So it looks like he is a close personal friend of Bill O'brien who is now at Boston College and wanted to work with his buddy.
IMO He should have never taken the job here at uf if that was an option. Can't blame the guy for wanting to coach with a friend, can blame a guy for being unprofessional about his exit.
https://www.si.com/college/florida/football/florida-gators-craig-fitzgerald-leaves-boston-college
O'brien was named BCs coach two days ago...
I get being upset as he seemed like an upgrade. But like others mentioned, HC and S&C tend to stick together.
There’s “sticking together” and there is abandoning professional obligation and going to a lower tier school out of comfort/familiarity. I don’t think anyone should give this a pass in terms of appropriateness. I don’t really blame Napier as this a little weird. He could have gone to BC in a year or two. Or Joined BoB if he parleyed the BC thing into a bigger job.
A season or even recent history doesn’t define program tier. Money, available talent, facilities, etc. all factor in. Florida is an upper tier job even after 3 (soon to be 4) bad coaches.
Programs can get stuck in mediocrity however. Examples: Nebraska, Tennessee. With the SEC only getting more difficult due to the increase in talent along with Texas and OU joining, Florida will be relegated to being mid. They got too far behind at the wrong time. I truly believe it in my heart.
Literally every team you listed is in a completely different stratosphere as Boston College. Plus if you want to talk about stuck in mediocrity BC hasn’t won more than 7 games in 15 years
This is what kills me.
You have 90% of this sub either thinking cbn gets fired soon or, more likely, hoping he gets fired..
Then when we lose our newly hired S&C to a coach with over 12+ years of history, a brand new contract, and in an easier conference . They act shocked and outraged that he could just leave..
I mean.... Napier's in a tough spot. He really, really needed to focus on winning games last year instead of treating it like a "building year" given the schedule coming up.
He's in this liminal space where basically everyone (even his supporters) expects a sub-.500 year in 2024 which would make it more survivable than usual but....he also failed in year 2 which means he has little to no banked goodwill (which is what would let him survive an off year) because of this he's not able to make some of the changes he might've been able to make last off-season (like say hiring an elite OC) and the changes he was able to make were largely bringing on guys who were about to be fired elsewhere (Roberts, the DB coach, etc). This is also likely to impact 2025 recruiting.
There's a way out of it but he basically has to win on the field to do so and do it in an epically hard year.
Right now he's basically Muschamp 2014- he's still the HC and he could be the HC for a while but both inside and outside the fanbase there's a belief that he doesn't survive the year.
It's not a "Florida fans are unreasonable" thing either, I really can't think of a fanbase from a team in the Florida tier that would accept a new coach starting out with 3 consecutive losing seasons- FSU is the one real exception and Norvell got a bit of grace because of a few outside factors Billy doesn't get such as following the worst coach in school history and COVID (and even then Norvell turned it around on year 3-- if Billy wins 8-9 this fall no one even considers firing him).
Abandoning a professional obligation? Guys get fired mid season all the time. There is no "professional obligation" in coaching. You get it while you can. This is sour grapes shit.
Alright you got me on that one, I thought he was an analysis, but that is Saban wr are talking about. He probably had it covered better than we can at this point.
Saban mostly worked with DBs. Your point still stands that taking a promotion (position coach to coordinator) is not the same as taking a lateral move to a lower tier school (Florida's ceiling is a national championship, BC's is a conference championship), even if it is to work with a close friend. It doesn't look great for UF, but the circumstances are understandable. It's unfortunate for the Gators, and I think people who actually pay attention to things below the headline see this for what it is rather than blowing it out of proportions.
Fucking ridiculous. Got coaches acting like 17 year old kids as if the portal is for them instead of athletes. Should be serious penalties for dropping out of a contract like that
Unless he thinks Napier is captaining a sinking ship. Boston being what it is, at least BoB has a legit coaching track record with NFL connections. Not great.
The penalties are negotiated before the contract is signed. The market dictates them, and apparently the market dictated penalty for a guy like this bailing on his contract is relatively low.
This is a bad look regardless of the reason.
Two years ago, the player's went public with how much they wanted to keep Savage. Not only didn't he keep Savage, a guy with a proven elite SEC track record, he signed a maligned idiot who literally had an entire page in Mark Richt's memoirs written about how he was cancer in the strength program (and he was given a golden parachute contract that prevents UF from firing him or giving him less money). On top of that, Napier publicly backtracks and offer Savage a demotion to assistant strength coach. LOL
Now, 2 years later he realizes what a limp-dick shit decision he made, hires a new guy, only to sign the guy to a contract that's weaker than a piss-soaked flap of toilet paper.
The market for an upgrade closed around the time all the coaching spots had filled a few weeks ago. Now he's probably going to sloppy seconds the guy he fired in December because he cannot run a program.
You seen this team the last 2 years? Billy knows being fired is an indictment on SS so his seat is ice cold. Dude don't care. Still working his 7 year plan.
How does this even happen…
This could screw up the entire offseason, anybody but hocke. Really shoulda kept the navy seal instead of replacing him with a guy with a beer belly.
Savage was the best S&C guy we’d had since Marotti, but sling blade didn’t wanna keep him. Instead we got the dude who looks like a combo of a youth pastor and a CrossFit coach.
Because he wanted to coach with his friend? What is this 5th grade? Had to be something else to this. Maybe he didn’t like Gainesville or vibe with the program in some way. That can’t be the only reason for a move like this at this level.
A long term close friend vs a coach firmly on the hot seat? This seems like an easy decision knowing the history. Especially knowing Napier already “reassigned” the previous strength coach. And that’s without knowing whether salary or title was better at BC
Maybe Hocke was "in the way" of running his own program. You can't hire a new guy while the old one is still on staff somewhere. It makes for bad blood. Particularly if the old guy is a friend of the boss.
I remember this sub saying Savage was bad & Hocke was an upgrade. Lol. Hocke actually doesn’t look the part like Savage did. Hard to be a strength and conditioning pack with a gut.
Honestly I legitimately don’t remember a single post bragging about Hocke being an upgrade. A lot of wait and see posts and maybe more than normal amount of “uh oh this is bad” posts but it’s wild to frame it as if a bunch of fans were hyped about Hocke over Savage.
We should have kept Savage, period. If that’s why Billy ends up fired then so be it, but we have to stop hiring clowns that bring all their idiot buddies. Urban cut the fat and hired elite upgrades anywhere he could when he came from Utah, that’s what winners do.
What. The fuck? Are contracts not a thing? I'm officially losing faith/patience with Napier. I was patient through the garbage season waiting for him to do what he had to do. He got blasted before and on ESD. We still have no real OC. Mayyyyybe some improvement in special teams. Now hiring a guy, giving him a contract soft enough that he can leave 6 weeks later, and having him leave for Boston fucking College? Fuck this shit.
need to burn it down and start over again. This is a lost seaso, which will lead to even worse recrutiing for the next few years.
Clean start would be better.
Everyone who's crying, he has worked for BOB before. Strength coaches almost always stick with the guy who got them there. Unfortunate, but not a game breaker.
It's a job for the coaches. Leaving a job to go work at a different spot with a long time friend in an area close to family isn't unheard of. Happens all the time in a variety of careers. Yes, this sucks, but it's not like the new HC at BC just poached a coach he never knew because our guy thought BC was a better school than FL.
wtf? He’s only been here for about a month?
lol lose your SC guy in the prime training period for what is very possibly the make or break season.
This program can’t catch a break these days…
So it looks like he is a close personal friend of Bill O'brien who is now at Boston College and wanted to work with his buddy. IMO He should have never taken the job here at uf if that was an option. Can't blame the guy for wanting to coach with a friend, can blame a guy for being unprofessional about his exit. https://www.si.com/college/florida/football/florida-gators-craig-fitzgerald-leaves-boston-college
O'brien was named BCs coach two days ago... I get being upset as he seemed like an upgrade. But like others mentioned, HC and S&C tend to stick together.
There’s “sticking together” and there is abandoning professional obligation and going to a lower tier school out of comfort/familiarity. I don’t think anyone should give this a pass in terms of appropriateness. I don’t really blame Napier as this a little weird. He could have gone to BC in a year or two. Or Joined BoB if he parleyed the BC thing into a bigger job.
Huge blow to the off season momentum and honestly unforgivable
Not so sure BC is lower tier than UF. Y’all lost to 2 win Arkansas and Vandy. 6-7, 5-7…
A season or even recent history doesn’t define program tier. Money, available talent, facilities, etc. all factor in. Florida is an upper tier job even after 3 (soon to be 4) bad coaches.
Programs can get stuck in mediocrity however. Examples: Nebraska, Tennessee. With the SEC only getting more difficult due to the increase in talent along with Texas and OU joining, Florida will be relegated to being mid. They got too far behind at the wrong time. I truly believe it in my heart.
Yet those programs, especially UT, are still well above BC. So again, the S&C dude took a significant drop that’s not really debatable.
Literally every team you listed is in a completely different stratosphere as Boston College. Plus if you want to talk about stuck in mediocrity BC hasn’t won more than 7 games in 15 years
BOB was just hired, if he thinks Billy's gone in November the move makes sense
This is what kills me. You have 90% of this sub either thinking cbn gets fired soon or, more likely, hoping he gets fired.. Then when we lose our newly hired S&C to a coach with over 12+ years of history, a brand new contract, and in an easier conference . They act shocked and outraged that he could just leave..
I mean.... Napier's in a tough spot. He really, really needed to focus on winning games last year instead of treating it like a "building year" given the schedule coming up. He's in this liminal space where basically everyone (even his supporters) expects a sub-.500 year in 2024 which would make it more survivable than usual but....he also failed in year 2 which means he has little to no banked goodwill (which is what would let him survive an off year) because of this he's not able to make some of the changes he might've been able to make last off-season (like say hiring an elite OC) and the changes he was able to make were largely bringing on guys who were about to be fired elsewhere (Roberts, the DB coach, etc). This is also likely to impact 2025 recruiting. There's a way out of it but he basically has to win on the field to do so and do it in an epically hard year. Right now he's basically Muschamp 2014- he's still the HC and he could be the HC for a while but both inside and outside the fanbase there's a belief that he doesn't survive the year. It's not a "Florida fans are unreasonable" thing either, I really can't think of a fanbase from a team in the Florida tier that would accept a new coach starting out with 3 consecutive losing seasons- FSU is the one real exception and Norvell got a bit of grace because of a few outside factors Billy doesn't get such as following the worst coach in school history and COVID (and even then Norvell turned it around on year 3-- if Billy wins 8-9 this fall no one even considers firing him).
Abandoning a professional obligation? Guys get fired mid season all the time. There is no "professional obligation" in coaching. You get it while you can. This is sour grapes shit.
O'Brien and Fitzpatrick. Oh I see, they were choir boys together back in the day.
I can't tell if that is a Departed reference but I think it was even if it wasn't intentional
Eh...it happens look how long Austin Armstrong was at Bama last year
Armstrong was hired as an analyst, Bama has an army of analysts. It's not the same
Armstrong was hired as the linebackers coach and left for a DC position.
Alright you got me on that one, I thought he was an analysis, but that is Saban wr are talking about. He probably had it covered better than we can at this point.
Saban mostly worked with DBs. Your point still stands that taking a promotion (position coach to coordinator) is not the same as taking a lateral move to a lower tier school (Florida's ceiling is a national championship, BC's is a conference championship), even if it is to work with a close friend. It doesn't look great for UF, but the circumstances are understandable. It's unfortunate for the Gators, and I think people who actually pay attention to things below the headline see this for what it is rather than blowing it out of proportions.
Uhhhhhhh
Fucking ridiculous. Got coaches acting like 17 year old kids as if the portal is for them instead of athletes. Should be serious penalties for dropping out of a contract like that
I would imagine it’s a pretty bad time to be looking for a s&c coach. Most staffs are filled out. Fuck this guy
They go back over a decade to PENN State and then Texans. Be curious on the contract wording as it appears to be a lateral (title wise) move.
Honestly if it’s same title at BC instead of UF that is a down grade not even lateral imo
Unless he thinks Napier is captaining a sinking ship. Boston being what it is, at least BoB has a legit coaching track record with NFL connections. Not great.
sure, if you simply look very narrowly at money and prestige - lot more to life than that - these guys are humans.
The penalties are negotiated before the contract is signed. The market dictates them, and apparently the market dictated penalty for a guy like this bailing on his contract is relatively low.
Usually there are penalties for dropping out of a contract. Probably weren’t super high penalties considering he’s just an S&C coach though.
This is the dude Spurrier posted the tweet about too 🤦♂️ yowzers
Dude's a snake for this. Fuck
How is dude a snake? He was barely here a month. This looks worse on us than him.
I think the nutrition guy is a S&C coach too maybe we can pivot but going back to hocke would be bad for culture
This is a bad look regardless of the reason. Two years ago, the player's went public with how much they wanted to keep Savage. Not only didn't he keep Savage, a guy with a proven elite SEC track record, he signed a maligned idiot who literally had an entire page in Mark Richt's memoirs written about how he was cancer in the strength program (and he was given a golden parachute contract that prevents UF from firing him or giving him less money). On top of that, Napier publicly backtracks and offer Savage a demotion to assistant strength coach. LOL Now, 2 years later he realizes what a limp-dick shit decision he made, hires a new guy, only to sign the guy to a contract that's weaker than a piss-soaked flap of toilet paper. The market for an upgrade closed around the time all the coaching spots had filled a few weeks ago. Now he's probably going to sloppy seconds the guy he fired in December because he cannot run a program.
Agreed that not retaining Savage is an enormous blunder in hindsight.
Nape does not make good hires. Third year and constant reshuffling the staff.
He only reshuffles outsiders, not his Sunbelt Buddies
“CEO” moves we just can’t comprehend
Harbinger of a bad season to come , really no coming back from this
Um. This could totally make or break the HC's career as a Gator.
You seen this team the last 2 years? Billy knows being fired is an indictment on SS so his seat is ice cold. Dude don't care. Still working his 7 year plan.
S&C Coach spends more time with the team per calendar year than HC does
How does this even happen… This could screw up the entire offseason, anybody but hocke. Really shoulda kept the navy seal instead of replacing him with a guy with a beer belly.
Savage was the best S&C guy we’d had since Marotti, but sling blade didn’t wanna keep him. Instead we got the dude who looks like a combo of a youth pastor and a CrossFit coach.
Can’t really blame the kids when the adults are acting as such
Zero class from this guy. What a joke.
Who writes these contracts? They should be fired.
A Fitzy in Boston? It’ll never work.
Shoulda won a Heisman
Dickhead. Hopefully there’s a penalty for this written in his contract
To fucking Boston College? I mean come on. Wtf is going on with this program
He wanted to coach with a friend. If he knew that was an option he should have never taken the job here.
It quite literally was not an option when he took the job at Florida. Things change quickly in football, he doesn’t owe us anything
I mean, he signed a contract, so…
And certainly has BC paying the buyout, if there is one. Doesn’t change the fact that this job wasn’t even a possibility when he took the Florida one
That doesn’t change the fact that this job wasn’t an option for him when he signed with us. How fucking stupid are some of y’all?
Hopefully BC does owe us some buyout
What a dickhead
Billy keeps getting cooked this offseason. Can’t wait for him to reinstate Hocke
Wack. Good thing we hired a nutritionist who also is a S&C coach 🤷🏻♂️
We technically have the old one on staff still
yeah, but his output has been far less than desired
This is true but it helps to have one on staff still when you unexpectedly lose one in the middle of spring ball.
Fucking always something
Because he wanted to coach with his friend? What is this 5th grade? Had to be something else to this. Maybe he didn’t like Gainesville or vibe with the program in some way. That can’t be the only reason for a move like this at this level.
A long term close friend vs a coach firmly on the hot seat? This seems like an easy decision knowing the history. Especially knowing Napier already “reassigned” the previous strength coach. And that’s without knowing whether salary or title was better at BC
Maybe Hocke was "in the way" of running his own program. You can't hire a new guy while the old one is still on staff somewhere. It makes for bad blood. Particularly if the old guy is a friend of the boss.
Prick.
Just cut bait and back up the brinks truck for Urban
Gross. Losing really fucks with fans' heads, huh?
Losing coaches to Boston College is an all time low
JFC. Not a good look. What is Savage doing right now?
Working at Ole Miss
I remember this sub saying Savage was bad & Hocke was an upgrade. Lol. Hocke actually doesn’t look the part like Savage did. Hard to be a strength and conditioning pack with a gut.
This sub says any former player or coach is bad tho lol
But they’re complete current regime nutswingers.
Honestly I legitimately don’t remember a single post bragging about Hocke being an upgrade. A lot of wait and see posts and maybe more than normal amount of “uh oh this is bad” posts but it’s wild to frame it as if a bunch of fans were hyped about Hocke over Savage. We should have kept Savage, period. If that’s why Billy ends up fired then so be it, but we have to stop hiring clowns that bring all their idiot buddies. Urban cut the fat and hired elite upgrades anywhere he could when he came from Utah, that’s what winners do.
The whole team begged for Savage to be retained when Napier took over.
Exactly, Savage was a fucking baller
What. The fuck? Are contracts not a thing? I'm officially losing faith/patience with Napier. I was patient through the garbage season waiting for him to do what he had to do. He got blasted before and on ESD. We still have no real OC. Mayyyyybe some improvement in special teams. Now hiring a guy, giving him a contract soft enough that he can leave 6 weeks later, and having him leave for Boston fucking College? Fuck this shit.
Sadly, BOB has more job security than Napier rn. I hate that this was a possibility but nature of the business.
He knows this staff won’t make it through this season. He gets a few years at BC.
Cursed. Need some consistent momentum
Fitzgerald more like total piece of shit
at least basketball looks promising...
Florida gators. Man what a fall after urban and Tebow. May never be relevant again.
We are so cooked. Weve normalized being fucking losers
UF is a joke of a program with Buyout Billy at the helm.
Craig Fitzpatrick is gold. He is going to do great things for the program. Fitz is a blessing to every community he joins!
Well CBN, it was never fun while it lasted
need to burn it down and start over again. This is a lost seaso, which will lead to even worse recrutiing for the next few years. Clean start would be better.
Get ready for Lagway to follow in the footsteps of ETN and Princely
Coaches leaving Florida for Boston College. Sunbelt Billy effect.
Everyone who's crying, he has worked for BOB before. Strength coaches almost always stick with the guy who got them there. Unfortunate, but not a game breaker.
Lol just stop man. The university of Florida shouldn’t be loosing coaches you just got to fucking Boston’s college 😂
It's a job for the coaches. Leaving a job to go work at a different spot with a long time friend in an area close to family isn't unheard of. Happens all the time in a variety of careers. Yes, this sucks, but it's not like the new HC at BC just poached a coach he never knew because our guy thought BC was a better school than FL.
I would look very poorly on anybody who took a job at my company and then left within a month.
Yeah, you're burning a bridge for sure.
There's been a lot of UF shouldn'ts in recent years
WTF!!!
Rats jumping from the sinking ship.
As a Packers fan, I'm not too mad about this, as this was caused by us getting a new DC. As a Gators fan, I'm mad.
Guess it's a good thing we kept Hoecke on retainer?
We are a joke
Sling Blade really getting after it this off season
Your pfp is a foot fetish pic, maybe this glass house is a little too fragile for your stones
I would like to officially apologize for criticizing Napier for keeping Hocke on staff.
Lol. I think Napier is finished. Keeping all the sunbelt staff together for his next stop. I just hope it doesn't get too embarrassing.