Dooley’s Back Nine: Not Sure There is Slam-Dunk Hire for Florida Football
The Back Nine comes at you after a bizarre weekend that included the End of an Error. (Sorry, I couldn’t resist.)
10. My first reaction to Billy Napier getting fired Sunday was not what I expected it to be. It made me sad. Sad that a good man could not figure it out. Sad that this fanbase has been through so much lately. Sad that Florida can’t get it right. Sad that this season is over for the most part. Gerald Ford said famously when he became interim coach for the U.S., “Our long national nightmare is over.” It makes me sad that I took one more swing at Napier as he was shown the door. At least he left with a win, but not a winning record.
11. Look, it’s his fault. Perhaps one day we will look back and talk about all of the great things Billy did for this football program, but we’re going to need some more healing after four seasons of irrelevance. Just look at the game Saturday night. Napier put his team in position to lose because he doesn’t play to win often enough. It felt like so many of the losses he experienced at UF, except that Mississippi State screwed up even more. Dumping Napier isn’t going to make things better THIS season, but I think most Gators are just tired of mediocrity that feels like a bad dream that keeps getting rewound and played again. It needed to happen. Actually, I think I am the saddest that there was no choice.
Loading ...12. In the end, it was a combination of Zook-luck and stubbornness and the worst schedules in the history of football that did Napier in. All of the injuries, all of the reviews that went the other way, all of the missed calls, all of the bad calls, all of that contributed to him catching few breaks during his 45-game stint. But that is the thing that always drove me crazy about Billy. This is a league where everybody has great players and you have to find an edge. You have to coach with aggression and discipline. Napier was part Doug Dickey, part Charley Pell. He tried to avoid losing instead of going for the jugular and often tightened up in the biggest games. But, like Pell, he did a lot to change the culture and the infrastructure of Florida football.
READ: Who Will Replace Billy Napier? Florida’s Coaching Search Begins
13. So, what is next for Florida? I’m not sure there is a slam dunk out there. It might be Lane Kiffin and I would be thrilled if he came here. But I’m not sure he will. Kerwin Bell would crawl to Gainesville to take the job, but I’m not sure his resume screams out at you. This is the biggest hire of Scott Stricklin’s career and he knows it. He’s 0-for-2 in hiring football coaches and this firing was way more painful than the last one.
14. And that is the question that keeps coming back to me. How good is this job? On the surface, everything is in place although the roster is going to see a lot of ship-jumping. The guy who takes the job has to have a lot of confidence in himself because he knows how quickly things can turn on you. All I know is that once Florida hires a new coach, the Gators will be paying three coaches for the second time in the last decade. That doesn’t sound like good business, but neither does paying a coach $21 million to go away. It’s the business of football.
15. Gosh, I haven’t even gotten to the chaos that took place this weekend in college football. It was a wild one and I enjoyed most of it. The amazing thing is that Miami and FSU lost, Florida won and only the Gators are looking for a new coach.
16. You know what really blows chunks? How bad I am at picking games. The Picks? How about The Pickles? Because I thought I had a perfect weekend until Ole Miss blew its lead and Vanderbilt played so well that GameDay is going to Nashville. Anyway, Dr. Football is now 22-21-1, which is still a better record than the previous coach at UF. On to this week (all spreads courtesy of MyBookie.ag):
- Mizzou is getting three points at Vandy and Clark Lea should hire out the visiting hotel to a bunch of bachelorette parties. That will mess with their heads. I’m not picking against the ‘Dores two weeks in a row.
- Ole Miss is a 4.5-point underdog at Oklahoma after that tough loss to Georgia (the new offensive power of the SEC that can’t play defense, so go figure). I don’t think Okie can score enough, so I’ll take the points.
- Bobby Petrino is 0-2 in his second go-round with the Hoggies, but they have played great offense. So, why didn’t he call those same plays as OC? He’s doing such a good job that Auburn almost came to Fayetteville as a 1.5-point underdog, but the spread changed quickly to favor Aubie by a single point. Hugh Freeze, I have the U-Haul people on Line 2. I’ll take the fighting Petrinos.
- Mississippi State is trying to figure out why it lost a game over the weekend and the other coach was fired. Texas is favored by 7 and should cover.
- Texas A&M is one of only six unbeaten FBS teams and is favored by 2.5 at LSU. Hmmm. I’m going to take the desperate Tigers.
17. It’s funny how one coach was fired after going 3-4 and another coach is being rumored to be the coach at Virginia Tech and he is 3-4. Shane Beamer has a better job at South Carolina and said as much. But we are far from done in this coaching carousel. The number is now 11 FBS coaches who have been let go in a year where everybody seems to have a quick trigger finger.
18. Multiple golf tournaments on the horizon starting with the Gainesville Quarterback Club on Tuesday. I need a good playlist:
- “The Walls Are Way To Thin” by Holly Humberstone.
- “My Own Soul’s Warning” by The Killers.
- And for oldie, “I Go to Pieces” by Chad and Jeremy.
WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.
Category: College Football, Feature Sports News, Pat Dooley
