Getting that eighth win will make a statement for Napier, Gators
Based entirely on prestige, the Gasparilla Bowl is insignificant, but let’s face it, every bowl game that isn’t part of the College Football Playoff has become little more than TV filler for ESPN. Where you go, who you play really doesn’t matter. What matters in this order are winning, the money, the TV exposure and the 15 practices that serve as a second spring.
You didn’t hear Billy Napier complain when the Florida Gators were assigned to the Gasparilla Bowl to play Tulane, did you? It kept the Gators close to home, gave them some practices in the fertile recruiting ground of Tampa and surrounding area, and thanks to defections by Tulane’s stud quarterback and two of their best defenders, gives Florida a legitimate chance to close the season on a 4-game winning streak.
Perceptions are everything when it comes to making a dent in the impressionable minds of future recruits, both of the high school and portal variety. Combined with the reality that Florida played the toughest schedule in the country and has the hottest name for the future moving forward in freshman quarterback DJ Lagway, the perception is that Florida is relevant once again.
That’s what this bowl game is all about. Perception and relevance. That’s why it is so important for the Gators to score a win over Tulane Friday afternoon (3:30 p.m., ESPN2) at Raymond James Stadium. Three months from now, no one will be paying that much attention to who the Gators beat nor will it matter that the Gators beat a Tulane team that had to play without its stud quarterback who led them to a 9-win season as a true freshman. Darian Mensah won’t play because he entered the transfer portal and signed with Duke.
Tulane minus Mensah won’t matter for the Gators, but eight wins will. Getting to eight is important because it is nearly double what the oddsmakers in Las Vegas predicted back in August. Eight wins says Billy Napier and the Gators navigated a difficult schedule to break a 3-year losing trend. Eight wins says beware the Florida Gators in 2025.
Eight wins matters to recruits. Whether it’s the Gasparilla Bowl or the Weedwacker, they look at the bottom line so eight wins is important. Again, it’s all about perceptions. For example, 5-star wide receiver Dallas Wilson (6-3, 193, Tampa, FL Tampa Bay Tech) signed with the Oregon Ducks just a couple of weeks ago. Wilson has asked out of his letter of intent to play for Oregon and once his request is granted, he will sign with the Gators. That wouldn’t have happened if the Gators hadn’t won their last three games to get to a bowl game.
When Wilson is released and signs with the Gators, Florida’s recruiting class should move inside the top ten. The Gators are currently 11th, but the move inside the top ten will matter to recruits. Perceptions are everything.
If Lagway and the Gators light up the Tulane defense tomorrow and the defense swarms and sacks like it did those last three games, it should bode well for enhancing the roster through the portal. Among others, the Gators are making a strong play for wide receivers Johntay Cook (Texas) and J. Michael Sturdivant (UCLA), EDGE Kofi Asare (UMass), quarterback Deshawn Purdie (Charlotte) and offensive tackles Rahtrel Perry (Central Connecticut) and Fa’alili Fa’amoe (Washington State). As bowl games are completed in the next week, more players will be in the portal so Florida’s interest list should expand. Getting to eight wins should have an impact on perceptions for those in the portal.
So, even though this is a pre-Christmas bowl game that could be dubbed the Catfish Bowl because it’s a bottom feeder, nobody will pay attention to who the Gators played or what bowl game they played in as long as they win the game and finish the season with eight wins.
THE WIN OVER UNC MADE A STATEMENT FOR THE GATORS
By Carolina standards, this isn’t a very good basketball team. The Tar Heels are accustomed to breathing rarified air that comes with being a true blueblood and a consistent occupant of the top ten. Still, any win over the Tar Heels makes a statement so for the unbeaten and 7th-ranked Gators, Tuesday night’s 90-84 win in the Jumpman Invitational in Charlotte sent a signal of legitimacy to the rest of the college basketball world.
We saw the Gators at their best in the first 18 minutes of the game when they threatened to run the Tar Heels out of the Spectrum Center. We also saw what happens when they lose their focus and intensity as they blew a 17-point lead and found themselves down three with a 2:29 to go in the game.
Most teams fold under such circumstances. Once you’ve collapsed and lost your momentum as the Gators did, it’s so hard to get it back, yet the Gators dug deep and found what they had going for them in the first 18 minutes. The Gators finished the game like a team with an opportunity to go further than any Florida team since 2017 when the season ended with an Elite Eight loss to South Carolina.
That strong finish is what made this such a statement game. The way the Tar Heels came back invigorated the rather huge pro-UNC contingent at the arena. The way the Gators regained their composure to finish on an 11-2 run showed a team that has a killer instinct. Best of all, it showed that the Gators can win tough games in a hostile environment even when they are not playing their best basketball and when their two top scorers are struggling to put the ball in the basket. Not many teams could win against a quality opponent on a night when Walter Clayton Jr. and Alijah Martin combine to go 9-32 from the field but the Gators did.
The way the Gators finished, it’s easy to talk about deep runs in the NCAA Tournament, but the tournament doesn’t come around for another two months. The Gators still have to navigate the minefield that is the Southeastern Conference and the SEC schedule is going to be brutal. There are only four undefeated teams in the country (Tennessee, Florida, Oklahoma and Drake) and three belong to the SEC. Bracketology guru Joe Lunardi believes 12 SEC teams will get into the NCAA Tournament. He also believes it’s possible 13 teams will get in. Lunardi currently has the Gators trending as a No. 3 seed. We will have to wait and see if the No. 3 seed predictions hold up because the SEC will cannibalize itself over the next two months. There won’t be any off nights, not in this league.
What happened in Charlotte should tell the rest of the SEC that the Gators are definitely for real. What happens in January and February against an all-SEC schedule will tell us just how real the Gators are.
SEC Basketball
Wednesday’s scores
No. 6 Alabama (9-2) 97, North Dakota (4-9) 90
No. 14 Oklahoma (11-0) 87, No. 24 Michigan (8-3) 86
Vanderbilt (10-1) 105, The Citadel (5-6) 53
Today’s games
Buffalo (5-5) at Georgia (9-1)
New Orleans (2-7) at Texas (9-2)
Friday’s game
Houston Christian at No. 12 Texas A&M (9-2)
Saturday’s games
North Florida (7-5) at No. 7 FLORIDA (11-0)
No. 16 Purdue (8-3) at No. 2 Auburn (10-1)
Ohio State (7-4) at No. 4 Kentucky (10-1)
Queens University (7-5) at No. 17 Ole Miss (10-1)
Mississippi State (10-1) at No. 21 Memphis (9-2)
Austin Peay (4-7) at Vanderbilt (10-1)
North Carolina A&T at Arkansas (9-2)
COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY:
Wake Forest: Washington State coach Jake Dickert is the replacement for Dave Clawson, who voluntarily stepped down after 11 years on the job in Winston-Salem.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: As if we weren’t already aware that the NCAA is a bloated incompetent bureaucracy led by clueless people who wouldn’t know what it’s like to hold down a job in the real world, enter Charlie Baker. He’s the former governor of Massachusetts, now the president of the NCAA. Baker, who is proof anyone can get into Harvard these days, has spent the last two days in front of the United States Senate.
Shall we say things haven’t exactly gone well for Mr. Baker? Here are some excerpts from his time being questioned by Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana.
“I’m sure the NCAA is a good organization. I just can’t figure out what you folks are good for.”
“I know you take in bucketloads of money and you share some of it. You make that money off the backs of these kids ... You take in bucketloads of money. We’ve got problems in collegiate sports with the transfer portal, NIL and now gambling and biological males ... you’re allowing biological males to compete with biological females and you folks at the NCAA don’t do anything except sit there and watch, cash your checks and suck on your teeth.”
“Why don’t you go to Amazon and buy a spine online and take a stand?”
Senator Kennedy’s line of questioning had to deal with the NCAA’s stance of allowing biological males to compete as transgender women. In many ways, Senator Kennedy was kind. Senator Josh Hawley of Louisiana followed and he excoriated Mr. Baker who lacked the capacity to come up with a decent answer to explain the NCAA’s reasoning.
Transgender women competing against biological women is a small but significant problem that bears addressing by the NCAA. Grilled by senators Kennedy and Hawley, Baker succeeded at blaming everyone else for the problem except for the NCAA. Baker sounded like a fence-sitter of a politician not like a leader of an organization whose policies shape the lives of more than 500,000 athletes. If the best Mr. Baker can do is blame others and parrot a prepared talking point on an issue like this, then how is he going to come up with solutions to the portal, NIL and revenue sharing?
Once again, this is a situation where football has to take the lead since it is the cash cow that pretty much funds the other sports. It is time for football to secede from the NCAA and join a new organization headed by a commissioner who understands the sport instead of an academic or politician. We’ve trusted the academics far too long and look where that has gotten us. For every politician who actually understands sports there are nine who don’t understand the unique challenges ahead.
Once football is on a firm foundation, then one by one the other sports under the NCAA umbrella can be brought in. If collegiate sports as we know them are to still be viable 15-20 years down the line, then the first steps toward the extinction of the NCAA must begin now.
As always, you are perceptive and on the mark. At most colleges and universities new faculty hires depend on votes of existing faculty, so they perpetuate their groupthink by rarely deviating from approving who are most like them. The NCAA is out of the same culture and so a closed shop. Sen. Kennedy in his inimitable manner asked the pointed questions. Sen. Hawley from Oklahoma, not Louisiana, has a capacity to drive a nail straight. When will Greg Sankey and others own what you’re advocating, Franz? It seems that college football will have to see multiple bankruptcies and publicly shaming NIL scandals before some of these adults start acting like the grown-ups sorely needed.
Florida wins tomorrow, 45-6.
the nc2a is a joke