Week 3 college football thread: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Madison World

It's unfathomable that someone at Florida could out-Zook Ron Zook, but Billy Napier did it in less than 30 games. Great recruiter, great guy, terrible game day coach.

I'm reminded of the Naked Eyes song, "Promises, Promises." Napier kept promising better results but the on-field performance week after week showed how empty those promises were.

The athletic association has poured tens of millions of dollars into fancy football-only locker rooms, practice fields and hundreds of football-related jobs, only to have Napier completely screw the pooch every Saturday afternoon.

The Gators had an entire eight months to get ready for Miami, and instead looked like they hadn't watched a single minute of game film. Yesterday was more of the same. Texas A&M went on drives of 14, 9, 9 and 15 plays in the first half as Florida's defensive coordinators -- even with an hour weather delay -- had no idea how to stop an offense with an inexperienced backup quarterback. The first offensive series, the Gators had the wrong formation once and a fifth-year senior quarterback ran into his running back on third down. Florida had -19 yards rushing at one point.

It's one thing to lose games. It's another to be so ill-prepared that the stadium empties out after the traditional fourth-quarter sing along. And there's no more games on the schedule where Florida will be favored. The 1979 team went 0-10-1 because of bad coaching, bad playing, bad injuries and bad luck. This team may go 1-11 because Napier's staff couldn't coach a Pop Warner team.

You can't get blown out by the half at home twice in three weeks and expect to keep your job, let alone at a place where Spurrier and Meyer won national championships. Spurrier lost five times at the Swamp. The Gators have lost six of their last seven games under Napier, including two home games already in 2024. That's unacceptable for a guy making $7.5 million at a place that expects 10-win seasons.

Now Florida is completely and totally screwed, short-term and long-term. Fire Napier and watch every good player hit the transfer portal, including D.J. Lagway. You're giving up on recruiting as well, so even if the second coming of Knute Rockne occurs, the Gators are starting 2025 back at Square One.

The real target should be AD Scott Stricklin, who has now proven three times he can't find a football coach who can win more than they lose.

 

Are NIL deals structured so there is some balloon payment if a coach gets sacked? Declared null and void in the event of a coaching change?

 

Sanders first. Norvell's team went 12-0 last year, and that will buy him some time.

They do. Remember that Florida State had two 11-0 regular seasons in 1979 and 1980, followed by 6-5. Nobody fired Coach Bowden, and they could have.

 

Rake fight alert

 

Stricklin has to go also.

And there is a tremendous cost in firing a coach as far as building the program. In Florida's case, Lagway will probably enter the portal early to avoid losing his season. You can play in four games without losing the redshirt, so I'd expect him to enter the portal sometime after next week's loss to Klanga.

The good news is that programs can now go the Deion way and bring in 30-40-50 transfers without any limitations, so it shouldn't be the total rebuild that has happened in the past.

Florida has made several trendy hires that just haven't worked. McElwain, Mullen, and now Napier just couldn't get it done at Florida.

I have no idea who the next guy should be... But Florida fans better understand, next year (and the year after) probably are still going to suck.

When does college basketball start? or college baseball?

 

Normally you don’t get to hire multiple football coaches without hitting on at least one.

 

I’m still amazed that Stoops didn’t go for it on 4/1 in Georgia territory with 3 minutes left.

 

No kidding. That was his best chance to win the game, not punting and trusting your defense to get you the ball back 30 more yards away from the goal line with half the time remaining.

 

How many times are you going to ever be in a position to roll the dice? "We came within one point of beating Georgia!" But you didn't win because the head coach didn't have the courage of conviction to risk it all. So how do you explain that to a team that gave it all on the field?

You ask 100 percent of your players, but when they ask 100 percent of you, you chicken out? If I'm in that locker room, I wonder if my coaching staff is honest with me now.

 

This hit was mentioned earlier in the thread. My understanding is that when a ball carrier loses his helmet the play is dead on the spot, correct me if I'm wrong. Drew a personal foul, no targeting call. It is worth mentioning that this exact thing happened a second time, helmet ripped off followed by a hit to the head, this time to QB Jacob Zeno, with #40 again delivering the blow. No targeting on that one either. At least it wasn't followed by a piledriver into the turf as this one was.



The good news is that Buckhalter was released from the hospital in time to fly home with the team.

 

SEC: No reentry if you leave the stadium.