If you believe the rumblings and are reading the tea leaves, the Billy Napier Era feels like it might be finally coming to an end. While we here at Hail Florida Hail have been calling for this charade to end since the Texas A&M game last year, even the most patient of Gator media members seem to be confident enough in saying, "It's time."
But suppose there is some mysterious grand plan to fade Napier into the sunset after this Saturday so that he can get one last win in The Swamp.
In that case, it's inexcusable and constitutes complete malpractice by an administration that has been asleep at the wheel the entire time.
What should be done eventually...
At this point, it feels like we've said everything there is to say about the failures of the Billy Napier Era.
And while Napier will ultimately have to own why he refused common-sense fixes that could have saved his tenure, it's at this point that Scott Stricklin shares as much of the blame for continuing to send Napier out there.
Stricklin could have pulled the plug after the Texas A&M loss last year, but he sat on his hands.
Stricklin could have pulled the plug after the Texas loss last year, but he had already doubled down on keeping Napier.
Stricklin could have pulled the plug heading into the first bye week this year, but instead thought two weeks of negative headlines through the bye week were a good idea.
And here we are again, after losing to Texas A&M and falling to 2-4, rather than just issuing a press release and moving on, we are subjected to another week of Napier speculation instead of focusing on the actual game the Gators are playing this week.
Stricklin is just delaying the inevitable and is allowing Napier to flounder in the wind. It's like a boxing coach sending his fighter out there for one more round, even though his fighter is down 10 rounds to one.
I've seen this film before
However, this is also emblematic of the Scott Stricklin Era, which has consistently sought to keep things quiet and hope that problems will resolve themselves.
Most notably, women's basketball and soccer had notable coaching scandals, where Stricklin did everything he could to keep things under wraps.
Stricklin gets credit for hiring Todd Golden, but that only happened after he wouldn't fire Mike White and had to rely on White walking away on his own.
And so while Penn State, UCLA, Virginia Tech, Oklahoma State, UAB, Arkansas, and Oregon State have all figured it out, Florida seems insistent on proving how smart it is by doing things slow and steady.
Just smile and nod.
Smile and nod.