Thursday, December 22, 2022

Give Billy Napier the Time He Needs to Restore Winning Gator Football

I was just discussing with a coworker how he felt about University of Florida football head coach Billy Napier after his first season, going 6-7.  We both agreed that Napier had replaced previous coach Dan Mullen because Mullen was perceived to have done poorly with his recruiting...basically, the team that Napier was forced to deal with in his first season was Mullen's product.  The sports gurus who others think are knowledgeable about this sort of thing have just ranked the Gators as #12 in this year's recruiting, so maybe the new coach is performing as hoped.  Only real games, starting next year, with reveal the trend as my friend and I feel inclined to give Napier the time he needs to build up a higher quality football team.  After all, I reminded him, Charlie Pell went 0-9-1 in his first year coaching UF (1979).  As for my expectations for Florida football, I don't expect a national championship or SEC conference title every year, but I do want them to at least be in contention for the title game late in the regular season and finish with a higher than 2:1 ratio with their win-loss record.  If they accomplish that, then I'm happy...even if many of my prima donna fellow Gator fans aren't...

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