Wait so Sarkisian and Kiffin are going at it over academics and Sumrall stepped in to defend Florida's standards. Fine, whatever. But can we talk about something that actually cost Florida games last season? Special teams ranked 89th in SP+ and that's not a coaching feud problem, that's a structural problem. The Gators gave up two punt return touchdowns and missed seven field goals inside 40 yards. That's not bad luck, that's bad execution across the board.
Sumrall brought in a new special teams coordinator who had top 20 units at his last two stops. That hire matters more than any Twitter beef with Sarkisian. Florida's net punting average was 34.2 yards, 112th nationally. You can't win close SEC games when you're giving opponents starting field position at the 38 every time you punt. The coverage units were getting gashed for 12.4 yards per return.
If Florida fixes the kicking game and gets to even top 50 in SP+ special teams, that's probably two more wins just from field positio...