Thinking out loud on a Friday

“Today I might be mad; Tomorrow I’ll be glad; ‘Cause I’ll have Friday on my mind” – The Easybeats, 1966 “Friday on my Mind”

The Florida defense had its best game last year against Tennessee (Photo by Chris Spears)

Thinking out loud on a Friday morning:

THE UF DEFENSE WILL DEFINITELY IMPROVE

Yes, yes. How could they be any worse than they have been the last two years? It isn’t the Florida offense that has been atrocious, but the defense has been. In 2022, the Gators went 6-7. In six of the losses opponents scored 30 or more points. In 2023, the Gators went 5-7 and in five of the losses the Gators gave up 30 or more points. You don’t win in the Southeastern Conference when you can’t get your defense off the field. Enter three new defensive coaches including creeper defense guru Ron Roberts, six transfers from the portal and a year of experience for a bunch of kids who got their baptism by fire the last two years. Roberts’ success is well documented. At Auburn last year he improved the defense by four first downs and seven points per game. Twelve extra plays for the offense, 12 plays the defense isn’t on the field and fewer points needed to win. The Gators only had 22 sacks last year. Enter Gerald Chatman, formerly the Tulane D-line coach. His guys had 35 sacks a year ago. The Gators picked off only three passes last year and allowed 8.3 yards per pass attempt. Enter Will Harris from the Los Angeles Chargers. When he was coaching the secondary at Washington in 2021, the Huskies gave up only 5.4 yards per pass attempt and 142.9 passing yards per game. The defense gets impact transfers Joey Slackman, George Gumbs, Grayson Howard, Trikweze Bridges, DJ Douglas and Asa Turner to strengthen all three levels of the defense. The UF defense will definitely be improved and that should translate to more wins.

RIGHT SIDE OF THE OL IS CRITICAL FOR A GREAT UF DEFENSE

The easy answer would be Montrell Johnson Jr. or Eugene Wilson III, but it’s actually the two people who will start on the right side of the offensive line. When the spring ended, San Diego State transfer Brandon Crenshaw-Dixon was the right tackle and Damieon George Jr. was the right guard. The perception is the weak link in that duo is George, who struggled at right tackle a year ago and moved to guard, which should be his natural position, in the spring. With his size, he should be a road grader type capable of punching big holes in opposing fronts, but what if he can’t pass protect? It’s way too early to count anyone out, but Crenshaw-Dixon has played both guard and tackle in his career (35 starts) so moving him inside and going with Austin Barber at right tackle would seem a no-brainer. But, what if Crenshaw-Dixon and Barber are the two best tackles and George is struggling to pass protect? Who then plays right guard? Here are three possibilities for you: Roderick Kearney, Kamryn Waites or freshman Jason Zandamela. Whoever starts at right guard and right tackle have to play well. The Gators have the weapons on offense, but Graham Mertz can’t get it done if he’s in a feets don’t fail me now mode half the time.

The UF O-line has to play well for a win against Miami (Photo by Chris Spears)

THE KEY TO A GAME ONE WIN IS THE O-LINE

Think of game one not only as a confidence builder, but a game that can set the tone for the entire season. Miami is coming to town which means obnoxious Hurricane fans with their usual trash talk. The only way to shut them up is to kneecap them and to do that the offensive line will have to do a far better job than it did last season when the Gators lost the season opener on the road at Utah. In that one the Gators ran for all of 13 yards on 21 attempts and Utah sacked Graham Mertz five times for 47 yards in losses. Pass protection is critical. The Hurricanes got to the quarterback 35 times a year ago with Francisco Mauigoa and Ruben Bain credited with 7.5 sacks each. The Hurricanes gave up only 105 yards per game, but they were torched for 235 by North Carolina, which also threw for 273. In the bowl game, a 31-24 loss to Rutgers, the Hurricanes gave up 208 rushing yards and couldn’t get the Scarlet Knights off the field. The way to beat Miami is a balanced attack which means Florida’s offensive line will be required to dominate a Miami defensive line that is quick but under-sized.

HOW DID TEXAS GET SUCH A PANSY SCHEDULE?

Texas has everything it takes to make a deep run in the playoff. They have one of the nation’s top three quarterbacks in Quinn Ewers, blazing speed at the wideouts, stud running backs, four returning starters on the O-line and what is expected to be their best defense in years. There is every reason to be confident, particularly when you consider the schedule the SEC gave them. The home SEC schedule is Mississippi State, Georgia, Florida and Kentucky. Only Georgia is ranked out of that bunch. There is the annual Dallas shootout with Oklahoma, but the true roadies are Vanderbilt, Arkansas and Texas A&M. Eight games. The Longhorns are already favored to win seven and the Georgia game could be a real tossup. The four non-conference games to start the season are Colorado State, at Michigan, Texas-San Antonio and Louisiana-Monroe. Michigan lost a bazillion guys to the NFL and Jim Harbaugh is coaching the Chargers. On paper, this is at worst an 11-1 schedule.

WAIT UNTIL KALEN DEBOER LOSES HIS FIRST GAME

Bear Bryant retired after the 1982 season after going 232-46-9 with 13 SEC and six national championships. It took Alabama 25 years and seven coaches to find a new legend. In his 17 years on the job, Nick won nine SEC and six national championships. When Bear retired the replacement was Ray Perkins, who went 32-15-1 and never won the SEC much less the national championship. Nick Saban’s replacement is Kalen DeBoer, 104-12 in his career. He got Washington to the national championship game in two years. Serious credentials, but winning at Sioux Falls (67-3 record) and Washington (25-3 in two years) is a whole different animal than winning at Alabama. Sure, because it’s Alabama you get the attention of great players simply based on name recognition and tradition. And, now it’s legal. Bama boosters have been accused of cheating for years. Now there is NIL which means everything is legal. So, Kalen DeBoer has everything he needs to be mega-successful at Alabama, but there is that teensy matter of pressure. He’s never had the kind of pressure that he is under at Alabama, where a million people go on suicide watch whenever the Crimson Tide loses a game. DeBoer never had this kind of pressure at NAIA Sioux Falls, Fresno State or Washington. How is he going to handle it? A lot of good coaches have failed when they try succeeding a legend. Just ask Will Muschamp. He made the mistake of following Urban Meyer at Florida then tried to follow Steve Spurrier at South Carolina. Will has a brilliant coaching mind, but he made rotten choices when it came to his two head coaching gigs. He might still be a head coach if he had chosen better. Lou Holtz once said, “I don’t want to follow a legend, but I wouldn’t mind being the guy who follows the guy who followed a legend.” Kalen DeBoer will find out what living in a pressure cooker is all about the first time he loses a game.

THE ACC SHOULD HAVE GONE AFTER UCONN

Who knows what the Atlantic Coast Conference was thinking when it expanded by adding Stanford and California from the now defunct Pac-12 and SMU from the American Athletic Conference. None of those three moves made any sense at all. Maybe the best explanation out there is Little Jimmy Phillips anticipated that he’s going to lose Florida State and Clemson so he wanted to have replacement teams in place while the getting was good. But Stanford, Cal and Schmooz? The academics in charge will be happy but the football needle hasn’t moved an inch nor has the basketball needle. Good water polo, soccer and swimming but those sports are financial drains. Then you add in the travel. This will go down as a very dumb move. If Phillips and the other geeks in charge of the ACC had been smart they would have added UConn. While true that Clemson and FSU have five football national championships between them since 1993, it doesn’t change the fact that the ACC was, is and will always be a basketball first league. UConn is a better geographic fit than Stanford, Cal or Schmooz, plus it brings 17 national championships in basketball between its men’s and women’s programs. UConn doesn’t play a very good brand of football, but Connecticut is close enough to Tobacco Road that more fans would travel to Storrs than will fly to the Left Coast or to Dallas. Taking Stanford, Cal and SMU dumb. UConn would have been smart, but come to think about it, nobody has accused the ACC of being smart since John Swafford retired as the commish and Little Jimmy Phillips was hired.

PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS THAT THE NCAA WILL NEVER THINK OF

The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, has never been a place where the best and brightest minds congregate. A lot of PhD types, but as we all know, PhD often means piled higher and deeper. It does NOT mean these people are smarter, only that they went to school longer. So, while the folks at the NCAA are trying to deal with DEI and trans rights, here are some practical solutions to solve an impending crisis in college football:

1. Play D1AA teams in the spring: Instead of a meaningless game in the fall, Division I schools should play D1AA teams in the spring. A competitive game would sell out so the D1AA teams would get their paychecks but they wouldn’t interrupt their seasons by taking a beating. Who cares if you lose in the spring? The same goes for Division I schools.

2. Change the transfer rules: No transferring until one full academic year on campus unless there is a coaching change. Transfers with a 2.5 or higher GPA can transfer without sitting out a year. Less than 2.5 sit a year. Any transfer still taking remedial courses sits a year.

3. Create a new football division: There are too many schools that have no business being in Division I. Division I should be made up of the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC, Mountain West and American Athletic Conference. Form a new division for what’s left of the group of five and give them their own playoff and championship. Teams in the new division would still be able to play paycheck games against Division I teams, but Division I teams would only be allowed one paycheck game a year. Allow current upper echelon D1AA teams to join the new division.

4. Graduate in four years and you get a fifth year of eligibility: Any player who graduates in four or fewer years gets an extra year of eligibility.  

5. Give football autonomy and a commissioner who doesn’t answer to the NCAA: Since the NCAA is clueless when it comes to understanding that football is a business that should be run by football and business people, give football autonomy free from the restraints imposed by the geeks and academic marvels who run the organization. Give football a commissioner who doesn’t answer to the NCAA but only to the football coaches, athletic directors and conference commissioners. Let football make its own rules and give the commish the power to enforce them with an iron hand.