**BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ - Survivor, Vital Signs, Track 4.

All we have at this point are stats and records. Stats are similar. Level of competition is similar. Their W/L record is similar. Their offenses are similar. So what evidence do you have that the results won’t be similar? Smoke being blown from the UAA?

All we have is his word and a pinky promise that the offense will be wide open. Napier said a lot of similar things when he was hired, and yet his actions never matched his words. We were promised an offensive minded coach, and we got another defensive minded “complementary football” type coach who promises that he can be offensive minded.

 

My fear is we are getting a version of Stoops at UK, which would be good enough for Stricklin and the UAA, but isn’t near where we as fans want to be.

 

You must have been dumped hard in the past. This is nothing more than your bruised ego talking.

 

Unranked power opponents. But I agree. He had that team humming.

 

We have 2 different people in entirely different situations.

1. Napier is dry as fire wood, Sumrall, a fireball;

2. Napier inherited a mess, exacerbated by a dearth in the locker room; Sumrall walks into a loaded locker room with built up infrastructure (compliments of Billy, as that's where his strength lies);

3. Napier coached like an idiot--he was his own demise. That was not a factor of his time in G5, but of his lack of football IQ, inability to change, and decisions he made on the sidelines, during games, and before, by refusing to delegate his field of incompetence, to someone competent.

4. Finally, you simply can not project Napier's performance at UF to the blank screen of Sumrall's UF tenure, based on similar origin points, anymore than you can with Meyer, without in both cases, factoring in the terrain and context.

....and quite frankly, we are far closer to immediately post Zook, than post Mullen, AND Napier already negotiated the transition to the NIL era, plus we're caught up on facilities and infrastructure.

 

Unlike a few Posse-type hysterics, you come across as reasonable and measured, so I will respond in kind. Excuse the long post.

I can understand the capacity for growth. People may respond "Florida is not a place to continue to grow. We are a top tier destination job!"

Guess what? We're a mid-level P4 program. What we did in the SOS and Meyer eras are in the increasingly distant past. We have to work our way back to elite status.

I wanted Kiffin to come here as well, but for what I believe are different reasons. Lane Kiffin improved Tennessee in his single season, but Vol fans have an enduring hatred for him because like us, they believe Tennessee is the top of the mountain. How DARE he leave for Southern Cal!

At USC, his record wasn't bad, but he followed the Pete Carroll Era, which was akin to Zook following SOS. In addition, his childish petulance irritated the administration and his cockiness wore thin.

At Alabama, he wasn't fired, but Saban cut ties in order for him to take the FAU job immediately. He and Nick are friends to this day.

After winning two conference titles at FAU, Kiffin agreed to take the Ole Miss job. FAU fans realize they are a transitional program and were grateful for his success.

At Ole Miss, he did a tremendous job, and was coveted by LSU and Florida. I supported him because of his track record, but I insist that the majority of the Gator Nation wanted him for his Spurrier-esque style. The visor, the pass-oriented offense, the cockiness, the swagger. It is the heady days when we weren't satisfied with simply defeating an opponent, but we had to DESTROY their soul (this didn't always happen in the SOS Era, but we tend to only remember the greatest hits).

As a fan and an alum, I was no different than everyone else. But I always believed that being a Gator was like a marriage, enduring good times and bad in a mutual commitment.

For the past 15 years, Florida mixed good years with poor ones, especially the last five years. I understand and share the frustration, but I'm still an All Kinds Of Weather Gator, and will support whomever the administration chooses. Others are pining for the SOS days when we not only won, but dominated.

Pursuing Kiffin, we rationalized the many reasons why it was a no-brainer for Lane to come to Gainesville, but like a man or woman who lost their great love, we could not understand what on Earth compelled Kiffin to choose LSU instead of paradise. "Why did she pick THAT dirt bag when she could have had ME?!?" If it wasn't Lane, then we should get Riley, Brohm, or even Lanning, none of whom would leave their positions for us. These were pipe dreams similar to our demands to pull Stoops out of OU. What we've ended up with was a toothbrush with hair, someone that resembles the last girlfriend that turned out horrible. Often times, that toothbrush, who is also an honor student, develops into someone extraordinary, just as Kiffin developed at FAU.

This is where we are. We finished 4-8, and our 4th losing season in five years. I endured the Posse during the Zook Era, and it crushed my O&B glasses. I view the Gators as I view history, which has both the virtues and flaws. And as we said in the Army, one has to crawl and walk before we run, even with the Portal and NIL. Another lesson the Army taught me was the presumption that every new officer to a unit is the best officer ever until they demonstrate otherwise. If we saw our military like some see the Gators, we would be annihilated on the battlefield, as we were during many of our first battles throughout history, before we pick ourselves up, identify our weaknesses, and work our butts off the right the ship.

I'm with Ray (Solari). I support Sumrall until he proves, as Napier proved, that he no longer has my support.

 

OK. It's over and so we'll close this thread now and move forward, I guess. Remember the introductory PC this afternoon. It will have its own thread.