Is Paul Finebaum having second thoughts about the Gators?

SEC Media Days 2024 (Photo by Brenden Martin)

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning:

What? Paul Finebaum is having second thoughts about Billy Napier and the Florida Gators in 2024?

Asked at SEC Media Days by On3’s J.D. PicKell if there is an SEC team for 2024 that he and the national media might be wrong about, Finebaum said, “I think it could be Florida. And, by the way, I don’t know why I say that because I’m the one who has been asking every guest for the last six months, saying ‘What do you think about Florida?’ Their expectations might be as low as they’ve ever been.”

After consecutive losing seasons in Napier’s first two seasons on the Florida job, just ending the season with a winning record will be considered quite an accomplishment by nearly everyone in the media, particularly given a schedule that nearly every expert considers the toughest in the nation.

Finebaum told PicKell, “I don’t think they have much to prove. Knowing my business, Billy Napier beats Miami and starts and maybe beats a couple … Well, Billy Napier – early favorite for Coach of the Year.”

The Gators’ September schedule is Miami, Samford and Texas A&M at home followed by a road trip to Mississippi State. Miami and Texas A&M are in many preseason top 25 rankings. Samford is a D1AA team and Mississippi State, with its second brand new head coach in two years, is predicted to be a bottom feeder in the SEC. By starting off with three straight home games, the Gators have a chance for a fast start that could define the season. Therefore, not enough emphasis can be placed on the season opener against the Hurricanes.

Finebaum, agrees.

“Again, if you lose to Miami? Forget everything I said.”  

Billy Napier will take to the podium at SEC Media Days in Dallas today at 12:50 p.m. He will be preceded by Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer and Mississippi State coach Jeff Lebby.

They said it at SEC Media Days

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables on the first year in the SEC: “… Oklahoma isn’t intimidated as a football program. We’re running towards the SEC.”

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel on QB Nico Iamaleava: “He’s got the ability to throw the football sideline to sideline, vertically down the football field, extremely accurate, loose, quick-triggered arm. He’s got the ability to extend and make plays with his feet. As a runner, evading and making a play down the field.”

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz on what makes QB Brady Cook so consistent: “Brady is never having a bad day. Didn’t matter if his girlfriend had broken up with him or if he had thrown an interception; he just loves coming to work, being in the training room. You know, we lost to LSU. He was right back in there Sunday morning ready to go to work versus Kentucky.”

Georgia coach Kirby Smart on the importance of creating toughness during August camp: “If you’re not physical enough at the line of scrimmage and tough enough and you don’t demand excellence, because during the season there is only so much we can do to create the toughness that we need at the line of scrimmage and the toughness we need as an overall football team.”

UF BASEBALL: Gators emerge from MLB Draft in very good shape

Kevin O’Sullivan dodged a few bullets and emerged from the three days of the Major League Baseball Draft in far better shape than he might have imagined when the draft began Sunday night. Everybody knew the Gators were going to lose Jac Caglianone (No. 6, Kansas City) and high school shortstop Kellon Lindsey (No. 23, Los Angeles Dodgers) in the first round and it was almost a certainty that closer Brandon Neely was a goner. His final month of the season bumped him up to the third round where the Boston Red Sox grabbed him with the 86th overall pick. Neely’s bonus is slotted for $878,800.  He will take the money and start his minor league career rather soon.

In the tenth round, the Colorado Rockies picked reliever Fisher Jameson (No. 288), who will probably take the $185,800 and call it a career at UF. That ended matters Monday.

Then came Tuesday, which got off to a rousing start when outfielder Ty Evans announced he will be returning for his senior season. Evans (.316, 13 HR, 43 RBI) was having a breakout season when he broke his wrist sliding into a wall in foul territory in May. With Evans returning, the Gators should have one of the best outfields in college baseball next year with Miami transfer Blake Cyr and Evans manning the corners and Stetson transfer and gold glover Kyle Jones in center field.

Once the draft got under way for the final 10 rounds, the good news continued for the Gators. Shortstop Colby Shelton, who was projected to go first three rounds, dropped all the way to 20th (St. Louis Cardinals), presumably because he had already told teams what it would take to sign him. With two years of eligibility remaining, Shelton had all the leverage he needed. That he was taken in the 20th round was simply a wish call by the Cardinals just in case there is a change of mind. Catcher Luke Heyman, who was rated high enough to go in the first six or seven rounds, went undrafted, so he will be back.

Reliever Ryan Slater, who had a disappointing 2024 after a very promising 2023, was drafted in the 18th round by the San Francisco Giants. He has another year of eligibility remaining so it’s not 100 percent certain that he will sign. If he returns, he could become Florida’s closer next year if he can revert back to his 2023 form.

Righthanded pitcher Michael Ross, the Southern Conference pitcher of the year at Samford and a transfer to UF, went in the 18th to the Minnesota Twins. Like Shelton, it is presumed that he told the big league teams he would be playing his senior season at UF unless he was drafted in the first few rounds. Apparently, he’s doing a Brandon Sproat, betting on himself and playing one more year of college baseball.

Other than Lindsey, Florida had several high school signees that were projected to go in the first 10 rounds of the draft, but it wasn’t until 19th round that the Cardinals selected Brandon Lawson, a Canadian who played his high school baseball in South Carolina. Lawson was a Florida lean all the way and when he didn’t go in the first three or four rounds, it was almost a certainty he would be coming to UF. By going in the 19th, figure he will be a freshman at UF in the fall.

None of the high school pitchers were taken, so O’Sullivan has some young arms with which to replenish a pitching staff that lost five freshmen to the transfer portal.

So here is a potential starting lineup for 2025: C Luke Heyman; 1B Brody Donay; 2B Cade Kurland; SS Shelton; 3B Justin Nadeau (Jacksonville transfer) or Landon Stripling (Texas Tech transfer); LF Cyr; CF Jones; RF Evans. Weekend rotation: Pierce Coppola, Liam Peterson, Michael Ross. Closer: Luke McNeilly or Jake Clemente. Midweek starters: Billy Barlow (Clemson transfer), Clemente or McNeilly.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: FSU to the SEC or the Big Ten? Consider it a rather inflated ego per Brett McMurphy, easily the single most connected reporter in the country when it comes to college football. In a column Tuesday at The Action Network, McMurphy’s sources in both the SEC and Big Ten made it abundantly clear that the Seminoles need to think twice before bolting the ACC.

It was entitled, “Sources: Big Ten, SEC Unlikely to Add Florida State if ACC Survives.” Reading the article, McMurphy could have named it, “Sources: FSU to the SEC or Big Ten? Donkeys might fly first.”

Florida State, along with Clemson, is suing the Atlantic Coast Conference in an attempt to get out of a media rights contract that runs through 2036. Nobody held a gun to FSU’s head in 2016 to force the Seminoles to sign a 20-year agreement. But now, the Seminoles want out because within a year or two the ACC media deal will pay about half what the SEC and Big Ten are pulling in from their media deals.

So, the Seminoles are green with envy. Understandably so, but if they want to find who’s at fault, they should take a look in the mirror. Twice they’ve been offered a chance to join the SEC. Twice they’ve turned the SEC down. Now, it’s the SEC’s turn to tell Florida State sorry, you had your chance, now move along.”

McMurphy’s sources included three presidents of Southeastern Conference universities. Apparently, they’re quite unimpressed with FSU. McMurphy wrote, “Three SEC presidents recently told Action Network they had “no interest” in adding Florida State. It takes 12 of the 16 SEC presidents to favor adding another school.”

You can take it to the bank that FSU won’t find 12 SEC presidents willing to ask the Seminoles to join the party. For one thing, McMurphy writes, adding FSU has shown “it’s not a good partner.”

When it comes to trust, here is what one of those sources told McMurphy: “Look what they did: getting the attorney general involved, accusing [former ACC commissioner] John Swofford of rigging the television rights to help his son, filing a suit to expose ESPN’s TV deals — something the other three power leagues are against, by the way. They’re not a good partner. There’s no congeniality. No one wants that. It’s not about FSU getting out of the ACC’s Grant of Rights. They’re not a fit.”

One of McMurphy’s well-placed Big Ten sources agreed that the Seminoles aren’t necessarily a good fit, although his reasoning is a tad different.

“What’s the upside of Florida State?” McMurphy’s Big Ten source said. “We got what we needed by adding USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington — and Oregon and Washington were added at 50 cents on the dollar to help USC and UCLA. Who would Florida State help? And at what cost? And, most importantly, who’s going to pay for it?”

There is that possibility that the ACC will implode. FSU and Clemson aren’t the only schools upset with the league and its media rights deal. Unless Clemson and FSU win in court – highly doubtful since the court case will be tried in Charlotte – you can all but figure everyone in the league will have to bite the bullet and accept second class citizenship in the brave new world of college sports.

Of course, they could all get together and hold statewide yard sales, bake sales and car washes to raise the funds it will take to compete financially with the SEC and Big Ten.