Thoughts of the Day: August 24, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning:

ONE MORE PRACTICE AND THE GATORS GO INTO GAME-WEEK MODE

Ricky Pearsall not only returned to practice Tuesday after missing a couple of weeks with a bone bruise in his foot, but he caught a touchdown pass from Anthony Richardson. Later in the practice, freshman wide receiver Caleb Douglas caught a TDP from Jalen Kitna.

That is important news for a team whose wide receiver corps is being viewed as the perhaps the team’s weakest link (9th by Phil Steele and Athlon, 10th by Lindy’s) by the major preseason publications. It’s also significant that Kitna, who missed a lot of practice in August with an injury, had a TD strike because the other two backup quarterbacks for the season opener are walk-on Kyle Engel and true freshman Max Brown.

Pearsall, who transferred in from Arizona State this summer, may not have the greatest top speed of any Florida receiver, but he is certainly the best combination of speed and make-you-miss ability on the team. From the slot, he’s thought to have the kind of skills that will make him a mismatch nightmare in the passing game. Douglas has had more than his share of standout moments in August to the point that he’s thought to have moved past some inexperienced veterans in the rotation. He has excellent top-end speed and might prove to be the field stretcher that some experts have stated the Gators don’t have.

With the thumb injury to Jack Miller III that will keep him out of at least the first two games of the season, getting Kitna on the field and playing well in practice is a very big deal. Asked on Sunday if he would be comfortable putting Kitna on the field against Utah, Billy Napier responded, “No doubt. Mentally, he’s one of the brighter kids in the [quarterback] room and really has worked as hard as anybody to get to this point.” Napier also said that Kitna’s understanding of what the Gators are doing “is as good as anybody in the room of what’s going on there.”

Also back at practice: Starters Ethan White (LG) and Jason Marshall Jr. (CB).

Five Gators make preseason Coaches All-SEC

Led by first team selection O’Cyrus Torrence (offensive line), five Gators were selected to the preseason Coaches All-SEC team. Torrence is the only Gator to make first team. Outside linebacker Brenton Cox Jr. and defensive lineman Gervon Dexter Jr. were chosen second team while inside linebacker Ventrell Miller and safety Trey Dean III were selected to the third team.

Florida’s five selections are dwarfed by Alabama, which claimed 19 selections (six first team, seven second team, six third team). Georgia, which had 15 players taken in the 2022 NFL Draft, had 10 chosen (four first team, five second, one third) and Texas A&M had nine (four first team, three second, two third).

Other Gator sports news

Men’s tennis: NCAA singles champion Ben Shelton, son of UF coach Bryan Shelton, will be turning professional. Shelton was ranked No. 547 in the world when the summer began, but after beating world No. 56 Casper Ruud of Norway in straight sets over the weekend, he vaulted up to 171.

Men’s basketball: Aleks Szymczyk (6-11, 240), a Polish native who played basketball at an academy in Munich, Germany the last two years, has officially signed with the Gators and is now enrolled in school. Szymczyk committed to the Gators just a few weeks ago.

SEC football

Alabama: Obviously, Nick Saban isn’t planning to retire anytime soon. Saban signed a contract extension through 2029 worth $93.6 million, or $11.7 million per year … The Tide has an advertising partnership with NASCAR.

Arkansas: KJ Jefferson has been named to the Manning Award watch list. The award is presented to the top quarterback in the nation.

Auburn: Linebacker Owen Pappoe, tight end John Samuel Shenker and edge rusher Derrick Hall have been voted team captains by their peers.

Georgia: Sophomore Devin Willock (6-7, 335) seems to have moved ahead of Warren Ericson as the starter at right guard.

Kentucky: Senior outside linebacker Jordan Wright is being suspended for the opening game with Miami (OH) for an off-the-field incident. Wright has 106 career tackles with 7.5 sacks and four forced fumbles. He has scored two defensive touchdowns.

LSU: Offensive linemen Kimo Makae’ole, Lanson Smith, Fitzgerald West Jr., Miles Frazier, Marcus Dumervil, Xavier Hill and Kardell Thomas have signed NIL deals with Hooters.

Mississippi State: Coastal Carolina placekicker Massimo Biscardi hit all three of his field goal attempts in the Bulldogs’ Saturday scrimmage with a long of 43 yards to take the lead in the competition with Ben Rayborn and Jordan Kennedy.

Missouri: Offensive captains for 2022 are quarterback Brady Cook, offensive lineman Javon Foster and wide receivers Barrett Bannister and Tauskie Dove. Defensive captains will be defensive back Martez Manuel, linebacker Chad Bailey and lineman Isaiah McGuire.

Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin hasn’t decided on a starter between quarterbacks Luke Altmyer and Southern Cal transfer Jaxson Dart. “I feel like every day you could go out there and say one and the next day the other,” Kiffin said. “It’s been difficult, which is a good thing.”

South Carolina: HBC Shane Beamer is optimistic that punter Kai Kroeger and running back Christian Beal-Smith will be available for the season opener with Georgia State. Also, running back MarShawn Lynch, who missed the first scrimmage, is back practicing at full speed.

Tennessee: Linebacker William Mohan, who transferred in from Michigan prior to the 2021 season, has been suspended indefinitely for domestic aggravated battery.

Texas A&M: Paul Finebaum on the SEC coach with the most pressure: “I think you start at the top, in the top 10 with Jimbo Fisher. I just can’t short-sell the importance of Jimbo Fisher having a big season. I know I’m not trying to make a headline here, but Jimbo Fisher knows that well. If he has another 8-3 season, or even a 9-4 season, people are going to start asking the question, what did we spend all that money on?”… Offensive linemen Layden Robinson, Smart Chibuzo and Aki Ogunbiyi signed NIL deals with Hooters.

Vanderbilt: Dari Nokah of the SEC Network is predicting Vanderbilt will shock the world to start the season. On SiriusXM Radio Nokah said, “Vanderbilt is 4-0 going to Alabama. I think you’ve got a confident Vanderbilt team with some experience.”

Our SEC orphans in the Big 12

Oklahoma: Defensive lineman Brynden Walker is retiring from football due to recurring back issues. Walker played in 17 games in his Oklahoma career … The placekicker battle is still unsettled with redshirt sophomore Zach Schmit and true freshman Marshall trying to win the job.

Texas: Looking ahead to getting quarterback Quinn Ewers ready for the season opener with Louisiana-Monroe, HBC Steve Sarkisian says, “So we have to do a really good job as a staff getting through this week of really figuring out the things he’s comfortable with and the things that he’s good at.”

Football is played other places beside the SEC

Nebraska: The make-or-break season for HBC Scott Frost will begin Saturday morning in Dublin, Ireland against Northwestern. Round trip tickets from Omaha run about $2,000 with hotels running about $300 a night and up. That’s a lot of money to watch two teams that combined to win eight games last year.

Troy: A former Troy football player has filed suit in federal court in Montgomery (AL) against a former teammate and three coaches stemming from an incident in December 2020. Dawson is claiming Title IX violations, sexual harassment, discrimination, negligence on the part of the coaches, intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment and “molestation and violence.” The athlete was laying on his belly watching a football game on his phone when he was attacked from behind by a player who rammed a pool cue up his rectum. The assault was captured on video and circulated on social media. Players on the team watched. Named in the lawsuit are former Troy punter Jack Dawson, special teams coordinators Brian Blackmon and Dayne Brown, and director of player development Jamaal Smith. The athlete claims that teammates perceived him to be gay which led to the bullying and assault.

Washington: Former Tampa prep star Michael Penix, who threw 29 touchdown passes in four years at Indiana, has been named the starting quarterback for the Huskies.

West Virginia: JT Daniels, the QB by way of Southern Cal and Georgia, hasn’t played in more than five games since his freshman year at USC.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Florida State University president Richard McCollough told the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce back on Saturday that the school will be “very aggressive” as it seeks to join a new conference in the future. Nole Gameday says both the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference have shown an interest in adding FSU to their respective leagues, which you can file under “Oh really?”

You could translate McCollough’s words to mean “we’ll crawl backward to SEC (Birmingham) or Big Ten (Chicago burbs) headquarters if you’ll let us into your league.”

There is reason why the Seminoles are desperate for a new league. The Big Ten just signed a mega media deal with Fox, CBS and NBC worth $1.2 billion per year. The SEC’s new deal with ESPN will add $17 million to the annual payout raising it to more than $75 million per year, but negotiations are already taking place to rewrite the deal when Texas and Oklahoma join the league from the Big 12. Many economists project that the additions of the two orphans from the Big 12 will increase the yearly payout to something close to $100 million a year. Meanwhile, FSU is stuck in the ACC, whose media rights contract won’t reach $40 million a year until 2025. The ACC contract with ESPN is iron-clad and is binding until 2036. There is a grant of rights deal in place so that if FSU were to leave for another league prior to 2036 all the money made from media rights with the new league would be paid to the ACC.

Basically, FSU will be in college sports purgatory unless some bright lawyer can figure out a loophole that will provide an escape at a time when either the SEC or Big Ten are willing to expand. You can just about figure there are two chances The Big Ten, in all its snootiness, will ask FSU to join: No way and no how. Of the league’s 16 members counting Southern Cal and UCLA, 15 are members of the academically prestigious American Association of Universities (AAU). The only non-AAU member is Nebraska, which was forced to leave in 2011. The four schools most often mentioned as potential expansion targets of the Big Ten are Oregon, Washington, California and Stanford, all of whom are AAU members. Comparitively speaking, FSU would fall under the category academically challenged.

That leaves the SEC, which has a good thing going at 16 teams once Texas and Oklahoma join. Would Greg Sankey invite FSU, which turned down Roy Kramer when he invited the Seminoles to the SEC in 1991? Would Sankey think about adding Clemson, Miami and North Carolina as well as FSU to keep up with the Big Ten if the Big Ten elected to move to 20 teams? Since Florida already is the biggest draw by far in the Florida market, would Sankey think more about expanding the SEC footprint with Clemson, North Carolina, Virginia and Virginia Tech?

Taking all things into consideration, you have to admire McCollough for talking about an aggressive approach to join a new league but FSU’s options are severely hamstrung by (a) the ACC media deal, (b) the lack of AAU membership (Florida is a member by the way) for the Big Ten, (c) Greg Sankey may decide to remain at 16 teams, or (d) bypass FSU and Miami for a bigger league footprint if and when it is time to expand.

You might want to file McCollough’s remarks under wishful thinking.