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There were 12 minutes to play in the third quarter when the reality of the situation sucked the life from a rivalry game with so much anticipation and left us staring at the inevitable.
It won’t end well for Billy Napier at Florida. In fact, it will more than likely end sooner than later.
It was bad enough that Miami did what it wanted in a 41-17 rout against a team Napier declared had prepared all offseason for this game. It was worse when Florida fans, already teetering in Year 3 of the Napier experiment, started filing out of The Swamp three minutes into the third quarter.
Blowout losses are one thing. Fan apathy takes this to a distinct and eventually defining level.
This isn’t about a exorbitant buyout ($26 million), or that the interim president running the show is the same former president who hired Napier. It’s not about patience, or a brutal schedule or the fact that Florida is staring at four straight losing seasons for the first time since the World War II era.
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When fans lose faith, when they walk out in the middle of games or fail to show up for future games, that’s when it all falls apart. It’s the same ugly scenario that cost every coach since Urban Meyer resigned after the 2010 season ― since the last time Florida football was relevant on the national stage.
This stage of the Napier era is not unlike the previous three coaches, each with his seminal moments. Will Muschamp lost to then-FCS Georgia Southern at home (a first), Jim McElwain couldn’t win and made up death threats (another first), and Dan Mullen followed three strong seasons with a horrific fourth ― and all the off-field problems of the past (including Florida’s first probation in three decades) suddenly became more important than three consecutive major…
Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/forget-26-million-buyout-fan-014335028.html
Author : USA TODAY Sports
Publish date : 2024-09-01 01:43:35
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