Russell Report: Gators fall to the Hurricanes on the road leaving fans searching for answers

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) - We have been down this road before, and if you are a Florida football fan, it’s a road filled with potholes, winding curves and not a lot of room on the shoulder of the road. It’s a bye week for Florida football, and once again the big topic is the future of Head Coach Billy Napier.

No need to go into his record, no need to go into what happened last year when Athletic Director Scott Stricklin gave Napier a vote of confidence and the Gators then ended the season on a high note, fueling expectations for this year despite another brutal schedule. The fact is, we are back to this point again and a lot of people have seen enough.

It’s easy to say fire the coach. Maybe too easy. But it was stunning to see Florida so thoroughly dominated on both lines of scrimmage when it lost to Miami in a game where the defense, minus a bunch of starters, played heroically and kept the team in the game. The offense was abysmal. Florida averaged just 2.7 yards per play in the game, the fewest since 1986, which is also the last time the Gators started a season 1-3. Throw in going 0-13 on third down as well.

Maybe the two most glaring things about Florida on offense has been the regression of quarterback DJ Lagway and the subpar play of an offensive line that had two preseason all-sec players on it. Lagway looks lost and confused, a shadow of the player many believed he would become. Except for one really nice drive in the second half, the Miami defensive front manhandled the Florida offensive line in impressive fashion. The offense could do next to nothing.

If you want a positive, Florida played hard against Miami. There was no quit in them and that seems to show Napier has not lost the locker room. While that’s nice, it’s still about winning and losing and in a year when expectations were high for improvement, that road we talked about seems to be ending up with a dead end sign.

I often hear you can’t fire a coach these days because players would leave in droves via the transfer portal. While that’s probably true, you can also build back your team through the transfer portal and that’s one of the prices a school, its fan base and its team will pay if a coaching change is made.

Tomorrow night, the SEC will reveal the league schedules for the next four years and we will get a glimpse at what future Florida schedules will be and if any relief is in sight. But for now, that schedule remains brutal and getting wins against it looks to be a difficult proposition in a season that many believe is already lost. I’m Steve Russell, that’s the Russell Report.

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