Thoughts of the day: September 13, 2022

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

Napier: “There’s no re-dos”

This isn’t like the playoffs in either Major League Baseball or the NBA where you can win a best-of-seven series and advance. With college football, it’s one-and-done. There are no second chances to avenge a loss. You live with it the rest of the regular season.

As much as Billy Napier wishes for a second chance to show the 18th-ranked Florida Gators (1-1, 0-1 SEC) are every bit as good and perhaps even better than now 9th-ranked Kentucky, he’s got to wait until next year to prove it. He has to live with a mistake-filled 26-16 loss to the Wildcats for a whole year.

“You don’t get them [losses] back,” Napier said at his Monday press conference. “That’s what losing does to you. It makes you very aware that you don’t get back, there’s no re-dos. You don’t go back and fix those things. It causes you to have a different perspective, I think as a coach and a player. I think everybody in the organization taking ownership in their role, maybe what could I have done better throughout the week that could have impacted the outcome.

“It’s critical you learn from mistakes. I think it’s critical that you have integrity, that you tell the truth and you make necessary changes. Then, hey, look, you’ve got to turn the page. I think part of this game is it teaches you a lot of lessons and quickly you’ve got to get focus on the next task. Certainly that’s what we’re going to try to do.”

What’s next for the Gators is South Florida (1-1) which is in its third year of a total team makeover under Jeff Scott, who was on the Clemson staff with Napier from 2008-10. The Gators played the Bulls in Tampa in their second game of the season last year, thrashing the Bulls 42-20. Anthony Richardson came off the bench to go 3-3 passing for 152 yards and two touchdowns while carrying the ball four times for 115 yards and a TD. Richardson also tweaked his hamstring in that game and was never as effective again the rest of the season.

South Florida is a non-conference game and the Gators are prohibitive 24.5-point favorites but Napier will have the Gators going about this one the same way they go about preparing for every game on the schedule. Monday was spent correcting the mistakes made in the Kentucky game while putting elements of the South Florida game plan on the field. Tuesday and Wednesday, the Gators will sharpen up their game plan and Thursday will be spent working out any kinks. Friday is a walk-through.

When he met with the coaching staff Sunday, Napier issued a challenge to “do our best work for the players, the level of detail that we can offer the players throughout the week – meetings, walk-throughs and practice – and try to position in a better place as we approach Saturday.”

What Napier wants is for the Gators to go into the South Florida game ready to earn the right to win. He mentioned after the Kentucky game that the Gators didn’t earn the right to win the game. Monday he took a moment to explain what that means.

“Well I think it’s kind of about our formula to win, what’s worked for us in the past, right?” he said. “The top of that is own the ball, attack the ball. If you just want to take a bird’s eye view of the game, that’s where we didn’t earn the right to win. If you include the turnover on downs stat, we turned the ball over four times to their one, right, so we’re minus three. We didn’t play on conversion downs on offense, had to kick a couple of field goals in the front, so the four-point play red zone part of the field we weren’t very efficient, so we didn’t do enough on offense to win the game.

“When I say earn the right to win, I’m talking about our formula and how we win. We play complementary football and there were parts of our team where we didn’t earn the right to win. It’s that simple.”

SEC football #2 Alabama (2-0): Recapping Alabama’s great escape win over Texas, Nick Saban said Monday, “We didn’t execute the way we wanted, but you can’t fault the mental toughness” … Placekicker Will Reichard was the SEC Special Teams Player of the Week after kicking a 52-yard field goal and a game-winning 33-yard field goal with 10 seconds left against Texas.

#10 Arkansas (2-0, 1-0 SEC): HBC Sam Pittman paid tribute to former Arkansas HBC Bobby Petrino, now the head coach of D1AA Missouri State, which comes to Fayette Nam ranked 7th in the D1AA poll this weekend. “Last time Arkansas was relevant was when Coach Petrino was here and we’re grateful for his time here and what he did for the program,” Pittman said Monday ... Linebacker Drew Sanders, who had 11 tackles including three for loss in the win over South Carolina, was the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Center Ricky Stromberg was chosen SEC Co-Offensive Lineman of the Week.

Auburn (2-0): Auburn expects to have starting wide receiver Malcolm Johnson Jr. back for the Penn State game Saturday. Johnson missed the Tigers’ 24-16 win over San Jose State.

#1 Georgia (2-0): Georgia leads the SEC in both total offense (525 yards per game) and total defense (220 yards per game). The Bulldogs are allowing only 1.5 points per game, best in the nation … Wide receiver AD Mitchell is day-to-day after suffering an ankle injury on the first play of Saturday’s game with Samford.

#9 Kentucky (2-0, 1-0 SEC): Linebacker Jordan Wright, who had an interception, six tackles, a sack and a forced fumble against Florida was the SEC Co-Defensive Player of the Week. Wide receiver Dane Key, who caught at 55-yard touchdown pass against Florida was chosen SEC Freshman of the Week.

LSU (1-1): The Tigers will be trying to stop Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense when Mississippi State comes to town Saturday. Regarding the difficulty in stopping the offense, HBC Brian Kelly said Monday, “If you’re not taking care of your assignment and doing your job, you’re going to get exposed. It is a precision offense. It is extremely well-coached.”

Mississippi State (2-0): The MSU defense will have to contain LSU QB Jayden Daniels, who is a dangerous runner when the pocket breaks down. Mike Leach said Monday, “Good player. He can definitely help himself out with his feet and when coverage breaks down he throws it up. He gives you two things to keep track of” … Center LaQuinston Sharp was chosen as the SEC Co-Offensive Lineman of the Week for his performance in MSU’s win over Arizona.

Missouri (1-1): In their 40-12 loss to Kansas State, Missouri gained only 222 yards and didn’t score a touchdown until the final play of the game.

#20 Ole Miss (2-0): The starting QB job apparently is still up for grabs between Jaxson Dart and Luke Altmeyer. The Rebels play at Georgia Tech Saturday. Monday, HBC Lane Kiffin said, “We’ll figure out who goes first at some point later in the week.”

South Carolina (1-1, 0-1 SEC): Edge rusher Jordan Strachan and middle linebacker Mo Kaba are done for the year with ACL injuries.

#15 Tennessee (2-0): Quarterback Hendon Hooker, who threw for 325 yards and two touchdowns was selected SEC Offensive Player of the Week. Defensive end Byron Young, who had two tackles for loss and a sack in the win against Pitt was the SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week.

#24 Texas A&M (1-1): In losing to Appalachian State, the Aggies ran only 38 offensive plays for 186 yards. Appalachian State, on the other hand, ran 82 for 315 yards.

Vanderbilt (2-1): HBC Clark Lea pointed to 21 first half points Wake Forest scored off Vandy turnovers as the reason the Commodores lost their first game of the season. “Giving up 21 points off turnovers is not going to be a formula against a good team, especially a good offense,” Lea said.

Our SEC orphans in the Big 12 #6 Oklahoma (2-0): In their win over Kent State, Oklahoma had three sacks, 10 quarterback pressures and 14 tackles for loss.

#21 Texas (1-1): The earliest quarterback Quinn Ewers can return from the SC sprain of his left shoulder is October 8 when the Longhorns face Oklahoma in Dallas.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: From 1971-1997, the Nebraska Cornhuskers were the winningest college football program in the country at 277-51-4, 21 more wins than second place Penn State which was coached by Joe Paterno. During that time the Cornhuskers won four national championships, the first by Bob Devaney in 1971, the last three by Dr. Tom Osborne. Osborne succeeded Devaney (102-20-2) in 1973, compiling a remarkable 255-49-3 record until he retired after winning the national championship in 1997 with Scott Frost as his quarterback.

Dr. Tom won with option football in an era when there was an abundance of option quarterbacks, which is no longer the case. The good quarterbacks these days come from spread attacks in high school and they go to schools that throw the ball. Nebraska has struggled to keep up with the times since Dr. Tom required. The Cornhuskers are 187-119 since he retired with only a 1999 Big 12 title won by Frank Solich to show for it. Solich, by the way was fired after after going 58-19 in six seasons having never won fewer than nine games.

Now that Frost has been fired, Nebraska diehards are beginning one more search for the next Tom Osborne. In the weeks ahead, expect to hear the names Kentucky’s Mark Stoops, Iowa State’s Matt Campbell and Kansas’ Lance Leipold mentioned prominently. Of the three, Campbell and Leipold will probably listen and one of them may take the job, in large part because the Big 12 will not be one of the top tier conferences in the country and Nebraska will back up a Brinks Truck to land one of them. Stoops, if he’s smart (he is), will parlay the Nebraska interest for a raise and will stay at Kentucky where he already coaches in the top college football league in the country.

Stoops is a fine football coach who should heed the lessons of Dan Mullen or at least read a copy of “The Peter Principle.” In retrospect, Mullen should have stayed at Mississippi State, where he never would have been fired and the fans and boosters were content with a January bowl trip. Had he stayed in Starkville, they probably would be talking about a statue of Mullen to go outside Davis-Wade Stadium. He did the Peter Principle thing, however, went to Florida where championships are expected and discovered that you can’t win championships with diamond in the rough talent.

Stoops has a similar situation at Kentucky. His feathers were ruffled recently when John Calipari called UK a basketball school, but that’s what it is. Kentucky football fans love Stoops, who has made the Wildcats respectable and gets them to bowl games every year. Getting to the Citrus Bowl is dream city for UK football fans. Nothing less than Final Fours and national championships are expected of Cal.

Stoops has succeeded at Kentucky with diamond in the rough recruiting. Someday he may actually win the SEC East but even if he doesn’t the UK football fans are happy with him. At Kentucky, he can recruit Ohio kids, he’s close enough to metro Atlanta to dip down for some speed and occasionally he can get a kid in Florida who the Gators, Miami and FSU overlooked. If he goes to Nebraska he will be surrounded by Iowa, Colorado, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming and Missouri, not exactly hotbeds for recruiting.

Now that he’s surpassed Bear Bryant as Kentucky’s winningest football coach ever – with 61 wins – Stoops can be content being the first Mark Stoops. If he were to take the Nebraska job he would always be just another football coach until he wins at least one national championship like Bob Devaney or Dr. Tom. Of course, that would mean beating the likes of Ohio State, Michigan, Penn State and now Southern Cal for the Big Ten title.

He's better off being the first Mark Stoops than trying to live up to a legend.