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Topic: Florida's Next HC

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MikeDeTiger

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #28 on: January 13, 2025, 02:48:03 PM »
Bump.

Wellz.....doesn't look like UF is in any hurry to get of Napier, understandably so. 

This might be a case study in the hubris of making rash decisions too quickly.  I think it probably should've taken Napier less time than it did for UF to start the uphill climb, but then, things work oddly in this new NIL/xfer world and I'm not used to it yet.  

OrangeAfroMan

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #29 on: January 15, 2025, 12:03:26 AM »
Indeed.
Everyone focuses on the 4-game winning streak to close the season, but the turnaround came when we practically beat Tennessee in Knoxville.  We had that game won and gave it away.  
But just to see we could hang with a top-10 team on the road (whether they played well or not) was an "ah ha" moment.  The fact that the Gators beat the shit out of UK when the line was near even built on that and once we showed up against UGA, giving them all they could handle for 3 quarters, that was it.  
We could compete with the top teams.
The Texas fiasco aside, Florida fans saw that the Miami and A&M games were the exception.

Imagine if Mertz didn't get hurt.  Imagine if Lagway didn't.  The defense suddenly appeared from the UCF game-on.  It had been missing for like 7 years.  

That's the oddest thing about Florida's down cycle - the defense.  We could roll out of bed and have a top-15 defense every year of my adult life....until we couldn't.  
“The Swamp is where Gators live.  We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous." - Steve Spurrier

MikeDeTiger

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #30 on: January 15, 2025, 10:05:32 AM »
Tell me about it.  Other than (most years of) the 90's--which was not really my adult life--our defense was always reliable, if not very good.  Suddenly we've got two historically bad units within 4 years, and a drastic leap forward still ranks 61st.  Teams like Florida and LSU have typically had access to talent, and it just makes you scratch your head when defense goes in the toilet and stays there.

Meanwhile, we've had above-average QB play for most of the last 6-7 years.  I thought the Upside-Down was supposed to be fictional.

OrangeAfroMan

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #31 on: January 18, 2025, 11:18:51 PM »
I think it's just more evidence that it's a merry-go-round at the top, outside of Saban's Bama.  
The top programs take turns at the top.
Even OU sucked in the 90s.
OSU, while not bad, didn't matter in the 80s.  
ND, UM, USC, Texas,...all of them have their downturns.  

And for a program to hope to "be back" you have to have once been there, at or near the top.  We're lucky that LSU and Florida are among that group.  

There are the bluebloods and the new bloods (top programs of the last 40 years)....and then there's everyone else.
UM-OSU-ND-UNL-USC-UTA-OU-PSU-UTK-ALA
and
LSU-MIA-FSU-UF-UGA-AUB.............no one else has been "there" to be "back" including ORE, WIS, A&M, MSU, etc.
“The Swamp is where Gators live.  We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous." - Steve Spurrier

CWSooner

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #32 on: January 19, 2025, 01:12:44 PM »
Don't forget Minnesota!

National champs in 1936 (with Bud Wilkinson as QB), '40, and '41 (all under Bernie "Silver Fox" Bierman). And again in 1960.
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utee94

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #33 on: January 19, 2025, 06:20:05 PM »
Minnesota, not even a helmet and certainly not a blue blood.

But yes, they did have their moment.  So did Harvard and Princeton.

OrangeAfroMan

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #34 on: January 20, 2025, 01:39:03 PM »
Don't forget Minnesota!

National champs in 1936 (with Bud Wilkinson as QB), '40, and '41 (all under Bernie "Silver Fox" Bierman). And again in 1960.
The 1960 NC was a farce, as voters punished undefeated Ole Miss for racism.  
“The Swamp is where Gators live.  We feel comfortable there, but we hope our opponents feel tentative. A swamp is hot and sticky and can be dangerous." - Steve Spurrier

CatsbyAZ

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #35 on: January 23, 2025, 10:37:24 AM »

CWSooner

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #36 on: January 23, 2025, 07:12:21 PM »
The 1960 NC was a farce, as voters punished undefeated Ole Miss for racism. 
Another factor was that both AP and UPI issued their final polls before the bowl games.
I can see non-southern poll voters downgrading Ole Miss and other SEC teams. Those teams were playing college football within their own little universe of Jim Crow law. They didn't have any black players and--in at least many cases--they refused to play any opponents with black players.
America was changing for the better in terms of racial equality. The days of racial segregation were ending. And the South was behind the times. It may not have been fair to Ole Miss (and to Bama, later), but keeping black players out of the game wasn't fair either.
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Cincydawg

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Re: Florida's Next HC
« Reply #37 on: January 28, 2025, 12:09:34 PM »
1960 Final Football Polls | College Poll Archive

The polls were pretty close that year.

 

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