Thoughts of the Day: October 5, 2021

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

A SHORTER, EYES DILATED VERSION Historically, and this year is no different than most, Vanderbilt is the cure for the common Homecoming game. You want to know why there is no move to oust Vanderbilt from the SEC and bring in someone with a competitive football team? The answers are simple: (a) Vanderbilt is a charter member of the SEC and with charter membership comes a measure of clout; (b) Vanderbilt raises the GPA of the entire conference; and (c) everybody needs a good Homecoming opponent so the alums can go home happy.

Obviously, Nostradamus was in charge of scheduling for the Southeastern Conference in 2021. Who else would have known the Florida Gators (3-2, 1-2 SEC) would need a get-well Homecoming win to make the alums happy after the debacle at Kentucky? Make no mistake about it, Florida’s Homecoming game with Vanderbilt this weekend is a get-well game. Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea might be the nicest human being in the entire state of Tennessee, but this is not a week for Dan Mullen to show anyone, no matter how nice they are, any measure of mercy. This should be viewed as a throw them on the ground, stomp their larynx and then kick them in the ribs for good measure game.

Not only that, this should be a game in which Dan Mullen gives Anthony Richardson at least half the snaps. Proof is in this number: 6.5. That’s the yards per pass attempt for Emory Jones through five games. He has completed 93 of 135 passes, which is nice accuracy (68.9 percent), but he has thrown for only 871 yards, 6.5 yards per attempt.

Now, no one is going to mistake EJ for Kyle Trask (9.8 yards per attempt last year, 8.3 in 2019) or even Feleipe Franks (7.6 per attempt in 2018), but that is fewer yards per attempt than Treon Harris (7.1) back in 2015 and Tyler Murphy (6.6) in 2013. It should not be that way. The way Florida runs the football, those per pass attempt numbers should be at least 1.5-2 yards higher. Despite very good protection – the Gators have given up only three sacks in five games (tied for second in the SEC and sixth in the country) – Jones seems hesitant at times, reluctant at others, to cut loose and throw the ball downfield. Until defenses are made to respect his arm, they’ll continue to stack the line against the run.

That’s why Mullen needs to give Richardson more snaps and experience. He has the big arm and showed with those two long throws in the South Florida game. He missed the Alabama and Tennessee games due to a hamstring injury suffered in the South Florida game, then played a few snaps against Kentucky. Mullen perhaps limited him at UK due to the road environment, but Saturday it will be a home crowd and a path of least resistance team in Vanderbilt. It’s time to cut him loose because if the Gators can’t improve on 6.5 they’re going to struggle mightily in some of the games remaining on the schedule.

I am not sure Emory Jones can improve on 6.5 yards per pass attempt. I believe that Anthony Richardson not only is a dynamic runner but he has the big arm to give the Gators the downfield threat in the passing game they need.

THE LAST 1:58 OF THE FIRST HALF AGAINST UK At his Monday press conference Mullen defended the last 1:58 of the first half, pointing out that UF started with the ball at the 13 and Kentucky still had all three of its time outs. Mullen said the Gators had play calls to go downfield the first two plays, but UK was dropping plenty of people into zone coverage which forced Jones to check down to underneath throws. Rather than risk anything further that could allow Kentucky field position and time outs to spare, the decision was made to shut it down.

“We went out there looking for explosive plays,” Mullen said. “I think Emory had to check it down a couple of times and all of a sudden we really hadn’t moved the ball much and the clock is under 30 seconds. It wasn’t like we weren’t going to look to take a shot. Two of those plays we called to see if we could take a shot down the field. They bailed everybody back, we checked it down. Now you look at the clock and you’re one play away from having to punt and they potentially have got good field position.”

MULLEN ON THE NUMBER OF PENALTIES (15 FOR -115 YARDS) “I take it personally. That’s on me ... I don’t ever remember a game as a head coach when we’ve had 15 penalties. I’ve coached a bunch of games so maybe there’s one skipping my mind out there but I don’t think I’ve had one with that many penalties before. So, that is disappointing for me.”

COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY: WEEK FIVE Extinct Species List

Les Miles, Kansas Randy Edsall, UConn Clay Helton, Southern Cal Chad Lunsford, Georgia Southern:

On Life Support Scott Frost, Nebraska: Michigan comes to Lincoln this week and is only a 3-point favorite. Is that because Nebraska is getting better or because the people in Vegas think Michigan will arrive bored and play like it? Frost needs six wins in the worst way to survive.

Walt Bell, UMass: There is a chance – a chance mind you – that the Minutemen will actually win a game this week when UConn comes to town. UMass should be a D1AA team except they can’t play six or seven paycheck games a year to support all the non-revenue sports without taking regular beatings.

Tom Arth, Akron: In a battle of the winless, Ohio U doubled up on the Zips, who dropped to 1-4. They get Bowling Green this week. The folks in Akron must be wondering what the hell they were thinking when they fired Terry “I’m good for five wins a year” Bowden.

Endangered Species List Scot Loeffler, Bowling Green: BG plays Akron this weekend in what should be win No. 3. If Lefty can get the Falcons to five wins he should be a candidate for coach of the year in the Big MAC.

Ed Orgeron, LSU: Coach Oeaux’s problems can be summed up easily: Bad assistant coaches will (a) lose you games and (b) get you fired. Coach Oeaux replaced last year’s bad assistants with a new group and apparently they’re as bad as the group he had in 2020.

Dino Babers, Syracuse: The next three games with Wake Forest, Clemson and (at) Virginia Tech will determine whether Dino gets another year or not. He shouldn’t be making plans to buy a new house in Syracuse any time soon.

Chip Kelly, UCLA: Just when it seemed the Chipster had turned the corner, he got his doors blown off by Arizona State. He’s 3-2 and at the very worst needs 8-4 to survive.

Thomas Hammock, Northern Illinois: He’s got the Huskies at 3-2 but he needs to win at least three more to get the taste of last year’s 0-6 out of the mouth of the boosters.

Seth Littrell, North Texas: He’s gone from hot ticket item to needing to go 5-3 the rest of the way to save his job.

Phil Montgomery, Tulsa: The Phighting Phils are 1-4 and the only winnable game the rest of the way seems to be South Florida.

Steve Addazio, Colorado State: Was that close loss at Iowa bad juju on the part of Iowa or did Colorado State show it’s actually capable of playing at a high level? The Fighting Addazios are 1-3 and need to break even in their final eight.

Butch Davis, Florida International: Getting destroyed by Florida Atlantic and the Fighting Willie Taggarts has not helped his cause. The Panthers have lost four in a row and it’s not until the final game of the season (North Texas) that one looks winnable.

Manny Diaz, Miami: Miami can’t lose this week since it’s an open date, but the next three games are all quite losable – at North Carolina, North Carolina State and at Pitt. Miami really can’t afford to fire Manny but if he can’t get to seven or eight wins he could be a goner.

Jeff Scott, South Florida: His career record is 2-12 with both wins over D1AA opponents. He was a really good assistant coach at Clemson. He needs to get on the phone with Dabo and see if he can come back.

Checking for a pulse P.J. Fleck, Minnesota: Beating Purdue eased the tension. For now.

Dana Dimmel, UTEP: The Miners are now 4-1, two wins from a bowl game. They would be crazy to fire him if he gets a bowl game. That’s a lot of pressure.

Ken Niumatolo, Navy: He’s probably good for another year no matter what happens this year, but it didn’t hurt his cause to get that win over UCF last weekend. A win over unbeaten SMU this week would really help things.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Last Friday night, Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren paid a visit to the Iowa radio broadcast team during the Iowa-Maryland game. Warren gushed about “The Alliance,” the consortium of the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC that is supposed to thwart the power of the Southeastern Conference, force College Football Playoff expansion on their terms and create all these big football games that the networks are going to be fighting to broadcast. After a weekend that saw the Pac-12’s only decent team (Oregon) lose and the ACC continuing to look like the weak sister of the Power Five conferences, “The Alliance” is looking rather weak. The networks aren’t going to be fighting over cross-conference matchups between these three leagues, not when ESPN will have the likes of Texas and Oklahoma playing the likes of Alabama, LSU, Georgia or Florida. The SEC is going to get richer. “The Alliance” will be fighting for the scraps.