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Florida Gators Coach Billy Napier Isn't Fired Yet but Should Be - Texas A&M Disappointment

In this latest episode of Locked On Gators, host Brandon Olsen delves into the mounting pressure surrounding Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier. Despite the fact that Napier has not yet been officially dismissed, the episode explores the growing expectation that he will be let go by the end of the season. Brandon provides a detailed analysis of the Gators' recent dismal performance against the Texas A&M Aggies, highlighting the key issues that have contributed to the team's struggles. The episode examines the factors behind the Gators' lackluster showing, including offensive and defensive shortcomings, and the impact these problems have had on the season's outlook. Additionally, Brandon discusses the broader implications for the program, considering potential coaching changes and the future direction of the team. With in-depth commentary on the current state of the Gators and what might lie ahead, this episode offers a critical look at a challenging period for Florida football.

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Florida Gators Coach Billy Napier Isn't Fired Yet but Should Be - Texas A&M Disappointment

Broadcast on:
16 Sep 2024
Audio Format:
other

In this latest episode of Locked On Gators, host Brandon Olsen delves into the mounting pressure surrounding Florida Gators head coach Billy Napier. Despite the fact that Napier has not yet been officially dismissed, the episode explores the growing expectation that he will be let go by the end of the season. Brandon provides a detailed analysis of the Gators' recent dismal performance against the Texas A&M Aggies, highlighting the key issues that have contributed to the team's struggles. The episode examines the factors behind the Gators' lackluster showing, including offensive and defensive shortcomings, and the impact these problems have had on the season's outlook. Additionally, Brandon discusses the broader implications for the program, considering potential coaching changes and the future direction of the team. With in-depth commentary on the current state of the Gators and what might lie ahead, this episode offers a critical look at a challenging period for Florida football.

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For your next listen, check out the Locked On College Football podcast! From NIL deals to never ending conference realignment rumors, Spencer McLaughlin gets you ready for an exciting season on the gridiron! Click HERE to listen now. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network. Your Team. Every Day.
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Florida Gators Coach Billy Napier Isn't Fired Yet but Should Be - Texas A&M Disappointment

(upbeat music) - It's the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. (upbeat music) - Decisions, decisions. - Wait a minute, are you still looking for cars on Carvana? - Yeah, decisions, decisions. - When I use Carvana, I found the exact car I was looking for in minutes, bought it on the spot. - Electric or full diesel? Decisions. - Come on, you've been at it for weeks. - Just buy it already. - You're right, crossover it is. Decisions, decided. - Whether you know exactly what you want or like to take your time, buy your car the convenient way with Carvana. - For some reason, Billy Napier is still the head coach of the Florida Gators football team. (upbeat music) - You are locked on Gators. Your daily podcast on the Florida Gators, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. - Hello and welcome back to another episode of Lockdown Gators, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. Thanks for making Lockdown Gators your first listen of the day, every day we are available daily and free breakfast in the podcast. And on YouTube today's episode of Lockdown Gators is brought to you by Five Hour Energy. Go to fivehourenergy.com. Use promo code lock.cfb to receive 20% off your order. And also big shout out to the insiders, the insider program links in the description below to join subtext.com/lockdowngaters. Something tells me this coaching search we're gonna be pretty active on. You guys have been very helpful, especially to setting up the scouting reports that we're gonna be doing. And again, we will be talking coaching hot forward or all that fun stuff. But I have no explanation for why Billy Napier is still employed by the University of Florida. And I wanna make this abundantly clear. Nothing against him as a person. Like I have nothing against him as a person. I don't know Billy Napier as a person, right? All I know about Billy Napier as a person are only through the very brief exchanges that I've had with him. And secondhand accounts. That's it. I don't have this extended period of time where I've seen Napier a bunch of times. I've seen him, I've met him maybe three times at this point. Like it's not a thing where I've met him a ton and I have this vast experience with him. As a person, I have nothing against him. That's a football coach. He's just not good enough for the SEC. He's just not good enough for Florida. That's what it is. Like that's why I know I came out here on Saturday night, which by the way, massive showing for that. So thank you. But I came out there on Saturday night and I said, which again, if you know me, you know that I don't say things like this lightly. Billy Napier needs to be fired, okay? I don't take it lightly to call for another man's job. I don't take it lightly to call for anybody's job. Billy Napier needs to be fired as a head coach to the Florida Gators. He is not capable of doing this job at a high enough level. And that was a big thing that we spent a lot of time. Remember, at the end of last season, there were a lot of people calling for his head. At the end of last year, the recruiting class is falling apart and there were fans throughout going just get rid of him now. If he can't keep the class together and he can't win games, why are we keeping him? And my take then is the same take that I had going into this season. I don't know if Billy Napier is good enough to do this job. So far, as in through the end of the 2023 season, the returns weren't awesome, right? The returns weren't great. But I don't know if that dictates anything. We will give him year three. It took until week one of year three for me to be out on. And I said that after the game, I was like, I'm out on him. I just, I'm out on Billy. I don't think he can do it. Just because, again, last year when you're talking about the Miami game, or last year when you're talking about the Utah game to start the season, there was a lot that went into it. The team came out completely flat, embarrassing performance there. But there was a lot that went into it, right? They had to change their travel schedule like kind of the last minute. They had to spend, I believe, a full day in Dallas. Like they flew to Dallas, then had to spend a day there, then flew to Utah. And it was a whole bunch there, right? Horrible performance. We'll talk it. We will chalk that one. But the 2024 season, completely different. Because the 2024 season was not you against Utah. It was you against a bitter rival. And I know that these two teams, as in Florida and Miami, don't play each other frequently. One, that should be an annual game. As someone that is very active on social media, these two fan bases hate each other. That should be an annual game. But two, you were home this time. There was no travel issue. There was nothing. From the moment you lost the Florida state game last year, and you knew you were not making a ball game, you knew the next game the Florida Gators will play is August 31st against the Miami Hurricanes. You had all that time to prepare, all that time to get guys ready. And here's the, I don't even want to say that they came out flat. I don't, because I don't necessarily know if they came out flat. Utah 2023, they came out flat. Did they come out flat in the Miami game in 2024? Or did they just get punched in the mouth and have no answer? Because I think it's that one. Because Texas A&M did the same thing. It wasn't that Florida came out flat. It's that they punched you in the mouth and you had no answer. That's it. Like, watch the Utah game from last year. Watch Miami from this year. And you could see that there's a difference when this team comes out flat and when they're just not ready for it. And that's what happened. And that was the thing that made me say, you cannot get your guys ready to play a competitive football game week in and week out. You cannot be a head coach at the University of Florida. You're not capable of doing it. And that's okay. Not everybody's capable of doing everything. But he's not capable of doing it. And I understand. I know that someone left this comment. It's a lot easier to call for someone to get fired. It's a lot easier to say, pay the buyout when you're talking about someone else's money. Yeah. So that doesn't mean that like I don't get it. Yeah, it's easy to say pay the buyout and fire him. Because I've never had anything to do with that financial part of it, right? I have the part to do with evaluating this team, giving my opinion on this team. And my opinion on this team is that Billy Napier is not a good enough head coach to get this program to where it needs to be. So my opinion of this, my assessment of this, fire him. Because there was a lot that we were expecting this offseason that just didn't come to fruition once we hit the season. And a lot of it has to do with who's calling off into place. What the offense looks like. And that none of it came up during the regular season. Interesting. And also like Billy Napier seems they've underperformed consistently under him at Florida. And I don't understand. After the game, there was the ESPN notification of the boosters are putting the $26 million together in order to fire Billy Napier. And there was a collective sigh of relief that I could hear from my, from Queens that I could hear. I could hear it from Queens. I could hear Gainesville go, oh, thank goodness. The buyout is coming. And there is the whole, there's going to be a board of trustees meeting on Sunday morning. Then there's not a board of trustees meeting. Here's the thing I really don't give a damn. I think everybody has made their mind up. I think everybody has seen what they need to see. And if you haven't seen what you need to see yet, maybe you shouldn't have an opinion on football. Because I think we've all seen what we need to see. And this is that this is a coach running this program that is not capable of getting this program to where it needs to be. So I don't understand why he still has a job. And again, I'm not saying this is if I hate him. I'm just saying this from the cut and dry point, blank point of, I know he can't do it. So stop wasting your time. That's it. I'm not saying I hate him. I'm not saying he's a terrible person. I'm not saying anything like that. I'm saying that we know he's not good enough for this job. It's time to cut ties. I, again, I don't understand what they're waiting for. I don't know if they wanted to wait for a bi-week after Mississippi State. I don't know if they wanted to wait for the official. You cannot make a bowl game so you can get rid of them there. I really don't know. I know that there are some people that said, "Oh, well, you wait because it's not like you can hire your head coach now anyway." No, you can't. But you know what you can do? Start the betting process so that you get this higher right. You can officially start the betting process so that you can get this higher right. You can start having those communications with players on your roster and in your recruiting class of saying, "Hey, let's keep you in Gainesville." Because we know once you get rid of your head coach, that opens Pandora's box with the transfer portal. Get ahead of the curve, but that's not what the University of Florida likes to do for some reason. I don't understand the logic behind keeping Billy. I really don't. All I can see it happening is that you're going to continue to further embarrass this program. And I will say this too. I called it last week. I said the max school that I went to. Felito, my alma mater, that school is going to beat Mississippi State and then Florida plays Mississippi State next week. The team that I cover and another team that I love. And they're going to lose. I don't actually think Florida is going to lose to Mississippi State, but that would be just the ultimate middle finger to beat. That Toledo beat to Mississippi State dominated them by the way. And then Florida loses. Yeah, we will talk about this actual football game that happened on Saturday and not just the impending employment status of Billy Napier next on lockdown Gators. Five hour energy fixes tired fast, whether you have a long list to do for work out. I'll tell you what, I told you after the, after the Texas A&M game, I was doing my live show and we talked about five hour energy. And I said, I got a honey do list before the games start on Sunday before NFL starts on Sunday before Red Zone and I want to clock. I got a honey do list. I had to move all of that up. All of it up because of that board of trustees meeting. It was reported at 730. I was like, damn, I need to have all of my chores done before 11 a.m. when I would think an announcement would come. I feel like that's a good time. I was like, I need to have it all. So I woke up, pounded a five hour energy, got to work, got doing that, was ready for a press conference or an announcement, pounded another one, and then went through the day. And it's just, first off, I love them. But secondly, they helped carry me through, because it was not an easy night's sleep after that debacle. If you get a five hour energy.com, that's the number five hour energy.com and get some five hour energy product today. You can use our promo code locked on CFB to receive 20% of your order. This offers only valid until September 30th on one order and cannot be used with other promotions. This code is not good on subscription orders. They're a five hour energy.com today. You know, we love talking stats here at Lockdown. Here's one that's super simple to remember. Discover automatically doubles the cashback you've earned on your credit card at the end of your first year with cashback match. That means with Discover, you could turn $150 cashback to $300. That's right. You could put it towards some memorabilia you've had your eye on or treat yourself to a premium sports network. You earn and discover doubles. See terms at discover.com/creditcard. Thanks for making locked on Gators. Your first listen of the day, every day, we are available daily and free revision podcast and on YouTube. I got to be real with you about this Watergateers offense on Saturday. Specifically a quarterback. And you can remove, you know, the DJ Library's second interception where he was trying to make stuff happen. Like you can remove some stuff. But neither quarterback is good against Texas A&M. And like I need to, I need to get that one out there and I need to acknowledge that neither quarterback, Graham Mertz nor DJ Legley played well against Texas A&M. And part of that was just being handicapped by your offense. I said it in the postcast. That first play from scrimmage for Florida was that stupid little, just run it right at them like we always do. And for the first half, it was, hey, every first in 10, we're running the football mantra. Like it was so predictable. The first play from scrimmage, I saw it get stuffed and I was watching the game with a few friends and I was like, all right, that's it. We're doing the same stuff. That's a wrap. It's over. And man, was it over fast? It was ugly, horrible, hideous. Don't care what you want to call it. But man, DJ Legley should still be the starter. And don't get me wrong. DJ Legley, in my opinion, played worse on Saturday than Graham Mertz. Hit it. I think that DJ played worse than Graham on Saturday. Not significantly worse, but worse. However, I don't really know if that matters for me. Because again, I said not significantly worse. But, and if you're offense apply, which probably played better than usual as past blocking. It's weird that run blocking is the thing they are just horrendous at right now. But DJ Legley, I think, just does the, not even I think, I know he does the off-trip things better, right? When the play breaks down, when things get out of structure, DJ Legley gets better. Like DJ Legley is the better alternative from Graham Mertz when the play breaks down. And the play is probably going to break down a lot with this team, because you're going to be in obvious passing situations. And teams, you're going to be dialing up whatever they can, whatever stunts, any exotic blitzes they can against you. And for Florida, yep, you should have someone that can create after the play breaks down. And that's DJ Legley. And also, let's say DJ Legley plays poorly. To this point, Graham Mertz has also played poorly. And so, wouldn't you rather, if you're going to get poor play, wouldn't you rather have the young guy out there? It's my same take with DJ Douglas and Greg Smith. I said it last week before the text saying I'm game. And I said, I'd play Greg Smith over to DJ Douglas, because even if Greg Smith is bad, at least I'm getting bad and young as opposed to DJ Douglas giving me bad and old. That's where I stand on it. That's where I stand at quarterback as well. Even if DJ Legley plays poorly, at least I'm getting the young guy reps there. Okay. Also, I will say this. This receiver room is what we thought it was. The top three guys specifically are who we thought they were. Elijah Badger coming over from Arizona State. I don't want to, you know, like, I don't want to act like, oh, like things are great, because Florida landed a couple of good receivers in the portal. But I will say this. It is entirely possible that Elijah Badger is in what Thomas Dyard receiver this year. Okay. I want to get that one clear. He's got 260 through three games, right? And the first game is relatively nice. He's on pace for 1,040 yards. This is a team that is probably going to be throwing the football a lot this year while trailing. And if Billy Napier does get fired or when Billy Napier gets fired, I am going to assume that Russ Callaway will be the offensive play caller, regardless of who the interim is. And Russ Callaway is probably going to want to throw the football around a bit. Elijah Badger has clearly been just a great receiver. I said this after week one, I said, you know, I think we know Elijah Badger is the better wide receiver than Trey Wilson. He is the better receiver. Trey Wilson might be a better playmaker. But Elijah Badger is the better wide receiver. Elijah Badger is an NFL wide receiver. Know that when you're watching him. You're watching an NFL receiver there. And so for me, Elijah Badger could be the first Florida Gator to go over a thousand since what 2001, I think it was 2002, maybe. Long time Elijah Badger could do that. And Shimmery DK again. He's someone that I feel like a lot of people were not out on, but kind of looked at him and went, okay, he's Graham Mertz's buddy. From Wisconsin. And sure, he was relatively non-existent in the first two games. Miami had one catch for 11 yards. Sam Ferdy had one catch for 44 yards as did everybody else. But against Texas A&M, he had six catches on seven targets, 91 yards in the touchdown. And also, I know this isn't playing receiver, but he had one of the best, like he had a special teams play where I saw that. And I said he's getting an NFL opportunity. Honestly, a team will see his special teams play. And regardless of how good he is as a receiver, they will say, you're going to be like, we want to try out at least on special teams. That he down to punt inside the one yard line. And it was beautiful. It was a great special teams play. And like Matthew Slater with the New England Patriots had like a 15 year career, and he was not a receiver. He was just out there as a gunner and special teamer. I'm not saying chimery decay, that's his ceiling, but I am saying that there's roles for guys who are special teamers in the NFL, and chimery decay could be one of them. As far as the running game goes, I mean, they needed to figure it out. I don't know what they're doing. Was I impressed with the offensive line against Samford, unimpressed with the offensive line against Miami, unimpressed with the offensive line against Texas, and I don't know why they can't run block right now. Like they're just everything this team does just seem so passive. They just lack aggression and intensity in so many times. And there's some players that carry that aggression, that carry that intensity, that carry that. Let's do it mindset, but there's so many others that are just passive. Everything, and it drives me freaking nuts. Running game, you see it figured out. And I need to re-watch again and see, I want to see what the run calls were, depending on who the running back was, but Montrell Johnson, negative seven watching yards, on seven carries. And he had nine carry, nine yards after contact, which also isn't good, but the fact that he had nine yards after contact and finished with negative rushing yards, he's getting hit behind the line immediately, every time. But then you look at Trey on web and he had six carries, 37 yards. He had, I think, two runs that went past 10 yards. And then he got another run where he stumbled behind the line, and then picked up 14. Like he stumbled and fell behind the line, picked up 14, they got called back, of course. But it was still a good run, a gritty run. Jacoby Jackson, four carries, 23 yards. And a touchdown. But it was just weird to me, and Jayden Ball had one carry, five yards. Every running back was pretty productive, except for Montrell Johnson. And so, one of the things I'm going to need to do this week is watch back and look at the run calls and look at if it was just Montrell not hitting the whole Montrell getting hit behind the line of scrimmage quicker, whatever it was. But Ron gave me to figure it out, or this one-dimensional stuff is not going to work for this team. Like being one-dimensional against the team, like Texas, like Georgia, like Ole Miss. Ole Miss's pass rush is going to be crazy if they know you're throwing the football. Georgia's pass rush is going to be crazy if they know you're going to, Texas A&M's pass rush is going to be crazy if they know you're throwing the football. And it's also not easy with just the other teams on the schedule. Tennessee James Pierce, you're going to get after you. Need to open up this run game and find a way to make it more creative, more functional, so that you can actually have a fully functioning offense. We'll talk about the defense next on Lockdown Gators. You've heard us all talk about FanDuel a lot that America's number one sports book, and we've got something a little different for you. Now, through September 22nd, that's this Sunday, all FanDuel customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday, take it from YouTube and YouTube TV. Then, with a YouTube TV base plan, you'll be able to watch every regular season Sunday afternoon out of market game. All you need is a Google account and a current form of payment, and you can cancel at any time. Just visit fanduel.com to download America's number one sports book. Bada, Bada Boom, Sold. Just sold my car on Carvana, dropping it off and getting paid today. Already? What, you still haven't sold yours? You told me about it months ago. I just... Is the offer good? Oh, the offer's great. Don't have another car yet? I could trade it in for this car I love. Come on, what are we waiting for? You're right. Let's go! Whether you're looking to sell your car right now, or just whenever feels right, go to Carvana.com and sell your car the convenient way. Terms and conditions apply. Thanks for making a lot. I'm Yidders. You're a first listen of the day. Every day we are available daily, and free reference to the podcast, and on YouTube. I don't know what to talk about first, because there were two things about this Texas A&M team that I said worried me. First, I said this Texas A&M run game worries me. Because I think that they're built to create explosive runs. Great consistent runs. It's a really good run scheme. I said Colin Klein reminds me of a young Chip Kelly. A Chip Kelly was a good head coach at Oregon. Like he had Oregon in the national title picture pretty consistently. Didn't win it, but they were in the picture consistently. And for Oregon, that's a lot. They were a program I've never won. So to have them in that picture, great. A lot of what he did there was with the run game, right? Like it was with that run game that was so explosive, and so effective. The Laguerre at Michael James run game, D. Anthony Thomas. He put athletes in space in the run game, and allowed them to create explosive runs. He's still doing that at Ohio State. We've talked about pin pull before, which is the tight end of the edge. Pins the edge rusher to the inside. And there's multiple pulling offensive linemen. And they all pull outside that tight end. And now they're kind of just creating an alley, and you got a little lawn boy heading out there. Chip Kelly does that with receivers that are coming in motion. And now they're the lead blocker on pin pull. It's insane stuff. Colin Klein reminds me of that. And Colin Klein also does a really good job of getting his quarterbacks involved in the run game. And Marcel Reed did that against Florida when Conor Rigman was a late scratch from the game. They still had that. And that was the other thing that worried me. Mobile quarterbacks. Conor Rigman was a worry for me as a runner. Again, he's not this incredibly dynamic rusher, but he's dynamic enough, and he's good enough as a rusher. He gets your gritty yards, makes an impact. Marcel Reed, a red shirt freshman, started for Texas A&M against Florida, is a very mobile quarterback. And boy, did he make you pay for it. Marcel Reed was killing Florida on the ground. OK, killing them. Finished with 13-- and these are the PFF numbers. So not that Florida got any sacks, but this removes those. 13 carries for 83 yards. OK, 13 carries for 83 yards. Two of them are scrambles. 33 yards. So design runs 50 yards there. Marcel Reed torched you, torched you on the ground. And he did the thing that running quarterbacks, mobile quarterbacks, do that is the back-breaking part of this. And let's pick up first downs on the ground. Texas A&M ran the ball 55 times. They picked up 19 first downs on the ground. Marcel Reed had the most first downs, picked up with six first downs, picked up on his 13 carries. That was something that I said against Samford. Florida's rushing into Florida's defending the mobile quarterback wasn't great, right? It wasn't great. Quincy Crittenden picked up quite a few rushing yards there, here and there. It wasn't anything incredible. But he was picking up a couple early on, especially that made me go, I don't like how Florida is defending this. And then Samford kind of went away from it and kind of shot themselves in the foot there. But I didn't like how they were defending it. And they showed me why, right? And for Florida, I mean, it was just ugly. And missed tackles like DJ Douglas. And here's one thing that I personally want to be better at. I feel like I didn't do a good enough job of calling players out when I don't think that they're that good. I'd say it about a couple of players. Like I've said, it about R-less. I don't think R-less is very good as a tight end. I think it's good as a power slot. Not very good as a tight end, which by the way, I know last Wednesday, I said I would start Tony Livingston over R-less. And a lot of comments just came bashing me. And the second half came and Tony Livingston was starting at tight end, opposite Hayden Hanson over R-less. I kind of know that a little bit. At safety, I said Gregory Smith should play over DJ Douglas. I don't think DJ Douglas is good. He was a transfer portal edition that I was skeptical of. I said he had a really high miss tackle rate. And it was also just poor angles and poor technique. It wasn't just something that's easily fixable. And when you have that at the group of five level, it is really hard to convince me that you're going to all of a sudden be better at that at the SEC level. And DJ Douglas horrible performance against Texas A&M. Horrible had four missed tackles according to PFF. Felt like more. Felt like more. He just played such poor football and it was just horrible. 48ers pass rush was non-existent. Off ball players for Florida rushed the passer 18 times. And I'm not saying blitz just because of sometimes there's creepers, where it's not technically a blitz, but you're rushing an off ball player. You know, you're rushing Shamar James, but you're dropping TJ CRC, it's still only four players, so not technically a blitz, all that stuff. But off ball players who rushed the passer 18 times against Texas A&M. The entire team throughout the entirety of the game got seven pressures. And do you know where those pressures came from? Five of them came from off ball players. Three came from Shamar James. Two came from Jason Marshall, Jr. One came from Desmond Watson and one came from George Gums. That was it. Nobody else had a pressure. Nobody. And don't feel like Texas A&M wasn't running the ball. It wasn't throwing the ball upon, right? They didn't throw the ball in the entire fourth quarter. Because they didn't have to. But when they threw the ball, Florida did nothing to generate consistent pressure. It was blitz gets some pressure or not. So going into this game, I said we'll find out in this game if these teams actually have bad pass rushes. Or if it's just not there yet. I think Texas A&M has earned the it's just not there yet. I think they had a few good plays. Nick Scorton popped a couple of times. Cash is Howell popped a couple of times. They got a couple of sacks. They had 12 pressures as a total. Florida had seven pressures as a total. And five of them came from blitzing off ball players. You got two pressures from traditional pass structures. And I didn't even want to call it does a traditional pass structure. I don't like defensive linemen. Defense of linemen are considered traditional pass structures. You know, no one's expecting that from does. But two pressures. One from Desmond Watson, one from George Gums. Horrible communication issues continued for Florida. Embarrassing performance there. And I said this a year or two ago about Jason Marshall Jr. Which by the way, I feel like we're flipping the other side of the spectrum here where for years, I would get bashed for saying he's not good. Last year, a bunch of people joined in with me which is great unity. Sure, all that fun stuff. We are the world. Now I think they've gone too far with it. Jason Marshall has played better this year than in previous years. He has. There's been some communication breakdowns. But as far as his actual play, I'm saying forget communication breakdowns. As far as his actual play, he's gotten better. Because I think communication breakdowns are a multiple party fault, right? So I'm saying as far as just playing football, Jason Marshall Jr. looks better this year. Not great, but looks better this year. But I said this a year or two ago, I think long term. I think he's best suited for the slot. I don't think he's going to be amazing there. I think that might be his best skill set. I think he plays press enough there or plays well enough to hang out there. I think he's got the athletic traits to keep up with people. And I think that he's got, I guess, an overlooked kind of moxie as a blitzer from the DB spot. Like we saw it last year, he had a few battered passes from the DB spot up. He had quite a few pressures there on unlimited opportunities as a pass rusher there. At the nickel, you get to do that more often. And so for me, like last year, he had two pressures on 10 pass rushes. The year before, he had two pressures on three. This year, he's got two pressures on three pass rushes. Like he's done well when he's blitzing against the run. He's more active when he's already coming downhill. Like he's, and he's playing more physical this year. I'm not saying he's this amazing DB. I think he's better suited for the slot. I understand playing him out wide and college level. I do because he, while he might be best suited to play in the slot in the NFL, and it might be best for his career as a coach. It's your job to put guys in position to succeed and win games. I think Jason Marshall's putting decent film out there right now. Not sure how great, but he's putting decent film out there. He's playing the slot a couple of times here and there. And I think he's playing, again, decently. I think he might be best suited for the slot long term. But for now, I understand playing him out outside corner. But he's one guy where, I mean, him and Dijon Johnson have really impressed me at corner so far. Like Jason Marshall Jr. are considering what my expectations were. And Dijon Johnson just didn't really have any expectations because it was kind of like plain slate. Didn't really see much last year. Really like him where I see from them, at least. But the communication breakdowns on defense are just inexcusable. For a team that is more veteran than they were last year, they are having more communication issues and more mental lapses than they had last year. And that's embarrassing as a program. Thanks for being locked on Gators here first. Listen, every day we are available daily and free breakfast and podcast. And on YouTube, we'll be back tomorrow to talk more Florida Gators football. Maybe we'll be back today if there's any news. Something tells me they're sitting on their hands. For locked on Gators, I'm Brandon Olson. Don't forget to follow me on Twitter at WNS underscore Brandon. Find all my written work with Giants country and I'll see you all next time. A prime member. 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