Thoughts of the day: October 6, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:

VENTRELL MILLER IS A DIFFERENCE MAKER

“Ventrell Miller is as good a human being as I’ve been around,” Florida coach Billy Napier says about his tackling machine inside linebacker who three days ago started The Ventrell Miller Foundation to raise money for victims of Hurricane Ian. “What makes him special to me is he actually has significant care for other people. I mean, he’s walking around living life and he’s got enough wisdom and perspective to realize that there’s other people out there and he’s not consumed with himself. He's actually thinking about the people around him.

“He’s doing good things for other people now. He’s making a difference now. He’ll do that the rest of his life. That’s who he is.”

When he’s healthy, Miller is sort of Florida’s traffic cop on defense. He not only knows his assignment but he’s the communicator who gets everyone else in the right spot. He will be critical Saturday (12 noon, ESPNU) when the Gators (3-2, 0-2 SEC) try to end their SEC losing skid at two games against Missouri (2-3, 0-2 SEC). Miller, who missed almost all of last season and has been dinged up the last three games, will be 100 percent for Missouri.

He is ready to play hard, ready to do his part to get the Gators on the right track, but he’s also feeling the need to get people hardest hit by the hurricane back on the right track as well.

“Just seeing it … those people got impacted hard,” Miller said. “Flooded, houses lost, all different kinds of things those people are going through … I felt like it was my job to come do something to help.”

So, he’s putting his own NIL money where his mouth is and he’s formed a foundation to do his part. Perhaps the Gators haven’t won as many games or performed to the standard as some would like, but when you have a team leader like this, then you know the football program is heading in the right direction.

Florida depth chart vs. Missouri (starters in bold face) Offense

WR: Xzavier Henderson; Daejon Reynolds or Marcus Burke WR: Justin Shorter; Ja’Quavion Fraziars

WR: Ricky Pearsall; Trent Whittemore; Ja’Markis Weston

LT: Richard Gouraige; Josh Braun

LG: Ethan White; Richie Leonard IV C: Kingsley Eguakun; Jake Slaughter

RG: O’Cyrus Torrence; Jalen Farmer RT: Austin Barber; Kamryn Waites QB: Anthony Richardson; Jalen Kitna; Kyle Engel RB: Nay’Quan Wright; Montrell Johnson Jr. or Trevor Etienne; Lorenzo Lingard

Defense DE: Princely Umanmielen; Justus Boone NT: Desmond Watson; Jalen Lee; Jaelin Humphries; Jamari Lyons DE: Gervon Dexter Sr.; Tyreak Sapp; Chris McClellan Jack: Brenton Cox Jr.; Antwaun Powell-Ryland Jr.; Lloyd Summerall III or David Reese

LB: Ventrell Miller; Scooby Williams or Derek Wingo LB: Amari Burney; Shemar James STAR: Tre’Vez Johnson; Jadarrius Perkins; Kamar Wilcoxson CB: Jason Marshall Jr.; Devin Moore; Jordan Young S: Rashad Torrence II; Kamari Wilson; Corey Collier Jr. S: Trey Dean III; Donovan McMillon; Miguel Mitchell CB: Jaydon Hill; Avery Helm; Jalen Kimber

Special teams KO: Trey Smack or Adam Mihalek PK: Adam Mihalek or Trey Smack

P: Jeremy Crawshaw; Jacob Watkins

LS: Rocco Underwood; Chase Whitfield

H: Jeremy Crawshaw; Jacob Watkins

KOR: Trevor Etienne; Xzavier Henderson or Jason Marshall Jr.; Thai Chiahhiao-Bowman PR: Xzavier Henderson; Jason Marshall Jr. or Trevor Etienne

Injured: QB Jack Miller (questionable); LB Diwun Black (out); LS Marco Ortiz (out); LT Michael Tarquin (out); TE Arlis Boardingham (questionable); TE Nick Elksnis (out); LB Kenny Anyaehie (out)

UF volleyball: The Gators (11-3, 3-1 SEC) needed four sets to secure a 26-24, 25-23, 16-25, 25-20 win over Tennessee (8-8, 2-2 SEC) Wednesday night in Knoxville. The Gators will host LSU (10-6, 4-2 SEC) for two matches over the weekend at the O-Dome, 6 p.m. Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday.

SEC football/basketball

No. 1 Alabama (5-0, 2-0 SEC): Heisman Trophy QB Bryce Young is practicing, but still listed day-to-day for Texas A&M.

Arkansas (3-2, 1-2 SEC): HBC Sam Pittman says QB KJ Jefferson will “be on the plane” to Starkville, but he’s still unsure if he will be able to play.

Auburn (3-2, 1-1 SEC): Starting center Brandon Council looks at the Georgia defense and says the Tigers will “run the ball on them and if we can keep them out of their third-down packages, we can demolish them, I believe.”

No. 2 Georgia (5-0, 2-0 SEC): Former Georgia All-American and ESPN analyst David Pollack says the Bulldogs are an immature team whose “offensive line got absolutely manhandled” last week by Missouri.

No. 13 Kentucky (4-1, 1-1 SEC): Despite an intentional grounding call that resulted in a safety and two critical fumbles on the Wildcats last two possessions in their loss to Ole Miss last week, Will Levis hasn’t lost the confidence of HBC Mark Stoops, who says, “I wouldn’t trade him for anybody.”

No. 25 LSU (4-1, 2-0 SEC): Considering Saturday’s game with No. 8 Tennessee is one of only three games in the country where both teams are ranked, it seems a bit strange that it’s an 11 a.m. kickoff and not a Saturday night game at Tiger Stadium.

No. 23 Mississippi State (4-1, 1-1 SEC): The MSU defense has forced 10 turnovers – four fumbles and six interceptions – which ranks second in the SEC.

Missouri (2-3, 0-2 SEC): The Tigers rank second in the SEC in third down defense, allowing only 27.4 perecent conversions, which ranks 12th in the country.

No. 9 Ole Miss (5-0, 1-0 SEC): Freshman running back Quinshon Judkins, whose 535 rushing yards (6.29 per carry) ranks second in the SEC and 11th nationally, was a 3-star recruit out of high school, the 562ndranked prospect in the country.

South Carolina (3-2, 0-2 SEC): Kentucky has allowed 19 sacks in five games, which is 127th in the country. South Carolina’s pass rush has four sacks in five games.

No. 8 Tennessee (5-0, 1-0 SEC): The Vols lead the nation in total offense (559.3 yards per game). Saturday they’ll be going against an LSU defense that ranks 19th nationally (293.8 yards per game) … Guard Josiah-Jordan James says he didn’t even like basketball coach Rick Barnes at first but now says “I can’t imagine my life without him.”

Texas A&M (3-2, 1-1 SEC): Quarterback Max Johnson remains day-to-day for Saturday night’s game in Tuscaloosa with No. 1 Alabama.

Vanderbilt (3-2, 0-1 SEC): The Commodores have allowed at least 151 yards on the ground in all but the season opener with Hawai’i. Saturday the Commodores will be trying to stop an Ole Miss ground game that averages 261.8 yards and ranks fifth nationally.

Our SEC orphans in the Big 12

Oklahoma (3-2, 0-2 Big 12): The status of quarterback Dillon Gabriel (concussion) remains up in the air for Saturday’s game with Texas.

Texas (3-2, 1-1 Big 12): Quinn Ewers has another big NIL deal, this one with a technology company called Metabilia. For a quarterback with two career touchdown passes, Ewers, who drives a Ferarri, sure has made a lot of NIL money.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Extinct Species List stands at five now but it could be another eventful week on the coaching circuit as a couple of coaches are teetering on the verge of extinction.

Countdown to Firing Day: Week 6 Extinct Species List Scott Frost, Nebraska: The wish list to take over the Fighting Frosts starts with Lance Leipold, Matt Campbell and Bill O’Brien. Whoever takes the job is relegating himself to unrealistic expectations, one of the worst states in the world for recruiting (and the nearby states aren’t much better), brutally cold winters, blast furnace summers and a chance to finish middle of the pack in the Big Ten West.

Herm Edwards, Arizona State: Whoever takes this job does so knowing the NCAA is probably going to do a tap dance on the program. The name that’s on the tip of a lot of tongues is former Texas HBC Tom Herman.

Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech: The home run hire is Deion Sanders. The safe hire is interim head coach Brent Key, the former Alabama O-line coach who is a Tech man and now 1-0 after scoring an upset over Pitt last week. Home run vs. Safe? Tech, left to its own lack of imagination, will go safe.

Karl Dorrell, Colorado: Dorrell was 0-5 this year and recruiting was in the tank. The name that comes to mind who can resuscitate the program is Eric Bienemy, the offensive coordinator for the Kansas City Chiefs and the All-American running back on Colorado’s 1990 national championship team. If he doesn’t get the first call, the governor of the state should fire everyone in the CU administration from the president on down.

Paul Chryst, Wisconsin: Oh how they’d love to hire Lance Leipold, a native Wisconsonite who won six Division III national titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater and is a Saturday win away from bowl-eligibility at Kansas. Kansas! Nobody but nobody wins at Kansas. This guy can coach. It may take a Brinks truck to convince him to bug out to head to a dysfunctional place that just fired a coach who was 67-26, won three Big Ten West titles and never missed going bowling.

On Life Support

Bryan Harsin, Auburn: Sometimes you wonder why don’t the folks at Auburn just go ahead and fire him? You know they’re going to do it. Maybe Sunday if Auburn gets destroyed by Georgia. Beating Georgia? Donkeys may fly first but there are folks who smoke funny things who swear they’ve seen it happen.

Scot Loeffler, Bowling Green: He doesn’t make a lot of money and has the Falcons sitting 2-3 right now, which is actually above expectations but back in 2001 Urban Meyer convinced folks that it can be done at BG. They’re still looking for their next Urban.

Jake Spavital, Texas State: This one is tricky. Jake the Snake is already halfway to last year’s win total (4). Could he go 4-3 the rest of the way? Well, four of the seven remaining teams have losing records.

Neal Brown, West Virginia: Buzzards are circling. The Mounties are 2-3 and a 4-win season may be the ceiling. Neal Brown should have realized that he was at the zenith of his career at Troy. Now he’s in way over his head.

Dana Holgorsen, Houston: The Cougars were supposed to be the class of the American. Now they’ve got three losses and a restless fan base wondering what’s going to happen a year from now when the Cougars are in the Big 12?

Will Healy, Charlotte: Since taking the 49ers to their first bowl in school history in 2019, it’s been all downhill. They’re 1-5 so far this year and have to go 5-1 to avoid their third straight losing year.

Endangered Species List

Ken Niumatalolo, Navy: He does everything right, but the Middies aren’t winning. Still, they are two years removed from an 11-win season. That should count for something, shouldn’t it?

Mike Bloomgren, Rice: The Owls are 3-3 and the next three games are very winnable. If Bloomgren gets to six wins, you can bet the farm he won’t be fired. He might even survive with five wins since it would represent the best Rice season since 2014.

Willie Taggart, Florida Atlantic: The Owls can’t stop anybody. They’re 2-4 with three straight losses. At a bare minimum they have to go 4-2 in the second half of the season or else it will be pink slip time for Taggart, who’s being paid $1.5 million. The folks in Boca would feel a whole lot better about Taggart’s future if he somehow got to seven wins, but that’s a real longshot.

David Shaw, Stanford: Since the COVID year he’s 4-12. They’re paying him $7 million a year and the Chardonnay and grapes tailgaters are wondering if they can’t get a bigger bang for fewer bucks.

Scott Satterfield, Louisville: Satterfield is 20-22 since he arrived in 2019, but the last two seasons have been losers and the Cards are 2-3 this year. The schedule has a minimum of four more losses. Lose to Virginia this week and he’s On Life Support.

Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M: They wouldn’t fire a coach who has a $94.45 million buyout would they? A coach who signed what some call a legendary recruiting class in the last cycle? They wouldn’t do that, now would they? They’re Aggies. You bet they would. Buzzards may be circling in College Station if Alabama covers the 24-point spread Saturday night in Tuscaloosa.