Thoughts of the Day: August 30, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: PUTTING A GAME FACE ON

Officially, game week for the Florida Gators began Sunday evening, but just to be sure he had everybody on the same page for the four practice days and Friday walk-through for Saturday’s close encounter in The Swamp with Utah, Billy Napier has been putting the Gators through the pre-game paces. They’ve gone to the team hotel for a night, gotten up to go through pre-game meals, meetings and rituals, done the Gator Walk and even run through the tunnel.

Napier is so detail-oriented that he has his day planned out down to the minute. He is so into efficiency that many of the 39 alterations he specifically requested in the plans for the Bill Heavener Football Center were designed to maximize the 20 hours allotted by the NCAA for players spent practicing and in meetings each week. Doing run-throughs of game-week preparation is all about making sure every T is crossed and every I is dotted so that every player, coach, analyst, trainer, manager and support staffer is comfortable with the procedure.

“We’ve done a lot of mock situations to prepare for this week,” Napier said at his Monday morning press conference. “I do think there’s some things – it’s important in a game week that you set priorities, that you avoid clutter. I think you’ve got to really focus on controlling distractions, and I think we’re trying to do that for players and staff, right? My wife, she’s burning me up last night with questions about game day but I think it’s important that we set priorities. We’ve got a very specific plan to get ready.”

This is Napier’s first season opener at Florida, his fifth as a head coach. Each of the previous four openers, all at Louisiana, were different just as this one will be. When the Louisiana Ragin Cajuns took the field in Lafayette for that first season opener with Grambling, there was a plan in place, one that certainly has been tweaked to get to this point. There were 28,886 in attendance on opening day in Lafayette in 2018. Saturday night, there will be 90,000 shoehorned into Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Instead of a D1AA opponent like Grambling, Napier’s fifth season opener will be against Utah, which comes into the game ranked 7th nationally. There will be jitters – “I don’t think I’m ever going to be beyond that,” Napier said – but the four previous years have prepared him for this moment.

Jitters and all, there is a quiet confidence about Florida’s head football coach. Because he is so detail-oriented, because he plans things out so meticulously and because he’s had four previous season openers, Billy Napier seems at ease with his surroundings and unfazed by the magnitude of a game that will be the Saturday night feature on ESPN.

The confidence and ease he owes to those four years at Louisiana.

“I don’t know that I would feel as prepared or have a certain level of confidence without those four years of doing that,” he said.

UF Volleyball: Gators face Stanford in early-season showdown

Fresh off their Gator Invitational win against three outmatched opponents, the 13th-ranked Gators (3-0) will take a huge step up in competition tonight when they square off with 12th-ranked Stanford (2-0) at the O-Dome (7 p.m., SEC Network). The Gators rank third nationally in hitting percentage, fifth in aces per set and sixth in total aces.

AVCA top 25 poll: 1. Texas 2-0; 2. Nebraska 3-0; 3. Louisville 3-0; 4. Minnesota 2-0; 5. Georgia Tech 2-0; 6. Wisconsin 1-1; 7. BYU 3-0; 8. Ohio State 0-2; 9. Baylor 1-1; 10. Pittsburgh 2-1; 11. Purdue 2-1; 12. Stanford 2-0; 13. FLORIDA 3-0; 14. Washington 1-1; 15. San Diego 3-0; 16. Kentucky 1-1; 17. Creighton 3-0; 18. Oregon 2-0; 19. Illinois 1-1; 20. Kansas 3-0; 21. Penn State 3-0; 22. Western Kentucky 3-0; 23. UCLA 1-1; 24. Marquette 2-0; 25. Southern Cal 3-0

SEC football #1 Alabama (0-0): Injured senior tight end Cam Latu has begun practicing again. He is listed day-to-day.

#19 Arkansas (0-0): Although Cincinnati hasn’t announced whether the starting QB will be Ben Bryant or Evan Prater, HBC Sam Pittman said, “We’ve got enough defense in that we can attack whatever we see.”

Auburn (0-0): Regarding the resignation of athletic director Allen Greene, who turns out the lights in his office for the final time Wednesday, Paul Finebaum of the SEC Network said the divorce was necessary on WJOX in Birmingham Monday morning. Finebaum took it a step further to criticize former Notre Dame/Duke athletic director Kevin White and his son, Tennessee AD Danny White for being critical of Auburn. “To me the most ridiculous part of Allen Green’s firing, resignation, whatever, was the fake outrage that we saw in the national media and from other people in the industry. I mean, the fact that a sitting SEC athletic director said what he did was very surprising. Most athletic directors are hired to worry about their own athletic department, not to tweet about what happens at other places when they may not know all the facts.”

#3 Georgia (0-0): Tight end Arik Gilbert was involved in an auto accident that totaled his Mercedes. Reports are that Gilbert was uninjured … Asked if he is concerned about Oregon’s quarterback – Auburn transfer Bo Nix – Kirby Smart replied, “I know who the quarterback’s going to be so I’m not worried.”

#20 Kentucky (0-0): In addition to running back Chris Rodriguez and linebacker Jordan Wright being unavailable for game one with Miami (OH) and probably multiple games afterward. In place of Rodriguez, 5th-year senior Kavosiey Smoke will get the start. Senior right guard Kenneth Horsey’s status is unknown due an injury. Redshirt freshman David Wohlabaugh Jr. will get the start at left tackle because Darrian Miller has been suspended for the season.

LSU (0-0): HBC Brian Kelly knows who his starting QB – either Arizona State transfer Jayden Daniels or Garrett Nussmeier – will be for the Florida State game but won’t announce it. Young said, “It doesn’t help us to play that card.” … Former 4-star linebacker Antoine Sampah has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Sampah played in four games in 2020 and missed all of last season with an injury.

Mississippi State (0-0): Regarding the NCAA transfer portal, Mike Leach said at his Monday press conference, “It’s a very reckless approach in its current condition. Transfer if you want, but there out to be a window. For the most part, we lost two types of players: those that didn’t belong here or those that were great people who wanted an opportunity to play more.”

Missouri (0-0): Former Miami defensive back Marcus Clarke is reportedly on the Mizzou campus and will be joining the Tigers although he will need a waiver to play immediately since he entered the transfer portal past the NCAA’s May 1 deadline to play in the fall.

#21 Ole Miss (0-0): In an interview with Trey Wallace of Outkick.com, Lane Kiffin said, “I feel like I needed Oxford and Ole Miss more than Oxford and Ole Miss needed me. How people are here, it’s really been awesome for me. A lot of changes for me personally, I think a lot of that had to do with me coming here” … Kiffin says he has yet to decide a starting QB between Southern Cal transfer Jaxson Dart and Luke Altmeyer.

South Carolina (0-0): I’m sure you’ve been on the edge of your seats awaiting this. The name of the new rooster mascot is “The General.” Among the suggested names fans sent in to The State newspaper were Cluck Norris, Coop, Marco Pollo, Brooster and Mr. Chicken Scratch. Some real creative geniuses they have up there in South Carolina.

Tennessee (0-0): At his Monday press conference, HBC Josh Heupel said that getting Southern Cal transfer wide receiver Bru McCoy cleared to play by the NCAA “sent chills down my spine.”

#6 Texas A&M (0-0): Although he has named Haynes King his starting QB over Max Johnson and Connor Weigman, at his Monday press conference Jimbo Fisher said, “We feel confident with all three quarterbacks.”

Vanderbilt (1-0): Following Vandy’s 63-10 blowout win over Hawai’i, HBC Clark Lea said, “The journey is just beginning and so we’re not looking at this as an end point but a beginning. We’re excited to take the next step next week vs. Elon.”

Our SEC orphans in the Big 12

#9 Oklahoma (0-0): Regarding quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who Oklahoma offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby coached for two years when the two were at UCF, Lebby said, “I think we’ve asked him to do a lot of things through the spring and fall camp to get us where we are today and he’s had great growth and we’re in a good spot.”

Texas (0-0): What made HBC Steve Sarkisian name Quinn Ewers as the starting QB over Hudson Card was “the ability to make all the throws in our system. I think he’s got playmaking ability. He’s got natural passing ability.”

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Jimbo Fisher acted like someone had stolen his puppy a few months back when Lane Kiffin asked if there shouldn’t be a salary cap after Texas A&M signed what some are calling a generational recruiting class. A few months later, Nick Saban came right out and said what everybody has been thinking for months – that the Aggies used NIL money to buy their recruiting class. Instead of sticking out his lip and pouting like he did when Lane called out the Aggie boosters, Jimbo went attack mode, going so far as accusing Nick of some unsavory things in the past. SEC commish Greg Sankey had to tell his coaches to zip it or deal with the consequences.

Lane, Nick and Jimbo have been good boys lately, but in reality, Lane and Nick were right – Aggie boosters did buy the class – and Jimbo knows it. Everybody knows it because Texas A&M isn’t the only school buying recruits with NIL money. That used to be an NCAA violation before NIL – Now It’s Legal.

When discussing how recruits are making college decisions based on NIL deals and playing one school against another, Kirk Herbstreit of ESPN told the Los Angeles Times, “That is a bunch of bull#$%!”

In particular, Hebstreit is rankled by the $8 million NIL deal quarterback recruit Nico Iamaleava got to commit to Tennessee.

“How can an adult with a good conscience say this is awesome for the sport,” Hebstreit said, adding, “Hopefully he’s a great player, but with the reports about [him receiving] three years, $8 million, what if he doesn’t? What if he struggles? What happens then? I mean that’s gonna happen eventually. How those guys in Knoxville gonna feel about that? How’s it gonna go over in a locker room, you know?”

Those are fair questions that should cause the people in charge of college sports to find answers before NIL destroys the sport. There are some who think the only answer is to get the government involved, but as Mike Leach challenged the media back during the summer, “Tell me three things Congress has accomplished the last five years.”

Leach is right. Congress will only make things worse. He told Paul Finebaum this is a college football problem that needs to be solved by college football people. Not politicians and certainly not academics, who understand very little about sports. Add the NCAA to that list because it has already abdicated its responsibility on the matter and seems to live by the mushroom theory, which begins with keeping everyone in the dark.

More and more I conclude that the only way to solve NIL is for the Division I schools to secede from the NCAA and start a new organization from scratch with practical, common sense rules as well as common sense answers to problems that are only going to kill college sports if something isn’t done soon.