Napier vs Harsin

[W.E.D 11,070]

From Keith Niebuhr POV....

 

Quote

No, because this head coach actually works hard and gives a crap. And he does have some talent coming into Year 3.

Harsin was the worst head coach I've ever written about. The coaches that weren't his boys didn't like him. He didn't have a QB on the roster. Ran off Bo Nix. Couldn't recruit -- and didn't appear to try very hard. Wasn't a people person. Etc.

So many red flags with that guy.

It may not sound like much, but I think Billy Napier cares.

 

[AUloggerhead 2,232]

He's right ... it doesn't sound like much.  

[augolf1716 21,167]

There are reasons I never wanted Napier.....

[ScotsAU 1,331]

No question Napier has underperformed. But Harsin was arguably the worst coach of a top 15 caliber team in decades. I’d certainly call him the worst in Auburn history. At least Barfield had a couple of winning records.

[ScotsAU 1,331]

2 minutes ago, augolf1716 said:

There are reasons I never wanted Napier.....

But I do have to point out that a lot of people did. When there was first talk about ousting Gus, Napier, Cristobal, Fickell, and Bill Clark we’re kinda the top floated names. The first three have severely underperformed, and Bill Clark outright left football. 

[AUloggerhead 2,232]

2 minutes ago, ScotsAU said:

But I do have to point out that a lot of people did. When there was first talk about ousting Gus, Napier, Cristobal, Fickell, and Bill Clark we’re kinda the top floated names. The first three have severely underperformed, and Bill Clark outright left football. 

That's true but right now, Napier is getting all the hot seat attention.  I have immediate family who are UF grads and none of them are happy with Napier & actually look forward to when he's eventually replaced.  Speculation is Napier has one more year to show some progress.  Personally, I think it's down to the first 6 games or so.  

[woodford 3,656]

I get why they don't, but I sure wish Auburn's beat writers would've criticized Harsin more than they did while he was here. Could've gotten him fired way sooner.

[augolf1716 21,167]

1 minute ago, AUloggerhead said:

I think it's down to the first 6 games or so

More likely

[woodford 3,656]

1 minute ago, AUloggerhead said:

That's true but right now, Napier is getting all the hot seat attention.  I have immediate family who are UF grads and none of them are happy with Napier & actually look forward to when he's eventually replaced.  Speculation is Napier has one more year to show some progress.  Personally, I think it's down to the first 6 games or so.  

If Napier can win 7-8 games with that schedule next year, they would be crazy to fire him. 

[W.E.D 11,070]

58 minutes ago, woodford said:

I get why they don't, but I sure wish Auburn's beat writers would've criticized Harsin more than they did while he was here. Could've gotten him fired way sooner.

Everyone made endless excuses for him

[JKClark 180]

1 hour ago, ScotsAU said:

But I do have to point out that a lot of people did. When there was first talk about ousting Gus, Napier, Cristobal, Fickell, and Bill Clark we’re kinda the top floated names. The first three have severely underperformed, and Bill Clark outright left football. 

Was all Cristobal. Excellent recruiter, but lacks something in the coaching department. 

[woodford 3,656]

10 minutes ago, W.E.D said:

Everyone made endless excuses for him

Yeah it was infuriating. You could hear it in Caldwell and other’s voices but no one ever went on the offensive. Could’ve gotten you a ton of clicks lol

[AU120289 379]

1 hour ago, ScotsAU said:

But I do have to point out that a lot of people did. When there was first talk about ousting Gus, Napier, Cristobal, Fickell, and Bill Clark we’re kinda the top floated names. The first three have severely underperformed, and Bill Clark outright left football. 

But they all got paid! 

[W.E.D 11,070]

8 minutes ago, woodford said:

Yeah it was infuriating. You could hear it in Caldwell and other’s voices but no one ever went on the offensive. Could’ve gotten you a ton of clicks lol

I remember Tate and rivals hyping their recruiting apparatus like nothing anyone had ever seen before 

[AUwent 3,752]

1 hour ago, ScotsAU said:

But I do have to point out that a lot of people did. When there was first talk about ousting Gus, Napier, Cristobal, Fickell, and Bill Clark we’re kinda the top floated names. The first three have severely underperformed, and Bill Clark outright left football. 

Jury's still out on Fickell. It's clear that Miami is in a process with Cristobal. Venables is looking like a success. 

But, just goes to show how difficult it is to predict if a coach will be a success.

And I'll freely admit it (and as everyone probably remembers), I thought BN would be a damn good coach.

Edited December 15, 2023 by AUwent

[JBiGGiE 2,488]

Hugh Freeze is a better comparison for Billy Napier.

[ScotsAU 1,331]

1 hour ago, AUwent said:

Jury's still out on Fickell. It's clear that Miami is in a process with Cristobal. Venables is looking like a success. 

But, just goes to show how difficult it is to predict if a coach will be a success.

And I'll freely admit it (and as everyone probably remembers), I thought BN would be a damn good coach.

Venables?

Went 6-7 last year. Lost to Kansas this year. Take away the win over Texas, and he really hasn’t performed that well, especially considering where Oklahoma was prior to his arrival. 

[AUwent 3,752]

35 minutes ago, ScotsAU said:

Venables?

Went 6-7 last year. Lost to Kansas this year. Take away the win over Texas, and he really hasn’t performed that well, especially considering where Oklahoma was prior to his arrival. 

Perhaps. Their entire roster *did* bolt when LR left though. So we shall see. Oh how satisfying it would be to show him how aligned we truly are on 9/28!

(In fairness, at the time he was pretty spot on.)

[Cardin Drake 1,828]

I like Napier quite a bit. We are picking up some good recruits because of him.  I like people who are destroying our rivals.

[lca408 366]

3 hours ago, W.E.D said:

I remember Tate and rivals hyping their recruiting apparatus like nothing anyone had ever seen before 

There was that guy they hired midway through who was in NFL admin or something who was supposed to be the recruitment scout/coordinator. It honestly sounded like a good idea at the time and it probably was, if it had actually been utilized. 
 

Turns out it was just another position that Harsin could pawn off some more recruiting responsibility onto so he could do whatever tf else he wanted to do. 

[Old fan 47 772]

3 hours ago, JBiGGiE said:

Hugh Freeze is a better comparison for Billy Napier.

Not sure about that yet. HF recruits better I believe, but in my opinion, his coaching is still unproven even though he has been a HC at an SEC West school. Sorry, but I really can’t base a coach being good from decent years at Liberty.  Hope we take some steps forward in 24. 

[aucanucktiger 1,794]

Norvell is Napier but with luck. 

[Win4AU 4,052]

Florida baffles me. They’ve been on a 3 year rotation since Urban.  I gotta believe this is making it hard to maintain a quality roster.  The transfer portal does make it easier to rebuild but you still need a steady flow of high ranking recruits who stay to build quality depth.  Auburn bball for example had their best team with a bunch of guys that played together for 2-3 years.  If Florida fires Napier they will be resetting for another 3 years.

I would be shocked if Harsin ever gets a sniff outside of a low end Mountain West, AAC, CUSA kinda team.  ADs know what really happened and it wasn’t the big bad Auburn boogie man that ran him out of town.  

[EagleEye67 1,939]

On 12/15/2023 at 7:25 PM, AUwent said:

 Their entire roster *did* bolt when LR left though.

That's turned out well for him so far...

[AUwent 3,752]

They just lost a 5* to Texas LOL.

Edited December 18, 2023 by AUwent