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Tears Gator Tears

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TheOriginalCane said:
Brandon Marcello - went to University of Arkansas, covered Auburn for a while.

1. FLORIDA: A+

Billy Napier built the best Group of 5 staff in the country at Louisiana, so it’s no surprise he used the same blueprint to hire the top names in the sport and tweak a few responsibilities at Florida. He brought four assistants from the Ragin’ Cajuns to Gainesville, including defensive coordinator Patrick Toney, pilfered a pair of coaches from SEC rivals (including recruiting extraordinaire Corey Raymond), raided the Big Ten for a running backs coach, dipped into the NFL for two more assistants and also hired two coaches to handle the offensive line.

Why two offensive line coaches? Why not? Most programs have two coaches leading the five-man secondary, so why do teams trust one coach to lead all five positions along the offensive line? That’s Napier’s thinking.

Florida gets the honor of the best-built new staff of the offseason with a wide variety of coaches and experience, a new hiring philosophy along the offensive line and the greatest tagline for a special teams coach in the country: gamechanger coordinator. For the health of the program, Napier power-washed the facility and rid it of Dan Mullen’s entire staff, and that might be the best development.

Head coach: Billy Napier (Louisiana)

New staff: Jabbar Juluke, running backs (Louisiana, running backs); Patrick Toney, co-defensive coordinator/safeties (Louisiana, defensive coordinator); Corey Raymond, assistant head coach/cornerbacks (LSU, cornerbacks); Keary Colbert, receivers (USC, receivers); William Peagler, tight ends (Michigan State, running backs); Rob Sale, offensive coordinator/offensive line (New York Giants, offensive line); Sean Spencer, co-defensive coordinator/defensive line (New York Giants, defensive line); Jay Bateman, inside linebackers (North Carolina, defensive coordinator); Chris Couch, special teams/gamechanger coordinator (Louisiana, special teams coordinator); Darnell Stapleton, offensive line (Louisiana, offensive line); Mike Peterson, outside linebackers (South Carolina, outside linebackers/defensive ends).


Now, compare some of those highlighted points to what Brandon said about Mario Cristobal.

12. MIAMI: B-

Mario Cristobal is back home at Miami and with boosters promising to flood the program with more money and better facilities, the Hurricanes are in as good of a position to return to prominence than it has at any point in the last 20 years.

The problem as we sit h ere today, however, is that Cristobal’s staff has yet to be set and those who have been brought on board are mostly his confidants at Oregon. This grade will likely change in the coming weeks but the first moves made by Cristobal haven’t made many waves in the industry.

Head coach: Mario Cristobal (Oregon, head coach)

New staff: Bryan McClendon, receivers/co-offensive coordinator (Oregon, receivers); Alex Mirabal, assistant head coach/offensive line (Oregon, offensive line); Joe Salave’a, defensive line/associate head coach (Oregon, defensive line); Kevin Smith, running backs (Ole Miss, running backs)



At least he acknowledges that Mario's grade will need to be revised, but look at how Billy Napier gets CREDIT for hiring a bunch of his G5 cronies, while Mario hiring guys from POWER FIVE CONFERENCE CHAMPION Oregon are dismissed as "confidants".

And look at the focus on "making waves in the industry", as if that matters. Compare that to how he raves about Gaypier "pilfering" Raymond from LSU and Peterson from South Carolina (LSU fired its head coach and Raymond wasn't retained, while Gaytor alum Peterson was Shane Beamer's ONLY holdover coach in 2021 and just didn't fit in), "raiding" the Big 10 for a RB coach (Peagler used to work for Billy at Louisiana and Clemson, and his Big 10 job was his FIRST EVER ON-FIELD JOB), and "dipping into" the NFL for two coaches (besides the fact that the NY Giants were one of the worst teams in the NFL, Sale was a 1-year NFL coach who was formerly a Louisiana employee of Billy's, and Spencer was with the Giants for TWO years).

Oh, but tell us more about "two OL coaches" (technically Miami has two as well) and that funky-fresh job title "gamechanger coordinator".

Good lord, what a joke. Hyped up names and job descriptions, overblown resumes based on 1-year and 2-year job tenures, a massive overreliance on G5 hirees...

And Billy got an "A+". Look, whether Mario's "B-" was incomplete, there's no way in **** that Billy deserved an "A+".
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I sincerely hope we continue to improve. It looks like gapier is maxed out.
 
TheOriginalCane said:
Generally speaking, all those writers suffer from premature ejaculation.

"Let's grade the recruiting classes by 9 pm on Signing Day, the world needs an immediate list of winners & losers, fvck the impact of late signees and portal, we've got a deadline!"

And, sure, I realize that AT SOME POINT, you have to run with the story you have. Maybe my "Signing Day" example isn't so great, because most of the high school kids DO sign by Signing Day. So maybe we just need a "REVISED Ranking" once all the Portal action is over.

So with coaching, we know these things take time. But it also shouldn't be THAT HARD for writers to determine a better cutoff point for when MOST coaching staffs have been MOSTLY filled. Like, "beginning of spring practice". Hey, if almost everyone is hired by then, maybe save the "Ranking the best new coaching staffs" article by then OR AT LEAST DO AN UPDATE.

I'd love to know where the writers rank Billy's staff now. SIX former Louisiana employees. Less than 30 years COMBINED Power Five experience among his assistant coaches not named Corey Raymond.

Sad.
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I think whats going to ultimately decide his fate will be his willingness to upgrade his staff. Does he remain loyal to the ones in over their heads? (Golden/Donofrio) Or does he go out and hire proven recruiters and developers?
 
DTP said:
Did a bit of a deep dive into the numbers at ULL to see exactly the type of killer game day coach the gators hired.

Napier went 23-2 the last two seasons in Louisiana. Right up there with the best teams regardless of conference. But I noticed some interesting things when I looked through their schedules. They were a miraculous 14-1 in one score games over the last two seasons. More than half of their wins came by a touchdown or less. Against SunBelt competition. Either they’re the most composed close game team in the history of football or the balance of luck was swinging in one direction a little bit too often in Lafayette. You can’t consistently rely on winning every one possession game. There’s just too many determining factors to make it possible to keep winning close games at a 95% rate.

Surely they had all that success because Napier (the gator OC AND QB coach) had such a dynamic offense right? Not really. Their offensive numbers were OK. Nothing great but not bad. They rely on running the ball a lot and got very mediocre production from their quarterbacks. (Who’s the gator QB coach again?) They we’re pretty much a ground based offense that relied on their defense to hold their opponents under 21 points.

So they dominated the Sun Belt even though 14 of their 22 G5 wins were one possession games. How’d they do against P5 programs? They lost by 20 to Texas last year but managed a win over Iowa State in 2020. How’d they manage to pull the upset against the Cyclones despite mustering a measly 272 total yards? They won the turnover battle 2-0 and managed to score on both a kickoff and a punt return.

Billy was at ULL for four years with mixed results in year one and two so I tossed out the years when he was playing with an inherited roster and focused on his last two, most successful seasons. I would have to give a majority of the credit for his stellar two year record to his defensive staff and whichever member of their staff found the four leaf clover that guaranteed wins in every one score game besides one. Offensively? They’re mediocre. Quarterbacks wise? They’re below average. Ironic that the weakest areas of the ULL team were exactly what Napier is coaching at UF.
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This is Al Golden for UF
 
dirtyred786 said:
I think whats going to ultimately decide his fate will be his willingness to upgrade his staff. Does he remain loyal to the ones in over their heads? (Golden/Donofrio) Or does he go out and hire proven recruiters and developers?
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The problem is that when his current staff of inexperienced cronies flounders and he needs to make changes to save his job, he has no network to pull from, and nobody of substance will be willing to risk their career on billy Napier with one more year before he gets fired. It’s why manny had to take over defensive play calling. Who would he have been able to hire?
 
DTP said:
They keep saying “if we had Miami’s NIL, Billy would be killing it” Did they already forget that they offered Rashada MORE than Miami did? When you’re out bidding teams and still losing to them, it ain’t about the money.
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Im not certain that it’s registered that they offered more NIL than us for Rashada. I know it was said over there but it sure seems like they dropped that from their narrative and it’s all - Miami overpaid because their billionaire booster hates us and now he’s punishing us.
 
TakeitinDiaz said:
The problem is that when his current staff of inexperienced cronies flounders and he needs to make changes to save his job, he has no network to pull from, and nobody of substance will be willing to risk their career on billy Napier with one more year before he gets fired. It’s why manny had to take over defensive play calling. Who would he have been able to hire?
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He's there for a while. His buyout is like $40m. But yeah, I get your point about not having the clout to pull enough guys unless he overwhelmingly exceeds on the field (doubtful).
 
RVACane said:
Im not certain that it’s registered that they offered more NIL than us for Rashada. I know it was said over there but it sure seems like they dropped that from their narrative and it’s all - Miami overpaid because their billionaire booster hates us and now he’s punishing us.
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Yeah, I'm going with what Cribby told us and he's been on the money more often than anyone else in these matters. They can pretend to forget they offered Rashada more.
 
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DTP said:
Did a bit of a deep dive into the numbers at ULL to see exactly the type of killer game day coach the gators hired.

Napier went 23-2 the last two seasons in Louisiana. Right up there with the best teams regardless of conference. But I noticed some interesting things when I looked through their schedules. They were a miraculous 14-1 in one score games over the last two seasons. More than half of their wins came by a touchdown or less. Against SunBelt competition. Either they’re the most composed close game team in the history of football or the balance of luck was swinging in one direction a little bit too often in Lafayette. You can’t consistently rely on winning every one possession game. There’s just too many determining factors to make it possible to keep winning close games at a 95% rate.

Surely they had all that success because Napier (the gator OC AND QB coach) had such a dynamic offense right? Not really. Their offensive numbers were OK. Nothing great but not bad. They rely on running the ball a lot and got very mediocre production from their quarterbacks. (Who’s the gator QB coach again?) They we’re pretty much a ground based offense that relied on their defense to hold their opponents under 21 points.

So they dominated the Sun Belt even though 14 of their 22 G5 wins were one possession games. How’d they do against P5 programs? They lost by 20 to Texas last year but managed a win over Iowa State in 2020. How’d they manage to pull the upset against the Cyclones despite mustering a measly 272 total yards? They won the turnover battle 2-0 and managed to score on both a kickoff and a punt return.

Billy was at ULL for four years with mixed results in year one and two so I tossed out the years when he was playing with an inherited roster and focused on his last two, most successful seasons. I would have to give a majority of the credit for his stellar two year record to his defensive staff and whichever member of their staff found the four leaf clover that guaranteed wins in every one score game besides one. Offensively? They’re mediocre. Quarterbacks wise? They’re below average. Ironic that the weakest areas of the ULL team were exactly what Napier is coaching at UF.
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I've said it before, and I will say it again (especially since I've noticed a few other posters start to use it too, which I love):

Occam's razor.

Mario was the Associate Head Coach, Recruiting Coordinator, and OL coach for Nick Saban at Alabama.

Billy was an analyst that became WR coach during the same period at Alabama.

Those are two very, very different positions on an org chart.

After that period, Mario became the 2x Pac-12 Champion and Rose Bowl wining coach of Power-5 Oregon where he recruited the best four classes in Oregon history in four years.

Billy became a successful Group of 5 Sun Belt coach against a poor schedule at a lower level of football.

Mario brought a few coaches from Oregon, Billy brought a few coaches, including both coordinators, to the SEC from... the sunbelt.

Most of the time, what you see, the obvious right in front of you, is what you get.
 
RVACane said:
Wouldn’t you know I posted this link to this old thread today and someone on their board happened to bump it. 👀
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@Parks4gators -"Napier has not proved to be on Cristobals level yet."

He can't because he's not on Mario's level.

@hugegator - "saban will get who he wants. that aint changin' but i agree with the overall point. billy is going to be a nightmare for kirby in ga as well."

LMAO!!!! :rk5i6fxwjlgev5j6.jpg: The only nightmare G5 billy is going to be is for the gator fan!!!
 
DTP said:
He's technically from here but gainesville and Ann Arbor can fight for him for all I care.
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Maybe he’s ****ed off because Billy asked him to send in a video explaining why he’s a celebrity gator fan and asked for a new song showing off his pro-gator lyrical skills???

Apparently Billy wants to go in a different direction. Seems he’s real fond of the banjo and moonshine jug and sees that as the musical future.
 
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RVACane said:
Maybe he’s ****ed off because Billy asked him to send in a video explaining why he’s a celebrity gator fan and asked for a new song showing off his pro-gator lyrical skills???

Apparently Billy wants to go in a different direction. Seems he’s real fond of the banjo and moonshine jug and sees that as the musical future.
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I’d prefer banjo ho-down music to Kodak black.
 
RVACane said:
Banjo Billy and the JAG Jug Juluke Band???
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I tell you what, that man is going to become our new Knox on the trail if he don't straighten up soon dammit lol. The Citizen whiff was terrible and he couldn't get traction this cycle with Richard Young (tbf in his defense, he was never staying instate), about to miss on Cedric Baxter, Webb, Justice Hayes, and Chris Johnson not even paying us any mind.
 
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