Thoughts of the Day: August 17, 2021

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

MULLEN SPEAKS ABOUT THE SCRIMMAGE AND OTHER THINGS

Monday afternoon Dan Mullen had a ZOOM meeting with the media. Here are a few of his more interesting comments:

On what he sees of Emory Jones at quarterback: “A guy that’s gonna go out there and lead the offense and manage the offense, make good decisions when we need him to make a good decision and find the balance between when it is to make the average play and when it is to go let your talents do something spectacular. And find the balance between those two.”

On the evolution of the offense from last year to this: “If you look at last year's offense, you had a dropback quarterback that was extremely accurate and you had some talented receivers that you could spread the field and they could win one-on-ones, so the defense at that point, you go watch, you're seeing a lot of drop eight in coverage, three-man rush. Saying, 'Hey, if we rush, if we create one-on-ones, this guy's going to take advantage of those one-on-ones that are out there.' This year's team, as you said, we're trying to find where our depth comes in. You have a couple running backs that have shown they're going to be ready to play. Both quarterbacks have shown they're ready to go play. Building up that number of receivers, that there's a group we feel comfortable with and a group that are still right on the edge. Same at tight end. The two we feel pretty comfortable with, a couple on the edge. And offensive line, you know, probably six, seven. Seven-ish we're getting comfortable with. Couple more right on the edge to get it there. But what you do is it's just going to change. You're going to be a different scheme. So you have different guys, different playmakers. You put guys in different positions that are out there on the field. Obviously the threat of quarterback run, whether it be a designed quarterback run, whether it be an option run or his ability to go scramble puts a lot of difference and a different type of pressure on the defense.”

On Anthony Richardson: “He had a huge night last night. Did really well, made a lot of great

decisions. Very accurate. I think he threw three touchdown passes. Obviously is a dynamic runner as well, making good decisions. I feel very comfortable with both guys, which is a good thing. It helps in a way that they have similar skill sets even though they’re a little different in their sets and what they do well. But there are similarities in their ability to create, both with great arm talent and their talent to create and extend plays with their legs. It allows you, you don’t have to have one package or this package, and you can kind of coach in a similar style where if you see this look don’t be afraid to take off running.”

On Brenton Cox Jr.: "Yeah, he's doing pretty good, he's getting his work in, getting ready to go play. Obviously, he's played a lot of football so it's not like a big deal. I didn't, I didn't have him take any reps in the scrimmage last night. I’ve seen him play in The Swamp before so that's not a necessary step for us with where we're at right now … you know with that though, it gives other guys opportunities out there. You know where you see like Antwaun Powell really stepped up and Lloyd Summerall, some of these young guys now get an opportunity to take that next step to get themselves, you know, working themselves into a rotation and earning reps."

On who plays the slot: “Well, you’ve got all kinds of different people. We’re going to move some tight ends, will do some more slot stuff, more than last year when we kind of played them more on the outside singled up. You have Jacob Copeland in the slot, Rick Wells in the slot, running backs can go into the slot. Trent Whittemore goes into the slot. You know, a lot of different type of deals creating the matchups where last year, you had some guys on the outside you’re creating 1-on-1s for if they wanted to leave them 1-on-1, or if they wanted to roll that, your slot was Kadarius Toney to create some mismatches that way. We’re kind of moving a lot more different pieces around.”

GATORS NO. 13 IN ASSOCIATED PRESS PRESEASON POLL

The AP preseason poll is out. Alabama is No. 1 and the usual suspects make up the rest of the top five. Is anyone surprised? You shouldn’t have been. These are the same five teams we knew would be in the top five back in January and unless something drastic changes, the same five teams that will start 2022 as the top five. It will pretty much be that way until the playoff expands.

The Florida Gators are No. 13, which is two spots down from where they start the season in the Coaches Poll. Where Florida finishes is likely to be determined by three games: Sept. 4 Alabama; Oct. 16 at LSU; and Oct. 30 Georgia in Jacksonville. If the Gators win two of those three as long as one of the wins is Georgia, you can almost certainly pencil the Gators in the top five.

1. Alabama 2. Oklahoma 3. Clemson 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia

6. Texas A&M 7. Iowa State

8. Cincinnati

9. Notre Dame

10. North Carolina

11. Oregon

12. Wisconsin

13. FLORIDA

14. Miami

15. Southern California

16. LSU

17. Indiana

18. Iowa

19. Penn State 20. Washington 21. Texas

22. Coastal Carolina

23. Louisiana 24. Utah 25. Arizona State

OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Nick Saban brought in former Utah and NFL quarterback Alex Smith (coached up by Dan Mullen at Utah) as a motivational speaker. Smith, who suffered a horrendous leg injury that required 17 surgeries, told the team, “Two years ago I was stuck in a wheelchair, staring down at my mangled leg, wondering if I’d ever be able to go on a walk with my wife again or play games with my kids in the yard. Putting my helmet back on was the farthest thing from my mind. But then someone did something that changed my recovery. He put a football back in my hands. I don’t know what it was but all of a sudden I felt stronger, more driver and what once seemed impossible began to come into focus.”

Arkansas: The three-deep at quarterback is (1) KJ Jefferson, (2) Malik Hornsby and (3) Kade Renfro.

Auburn: New HBC Bryan Harsin thought the defense did well at Saturday’s scrimmage. Harsin said, “…Overall, I thought the D-line played pretty well,” Auburn coach Bryan Harsin said. “I thought our linebackers — they were hitting it downhill — and then there were some negative plays that the defense created. I thought that front seven did well. Secondary, some good things back there.”

Georgia: JT Daniels has signed an NIL deal with a trading card company that will pay $100 per autograph. Daniels plans to share half of his earnings with teammates. ESM, the company representing Daniels, says the deal could be worth seven figures.

Kentucky: Will Levis, who was named the starting quarterback, played in eight games at Penn State last year, completing 33-55 passes for 421 yards and a TD while picking up 260 yards on the ground (3.17 per carry) for three touchdowns.

LSU: Veteran D-lineman Neil Farrell says Jaquelin Roy and Maason Smith are going to “put on a show” this year. Roy is a 6-4, 302-pound sophomore who had 18 tackles last year while Smith, a freshman who was a 5-star recruit, is 6-6, 312.

Mississippi State: South Alabama transfer Chance Lovertich isn’t really surprised that he finds himself in position to win for the starting QB job. After Monday’s practice he said, “I knew if I came out here and showed what I can do on the field, and got in some team situations, take care of what I can do, and make some plays, I knew that option would definitely be available for me.”

Missouri: Wide receivers Jay Maclin and Mookie Cooper are uncertain for the season opener. Maclin has a fracture of his orbital bone and Cooper has a lower leg injury.

Ole Miss: Asked for a comment on an open mic by wide receiver Braylon Sanders, Lane Kiffin responded, “I’m just here mentoring the youth of America.”

South Carolina: One of the options at quarterback with Luke Doty out for an indetermined amount of time is Dakereon Joyner. He was recruited as a quarterback but has been working at wide receiver. HBC Shane Beamer said Monday, “Dakereon Joyner worked a little bit at quarterback today. He may play some quarterback in the first game.”

Tennessee: Quarterback Brian Mauer missed Monday’s practice, the fifth straight practice he’s missed. He’s still listed on the UT roster however.

Texas A&M: Following Saturday’s scrimmage Jimbo Fisher said, “Older guys are doing a good job making progressions across the board offense, defense and special teams. We are still so early, we have a lot of things to go. We are still in the installation parts.”

Vanderbilt: As the Commodores begin week two of fall camp, HBC Clark Lea said, “There has to be urgency. There has to be a willingness to address the issues and to feel like every day, you're making progress toward the end goal.”

FINEBAUM ON THE ACC, BIG TEN AND PAC-12 FORMING A SCHEDULING ALLIANCE

The idea of a scheduling alliance between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac-12 might have seemed like a good idea at the moment to the dweebs in charge of those three conferences, but it didn’t even rate a raised fuzzy eyebrow from Paul Finebaum. When Finebaum speaks it’s quite often the same train of thought had by the higher ups at ESPN. If this alliance isn’t causing Finebaum’s putter to flutter, then it’s probably a big yawn for the ESPN folks, too. Here’s what Finebaum said:

“I think it’s a desperate move that signifies absolutely zero. What difference does it make if the ACC, the Big Ten, the Pac-12 and anyone else schedule games? That already happens. It doesn’t affect the most important aspect of the Texas-Oklahoma move. The SEC has simply left everyone else in the dust and has the first true super-conference and the biggest brands and the best value in college football. You can get all the games you want between Southern Cal and North Carolina and Clemson and Michigan, and so what? We already have these types of games. We’re two-and-a-half weeks away from Clemson-Georgia, Ohio State-Oregon, Michigan-Washington — these games are on the schedule.

"And, once the 12-team playoff shows up, whenever that is, it's going to make all this stuff even more obsolete. If you're sitting there in all these other leagues leagues, you've looked at the map and you've tried to do the math. There's simply no move. The Big 12 doesn't have a move. The ACC, short of Notre Dame changing it's mind, doesn't have a move. The Big Ten certainly doesn't have a move. So you meet your colleagues, you come up with contingency plans. You try to do anything you can to blame one person for every single thing that has happened. You try to blow up a 12-team playoff because of one person and that one person is Greg Sankey."

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: I have to admit I was stunned in reading a list of the top 101 college football coaches of the past 50 years by ESPN’s Bill Connelly to find Steve Spurrier at No. 13. There is no debating that Nick Saban and Bear Bryant should be 1-2 and you can make a case that the next four – Bobby Bowden, Tom Osborne, Urban Meyer and John McKay – belong in the top six in some order, but when you have Dabo Swinney, Bill Snyder, Barry Switzer and LaVell Edwards finishing out your top 10 and Spurrier at No. 13, something is really, really wrong. He revolutionized college football offenses at UF but he also won an ACC title at Duke and won 11 games in three consecutive years at South Carolina. Nobody wins at Duke. Nobody does that at South Carolina.