Thoughts of the Day: August 9, 2021

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:

THIS IS WHY THE TRANSFER PORTAL HAS BECOME A POWERFUL RECRUITING INSTRUMENT

There were reports Sunday that Jaydon Hill, the Gators’ junior cornerback from Huntsville, Alabama, injured his knee over the weekend. Hill has been thought to be the likely starter at opposite Kaiir Elam. If the reports are true, then Hill will have to have an MRI to determine the extent of the injury and the length of time he will be missing. If the injury is not all that serious, Hill could be out only a few weeks. If it’s a bad tear of an ACL, he could be out the entire season. We await official confirmation.

Losing Hill would be a crushing blow to a Florida secondary that is trying to bounce back from a very bad year in 2020 except that thanks to the transfer portal, Dan Mullen has two strong candidates to step in and get the job done plus true freshman Jason Marshall Jr. , a former 5-star recruit. The transfers are Jedarrius Perkins (6-1, 182, JR), a former teammate of Diwun Black at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College who transferred in from Missouri, and Elijah Blades (6-2, 190, GR), who will arrive as a graduate from Texas A&M sometime during the week.

Marshall oozes talent and he will be in the rotation when the season begins, but both Perkins and Black are older and more experienced. They are both very physical corners who have speed. Their presence will allow defensive coordinator Todd Grantham to let Marshall grow comfortable with the speed and faster pace of the college game and increase his responsibility as the season moves along.

If the Gators are able to avoid further injuries, the secondary – and the entire defense for all that matters – should be vastly improved, in no small part because Mullen has a proven track record for filling gaps successfully with transfers. Transfer rules have changed and with it so has recruiting. The best coaches will be saving 5-7 scholarships for transfers in the future. Instead of taking their chances with unproven kids, if there is an immediate need, they will use experienced talent from the transfer portal.

YES, HE WAS A SEMINOLE, BUT BOBBY BOWDEN WAS A MARVELOUS MAN

When the inevitable happened sooner than anyone expected, Bobby Bowden passed away from pancreatic cancer Sunday morning. Upon hearing that he had taken his last earthly breaths, I was flooded with memories about a great coach who was a greater man. He was a rival and a Seminole, but that doesn’t change who he was.

I would like to share three memories with you.

My first encounter with Bobby Bowden was in 1972. He was the football coach at West Virginia and I was doing a feature story on him for the Sunday sports page of the Savannah News-Press. Bobby was the former head ball coach at South Georgia College in Douglas, which was in the News-Press circulation area at the time. It was a telephone interview and to my surprise, his secretary punched me right on through. I was expecting her to take my number and tell me a time to call back.

The first thing he did was repeat my name out loud and then came, “Savannah, you say? Oh Lordy, what I’d give to sit down at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House again. Used to go there all the time when I’d come to Savannah to recruit. Still remember how good her fried chicken was. You go there to eat?”

I answered affirmatively and when asked, told him my apartment was the third floor of the old Armstrong mansion. Bobby knew exactly where it was and he told me a couple of stories about wandering around in the historical district of Savannah. We spent 10 minutes talking Savannah before we ever got around to talking football. When we did talk about his time at South Georgia, he made me spew the Coke I was drinking when he recalled how, as the athletic director at SGC, he had to fire the basketball coach.

“You ever fired yourself?” he asked. In addition to his role as athletic director At SGC, Bobby was also the head football coach, head basketball coach and track coach. Admittedly, he was far better coaching football than he was basketball.

***

Bobby left West Virginia, where he went 9-3 in 1975, ending the season with a 13-10 win over Lou Holtz and North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl, destination Florida State. It seemed like a dead end job. Doak Campbell Stadium was a 40,000-seat erector set and for what seemed to be a dead end job at Florida State, which had gone 9-35 in the previous four years. Things looked bleak when the Seminoles opened the 1976 season in Memphis on the short end of a 21-12 score. The following Saturday night FSU was stomped 47-0 in the Orange Bowl by a Miami team that would win only two more games.

I was writing the FSU perspective of the game for the Miami News. In the FSU locker room after the game, Bobby remembered who I was, shook my hand and asked how I was doing. Then, back to the wall, he began to rhythmically thump his head against the wall as he took questions from the few reporters covering the game.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Question. Answer.

Thump. Thump. Thump. Question. Answer.

He looked at me after maybe a third question and said, “This was bad. Next week we’re at Oklahoma.” From what I had seen against the Hurricanes, I thought Barry Switzer and the Sooners were going to hang 70 or more on the Seminoles but a funny thing happened on the way to the blowout. FSU stunned Oklahoma. No, the Seminoles didn’t win, but they made Oklahoma fight bell to bell before eking out a 24-9 win that OU fans felt was almost like losing. From that 0-3 start, FSU went 5-3 the rest of the way. That 5-6 record was the only losing season Bobby Bowden ever had as the FSU football coach.

***

On the morning of March 18, 2010, I was at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Oklahoma City where the Gators were going to take on BYU in the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. It was early morning and I was about to leave for the arena when I got a call from my longtime friend and mentor Jack Hairston, the former columnist for the Gainesville Sun who first hired me when I was a senior at Gainesville High School in January of 1969. Jack told me he was dying and that he had told the doctors not to prolong his life. It hit me like a baseball bat across the nose.

When I got back to Gainesville, I went to the hospice where Jack would live out the final chapter of his life as many nights as possible. As the time of his passing was drawing near, I made a call to Bobby Bowden to let him know that Jack didn’t have much longer to live. Bobby immediately asked for the number where to reach Jack. Within the hour, he called and the two of them spent a full two hours on the phone talking life and football.

When I arrived at hospice that evening to visit with Jack, he told me about the call.

“The first thing, he wanted to know was if I knew where I would be when I took my last breath,” Jack told me. “I told him my faith is strong. I’ll be in heaven. He was happy about that. Next thing, wanted to know if there was anything – anything at all – he could do for me or for my family. I could tell he meant it, that it just wasn’t something to say to make me feel good. Then we talked football and a lot about Pete (former FSU coach Bill Peterson; Bowden was Pete’s wide receivers coach from 1963-65 and one of Jack’s buddies). We laughed a lot and we talked about how remarkable his career was at FSU. I don’t know if anyone will ever match what Bobby did for those 14 years (1987-2000). Then he gave me the ultimate compliment you can give a sports writer. He told me, ‘Jack, I always knew you would be fair with me. I never knew you to criticize unfairly and that’s something I always appreciated about you.’ That really meant something to me.”

By now, I’m sure Bobby has met his maker, who told him, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” I don’t doubt for a second that he and Jack Hairston have already hooked up to chat about the state of football at FSU and UF.

THREE FOOTBALL WHAT IFS ON A MONDAY MORNING What if Florida had stood by Charley Pell?: I’ve often wondered what might have happened if University of Florida president Marshal Criser had kept his word and stood by Charley Pell. It’s not like other schools hadn’t stood up to the NCAA and stuck with their coaches. Oklahoma stuck by Barry Switzer (1973, 1980). Auburn stuck by Pat Dye (1983). Georgia was a multi-year offender under Vince Dooley (1978, 1982, 1985). Southern Cal stuck by John Robinson (1982). Florida State didn’t fire Bobby Bowden (1984). It’s a long list of coaches who ran afoul of the NCAA but whose school stuck by them and weathered the storm. Had Criser and UF stuck by Charley, it’s entirely possible UF would have won an SEC championship that counted before 1991 and a national championship prior to 1996. At the time Charley was fired, UF was dominating recruiting in the state. He left behind what is essentially a National Football League team. It was only a matter of time before UF broke through in a big way. Had Charley Pell remained at Florida, Bobby Bowden would have never had the success he had at FSU.

What if Jimmy Johnson had never left Miami?: Jimmy Johnson went 52-9 in five seasons at Miami, 44-4 in the last four years. He won the 1987 national championship and his only loss in 1988 was by a single point in South Bend to eventual national champ Notre Dame. The five greatest talent evaluators I’ve ever met in more than 50 years of writing about football are Charley Pell, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Jimmy Johnson. After Jimmy left for the Dallas Cowboys after the 1988 season, Miami won two more national championships (1989, 1991) with Dennis Erickson as head coach. Erickson won big mostly with talent left behind by JJ. If Jimmy had remained at Miami for another 10 years I think he would have won another 5-6 national championships.

What if Nick Saban had been successful in the NFL?: This is one Alabama fans don’t even want to think about. Saban made the decision to leave the Miami Dolphins when team doctors failed Drew Brees when he took a physical. The Dolphins were 9-7 in 2006 and an excellent quarterback away from becoming a consistent playoff team. Brees was a free agent QB who made a deal with Saban to join the Dolphins but then he flunked the physical. Saban consulted with Dr. James Andrews, who had operated on Brees. Dr. Andrews said Brees would be just fine but Miami physicians flunked him. Brees went to New Orleans, where the doctors gave him a passing grade. He signed with the Saints and that spelled the end of Nick Saban’s career with the Miami Dolphins. Saban left for Alabama where he’s 170-23 in 14 years with six national championships. I can’t see there is a single coach that Alabama could have hired who could have done what Saban has done. If it gripes you that he’s so successful at Alabama, point your finger of blame at the Dolphins team physicians.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: I rarely tuned in the Olympics this year. No, it wasn’t about the politics although I’m one who wishes athletes – no matter what the sport – would park their politics in the locker room instead of using a sport to make a political statement. Other than the swimming to see Gators Caeleb Dressel and Bobby Fincke bring home a bunch of medals, plus the march to the gold by heavyweight wrestler Gable Steveson, I just couldn’t get excited. Obviously, I’m not the only one because the television ratings are among the lowest, if not the lowest they’ve ever been. Normally, I am riveted by the track and field events, but not this year. The United States brought home two gold medals – shot put by Ryan Crouser and the 4X400 relay – and five by the US women in the track and field events. This year, there was no Carl Lewis and no Flo Jo or Jackie Joyner Kersey. Usain Bolt has retired so the 100-meter dash had no appeal to me, either. From where I sit, the games lacked star power and that contributed mightily to me watching old Peter Sellers movies like Dr. Strangelove, Being There and the entire Pink Panther series. Maybe I’ll watch in 2024 if the US team has a few superstars strutting their stuff on the world stage.