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(SOC) Soccer in hands of young leaders

Discussion in 'Alligator Alley (other sports)' started by gatorbiz, Apr 11, 2022.

  1. gatorbiz

    gatorbiz VIP Member

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    The transfer portal has affected soccer much like any other sport under new head coach Tony Amato and his staff. The transfer portal has been mostly one way so far and that’s a movement out for many tenured UF players. Hopefully there will be some significant moves to bring quality players in to fill the roster along with our current commits. Our team has young leaders but now they need players who are willing to work hard and stay long enough to develop this team into a conference force once again. The immediate future will be challenging so here’s to hoping Amato’s plans turn this team quickly.
     
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  2. BurkeGator

    BurkeGator All American

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    Can you share who has left via the portal thus far? I did note in a team picture taken after the recent Georgia Southern scrimmage there were 19-20 players which would be 2 or 3 less than currently listed on their spring roster. I know they have 7 freshmen signees coming in during the Fall. Perhaps with the ongoing mess at FSU a few of those ladies may want to transfer to a much better in state academic institution;)
     
  3. gatorbiz

    gatorbiz VIP Member

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    Portal : Urban, Vernis, Thompson, Pirello, Hall, Varada, Steed, Kadzban, Simone-Walters, Kane

    5th year seniors graduated and chose to transfer: Eaton-Collins, Baksay and Seyffart.
     
  4. BurkeGator

    BurkeGator All American

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    Quite the turnover. The 1st 6 names you list must be fairly recent as they are still listed on the Spring roster. With plenty of available playing time and a brand new team facility you would think should attract a few impact players out of the portal. I mean how hard a sale is it to bring in top players to UF? The next few months will be telling.
     
  5. gatorbiz

    gatorbiz VIP Member

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    Players should be attracted. Style of play could always be a factor.
     
  6. BigIgator25

    BigIgator25 GC Hall of Fame

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    where did you find this information, I am trying to get more interest going with the soccer program along with Lacrosse and information like this spikes interest in sports
     
  7. gatorbiz

    gatorbiz VIP Member

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    My daughter is friends with many of them and we go watch games when we can.
     
  8. BurkeGator

    BurkeGator All American

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  9. 352Fella

    352Fella GC Legend

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    From 247 Sports

     
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  10. TJtheGator

    TJtheGator GC Hall of Fame

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    Stricklin keeps proving he may not be the right fit at UF.
     
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  11. gatorbiz

    gatorbiz VIP Member

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    I entirely agree? Get rid of SS. He had so much time when Becky retired to get the right coach. He clearly gave very little effort to that cause. Even this year these issues were brought to his attention very early on. He had time to evaluate but pushed under the rug instead. Now team is down to 13 players + incoming recruits after losing 14 +/- to the portal.
     
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  12. BurkeGator

    BurkeGator All American

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    I thank him for bringing UF into the 21st century facilities wise and he seemingly is a first rate fund raiser but his track record at coaching hires is less than stellar thus far with 3 of his first 4 hires already let go. Hopefully the Napier and Golden hires change the narrative. To me there was something completely off with Amato's time at UF. I gave him a pass in the Fall as UF had basically hit rock bottom personnel wise under Becky and it was a transition year. However, when there was no subsequent movement to bring in badly needed talent via the portal; a corresponding large number of current players on the team entering the transfer portal; the fact there was an assistant coach on his staff re-tweeting a significant amount of political stuff while utilizing their UF associated account; and finally a recent bizarre video release showing Amato addressing what appeared to be less than half of the team before a tour of their new locker room. The whole segment just seemed awkward to me with few of the assembled players even bothering to make eye contact with Amato while he spoke. Scott cannot afford to miss on this hire and he better be prepared to spend what it takes to bring in a proven coach that is well vetted.

    Quite a bit of more info with what was going on inside the program this past year. Holy cow if even half of what is claimed actually happened:
    Florida soccer coach leaving after complaints by players over comments about eating habits, bodies - WUFT News
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2022
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  13. G2MGA

    G2MGA GC Legend

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    Well, Krikorian is available, eh? Though my head explodes at the thought of paying a million dollar buyout for a soccer coach *and* whatever astronomical Krikorian would demand..
     
  14. oragator1

    oragator1 Premium Member

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    most of the facilities were in the works before he got here. He has done very little to better UF. He has done much more to weaken it.
     
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  15. Gator Mike

    Gator Mike All American

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    Scott Stricklin is failing UF's female student-athletes.
     
  16. missourigator

    missourigator GC Hall of Fame

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    Yes, he is a good ole Southern boy. Where is he getting his information from for some of these hires? Boy, he seems to pick losers. Hopefully Napier and Golden can buck the trend. The new President might want to hire his/her own AD.
     
  17. TJtheGator

    TJtheGator GC Hall of Fame

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    0-2 with Newbauer and Amato.

    Seems Striklin is a poor judge of character. He may be a visionary and fundraiser but a college athletic program is about the people first and foremost.0
     
  18. oragator1

    oragator1 Premium Member

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    Well to be fair he gave Nesty the women, and that seems to be going well. But his two outside hires for the women have been unmitigated disasters. And given that he made the same mistake twice, we now have to start worrying about a lawsuit I would suspect.
    I think his clear problem in his hiring decisions is that he didn’t put nearly enough priority on personality. If I want to go glass half full, he may already realize it, given the personalities of Napier and Golden.
     
  19. BurkeGator

    BurkeGator All American

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    Time will tell how much Stricklin has "weaken"(ed) UF and it will be greatly dependent on how Napier, Golden, Finley and the future soccer coach (better be a homerun hire) fare a couple of years down the road. As for facilities, Stricklin by any measure has done more than "a little" to improve UF in that department. True, Foley had already set into motion the O'Connell Center renovation, Farrior Hall Student Center, softball stadium upgrade and only after being called out by both Muschamp and McElwain for his original plans for an indoor practice field bubble / 70 yard practice field finally approved plans for our current IPF. If it was up to Foley we would still be playing in a dressed up McKethan Stadium (think applying lipstick to a pig), a ridiculously small football ops center shoehorned in the current Track throws and maintenance area and likely no upgrade to the Dizney complex so that the soccer team had offices, dressing room and attendant ops facilities collocated with where they play and practice. What a concept. I will not speculate on other now planned UAA facility upgrades because Foley may have done something similar but given his past track record it would likely have been done on the cheap and completed in a less than aggressive time frame. This is not meant as a complete defense of Stricklin who in my book really needs a few wins in the coach acquisition part of his job or he will be gone soon enough.
     
    Last edited: Apr 27, 2022
  20. oragator1

    oragator1 Premium Member

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    Foley had the new baseball stadium in the works before he left. In fact he had all the non-revenue sports accounted for before he was gone because he knew where the focus would be by the next guy,
    So basically it’s the football center, against a bad football hire, a cataclysmic WBB hire, an apparently disastrous soccer hire, and from the time he got here…
    Sports that are better:
    MTN (Foley hire)
    Maybe WBB (only because of the absolute poop show that preceded it

    Flat sports:
    Women’s golf
    Track (mouse is awesome then and now).
    Gymnastics
    Swimming(great recruiting classes on the horizon to be fair. But results the last few years are fairly flat). And Nesty was hired by Foley.

    worse:
    Football (bad hire)
    Basketball
    Baseball
    Softball
    Volleyball
    Lacrosse (not by a lot)
    Women’s tennis (coach should have been let go years ago)
    Men’s golf (though it may be on an upswing, we will see but Deacon is lucky to have a job)
    Soccer where he let BB stay too long and then absolutely crapped the bed with her replacement.


    he hasn’t made a single successful outside hire yet in any sport. he’s 0-3.
    we lost the combined all sports sec trophy last year for the first time in forever.
    We took terrible national press for the Cam debacle and now this mess will almost certainly be framed with that backdrop.

    So I am at a loss as to what folks think he has done to make much of anything better. Great, he built a student center. Doesn’t matter if there’s no clear idea of what constitutes success or how to get there within the UAA.

    I am beyond ready to move on from him. He isn’t the guy.
     
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