Thoughts of the Day: April 27, 2021

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

TRASK TO THE PATRIOTS?

Daniel Jeremiah of the NFL Network reports that the New England Patriots have been “doing a lot of homework” on Florida’s Kyle Trask as the NFL Draft approaches. Many mock drafts have the Patriots trying to trade up to land Alabama’s Mac Jones and others say Ohio State’s Justin Fields would be worth an upward move. The only problem with that theory is that Bill Belichick has (a) never taken a QB in the first round and (b) made a career out of trading his first round pick to pocket multiple mid- to late-round picks, a philosophy that it’s hard to argue with since he has won six Super Bowls.

Trading up is certainly a possibility since Belichick can’t possibly be enamored with the Patriots situation at quarterback. Barring a visit from Benny Hinn to restore what was once a great NFL body, Cam Newton is at the end of his NFL career. Last year he had more interceptions (10) than TDPs (8). While he did have the most rushing touchdowns of any NFL QB (12), it’s not like Cam was breaking off runs in excess of 20 yards every week. Behind Newton is Jared Stidham, whose NFL career consists of two TDPs and four INTs. What they have in common is they both went to Auburn.

The Patriots have the 15th pick in the first round and the 14th in the second, so they could package those two perhaps to move up for a chance to land either Jones, Fields or North Dakota State’s Trey Lance. Mel Kiper has Belichick trading with Dallas to take Fields at No. 10 while Todd McShay has Belichick making a trade with the New York Giants to move up to No. 11 to take Fields. Jonathan Jones of CBS has the Patriots trading with the Detroit Lions for the 7th pick to take Lance.

Trading up doesn’t fit the Belichick MO, however, but trading down does. Would he trade the pick at No. 15 for multiple picks in the second and third rounds? The Patriots already have the 14th pick in the second round and the 33rd in the third. Trask might fit what the Pats do offensively better than any of the quarterbacks projected to go after the first round. Would Belichick bide his time and perhaps risk Trask being gone if he waits until the third round?

THREE NAMES KEEP AN EYE ON …

Former 5-star center Moussa Cisse (6-10, 225), who averaged 6.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.6 blocked shots per game as a true freshman at Memphis last year has put his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Florida has reached out to him.

The Gators are one of the teams that is trying to lure UMass big man Tre Mitchell (6-9, 235), who averaged 18.8 points and 7.2 rebounds while shooting 51.9 percent overall and 37.5 percent from the 3-point line. He has three years of eligibility remaining. Baylor, Virginia and Kentucky are also working him hard.

Another big man that could be a good fit at Florida is Serbian native Dusan Mahorcic (6-10, 230, JR), who is transferring from Illinois State after averaging 9.9 points and 7.2 rebounds while hitting 59.1 percent of his shots from the field. He has two years of eligibility remaining.

KERWIN BELL LIKELY THE NEW HBC AT WESTERN CAROLINA Football Scoop is reporting that Gator great Kerwin Bell is likely to be named the HBC at Western Carolina of the D1AA Southern Conference as early as today. Western Carolina fired its head coach a week ago and seems intent on hiring Bell, who went 14-0 at Valdosta State in 2018 when he won the DII national championship.

MATT HAYES SAID IT … Writing for Saturday Down South, Hayes says, “One NFL scout told me Florida has at least 6 players on defense who will be selected in the 2022 draft: CBs Kaiir Elam and Jaydon Hill, S Trey Dean, LB Ventrell Miller, DE/LB Brenton Cox, DE Zachary Carter.”

GATORS MOVE UP TO 9TH IN ONE POLL

The Gators (28-12, 11-7 SEC) didn’t get the sweep they were looking for against Auburn over the weekend, but their 3-1 week did move them back into the top ten in at least one of the four major college baseball polls. Florida moved up to 9th in the Collegiate Baseball Poll and up to 12th in the USA Today Coaches Poll. The Gators are 14th in the D1Baseball.com poll and 16th in the Baseball America poll. The Baseball America poll makes no sense. The Gators are 28-12 while playing in the SEC and they own a recent win over Florida State, yet the 20-15 Seminoles of the ACC are ranked 15th by Baseball America.

The Gators don’t have a midweek game with No. 2 Vanderbilt (31-7, 13-5 SEC) coming to Gainesville this weekend.

Collegiate Baseball poll: 1. Arkansas 32-7; 2. Vanderbilt 31-7; 3. Texas 33-9; 4. Mississippi State 29-10; 5. TCU 29-10; 6. Tennessee 32-9; 7. South Carolina 25-12; 8. Louisville 23-11; 9. FLORIDA 28-12; 10. Arizona 27-11; 11. Oregon 24-9; 12. Ole Miss 28-12; 13. Stanford 22-7; 14. Notre Dame 20-8; 15. Texas Tech 27-10; 16. East Carolina 28-7; 17. Pittsburgh 20-11; 18. Oklahoma State 24-12-1; 19. UCLA 23-13; 20. Georgia 26-13; 21. Nebraska 20-7; 22. Michigan 19-9; 23. UC-Irvine 24-12; 24. Oregon State 26-12; 25. Charlotte 29-11; 26. Arizona State 22-13; 27. UC-Santa Barbara 26-12; 28. Fairfield 26-0; 29. Tulane 21-13; 30. South Alabama 24-13.

USA Today Coaches poll: 1. Arkansas 32-7; 2. Vanderbilt 31-7; 3. Texas 33-9; 4. Tennessee 32-9; 5. Mississippi State 29-10; 6. TCU 29-10; 7. Louisville 23-11; 8. Oregon 24-9; 9. Notre Dame 20-8; 10. East Carolina 28-7; 11. Texas Tech 27-10; 12. FLORIDA 28-12; 13. Arizona 27-11; 14. Ole Miss 28-12; 15. South Carolina 25-12; 16. Stanford 22-7; 17. Charlotte 29-11; 18. Louisiana Tech 28-11; 19. Pittsburgh 20-11; 20. Oklahoma State 24-12-1; 21. Florida State 20-15; 22. Southern Miss 26-13; 23. Georgia 26-13; 24. Nebraska 20-7; 25. Old Dominion 28-10.

D1Baseball.com poll: 1. Arkansas 32-7; 2. Vanderbilt 31-7; 3. Texas 33-9; 4. Tennessee 32-9; 5. TCU 29-10; 6. Mississippi State 29-10; 7. Louisville 23-11; 8. Notre Dame 20-8; 9. Oregon 24-9; 10. East Carolina 28-7; 11. Texas Tech 27-10; 12. Arizona 27-11; 13. South Carolina 25-12; 14. FLORIDA 28-12; 15. Charlotte 29-11; 16. Louisiana Tech 26-11; 17. Pittsburgh 20-11; 18. Stanford 22-7; 19. Ole Miss 28-12; 20. Florida State 20-15; 21. Gonzaga 26-13; 22. Nebraska 20-7; 23. Southern Miss 26-13; 24. UC-Irvine 24-12; 25. Old Dominion 28-10.

Baseball America poll: 1. Arkansas 32-7; 2. Vanderbilt 31-7; 3. Texas 33-9; 4. Mississippi State 29-10; 5. Louisville 23-11; 6. Notre Dame 20-8; 7. Tennessee 32-9; 8. East Carolina 28-7; 9. TCU 29-10; 10. Arizona 27-11; 11. Oregon 24-9; 12. South Carolina 25-12; 14. Pittsburgh 20-11; 15. Florida State 20-15; 16. FLORIDA 28-12; 17. Ole Miss 28-12; 18. Louisiana Tech 26-11; 19. Charlotte 29-11; 20. UC-Irvine 24-12; 21. Stanford 22-7; 22. Georgia 26-13; 23. Fairfield 26-0; 24. Nebraska 20-7; 25. Virginia Tech 21-15.

UF SOFTBALL: GATORS REMAIN NO. 3

The Gators (35-7, 14-4 SEC) remained at No. 3 as the top three teams remained the same in the most recent D1Softball.com poll. The Gators are 1.5 games out of first place in the SEC.

The Gators will play host to Florida A&M Wednesday night then hit the road this weekend for a critical 3-game SEC series with Missouri (34-11, 12-6 SEC).

D1Softball.com poll: 1. Oklahoma 37-1; 2. UCLA 28-3; 3. FLORIDA 35-7; 4. Alabama 36-7; 5. Washington 35-9; 6. Florida State 33-7-1; 7. Oklahoma State 36-5; 8. Arkansas 37-7; 9. Arizona State 28-11; 10. Arizona 31-8; 11. LSU 28-15; 12. Missouri 34-10; 13. Oregon 30-10; 14. Texas 35-6; 15. Clemson 37-4; 16. Louisiana 35-9; 17. Kentucky 32-12; 18. Tennessee 35-8; 19. Minnesota 25-7; 20. Virginia Tech 28-11; 21. Michigan 24-5; 22. Duke 34-10; 23. Ole Miss 31-16; 24. UCF 34-12-1; 25. Notre Dame 26-12.

OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC

Alabama: Ben Davis, a former 5-star linebacker recruit, has announced he is transferring to Texas to play for former Alabama offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian.

Arkansas: Arkansas (38-7, 17-4 SEC) salvaged a win in its softball series with Missouri Monday to stay 1.5 games ahead of Florida (35-7, 14-4 SEC).

Auburn: Walker Kessler (7-1, 245), who was one of the top players in the basketball transfer portal, has officially signed with Auburn. He has four seasons of eligibility remaining.

Georgia: For all the hype, Georgia has serious concerns with its offensive line for next season. Last year, Bulldogs allowed 20 sacks in 10 games. Georgia ran for eight yards against Mississippi State and only 45 in the bowl game with Cincinnati. JT Daniels, not exactly Mr. Mobility, was sacked six times in those two games.

Kentucky: Former UK assistant Tony Barbee, who was once the head coach at Auburn, is now the head basketball coach at Central Michigan.

LSU: New coach Kim Mulkey’s contract at LSU is expected to be the richest in the history of women’s basketball. At Baylor, Mulkey was making $2.27 million, second only to UConn’s Geno Auriemma ($2.5 million). Her LSU contract might be the first $3 million deal in women’s basketball history.

South Carolina: Justin Minaya (6-6, 215) is transferring to Providence. Minaya averaged 7.0 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game last season.

Tennessee: Former Michigan quarterback Joe Milton officially transferred to Tennessee. Expect a transfer announcement any day from Brian Maurer, Kaidon Salter or Harrison Bailey. Perhaps two of them.

Texas A&M: Defensive coordinator Mike Elko has made the final four for the Kansas HBC job per ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg. The other three are Buffalo HBC Lance Leipold, Louisiana Tech HBC Skip Holtz and Army HBC Jeff Monken.

Vanderbilt: Power forward Dylan Disu (6-9, 230, SO) is transferring to Texas. Disu averaged 15 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. Shooting guard Issac McBride (6-1, 180, FR) is transferring to Oral Roberts. McBride averaged 4.7 points per game.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: I’m going to throw 25 names at you with a number beside them – 1. Vince Young; 2. Trevor Lawrence; 3. Brock Berlin; 4. Justin Fields; 5. Terrelle Pryor; 6. Bryce Young; 7. Matt Barkley; 8. (Tie) Mark Sanchez; 8. (Tie) Jimmy Clausen; 10. (Tie) Russell Shepard; 10. (Tie) Brodie Croyle; 12. Kyle Wright; 13. (Tie) Rhett Bomar; 13. (Tie) Shea Patterson; 15. Ben Olson; 16. Ryan Mallett; 17. (Tie) Matthew Stafford; 17. (Tie) Jacob Eason; 19. Caleb Williams; 20. Ryan Perrilloux; 21. (Tie) Xavier Lee; 21. (Tie) Mitch Mustain; 23. Kyle Allen; 24. DJ Uiagalelei; and 25. Max Browne.

What do these 25 have in common? They’re the top 25 quarterback prospects since 2000 per 247Sports.com. The jury is still out on Bryce Young, Williams and Uiagalelei since they are still playing. Vince Young (Texas) and Lawrence (Clemson) both won a national championship. Fields got Ohio State to the national championship game but couldn’t beat out Jake Fromm as a true freshman at Georgia. Stafford got a NNC (Near National Championship, one of many since 1980) at Georgia. Sanchez had a good but not great college career at USC and spent a few years bouncing around the NFL. Some of the other 17 had decent to modest success in college and some were total busts such as Shepard, Olson, Perrilloux, Lee, Mustain and Browne. The point of this. You can seem like the greatest quarterback prospect in the world but if you (a) don’t have the right quarterback whisperer; (b) don’t have decent receivers to throw to or (c) you aren’t exactly the brightest bulb on the tree you’re going to flame out either in college or, if you’re lucky, when you get a shot at making it in the No Fun League.