Thoughts of the Day: July 17, 2025

Jake Slaughter (66) is the best center in college football (Photo by Chris Spears)

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday afternoon:

At SEC Media Days in Atlanta Wednesday, someone made the remark that Jake Slaughter doesn’t seem like the typical 22-year-old, to which Florida’s All-American center replied, "No, sir, I do get the 'You ought to be 30' type.”

A year ago when asked if he and Jake Slaughter shared a very bright, calculating brain, quarterback Graham Mertz laughed and replied, “It does seem that way.” Mertz got an NFL contract that goes far beyond what the typical late round draft pick coming off an ACL tear gets. That is because there is always room on a roster for a cerebral quarterback who can easily memorize a playbook, know where everybody should be on every play and spends hours dissecting what’s on film. Just ask Shane Matthews about that. He spent 13 years in the NFL, mostly as a backup, because he had those same qualities.

When your center and your QB are always on the same page, good things happen. Mertz is gone to the NFL now, but DJ Lagway takes over. Mertz and Slaughter mentored him well. Lagway is capable of putting up Star Wars numbers given his immense talent and the skill people the Gators will be running onto the field. Up front Jake Slaughter will be making the line calls.

A year ago, the Gators gave up 20 sacks in 13 games, which ranked third in the Southeastern Conference. The year before, the Gators gave up 39. Experience had a lot to do with the improvement, particularly at center where Slaughter became the model of consistency. SEC coaches didn’t put him on the first, second or third all-conference team, but he was the consensus first team All-America. This year he is the preseason leader to take home the Rimington Trophy (best center in the country) and he's in the mix to win the Outland Award as the best lineman.

Here are a few things Slaughter said at SEC Media Days Wednesday:

About DJ Lagway

"We all have a ton of respect for the way DJ put himself out there even when he was banged up. The type of leader that he is, the type of teammate he is, that's the thing. It's inspiring. It inspires a group of men. We all took a lot from that game and the way he carries himself in general."

“He (DJ) goes in about his business. He works his tail off. He treats everything like it's the last thing he's ever going to do. But then on game day, he's got a different type of swag to him. He's getting everybody fired up. You don't see that from Sunday through Friday, just Saturday.”

About playing for Billy Napier

"We all love to play for Coach Napier. I was so fortunate. I didn't get recruited by him. I didn't commit to him. I committed to the University of Florida. I was just lucky that a man of his character and integrity became the coach."

About the Napier on the hot seat noise

"So everybody tries to block out the noise. We're worried about what's going on. But everybody's well aware. Everybody's on social media. You see it and you hear it. But I think we did a great job this past season of blocking out the noise — go play for each other, go play for Coach. Let's prove each other right."

"In our experience, I don't know if we were looking at each other, like, hey, it's on us to keep Coach around. But I think everybody was aware there was a lot of noise about it. I think everybody felt a sense ofurgency, like, man, we've got to go out there and perform."

Also at SEC Media Days

DJ Lagway said it:

"I don't have a prosthetic arm. I'm feeling great. Training's been amazing. I'm actually getting better at throwing the ball. I've been working on mechanics that's going to help my accuracy this year, help my decision making. It's been great."

"My best attribute as a quarterback is really just — I'd say just my, as people would say, I guess my aura, confidence, and just the way I portray myself on game day. My teammates always joke around about, like, they say that I'm a totally different person on game day. It kind of oozes out of me. And it's just great to be able to be that for my guys."

Caleb Banks said it:

"It wasn't just DJ Lagway, it was the whole entire team. I wanted to come back and play with my guys and be the first male in my family to graduate, first generation to graduate. I felt it was very important. And to come back get a national championship and of course have a higher draft stock for the NFL in the future."

"You know, we all believe in Coach Napier. We know he's a great guy, a great coach. And we believe in everything he's done for us. He puts us in a great position every single day with everything that we do. We love him."

SEC MEDIA DAYS: THEY SAID IT

Brent Venables, Oklahoma coach

“In my opinion, there's not a better profession on this planet or a more influential profession than being a football coach. I'm a living, breathing testament and example of how a locker room can save and transform and change the trajectory of a young man's life. I believe the game has never been better or more important than it is today. The life lessons learned through the locker room are all well-known. But perhaps the greatest lesson, in my opinion, is in a world that will divide, the game of football is something that unifies. I'm just blessed beyond measure to be a small part of that, being impacted in every way.”

John Mateer, Oklahoma QB“I would say I was fortunate because I didn't have to learn a whole new offense. I was able to take time to learn the players that I was going to play with and build relationships with them in the locker room, hang out and help them learn the offense, because building relationships is the most important thing to leading. You can't lead people you don't know. They're not going to trust you if they don't know you. That was super important to me. They embraced me. It wasn't all me; they embraced me they put me in the front of the lines, the players put me in front of the line first day of workouts. I just wanted to do it by my work. I didn't want to say a whole lot and be, oh, I'm the leader, this and that. I didn't try to do that. I just wanted to work as hard as I could and prove to them that I was capable of leading.”

Kalen DeBoer, Alabama coach“We got to be better in the big moments. We lost some close games last year. We had chances maybe not even in the fourth quarter, but early in the game to separate ourselves or make a play here or there. Whether it was the belief or whether it was the confidence, a lot of that just comes through repetitions. We really had a great off-season understanding where we fell short, why we fell short. Not just the what and the how but the why.”

Deontae Lawson, Alabama LB

"We're starving. We're not hungry, we're like starving. And that's different. That's different. ... Just to see no one transfer out of here when the time came, man, it just shows you that we got guys that's willing to do what they have to do to make us the most successful team that we can be. I'm just super excited. I know the guys are ready, and we go at it with each other every day, and I'm sure we all can't wait until we see a different color jersey even though we haven't even got into camp yet."

Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State coach

“I think about all the new guys that are part of our football team and part of our roster. The thing that excites me the most is their consistency, their buy-in. Inside our walls right now, we have great belief, we have great hope, we have great energy. Our guys are incredibly intent on getting better and changing the outcome this fall. Everything for us points to August 30th. As we move forward, we think about fall camp, how we change the outcome. We change the outcome by the way we practice and how we do what we do.”

Blake Shapen, Mississippi State QB

“For us we want to be very explosive, but at the same time we want to be able to run the football. That's where it starts, is running the football so it can open up avenues for us in the pass game. I feel like at times last year we struggled with that, so I feel like running the football is where it starts, to be able to open up the touch game and screens and explosive plays down the field with the play-action game. So running the football is going to be huge and making plays down the field.”

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT

The Mountain West Conference, having lost Boise State, Utah State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Colorado State to the newly re-formed Pac-12, is expanding. The new MWC will consist of holdovers Wyoming, New Mexico, UNLV, San Jose State, Nevada, Air Force and Hawaii plus newbies UTEP and Northern Illinois. Northern Illinois is leaving the MAC to play football only in the MWC. Grand Canyon, which doesn’t play football, will join the MWC in all sports. UC-Davis is joining as a non-football member, whatever that means.

Meanwhile, over at the Pac-12, Texas State is leaving the Sun Belt to become the eighth football-playing member of what was once a Power Five conference. Now there is a Power Four and the Pac-12 is a shell of what it used to be. Starting next year, the Pac-12 will consist of Oregon State, Washington State, Boise State, Utah State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Colorado State and Texas State for football. The league is adding Gonzaga, Little Rock, Cal-Bakersfield and Cal Poly as non-football members.

Over at the Sun Belt, Louisiana Tech is leaving Conference USA to replace Texas State.

And we haven’t even gotten to the lawsuit. The Mountain West is suing the Pac-12 for $150 million in damages for poaching five very important schools from its conference. What the Mountain West and Pac-12 should have done is merge Oregon State and Washington State to make one very strong conference, probably the best of the Group of Five. Instead there are two mediocre conferences who are poaching new members from other conferences, which will lead to more poaching in other leagues across the country.

The chaos isn’t going to end until a common sense initiative emerges that will see college football secede from the clutches of the NCAA. Form an autonomous football division with its own rules, its own set of standards and the power to negotiate TV deals that benefit everyone. Break up the current Division I into two divisions with the top division consisting of the 68 schools that make up the power group plus perhaps two other conferences. Give the second group its own national championship.

It is time. It does make sense.