“Alright Gator Nation, here we come!” (Photo credit: Florida Gators Athletics Association)
Hey, everyone! I’m Chris Yanes. I co-host the In All Kinds Of Weather Forecast with Neil and Dustin, and as life slightly eases up for me, I’m going to start writing a weekly segment called “Chris’s Two Bits.” The idea is to try to capture the mood of Gator Nation heading into each game.
So without further ado, here’s my first piece of the segment!
Each week, Gator fans wait anxiously for, among other things, the drop of a new hype video and recap highlights for each game. The theme that Florida’s creative team has chosen is the phrase “jOURney”. Billy Napier and his staff have always come up with creative ways to showcase each of his seasons’ highlights via social media.
After three weeks, the message is clear: he’s telling us to trust the journey.
Every journey in life has its rollercoaster of emotions and moments. The first week was a dramatic victory in front of an opening-week record crowd in The Swamp… which was followed up by a disappointing loss to Kentucky, and then a near-loss to an inferior in-state opponent in USF.
Some (not all) of Gator Nation seems to have gotten anxious during this time. But it’s important for everyone who falls in that anxious category to remember Napier’s opening day press conference. He specifically told us this would take some time to rebuild this roster and return it to the elite level of college football again.
If you don’t believe me, look no further than his first two seasons at Louisiana. In 2018, after taking over a program that had slid into mediocrity, he started with a 7-7 record and bowl loss. His transition class sat in the middle of the pack for the Sun Belt conference; he then followed that up with the top class in 2019 and an 11-3 record. By his third year, he split the Sun Belt conference title (there was no title game due to COVID) and won it outright in his fourth.
If Group of Five results don’t sway you, let’s take a different case study: the defending national champions. Just consider where Kirby Smart was in 2016. He nearly lost to FCS opponent Nicholls St at home before dropping a homecoming game to SEC doormat Vanderbilt.
While Georgia may have more talent than Florida, it just goes to show how you have to change the culture and roster before seeing consistent success on the field. Nick Saban learned that the hard way in his inaugural season in 2007, losing to Louisiana-Monroe on his way to a 7-6 finish before taking a big step forward in his second season and then winning the national title by his third year. And then, you know, winning it five more times after that.
For what it’s worth, I am on record predicting Florida to beat Tennessee. It’s very possible that they do not; Ventrell Miller’s current health doesn’t help matters, and I’m banking on AR playing far better than he did in his last two games. But whether or not Florida wins, it will be imperative for Gator Nation to remain patient with the jOURney.
No one loss in this jOURney’s embryonic stage defines anything. It’s all just part of it.
The inverse is also true. While every big game that Florida wins will be a huge stepping stone towards getting the Gator program back to where it’s supposed to be. It won’t necessarily mean that more bumps in that upward jOURney aren’t coming. So let’s stay the course.
Because Billy Napier came to Gainesville with a plan, just like he came to Lafayette with a plan. It took time for him to execute it there and it will take some in Gainesville as well. Don’t let a few mixed results discourage what is to come on the jOURney.
