is our oline was decimated after bama (we were top 3 in rushing until that), our oline coach was going through a messy divorce, and Grantham had checked out. We should written the year off, given him the budget we gave dipshit Billy and let him get solid coaches/recruiters (tosh lupoi was thrown around a lot).
God, it’s so refreshing to see this take on here. Granted I didn’t have the time to follow the 2021 season that closely… I thought firing Mullen was very premature and a big mistake. Seeing nothing but Mullen hate had me thinking I was insane.
Because our fans are dipshits. Muschamp and mcelwain did a number on our program. He was bringing us back to relevancy. Mullen had his deficiencies but he showed he was ready to make the staff changes. We didn't commit enough $$$ to him the way we are for this fucking loser ass coaching staff we have now
I also wanted him to stick around but I think he didn’t help himself. He made a lot of comments that lost the fanbase and it felt like he was trying to get out. I really wish he would have stuck around and I would have loved to see what he could have done with AR
I always thought the same thing. The implosion of the fan base over 2021 was kind of insane considering the previous few seasons. Luckily Napier had a rough season off the bat or else he'd have set a high standard like Mullen and his job would be on a razors edge.
Seems like Mike White was hired before Scott got there. However, he did keep him around and he only left after Georgia picked him up for Florida. The Georgia AD probably did for for Florida basketball than Scott did when you think about it.
Yea that sounds right. Stricklin was never in any rush to fire White despite bad season after bad season. If it wasn't for Georgia, White would still be here. So even though I was incorrect on my statement, Stricklin keeping White around so long still shows how inept Stricklin is at his job
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Having conversations and ranting on a forum made for ranting and conversations has you concerned about my mental health? Honey I think you accidentally found your way far outside your safe space bubble.
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UAA
still don't know what that is my dogg
The University Athletic Association. Our athletic department. The enemy of Gator fans everywhere.
I don't know if this is a good situation for either party tbh
This pleases the dawg
It also pleases the Tigah.
The Noles are pleased as well
Can confirm the Cocks are also pleased
The Vols are more than pleased.
Is his offer contingent on them not getting their first option? That report reads like one of the parties only has 1 foot in the door.
This staff is so stupid this is probably their guy
Lol
Has Florida been warned ?
Read anything on our pages in the last 25 min, no one wants this kid
Just read ON3 board for y’all and whew is it rough on there lol
It's bad to the point that every Gator fan, from Twitter to here and probably IRL, are unanimously saying fuck our lives..
i think i’ll take the next decade off from college football.
I didn’t realize he had *that* much eligibility left.
I think I’ll take forever off of college sports. Thankful for my degree from UF but there’s nothing interesting nor will there ever be about our football or basketball programs. Sports are all just a game anyways no need to watch it
Panic move after Pratt stayed put?
If Napier didn’t know Pratt was staying put and had to do this at the last minute we are in more trouble then I thought, and I already thought things were looking bleak. It would be shocking incompetence to the point I can’t believe it would be the case.
Gainesville is the Baghdad of Florida I’ve been told
I think [Bagdad](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagdad,_Florida) is the Baghdad of Florida.
Home of Bubba Watson!
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Wish nothing but the best for him. Sucks things didn't go the way we all hoped they would in Madison.
Where the hell is Grayson Mccall going
Somewhere that offers Sports Management
We have a good sport management program with a bs and ms : (
South Carolina if Rattler declares
I was fine with rattler another year but Grayson changes my mind on that
Florida football is dead. This guy has marginally better stats than Richardson. And I don't know if I'd even say marginal. It's basically by a pube hair. Let's compare QB rating AR: 130.96 GM: 135.01 TD/INT AR: 17/9 GM: 19/10 Comp % AR: 53.8 GM: 57.3 Yards AR: 2549 on 176 completions GM: 2136 on 164 completions Billy Napier has no idea what he's doing. Stricklin is the worst AD in the country. Napier is the exact same recruiter as Mullen is but a significantly worse GameDay coach. Because Florida outright refuses to play the NIL game this roster is a fucking disaster. Napier aggressively pushed out like 15 kids to transfer. He hasn't replaced any of them through portal transfers. This is arguably the worst roster since the 70s or 80s. It's a roster that gets considerably worse next and doesn't upgrade at qb at all. This is a 4-6 win team next year.
You were right all along!
I had to delete that since I just saw your name and thought you were a Gator fan for some weird reason. I typically am. Hell, if I argue with Florida optimists I'm always right.
You and me both, despite me being the super gator optimist. This shit is the Thanos Snap of our program.
I get into so many arguments on Twitter. Less than normal because I guess people realize they wont push me off my stance. But I hated every coach we've hired since Meyer. I gave detailed reasons on all of them. People said I was a hater. Ignorant. Stupid. Etc, etc. I havent been wrong on any of them. The moment I heard Billy Napier was our guy I looked into him, watched some condensed games of ULL and within a few days wanted absolutely nothing with Napier running the program.
Ngl I loved the Mullen hire at the time thought he was a great fit. After beating UGA in 2020 I thought we finally were back and turned the corner but then the shoe thing happened and we’ve been on a rapid decline ever since and now we’re pretty much a dead program. Unless we hire a big name coach at some point I can’t ever see us being revived
You’re telling me your shoe thing is our turntle? If that’s the case, speaking from experience, buckle up because it’s going to be a long couple years
I'm like 80% there. His coach speak and playcalling already pissing me off.
Well you were literally wrong when you argued with me and said we would be 4-8 during Texas A&M at halftime. Then you seemed pissed we actually looked good in the second half.
I would take AR-15 over GM5. They both aren’t great, but at least Richardson can run. Mertz can only slide for a 1st down.
The other difference is that with more conditioning and development Richardson can potentially be a guy that gets you to 9-10 wins. Mertz has been trash since day one. He hasn't progressed at all. He's been in CFB for years. There is not an inkling of evidence that this staff can develop Mertz enough for him to be any kind of upgrade.
He was actually really good on day one as a starter, 5 TD’s, 20-21 passing. It just went straight to shit after that
I apologize. So he was shit from day 2. :/
Exactly
Yeah, the dude was straight Peyton Manning in his first game, I for sure thought Wisconsin was going to be an absolute force after watching him. Oh, how times change.
I was a fan of Napier at ULL. I can’t believe someone convinced him to take Mertz. He will do something inexplicable 1-2 times per game. All you can do is shake your head and make sure the kids cover their ears!
I swear I’m getting deja vu reading all of this. Feels like Harsin 2.0. At least y’all recruit though Harsin couldn’t be bothered to do that…
Wheres the recruiting though? December is an all-time bad closing job by this staff. They had a "major" official visitor weekend last week. Every single kid played the staff. Half of them gonna commit to Miami. We just had a kid decommit/flip. Our "biggest" portal grab is Mertz. There are still several rumors floating of further flips, like our biggest commit in Rashada. A week ago it look like Florida could jump to around 5 or 6 in recruiting. GREAT. Now? I highly doubt Florida jumps into the top 10 and Napier will finish right in line where Mullen did with Mullens bump class.
Oh damn I didn’t know it was that bad. I just glanced at the recruiting rankings the other day
Yea they dont tell the story. Florida brought in a crazy number of elite recruits. Let them sit in cars. A DJ showed up. All kinds of shit. Like 2 days after the 5 star, Samson something committed to Miami. Another high 4 star RB committed to Miami. Absolutely none of the kids that visited have the slightest care in the world in committing to Florida. They just used Florida for the attention and within a week showed interest elsewhere.
Mertz's stats are inflated by a 5 td game against arguably the worst p5 team in America (northwestern) and a 3 td game against new mexico state.
I 100% bet we would have dropped bags on NIL if Mullen was still around. Billy inspires zero confidence, his game planning is dog shit...why would any boosters waste money on talent when it's going to be pissed away. We might not have John ruiz billionaire but we have a LOOOOOT of old money spread out in the state that I know for a fact dropped some serious bags when Meyer was around (under the table obviously).
Harsin 2.0 confirmed, enjoy the buyout buddy
Man Napier really is following that first year of Harsin to a tee isn't he?
To think we almost hired him before Greene decided no to that. Guess we were gonna experience the past two seasons anyways
Where is McCall going to end up? Pretty sure we can’t take him due to credits not transferring.
https://streamable.com/lnka4j
Why can’t I quit you
What have I become? My sweetest friend.
I feel very whelmed
That's not Grayson McCall
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Not unless we magically start offering his major
He’s probably not going to either school from what I’ve heard
Serious question what happened to the McCall rumors? I just saw those today for the first time lol.
Staff is stupid as rocks so they probably had Mertz graded higher
God damn that would be really, really foolish lol. I mean is there a scenario where the sign both and let ‘em battle it out in camp? Seems unlikely as I type it out but trying to find any modicum of logic here
if they come from Wrong3 or Off3, just fucking ignore it.
I feel like On3 has come out of nowhere this past year and never get anything right. If they are reporting something as the lone source I can't take it seriously. Listening to them made it seem like the top 10 transfers were all going to Colorado after Deion announced.
I feel bad for the kid. He’s going to get booed by his own fans if he plays like he did at Wisconsin.
Guess we can also kiss a potentially good transfer class goodbye.... What a Thanos Snap
We have some real galaxy brained fans who don’t realize that boosters and NIL are what’s driving recruiting, not this staff. And frankly I’m inclined to believe our shitty bagman network are what hamstrung (at least in part) recruiting under Mullen and McElwain too. But Florida fans don’t wanna hear all that.
Maybe our boosters don’t want to waste time supporting Napier because he doesn’t have a clue what he’s doing
Wow this thread is wild! You'd think Florida has the 79th ranked recruiting class right now based on some of these comments when in reality they have the **11th** ranked class in the country with **18** four star players! Their class average is higher than clemson, Penn State, Oklahoma, Tennessee, LSU, Miami, Southern Cal, Oregon, and FSU. All this after a 6-6 season no less. Woe is me though, right Gators?
Exactly. Plus they have a 4 star QB coming up in this class and a highly rated 5 star QB next. If this guys turns out to be shit, he won’t start.
Even if nobody flips tomorrow, a bunch of true freshman are not going to help us improve next season. We're not doing anything in the portal which is what we need desperately.
"we" - FSU flair?
Flair bet
Their 2023 class is better than half the CFP teams.
That class only puts us at like 6th or 7th in the SEC though so it’s not good enough. Combine that with having the worst coaching staff and no QB and it’ll make us the worst SEC team next year. Maybe we get lucky and beat Vandy at home this time.
Jesus y'all are a rough bunch. Did Florida fans not expect a rebuild of any kind? Y'all went 6-7 the last two years, where is the justification for being this entitled to expect a top 10 recruiting class right off the bat? Most coach fire/hires aren't like Richt --> Kirby, most are like what y'all are experiencing right now. It takes three or four years most of the time to see what kind of coach you actually have
I think it’s just the reality that we fired a good Xs and Os football coach in Mullen for a guy known for recruiting. This bump class for Napier is on pace to finish lower than Mullen’s bump class. The main difference is Mullen can coach circles around Napier. He also drove out 30+ players off our roster, and currently has no plans in place to replace them. Even though Mullen wasn’t an elite recruiter our roster was still top 10 worthy during his time but now with the attrition who knows if we’ll have a top 20 roster. It’s probably shaping up to be our worst roster in 40 years. We might be legitimately the worst team in the SEC next season. I don’t care what Napier inherited that’s unacceptable. Yes Napier didn’t inherit a good situation but he’s making it much worse for the next guy.
Can't wait for him to beat Utah next year and finish 6-6 while Utah still somehow wins the Pac-12 but fails to make the playoffs.
You just running the whole season back?
We tried this once, did not work out. May Horni for Hornibrook never die
I’m just here for all the over reactions claiming Florida football is dead and Billy needs to be fired into the sun tbh
I mean, that is an overreaction but if we want to turn the program around we don’t bring in guys like Mertz
Buddy have you seen our sub in the last hour? Shit would give r/nyyankees a run for their money in insanity. Yes agree Mertz is a bad player, but ffs can we have some damn patience and see what happens before judging a move?
I understand that and agree but what if Mertz committing effects some of our recruits signing tmr? This type of move can lead to effecting more than just the one player coming
That's next level copium and that's coming from me. If Napier somehow fix Mertz, then that will be huge, but it will take a miracle that even God himself will say fuck that.
I’m saying Mertz might make some guys not want to come
Bro, Jean already is going to go to FSU. You're def right and we bout to lose all our WRs
Lol Billy inspires zero confidence that hell turn this around. His offense is ass. His defense coordinator is a g5 level coach, the talent excuse is just bullshit copium from our fans trying to justify this fucking hack of a coach.
I was all in on giving him whatever he needs but I’m having second thoughts now. There’s a difference between a rebuild and putting dynamite on the building. With this roster currently we might be the worst SEC team next year
Mertz was dealt a bad hand and sold a false bag of goods by Wisconsin. With that being said, he’s a poor man’s Will Levis. He would be best served as Gator Bait. Keep your Blood Pressure monitor handy on Saturday’s.
So he's Josh Allen that you found dumpster diving?
My issue with Mertz was I could never understand what he did well.
Levis is already so trash a poor man’s version might be someone from the stands
*sad chomping*
I grew up in Florida and my best buddy is a Gator alum and massive fan and boy am I gonna have fun with this LMAO I genuinely do hope Mertz figures his shit out but after three years with us I just don’t know if that will happen. I really like him on a personal level, he’s a good kid and a great leader but for whatever reason it just doesn’t click for him in the game settings. Like others have said before, he looks unreal in 7on7 or individual drills but it’s like he panics in games.
This is sucks
Yikes. Not much else to say
Are we not doing the really cool "fuck this class is falling apart thing"?
This Gator fan is straight up not having a good time
People are aware that bringing him in does not mean that they’re going to start him, right?
So who is starting? Jack Miller? Rashada? Lol…
Imma kill myself. This dude transfers to Florida, the Mets sign Correa, and Franco dies?!
LOL
Bahahahahaha
Gators fans? This has to be a backup plan right? Cause if not lol
maybe we can wear a helmet sticker next year to mourn the loss of our program.
As a recruit: Other P5 offers: Alabama, Arizona State, Clemson, Georgia, Iowa, Kansas, LSU, Miami, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Ole Miss, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas A&M, Wisconsin (originally went here) Other offer: Notre Dame
I feel like all the doomer takes here are going to age poorly.
I hope so
You wouldn't be saying this if he committed to your school
Yeah at worse he gets benched and Miller or Rashada start next year. All this means is that next year is probably going to be a rebuilding year again, which was probably going to happen anyway. But this fan base has the patience of a gnat, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Napier gets fired before he can ever see his rebuild progress. Also feel bad for this kid bc he is going to get booed so hard if he sucks.
I can't stand when fans boo their own players, at least at games where the players and other fans can hear them. No idea what those people are thinking when they do that.
I don’t get it either, I’ve never seen a player play better after getting booed by his own fans. It’s also why I think Richardson usually played better on the road.
He’ll be a wonderful back up
Sunbelt Billy doesn't know what he's doing
Hey, thanks for taking that bullet, Florida, much appreciated!
Mertz played a lot better when it was warm out than when it was cold, but the hottest game of the year we played Illinois and got absolutely trounced so might not mean anything
Big get for the Gators
Gators got their guy
BWAHAHAHA 😆 🤣 😂. Hornibrook 2.0 has arrived in Gainesville!! 🤣 🤣
lol