re: Lavar Arrington on James Franklin: "There seems to be...a power struggle taking place".

quote:

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That doesn't follow. Napier is a hot name in the coaching world. I'm not going to pretend to know what the list is, but Fickell is Tom Herman in 2016 and Napier is Scott Frost in 2018. Neither of those two really panned out, but both had people very high on them despite being "just G5 coaches". I would guess Franklin would get the nod in a vacuum, but it wouldn't be weird if the #1 choice is a guy who turned down Auburn because he thought he could do better. To everyone outside of this website he is not "just" that Lafayette coach.

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It's not fair to put Napier in the same category as Fickell, Herman, or Frost based on what those coaches have accomplished.

Frost was a G5 coach that went undefeated and beat a SEC team in a NY6 bowl.

Herman was a G5 coach that beat an ACC team in a NY6 bowl (and followed that up with additional big P5 wins).

Fickell led his team to a NY6 bowl, lost a very close game against an elite SEC team, and has come back this year with a team in playoff contention including a win over a historic program that was ranked in the top 5 at the time.

All of those coaches have accomplished significantly more than what Napier has accomplished at ULL. That doesn't mean they're necessarily better coaches, but that the hype around them at the time was justified based on the product they were putting on the field.

ULL under Napier is very close to being 3-3 right now. This isn't a program that's just mowing down teams like 2015 Houston or 2017 UCF.