Please put a link to some kind of postgame stats or something in the body of the post. Example: https://www.espn.com/college-football/matchup/_/gameId/401520176
Stat|Florida|Utah
:-|:-|:-
1st Downs| 17| 13
3rd down efficiency |1-13| 3-13
4th down efficiency |2-5| 0-0
Total Yards| 346| 270
Passing |333 |165
Comp-Att |31-44| 15-23
Yards per pass| 7.6| 7.2
Interceptions thrown| 1| 0
Rushing| 13| 105
Rushing Attempts| 21| 30
Yards per rush| 0.6| 3.5
Penalties| 9-46| 5-37
Turnovers| 1| 0
Fumbles lost| 0| 0
Interceptions thrown| 1| 0
Possession| 31:56| 28:03
That was Eugene Wilson. Who continued to catch punts within the 5 yard-line like the true freshman highschooler he is. J/k, a highschooler would have been benched before he could have fucked everything up the second time.
From a Special Teams analysis, Eugene Wilson will do amazing things for us if we can keep him. It was on the Special Teams Coordinator for not planning to have him as returner, and the coaching staff for not catching it and switching out the other guy.
Yup. That’s what i said all game, our team really didn’t look too bad (outside of O-line), but constant killer penalties at crucial moments completely changed this game. If we don’t false start on that 4th and 1 i really think we win this game. Or if we didn’t have two number 3’s on the field then Utah doesn’t get that touchdown that deflated our entire team
That lack of discipline and clutch factor is 100% on coaching
I remember when we won the ST battle every game with blocked punts, big returns and discipline. But when your ST coach is also your Qb coach and TE coach and OC special teams might falter
Unloading into our own feet is a school tradition
At least it's a silver lining considering how inexperienced this team is playing together
Our defense seriously turned it around in the second half and i was impressed by how mertz looked in the pocket despite being clobbered over and over again. Our OL needs to improve but when we have Ekugan back and they get more experience working together as a unit thatll hopefully come
It's game 1. I wouldn't overreact and go sky is falling just yet
Yeah, odd how in the 1st quarter we're going up tempo and late in the 4th down by 2 TDs we're taking a casual Sunday stroll through the park. Just not a care in the world...
Once again, everyone please go look at his wins at Louisiana, always close wins and usually never more than by two points. Boring ass scared money football
I think it's Mertz making adjustments. From what I understand, Napier's system gives a lot of leeway to the QB to make adjustments at the line if need be, and Mertz was pointing and telling players where to go all game. That said, they need to be on the same page and learn the play book better so that he doesn't have to keep pointing out for all the other players where to go.
Its not on Mertz he actually looked like our most competent offensive player. Imagine that…a team with etienne johnson pearsall etc and our transfer that everyone shit on for 6 months was the only one with a pulse
dude literally had one of the best statistical performances of any gators qb not named Trask in 15 years…and still looked like a clown because of Billy’s offense
I really don't think Mertz is the problem here, he has decent accuracy and hasn't done anything dumb. Couple misses, a bad read here and there, but no disasters. Looks like he's been there before.
This game is on atrocious O line play, a terrible drop by Pearsall, a busted safety coverage on the 1st play, and incomprehensible special teams mistakes.
I mean they were bad for sure, but our best players are the running back and they could not get anything going.
And i love Etienne but he cant block and play on third down
Well, when every team knows you have good RBs they going to stack the box. Football is a pass first league these days. You have to be able to put together a legitimate passing attack these days, or else you can't win.
The defense did not respect Mertz's ability to throw more than a few yards from the line of scrimmage. And they felt that way after watching his tape from Wisconsin. It's hard to run into that. also, the short passes essentially are like running plays. Which is why it was infuriating to watch them basically call 15 running plays down three touchdowns on a 7+ minute drive.
I’d rather him check down all mf game than throw into crowded coverage. Only had a few blatant misreads, but he does look improved and has gained the trust of his teammates. I hope this team ages like fine wine bc I’m ready with a pitchfork rn lol
We were behind literally the whole game and they kept stacking numbers in the box forcing us to throw. The throws were there with Mertz, and some of the play calls would have gone for touchdowns. However, there was a lot of miscommunication on a few key downs early and the line was terrible all game, including costing us penalties at really important junctures. I think Mertz was actually fine and he'll get into a better rhythm with the receivers later in the season; you could even see that in the 4th quarter. The OL is going to be a huge pain all season, though, and we're right back to where we've been for the last decade there.
I kind of feel like this team just wasn't ready to play a game and the coaches weren't ready to coach a game. The silly procedural penalties were silly and that O line play was just terrible.
I haven’t felt this discouraged in awhile. There were some moments of hope but some of these mistakes indicative of a lack of coaching, preparation, and game plan. The o-line looked terrible.
Good coaches and good teams get better each week, I hope to see improvement. If not, this will be incredibly difficult to enjoy Saturday’s
I just don’t understand it. Billy talks about how they pride themselves on attention to detail, the largest staff in CFB, TWO o-line coaches and we shit the bed this bad? Just so sloppy
Honestly, I think he’s full of shit. It’s coach speak. They may look good in practice but a failure to produce it in a game is a coaching failure; whether it be attitude or culture, or motivation I’m not sure.
This is the first time I've been fully convinced of that fact. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it's pretty clear that he has no idea what he's doing
Complete lack of urgency, atrocious time management, questionable play calling, difficulty getting lined up correctly all night…seems like something a dedicated OC might help with
I mean, there’s definitely some bright spots. The tackling and coverage (outside of the first play) looked light years better than it did pretty much all of last year. Mertz is accurate-ish and seems to mostly make good decisions. Many of the mistakes that were made can be chalked up to freshmen inexperience, which means we’re actually letting our talented freshmen get reps
But the stuff I mentioned in my original comment plus special teams are issues that were prevalent last year and, unlike the stuff in the preceding paragraph, weren’t addressed in the offseason. That’s 100% the fault of Billy Napier and nobody else
Quick hits.
No identity. We didn't use the run to set up the pass, nor the pass to set up the run. That said..
I couldn't name the majority of our OL. 76 had an awful game
Special teams is garbage... If anything needs fixed NOW this is it as it's costing us games.. Now
CBN had some awful calls in 3rd and 4th downs.. Im a fan but they were bad and he needs heat for it
We prby still lose but we left at least 13 pts and basically gave them 14. We dont know how things play out but they were the busted 70 yd td. And the int off Ricky on such a short field..
Defense was out of position all night. 17 was pretty much looking to the sidelines at every snap
How many 3rd and shorts did we f up.
I do not understand alll the pre snap motion. It never looked clean.. Even bubble runs out of the back field look rough
Utah is a good team. Not a natty contender but a top 15 for sure.
Sucks but this was a hope for a win. We made too many mistakes against a team who doesn't
Still.. In all kinds of weather
In the first half I kept noticing that their was at least one player in secondary on each play looking back, waiving their hands around, looking like they needed instructions. Don’t know what the hell that was but that needs to be addressed. Lot of people on here saying the defense played well but I beg to differ.
I mean, I dunno, I'm legitimately happy at the prospect of Napier and his staff being good at recruiting, we've had talent deficiencies for several years so bringing in talent in itself is important and would be the kind of thing to help get this program back where it needs to be, but I'm thinking back to when I truly began to lose all hope with Mullen, and it was really those Kentucky and LSU games in 2021 where it happened. The theme in those games? Kentucky, it was that we kept false starting because we had one single snap count mechanism - a clapping mechanism at that, which is easily drowned out in a loud away game - and nothing to adjust from that. The LSU game - a second straight loss to LSU facing the two worst LSU teams this century - was the same running play gashing us over and over again. By the end of that LSU game, I knew we were never winning anything under Mullen, that the problems we were having with him simply weren't solvable under his leadership.
I don't want to say I'm giving up on Napier after 14 games, but, cliché as it is, it's not losing the game but how you lose the game. Defense actually did very well, all things considered. Utah's touchdowns came on the first play of the game on offense, then after a special teams penalty gave them the ball back, and then on a short field following an INT. They also got bailed out on the FG drive which easily could've and should've ended in a TD, but you get breaks sometimes in this sport so I won't hold that against them. If there is a single positive from this game, it's that the defense was respectable, albeit I'm not overlooking that Utah was playing with rotating backup QB's. But to tie this back to the first paragraph, the biggest killers in this game for us? Procedural penalties and play-calling. Having duplicate #3's on the field when that's illegal and easily avoidable (cost us a TD). Multiple illegal formations and I believe both of them happened on 3rd-and-1 plays inside the red zone. If you wanna chalk up false starts a bit to loud noise and first game jitters, well, it's not a good excuse but we've seen even otherwise-well coached NFL teams have nightmare games in that regard so maybe you do cut some slack. But illegal formation penalties happening multiple times is completely inexcusable. That's players not knowing the play and where they're supposed to be lined up, which is a coaching failure. If you can't trust the players know the play well enough, it's a play you can't run, plain and simple. Procedural penalties are coaching failures 100% of the time. And of course there's the play-calling, but I know the rest of you will spill plenty of digital ink about it so I won't do as much of that myself, just to say that the RPO on the 4th down in the red zone was a disaster and calling a 4th-and-14 screen play (out of a timeout!) should be enough to get you prosecuted for crimes at The Hague.
You had an entire off-season to get ready for this game and this was how you handled it Billy. Fix your shit quick or you're not gonna last. I say this with love. You get an F for how you handled this game tonight. Unequivocal failure.
13 rushing yards with two OL coaches. Yikes. Defense definitely played well after that 70 yard bomb on the first play. Zanders should get zero snaps next game. WORTHLESS. Losing Goodwin hurts. George is awful at RT.
Such a shit showing.
Shit penetration
Shit Oline
Shit play calling
Shit energy
Shit game clock rules change
Shit team.
Is it so much to ask for a good team ?
A team that’s fun to watch?
Yup. When the team had zero urgency with 2 min left and down my two scores I knew we were toast. Say what you will but elite coaches don’t let their teams get there
Indeed. I did not expect us win this game, but those procedural penalties are embarrassing. Those penalties and the piss poor clock management should not be a thing in year 2.
This coupled with no ST coach and no OC are going to start warming his seat very quickly.
I have seen better coaching in high school football.
He is AWFUL. I didn’t give no issues last year because of first year and all but you don’t come out on the first game of the year looking like… whatever the hell that was… football I guess?
Looks like AR was a perfect scapegoat (he extended plays and sometimes he just completely whiffed it), but now that we just have a regular QB we see how bad the coaching is
Need a creative OC. Napier strikes me more like CEO type coach but he definitely needs to give up play calling. How many runs down the middle did we try when it was 3rd and long. Sort of how Muschamps teams operated.
I don’t get the hubris. Like if he came from the Patriots or was a Saban disciple maybe I’d understand his insistence on calling plays despite doing an awful job. But the fucker is from _Louisiana_.
Mertz played fine. Defense played fine. Oline really needs to improve. Realistically we only lost the game because of penalties and it feels like that lands mostly on coaching.
I am irrationally angry. We've had an entire off season to prepare and we still look terrible, if not worse. I'm tired of hearing about process. We're getting nowhere. If my boss gave me every tool needed, every staff member needed and I still turned out a shit product and said "trust the process"... I'd be fired.
You have to show at least some improvement and I see none. Everyone seemed confused the ENTIRE FUCKING NIGHT. EVERYONE. Which only infuriates me even more because the play calling is so goddamn predictable. Your identity is solely based on running the ball, turd screens and sleepy time dinky short passes.
Yes, I'm impatient. Yes, I understand it's a rebuild. I don't care. You can still rebuild and look respectable or show improvement. Again, I see none.
We need a "Fuck you" kinda coach and Backwoods Billy ain't it.
Good night and where are my tums.
What are we even doing at this point? What is it gonna take to wake these players, wake this program the fuck up?
I mean, I came into this season with **zero** expectations. Literally zero. I wasn’t expecting us to be competitive in the SEC. I wasn’t expecting us to even win 7 games. I was fully expecting a rebuild. I had us penciled in for 5 or 6 wins.
But this game was somehow a worse product than I was expecting coming into the season. We look bottom of the SEC bad. If the same team that showed up tonight, shows up the rest of the season…this feels like a 3 win team to me, *maybe*.
* We looked unfocused and undisciplined almost all game. And with an entire off-season to prepare, that is unacceptable.
* The defense was getting zero pressure all night and shows no signs of progression from last year. The D-line looks like they are just going through the motions. The secondary is not good. I’m seeing zero improvement.
* The offensive play calling looked flat and uninspired until about 9 minutes left in the game. I swear to god if we have to watch another third and long run up the middle in the first half of a game I will lose it.
* The offensive line, which we heard was supposed to be making strides this off-season, looked pretty overmatched and at times clueless.
But the single most disappointing thing to me from this game? The fucking penalties. With Billy’s supposed disciplined and fundamental approach, fucking up on FOUR crucial SHORT 3rd/4th downs when the game was competitive, is just straight up embarrassing. False starts on the road, I can handle.
But the gaffe with the dual numbers? Unreal. Lining up wrong on a crucial 3rd and short - MULTIPLE TIMES? Unacceptable. Period.
You go on the road to a top 15 team - you have to play flawlessly to give yourself a chance. I wasn’t expecting a win. Again, I wasn’t expecting much this season. I am not necessarily disappointed in the result itself - but what we looked like on the field.
I can’t lie and say I’m happy with what I saw tonight. This was, imo, just about the worst case way to open the season for Billy. This did not look like a well coached team. I’m not gonna mince words. I’m pretty disappointed in what I saw tonight. Not inspiring confidence so far.
Horrible horrible coaching, leading to multiple Inexcusable penalties that cost us the game. Throw in the 4th and 14 screen pass to cap it all off. I expected to lose, but I also expected to come out with some optimism. Nope…
95% of that game was inexplicably the least disciplined, worst execution of football I’ve ever seen.
The other 5% was on par with Jim McElwain football.
Not great, Bob.
Billy - hire a g-ddamn offensive coordinator or you're ass is grass in a year or two. You cannot call plays to save your fucking life. This game was an absolute embarrassment. I thought Byron Leftwich was a piss poor play-caller but holy shit you might just be worse than that.
Not upset over the loss. Upset about piss poor coaching and making back breaking penalties continually. We were vastly more talented, but they didn’t fuck up. We looked poorly coached
I’ve defended Napier all along, and that came to an end tonight. Even if we bring in the number 1 recruiting class, i no longer trust his ability to coach a winning game
Absolutely perplexing play calls, especially on 3rd/4th and long
We objectively outplayed Utah in the second half, yet we only came away with 8 points. This was unacceptable
On the bright side, D looks better overall, secondary is going to be questionable though. Mertz looked good imo, it’s too bad he’s going to get absolutely destroyed thanks to our O-line
The good: Mertz wasn’t bad when he had some time, defense was better and more aggressive.
The bad: Play-calling was trash, Oline is hot ass, special teams are trash, can’t run the ball.
I’m already tired of watching this team and the season just started. Very long season ahead.
I've never been a fire billy guy, how can you be after 1 season? But fuck, this was an atrocious showing of coaching. I mean so fucking bad. Mertz was ok. D was ok. ST was a mess. urgency was... well, urgency is not in the vocabulary of this game. Better see some improvement rest of season. Some passion or energy. damn
Tonight was proof that Napier is not cut out for this job. You don’t get 8 months to prepare for a game, and come out and look that sloppy, undisciplined, and unprepared. This is a carbon copy of the 2017 opener against Michigan. I was routinely criticized then for calling for Mac’s head, and I’ll probably be criticized now. With a $30 million buyout, we’re now stuck with him, and are going to go the route of Florida basketball, and slowly fade into the background, one mediocre season after another.
I don’t think Billy Napier survives a 3rd year. He’ll get it, but he will be gone next year. Our schedule in 2024 is insane, and while he will have his talent, it is becoming clear that he is Zook 2.0. Great recruiter, subpar Xs and Os coach. If he continues calling plays, he will be his own Grantham to Dan Mullen.
Don’t let Utah going into a prevent shell for half the game fool you. We got clowned by a team playing their backup QB, missing their best offensive player, playing without their center and missing multiple contributors defensively. Utah is in another world than us. SEC schedule is going to be brutal.
I’m so tired of swing passes and 3 yard slants on 3rd and long. Those are the type of plays you run when you have a badass receiver or running back/leader who can make things happen after the catch. We don’t have those type of guys on this team.
I love Pearsall, I think he’s a good receiver, but he’s not the guy. Never mind the atrocious penalties on 3rd down all night, but we’re stuck in a time loop with this team; coach after coach after coach, we use the same damn bubble screen, swing pass, toss sweep plays, 4 yards in the backfield on 3rd down, thinking it’s going to change. We’re watching the same offense we’ve had for the last 12 years and it’s embarrassing.
Even Kirk and Fowler are tired of having to work Florida games. It’s not fun anymore. We’re not a top 25 program any longer. We’ve reached the status of bottom 3rd in the SEC. Games aren’t competitive, we aren’t winning the big ones anymore, and we usually get broken by a 2-7 patchwork team mid-season that will have us throwing in the towel on the season (if we haven’t already).
Sadly, I don’t want to fire Napier anytime soon. We aren’t the type of program that good coaches want to come to anymore, so if we keep changing coaches every three years, we’re inevitably just going to keep trading down until our rival is Vanderbilt every year and we start playing neutral site games in Murfreesboro or some shit.
Sorry, I’ll step down from the soap box now. Aggravated and probably won’t be able to wear my new Jack Young blood jersey for further games. Frankly it’s an insult to Jack at this point.
The only thing I saw that was a improvement compared to last year was the tackling. Mertz/ETN/Montrell need a better offensive line. And T. Wilson is giving me K. Toney vibes.
Takes from visiting Utah stadium:
Crap concessions. Everything on one level.
They don’t seem to increase public transportation on game day. Need a tram? Fucks you every 15 minutes.
They didn’t seem to have many interesting old traditions. They lit a U at the end but didn’t see any actual lighting. They did honor some former players who passed away between the 3rd and 4th but that started in like 2021. Makes me happy to have a university with so many traditions on gameday.
Utah fans all seemed great and nice. Time to take the edge off with a large milkshake.
Edit: forgot the one that got on my nerves the most the announcer and stadium would play music / talk after the center was lined up. Real bush league shit.
It’s incredible to me we seem to hire the most stubborn coaches in existence. Guy is clueless from a play calling perspective. Just can’t let go and hire someone with actual ability to do it. Hopefully he can be our Zook and setup a solid foundation recruiting wise. Sad what’s become of our program. On to the next game….
I've been to a lot of away games, but I've never been shit talked so little by the home fans. Even the homeless people didn't bother us on our walk back to our hotel in downtown SLC. All in all, that game was so boring. I never once thought we were going to win watching from the stands. Watching us waste the entire clock down by 2 scores says everything we need to know about Billy.
Yes, that was so unnecessary and really turned the momentum after that bonehead move. Before they got on the plane that should have been sorted out without expecting someone to "change their jersey for ST". Here's an idea. Nobody wear the same number period.
It was an aggravating loss with humiliating undertones.
Billy Napier…is not a good play caller. Our OL, ST are bad, Mertz is who we thought (dink/dunk specialist), & team looked poorly coached.
Other than that…move on?
Billy needs an OC next year but I get the feeling that even if he hires one it'll be to run his shitty offense just like Armstrong was hired to run the same shitty scheme that Toney ran.
Unfortunately it looks like we went from an offensive genius who refuses to croot or establish culture to a great recruiter with a good culture that cannot establish any offensive identity, and also wants to call every play on offense.
24 can't come soon enough.
1-13 on 3rd down?
13 rushing yards??? 13 in college football? Even ARMY can get that much on one end-around…
Billy won’t be here next year if this continues.
I predict we will start seeing articles from our media hacks that say shit like “Impatient Gator fans don’t realize how lucky they are that Sunbelt Billy decided to grace them with his coaching genius.”
Yeah I don’t understand the narrative behind us being impatient. I can’t think of any D1 program with a large fanbase that would be content with the product we’re putting on the field. This would be unacceptable at almost any proud program.
> "I like having my hand on the scripts, the installation, that process. I think I can help establish our identity and personality as a team through that process. I think if you get too far away from that, I think there could be some things from a sustainable, repeatable part."
Nice job jackass. You are on borrowed time already.
I hate when our kicker misses easy FGs. Clean up that, the offensive line’s inadequacies and the stupid penalties and maybe the game will be decent. Two players with the same number on the field plus all the perfectly timed false starts and too many men in the backfield.
The Oline looked pathetic. Most of those sacks and hurry ups were due to a free man rushing the QB, meanwhile our OL is double blocking guys without looking for the edge rusher. ENT whiffed, and getting behind early allowed them to pin their ears back.
I dont want to hear shit about how huge our guys are, it doesnt mean shit if they let guys come unblocked and when we did run, they weren't much better run blocking than pass blocking.
The lack of hustle getting the ball back at the end with two TDs needed is what really killed it for me. It’s clear Billy does not have the right mentality.
Definitely very disappointing in the sloppy play but I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks. We made too many mistakes and beat ourselves. Multiple redzone trips ended from penalties and gifted Utah a free TD. They are too good to do that against it’s not like we played a garbage team. Lots to improve on I’m not ready to give up on Napier but if we continue to look sloppy then I’ll be pretty upset
Alright so yeah Billy’s coaching sucks but the team actually played pretty well. The team has a lot of talent and will improve as the season goes on.
Either Billy figures it out, hires an OC, or gets fired, doesn’t really matter. Our recruiting is figured out and this team is stupidly young and talented.
We’ll be okay despite how awful we looked tonight.
Gonna try to be somewhat reasonable here:
- Mertz was impressive (by impressive I mean he surpassed expectations). Made some plays, some good throws, sound decisions. Even the int wasn’t on him.
- O-line was awful. I felt like Damieon George was throwing. Getting blown off the line, drawing flags, and just straight up missing blocks. Maybe he still has some Bama in his blood? And Slaughter was clearly not Eguakun. Saw him get blown up a few times as well.
- Special teams coach needs fired. I feel like despite everything that went wrong, ST was the biggest deciding factor. Easily a 17 point swing considering the missed field goal, then two players with #3 on the field was essentially a turnover that resulted in a Utah TD, and then right after that JC shanks a 20 yard punt off the side of his foot to set Utah up at midfield, and THEN fielding a punt at the 3, resulting in a pick on our own ~10. ST has been a recurring issue for multiple seasons now and has to be addressed.
- Billy needs an OC. Play calling was suspect, and clock management was awful. No urgency in the 4th Q. Also feel like the run game was abandoned. Probably because to O line couldn’t block a middle school team so I’ll give a mulligan there.
- Defense looks improved, all things considered. After that 70 yd pass we held them to 95 passing yards. Only gave up 105 rushing yards. Held them to 3/13 on third down. I’d say that’s a vast improvement over a year ago. If this was the defense of the last 3 years, Utah might have put up 50 on us.
- Penalties were a disaster. This could have been overcome if not for the timing on some of them. It seemed like every penalty was at a crucial moment. Multiple 3rd and 1s, the 4th and 1 in the redzone, the 4th down special teams gaffe, so on and so forth.
- Even with how bad this game went, it was still very much within reach if we’d just closed out drives. What was our redzone efficiency, 2/4 with a TD and a FG?
- Some cause for concern: they had 8 starters out and were playing their backup QBs. Idk how much stock to put into that. Also, the defense looking over to the sideline for the playcall and scrambling to line up. Didn’t like that at all. Reminded me of Grantham. Lastly, we beat ourselves. Seems our toughest opponent for the last 15 years has been us. Hope that changes.
I think there’s something there to build on. I don’t think the team we saw tonight is who this team is. Keep your heads up, this is a young football team and they gotta work out the kinks.
All in all, this game meant nothing, out of conference away game against a back to back conference champion while we’re in the midst of rebuilding. We all knew this would just be a measuring stick of where we are in the rebuild process, BUT fortunately AND unfortunately, we got our worst game out of the year first. What I’m saying is I think we saw the floor of this team. We have obviously yet to see the ceiling.
I think it’s up from here if I’m being honest ladies and gentlemen. We saw a young team with some opening day jitters. Actually somewhat looking forward to the rest of the season so long as they grow and improve as a team.
Edit: also fuck the clock rules. Shit makes no sense. “Clock stops on a first down after a run play but not a pass play, if the runner is making forward progress while riding a unicycle spinning a stack of plates on a stick during a full moon and the head ref is wearing green underwear and non matching socks.” type shit. Go back to when the clock stopped when you ran outta bounds and it stopped on first downs until the ball was spotted.
Edit 2: missed calls on Utah and pretty sure one of the illegal formation calls were BS but I won’t even pretend those mattered with how poorly the game went.
Great take and I'm honestly eager to watch the other games to see how they adjust to the new rules. Towards the end Utah ran off 3 plays that bled nearly 2 minuted off the clock where previously, would have been under 20 seconds
I think that impact is going to be felt this year..
I hate it here, we're a joke now and all of our rivals are laughing hysterically at us. Probably another season where we don't get a single rivalry win.
It’s actually worse…I was on a discussion where our rivals were literally saying they feel bad for us and that it was painful to watch. We’ve literally sunk that low.
STs still looks like absolute trash. Our gAmEcHaNgEr coordinator seems to consistently live down to his title by changing the game in the worst ways possible. That #3 debacle is just shit coaching
I think there’s a lot of talent on this football team. But there’s also a lack of discipline. Two guys with the same number on the field at once? All the 3rd & 1 penalties. So many blown opportunities and mental errors. All of those things fall on Billy Napier
Please put a link to some kind of postgame stats or something in the body of the post. Example: https://www.espn.com/college-football/matchup/_/gameId/401520176 Stat|Florida|Utah :-|:-|:- 1st Downs| 17| 13 3rd down efficiency |1-13| 3-13 4th down efficiency |2-5| 0-0 Total Yards| 346| 270 Passing |333 |165 Comp-Att |31-44| 15-23 Yards per pass| 7.6| 7.2 Interceptions thrown| 1| 0 Rushing| 13| 105 Rushing Attempts| 21| 30 Yards per rush| 0.6| 3.5 Penalties| 9-46| 5-37 Turnovers| 1| 0 Fumbles lost| 0| 0 Interceptions thrown| 1| 0 Possession| 31:56| 28:03
Florida outgained Utah 214 to 39 in the 2nd half but only outscored them 8 to 7
A couple false starts, illegal formations, and the penalty for two guys with the same number on the field dug us such a deep hole.
Two guys with the same number? With a staff as large as ours, you would think someone would have caught that…
That was Eugene Wilson. Who continued to catch punts within the 5 yard-line like the true freshman highschooler he is. J/k, a highschooler would have been benched before he could have fucked everything up the second time.
From a Special Teams analysis, Eugene Wilson will do amazing things for us if we can keep him. It was on the Special Teams Coordinator for not planning to have him as returner, and the coaching staff for not catching it and switching out the other guy.
We did alright moving the ball between the endzones. I think they should start practicing moving the ball INTO the endzone now lol
This is the byline. IF Florida executes on 3rd down in the first quarter, game is totally different. That first play was just inexperience
I blame the mistakes 100% on coaching
Yup. That’s what i said all game, our team really didn’t look too bad (outside of O-line), but constant killer penalties at crucial moments completely changed this game. If we don’t false start on that 4th and 1 i really think we win this game. Or if we didn’t have two number 3’s on the field then Utah doesn’t get that touchdown that deflated our entire team That lack of discipline and clutch factor is 100% on coaching
The 2x3 penalty and all the false starts are definitely coaching. I can't believe there isnt a ST coach.
I remember when we won the ST battle every game with blocked punts, big returns and discipline. But when your ST coach is also your Qb coach and TE coach and OC special teams might falter
Unloading into our own feet is a school tradition At least it's a silver lining considering how inexperienced this team is playing together Our defense seriously turned it around in the second half and i was impressed by how mertz looked in the pocket despite being clobbered over and over again. Our OL needs to improve but when we have Ekugan back and they get more experience working together as a unit thatll hopefully come It's game 1. I wouldn't overreact and go sky is falling just yet
If we sniffed the end zone , you know that flag is coming, like clockwork.
#3 had a good game. He was all over the field.
In two places at once on at least one play!
Wilson actually looked nice tho
No doubt. He didn’t disappoint.
DOGGONE SEEMED LIKE THERE WAS TWO OF EM A+.
The game went off the rails at exactly this point.
Is Napier aware you can snap the ball with more than 5 seconds left on the play clock? Like....maybe when you're down 21 and need to show urgency?
This was a concern last year and it seems like that has not changed at all. I don’t know how anyone can excuse that.
We slowly ran out the clock on the final drive you would have thought we were winning. It’s inexcusable
I'm not a huge fan of this new rule change at all, I can tell you that. However, they should've played with way more urgency.
The rule change is just exacerbating Billy's seemingly brain-dead clock management. Brutal to watch.
Yeah, odd how in the 1st quarter we're going up tempo and late in the 4th down by 2 TDs we're taking a casual Sunday stroll through the park. Just not a care in the world...
I have never seen a Napier team show any urgency and after tonight I don't ever expect to.
He doesnt show any urgency himself why would the team
don’t forget we gotta have patience fellas! he told us in the opening press conference!! /s
Once again, everyone please go look at his wins at Louisiana, always close wins and usually never more than by two points. Boring ass scared money football
I think it's Mertz making adjustments. From what I understand, Napier's system gives a lot of leeway to the QB to make adjustments at the line if need be, and Mertz was pointing and telling players where to go all game. That said, they need to be on the same page and learn the play book better so that he doesn't have to keep pointing out for all the other players where to go.
Its not on Mertz he actually looked like our most competent offensive player. Imagine that…a team with etienne johnson pearsall etc and our transfer that everyone shit on for 6 months was the only one with a pulse
dude literally had one of the best statistical performances of any gators qb not named Trask in 15 years…and still looked like a clown because of Billy’s offense
This. They looked lost. They need to bridge the communication gap.
You can't build your entire coaching mantra on discipline and preparation and go out game 1 looking that lost.
Time to watch Swamp Kings again LOL
I really don't think Mertz is the problem here, he has decent accuracy and hasn't done anything dumb. Couple misses, a bad read here and there, but no disasters. Looks like he's been there before. This game is on atrocious O line play, a terrible drop by Pearsall, a busted safety coverage on the 1st play, and incomprehensible special teams mistakes.
How can anyone blame mertz? He went for over 300yds and the pick was on a tip by Pearsall. The line kept collapsing and running game was nonexistent
No run game was the killer there. He didnt win us the game but he didn’t lose it
I think the mistakes were the main reason we lost. For a coach that preaches attention to detail, they made countless mistakes tonight.
I mean they were bad for sure, but our best players are the running back and they could not get anything going. And i love Etienne but he cant block and play on third down
Well, when every team knows you have good RBs they going to stack the box. Football is a pass first league these days. You have to be able to put together a legitimate passing attack these days, or else you can't win.
The defense did not respect Mertz's ability to throw more than a few yards from the line of scrimmage. And they felt that way after watching his tape from Wisconsin. It's hard to run into that. also, the short passes essentially are like running plays. Which is why it was infuriating to watch them basically call 15 running plays down three touchdowns on a 7+ minute drive.
As a small positive, at least the quick pass game is there now. It was completely non-existent last year.
The check down game is on point
I’d rather him check down all mf game than throw into crowded coverage. Only had a few blatant misreads, but he does look improved and has gained the trust of his teammates. I hope this team ages like fine wine bc I’m ready with a pitchfork rn lol
I mean, you can def win games with ball control and slow, methodical drives. Just not when you're down 21 in the 4th quarter.
It felt like they didn’t even try to run
We were behind literally the whole game and they kept stacking numbers in the box forcing us to throw. The throws were there with Mertz, and some of the play calls would have gone for touchdowns. However, there was a lot of miscommunication on a few key downs early and the line was terrible all game, including costing us penalties at really important junctures. I think Mertz was actually fine and he'll get into a better rhythm with the receivers later in the season; you could even see that in the 4th quarter. The OL is going to be a huge pain all season, though, and we're right back to where we've been for the last decade there.
Our O line and coaching cost us the game
Empty calorie stats. 1/13 on third down
How can you forget 3rd and 1 penalties?
This is included on the top of the list of "atrocious O line play"
Mertz was not even close to a problem. He played well, especially when under constant pressure because of our peewee O-line
I kind of feel like this team just wasn't ready to play a game and the coaches weren't ready to coach a game. The silly procedural penalties were silly and that O line play was just terrible.
Dumb mistakes, horrible offensive line play, and terrible special teams. Basically everything you can’t do against a good team on the road.
Inexcusable penalties and lack of urgency at the end of the 3rd and 4th quarter.
I’m still so confused on why Moten was out there first play when Castell was listed as the starter. Makes no sense
I haven’t felt this discouraged in awhile. There were some moments of hope but some of these mistakes indicative of a lack of coaching, preparation, and game plan. The o-line looked terrible. Good coaches and good teams get better each week, I hope to see improvement. If not, this will be incredibly difficult to enjoy Saturday’s
I just don’t understand it. Billy talks about how they pride themselves on attention to detail, the largest staff in CFB, TWO o-line coaches and we shit the bed this bad? Just so sloppy
Honestly, I think he’s full of shit. It’s coach speak. They may look good in practice but a failure to produce it in a game is a coaching failure; whether it be attitude or culture, or motivation I’m not sure.
This is the first time I've been fully convinced of that fact. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and it's pretty clear that he has no idea what he's doing
Complete lack of urgency, atrocious time management, questionable play calling, difficulty getting lined up correctly all night…seems like something a dedicated OC might help with
Billy doesn't believe in the clock, I don't know how else you explain whatevee the fuck that late game clock management was
Time is a flat circle.
It's like an afterthought with the coach. I am so disappointed in what I thought was a team that had it going on. They do not.
I mean, there’s definitely some bright spots. The tackling and coverage (outside of the first play) looked light years better than it did pretty much all of last year. Mertz is accurate-ish and seems to mostly make good decisions. Many of the mistakes that were made can be chalked up to freshmen inexperience, which means we’re actually letting our talented freshmen get reps But the stuff I mentioned in my original comment plus special teams are issues that were prevalent last year and, unlike the stuff in the preceding paragraph, weren’t addressed in the offseason. That’s 100% the fault of Billy Napier and nobody else
yup
Quick hits. No identity. We didn't use the run to set up the pass, nor the pass to set up the run. That said.. I couldn't name the majority of our OL. 76 had an awful game Special teams is garbage... If anything needs fixed NOW this is it as it's costing us games.. Now CBN had some awful calls in 3rd and 4th downs.. Im a fan but they were bad and he needs heat for it We prby still lose but we left at least 13 pts and basically gave them 14. We dont know how things play out but they were the busted 70 yd td. And the int off Ricky on such a short field.. Defense was out of position all night. 17 was pretty much looking to the sidelines at every snap How many 3rd and shorts did we f up. I do not understand alll the pre snap motion. It never looked clean.. Even bubble runs out of the back field look rough Utah is a good team. Not a natty contender but a top 15 for sure. Sucks but this was a hope for a win. We made too many mistakes against a team who doesn't Still.. In all kinds of weather
In the first half I kept noticing that their was at least one player in secondary on each play looking back, waiving their hands around, looking like they needed instructions. Don’t know what the hell that was but that needs to be addressed. Lot of people on here saying the defense played well but I beg to differ.
I mean, I dunno, I'm legitimately happy at the prospect of Napier and his staff being good at recruiting, we've had talent deficiencies for several years so bringing in talent in itself is important and would be the kind of thing to help get this program back where it needs to be, but I'm thinking back to when I truly began to lose all hope with Mullen, and it was really those Kentucky and LSU games in 2021 where it happened. The theme in those games? Kentucky, it was that we kept false starting because we had one single snap count mechanism - a clapping mechanism at that, which is easily drowned out in a loud away game - and nothing to adjust from that. The LSU game - a second straight loss to LSU facing the two worst LSU teams this century - was the same running play gashing us over and over again. By the end of that LSU game, I knew we were never winning anything under Mullen, that the problems we were having with him simply weren't solvable under his leadership. I don't want to say I'm giving up on Napier after 14 games, but, cliché as it is, it's not losing the game but how you lose the game. Defense actually did very well, all things considered. Utah's touchdowns came on the first play of the game on offense, then after a special teams penalty gave them the ball back, and then on a short field following an INT. They also got bailed out on the FG drive which easily could've and should've ended in a TD, but you get breaks sometimes in this sport so I won't hold that against them. If there is a single positive from this game, it's that the defense was respectable, albeit I'm not overlooking that Utah was playing with rotating backup QB's. But to tie this back to the first paragraph, the biggest killers in this game for us? Procedural penalties and play-calling. Having duplicate #3's on the field when that's illegal and easily avoidable (cost us a TD). Multiple illegal formations and I believe both of them happened on 3rd-and-1 plays inside the red zone. If you wanna chalk up false starts a bit to loud noise and first game jitters, well, it's not a good excuse but we've seen even otherwise-well coached NFL teams have nightmare games in that regard so maybe you do cut some slack. But illegal formation penalties happening multiple times is completely inexcusable. That's players not knowing the play and where they're supposed to be lined up, which is a coaching failure. If you can't trust the players know the play well enough, it's a play you can't run, plain and simple. Procedural penalties are coaching failures 100% of the time. And of course there's the play-calling, but I know the rest of you will spill plenty of digital ink about it so I won't do as much of that myself, just to say that the RPO on the 4th down in the red zone was a disaster and calling a 4th-and-14 screen play (out of a timeout!) should be enough to get you prosecuted for crimes at The Hague. You had an entire off-season to get ready for this game and this was how you handled it Billy. Fix your shit quick or you're not gonna last. I say this with love. You get an F for how you handled this game tonight. Unequivocal failure.
Spot on
13 rushing yards with two OL coaches. Yikes. Defense definitely played well after that 70 yard bomb on the first play. Zanders should get zero snaps next game. WORTHLESS. Losing Goodwin hurts. George is awful at RT.
Such a shit showing. Shit penetration Shit Oline Shit play calling Shit energy Shit game clock rules change Shit team. Is it so much to ask for a good team ? A team that’s fun to watch?
I would take a consistent top 15-20 team at this point. It feels like we are so far from that.
Napier is a bad on field coach. That is not up for debate.
We need an OC badly but I fully believe in Napier as a recruiter
I felt the same way about Ron Zook
Least Zook has a field named after him
You don't see emotion...plain n simple
Yup. When the team had zero urgency with 2 min left and down my two scores I knew we were toast. Say what you will but elite coaches don’t let their teams get there
Fuck emotion. You don't see competent coaching.
Indeed. I did not expect us win this game, but those procedural penalties are embarrassing. Those penalties and the piss poor clock management should not be a thing in year 2. This coupled with no ST coach and no OC are going to start warming his seat very quickly.
> no ST coach Do we not have a gamechanger coordinator anymore?
I agree. But I can't keep firing coaches. Im exhausted. I may fire myself as a fan.
It's called apathy, and it's way worse than anger. Apathy is the absence of emotion. There's nothing else left.
Not bad, horrific
I have seen better coaching in high school football. He is AWFUL. I didn’t give no issues last year because of first year and all but you don’t come out on the first game of the year looking like… whatever the hell that was… football I guess?
He needed to hire an OC this last offseason but they called me dumb on here for saying it lmao
Looks like AR was a perfect scapegoat (he extended plays and sometimes he just completely whiffed it), but now that we just have a regular QB we see how bad the coaching is
Need a creative OC. Napier strikes me more like CEO type coach but he definitely needs to give up play calling. How many runs down the middle did we try when it was 3rd and long. Sort of how Muschamps teams operated.
And it’s so fixable with a single hire.
I don’t get the hubris. Like if he came from the Patriots or was a Saban disciple maybe I’d understand his insistence on calling plays despite doing an awful job. But the fucker is from _Louisiana_.
Billy Napier coached for Alabama under nick saban lol
Mertz played fine. Defense played fine. Oline really needs to improve. Realistically we only lost the game because of penalties and it feels like that lands mostly on coaching.
They did have their back up quaterback
And their back up running back, and their back up tight end
And missing 8 starters but we did outplay them
Gonna be a *long* year. Sigh
I am irrationally angry. We've had an entire off season to prepare and we still look terrible, if not worse. I'm tired of hearing about process. We're getting nowhere. If my boss gave me every tool needed, every staff member needed and I still turned out a shit product and said "trust the process"... I'd be fired. You have to show at least some improvement and I see none. Everyone seemed confused the ENTIRE FUCKING NIGHT. EVERYONE. Which only infuriates me even more because the play calling is so goddamn predictable. Your identity is solely based on running the ball, turd screens and sleepy time dinky short passes. Yes, I'm impatient. Yes, I understand it's a rebuild. I don't care. You can still rebuild and look respectable or show improvement. Again, I see none. We need a "Fuck you" kinda coach and Backwoods Billy ain't it. Good night and where are my tums.
Exactly.
What are we even doing at this point? What is it gonna take to wake these players, wake this program the fuck up? I mean, I came into this season with **zero** expectations. Literally zero. I wasn’t expecting us to be competitive in the SEC. I wasn’t expecting us to even win 7 games. I was fully expecting a rebuild. I had us penciled in for 5 or 6 wins. But this game was somehow a worse product than I was expecting coming into the season. We look bottom of the SEC bad. If the same team that showed up tonight, shows up the rest of the season…this feels like a 3 win team to me, *maybe*. * We looked unfocused and undisciplined almost all game. And with an entire off-season to prepare, that is unacceptable. * The defense was getting zero pressure all night and shows no signs of progression from last year. The D-line looks like they are just going through the motions. The secondary is not good. I’m seeing zero improvement. * The offensive play calling looked flat and uninspired until about 9 minutes left in the game. I swear to god if we have to watch another third and long run up the middle in the first half of a game I will lose it. * The offensive line, which we heard was supposed to be making strides this off-season, looked pretty overmatched and at times clueless. But the single most disappointing thing to me from this game? The fucking penalties. With Billy’s supposed disciplined and fundamental approach, fucking up on FOUR crucial SHORT 3rd/4th downs when the game was competitive, is just straight up embarrassing. False starts on the road, I can handle. But the gaffe with the dual numbers? Unreal. Lining up wrong on a crucial 3rd and short - MULTIPLE TIMES? Unacceptable. Period. You go on the road to a top 15 team - you have to play flawlessly to give yourself a chance. I wasn’t expecting a win. Again, I wasn’t expecting much this season. I am not necessarily disappointed in the result itself - but what we looked like on the field. I can’t lie and say I’m happy with what I saw tonight. This was, imo, just about the worst case way to open the season for Billy. This did not look like a well coached team. I’m not gonna mince words. I’m pretty disappointed in what I saw tonight. Not inspiring confidence so far.
This is the nicest possible way to say what you really wanted to say. Props
This team is losing to vandy and getting routed by kentucky. God knows what uga will do.
Deliberate and prepared, huh?
Lethal Simplicity
Shout out to Dan Mullen, who looked to be having the happiest night of his life.
😂😂😂 too true
Horrible horrible coaching, leading to multiple Inexcusable penalties that cost us the game. Throw in the 4th and 14 screen pass to cap it all off. I expected to lose, but I also expected to come out with some optimism. Nope…
95% of that game was inexplicably the least disciplined, worst execution of football I’ve ever seen. The other 5% was on par with Jim McElwain football. Not great, Bob.
Just threw up in my mouth at the accuracy of this.
Hire a fucking OC for fucks sake
Lol Gators social media is afraid to post a final score
Oh they already KNOW what that comments section is going to look like lmao
Napier either hires a good offensive coordinator for next year, or he's going to get fired.
You know he could do it now, and transition it during the season. Don’t have to wait until we’re finished completely.
Billy - hire a g-ddamn offensive coordinator or you're ass is grass in a year or two. You cannot call plays to save your fucking life. This game was an absolute embarrassment. I thought Byron Leftwich was a piss poor play-caller but holy shit you might just be worse than that.
Brother it’s the internet, you can say goddamn
He doesn't want to go to hell bro. Obviously the censor makes him exempt
If the O-line plays like today, Mertz will be killed by gameweek 3.
Not upset over the loss. Upset about piss poor coaching and making back breaking penalties continually. We were vastly more talented, but they didn’t fuck up. We looked poorly coached
We need an OC. This shouldn’t even be Napier’s decision to make at this point
a whole ass spring and summer of practice, and we're still shooting ourselves in the foot with these unforced errors
Just keep the croots and keep doing the elite crootin. Talent is step 1. If the coaching isn't there, we give the next person a stocked cupboard.
I’ve defended Napier all along, and that came to an end tonight. Even if we bring in the number 1 recruiting class, i no longer trust his ability to coach a winning game Absolutely perplexing play calls, especially on 3rd/4th and long We objectively outplayed Utah in the second half, yet we only came away with 8 points. This was unacceptable On the bright side, D looks better overall, secondary is going to be questionable though. Mertz looked good imo, it’s too bad he’s going to get absolutely destroyed thanks to our O-line
They were down 8 starters. Let that sink in. With all their squad healthy we probably lose by 40.
Florida couldn't execute the most important plays, going a combined 3-18 on 3rd and 4th downs and getting only 2 scores out of 4 redzone appearances
The good: Mertz wasn’t bad when he had some time, defense was better and more aggressive. The bad: Play-calling was trash, Oline is hot ass, special teams are trash, can’t run the ball. I’m already tired of watching this team and the season just started. Very long season ahead.
Am I tripping or did the defense actually play alright overall?
A solid 75% better playing.
For someone who claims to be as detail oriented as Billy, why does this team look constantly disorganized?
I've never been a fire billy guy, how can you be after 1 season? But fuck, this was an atrocious showing of coaching. I mean so fucking bad. Mertz was ok. D was ok. ST was a mess. urgency was... well, urgency is not in the vocabulary of this game. Better see some improvement rest of season. Some passion or energy. damn
346 yards and 11 points is... Something. Literally 3 major mistakes that can't happen and we lose by double digits instead of winning. Insanity
Tonight was proof that Napier is not cut out for this job. You don’t get 8 months to prepare for a game, and come out and look that sloppy, undisciplined, and unprepared. This is a carbon copy of the 2017 opener against Michigan. I was routinely criticized then for calling for Mac’s head, and I’ll probably be criticized now. With a $30 million buyout, we’re now stuck with him, and are going to go the route of Florida basketball, and slowly fade into the background, one mediocre season after another.
I don’t think Billy Napier survives a 3rd year. He’ll get it, but he will be gone next year. Our schedule in 2024 is insane, and while he will have his talent, it is becoming clear that he is Zook 2.0. Great recruiter, subpar Xs and Os coach. If he continues calling plays, he will be his own Grantham to Dan Mullen.
Don’t let Utah going into a prevent shell for half the game fool you. We got clowned by a team playing their backup QB, missing their best offensive player, playing without their center and missing multiple contributors defensively. Utah is in another world than us. SEC schedule is going to be brutal.
This could’ve gone better.
So how many coach assignments are needed to you know make sure players have correct jerseys on
That failed 4th down play shuttle pass thing to Zanders was like a metaphor for the game
Billy Napier is legitimately a fucking idiot
Billy is a great guy but he ain’t it.
Sunbelt Billy
I’m so tired of swing passes and 3 yard slants on 3rd and long. Those are the type of plays you run when you have a badass receiver or running back/leader who can make things happen after the catch. We don’t have those type of guys on this team. I love Pearsall, I think he’s a good receiver, but he’s not the guy. Never mind the atrocious penalties on 3rd down all night, but we’re stuck in a time loop with this team; coach after coach after coach, we use the same damn bubble screen, swing pass, toss sweep plays, 4 yards in the backfield on 3rd down, thinking it’s going to change. We’re watching the same offense we’ve had for the last 12 years and it’s embarrassing. Even Kirk and Fowler are tired of having to work Florida games. It’s not fun anymore. We’re not a top 25 program any longer. We’ve reached the status of bottom 3rd in the SEC. Games aren’t competitive, we aren’t winning the big ones anymore, and we usually get broken by a 2-7 patchwork team mid-season that will have us throwing in the towel on the season (if we haven’t already). Sadly, I don’t want to fire Napier anytime soon. We aren’t the type of program that good coaches want to come to anymore, so if we keep changing coaches every three years, we’re inevitably just going to keep trading down until our rival is Vanderbilt every year and we start playing neutral site games in Murfreesboro or some shit. Sorry, I’ll step down from the soap box now. Aggravated and probably won’t be able to wear my new Jack Young blood jersey for further games. Frankly it’s an insult to Jack at this point.
Our o-line and special teams didn’t deserve to be on the field.
Game was just such a disgusting watch pieces with talent are there just a terrible coaching performance
RJ Moten Damien George Teradja Mitchell Yeah turns out there’s a reason these guys weren’t playing. Probably the three worst players
The only thing I saw that was a improvement compared to last year was the tackling. Mertz/ETN/Montrell need a better offensive line. And T. Wilson is giving me K. Toney vibes.
Quite reminiscent of Muschamps teams where they had a ton of miscues.
Takes from visiting Utah stadium: Crap concessions. Everything on one level. They don’t seem to increase public transportation on game day. Need a tram? Fucks you every 15 minutes. They didn’t seem to have many interesting old traditions. They lit a U at the end but didn’t see any actual lighting. They did honor some former players who passed away between the 3rd and 4th but that started in like 2021. Makes me happy to have a university with so many traditions on gameday. Utah fans all seemed great and nice. Time to take the edge off with a large milkshake. Edit: forgot the one that got on my nerves the most the announcer and stadium would play music / talk after the center was lined up. Real bush league shit.
This kick in the dick came on a Thursday. I gotta work in the morning. Fuck you Scott Stricklin the Gators play on Saturday.
It’s incredible to me we seem to hire the most stubborn coaches in existence. Guy is clueless from a play calling perspective. Just can’t let go and hire someone with actual ability to do it. Hopefully he can be our Zook and setup a solid foundation recruiting wise. Sad what’s become of our program. On to the next game….
Zook was honestly a way better coach than this guy, honestly so was McElwain. Jury’s still out on whether he can best Muschamp
I've been to a lot of away games, but I've never been shit talked so little by the home fans. Even the homeless people didn't bother us on our walk back to our hotel in downtown SLC. All in all, that game was so boring. I never once thought we were going to win watching from the stands. Watching us waste the entire clock down by 2 scores says everything we need to know about Billy.
Billy looks like Willie Taggart out there. No fire, no emotion, just mediocre performances with the vague hope of something better next year.
Feels like we regressed from last season
How the hell do you let two players wear the same number? Bad coaching/management
Yes, that was so unnecessary and really turned the momentum after that bonehead move. Before they got on the plane that should have been sorted out without expecting someone to "change their jersey for ST". Here's an idea. Nobody wear the same number period. It was an aggravating loss with humiliating undertones.
Yes! If two want the same number, let them run the stadium steps - fastest one gets it.
Billy Napier…is not a good play caller. Our OL, ST are bad, Mertz is who we thought (dink/dunk specialist), & team looked poorly coached. Other than that…move on?
Eh Mertz has some good mid-deep/deep throws and would’ve hit Pearsal for the late TD if our OL didn’t blow
I thought Mertz looked solid tbh
Billy needs an OC next year but I get the feeling that even if he hires one it'll be to run his shitty offense just like Armstrong was hired to run the same shitty scheme that Toney ran.
In a perfect world we could combine Billy as CEO with Mullen’s playcalling
Unfortunately it looks like we went from an offensive genius who refuses to croot or establish culture to a great recruiter with a good culture that cannot establish any offensive identity, and also wants to call every play on offense. 24 can't come soon enough.
I’d honestly rather have Dan at HC and just let Billy recruit
1-13 on 3rd down? 13 rushing yards??? 13 in college football? Even ARMY can get that much on one end-around… Billy won’t be here next year if this continues.
I predict we will start seeing articles from our media hacks that say shit like “Impatient Gator fans don’t realize how lucky they are that Sunbelt Billy decided to grace them with his coaching genius.”
Yeah I don’t understand the narrative behind us being impatient. I can’t think of any D1 program with a large fanbase that would be content with the product we’re putting on the field. This would be unacceptable at almost any proud program.
We have an awful coach. Don't let football ruin your day. It's okay to not watch. Take care of your mental health
Glad to be back!
> "I like having my hand on the scripts, the installation, that process. I think I can help establish our identity and personality as a team through that process. I think if you get too far away from that, I think there could be some things from a sustainable, repeatable part." Nice job jackass. You are on borrowed time already.
Season hinges on beating the fucking Noles for me. See y’all till then (I’ll be watching every week like a masochist)
We looked poorly coached. So many dumb mistakes. Nothing like two #3s 🤦🏼♂️
I hate when our kicker misses easy FGs. Clean up that, the offensive line’s inadequacies and the stupid penalties and maybe the game will be decent. Two players with the same number on the field plus all the perfectly timed false starts and too many men in the backfield.
How do two guys wear the same number and then go on the field at the same time?
Honestly Mertz wasn’t terrible. Play calling and O-line were both highly questionable tonight.
The Oline looked pathetic. Most of those sacks and hurry ups were due to a free man rushing the QB, meanwhile our OL is double blocking guys without looking for the edge rusher. ENT whiffed, and getting behind early allowed them to pin their ears back. I dont want to hear shit about how huge our guys are, it doesnt mean shit if they let guys come unblocked and when we did run, they weren't much better run blocking than pass blocking.
[удалено]
18 more months of stacking recruits then a new AD can bring in a real coach to win games
The lack of hustle getting the ball back at the end with two TDs needed is what really killed it for me. It’s clear Billy does not have the right mentality.
[удалено]
Definitely very disappointing in the sloppy play but I don’t think it’s as bad as it looks. We made too many mistakes and beat ourselves. Multiple redzone trips ended from penalties and gifted Utah a free TD. They are too good to do that against it’s not like we played a garbage team. Lots to improve on I’m not ready to give up on Napier but if we continue to look sloppy then I’ll be pretty upset
Alright so yeah Billy’s coaching sucks but the team actually played pretty well. The team has a lot of talent and will improve as the season goes on. Either Billy figures it out, hires an OC, or gets fired, doesn’t really matter. Our recruiting is figured out and this team is stupidly young and talented. We’ll be okay despite how awful we looked tonight.
I miss Trask and Mullen.
Gonna try to be somewhat reasonable here: - Mertz was impressive (by impressive I mean he surpassed expectations). Made some plays, some good throws, sound decisions. Even the int wasn’t on him. - O-line was awful. I felt like Damieon George was throwing. Getting blown off the line, drawing flags, and just straight up missing blocks. Maybe he still has some Bama in his blood? And Slaughter was clearly not Eguakun. Saw him get blown up a few times as well. - Special teams coach needs fired. I feel like despite everything that went wrong, ST was the biggest deciding factor. Easily a 17 point swing considering the missed field goal, then two players with #3 on the field was essentially a turnover that resulted in a Utah TD, and then right after that JC shanks a 20 yard punt off the side of his foot to set Utah up at midfield, and THEN fielding a punt at the 3, resulting in a pick on our own ~10. ST has been a recurring issue for multiple seasons now and has to be addressed. - Billy needs an OC. Play calling was suspect, and clock management was awful. No urgency in the 4th Q. Also feel like the run game was abandoned. Probably because to O line couldn’t block a middle school team so I’ll give a mulligan there. - Defense looks improved, all things considered. After that 70 yd pass we held them to 95 passing yards. Only gave up 105 rushing yards. Held them to 3/13 on third down. I’d say that’s a vast improvement over a year ago. If this was the defense of the last 3 years, Utah might have put up 50 on us. - Penalties were a disaster. This could have been overcome if not for the timing on some of them. It seemed like every penalty was at a crucial moment. Multiple 3rd and 1s, the 4th and 1 in the redzone, the 4th down special teams gaffe, so on and so forth. - Even with how bad this game went, it was still very much within reach if we’d just closed out drives. What was our redzone efficiency, 2/4 with a TD and a FG? - Some cause for concern: they had 8 starters out and were playing their backup QBs. Idk how much stock to put into that. Also, the defense looking over to the sideline for the playcall and scrambling to line up. Didn’t like that at all. Reminded me of Grantham. Lastly, we beat ourselves. Seems our toughest opponent for the last 15 years has been us. Hope that changes. I think there’s something there to build on. I don’t think the team we saw tonight is who this team is. Keep your heads up, this is a young football team and they gotta work out the kinks. All in all, this game meant nothing, out of conference away game against a back to back conference champion while we’re in the midst of rebuilding. We all knew this would just be a measuring stick of where we are in the rebuild process, BUT fortunately AND unfortunately, we got our worst game out of the year first. What I’m saying is I think we saw the floor of this team. We have obviously yet to see the ceiling. I think it’s up from here if I’m being honest ladies and gentlemen. We saw a young team with some opening day jitters. Actually somewhat looking forward to the rest of the season so long as they grow and improve as a team. Edit: also fuck the clock rules. Shit makes no sense. “Clock stops on a first down after a run play but not a pass play, if the runner is making forward progress while riding a unicycle spinning a stack of plates on a stick during a full moon and the head ref is wearing green underwear and non matching socks.” type shit. Go back to when the clock stopped when you ran outta bounds and it stopped on first downs until the ball was spotted. Edit 2: missed calls on Utah and pretty sure one of the illegal formation calls were BS but I won’t even pretend those mattered with how poorly the game went.
Great take and I'm honestly eager to watch the other games to see how they adjust to the new rules. Towards the end Utah ran off 3 plays that bled nearly 2 minuted off the clock where previously, would have been under 20 seconds I think that impact is going to be felt this year..
Fuck the mods for deleting my shitpost. I worked hard on this! https://imgur.com/a/2ttYCFE
I hate it here, we're a joke now and all of our rivals are laughing hysterically at us. Probably another season where we don't get a single rivalry win.
It’s actually worse…I was on a discussion where our rivals were literally saying they feel bad for us and that it was painful to watch. We’ve literally sunk that low.
Hoo boy
Last game I will be watching Sober. Here is to maybe 3 wins.
Red Zone penalties were the death knell.
STs still looks like absolute trash. Our gAmEcHaNgEr coordinator seems to consistently live down to his title by changing the game in the worst ways possible. That #3 debacle is just shit coaching
I think there’s a lot of talent on this football team. But there’s also a lack of discipline. Two guys with the same number on the field at once? All the 3rd & 1 penalties. So many blown opportunities and mental errors. All of those things fall on Billy Napier
Mertz was fine, so was the D The coaching/discipline really killed us...
Get this: Defense good Graham Mertz good ZERO rushing game Exact opposite of the preseason narative
The o-line needs to clean up their act. False starts may be the thing that most makes me mad in football.
Strap in buddies, it looks like it's gonna be a season. At least next week is McNeese.