SEC media picks UF to finish 6th

Austin Barber is projected to make first team All-SEC (Photo by Chris Spears)

A few thoughts for your Friday afternoon:

In the preseason poll at SEC Media Days, Florida was predicted to finish sixth. The usual suspects – Texas, Georgia and Alabama – were picked to finish 1-2-3 followed by LSU and South Carolina. Then came the Gators.

Here is the predicted order of finish: 1. Texas; 2. Georgia; 3. Alabama; 4. LSU; 5. South Carolina; 6. FLORIDA; 7. Ole Miss; 8. Texas A&M; 9. Tennessee; 10. Oklahoma; 11. Auburn; 12. Missouri; 13. Vanderbilt; 14. Arkansas; 15. Kentucky; 16. Mississippi State

Here are the media’s preseason predictions for All-SEC:

All-SEC

First team offense

QB LaNorris Sellers, South Carolina; RB Quintrevion Wisner, Texas; RB Le’Veon Moss, Texas A&M; WR Ryan Williams, Alabama; WR Cam Coleman, Auburn; TE Eli Stowers, Vanderbilt; OL Kadyn Proctor, Alabama; OL Cayden Green, Missouri; OL DJ Campbell, Texas; OL Austin Barber, Florida; C Jake Slaughter, Florida

Second team offense

QB Garrett Nussmeier, LSU; RB Jaydn Ott, Oklahoma; RB Caden Durham, LSU; WR Aaron Anderson, LSU; WR Ryan Wingo, Texas; TE Oscar Delp, Georgia; OL Ar’maj Reed-Adams, Texas A&M; OL Trey Zuhn III, Texas A&M; OL Jaeden Roberts, Alabama; OL Fernando Carmona Jr., Arkansas; C Parker Brailsford, Alabama

Third team offense

QB Arch Manning, Texas; RB Nate Frazier, Georgia; RB Jam Miller, Alabama; WR Eric Singleton, Auburn; WR Kevin Coleman Jr., Missouri; TE Jack Endries, Texas; OL Earnest Greene III, Georgia; OL Chas Bisontis, Texas A&M; OL Xavier Chaplin, Auburn; OL Trevor Goosby, Texas; C Conner Lew, Auburn

First team defense

DL Keldric Faulk, Auburn; DL Dylan Stewart, South Carolina; DL Colin Simmons, Texas; DL Christian Miller, Georgia; LB Anthony Hill Jr., Texas; LB Whit Weeks, LSU; LB CJ Allen, Georgia; DB KJ Bolden, Georgia; DB Michael Taaffe, Texas; DB Daylen Everette, Georgia; DB Jermod McCoy, Tennessee

Second team defense

DL Caleb Banks, Florida; DL Tim Keenan III, Alabama; DL LT Overton, Alabama; DL R Mason Thomas, Oklahoma; LB Deontae Lawson, Alabama; LB Harold Perkins, LSU; LB Suntarine Perkins, Ole Miss; DB Malik Muhammad, Texas; DB Domani Jackson, Alabama; DB Will Lee III, Texas A&M; DB Jalon Kilgore, South Carolina

Third team defense

DL Tyreak Sapp, Florida; DL Trey Moore, Texas; DL Cam Ball, Arkansas; DL Zxavian Harris, Ole Miss; LB Taurean York, Texas A&M; LB Princewill Umanmielen, Ole Miss; DB Keon Sabb, Alabama; DB Boo Carter, Tennessee; DB Bray Hubbard, Alabama; DB Isaac Smith, Mississippi State

First team specialists

P Brett Thorson, Georgia; PK Peyton Woodring, Georgia; LS Beau Gardner, Georgia; KS Peyton Woodring, Georgia; RS Zachariah Branch, Georgia; AP Zachariah Branch, Georgia

Second team specialists

P Jack Bouwmeester, Texas; PK Trey Smack, Florida; PK Lucas Carneiro, Ole Miss; LS Rocco Underwood, Florida; KS Trey Smack, Florida; RS Barion Brown, LSU; AP Zavion Thomas, LSU

Third team specialists

P Devin Bale, Arkansas; P Aidan Laros, Kentucky; PK Alex McPherson, Auburn; LS Ben Anderson, Oklahoma; KS Will Stone, Texas; RS Zavion Thomas, LSU; AP Eugene Wilson III, Florida; AP Jadan Baugh, Florida

SEC MEDIA DAYS: THEY SAID IT

Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri coach

“We built a roster to compete this season. We value production over potential. We have 20 players on the defensive side of the ball who have started more than one game in their college career. We've got 12 players on offense who have multiple starts in their collegiate career. We have three on special teams.”

“This is not going to do me any favors with our commissioner. When I think about college football right now and think about what do we need to do, I think it really comes down to two things: what is best for our players and what is best for our fans. The rest of us are really only important because of the players and the fans. So when you think about whether it's 12, 14 or 16, to me, if we decided to go into this expansion of Playoffs, we're trying to follow an NFL model. The NFL takes 44 percent of their teams into the playoffs to increase the passion or keep the fan base engaged. If we're talking about 12, that's 9 percent. If we're talking about 14, that's 11 percent. If we're talking about 16, that's 12 percent. That's not really changing the math for the fan base. I don't really understand what the big fight is about.”

Mark Stoops, Kentucky coach

“We have 50 new players that are coming in. That’s the most we’ve ever had in the transfer era obviously. 26 transfers that come in. 13 of those transfers have been starters, and eight of them have been starters at the Power Five conference. We feel like we’re bringing in a lot of fresh faces there. I think that’s something that’s important for us. After coming off the year that we had, I think all of our players know we’ve been very consistent, we’ve done things right. We feel like we got a lot of systems and processes in place to be successful. But we needed to change. I think the roster turnover for this year was important for us. We needed that.”

“This shit’s hard. You might as well go enjoy it, dive into it. There’s a lot of people that can’t do it and didn’t do it for 12 years, didn’t do it for 13 years, not at Kentucky. You look at the history of what we’ve done, there’s a lot of great ones that didn’t make it very long. I’m proud of the run that we have. I want to use last year for us to learn from and to grow from and to get better and to get back to who we want to be. That’s something that our program deserves. That’s something our fan base deserves. The great people in Kentucky, the administration. We’re all in and we’re excited about this next season.”

Sam Pittman, Arkansas coach“I think the program has a chance to get back up to around those nine-plus wins than where we were before just simply because we have the finances to back that. We've got a good football team. We've got a good staff. We've got great facilities. We got a great state of fans at the University of Arkansas, the state of Arkansas. There's no reason we can't do it.”

“I'll say this. To consider that you're going to go coach somewhere for 10 years in the SEC, you're a fool. Got to be smart. Kirby Smart, Stoops, that's it in this league. I think you got to look at it as year to year, how you doing. I'm not worried about it 'cause I got a good staff and a good team.”

Mike Elko, Texas A&M coach

"We have quarterback Marcel Reed primed to take a huge jump this year. He understands now what it takes to be an SEC quarterback week in and week out."

“The number one thing you have to do with the portal is keep guys happy… You saw guys turn down an opportunity to go to the NFL and in the portal… They wanted to be a part of this."

UF BASEBALL: GATORS ADD LEFTY TRANSFER PITCHER

Kevin O’Sullivan added an intriguing transfer to his pitching staff for next season with the addition of Ernesto Lugo-Canchola, a 6-5, 230-pound lefty from Division II Northwest Nazarene. Lugo-Canchoa was a first team Division II All-American after a season in which he had 103 strikeouts in 94-2/3 innings, a 2.00 ERA and only 44 walks. He was the Division II Pitcher of the Year.

Lugo-Canchola is the fourth pitcher O’Sullivan has added through the transfer portal, joining RHP Ricky Reeth (Notre Dame), RHP Russell Sandefer (UCF) and RHP Cooper Walls (Hawaii). The Gators have six other transfers in juco catcher AJ Malzone (Wabash Valley), CF Jaden Bastian (Jacksonville), C/1B Karson Bowen (TCU), C Cole Stanford (Lenoir-Rhyne), SS Sam Miller (Columbia) and 3B/1B Ethan Surowiec.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT

John Calipari. The mention of the name in any arena not named Bud Walton in the Southeastern Conference will draw boos. He’s viewed by most as the basketball equivalent of Darth Vader.

I know John. Known him for years and my view is quite different than the average basketball fan. He is a caring and compassionate man who, when he was the basketball coach at Kentucky, let his wallet and his voice be heard loud and clear whenever there was a disaster in the state. He was criticized for his one-and-dones, but he must have done a good job of preparing them for what is next because the average former UK player in the NBA is now 26 years old … and they’ve made over the course of the years $6 BILLION.

Anyway, I’m going off the rails a bit. He did an interview with Jon Rothstein of CBS in which he offered a common sense solution for NIL that applies to basketball but should be implemented for all college sports.

Here are some of his suggestions from that interview.

1. Players cannot transfer until they have spent an entire year in school. If they redshirt they can’t transfer until their second year.

2. Players can only transfer once and have immediate eligibility.

Cal said, “You get one time, so either you made a mistake, the coach was not honest with you. There was a guy on the team that was better than you thought, and you're going to be behind him. And I get it, but after that, you sit out.”

3. After one transfer a player has to sit if he wants to transfer again. Last year and again in 2025-26 there will be multiple players who have transferred two or three times.

Cal said, “But you can't transfer four times, and each time you are transferring to make money. Or are you ready for this one? You redshirt, take the money and then leave. You cannot! We got to get our arms around this. How about this? A kid stays in school four years, four different schools … Does he graduate? No, is there any chance that he can graduate? No, very small. Okay, so now he has to go get a job without a college degree and someone offers him $55,000, $60,000. What does he say? Are you crazy? I was getting this, that, and the other. Do I have to come into work? Do I get a car? Are you paying for my apartment?”

4. If their coach leaves for a new school, they have 30 days in which to transfer.

5. If a player stays at the same school for four years and graduates he gets a fifth year of eligibility. Otherwise, four years. That’s it.

6. Players are going to get paid and there is plenty of tampering and extortion that goes on with kids, but implement rules that allow only one transfer without having to sit a year plus give kids incentive to stay at their school and many of the issues we currently have with the transfer portal will go away.

These are common sense suggestions which, if the NCAA had common sense in its fundamental principles would implement. Will it happen?

“I've been saying it for five years now,” Calipari said. “Listen, no one listens to me. I call my dog, he runs the other way. My wife doesn't listen to me, so no one listens to me … Let's get this solved, seventy percent of our issues go away.”