I can’t recall if there’s been a year where I’m less interested in SEC Media Days than this one. If this isn’t the nadir, it’s very close to it.
Let me back up and say that I have been getting less and less out of the event in recent years. I am already predisposed to not caring so much, in that way. I follow the Gators all year round for my writing, so there is very little that will be said at SECMD that I haven’t already heard. Personal anecdotes are about it.
Well, they’re not entirely it. Last year, Billy Napier made some comments that sounded like they were intended to raise expectations. It was a bold move, one that didn’t work out for him at all. Those comments, by the way, are the main reason why I’m not taking Napier tremendously seriously when he talks these days about how optimistic he’s getting. We’ve been there, and then the team looked like an unprepared disaster in Week 1.
Anyway, I actually don’t think Florida is that interesting of a team through this offseason. There’s been more talk about the Gators this summer than last, but it’s only because of rubberneckers looking at the schedule and speculating as to whether Napier will get fired or not. No one cares about a team trying to achieve marginal bowl eligibility if there’s not a hot seat story attached. Last year there wasn’t one, but this year there is.
SEC Media Days had its heyday about 10-15 years ago when it was an un-self-conscious circus. As its own legend grew, SECMD became more of a stage for performance art. The addition of perpetual performance artist Mike Leach didn’t help things, but even Nick Saban appeared to know he was supposed to be playing the character of Nick Saban.
On the other end of the spectrum, some coaches started clamming up and retreating into cliche because they knew their statements were actually going to be covered widely. Players come in reeking of media training more than ever, which is why there is so much coverage of the one or two guys who go off-script per year.
It won’t happen, because Napier doesn’t seem to have an ounce of whimsy in him, but it would be much more interesting if the entire Gator delegation came in with the message that they were converting to the Run ‘N Shoot. It would be a blatant lie — Napier is constitutionally against throwing that much, and the offensive roster hasn’t been recruited to match the personnel needed — but it would at least be a fun lie.
Napier could get up there and talk about how much he’s been studying Mouse Davis. Graham Mertz could go on about how much Andre Ware and Colt Brennan film he’s been watching. Montrell Johnson could talk about how, no actually, he’s excited to play in the system because it has the word “run” right there in the name. If they really committed to the bit, it could be a lot of fun.
Instead, we’re going to get a lot of the same questions that have been posed to one school representative or another for, what, eight or nine months now? And Napier will give the answers he gave in spring and in the summer booster speaking circuit. And the players will toe the party line and only have previously unknown answers for frivolous things like where some teammate’s favorite restaurant is or something.
Because realistically? There is one and only one answer to a question that could possibly move the needle on season expectations, and we 100% are not going to hear it from Napier. The question almost certainly will be asked, but the response won’t be what we need to hear. It would be in an exchange something like this:
Q: Coach, what kind of difference has it made to the team and to Austin Armstrong having Ron Roberts on the staff this year?
A: Well, you know, we’ve had very young defensive coordinators the last two years, right? A couple of the youngest ones in the country, certainly among the Power Five, or Power Four I guess we’re calling it now. And to be honest with you, they were not prepared to run an entire defense themselves. There’s a lot more to the coordinator job than just calling plays, and they weren’t up to those other parts of the job. That’s on me, since I hired them. Having Ron here, he has made those other parts work and really taught Austin some of the finer points of being a defensive coordinator. I’d say we now have real organization to that side of the ball, and the difference is going to show up on the field.
So again, Napier is never going to say that. Never, ever, ever. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him acknowledge an honest shortcoming of one of his staff, much less any mistakes.
But really, unless Roberts is cleaning up that side of the ball and eliminating the problems of inexperience we’ve seen from it in the last two seasons, then Napier has no shot of making it to next year. The offense has its own issues, but the defense has far and away been the problem for the Gators every year since 2020. I kept thinking it couldn’t get worse, but then it kept getting worse.
I know the defensive roster is as good as it’s been in years. I think the staff will be better, mainly due to Roberts being an experienced voice that both Napier and Armstrong will listen to. We can’t know for sure that the product will be substantially better, though, until we see it between the sidelines this fall. And if it’s not, that’s the whole ballgame.
So forgive me for not being interested in the tail end of talking season. I’m talked out. I know the stakes of the season and where the deal-breaking guidelines are. Wake me up when fall camp starts and we can at least start getting injury reports again, because that’ll actually be some new and useful information.