Thoughts of the Day: August 5, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:

PHIL STEELE HAS UF NO. 2 MOST IMPROVED TEAM FOR 2022

Although he has Florida ranked 32nd in his preseason top 40 poll, Phil Steele has the Gators are his No. 2 most improved team for 2022. His No. 1 is Southern California, which, considering it plays in the Pac-12 and has what Steele rates as the 49th toughest schedule, should have very little problem surpassing last year’s 4-8 record.

In Steele’s evaluation, Billy Napier “steps into a pretty good situation with talent to fit his schemes.” There are a lot of folks who are revered as college football experts who would believe otherwise but Steele’s position ratings make a pretty good case for Napier.

Here is how Steele rates Florida’s talent position by position in the Southeastern Conference:

Quarterbacks 5; Running Backs 10; Receivers 9; O-line 6; D-line 6; Linebackers 3; Defensive backs 4; Special Teams 9

Nationally here are Steele’s position rankings for the Gators: Quarterback 21; Running Back 49; Receivers 38; O-line 21; D-line 36; Linebackers 25; Defensive backs 11; Special Teams 40

At this point, the Gators are a mystery team. Steele’s No. 32 national ranking fits right in with those of Lindy’s (31) and Athlon (33). That’s not a bad place to start a season with a new coach and coming off a losing year. With a front loaded schedule that includes six of the first seven games in The Swamp and the only roadie against Tennessee, which has figured out all sorts of creative ways to lose to the Gators 16 times in the last 17 years, a 6-1 or even 7-0 start isn’t beyond question. That kind of start would lend itself to an eight or nine win season, perhaps even better if a break or two is caught along the way. Since the Gators went 6-7 last year an improvement of two or three wins would be a nice place to start a new coaching era, and it doesn’t exactly make Steele’s second most improved prediction seem outrageous.

Meanwhile Matt Hayes thinks UF has some issues

After pointing out that Florida’s best running back is transfer Montrell Johnson; the best O-lineman is transfer O’Cyrus Torrence and the best wide receiver is transfer Ricky Pearsall, Hayes writes in Saturday Down South, “Stop me when you think this is a healthy SEC program.”

Citing a source close to the Florida football program, Hayes says Florida’s first level of players “can win games,” but beyond that “there are guys that shouldn’t even be [on the roster].”

No doubt a lot of Florida fans will take offense to those observations but then again, there are Florida fans who take offense to any criticism of the Gators. None of us like disparaging remarks about our team, but there is a time when we have to face the cold, hard facts. The Florida program has been dysfunctional for years and a good bit of the dysfunction centers around recruiting. Talk until you are blue in the face about how you can forget all those stars given out by recruiting services once a kid gets on campus, but if your team isn’t recruiting at a high level, then odds are you aren’t winning at a high level.

Urban Meyer left behind a stacked roster for Will Muschamp but four years later Muschamp was gone. For one thing, he didn’t win enough, but you can point to these two things as the biggest reasons he didn’t: (1) Poor choice of assistant coaches on the offensive side of the ball and (2) poor recruiting of offensive players.

Muschamp left behind an NFL defense for Old Yeller, but Jim McElwain’s rotten choice of assistant coaches and bad recruiting did him in after three years. When Muschamp’s defenders left for the NFL, the cupboard was bare. The assistant coaches were bad and so was the recruiting.

What Dan Mullen did his first three years – 29 wins and three New Year’s Six bowl games – has everything to do with brilliant offensive schemes, but recruiting suffered, in large part, because Mullen never pushed the recruiting envelope and he had bad assistant coaches.

Bad assistants. Bad recruiting. That’s the recurring theme since 2011.

Enter Billy Napier. His coaching staff has all the earmarks of the best from top to bottom of any Florida staff since 2008. He’s made recruiting a priority but he’s not taking players just because they have a certain number of stars after their names or because they’ll jack up the team ratings for the recruiting services. He’s prioritized those who fit what he wants to be the profile of every UF player: Kids who go to class and do their assignments, kids committed to earning a college degree, kids committed to being the best possible teammate and friend to everyone on the roster, and kids who are willing to do all the small things, knowing that if you master the small things, you’ll likely do very well in the larger things.

Hayes may be a bit off in his evaluation of the transfer portal, which is here to stay. The portal should never be the foundation of a football program, but there is a time and a place for plug and play types who can provide experience and talent where experience and talent are lacking. Alabama, which is predicted by nearly every expert to win the 2022 national championship, will feature Georgia Tech running back transfer Jahmyr Gibbs, Georgia wide receiver transfer Jermaine Burton, Louisville wide receiver transfer Tyrell Harrell and Vanderbilt transfer left tackle Tyler Steen. All four will start for Alabama as will linebacker Henry To’oTo’o, the leading returning tackler who transferred in last year from Tennessee. Lest we forget, Alabama’s recruiting classes have never dipped outside the top three, so the assessment that Florida having three top players who came in via the portal is a teensy bit harsh.

But it’s understandable the point Hayes is trying to make: Without the players from the portal Florida football might be in dire straits this season and perhaps for a couple more years. Napier is making recruiting high school kids a priority, but he won’t neglect the portal either. He’s going to do whatever is necessary for the Florida Gators to match talent with the best teams in the Southeastern Conference.

From a pure talent standpoint, the Gators aren’t in the top third of the SEC this year. That doesn’t mean the Gators can’t or won’t win football games in 2022. It just means there are more speed bumps on the road the Gators will be taking than there are at schools like Alabama, Georgia and a couple others.

SEC football/basketball/baseball news

Alabama : Cameron Latu, Bama’s only experienced tight end, will miss some of training camp with an undisclosed injury. Alabama has three freshman tight ends on the roster.

Arkansas: Tight end Dax Courtney is retiring from football after repeated injuries ... The Razorbacks will play Louisville in their first game of the Maui Invitational in November. Also in the tournament are Arizona, Cincinnati, Creighton, Ohio State, San Diego State and Texas Tech.

Auburn: Quarterback TJ Finley was arrested and charged with attempting to elude police who were trying to stop him for failing to wear a helmet while driving his moped … On their trip to Israel, the Auburn basketball team beat Israel’s under-20 national team 117-56.

Georgia: Former Georgia offensive lineman Clay Webb has transferred to Jacksonville State. Webb was the No. 1 center in the nation in 2019 ... Former Georgia running back Lars Tate has passed away. Tate, who gained 3,017 yards in his career at UGa, was 56 years old.

Kentucky: Kentucky’s basketball trip to The Bahamas will include games against the Dominican Republic National Select team, Tec Monterrey, Carleton University and The Bahamas National Select Team … $1.2 million for flood relief in the state was raised when UK basketball held an open practice with an instrasquad scrimmage.

LSU: Veteran running back Kevontre Bradford is no longer listed on the roster.

Mississippi State: Relief pitcher KC Hunt, the 12th round pick of the Pittsburgh Pirates, rejected the Pirates off and will return to Mississippi State for the 2023 season.

Missouri: Buffalo transfer offensive lineman has been ruled ineligible for the 2022 season by the NCAA.

Ole Miss: Wide receiver Jonathan Mingo calls Southern Cal transfer tight end Michael Trigg the next Kyle Pitts. To that HBC Lane Kiffin said, “Mingo’s not exactly a personnel director. I wouldn’t call him [Trigg] Kyle Pitts now. He’s got a lot of talent. He does have height, weight, speed, hand combination to be a great player but he’s got a long ways to go.”

South Carolina: HBC Shane Beamer says running back MarShawn Lloyd is “on a mission and has really stepped up his game this summer.” Lloyd gained 228 yards and scored one touchdown in 2021.

Tennessee: Former Clemson running back Lyn-J Dixon has transferred to Tennessee. In four years at Clemson, Dixon ran for 1,420 yards 13 touchdowns, caught 20 passes for 190 yards and one TD … Tennessee has sold 58,871 season tickets for the 2022 season.

Texas A&M: Jimbo Fisher says in year five he has the Aggies “right where we want to be.” The Aggies are expected to start the season ranked somewhere between fifth and eighth nationally … Former Aggie edge rusher Jahzion Harris is transferring to Rutgers. Harris will need a waiver from the NCAA to play in 2022.

Vanderbilt: HBC Clark Lea says the Commodores are further along in 2022 than they were last year, and even further along than they were in spring practice.

Where SEC schools rank among Phil Steele’s toughest schedules for 2022 1. Auburn; 2. Mississippi State; 4. Arkansas; 5. Vanderbilt; 6. LSU; 11. Texas A&M; 17. South Carolina; 19. FLORIDA; 27. Tennessee; 29. Alabama; 30. Ole Miss; 35. Kentucky; 37. Missouri; 58. Georgia

Broadcast news …

Former Florida coaches will be staying busy this fall. Dan Mullen will be working as a studio analyst for ESPN while Urban Meyer will be working once again with Fox Sports.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Senator Tommy Tuberville, formerly the head football coach at Ole Miss, Auburn, Texas Tech and Cincinnati, wants to introduce federal legislation to reel in NIL. Tubs is right about one thing: NIL is totally out of control and something should be done. Should the feds do something about it? I trust our congress to do something sensible about like I trust the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, to come up with anything that resembles a good plan.

So what should be done? Maybe the better question is what can be done? I don’t have the answer to either of those questions, but it is my belief that the first place to start is for the Division I football schools to secede from the NCAA to start their own organization complete with a commissioner who has broad powers to run the sport like a business. That will probably ruffle the feathers of a lot of academics but it’s my experience that for every John Lombardi who actually understood college sports there are several dozen Kent Fuchs or Charles Youngs who know nothing at all.

Let someone who knows and understands business get with other businessmen and legal minds to figure out a set of rules that will make NIL work the right way for everyone. And, while he’s about it, let the commish reduce the ridiculous NCAA rules about recruiting and eligibility that require every school to have a mountain of compliance people. Make the rules simple enough for everyone to understand and the consequences for breaking the rules harsh enough that no one will do it twice.

I have no faith in our federal government to do anything but gum up the works. I gave up on the NCAA not long after I learned there was no such thing as the Easter Bunny.