Thoughts of the Day: August 18, 2022

Thoughts of the Day

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:

DOING WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO WIN GAMES

This is a learning process. Make no mistake about it and the way Billy Napier looks at things, coaching football will always be a learning process. At each step of the journey you learn something. You discard what doesn’t work, put some things in a file for future use if the situation or circumstances are right, and you keep improving on the things you find useful. There is a track record of success doing it like that.

Go back to that first year (2018) at Louisiana. The Ragin Cajuns were coming off a third straight losing season, one in which they gave up 40 points and 492.7 yards per game. Twice that 2017 team allowed 60 or more points. Three times they gave up 608 or more yards.

The cupboard Napier inherited wasn’t completely bare. There was some talent, particularly at running back where the previous coach had recruited Trey Ragas, Elijah Mitchell and Raymond Calais. All three play in the NFL There was a young quarterback in Levi Lewis, barely 5-11 in his cleats and not exactly possessed with a gun of an arm, but he knew how to make smart plays and he had good feet.

Those four helped the Cajuns go 7-7 in 2018. They won the Sun Belt Conference West Division and got to the school’s first bowl game since 2014. Ragas ran for 1,181 yards and eight touchdowns. Mitchell ran for 977 yards and 13 touchdowns. Calais averaged an astonishing 9.31 per carry as he ran for 754 yards and seven TDs. Lewis threw for seven touchdown passes while playing in all 14 games as a backup.

A year later, the Cajuns went 10-3 with Mitchell running for 1,147 yards and 16 touchdowns, Calais running for 886 and six TDs and Ragas going for 820 and seven TDs. Mitchell threw for 26 touchdowns and ran for three more. Louisiana won the Sun Belt West again, lost to Appalachian State in the championship game, then won the bowl game.

What the Cajuns were doing those first couple of years is playing defense with the offense. They ran the football, forcing opponents to commit so many in the box that the passing game opened up. There was method to the madness. The Cajuns got more than just respectable and it allowed Napier to bring in better talent. In the two years it took Napier to rebuild the roster, he developed a blueprint for winning games, some of which were against more talented opponents.

“Coach Napier was able to probably, in my opinion, win games we probably weren’t supposed to be in there by slowing the pace of the game,” offensive line coach Rob Sale says. Sale was with Napier at Arizona State in 2017 and with him at Louisiana those first three years.

Winning led to better talent and better football: a 23-2 record those last two seasons with a breakthrough 13-1 2021 highlighted by the Sun Belt Conference championship.

What Napier did those first two years at wasn’t that different than what he did the last two years. The difference better talent to work with although the level of talent was far different than what he is working with in year one at Florida.

“At Louisiana we didn’t get the 5-star,” Napier said recently. “We started from scratch with a lot of players. We projected. We took height, length and speed. We had to teach football at a much different level and I think it made us better as coaches.”

Napier isn’t exactly starting from scratch at UF, but what he has learned along the way, particularly what he learned in those four years at Louisiana, is what could transform Florida from a team that lost games to less talented teams a year ago en route to a 6-7 record. Teaching is back in vogue. This isn’t “Football for Dummies” but it is back to basics where fundamentals and discipline are at the heart of everything the Gators do whether it’s in the meeting rooms or on the practice field.

Once the Gators take the field in September, expect fundamentals, discipline, run the ball and play defense with the offense. Rule No. 1. Don’t beat yourself with fundamental mistakes and breakdowns in discipline. Rule No. 2. The other team can’t beat you if they can’t get you off the field so run the ball, control the clock and limit the amount of time the UF defense is on the field.

If this sounds vaguely familiar, then you may remember the 1984 Gators. That Florida team had three stud running backs who were all future No. 1 draft picks (Neal Anderson, John L. Williams and Lorenzo Hampton), a former walk-on redshirt freshman QB in Kerwin Bell, a huge, talented offensive line (The Great Wall) and great talent on defense. The Gators pounded teams into submission with the running game and threw sparingly but for big yardage over the top. The defense spent less than 20 minutes per game on the field. At season’s end, the Gators were 9-1-1 and the best team in the country, bar none.

No one will predict 9-1-1 out of this Florida team, but thanks to a proven offensive scheme infused by a better QB than Napier ever had at Louisiana (Anthony Richardson), four stud running backs (Montrell Johnson, Lorenzo Lingard, Nay’Quan Wright and Trevor Etienne) and a big, powerful O-line led by CBS Sports preseason second team All-America O’Cyrus Torrence, the Gators might very well be what Phil Steele predicts will be the second most improved team in the country. If Napier can get the offense to do its part, the defense won’t have to spend as much time on the field and this defense, by the way, is a substantial upgrade to the previous two seasons.

SEC football/basketball

Alabama: Named first team preseason All-America by CBS Sports were quarterback Bryce Young, linebacker Will Anderson Jr. and defensive back Jordan Battle. Offensive lineman Emil Ekiyor, corner Eli Ricks and all-purpose Jahmyr Gibbs.

Arkansas: Safety Jalen Catalon was named preseason second team All-America by CBS Sports.

Auburn: D-line coach Jimmy Brumbaugh says the goal this season is 8-10 players in the rotation. There were six transfers who left the program after last season but two transferred in plus a juco was signed to go with four returning players from last season.

Georgia: Named first team preseason All-America by CBS Sports were tight end Brock Bowers, defensive lineman Jalen Carter and corner Kelee Ringo. Second teamers were linebacker Nolan Smith Jr. and defensive back Tykee Smith.

Kentucky: “If we stay focused and together, I don’t see any team that can beat us,” says Oscar Tshiebwe, who came back for another year at UK after averaging 17.4 points and leading the nation in rebounding at 15.2 per game.

LSU: Arizona State transfer Jayden Daniels seems to have the upper hand in the quarterback battle … Wide receiver Kayshon Boutte was named second team preseason All-America by CBS Sports.

Mississippi State: On ESPN’s Ryan and Marty show, Mike Leach got into a discussion about fashion in which he explained that the khaki pants he wore to SEC Media Days were likely from Banana Republic or possibly from the Mississippi State equipment room. One reason why Leach loves cargo shorts is they give him room for “bigger, clunkier sheets of paper and even a small notebook” … Former walk-on LB Sherman Timbs, mostly a special teams player the last three years, has worked his way into the two-deep on defense.

Missouri: Placekicker Harrison Mevis was named second team placekicker on the CBS Sports preseason All-America team.

Ole Miss: The starting O-line with two weeks to go before the first game is LT Mason Brooks, LG Nick Broeker, C Caleb Warren, RG Eli Acker and RT Jeremy James.

South Carolina: Corner Cam Smith was named second team preseason All-America by CBS Sports … DB Marcellas Dial, who had 33 tackles last year is working out at both corner and nickel.

Tennessee: Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy admits that he was offered the Tennessee job on three different occasions. “Tennessee put together an unbelievable package and it’s hard to tell somebody no when that happens, but I made the right decision,” Gundy told ESPN’s Chris Low.

Texas A&M: Defensive back Antonio Johnson and punt returner Ainias Smith were named first team CBS preseason All-America.

Vanderbilt: Defensive end Miles Capers will miss the entire season after a knee injury. Capers was in on three tackles.

Our SEC orphans in the Big 12

Oklahoma: George Washington transfer guard Joe Bamisile, who averaged 16.3 points and 5.0 rebounds last season, has been cleared to play immediately by the NCAA.

Texas: Running back Bijan Robinson was named first team preseason All-America by CBS Sports … When it comes to the transfer portal and NIL, UT basketball coach Chris Beard told John Fanta of Fox Sports, “I don’t think those things are bad. It’s on us coaches to adapt and grow from these changes.”

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Little birdies are chirping about Florida football recruiting. Billy Napier has turned up the heat on the recruiting trail to the point that the Gators are now 8th in the Rivals team rankings, 10th by both On3 and 247Sports. Leading up to July 1 Florida recruiting was rather tepid. It’s quite hot at the moment and could be blast furnace hot in the next couple of weeks especially if there is a measure of truth to the chirpy little birdies.

Chirp No. 1 involves 5-star Tampa Berkeley Prep edge rusher Keon Keely (6-6, 265), who was committed to Notre Dame until Wednesday. The folks at On3 and 247 seem to think he’s now a lock for Alabama. Lee Corso might say, “Not so fast, my friends.” Florida might be surging here. Two things to consider: (1) Keely is being recruited by Sean Spencer, who’s been coaching in the NFL, and Mike Peterson, a former Pro Bowler; and (2) Keely is a Tampa kid who may find the chance to get in on the ground floor of a Florida program restored to greatness very much to his liking.

Chirp No. 2 involves 4-star Orlando Jones linebacker Malik Bryant (6-2, 234), who is committed to Miami. Little birdies are chirping that Miami is becoming an unsteady branch and Bryant is quietly shopping. He chose The Ewe over Florida. Is he getting cold feet? His high school coach is Eli Williams, a Gator great. That new football standalone facility is probably looking very good when compared to the spartan Miami facilities. And UF will play in a packed iconic stadium. The Ewe plays an overnight hike from Coral Gables in the antiseptic stadium that’s home of the Dolphins.

Chirp No. 3 involves another Miami commit Francis Mauioga (6-5, 327, San Bernadino, CA/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy). Little birdies chirp that he’s not all that convinced The Ewe’s NIL money is worth it. He’s a left coast kid whose brothers played at Washington State. Tennessee is begging. Southern Cal, too. Alabama needs him. So does Florida and the Gators just got a commitment from IMG teammate Will Norman, plus Mauioga’s O-line buddy Knijeah Harris has been committed to UF for the last 3-1/2 months. If his teammates convince him to visit UF for Utah or Kentucky and UF wins … just sayin’.