Will there be wholesale defensive changes for Georgia?

Thoughts of the Day

By Franz Beard

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:

Billy Napier spoke in rather generic terms at a Monday morning press conference dominated by questions about a Florida defense that at midyear seems to be trending toward the worst in Florida history. Napier didn’t duck and dodge with his answers although he didn’t exactly offer up anything close to revealing and certainly nothing that could find its way to the bulletin board of the No. 1-ranked Georgia (7-0, 4-0 SEC) Bulldogs.

The Las Vegas line on Georgia has moved to 22.5 points, making this a larger spread than 1971 when the Bulldogs were 21-point favorites heading into Jacksonville. There is a reason the spread is so large and it has everything to do with a Florida defense whose most consistent characteristic is their inconsistency. All seven games have been winnable. Six of the seven have been losable. In six of the seven games, the Gators have given up multiple chunk plays. In six of the seven games, opponents have been near or exceeded 50 percent on third down. The Gators are so bad on third down that they rank next-to-last nationally (51-97, 52.38 percent).

Obviously, changes are needed, but we’ve known that for weeks now. Due to NCAA time restrictions (players are allowed 20 hours per week of practice, preparation time), perhaps 90 percent of all practice and prep time on game week is devoted to the team on the Saturday schedule. Typically, it isn’t until the bye week that there is any kind of opportunity to address things like changes in a timely and positive way.

Napier was asked several questions about his defense but he never got into specifics about how he and his staff have been dealing with what has been plaguing the Gators. He called the off week being “out of the grind” which is a fair assessment. Without the pressure of fine tuning a game plan, there was time last week to solving problems.

“There’s time for quality control,” he said. “We’ve got a pretty extensive process that we go through relative to evaluating where we’re at, areas that we need to get better. Then you can evaluate each game, and okay, what contributed to each game. Why did you win the games you won? Why did you lose the games you lost? Essentially, that’s probably what gives me most comfort is we know why we’ve lost games. I think we know what winning football looks like, and the games we lost, we didn’t deserve to win.”

Knowing what the Gators did to win games and what they did to lose them isn’t exactly rocket science. He knows but so do the Georgia Bulldogs. Everybody talks about that Will Muschamp-coached Georgia defense that ranks second nationally in fewest points per game (9.1) and fourth in total defense (247 yards per game) but there isn’t nearly as much talk about an offense that ranks second nationally (526.6 yards, 7.26 per play), seventh in passing (329.9, 8.8 er attempt), 29th in rushing (196.71, 5.6 per carry) and eighth in scoring (41.7). The Bulldogs convert on third down (44-84), don’t turn the ball over (6 all year) and they don’t kill themselves with penalties (4 per game).

The Georgia defense is exceptional, but Florida isn’t without weapons like quarterback Anthony Richardson, running backs Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne, wide receivers Justin Shorter, Ricky Pearsall and Xzavier Henderson, and an offensive line that rates among the most efficient in the country. There is hope the Gators can score some points. Can they stop Georgia? Not many seem to think so.

So what did Napier and his staff do during the off-week to correct Florida’s myriad of problems? His answer sounded quite similar to previous answers dealing with much the same subject.

“I think it’s a little bit more of identifying the problems on communication errors, fundamental errors,” Napier said. “You know, conceptually what’s been good, what’s not been good. Then you take a whole list particular. Okay, let’s look at the big picture in some of these areas where we need to improve. What’s the scouting report? Not that we don’t do that each week, but you got more time to say, okay, based off what we know what can we change or improve.

“Oftentimes, playing defense is not about what you’re doing, it’s about how you do it.”

What the Gators are doing and how they’re going about it seems to be one of life’s great mysteries given the number of chunk plays they’ve given up. The Gators rank dead last in the SEC in chunk plays on the ground with (42 carries that gained at least 10 yards) and 11th in chunk plays through the air (70 of more than 10 yards).

So how do the Gators stop the bleeding? Redshirt freshman defensive end Tyreak Sapp is of the opinion that when the Gators drastically reduce the mental errors they will stop making so many glaring mistakes.

“I feel like it’s probably 80 percent between the ears, about 20 percent physical,” Sapp said. “It’s just us. We’ve got to see things better. We’ve got to understand situations, be situationally aware when we are on the field and how we can take advantage of the game on that part of the field.

“So, just taking care of that and then beating teams on third down. We’re getting teams on third and long so we’ve got to take advantage of those. Those are the downs we have to live for. We have to live on third down. We have to take advantage of that more. I feel like if we take advantage of that more, we can have more production and then it gives the offense a chance to score more points and put us in a better situation.”

Napier has addressed on a near-weekly basis the mental errors that seem to always lead to wrong angles, blown coverages and missed assignments. More than once he’s pointed out that it only takes one player out of 11 making an egregious mistake for a play to go sideways.

So what can Napier do to eliminate the issues? Does he make wholesale personnel changes? Does he tweak the scheme?

“It’s not one thing,” he said. “It’s a number of things that contribute. We’ve been through this before. We inherited a similar situation in the past. All you can do is focus on the things that contribute to playing better. That’s exactly what we’re going to do.”

Without pointing fingers or saying the name Louisiana, where he went 33-5 in the three years after a 7-7 start, Napier essentially said been there, done that. We’ll have to wait and see if (a) the Gators can start playing better and (b) if Napier has another been there, done that in his repertoire.

Recruiting stays solid with flip of Roderick Kearney Four-star offensive lineman Roderick Kearney (6-4, 300, Orange Park, FL) flipped from Florida State to the Gators Monday, a very big pickup that keeps Florida at No. 8 in the recruiting rankings. Kearney, who plays both guard and tackle at the high school level, is expected to stay on the inside at Florida. He is the 22ndcommitment for the 2023 recruiting class which is expected to add another 5-6 players.

UF men’s golf

Four Gators shot under par Monday as the Gators remained in second plays in the Isleworth Collegiate in Windemere. The Gators got a 67 from Quentin Debove, a 68 from Yuxin Lin, a 69 from Fred Biondi and a 70 from Matthew Kress as they went -10 for the day and -12 for the tournament, eight shots behind first place Auburn (-20). Top 10 teams: 1. Auburn -20; 2. FLORIDA -12; 3. Purdue -2; 4. LSU +1; 5. (tie) Illinois and South Florida +3; 7. Arizona +5; 8. West Virginia +8; 9. South Carolina +9; 10. UCF +10.

SEC football

No. 6. Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC): Eli Ricks (arrest and injury), the All-America transfer corner from LSU, finally got to play against Mississippi State. Targeted 10 times, he broke up four passes and allowed only one completion.

Arkansas (4-3, 1-3 SEC): In the win over BYU, Rocket Sanders carried 15 times for 175 yards and two TDs. He leads the SEC in rushing with 870 yards and seven TDs.

Auburn (3-4, 1-3 SEC): Defensive tackle Zykeivous Walker has left the program and plans to enter the transfer portal in December.

No. 1 Georgia (7-0, 4-0 SEC): Kirby Smart hopes to have nose tackle Jalen Carter and wide receiver AD Mitchell back for the Florida game.

No. 19 Kentucky (5-2, 2-2 SEC): Linebacker Jacquez Jones will be out this week against Tennessee and maybe the week after for Missouri.

No. 18 LSU (6-2, 4-1 SEC): LSU has scored 12 touchdowns in its last 18 possessions against Florida and Ole Miss with 10 of the 12 touchdown drives covering at least 70 yards.

Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3 SEC): Will Rogers was 30-61 passing against Alabama, the first time this season he has completed less than 50 percent of his passes.

Missouri (4-3, 1-3 SEC): Missouri’s defense held Vanderbilt to 58 rushing yards, its best effort since holding Louisiana Tech to eight in game one.

No. 15 Ole Miss (7-1, 3-1 SEC): The unraveling of Ole Miss against LSU had plenty to do with penalties, 10 for -111 yards, the worst game of the year for the Rebels.

No. 25 South Carolina (5-2, 2-2 SEC): In running for 92 yards and a TD in the win over Texas A&M, Marshawn Lloyd gained 88 yards after the initial contact.

No. 3 Tennessee (7-0, 3-0 SEC): Wide receiver Jalin Hyatt’s numbers on the season – 40 catches for 769 yards (19.23) and 12 TDs. He leads the country in TD receptions.

Texas A&M (3-4, 1-3 SEC): Jimbo Fisher is 37-18 in his first 55 games as the HBC. Kevin Sumlin, who was fired to make way for Fisher, was 39-16 in his first 55.

Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-4 SEC): Corner Jaylen Mahoney, who leads the Commodores with 6.5 tackles for loss this season, got five TFLs for -22 yards against Missouri.

Our SEC orphans in the Big 12

Oklahoma (4-3, 1-3 Big 12): Dillon Gabriel ranks second in the Big 12 in passing with 1,618 yards (9.2 per attempt) and 13 TDPs.

Texas (5-3, 3-2 Big 12): Senior safety Anthony Cook broke his arm in the loss to Oklahoma State.

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: If Texas A&M were to decide to fire Jimbo Fisher right now, it would cost the school/boosters a mere $85,900,000. The Aggies are 3-4 with the very real possibility of finishing below .500. The offense, which is supposed to be Jimbo’s specialty, ranks 108th nationally. Jimbo’s fully-guaranteed contract runs through 2031.

Iowa (3-4) is averaging just 14 points per game. The Hawkeyes rank dead last (227.3 yards) in total offense and 128th in scoring. Kirk Ferentz has a contract that runs through 2029. It would cost the school/boosters $42 million to buy him out.

Mel Tucker’s 10-year, $95 million contract at Michigan State (3-4) is fully guaranteed. The Spartans are 104th in total offense. Down at Miami (3-4), Mario Cristobal’s 10-year deal is worth $80 million. The Hurricanes rack up yards and score points. They just can’t hold onto the ball (eight turnovers against Duke). Brian Kelly at least is winning at LSU. His 10-year, $95 million a year deal is 90 percent guaranteed. James Franklin is winning at Penn State. His 10-year deal, $85 million a year deal is reportedly 90 percent guaranteed.

At Auburn, where they fired Gus Malzahn two seasons ago and gave him $21.4 million to go away, Bryan Harsin is almost certain to get canned. It will cost Auburn $18 million to pink slip him.

Florida paid Will Muschamp $6.3 million, Jim McElwain $7.5 million and Dan Mullen $12 million. Muschamp negotiated a $12.9 million buyout from South Carolina.

Paul Chryst got an $11 million buyout from Wisconsin and Scott Frost got $15 million from Nebraska.

A friend and business partner told me recently, “If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want to come back as a major college football coach and get fired.”