Thoughts of the Day: August 10, 2021

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

NO KYLE PITTS NO PROBLEM?

Florida tight ends coach Tim Brewster admits that Mackey Award winner Kyle Pitts was “a generational-type player,” which might have something to do with the fact the Atlanta Falcons made him the highest drafted tight end in NFL history. But Brewster doesn’t sound like he’s losing all that much sleep about the tight ends he will be coaching this fall while Pitts is cashing substantially large No Fun League paychecks.

“You’d be hard pressed to have a better, more complete tight end room than what I have,” Brewster said after the Gators finished practice Monday. “I think that we’re going to be – we’re going to be just fine this season.”

Brewster doesn’t have a single player with Pitts’ unique combination of size, speed and ball catching skills. His five scholarship tight ends – Kemore Gamble (6-4, 243, RSR); Keon Zipperer (6-3, 242, JR); Jonathan Odom (6-5, 240, RFR); Nick Elksnis (6-6, 243, FR) and Gage Wilcox (6-4, 230, FR) – are talented guys but if you combine their career stats – 31 catches for 394 yards and six touchdowns – the numbers are less than Pitts put up in 2019 (54-649, 5 TDs). Last year, in winning the Mackey, Pitts caught 43 passes for 770 yards and 12 touchdowns in only eight games.

Yet, Brewster seems quite confident his guys will get the job done, particularly Gamble, who caught 10 passes for 160 yards and three touchdowns while doing most of his damage as the hand in the dirt blocking tight end in 2020.

“Everybody says we’re going to miss Kyle Pitts,” Brewster said. “What are we going to do without Kyle Pitts? Well, guess what? Kemore Gamble’s going to be the best tight end in the SEC. What do you think about that?”

The best in the SEC?

Athlon chose four preseason All-SEC teams in its magazine, not a one of them named Kemore Gamble. The four tight ends are Jalen Wydermyer (Texas A&M, 46-506, 6 TDs in 2020), Jahleel Billingsley (Alabama, 18-287, 3 TDs), Nick Muse (South Carolina, 30-425, 1 TD) and Darnell Washington (Georgia, 7-166).

There isn’t a shred of doubt in Gamble’s mind that he’s capable of being the tight end Brewster predicts he will be.

“Well, I think, if I keep my head on right and if I keep grinding how I’m grinding, I think I can be the best tight end in the nation, not just SEC,” Gamble said Tuesday.

Brewster does know a thing or two about coaching up decent tight ends. When he was coaching in the NFL at San Diego (2002-07), his protégé was Antonio Gates, an undrafted former basketball player (2003) out of Kent State who went on to catch 955 passes for 11,841 yards and 116 touchdowns in a 16-year pro career. At Florida State in 2014, he coached Nick O’Leary, who won the Mackey. At Texas A&M in 2018 Brewster coached Jace Sternberger, who was the consensus All-America tight end.

Is Gamble capable of putting up All-SEC or All-America numbers or will Brewster need to go with a by committee approach to compensate for Brewster’s absence? File that under to be determined, but one thing Brewster does know is that Dan Mullen is as good at scheming an offense as anyone in the country.

“We’re going to play two tight ends,” Brewster said. “We’re going to play three tight ends. We’re going to have multiple tight end groupings. I have no problem. We are not going to be situational. You’re not going to be able to look at our offense and say, ‘Gamble is in the game, they’re going to do this; Keon Zipperer is in the game, they’re going to do this. Both those guys are going to be able to go out and perform and do all the things necessary to compete and play well. And whoever’s lined up, if Kemore ends up being the guy to play the whole game or, you know, Keon, you know, it’s … it’ll play itself out but I know this, I have amazing confidence, extreme confidence that that group of kids, those guys are gonna play really well. I think they’re gonna surprise a lot of people with how they play this season.”

BRUCE FELDMAN ON DAMEON PIERCE AS AN ATHLETIC FREAK

The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman compiled a list of what he considers the 25 greatest athletic freaks in college football, rating Florida tailback Dameon Pierce No. 21.

Feldman wrote: “He led the Gators in rushing with 503 yards last season and also caught 17 passes for 156 yards. The 5-10, 215-pound senior might have the strongest lower body of any running back in college football. Pierce squats 705 pounds and vertical jumps 37 inches. He’s clocked a 4.50 40 and has just 6 percent body fat. In addition, he benches 390 pounds.”

GEORGIA HEADS ESPN’S LIST OF UNDERACHIEVING FOOTBALL PROGRAMS

“Georgia is the inspiration for the underachiever tiers,” writes Adam Rittenberg of ESPN, who came out with his list of college football’s ultimate underachievers of the last 40 years Monday. Rittenberg puts Georgia in a league all by itself, unable to win a single national championship since Herschel Walker’s freshman season in 1980.

Rittenberg writes that despite Georgia having a great stadium, being an hour away from the remarkable talent hotbed of Atlanta, good academics, the social life of Athens and a tradition of sending players to the NFL, it comes up short when it comes to national championships.

“Still the list of national championship winners since 1980 includes every major program surrounding Georgia but Georgia – Clemson, Alabama, Florida State, Florida, Miami, Tennessee, and, of course, rivals Auburn and Georgia Tech. Georgia’s failure to win a title puts the program in a tier of its own.”

We would be remiss not to mention the following national championship numbers since 1980: Clemson (3), Alabama (7), Florida State (3), Florida (3), Miami (5), Tennessee (1), Auburn (1) and Georgia Tech (1). Louisiana isn’t a surrounding state, but since the Tigers belong in the SEC it’s worth mentioning they’ve also won three.

Here are the other tiers and their teams:

Tier 2: Texas A&M, UCLA, Texas The Aggies last won a national title in 1939. Texas won back-to-back in 1969-70 and got another one in 2005. UCLA hasn’t won one since 1954.

Tier 3: North Carolina, Arizona State, Maryland Who? North Carolina has never won a football national title, but the Heels have done rather well in basketball. Maryland won a national title in 1953 in football and won one in basketball in 2002. Arizona State was awarded national championships in 1970 by something called Polling System and in 1975 by Sporting News.

Tier 4: Miami, Michigan, USC, Nebraska, Tennessee Maybe they are has beens but Miami has five national championships, Michigan one, Southern Cal two, Nebraska three and Tennessee one since Georgia's last.

Tier 5: Miami (OH), Houston, East Carolina

Really?

Tier 6: Illinois, Syracuse, Cal

The Galloping Ghost, Jim Brown and Wrong Way Riegels have long since come and gone.

OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC

Alabama: Tight end Jahleel Billingsley’s absence from practice is not injury related. Nick Saban said, “He does have a lot of ability. He can be a positive contributor on the team, but he’s also got to buy into the principles and values of the team and be a good teammate. Do the things that everyone else in the organization does so that he has the respect of his teammates. We’re certainly trying to help him do that and hopefully, he’ll be back out there with us in a few days.”

Arkansas: Center Ricky Stromberg suffered an MCL injury. No date has been set for his return to practice … Cornerbacks coach Sam Carter and running backs coach Jimmy Smith got contract extensions and raises.

Auburn: Quarterback Bo Nix has impressed new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. “I’ve been extremely impressed with how hard this young man works,” Bobo said. “He’s an ultimate competitor. He wants to win in everything, not just football.”

Georgia: Starting center Warren Ericson will be out for a few weeks after suffering a hand injury. He will be replaced by redshirt freshman Sedric Van Pran-Granger ... Will Muschamp is the new special teams coordinator.

Kentucky: Suspended wide receivers coach Jovon Bouknight was in court Monday to plead guilty to driving at least 26 miles per hour over the speed limit while in possession of an open alcoholic container. DUI charges were dismissed but since Bouknight refused a blood-alcohol test his driver’s license will be suspended for the same period of time it would have been if he had been convicted of DUI.

LSU: Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Eric Taylor has entered the NCAA transfer portal. He is a former 4-star recruit from Trussville, Alabama.

Mississippi State: HBC Mike Leach is impressed with what he’s seeing from quarterback Will Rogers, who started six games as a true freshman last year. “He’s more consistent than he was starting as a true freshman without a spring,” Leach said. “There’s plenty of progress to make, some of it is getting tuned in with your receivers.”

Missouri: Missouri’s new athletic director is Desiree Reed-Francois, who comes to Columbia from UNLV. She once oversaw the men’s basketball program at Tennessee.

Ole Miss: HBC Lane Kiffin is some 30 pounds lighter than he was last season. Speaking to Chris Low of ESPN, Kiffin said, “I saw a picture of me at the bowl game last year and told the players that I looked like an anaconda that had swallowed a deer and the deer got stuck in my neck.”

South Carolina: Last year’s leading rusher in the SEC, Kevin Harris, is waiting medical clearance from a back injury before he is allowed to begin practice. Harris and HBC Shane Beamer seem confident Harris will be able to go when the Gamecocks play Eastern Illinois in the season opener on September 4.

Tennessee: “There’s no more Mondays around here,” says Tennessee offensive tackle Dayne Davis, talking about how things have changed under new HBC Josh Heupel as compared to former coach Jeremy Pruitt.

Texas A&M: Commenting on Texas and Oklahoma joining the Southeastern Conference, Jimbo Fisher said, “We voted them in. Glad to have them. It’s a great conference. This is the best ball in the country, so we’ll line up and play, and [we] look forward to playing them.”

Vanderbilt: Texas state senator Drew Springer, no fan of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC said “If it was Vanderbilt leaving the SEC, if they left nobody in the SEC would really care.”

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Last week Washington State president Kirk Schultz called the Southeastern Conference predatory for adding Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12, adding, “What the SEC has done is unify the other conferences in a way that nothing else could have, in terms of working together.” This came after Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby talked about tapping the brakes on expanding the College Football Playoff in retaliation. Who do either of them think they’re fooling? The College Football Playoff is going to expand to 12 teams and they’ll be in lockstep to make it happen. Why? Because it will dramatically increase the amount of revenue all 65 of the Power 5 schools make from the playoff. The sooner it happens, the better for what’s left of the Big 12 and the Pac-12, a perennial revenue bottom feeder. They aren’t going to stand in the way of making an additional $65-150 million per year when the playoff expands. While they may gripe that an expanded playoff will mean more SEC teams get in, remember the words of Greg Sankey, who said, “We’re fine with four teams.” In a four-team playoff the SEC will still dominate, the Pac-12 will rarely get a team in and the Big 12, if it survives, may not ever get another one in. When the playoff expands to 12, they’ll have a serious chance to get their conference champ in. So forget all the chest-beating and bravado. The Pac-12, Big 12 and other conferences will vote yes for expansion and will grit their teeth all the way to the bank.