I’m not sure what the advantage of stopping in Dallas for a day is. Why would you want to drag travel out over two days? Why don’t they just come straight to Utah tomorrow?
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I wonder how this will affect the fans that are travelling? I would have assumed most would be leaving on Wednesday.
Hopefully the whys and whatfors come out a bit better when Billy Napier has his meeting with the press later this evening.
RR
Good question. There will probably be less there than without the storm I would imagine. Tampa International is shutting down and plans to reopen Thursday.
RR
For the life of me, I just don’t understand the appeal of McAfee. He’s your standard, unfunny, obnoxious sports radio loudmouth who brings nothing new to the table at all.
I don’t get why ESPN insists he be everywhere these days.
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Coach Napier’s press conference got bumped up to 6:00 pm EDT, so hopefully he will explain the decisions.
Either way, here we come. And again, here is to a great game.
This trip is going to be character building for the team. The season hasn’t even started, and already they have to deal with adversity. Plus it puts to rest a notion that UF doesn’t go out of state, non conference.
You are going to win this game, but I just hope The Gators make a game of it. I want Napier to succeed and I think he will but we have to give him time. Recruiting is lights out for the first time in years. He is no Urban Meyer, but perhaps that is a good thing.
RR
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Answer: Logistics
Maybe they found accommodations in Dallas. Sounds like a scramble.
I just want them to make their way to SLC for Thursday evening. If that involves a stop in Dallas and Saskatchewan, so be it. 
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Isn’t the thinking that if you can’t get to high altitude weeks in advance, you want to get there as late as possible, play the game, then quickly leave?
I wonder if they don’t want to be in SLC for an extra day.
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That is exactly the point. You can’t acclimate in two days… Get in and get out
RR
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Looks like Florida’s recruiting class is currently #3. Wow. I can’t imagine having a recruiting class like that. In the past 5 yrs they have finished with classes ranked 7,8, and 10. Their lowest was 18- which is higher than our highest ever ranking.
I wish I had your confidence of Utah rolling them. I still think this is going to be a nail biter though I’d love to be wrong about that.
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That is deceptive. Mullen was a lazy recruiter who totally blew it on positions of need.
Napier isn’t and has changed the roster to almost total turnover from those previous. Florida is very young, but very talented, but we have work to do. I hope we are patient with Napier.
I think most focus on the QB position, and rightly so, but we had AR leave early, and his heir apparent, Kitna, got kicked off the team…and so he should have.
RR
I’m with you. I won’t watch if he’s on. Which has helped free up my Saturday mornings.
I mean he went #12 class in '18, #15 in '19, and #7 in '20.
He was good at MSU which is why his failure at Florida is baffling.
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Anecdotally, having spent between 2.5 and 3 hours once on a plane trapped on a runway, in Tampa (on a 20 minute lay over from Orlando to SLC - AUGUST of 1988ish), when they would not take us back to the airport, or take off, but they were happy to open the 4 doors, I would say that I hope the Florida team is treated better on their trip to SLC.
When I got off that flight, I would have run through a wall just on general principles…
Edit to say: in honor to a promise I made myself that day, I have never been anywhere near Tampa since.
If you want to know, read this.
Whether you want to call it loyalty, stubbornness, laziness, or downright ignorance- or maybe a combination of all of the above- the epitaph of Dan Mullen’s tenure in Gainesville will feature the manner in which he placed people in important positions who failed to perform at the level at which they were expected to- and worse yet, was willing to stick by his decisions at the expense of his own program. The arrogance with which Mullen publicly stood by Grantham and Hevesy as they gradually touched off a team-wide civil war behind closed doors was matched only by the bravado some of his players displayed in letting their teammates know that they valued themselves more than the health of the program. And Mullen’s unwillingness to make business decisions that would benefit his team was mirrored by the attitude of more than a few of his players in their everyday lives as Florida Gators football players.
Pretty much wraps it up.
RR
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Some programs are elite at recruiting, others at developing… exceedingly rare for a program to be both.
I know it’s said all the time, but could you imagine Utah with a top 5 recruiting class? Look out.
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When Shah was talking in depth about the recruiting network in Cali, the HS and JC coaches that know what kind of kids we want in our program, it opened the door to understand our culture, and how some kids will struggle to fit in.
We essentially never struggle with the prima donna problem sometimes seen at other schools, when things fall apart quickly get with the 4s and 5s when adversity hits.
Jaylon Johnson and Clark Phillips were the opposite of highly talented kids expecting a starting position. They set the tone.
The culture, the team, is more important than a few individuals, no matter how highly they’re ranked. We can climb the recruiting rankings some more, but it has to be within our culture and expectations. Just assembling talent doesn’t get in the ballpark, for what we want.
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I get it. I just don’t get how you’re good at MSU and bad at UF. Also, I think Florida is in the valley like Alabama was post-Gene Stallings. I’m already hearing calls to fire the coach after one season which is crazy. UF fans need to get ready to take some Ls and allow him to coach.
Did the team get their flight out of Florida to Dallas?
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On this, we are in total agreement. Be patient and give the man the time he needs. He will get his third year regardless of the record, imo.
RR