In today’s Mailbag ($$), Stewart Mandel is asked to make a “bold, gutsy” prediction for each P5 conference this season. Here’s his answer for the SEC:
Florida finishes last in the SEC East. Billy Napier did a great job at ULL, but I’m failing to see much reason for optimism heading into Year 2, especially if ex-Badger Graham Mertz is his best option at quarterback. The returning roster was underwhelming, and the Gators lost a lot more to the portal than they gained. It’s not inconceivable that Vandy, which beat Kentucky and Florida late last season to finish 5-7, passes Florida in the standings.
Whoa, mama. From your lips to Gawd’s ears, Stew.
Get The Picture 
When does a FU gap become a vandy “bitch slap”?…#FTMF
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While this would be hilarious… is this really what we want to happen?
If this happens, they no-doubt fire Sunbelt Billy, and if they do that, they could conceivably luck into a good coach who could at some point give us problems.
Wouldn’t it be better if they go 6-6 or 7-5 and Napier could sell Stricklin on giving him another year?
I’m just trying to think long term about what what being the ‘turds the most overall pain, not just about short-term pain this season.
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Hope Prime Time does not show up
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Has his eyes on his alma mater, in case that blows up. (Still think that they are over-rated this year).
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Yeah Florida State is so freaking overrated. Norvell is the new Dan Mullen. People think he’s great despite no evidence of that being true.
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Deion’s last NFL season was 2008, the year today’s college freshmen were born. He is 55 years old, not exactly a young man in recruits eyes (Kirby is 47 btw). The next two years at Colorado will show if Deion is an actual coach or, as I suspect, a self promotion expert.
Deion at UF would be more than Georgia could hope for.
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Oops, school error. I meant the year today’s high school freshmen were born.
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Does being young really matter that much to recruits? They still flock to Nick Saban’s banner. I get that playing for a young guy who gets the slang and stuff is fun, but most staffs have young assistants for that. I think recruits want a winner and they want to be drafted high. I have no idea if Deion can do either at the Power 5 level, but I do know that recruits aren’t going to be asking to see his ID to see how old he is.
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My point is; to the kids he is recruiting now, “Prime Time” is something their parents were aware of. They have no memory of him as any sort of player. Deion is a slick talking, self promoting middle age coach with 3 years college coaching experience. I don’t know why anyone is convinced he is going to be the savior of any P5 program. He might get Colorado to 5 or 6 wins but I don’t see him making any sort of big move there.
He had a great record at Jackson State but he had millions in NIL money to buy recruits that none of the other HBCU programs had. The teams he faced were basically high school +1 level talent and he had FCS level talent. At Colorado, he is going to face teams with at least as much NIL money and talent as he has.
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He’s actually recruiting quite well, but I doubt Gator Nation will give him the time to do what he needs to do. And you’re right; next coach could take what he has built and launch it to another level. Then again, Florida has been back to being Florida for over a decade – I got great faith in them to continue to do so…
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My counter argument would be how much additional permanent damage can billy inflict on Florida if given another year versus if he goes 5-7 and gets canned this year? My view is not that much more. Next coach is going to have about the same rebuild in 2024 vs 2025.
On somewhat of a tangent, I was VERY disappointed when Mullen was fired. To me he was the perfect coach to stay at Florida. Good enough to win 8-10 games a year and keep the fan base convinced bigger prizes were around the corner not good enough to actually beat us head to head on the field or the recruiting trail. I saw him as a long term purgatory for the gators and was concerned Florida might back into a decent hire after giving Dan the ax. Fortunately it looks like Napier his turned mullens quiet internal rot into a full fledged dumpster fire which I hope burns forever.
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7 wins this season including a couple close ones against teams UF would historically dominate i.e. Vandy, South Carolina followed by a miraculous 9 or 10 win 2024 season finishing 2nd in the East to Georgia because of a heartbreaking loss in Jacksonville would play out nicely for the future of turd football. Stricklin and the turd faithful would be convinced they had turned the corner and Billy would get an extension.
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Long term? As long as Kirby is coaching the Dawgs it doesn’t matter if the gators rehire and have SOS drink from the fountain of youth daily or reincarnate Zombie Bear Bryant, Georgia will continue to kick their ass.
Fuck those motherfuckers.
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I think you mean drink from the 16 oz. tall boy Coors Light…
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As Spurrier has been known to wear a dress, you know, such as the one Bill Stanfill stepped on, I’d think the ol ball sack is sucking on Bud Light these days.
That fuckn loser.
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Like button don’t work….but I LIKE!
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That would add napalm to the Hogtown dumpster fire of paper mill sulfur, meth lab, Axe body spray, and Busch Light. It might become more visible in the Sunshine State than a night-time Space Shuttle launch on Cape Canaveral used to be. You hate to see it, but more than that …
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Please oh please let this happen.
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There is a God
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Really busy right now; but if I had time to kill, think I could spend a couple of hours perusing Gator pages. This would be such great entertainment… 🙂
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After losing to Vandy and seeing them get curb-stomped by Oregon State, it doesn’t seem like such a remote possibility.
Napier probably has the buyout clause of his contract committed to memory.
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You see those pictures of Dumbo on the sidelines with this package of unorganized paper with his reading glasses on? I think he’s carrying the buyout clause from his contalract with his play sheet, so he can remember what he’s owed if TAMU loses another game.
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Fats Domino captures my feelings on this:
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I don’t see it myself.
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I do. It’s already happened, especially as far as Kentucky is concerned. If Clark Lea had a big enough budget, he would be kicking their ass annually. Mandel is decent writer, but his football prognostications fall into the Captain Obvious category: what happened last season? OK, that repeats.
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Vandy is spending $80 million on upgrades this year, they just might start beating FL every year. Would be fine with me.
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A Dawg can dream can’t he?
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FTMF
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Gator magic
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FU regressing to their mean
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Then there’s the gameclock which will keep ticking on Bayou Billy after he goes down 3 scores by 3rd quarter.
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I think this is absolutely possible. Napier is easily the most likeable Florida coach of my lifetime. Is he a good football coach? I think probably so. Is he good enough to be head guy at a place like Florida, especially Florida, with all the crap that comes with that job? I kind of doubt it. Not many are.
I hope this scenario plays out and Sunbelt Billy is canned, gets to come be an analyst in Athens, much richer, and with a lot less aggravation. Then Florida goes out and makes a colossally stupid hire. I’m thinking something on the order of hiring Tim Tebow or some such idiocy. That would be ideal.
I don’t worry about them getting a hire right. I don’t think they are capable and what’s more I don’t believe Florida is going to be a good football program again any time soon regardless. Too many things have changed since they were good and if you look at it objectively they were never as dominant as they seem in our memory. Georgia couldn’t or wouldn’t get out of its own way. There is absolutely no reason Florida should have dominated Georgia the way they did regardless of who their coach was. That has as much to do with Georgia as it did with Florida and Spurrier even said as much.
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I really hate that his big-time head coaching shot had to be at Florida. I covered his dad when I was covering high school sports and he was just a great man. I showed up the year after Billy left for college and took Murray County’s offense with him. But I really admired his dad and I really hate that he had to become a Gator. But, he’s a Gator, so… FTMF.
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Praying…
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“”The goal would be to play somewhere in Jacksonville,” Curry said. “Those discussions are happening, but two years is the goal. … I do know that they are considering certain sites that are local that could accommodate them for at least two years.”
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I want a world where Florida looks to Vandy for their next hire.
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I really can’t get enough of Florida suffering! Every time I start to think I ought to feel a little bad for them, I just remind myself of the Spurrier/Meyer years. Maybe I’ll be satisfied by in about 15 more years—-but probably not. FTMFs.
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