Florida has gained the commitment of Brien Taylor Jr., a junior college defensive line prospect from Blinn College in Texas. Taylor chose Florida over transfer offers from Tennessee, Georgia, Oklahoma State, Auburn, and others. He announced his commitment via On3 Sports on Monday, expressing his readiness to contribute to the Gators' rebuilding efforts.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: It is Monday and after a wildly entertaining weekend of D1AA football – I refuse to call it FCS and Division I FBS – it’s time to verbalize some of the many things meandering through my mind the past three days. 1. Will Harris is the new UF secondary coach Consider me underwhelmed. Will Harris may very well turn out to be the greatest thing since 1886 when Colonel Pemberton’s nerve tonic began marketing as Coca-Cola, but for now, Harris seems like a watered down Diet Pepsi whose ice has melted. Billy Napier needed a home run hire to coach up the burnt toast that has been the Florida secondary the past two seasons. Will Harris may turn out to be exactly what the Gators need, but for now this seems like a downgrade from Corey Raymond. Raymond has drawn a lot of criticism but he has a long established track record. He didn’t forget how to coach, but something didn’t work out at the University of Florida. Meanwhile, Will Harris is the new guy in charge of the DBs. He played safety four years at Southern Cal for Pete Carroll where he sandwiched three injury-filled seasons between a freshman year spent on special teams and a senior season (2009) in which he had 69 tackles and four interceptions. He coached defensive backs at Washington from 2018-21, the first two years as the assistant to secondary coach/DC Jimmy Lake, the last two as the DB coach when Lake took over as head coach after Chris Petersen retired. The 2020-21 Washington secondaries allowed 11 TDPs and had 13 picks. In 2021, Washington led the country in pass defense. As Clay Helton’s defensive coordinator at Georgia Southern in 2022, the Eagles finished 129th in the country in total defense (Florida finished 97th). An assistant secondary coach with the NFL Los Angeles Chargers this season, Harris will join the UF staff today. 2. Whispers from folks who speak like they actually know something Now, there is no question something went sideways with Florida’s defense the past two seasons, but Raymond and D-line coach Sean Spencer were thought to be outstanding hires when Napier named them to his original coaching staff in 2022. Raymond coached Florida’s corners in 2022, the entire secondary in 2023. There was modest improvement in the secondary in 2023, but the Gators still gave up too many big plays and interceptions dipped from nine in 2022 to three in 2023. The run defense also improved modestly in 2023, but in both years the Gators rarely got to the quarterback. The Gators had 45 sacks combined in the two years. For all the criticism of former coordinator Third and Grantham, his defenses never registered fewer than 37 sacks in a single season. So what went wrong? Among the “explanations” making the rounds are philosophical differences with 2022 defensive coordinator Patrick Toney and 2023 DC Austin Armstrong. Folks who speak as if they know something say that Spencer and Raymond were less pleased with Armstrong’s schemes and play calls than they were with Toney's. Were both Spencer and Raymond shown the door before they could resign? That is one theory that is making the rounds. Spencer landed a job almost immediately on the staff of new Texas A&M head coach Mike Elko. Raymond hasn’t landed another job but given LSU’s rotten defense in 2023 and Raymond’s history at the school, would anyone be surprised if (a) Brian Kelly completely revamps his defensive staff and (b) brings back Raymond to coach up the corners? Meanwhile, UF doesn’t have a D-line coach to replace Spencer. And, still no word on if Napier plans to hire a special teams coordinator and/or turn over the offense to a coordinator while he becomes the CEO of the entire program. 3. Mister we could use a man like Mark Pantoni again … When Urban Meyer took the Ohio State job after a year away from coaching, his first two hires were strength and conditioning coordinator Mickey Marotti and player personnel specialist Mark Pantoni, both from the Florida coaching staff. Marotti is still at Ohio State while Pantoni is, for all practical purposes, the general manager of Buckeye football. Pantoni started out as a student assistant working recruiting for Meyer at UF, but he became a full-timer and completely transformed the way Meyer and the Gators recruited. From 2007-2011, the Gators had the No. 1 classes in 2007 and 2010, No. 6 in 2008 and No. 7 in 2009. At Ohio State since 2012, the Buckeyes have had only three classes outside the top five and only one (2019) outside the top 10. “He’s the best there is at it,” Meyer said on a Sunday phone call. “He’s totally revolutionized the position. These guys used to be paid peanuts, now they’re very well paid and for good reason.” What separates Pantoni from other personnel directors/general managers in college football is his keen evaluation skills. Meyer said that Pantoni was his “best talent evaluator, even among my coaches. Coaches watch maybe 8-10 guys they’re recruiting but Mark watches all day. If I would ask, ‘Mark, who are my top 10 receivers?’ he would come back with the top 100. He was rarely wrong and I gave him the power to overrule a coach. One of our coaches might say, ‘Let’s get this guy’ but Mark could say, ‘Don’t do it.’ We had some good fights over that, but he very rarely, if ever, gets it wrong.” It is the consistency that Pantoni brings to recruiting that keeps Ohio State in a reload not rebuild mode. This is what Billy Napier needs to turn the Florida program around. When the Gators were among the dominant forces on the recruiting trail as they were when Pantoni and Urban Meyer hooked up, Florida was a national powerhouse. Recruiting has slipped in the years since and now it’s up to Napier to string together strong enough classes that the Gators have the personnel to compete with anyone on the schedule. Now about to sign his second full recruiting class, Napier has the Gators poised to finish with a top five class if they can hold on to 5-star D-lineman LJ McCray (6-6, 275, Daytona Beach, FL Mainland) and 5-star safety Xavier Filsaime (6-0, 190, McKinney, TX). One top five class isn’t going to beast mode the Gators, but it’s a beginning. Napier’s talent evaluators have to be able to take their game to a Mark Pantoni level if the Gators are going to make the long climb back to relevance. 4. Gators have a chance to build some pre-SEC momentum Florida’s 87-76 win over Richmond in the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise on Saturday wasn’t the best game the Gators have played this season, but when you can light it up for 87 points against a very good defensive team and you’re not shooting the ball all that well, it’s a statement. At 6-3 and with a roster as intact as it’s been all year, Todd Golden has the Gators in position to build some serious momentum before they start the SEC portion of the schedule on January 6 against Kentucky at the O-Dome. The Gators will be favored in each of the next four games: vs. East Carolina (6-4) in Lakeland on Thursday, vs. Michigan (4-5) in Charlotte December 19, and at home against both Grambling (6-4) December 22 and Quinnipiac (7-2) on December 30, the Gators have a shot at taking a 10-3 record into the new year. The last time the Gators won 10 games prior to January 1 was the 2016-17 season in which they won 27 games and advanced to the Elite Eight before losing to South Carolina. It has been quite awhile since a Florida team was as strong on the backboards as this one. Led by 6-10 Seton Hall transfer Tyrese Samuel (14.2 points, 8.3 rebounds), the Gators are outrebounding opponents by 10.6 per game. The Gators are fourth in the country in offensive rebounds (16.1 per game). A year ago, the Gators were outrebounded by four per game. The last time the Gators averaged 40 or more rebounds per game was the 1975-76 season. Samuel, 7-1 Micah Handlogten, 6-11 Alex Condon and 6-9 Thomas Haugh will be joined in the front court rotation rather soon by 6-10 Aleks Szymczyk, who is recovering from a broken foot. SEC basketball Sunday’s scores: Memphis (7-2) 81, No. 21 Texas A&M (7-3) 75; Ole Miss (9-0) 70, UCF (6-3) 68 Tuesday’s game: Georgia Southern (0-9) at No. 17 Tennessee (6-3) Wednesday’s games: Murray State (3-5) at Mississippi State (7-2); Alabama State (4-4) at LSU (5-4); UNC-Asheville (5-5) vs. Auburn (6-2) at Huntsville, AL Thursday’s game: East Carolina (6-4) vs. FLORIDA (6-3) at Lakeland, FL Saturday’s games: No. 9 North Carolina (7-3) vs. No. 16 Kentucky (7-2) at Atlanta; High Point (8-3) at Georgia (6-3); Lipscomb (7-5) at Arkansas (6-4); Charleston Southern (3-5) at South Carolina (8-1); California (3-6) vs. Ole Miss (9-0) at San Antonio, TX; Vanderbilt (4-5) vs. Texas Tech (6-2) at Fort Worth, TX; Alabama (6-3) at No. 10 Creighton (8-1); North Carolina State (6-2) vs. No. 17 Tennessee (6-3) at San Antonio, TX 5. Coaching moves When Willie Fritz left for Houston, Tulane wasted no time in hiring Jon Sumrall from Troy. In two seasons at Troy, Sumrall, the former defensive coordinator at Kentucky, was 23-4. Kerwin Bell has hired former Gator Jerry Odom as his defensive coordinator at Western Carolina. Odom has been the head coach at Division II Tusculum where his teams went 42-38 in eight seasons. Duke’s new head coach is former Miami HBC Manny Diaz, whose Penn State defense leads the country, allowing 233.3 yards per game and ranks third in scoring defense, giving up 11.4 points. In three years at Miami, Diaz was 21-15. Replacement Mario Cristobal is 12-12 in two years at The Ewe. Coleman Hutzler, currently the special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach for Nick Saban at Alabama, will be the co-defensive coordinator for Jeff Lebby at Mississippi State. Hutzler spent two years on Will Muschamp’s Florida staff, first in 2011 and then again in 2014, both times coaching linebackers and special teams. As soon as North Dakota State finishes its run in the D1AA playoffs, head coach Matt Entz will be leaving for Southern Cal where he will be the associate head coach for defense and linebackers. Entz, who has won two D1AA national championships at NDSU, is 60-10 overall as the HBC, 11-3 this season. The Bison will be playing Montana in the D1AA semifinals next weekend. The latest hire at Texas A&M is Trooper Taylor, who was Mike Elko’s associate head coach and running backs coach at Duke. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: There are a couple of trains of thought regarding the nuclear bomb Charlie Baker dropped on collegiate sports last week. Baker’s proposal calls for a new Division I in which the richest schools will get richer, the poorer schools will get poorer and a whole bunch of schools will probably decide to drop collegiate athletics altogether or else go the DIII no-scholarships route. This is a radical proposal. Too radical, in fact, and as Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports points out, the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, is counting on Congress to intercede. About the only thing the NCAA has gotten right in Baker’s proposal is the dire need for Division I to go its own way. Baker’s proposal has a new Division I under the NCAA umbrella, but that just won’t work. The only people in the world more inept than the president and numbnuts bureaucrats of the NCAA are our congressional leaders, who keep kicking the can down the road rather than enact a legitimate budget for the country. Baker says his proposal is a good place to start conversations about the direction of college sports. Okay, let’s have the conversations only exclude the NCAA completely. Come up with a plan for Division I to secede completely, set up its own rules and guidelines and put someone in charge of the organization that actually has a clue. If the new Division I wants to have anything at all to do with the NCAA, then let the NCAA run tournaments. That’s the one thing they do know how to do well.

Florida has decided to bring on Will Harris, the assistant defensive back coach for the Los Angeles Chargers, to fill their vacant position for a secondary coach. Sources from GatorBait have confirmed the hiring. Harris joined the Chargers in 2023 after fulfilling the role of defensive coordinator and secondary coach at Georgia Southern University in 2022.

Urban Meyer joins Buddy Martin and Brenden Martin to talk all things college football. Could Urban coach again of the University of Florida? His surpising answers and more on this weeks edition of the Tbe Best Fridays in Football.

Another step in a rather promising direction. That’s the biggest takeaway from Florida’s 87-76 win over Richmond in the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise Saturday afternoon.

How do you describe Tim Tebow in a single word and sentence? “Transcendent. He is the most genuine celebrity I’ve ever met and the best player I’ve ever covered in the SEC.’"-- Paul Finebaum, “Passion. Incredible passion for the game of life and the game of football but most importantly an incredible passion for people.” -- Jeremy Foley “Charismatic: Success hasn’t changed his core values.” -- John Adams Knoxville News Sentinel In these dark days of contemplation about the future of Gator football, silver linings are hard to come by and the harsh dialogue online is not meant for the Mary Poppins feint-of-heart crowd. I realize things are grim after the news of Billy Napier’s recent defections, but there is also a trail of tears from Athens to Tallahassee. It’s a familiar theme in lots of Burgs and Villes of college football today. So where do inhabitants of The Gator Nation find solace? Let’s not blow smoke – it’s been a tough few weeks for Florida football fans. In the midst of all the misery, I’d suggest looking past the darkness and harkening back to the glory days for a temporary respite -- celebrating the final piece for the canonization of the Greatest Gator. We all should be full of gratitude for what Tim Tebow brought his university – for that matter, what he brought college football. He was the greatest college football player I ever covered. Also one of the greatest people. I was honored to have seen Tebow play every play since he first bounced on to the field as a baby-faced freshman and soared right into super stardom. I’ve covered quite a few superstars in my many years of sports journalism and not all of them were of great character, pleasant people or necessarily good role models. I grew close to several of those superstars and remain friends with them today. But one was not Tim, for whatever reason. Tebow epitomized all that was just and good and right about college football. And boy could we use a dose of that right now! Nobody topped the charts like Tim, who also infused such incredible joy and enthusiasm into the game. So much so that many of us so-called jaded scribes had to put a governor on the adjectives to keep from gushing. Though I interviewed him for multiple articles and for a major chunk of a book, attended most of his press conferences, was sitting five feet away that day after the Ole Miss loss when he tearfully delivered The Promise, walked down Broadway in New York after he won the Heisman Trophy -- despite all that there was never an occasion to bond with him or get to know him better on a personal basis. My misfortune, not his. Tebow lived up to everything. One day during the height of his popularity, ESPN counted more than 100 mentions of Tim Tebow in one day by its network. Thus Tebow Mania was born. “The word: genuine … The sentence: The greatness of Tim is he is genuine; who you see -- the commitment to kindness, to helping others, to hard work and accountability, most importantly to his faith -- is very real. He is genuine.”-- Frank Frangie, 1010 XL “Genuine. Timmy is everything we want our children to grow up to be.” -- Pat Dooley "Wonderful!" -- George Solomon, UF grad and former Washington Post Sports Editor. "Inspiring," UF Booster Jeffrey Meldon I marveled at his “Braveheart Face” during the win over FSU when he rode a scrum into the end zone and came up with what looked like a facefull of blood, but was in fact garnet end zone paint awash from the rain. And then there was that frightening night in Lexington when his own offensive lineman tripped him, he fell so hard that he suffered a concussion and was hauled away in an ambulance. My cameraman/producer son Brenden and I literally chased the ambulance after the game and reached the University of Kentucky hospital late, where we were ultimately kicked out. Gator fans kept trickling in and met the same fate, most of them terrified about Tim’s health. I remember one young Christian woman pleading, “I just want to go to his room and pray with him!” About 2 a.m. I stood in the street with the UK hospital behind me and Brenden rolled as I talked about who was in the lighted room behind me without knowing his fate. The video went viral and may have prompted thousands of prayers. Tim flew home the next day and eventually passed concussion protocall. “Competitor. From when he got to UF until he left there wasn’t one time where he was challenged and he didn’t live up to it, and I’m not just talking football I’m talking golf, bowling, marbles, rock/paper/scissors. It’s just how he was wired, he just wanted to WIN.” – Tate Casey. Most notable was the day I dined with Tim one-on-one during the team’s Family Night. We talked about life and football but not the Heisman. He was not the favorite. But when QB Marcus Mariota of Oregon went down with injury that night on Thursday Night Football, it all but ensured Tim as the next Heisman man. Then there was the night I walked down Broadway behind Urban and Tim just after he had won the Heisman. It was like a scene out of a Ben Affleck/Matt Damon movie, as they strutted and strode arm-in-arm,9 leaving a trail of testosterone all over New York City. Another magical day Tebow gave a head fake like he was to leave for the NFL draft, turned back around as he was exiting the stage and announced he was coming back for another year to the delight of 60,000 screaming fans at Ben Hill Griffin. “For me I’d say, it was competitiveness. And work ethic.” -- Chris Doering The magic of his persona captivated people from all walks of life and all age groups. I once rode the team bus Tebow was on bound for the Gator Walk. He was the last to get off. Walking behind him, I watched as he broke ranks three times to hug women – all three middle age. I commented about it to a middle age woman who was also an admirer of his with two daughters. “I’ll bet all three of them had daughters about his age,” she said, “and would love to see someone like him come to their door to ask for their hand in marriage.” ‘Timmy Tebow always will be unique person/athlete.” -- Woody Paige He was like a son to Urban Meyer. I asked his former coach for his word to describe his Hall of Fame quarterback. “Ruggedness. He is the toughest player I ever coached. And his consistency every day. He got a lot of credit, deservedly so, but I don’t think people realize how tough he really is because he’s such a nice person. His pain threshold – he was a freak -- he was in such great pain and would fight through it. Most guys couldn’t do it. “So yes, he’s a great leader. Yes he was a great runner. He was a good enough thrower to do all the things we asked him to do. But it was his toughness. Fighting through injuries most people didn’t know he even had. The majority of people wouldn’t even have put on a helmet.” Perhaps it is time for Gator Nation to stop with the crying and gnashing of teeth for what it doesn’t have and be thankful for what it HAS had.

The numbers said it all Tuesday night. Forget that Thomas Hauck and Alex Condon were going against a vertically challenged team from the Northeast Conference, whose most famous member is probably often mimicked as “Fairly Ridiculous.” Hauck and Condon, true freshmen who have seen more floor time than they might have expected in the preseason, combined for 19 points, 27 rebounds (13 offensive), five assists, one blocked shot and one steal to help the Gators (5-3) rack up a 77-57 win over the Merrimack Warriors. Eight games into their first crack at Division I basketball Condon and Haugh have already proven an integral part of the big man rotation and key contributors for Todd Golden’s plan to get Florida to the NCAA Tournament this year. Condon is averaging 8.9 points, 6.1 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.0 steals in 17.4 minutes per game. Haugh, who has started the last two games in the absence of 7-1 Micah Handlogten, who is recovering from a sprained ankle suffered against Baylor, averages 4.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 1.1 assists and 1.0 steals in 20.1 minutes. Those are very good stats for true freshmen, particularly two who weren’t exactly large blips on the recruiting radar. Haugh, a 6-9, 210-pounder from New Oxford, PA, was a 3-strar recruit who generated modest interest from high majors. Condon, who was headed for a career in Australian Rules Football until the basketball bug hit him four years ago, is a 6-11, 230-pounder who was a virtual unknown except to those who study what’s going on at the NBA Global Academy. Think of the two as Todd Golden’s little secret. He knew who they were and what the Gators were getting when he recruited them. Not only did Haugh and Condon add size to a team that had only one really functional big last year in Colin Castleton, but both have skills at both ends of the court. They’re mobile, capable shooters from the outside, tough, aggressive defenders and both of them have shown the ability to move the ball within the framework of the offense. “It’s a big reason we wanted them here,” Golden said Thursday before the Gators hit the practice floor to prepare for today’s Orange Bowl Classic matchup with Richmond (5-4) at the Amerant Bank Arena in Sunrise (4 p.m., SEC Network). “Really talented athletes, really good skill and really high basketball IQ, which was an area last year that we were really below the bar with guys having just a really good fundamental understanding. This year everybody we brought in we really tried to target guys who had good feel and good understanding, regardless whether they were in the backcourt or frontcourt. I think both of those guys have a feel for the game.” Haugh and Condon were already factoring in the rotation when Handlogten went down with his sprained ankle. That actually put the Gators down two in the big man rotation as 6-10 sophomore Aleks Szymczyk is still recovering from a broken foot suffered during the summer. Tyrese Samuel (13.8 points, 7.6 rebounds) is the constant in the starting lineup, but Haugh has filled in nicely the last two games and Condon adds a nice scoring element when he comes off the bench. Haugh and Condon have developed so well and so quickly that Golden doesn’t hesitate to have them in the game even when its white knuckles time at the end of games. Loading up on big guys was an intentional part of the recruiting process especially since the Gators were vertically challenged last year if Castleton needed a rest but particularly after he suffered a season-ending injury in February. Particularly when the Gators are four-deep with bigs, Golden can run a lot of high-low action which alters opposing defenses and opens the perimeter game for shooters like Walter Clayton Jr. and Riley Kugel. “That was something that we were really intentional about when we put together this roster, even going back to the spring and really wanting to always have two bigs on the floor,” Florida assistant coach Kevin Hovde said. Having big guys who are capable and willing passers in a high post-low post set puts tremendous pressure on defenses when it comes to dump down passes from the key area. Samuel, who transferred to Florida from Seton Hall, showed the ability to make good passes, particularly out of double teams, during his four years in the Big East. Handlogten’s 7-1 frame alone makes him difficult to double. The Gators knew all along what they were getting in Samuel, a scoring option whether high or low post, but an exceptional passer. “I think that Tyrese is really just natural,” Hovde said. “You know, it’s not something that we have to work on with him. He has a really good feel for when guys are open, for when’s the right pass. He’s a really hard guy to double and teams have tried to double team him this year.” The Florida roster is made up of four holdovers from last year (Kugel, Will Richard, Denzel Aberdeen and Szymczyk), five transfers (Samuel, Handlogten, Clayton, Zyon Pullin and Julian Rishwain) and three freshmen (Haugh, Condon and Kajus Kublickas), so it was important to find unselfish players who are willing to make the extra pass. Through eight games, the Gators are averaging 16.0 assists per game, up from 12.3 a year ago. Having unselfish freshman bigs who are capable passers hasn’t exactly been a revelation to Golden, but even he is surprised at how well they see everybody on the floor and make the right pass. “It’s what we wanted,” Golden said. “Now, am I surprised at the level they’re able to do it? At times, but again, that’s what we were recruiting and evaluating, and that’s what we saw. So I’m not really surprised in terms of how well they’re able to play the game.” Scouting advantage for Richmond to Florida: This is the 19th season at Richmond for head coach Chris Mooney, who picked up a 56-53 win over Florida in the Orange Bowl Classic in Sunrise back in 2009. Sitting out that game and the entire season with a broken ankle 6-6 small forward Kevin Hovde, who remembers how the Spiders celebrated when they got the win over a Florida team that made the first of four consecutive Elite Eight appearances in the NCAA Tournament that year. “It was a big deal,” Hovde said Thursday. “I mean Florida was really, really good and it was just – I mean at the time one of the best programs in the country, and obviously Coach (Billy) Donovan – for our program to get that win it was just huge for us. We ended up getting that large bid that year and obviously you probably don’t get that without the Florida win at a place like Richmond.” Now 14 years later, Hovde is a Florida assistant who knows the system Mooney runs at Richmond inside-out, having played for Mooney as well as served as a Richmond assistant in the 2021-22 season. Hovde says the Gators have to be aware of “Just how purposeful they are really on both ends but especially offensively. Obviously, I’m very familiar with them from having played there and coached there … everything they do within their program is driven by how they play offensively and it’s difficult to guard obviously just having the versatility they have the ball movement, player movement so, it will be a good challenge.” Starting lineups FLORIDA (5-3): Tyrese Samuel (6-10, 239, GR); Thomas Hauck (6-9, 210, FR); Walter Clayton Jr. (6-2, 195, JR); Riley Kugel (6-5, 207, SO); Will Richard (6-4, 206, JR) Richmond (5-4): Isaiah Bigelow (6-7, 205, GR); Neal Quinn (7-0, 260, SR); Jordan King (6-0, 175, GR); Jason Riche (6-5, 200, JR); Mikkel Tyne (5-10, 180, FR)

The SEC announced its All-SEC Freshman Team on Thursday and four Gators made the cut after their first season of collegiate football. Wide receiver Eugene Wilson, edge defenders Kelby Collins and TJ Searcy, and safety Jordan Castell all earned the honor. Florida has more players on the freshman team (4) than any other program in the conference. It is the first time since 2012 that four Gator freshmen made the cut made the cut. Wilson was definitely expected to earn the honors after an extremely impressive true freshman season that saw a display of dynamic play-making ability similar to that of Kadarius Toney. He finished the year with 61 catches for 538 yards and six touchdowns, good enough for second on the team in receiving yards and touchdowns. The Tampa (Fla.) native led the team with 6.1 receptions per game. He also proved to be effective in the run game, adding an additional 55 yards on the ground. Expect Wilson to be the focal point of Florida's passing offense next season after putting up an impressive first season in Orange & Blue. Jordan Castell burst onto the scene in spring ball and never looked back. He ended up leading the team in total tackles (60) and solo tackles (30). Castell also added 1.5 tackles for a loss, three pass breakups and an interception. The Orlando (Fla.) native was named the SEC Freshman of the Week and Shaun Alexander National Freshman of the Week after the Gators knocked off No. 11 Tennessee early in the season. While his pass defense was sharp, his run defense was potentially even better. He was Florida's highest rated run defender, according to Pro Football Focus. Searcy was another freshman who turned heads ahead of the season opener and quickly rose up the defensive depth chart. He played in all 12 games as a key-reserve along the defensive line. The former four-star finished with 26 tackles (nine solo), 3.5 tackles-for-loss, 0.5 sacks, two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble. Collins had a similar role to Searcy, adding even more depth up front. He also played in all 12 games with his best stretch coming late in the year. Between the Arkansas and LSU games, Collins made 11 total tackles and picked up a sack. He picked up 23 total tackles, 1.5 sacks, a pass defense and a forced fumble. Despite a tough stretch for Florida, there is a lot of young talent to be pleased with after year two of the Billy Napier era.

There was a movie in the 1970s called “The China Syndrome” for which the late, great Jack Lemmon should have won the Academy Award as best actor. The movie is about a potential meltdown at a nuclear power plant in California. The title is a play on words about the theory that if a nuclear power plant in the United States melted down it wouldn’t stop until it burned a hole in the earth all the way to China.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:

Running back Trevor Etienne became the latest Florida Gator to enter his name into the transfer portal, he announced on Thursday.