Will "AR" Find Redemption? 𝙏𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘿𝙖𝙮

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning:

October 26, 2002

𝘽𝙮 𝙁𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙯 𝘽𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙙

It was only two minutes and 22 seconds but it probably seemed like a week for Anthony Richardson last October 30 at TIAA Bank Stadium in Jacksonville. In that short span of time, Richardson’s football life flashed before his eyes as Georgia scored 21 unanswered points off his turnovers.

A fumble and two interceptions all in the last 2:22 of the first half. Not exactly what Richardson had in mind when he got the first start of his Florida football career. Instead of going into the locker room trailing the No. 1 team in the country 3-0, the lead ballooned to 24-0. The dream of a storybook upset turned into a nightmare.

Anthony Richardson has lived with that for a year now. He was young and inexperienced, nervous too, going against a defense that people were calling generational. There were five first round NFL draft picks on the defense that chewed Richardson up and spit him out. He knew exactly what he was up against when he took that first snap.

“Before the game, I’m not going to lie, I had a lot of jitters,” Richardson said. “It was in my head a lot. I was a little nervous. First career start against the No. 1 defense, so of course, I was thinking a lot. I feel like I was doing pretty good until those last few minutes of the first half, but just processing it and thinking about it, it’s taught me a lot about football itself and how to manage the game and how to take control of the game.”

So here he is a year later. In so many ways nothing has changed. Georgia was unbeaten, No. 1 and owner of a lock down defense last year. The Bulldogs are once again unbeaten, No. 1 and in some ways better than last year’s defense. A year ago, the Gators came into the Georgia game off a 49-42 loss to LSU. This year, the Gators dropped a 45-35 decision to LSU.

𝘼𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙣𝙮 𝙍𝙞𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙𝙨𝙤𝙣 𝙧𝙪𝙣𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙏𝘿 𝙙𝙪𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙫 𝙇𝙎𝙐 𝙜𝙖𝙢𝙚𝙨. 𝙋𝙝𝙤𝙩𝙤 𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩 𝘾𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙨 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙨

If the Gators are to have any chance at all – Las Vegas says they don’t which is why Georgia is favored by a mere 22.5 points – Richardson is going to have to play the game of his life. If there is such a thing as a Florida X-factor heading into this game, he is it. When Richardson is on his game as he was in the win over Utah and the loss to Tennessee, then there are very few quarterbacks in the college game as capable as he of completely taking over. He can throw darts that fly more than 60 yards in the air with a flick of his wrist. If he breaks containment, even the fastest defensive backs on the other team find themselves in a footrace they probably will lose.

He has to play well for the Gators to have a chance to win. But, he can’t do it alone and he knows it. If he doesn’t get help from his teammates, the Gators can kiss this one good bye before foot hits football at 3:30 Saturday afternoon. 𝙄

Like Billy Napier did Monday, Richardson points to the glaring errors he sees when he watches the film. He makes mistakes but so do his teammates.

“Not looking at the signals correctly, missing motions and shifts and stuff, just stuff like that,” Richardson said.

And it’s on both sides of the ball. He runs the offense so he pays more attention to that side of the ball, but they are the picture of efficiency when compared to a UF defense that desperately needs a big game if the Gators are to have even a remote chance to knock off Georgia.

He knows he can’t let the nerves affect him like they did last year. If he’s the picture of cool, calm and collected he knows it will rub off his team. So his goal for Saturday?

“Just stay focused, keeping the main thing the main thing,” he said. “That’s doing your assignment, focusing on what you’ve got to do and just focusing on the win.”

UF hoops: Starting lineup shaping up for Todd Golden

Speaking to the media before the Gators practiced Tuesday, head coach Todd Golden said of the 13 scholarship players on the roster “11 of those are truly competing for spots right now. Some guys are definitely ahead of others.” All-SEC center Colin Castleton and St. Bonaventure transfer and former All-Atlantic 10 point guard Kyle Lofton are locked into starting jobs.

In their closed door scrimmage against Miami, Lofton was held out while he continues to regain strength and stamina after missing a couple of weeks due to a groin injury. Lofton will play Saturday when the Gators have a closed door scrimmage with Jacksonville. Against Miami, the starters for the scrimmage were Castleton (center), CJ Felder (power forward), Kowacie Reeves (small forward), Riley Kugel (wing guard) and Tre Bonham (point).

Based on observations of practice the last three weeks, it seems that Golden might be leaning to a starting lineup of Castleon, Felder, Reeves, Will Richard and Lofton for the season opener against Stony Brook on November 7. The Gators will hold the Orange and Blue Scrimmage open to the public at the O-Dome on Monday.

Against Miami, Castleton only played the first half but was quite effective on the defensive end where he was dominant in the paint. Star of the game was Reeves, who has come on strong in the past couple of weeks.

“He’s playing great,” Golden said. “I think he’s playing the best basketball of his career right now, and to his credit, he was struggling a little bit at the beginning of the fall and I think just getting comfortable. One thing I’ll say about Wace is he’s extremely coachable. He’s really smart. He’s receptive to when we try to give him tips on how to be better. For us it’s really encouraging because he’s got incredible gifts. He’s really talented. He’s a great shot maker. He’s really emphasized getting on the glass, playing more physical, kind of playing more within himself, and he’s in the middle of a really, really fun progression to watch. And he was one of the guys that played great on Saturday and so I’m hopeful that he will continue that through the rest of the season.”

Two areas of concern with the Miami scrimmage were a lack of physicality and turnovers.

Regarding physicality, Golden said, “We’re hopeful that our new personnel along with our emphasis upon those areas that we can improve that way.”

Golden wasn’t concerned with the turnovers since it was a first scrimmage and he doesn’t anticipate it will be an ongoing issue. “Honestly, it wasn’t a huge concern of mine going into the scrimmage. I don’t anticipate it will be a big issue for our team. I think we have some really good ballhandlers and playmakers so it was more kind of just first scrimmage jitters, guys just getting comfortable and having reps out there and playing against somebody in a different jersey.”

Coaches top 25 basketball poll (SEC teams bold face): 1. North Carolina; 2. Gonzaga; 3. Houston; 4. Kentucky; 5. Kansas; 6. Baylor; 7. UCLA; 8. Duke; 9. Creighton; 10. Arkansas; 11. Tennessee; 12. Texas; 13. Arizona; 14. Indiana; 15. Auburn; 16. TCU; 17. Villanova; 18. Virginia; 19. Alabama; 20. San Diego State; 21. Oregon; 22. Michigan; 23. Illinois; 24. Texas Tech; 25. Dayton

UF men’s golf

The Gators closed within three shots of Auburn Tuesday at the Isleworth Collegiate but Auburn pulled away to win the tournament at -27. The Gators finished runner-up at -15 with four individuals finishing in the top 25. Yuxin Lin finished in a fifth place tie, while Quentin Dove finished 10th, Fred Biondi tied for 11th and John DuBois at 19th.

SEC football No. 6. Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC): Louisville transfer wide receiver Tyler Harrell, whose injuries have limited his productivity to one catch for 12 yards “is making a lot of progress” according to Nick Saban, who hopes to have him back at full speed soon. Basketball note: Point guard Jahvon Quinerly, who is rehabbing a knee, could be back at full speed in early December.

Arkansas (4-3, 1-3 SEC):

Auburn (3-4; 1-3 SEC): Landen King has changed his mind again. Earlier in the season he decided he wanted to redshirt. Now he has decided to leave the team completely and put his name in the transfer portal in December.

No. 1 Georgia (7-0, 4-0 SEC): Safety Dan Jackson, who is sixth on the team with 16 tackles to go with an interception and a forced fumble, will have foot surgery that could potentially end his season.

No. 19 Kentucky (5-2, 2-2 SEC): Offensive coordinator Rick Scangarello says the Wildcats “have to make possessions count” by scoring points to keep up with Tennessee’s high powered offense. Basketball note: Oscar Tshiebwe is recovering from minor knee surgery and shouldn’s miss any significant time.

No. 17 LSU (6-2, 4-1 SEC): Brian Kelly was named Bobby Dodd Trophy Coach of the Week after the Tigers beat Ole Miss.

Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3 SEC): In their loss to Alabama, the Bulldogs held Bama to 29 rushing yards, a season low.

Missouri (3-4, 1-3 SEC): HBC Eli Drinkwitz has no plans to give up calling the offensive plays this season.

No. 15 Ole Miss (7-1, 3-1 SEC): The Rebels, who are third in the nation in rushing, have gained 2,016 yards and scored 26 touchdowns on the ground.

No. 25 South Carolina (5-2, 2-2 SEC): Wake Forest transfer running back Christian Beal-Smith says he isn’t 100 percent recovered from his injury, but adds “I’m getting there.”

No. 3 Tennessee (7-0, 3-0 SEC): The Vols have been granted a 30-day extension to respond to an NCAA notice of allegations that resulted in 18 Level I violations. The extension likely means the Vols won’t get a postseason bowl ban this year.

Texas A&M (3-4, 1-3 SEC): Defensive back Denver Harris, wide receiver Chris Marshall and offensive lineman PJ Williams, all three members of the touted 2022 recruiting class, have been suspended indefinitely for violating team rules.

Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-4 SEC): Quarterbacks Mike Wright and AJ Swann have combined for 15 touchdown passes. That’s the most TDPs by Vandy quarterbacks since 2018 when Kyle Shurmur threw for 24.

Our SEC orphans in the Big 12:

Oklahoma (4-3, 1-3 Big 12): In their last four games – three losses, one win – the Sooners’ defense hasn’t been able to get off the field. Opponents are 30-57 converting third downs during those games.

Texas (5-3, 3-2 Big 12): Despite three losses, HBC Steve Sarkisian says, “We’ve come a long way as a program. I feel very good about where we’ve come.”

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: A week ago Josh Braun left the Florida football team. He will earn his degree in December and since he’s only played two games, he can be a graduate transfer who can go anywhere he wants armed with a college degree and two full seasons of eligibility remaining.

Braun isn’t the only one who is taking advantage of favorable NCAA rules that allow a player to participate in as many as four games while preserving the redshirt year and a transfer portal that has given the college game a measure of NFL-like free agency. There were others before him and there will be others in the final month of the season who may very well refuse to go into a game since it would jeopardize a full season of eligibility.

You can’t really blame the players here. They’re merely taking advantage of the rules. If you want to blame someone point your fingers at the NCAA. The redshirt rules are such that coaches adapted to them long ago, but coupled with the graduate transfer rules and the transfer portal, it is one more problem that could have been avoided if folks whose brains last functioned years ago weren’t in charge of the NCAA.

I hold my breath to think what the NCAA will think of next and wonder when a new organization will form with strong leaders and a theme of common sense. I can dream, can’t I?