So there was recently a very interesting article in the Athletic about how the program got to where it is. u/PhysicalDecision5265 shared it in a great post you can review here. Subsequently, David Wunderlich of Gator Country did his own write up adding to the Athletic's analysis and taking lessons from the rise of UGA during the same time period. I'm a big Wunderlich fan. But, since the Athletic article is paywalled and I haven't seen a post about the Wunderlich piece yet, I thought I'd briefly summarize the key points on program trajectory and add some thoughts. Would encourage folks to read the full articles.

GDE.

Edit: I guess I'll add that I'm not necessarily endorsing the point of view here. For example, as someone pointed out below, the Athletic piece suggests we are "permanently" behind which I think is ludicrous. But I do think these articles are worth reading/discussion, because regardless of whether you agree with their POV these are two pretty knowledgeable folks.

-----------------------I. The Athletic Piece

This piece discusses generally how the program fell behind and you won't be surprised, it's the usual suspects of gripes.

• Facilities: For example, Alabama, Tennessee, and LSY all built in-door practice facilities between 1986 and 1991. Florida built its in 2015. Moreover, we didn't get a dedicated football-specific facility until 2022--like a decade after most SEC programs. According to the author, some of this originated with Spurrier who felt Florida didn''t need them way back in the 90s--but that attitude should not have permeated the AD's office the way that it did.
• Recruiting: We have the usual commentary of Muschamp being a strong--but uneven--recruiter and the slide truly beginning under Mac in terms of consistent. And then...not to beat a dead horse, but the article makes a big deal of Mullen essentially checking out. The pandemic changed him, according to insiders, and it became clear he wanted to go to the NFL. You can't compete on the recruiting trail against Saban and Smart with one foot out the door.
• NIL: This one, obviously, we knew we would see given the spectacular Rashada mess. As you guys know, we were simply late the to NIL game. We were rolling with the very amateurish Gator Collective (and the Gator Guard which is practically one dude for all meaningful purposes) and other schools were putting sophisticated NIL operations in place. The article, discussing the Rashada situation, notes "the debacle was an embarrassing reminder that Florida was once again behind on a concept that many of its rivals had handle better and sooner. Florida had finally caught up on facilities, but now NIL mattered more." We have Gators Victorious now, but we're still playing catch up. I may be wrong but I think u/drmartylawrence has some good tweets about this.

II. The Wunderlich Piece

Wunderlich basically just adds to the Athletic/Andy Staples article, but I think a few of his thoughts are interesting and I'd encourage folks to read his full article.

• Recruiting: The Athletic piece discusses the differences between Napier's first class and Saban's first class, but Wunderlich suggests that's not entirely fair. Saban was already a household name when he took over at Bama. Similarly, when comparing him to Smart, Smart was much more well-known given his prominence as Saban's DC. Simply, Napier, while well-respected in coaching circles, just didn't have the same cache when he took over the Florida job.
• Comparison to Georgia: Wunderlich points to essentially three reasons Georgia was able to make the jump (not even really turn around since Richt left them as a well-stocked, generally 10-win team). First, Smart inherited a much better situation, second, Smart is an excellent CEO type coach (which I think you shouldn't count unless we're sure you can't say the same for Napier), and third, Georgia was truly ready to begin spending the money Smart wanted to spend.

III. Some Random Thoughts

I think the two main things here are the comparison to Georgia piece and the NIL piece. I said--and argued with folks in the Discord at the time--that in a way, you could kind of think of NIL as year 0 for everyone. I felt it was going to change the game very dramatically. The simple fact is, we weren't prepared--plus I tend to think Florida's admin is very risk-averse. Now, the laws in Florida were different than in some other states and that also probably scared folks. It does seem like we are catching up now and taking it seriously.

As to the comparisons to Georgia, I think it is important to remember that Smart took over a much more stable program than Napier did. And, in terms of admin investment, Wunderlich makes one more good point that I think worth noting: " Napier had extensive plans made up for his vision for the program. Not coincidentally, Stricklin started spending much more on staffing and recruiting for him than he did for Mullen. The arrow of causation goes from the head coach to the administration, not the other way around. It’s not the athletic director’s job to hire and oversee an army of analysts, or expend more time and effort on the recruiting trail, or fix whatever other problem there is." It's the head coaches job to convince the AD to give him the money.

It does seem Napier is doing that. And it seems he is getting the buy-in that Mullen never got (likely because he never sought it). While Wunderlich points out that even if Napier isn't the guy, he'll leave UF in a lot better shape for the next guy than he found it in (more like the state Kirby found UGA in), I'm not that down on the situation. I think Napier is going to do impressive things here, but the cold realities outlined above do kind of remind me that it's not gonna happen overnight.