Thoughts of the Day: November 9, 2021

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: WE UNDERESTIMATED THE IMPACT … A year ago it was dial-a-score. With Kyle Trask throwing with laser precision to Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes every play was a potential touchdown, almost as if the Gators could score on demand.

Damn! It was beautiful, the best passing game since the days of Danny Wuerffel throwing to Chris Doering, Reidel Anthony, Ike Hilliard and Jacquez Green. The straw that stirred the drink was Trask, a former no-star recruit who turned special when the lights came on. Give Dan Mullen a QB like that to go with special receivers like Pitts, Toney and Grimes and scoring 40 every game was to be expected. The only problem was the defense. Just as we knew the Gators could light it up, we also knew the other team could light up Todd Grantham’s defense and when they did make a critical stop, something stupid happened such as Marco Wilson throwing a shoe against LSU or a too many men on the field flag that negated a critical stop against Alabama when Kyree Campbell loafed as he neared the sideline. Florida lost by three to LSU, by six to Alabama. Take those penalties away and the Gators would have been SEC champs with a 10-1 record and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

Let’s face it, we were spoiled by Trask, Pitts, Toney and Grimes. We underestimated the impact of their departures for the No Fun League because we thought that Dan Mullen could work his quarterback magic on Emory Jones and turn him into the next big thing in the SEC just as he did with Trask, who nobody really knew until he burst on the scene in the fourth quarter of the Kentucky game in 2019.

Having seen what Mullen did with Nick Fitzgerald at Mississippi State, I thought Jones was going to be a dual threat who would drive opposing defensive coordinators batty. Fitzgerald, for those of you who don’t remember, was deciding between offers from Chattanooga, Mercer and Samford when Mullen offered him a scholarship at Mississippi State. In his two years starting for Mullen, he threw for 4,205 yards and 36 touchdowns, ran for 2,315 yards and 30 more.

I confess. I imagined that if Mullen could transform a high school wishbone QB like Fitzgerald into a legitimate SEC star caliber QB that turning Jones into a winner at Florida wouldn’t be all that difficult, particularly since this is Jones’ fourth year in the system. Well, I was wrong and while I know some of you will say I told you so, I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one who thought Mullen could work his magic on Jones.

We knew Emory Jones could run and he’s proven to be a very capable runner who can take a crease in the defense and turn it into 10 yards in a blink of an eye. The running hasn’t been the problem. It’s the passing. He’s thrown 12 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions. He ranks 83rd nationally in passing yardage. Only four of the 82 quarterbacks ranked ahead of him have thrown as many or more picks.

We’ve seen him zip the ball into tight windows on occasions. Last Saturday at South Carolina he even showed that he can throw an accurate deep ball with bombs to Justin Shorter and Marcus Burke. Unfortunately, great throws are few and far between.

Why Jones hasn’t become a star this season has everything to do with consistency and decision making. In the final three quarters against Alabama and the entire game against Tennessee, he looked like a star. At Kentucky, he made too many mistakes and only got the Gators into the end zone one time. At LSU, he threw two interceptions that were turned into short field touchdowns by the Tigers. He looked good in the final quarter against Georgia, quite average in the final three quarters at South Carolina.

Don’t take this as heaping blame on Emory Jones. That’s not the case. I think he’s played to his capabilities. He’s simply a very good athlete who happens to play quarterback, someone who would be better suited playing in an offense like the one they run at Army, Navy or Air Force, where the QB runs the ball 20 times a game and throws almost entirely in surprise situations.

He’s a good kid and an exceptional teammate by all accounts. He should be praised for doing his best at all times, but he has never been the solution to this Florida football team. We expected too much of Jones, and therefore expected way too much of this Florida football team. You don’t win in the SEC without good quarterback play. The QBs don’t have to be stars necessarily but they can’t make the bad decisions that get you beaten. Georgia is No. 1 in the nation this year, not because Stetson Bennett IV is a stud but because he makes good decisions and doesn’t make the critical mistakes that beat the Bulldogs.

I hope that Emory Jones plays like a superstar in Florida’s final three games. I hope the lights go on and the bad decisions become a thing of the past. I hope, but I’m not counting on it.

I expected way too much of the Gators this season. I thought the dynamics of the offense would change because of Jones’ skill set but I never thought the offense would be as big a problem as the defense. I underestimated the impact of Kyle Trask leaving for the NFL and I overestimated the ability of Emory Jones to keep the Gators in the SEC championship race just as I overestimated that Todd Grantham would revert to the defensive coordinator that he was in 2019.

I’m probably not the only one.

GATORS OPEN THE BASKETBALL SEASON AT HOME WITH ELON TONIGHT

You might not be able to tell all the Florida basketball players without a program tonight when the Gators open their 2021-22 season at home with Elon (8 p.m., SEC Network+). Colin Castleton and Anthony Duruji you will recognize in the starting lineup but the other three starters are from the four transfers that Mike White welcomed into the program back during the spring – Brandon McKissic, Myreon Jones and Phlandrous Fleming Jr.

Castleton (6-11, 231) averaged 12.4 points and 6-4 rebounds per game last season after transferring to UF from Michigan. Duruji (6-7, 220), who began his collegiate career at Louisiana Tech, averaged 6.1 points and 4.4 rebounds after taking a transfer redshirt in 2019-20.

McKissic (6-3, 185) was the Summit League’s Defensive Player of the Year and a finalist for the Lefty Driesell National Defensive Player of the Year last year at Missouri-Kansas City, where he averaged 17.2 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. Jones (6-3, 175) averaged 15.3 points per game at Penn State where he was one of the Big Ten’s best 3-point shooters. Fleming (6-5, 205) was the Big South Conference’s Defensive Player of the Year where he averaged 20.1 points and 7.4 rebounds per game.

This will actually be the smallest Florida team of the Mike White era, but it has the potential to be his best defensive team since the 2017 team that made it to the Elite Eight. White will probably play his entire bench against Elon, a member of the Colonial Athletic Association, but the bulk of the reserve minutes will go to Tyree Appleby (6-1, 163), who averaged 11.3 points per game last year as the starter at the point, Boston College transfer C.J. Felder (6-7, 230) and freshman Kowacie Reeves (6-6, 182).

Elsewhere in the SEC: UT-Martin at Tennessee; USC-Upstate at South Carolina; Florida International at Georgia; New Orleans at Ole Miss; Mercer at Arkansas; Morehead State at Auburn; Louisiana-Monroe at LSU; Central Michigan at Missouri; Louisiana Tech at Alabama; Kentucky vs. Duke (Madison Square Garden)

COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY WEEK TEN Extinct Species List

Les Miles, Kansas (Permanent replacement Lance Leipold)

Randy Edsall, UConn

Clay Helton, Southern Cal

Chad Lunsford, Georgia Southern (Permanent replacement Clay Helton) Ed Orgeron, LSU Nick Rolovich, Washington State Matt Wells, Texas Tech (Permanent replacement Joey McGuire) Gary Patterson, TCU

Tom Arth, Akron

Walt Bell, UMass

On Life Support Butch Davis, Florida International: Butch is on borrowed time. He’s 1-8 this year, 1-13 since last year. They need someone young who will work cheap.

Marcus Arroyo, UNLV: The streak is over! UNLV beat New Mexico, 31-17, so now Arroyo is 1-14 for his collegiate head coaching career. He gets to start a new streak this week against Hawaii.

Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech: Losing 17-3 to Boston College has Fuente teetering on the verge. He’s 4-5 and needs to win two of the last three as long as one of the two is Virginia.

Endangered Species List

Scott Frost, Nebraska: He’s been given a reprieve but it came with a price. He had to fire four coaches. The contract has been restructured and it’s expected that his $20 million buyout is part of the restructuring.

Scot Loeffler, Bowling Green: Lefty has unexpected wins over Minnesota (shocker) and Buffalo. Will that be enough to get another year?

Dino Babers, Syracuse: They really don’t want to fire him, but they would feel a lot better about things if he would win at least one of the last three to go 6-6 and bowl eligible.

Chip Kelly, UCLA: The scheduling gods are merciful. The final three games are Colorado, Southern Cal and Cal. At 8-4, he’s as good as hanging around one more year.

Seth Littrell, North Texas: The Mean Green have won two straight, but two of the next three are quite losable and he needs to go 3-0.

Phil Montgomery, Tulsa: The Phighting Phils had four cracks at the end zone to beat Cincinnati and blew the upset. If he can win two out of the last three to finish 5-7 it will buy a lot of good will.

Steve Addazio, Colorado State: The Lambs are on a three-game losing bender and there’s a real good chance they’ll stretch it to six. The folks who questioned this hire in the first place are getting more vocal.

Justin Wilcox, California: His seat was cooling until he lost to Arizona, 10-3. The only things that might save him now are going 3-0 and the buyout.

Manny Diaz, Miami: The Hurricanes have won three straight and are 5-4. There is a good chance they’ll finish the season on a 6-game winning bender, which means they’ll be stuck with Manny for awhile.

Jeff Scott, South Florida: He’s safe for this year, but next year he will have to produce. He’s 3-15 with only one win over a Division I team.

David Cutcliffe, Duke: He’s 67 years old and the folks in Durham are starting to believe it’s time to bring in some young blood.

Jimmy Lake, Washington: He fired his offensive coordinator, but got suspended without pay for striking a player on the helmet. That wouldn’t have gotten a suspension in the 1960s, but the time they have changed. His biggest problem is he isn’t winning and the Pac-12 is weak.

Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech: He’s won three games in each of his three years on the job and it’s doubtful he wins any of the last three. The natives are getting restless.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The second College Football Playoff poll comes out tonight. It’s a foregone conclusion that Georgia will hold down the No. 1 ranking but there will be a shakeup after a weekend that saw No. 2 Alabama struggle against LSU; No. 3 Michigan State lose to Purdue; No. 4 Oregon play it close with Washington; No. 5 Ohio State struggle with Nebraska; and No. 6 Cincinnati hold on for dear life against Tulsa. I expect the top ten to look something like this: 1. Georgia; 2. Alabama; 3. Oregon; 4. Ohio State; 5. Oklahoma; 6. Cincinnati; 7. Michigan State; 8. Michigan; 9. Oklahoma State and 10. Notre Dame.