Thoughts of the Day: Austin Barber

August 3, 2023

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:

The skills have been there all along. Offensive line coach Rob Sale says he could tell by looking at Austin Barber’s high school tape that the big kid (6-6, 305, 5 career starts) from Jacksonville had what it takes to be a dominant player.

“Yeah, it showed up on his high school tape if you go back and watch it,” Sale said about his left tackle Sunday morning. “That’s just the way he plays. He finishes … He’s a good player for us and he’s going to be a great player for us.”

As a redshirt freshman a year ago, Barber began as a backup to both Michael Tarquin on the right side and Richard Gouraige on the left. He was a key member of the tackle rotation and when injuries took their toll, he got starts on both sides of the line. He was impressive enough to make College Football News Freshman All-America first team. Based on its analytics, Pro Football Focus gives Barber a 79.3 grade, which makes him the third best tackle in the SEC, trailing only Dalton Wagner of Arkansas (80.5) and Javon Foster of Missouri (80.3). Barber’s grade is higher than that of Alabama’s J.C. Latham (75.7), a fixture on nearly every preseason All-America team.

No longer a backup, Barber is not only a starter at left tackle, but he’s a leader on an offensive line that has several new moving parts. The only full-time starter back from last year is Kingsley Eguakun (6-3, 302, 26 career starts) now entering his third year as the starting center. Richie Leonard IV (6-2, 310) has two career starts, both at guard although he’s Eguakun’s backup at center. Leonard’s experience gives him the upper hand on true freshman Knijeah Harris (6-3. 325) right guard. The left guard figures to be Baylor transfer Micah Mazzccua (6-5, 337, 10 career starts) once he is fully cleared for contact (recovering from labrum surgery) with Alabama transfer Damieon George Jr. (6-6, 361, 3 career starts) at right tackle. Florida International transfer Lyndell Hudson II (6-5, 329, 27 career starts) will be in the rotation on both sides of the line and redshirt sophomore Jake Slaughter (6-5, 301) can play all three interior line positions.

A year ago, the Gators were among the national leaders in fewest sacks allowed (16 in 13 games) and yards per rush (5.51). To match or exceed those numbers in 2023, the chemistry will have to continue to grow. Barber sees a group that continues to bond, continues to spend the time together off the field and grows in trust on a daily basis.

“I think right now I feel like we’ve been working together,” Barber said after Tuesday’s practice. “It’s just, new faces. It’s not like, we come in everyone bonds together. That’s why we do stuff outside of football. We can’t come in here and try to bond. You have to do everything outside. That’s what I think we benefit from and I think we can get back, if not, we’re already there. I trust these guys. I mean we’re playing with them. I played with them in spring. I played with them right now the first two days, I think we’ve been great.”

While Barber worked in the offseason to add muscle and eliminate body fat, he also focused on building his leadership skills. If the Gators are to go from a team that is 12-19 since December 12, 2020 to a team that is one of the top tier teams in the SEC East, leaders are going to have to set the example. A year ago, Barber was a bit passive but now he has embraced the role of being a real leader on the line.

“There's sometimes I sat back and let the older guys go in because I was a redshirt freshman last year, but now I think I can come in and be vocal leader and take over and me and Kingsley work together,” Barber said. “Me, Kingsley, Richie are pushing this O-line to the best of their ability.”

Things to think about in the SEC …

Alabama: With no clear QB settled after spring practice, could either of the freshmen (Eli Holstein or Dylan Longeran) have a shot at the starting job?

Auburn: Robby Ashford can run but can’t throw. Michigan State transfer Payton Thorne can throw but can’t run. Will Hugh Freeze go with a 2-headed QB?

Georgia: If Carson Beck remains THE guy at Georgia, how long before Brock Vandagriff’s people are making third party contact with other schools?

Kentucky: North Carolina State transfer Devin Leary is the latest rent-a-QB. Every starting QB since 2018 has been a transfer from St. Somewhere Else. When will Kentucky develop one of its own?

Ole Miss: John Bol, the 4-star 7-footer who was once a Florida commitment, has committed to play basketball for Chris Beard at Ole Miss.

South Carolina: With an O-line predicted to be one of the worst in the SEC and no stud running back, why are people thinking South Carolina could finish as high in the SEC East?

Tennessee: The Tennessee offensive coordinator Joey Halzle says freshman QB Nico Iamaleava is ready to play in the SEC right now. Considering he’s got an $8 million NIL deal, how short is the leash on starting QB Joe Milton?

Texas A&M: It seems strange that QB Max Johnson, who started two seasons at LSU (37 TDPs) and got a few starts at A&M last year before he was hurt, hasn’t transferred out. Everything in Aggieland says Conner Weigman is the unquestioned starter.

Waiting on the call from the governor …

What’s going on with the Pac-12 is reminiscent of those old movies when a prisoner is strapped into the electric chair praying for a last minute call from the governor to grant clemency. Wednesday morning, all eyes were on the Arizona Board of Regents, but by late Wednesday evening, the Big Ten had also stepped into the picture. If the Arizona schools vote to accept an offer to join the Big 12, the Pac-12 gets the chair. The same is true if the Big Ten makes an offer to Washington and Oregon … and possibly Stanford and California.

The Pac-12 desperately needs a last minute media offer to avoid the switch being pulled but with stories leaking out all day Wednesday that the Apple TV deal that was presented Wednesday night may barely exceed $20 million a year per school, it is all but certain the league is sure to cease existence after the 2023-24 athletic year. It’s sad, because it seems something will be missing from college sports without a league on the Left Coast, but the Pac-12 has only itself to blame. First, it hired Larry Scott as its commissioner and when Scott had all but run the league into the ground it hired blowhard George Kliavkoff, who knows as much about running a college athletic conference as a baby orangutan has of flying a 747.

The Arizona Board of Regents are expected to vote for Arizona and Arizona State to join the Big 12 with the announcement coming Friday. Utah, which wants to stay in the Pac-12, will join albeit reluctantly. Utah doesn’t exactly relish being in the same league with BYU, which is 40-something miles down the highway from its campus.

As of Wednesday night, it seemed the Big Ten was focused on adding Washington and Oregon from the Pac-12, leaving Stanford and California hanging out to dry. Given the high academic profile of Stanford and Cal and their top to bottom all sports prominence, they would fit well in the Big Ten, but apparently there are two chains of thought: (1) Big Ten members don’t wish to further dilute their Fox/CBS/NBC money even though adding Stanford and Cal would add the San Francisco Bay TV market; or (2) Big Ten members want to add two eastern schools along with Washington and Oregon, most likely North Carolina and Virginia.

Making the rounds of the rumor mill is that new schools added to the Big Ten will take a less than full cut of the media money but a $50 million payout would be more than Oregon and Washington would make in the Pac-12 and certainly more than North Carolina and Virginia would make in the ACC. Washington and Oregon would give Southern Cal and UCLA a pair of longstanding Left Coast rivals, while Virginia and North Carolina would be reunited with former ACC rival Maryland.

If Stanford and Cal are orphaned along with Oregon State and Washington State, do they all four join the Mountain West to make that a 16-team league? Would Stanford and Cal be willing to go it alone as independents? Washington State and Oregon State would fit in well with the Mountain West but they wouldn’t add anything financially to the league.

Basically, we have a mess on our hands.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: “It’s not a matter of if we leave [the ACC] but how and when we leave.” – Drew Weatherford, former Florida State quarterback and member of the Board of Trustees.

FSU wants out of the Atlantic Coast Conference and who can blame the Seminoles for their overwhelming sense of envy. They’re in the ACC which has this ironclad grant of rights media contract with all 14 members. If they want out of the league they have to hold enough bake sales and car washes to raise the $120 million the divorce will cost them, PLUS the ACC will get all the media money FSU makes until the current media deal with ESPN expires in 2036.

Oh, those minor little details!

But, as Matt Hayes of Saturday Down South points out, just suppose FSU figures out how to finagle its way out of the ACC. Who actually wants the Seminoles in their league?

The Southeastern Conference? Greg Sankey is quite content with a 16-team league. It makes scheduling so easy and he’s got the flagship school in all 12 states. He’s got a great TV contract with ESPN and while ESPN will work out a brand new agreement next year when Texas and Oklahoma join the SEC, Sankey knows darn good and well that ESPN isn’t about to pony up more cash for FSU to join the league. What value would the Seminoles bring to the SEC anyway? They don’t move the television needle for football, which is what actually matters.

Hayes points out that the only two schools Sankey sees as moving the TV needle for the SEC are Notre Dame and North Carolina. Notre Dame is quite content to remain independent and has a media deal with NBC worth $60 million a year that it doesn’t have to share with anyone. North Carolina seems more likely to join the Big Ten along with Virginia.

There has been all this chatter about FSU and Clemson joining the Big Ten all week long, but there’s not much to it. Hayes points out that if the Big Ten were to venture into the state of Florida, the target would be Miami because of the huge South Florida television market and academics. Miami is a member of the American Association of Universities (Florida is also). Florida State is not. Every school in the Big Ten is a member of the AAU except Nebraska, which was voted off the AAU island by a two-thirds vote of its members back in 2011.

FSU trustee Justin Roth says the current ACC television deal that will be paying something like $45 million a year in 2026 (SEC probably in the $90-100 million range by then) is unacceptable. “Staying in this conference for the next 13 years and trying to wait for the perfect alignment of the stars is the equivalent of death by 1,000 cuts and each cut is a $30 million cut over the next 13 years,” Roth said.

Waiting is painful. So is death by 1,000 cuts, but FSU has zero in the way of leverage. Even if FSU’s legion of lawyers finds a way out of the ACC deal, somebody has to think FSU moves the TV needle enough to ask the Seminoles to join. In the immortal words of Dennis Hopper, “There’s two chances that’s going to happen: No way and no how!”