If the Gators are to improve it will be because experience matters

Graham Mertz (15) has more career starts than any QB in the SEC (Photo by Chris Spears)

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

On more than one occasion back in the spring, Billy Napier commented that the 2024 edition of the Florida Gators will be the most experienced team he’s had since he became the UF head coach. On the offensive side of the ball, he’s got the most experienced QB in the Southeastern Conference in Graham Mertz (43 career starts), the running back with the most career yards of any in the SEC in Montrell Johnson Jr. (2,496 rushing yards), wide receivers who have caught a combined 366 passes in their careers, tight ends with 76 catches and offensive linemen with 75 career starts between them. Over on the defensive side, there are more than 200 combined career starts and a revamped secondary that includes three stud transfer safeties (Asa Turner,  Washington; DJ Douglas, Tulane; Trikweze Bridges, Oregon).

Experience does matter, especially when there is talent and the kids who spent a lot of time getting burned last year when they were freshmen are sophomores now. One year older doesn’t make you one year better, but what we saw in the spring was fewer mistakes and more instinctive play.

To ensure the defense will be improved Napier revamped his coaching staff by adding Ron Harris (secondary), Gerald Chatman (D-line) and Ron Roberts (inside linebackers, co-defensive coordinator). The hope is that with experience at every position, Roberts will be able to do with Florida what he did at Auburn last year when he improved their defensive by four first downs and seven points per game. If Florida had been four first downs and seven points per game better the Gators would have won at least eight games in 2023.

It's the offense that should take a real leap. A year ago Mertz was sacked 33 times yet he still completed 72.9 percent of his passes for 2,903 yards and 20 TDs with only three interceptions. Thought to be a desperation pickup in the months leading up to the start of the season, Mertz showed what experience can do for you. With an O-line that has experience in front of him this year, a stud running back and receivers who can stretch the field vertically, Florida’s offense should be vastly improved and it really wasn’t that bad last year – 409 yards and 28.4 points per game. If Mertz is protected, those numbers will be significantly better.

Here are the career starts for every projected starting QB in the SEC for 2024:

Alabama: Jalen Milroe, 14; Arkansas: Taylen Green, 18 (all at Boise State); Auburn: Payton Thorne, 40 (27 at Michigan State); FLORIDA: Mertz, 43 (32 at Wisconsin); Georgia: Carson Beck, 14; Kentucky: Brock Vandagriff, 0; LSU: Garrett Nussmeier, 2; Mississippi State: Blake Shapen, 24 (all at Baylor); Missouri: Brady Cook, 27; Oklahoma: Jackson Arnold, 1; Ole Miss: Jackson Dart, 32 (6 at Southern Cal); South Carolina: Lanorris Sellers, 0; Tennessee: Nico Iamaleava, 1; Texas: Quinn Ewers, 22; Texas A&M: Conner Weigman, 8; Vanderbilt: Diego Pavia, 25 (all at New Mexico State).

Todd Golden works with freshman Olivier Rioux, who stands 7-9 (UAA Photo)

YOU CAN’T TEACH TALL

About a month ago at the Ocala Tipoff Club meet and greet, Todd Golden said the Gators were tall and played fast last season, but for 2023-24 they would be taller and play even faster. You can teach fast tempo. What you can’t teach is tall. Even without Olivier Rioux, the Gators would be a very tall team, but with him, they’re even taller.

At IMG Academy last year, Rioux was in the Guinness Book of World Records as the tallest teenager in the world. He was a mere 7-6 then, a full five inches taller than Micah Handlogten and four inches taller than Dwayne Schintzius, the tallest player to ever wear a Florida basketball uniform.

Well, 7-6 was then. Since he was recognized by Guinness, Rioux has grown three inches and there are no assurances that he has finished growing. He’s listed on the University of Florida roster as 7-9 and 298 pounds. The 298 may sound like a lot, but when stretched over a body that long, you can see there is room to add some muscle.

The question is can he move? Does he have skills? If his skills and coordination were at elite levels he wouldn’t be a walk-on at Florida. Because the Gators were already a tall bunch even before Rioux joined the team, there is no rush to get him on the floor for protracted lengths of time. Golden is going to let Rioux develop at a good pace. He will get stronger and with the addition of muscle his coordination should come around.

Imagine what could happen in a year or so if Rioux starts putting it all together. Meanwhile, what Golden needs is a 5 X 5 X 5 X 5 guy. That is five minutes, five rebounds, five blocked shots and five fouls.

Need to psych out an opponent with a strong inside game? Put in Olivier Rioux with orders to block anything that goes up in the paint. Want to alter matters on the offensive end? Just toss it up around the rim a few times. Rioux doesn’t even have to jump to catch and dunk, but imagine what happens if he does. A 6-10 center on the other team is giving up 11 inches in height.

The best way to describe Olivier Rioux is a project at this point, but if you are a coach and you are going to have a project on your team, better a tall project than a short one. You can develop skills in both the tall project and the short one. What you can’t teach is tall.

UF SOFTBALL: Walton a truly elite recruiter

Fresh off a third place finish at the Women’s College World Series with a lineup that relied heavily on freshman and with the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class coming in, Tim Walton has further strengthened the Gators in the portal. A couple of weeks ago, Walton added Kara Hammock (17-6, 1.60 ERA in 2024) to bolster his pitching staff. A week ago he hired Memphis head coach Stepanie VanBrakle Proctor as his pitching coach. Monday he landed Alabama shortstop Kenleigh Cahalan (.296, 5 3B, 2 HR, 30 RBI).

A hot and juicy rumor has Florida among the three schools that Stanford All-American NiJaree Canady has under consideration. Canady, who struck out 337 hitters while posting an 0.73 ERA last season, pitched Stanford into the semifinals at the WCWS. She is from Topeka, Kansas, so Oklahoma and Texas are much closer to home, but Tim Walton’s first head coaching job was at Wichita State and he maintains close ties to the area. Could he deliver the ultimate recruiting coup by bringing in Canady?

UF TRACK AND FIELD: Malcolm Clemons, Anna Hall punch Olympic tickets

Former Gator Malcolm Clemons made the team in the long jump with a leap of 26-10 on his final attempt. Former Gators Anna Hall won the 800 on the final event of the heptathlon to finish with 6,614 points, a first place finish and a trip to Paris for the Olympics.

Grant Holloway, who ran a blistering 12.92 for the best time in the world this year, will run in the finals of the 110 hurdles on Thursday.

TEXAS FIRES ITS BASEBALL COACH

Consider this a sign of coming to grips with reality. Texas fired baseball coach David Pierce after eight seasons on the job and with two years at $1.2 million a year remaining on his contract.

Pierce, who got the Longhorns to the College World Series three times, only missed NCAA play twice, once during the 2020 COVID year and 2019 when UT finished break even at 27-27. At Texas he compiled a 297-162 record including a 36-24 mark in 2024. Add in three seasons as the head coach at Sam Houston State and two at Tulane and Pierce has an overall record of 494-271.

Pierce won baseball games, enough that he would still have a job at most places, but most places aren’t 107 miles from your arch rival, who happens to be in the Southeastern Conference and who has made the College World Series two out of three years including a second place finish to NCAA champ Tennessee is 2024. Jim Schlossnagle and the Texas A&M Aggies are a huge problem for the Longhorns.

An even bigger problem is the SEC, which the Longhorns will join in six days. Four of the eight teams that made the College World Series field were from the SEC including the two that played for the championship and three of the four semifinalists. Eleven SEC teams in all made the NCAA field and the performance at the CWS that included the last SEC team to make the field (Florida, semifinalist at the CWS) came as a competitive jolt to Texas. Only six teams made it from the Big 12 with only two (West Virginia and Kansas State) making it as far as a super regional.

While Texas was, is and will always be a football first school, it did just win the Learfield Directors Cup as the best athletic program in the country, but the competition in every sport will take a step or two up starting in the fall. Non-SEC people make fun of the league motto “It just means more” but that’s not an exaggeration and Texas knows it. The last thing athletic director Chris Del Conte wants is for the Longhorns to take a major step backwards because SEC competition is that much tougher in every sport. Baseball, with six NCAA championships, six NCAA runner-up finishes and 38 trips to Omaha in its history, is the single most successful sport in Texas athletic history but now it will have to compete in a kill or be killed conference.

You can almost bet the farm that the first four calls Del Conte makes will be to Schlossnagle, Tennessee coach Tony Vitello, Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan and Kentucky coach Nick Mingione, all of whom made the CWS field in Omaha. Of the four, the only one who might be tempted to take the job is Mingione.

Money isn’t going to be an object. Only God has more money than the Longhorns. Tim Corbin has been at Vanderbilt 22 seasons with two NCAA titles and five College World Series appearances. Vandy pays him $2,317,000 a season, which makes him the highest paid college baseball coach in the country. That’s small change for Texas.  

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: There was a time not all that long ago when Lane Kiffin was viewed as a brilliant coaching mind but way to immature to ever win big. Four seasons at Ole Miss have produced a 34-15 record including the first 11-win season in school history last year. He’s won 95 games in his coaching career all before his 50th birthday. By contrast, Steve Spurrier had only won 70 and Nick Saban 61 by the time they turned 50.

Some people have been caught by surprise that Kiffin is the lone voice among prominent coaches speaking out about a system that is doomed to fail. Nobody has benefitted more from the transfer portal than Kiffin, yet he says it’s a “horrible system, so what does that tell you?”

The system is horrible and when you combine what amounts to free agency with NIL money we have a model that will collapse under its own weight. Kiffin says he doesn’t have all the answers, but on more than one occasion he’s said get the coaches together minus the academics and bureaucrats who run the NCAA and they will find the solutions that will work.

He is right, but the system isn’t going to change until we have some sort of scandal or athletic program going belly up in debt trying to keep up with everyone else. Did you ever think that Lane Kiffin would be college football’s voice of reason?