12/20/2023 0 Comments Fallout shirt vault 101![]() Golden has made it point to reach out to former Florida players (from all eras) and invite them to reconnect with the program. He was a standout player at Saint Mary's - one of the best 3-point shooters in West Coast Conference history - during the same era that Billy Donovan's teams were winning back-to-back national championships. Golden, 36, is cut from the cloth of a new wave of analytics-based hoops coaches, but there's more to him than that. Before the team even received its consolation NIT bid, White bolted for the vacant job at Georgia.Īnd before the end of the NCAA Tournament's opening round, the Gators had a new coach in Todd Golden, via the University of San Francisco, after guiding the Dons to their first NCAA berth in 23 years. No one will know if there would've been any difficult conversations between UF athletic director Scott Stricklin and men's basketball coach Mike White, after the Gators went 19-13 and missed the NCAA Tournament for the first time since White's inaugural '15-16 season. Gator Nation, thus far, has overwhelmingly approved of the new direction.Īthletic Director Scott Stricklin (left) introduces new UF basketball coach Todd Golden at the March 23 news conference at Exactech Arena. Napier, 42 and with assistant stops at five different venues (including for Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney), went 40-12 in four seasons guiding the Ragin' Cajuns, with a 33-5 mark over his last three and a Sun Belt Conference title - the school's first in more than a half-century - in 2021.Īt his introduction news conference, Napier spoke of today's college football coaches being in the "talent acquisition business," and with that brought a meticulously detailed plan to rebuild the Florida program not only when it comes to recruiting and the transfer portal, but with an emphasis on "Name, Image and Likeness," the overall student-athlete experience and instilling an element of discipline that for more than a decade has too often been absent both on the field and off the field. In between Mullen's exit and the bowl game defeat, Florida hired Billy Napier, by way of the University of Louisiana, to become its 28th football coach. UF finished 6-7, just the third losing record for the program in the last 41 years. Ditto UCF, which defeated Florida in the Gasparilla Bowl a month after the Gators and Mullen parted ways after less than four seasons. Recruiting had waned significantly and UF found out in 2021 that the likes of Kentucky, South Carolina and Missouri had similar quality players. The Gators' offense had been among the most explosive in the country, their quarterback was a Heisman Trophy finalist and two receivers had been taken in the first round of the NFL Draft.ĭan Mullen's program had a ton of momentum.Īs it turned out, the Gators didn't have a ton of players ready to continue the run. This time last year, the Florida football team was coming off a third consecutive season that ended in a New Year's Six Bowl. Champions behave like champions before they're champions they have a winning standard of performance before they are winners." – Bill Walsh #GoGators | /h2aGSybr0v ![]() Some of the old-lookers … well … continued their looks and their traditions for success. Those new-look Gator teams, in turn, have an element of excitement about them. Whatever the case, the fallout of those circumstances commenced reboots to four different Florida programs, including the two highest-profile sports on campus. A couple decisions to move on were made by UF administration, another was by choice. The Out-With-the-Old, In-With-the-New circumstances varied. Take three, in fact.īut the most seismic developments were those that rocked individual programs in the form of transition. Not that there weren't some amazing achievements in the competitive arenas. The overriding theme of the 2021-22 University of Florida athletic year, without question, was change.
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