Thoughts of the Day: August 1, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:

SELLING HOPE AND A VISION; WINNING WILL TAKE CARE OF THE REST Until the Friday Nights Lights weekend, quite a few Gator fans were questioning the choice of Billy Napier as Florida’s football coach. Can’t recruit seemed to be the label they were giving Napier, who essentially told them all to stick a sock in it when he beat out some of the best known coaches in college football for commitments from four highly coveted rising high school seniors.

Only a couple of weeks ago, Florida’s 2023 recruiting class wasn’t even top 20. Now it’s ranked 12th by 247, 13th by On3 after Napier sold hope and his vision for the future to these four guys:

Aidan Mizell, WR (6-2, 180, Orlando, FL Boone): One of the faster wide receivers in the entire country and son of a former Gator sprinter. The Gators beat out Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee for his commitment.

Jordan Castell, S (6-2, 190, Winter Garden, FL West Orange: A fast, physical safety, Florida out-recruited Alabama, Auburn, Tennessee, Penn State, Ohio State and Texas A&M.

Andy Jean, WR (6-1, Miami, FL Northwestern): He’s a fast, surehanded receiver from one of Miami’s traditional powerhouses. He chose the Gators over Miami, Georgia, Texas A&M, Alabama and LSU.

Ja’Keem Jackson, CB (6-1, 180, Kissimmee, FL Osceola): He is a former wide receiver with sprinter’s speed but plays corner like a natural. He had offers from Georgia, Alabama, Miami and Tennessee among others, but chose the Gators.

These four aren’t the only ones who seem to be buying into the hope and vision that Napier is selling. Cormani McClain (6-2, 170, Lakeland, FL) is the top corner in the country who seems destined to be a Gator. Dijon Johnson (6-1, 190, Tampa, FL Wharton) just decommitted Ohio State and most of the recruiting experts anticipate he will also be a Gator. Defensive tackle Will Norman (6-5, 300, Bradenton, FL IMG Academy) seems likely to choose the Gators over LSU, Texas A&M and Penn State.

And there will be others, particularly if the Gators get off to a tremendous start as well they could with six home games out of their first seven. Right now, Napier can only sell hope and vision. Add winning to that equation and Napier can get the kind of momentum that will result in a recruiting class that might crack the top eight nationally. Nothing solidifies hope and vision quite like winning. Napier won at Louisiana but you can know that many of the top-ranked kids are waiting to see how he does in the Southeastern Conference. When they see the Gators winning, they will view the University of Florida as a far more palatable landing spot.

One other thing that should be understood. At his very first press conference in Gainesville and subsequently at others, Napier has emphasized that not everyone can be a Gator. He’s not going to settle for players who he doesn’t believe are as committed to earning a college degree and personal development as they are in developing their football skills. He is a firm believer that better people make better football players.

Brandon Sproat may be back Brandon Sproat knows how to say no. He was drafted in the seventh round by the Texas Rangers out of Pace High School back in 2019 when he was the highest drafted player who didn’t sign a minor league contract. He was taken in the third round by the New York Mets in the most recent Major League Baseball Draft and right now he’s one of just a handful of high draft picks who have yet to sign. The signing deadline for drafted players is 5 p.m. today and right now, it seems Sproat might be coming back rather than sign with the Mets.

Writes Jim Callis of MLB.com: “The highest-drafted player who appears unlikely to sign is Florida right-hander Brandon Sproat, a third-round pick by the Mets. After struggling earlier in the college season, he allowed a total of seven earned runs in his final six starts while running his fastball up to 99 mph and his slider up to 91.”

If Sproat declines the Mets’ offer – it was slotted for $691,000 – he will still have two seasons of eligibility remaining at UF. It would also mean Kevin O’Sullivan could have the top weekend pitching rotation in the country with Sproat on Friday night, Southern Miss All-American transfer Hudson Waldrep on Saturday and Brandon Neely, Tyler Nesbitt or Jac Caglianone on Sunday. Florida also returns Fisher Jameson, Anthony Ursitti, Carsten Finnvold, Nick Ficarrotta, Phil Abner and relievers Ryan Slater, Blake Purnell and Phil Abner in what will easily be one of the most talented and deepest pitching staffs in the country. And, lest we forget, the incoming freshman class includes highly regarded Jake Clemente, Cade Fisher, Yoel Tejada Jr. and Chris Arroyo along with juco transfer Clete Herzog.

The high cost of doing business The following coaches were hired by Division I schools after the 2017 season ended: Dan Mullen (Florida), Scott Frost (Nebraska), Jimbo Fisher (Texas A&M), Chip Kelly (UCLA), Willie Taggart (Florida State), Kevin Sumlin (Arizona), Jonathan Smith (Oregon State), Herm Edwards (Arizona State), Joe Moorhead (Mississippi State), Jeremy Pruitt (Tennessee), Chad Morris (Arkansas), Mario Cristobal (Oregon) and Matt Luke (Ole Miss).

Connor O’Gara of Saturday Down South points out that only Kelly, Frost, Fisher, Edwards and Smith are still coaching at the same place that hired them after 2017. Frost could be fired this year if he doesn’t win seven or more games at Nebraska, which seems more likely after starting offensive lineman Nouredin Nouili was suspended by the NCAA for the entire season for failing a drug test. Edwards could be dropped like a hot potato if Arizona State (a) doesn’t win and (b) the NCAA drops lack of institutional control on the Sun Devils. Cristobal left Oregon for Miami.

Here is what it cost to get rid of these coaches: Taggart $18 million; Mullen $12 million; Morris $10 million; Luke $9.6 million; Moorhead $7 million. Tennessee wanted to be rid of Pruitt so badly that it chose to turn itself in to the NCAA – 18 Level I violations – rather than pay him $12.6 million in buyout money.

O’Gara points out that if Aggie fans decided to pink slip Jimbo if he goes in the tank this season, it would only cost $86 million. Fisher is 34-14 coaching the Aggies. Dan Mullen went 34-15 at Florida and he was fired.

Meanwhile, among the have nots We’ll start with the Pac-12 where commissioner George Kliavkoff confidently touted an expanded College Football Playoff prior to 2025. The only problem with that prediction is that Greg Sankey doesn’t anticipate any such move and why should he? He has all the cards, the SEC doesn’t need the money and there is no need to bail out a Pac-12 that probably isn’t going to exist in another two years. In particular, why bail out Kliavkoff in any way since he’s one of the three who torpedoed the expansion from four to 12 teams. If “the alliance” had any brains it would have approved the deal and the ACC and Pac-12 would have had perhaps a couple hundred million each in added revenue from the playoff.

Kliavkoff also said he anticipates the remaining 10 schools in the Pac-12 will happily sign a grant of rights deal to remain in the Pac-12. Oh, right. As if Oregon and Washington aren’t begging the Big Ten to please take them in with Stanford and California also holding their hats out. Kliavkoff thinks Fox and ESPN will be happy to do business with the Pac-12 Minus Two but ESPN has already lowballed Kliavkoff and the only thing Fox will be interested in is having Oregon, Washington, Stanford and Cal join the Big Ten.

Almost as dumb as Kliavkoff is ACC commish Little Jimmy Phillips, who actually said this about “the alliance” that prevented the College Football Playoff from expanding to 12 teams: “I’m proud of the work we did in the alliance.” Really? The ACC won’t distribute $40 million a year before 2025. Meanwhile the SEC will be paying out something like $90 million when Texas and Oklahoma join the league and with its new deal with Fox the Big Ten anticipates a payout in the range of $100 million per school. Yes, there is so much to be proud of.

The Big 12, whose media deal with Fox and ESPN expires in 2025, probably will get an offer from ESPN that is decent in exchange for allowing Texas and Oklahoma to leave early for the SEC. ESPN takes over as the SEC’s media partner in 2024 so it would be highly beneficial to have Texas and Oklahoma in the fold a year earlier. Expect a deal prior to Christmas.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: My love of basketball can be traced back to Sunday afternoons in the winter in the 1960s. The NFL season ended the last Sunday in December. The college season ended on January 1. College basketball on television hadn’t caught on yet, but ABC, which was a distant third to CBS and NBC in programming for everything, had the NBA on Sunday afternoons. There were only nine teams in the league so there was every good chance that the Sunday game would feature the Boston Celtics, Philadelphia Warriors, Cincinnati Royals or Los Angeles Lakers. The Warriors had Wilt Chamberlain. The Royals had Oscar Robertson. The Lakers had Jerry West and Elgin Baylor.

The Celtics were my favorite team then and have remained the only NBA team that has always held my attention, largely because of Bill Russell. In the minds of nearly everyone who got a chance to see him play, Russell is the greatest defensive player of all time. He was 6-10, tremendously agile and with a sense of anticipation like no one I’ve ever seen. He just knew when to block a shot and when to back off. Blocked shots didn’t become an NBA stat until the 1970s after Russell had retired, but I believe no one has ever blocked as many as he did in his career. Russell probably altered twice as many shots as he blocked, often without leaving his feet. Opponents were so certain that Russell was going to try to block their shot that they would look foolish by heaving up something wild only to see Russell flatfooted, staring them down. When he did block a shot, he didn’t swat it into the stands but tried to keep it in play so the Celtics could retrieve the ball and get out on the break. They were such a beautiful team to watch.

A couple of years after he retired, I listened to a rare Russell interview in which he talked about the art of blocking shots.

“I would pick and choose when I would actually block a shot, but I wanted opponents to assume I was going to go after every one,” Russell said. “I wanted to get in their heads. If they think I’ll block every shot, they’ll make mistakes and I don’t risk a foul.”

Russell won 11 championships playing for Red Auerbach, then won another two as the Celtics’ player-coach. He averaged 22.5 rebounds per game and was the NBA most valuable player five times. He also won two state championships in Oakland, California at McClymonds High School, two NCAA titles at San Francisco and an Olympic Gold Medal in 1956.