THOUGHTS OF THE DAY BY FRANZ BEARD A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: The cure for Florida’s defensive woes sounds so simple when Princely Umanmielen says it. “Stop the run so we can get to third down,” Umanmielen said Wednesday evening after the Gators (4-4, 1-4 SEC) finished practice for Saturday’s road trip to Texas A&M (3-5, 1-4 SEC). “Stop them on third down. It’s really that simple.” Easier said than done. The Gators are next to last nationally in third down defense (opponents are 57-109). Then there is the matter of chunk plays. The Gators are 113th nationally in allowing chunk plays in the running game (51 plays of 10 or more yards; 15 for more than 20 yards) and they’re 91st nationally in passing chunk plays (81 for more than 10 yards, 28 that have gone for 20 or more). Umanmielen says the chunk plays and third down conversions aren’t necessarily a matter of the entire defensive unit breaking down. “It's always just maybe a blown coverage or one guy or two guys don't do their job,” he said. “So most of the time, when those type of plays happen, I would say able the majority of the time is us doing something wrong rather than the other team doing something or just making good plays. People like giving PT [Patrick Toney] and the defensive coordinators and things like that a lot of heat, but at the end of the day, most of the time, whatever he calls, it’s our job to execute it. If we don't execute it, then it just looks bad. So, we just got to work on executing every call.” In the loss to Georgia, the Gators held the Bulldogs to 172 yards on 61 plays (2.81 yards per play). Georgia’s other 17 plays netted 383 yards (237 passing, 146 rushing), an average of 22.5 per play. For the Gators to win in College Station against a Texas A&M team that put up 28 points and 480 yards against Ole Miss last week, the defense has to show up every single play. “We just have to make sure that on every single play, all 11 guys are executing their job,” Umanmielen said. UF women’s basketball The Gators tuned up for their regular season opener at the O-Dome Wednesday night with a 110-46 exhibition win over Saint Leo. Seven Gators scored in double figures led by Purdue transfer Ra Shaya Kyle, who scored 16 points while grabbing 11 rebounds. Also in double figures were Alberte Rimdal (15), Nina Rickards (14), St. John’s transfer Leilani Correa (14) and Jordyn Merritt, freshman Freida Buhner and West Virginia transfer KK Deans 10 each. The Gators were 40-82 from the field overall, 8-23 from the 3-point line. The Gator's ok held Saint Leo to 23.4 percent from the field overall and 4-23 (17.4 percent) from the 3-point line. The Gators open the regular season Monday against Florida A&M at 5:30 p.m. as part of a doubleheader with the men taking the floor to face Stony Brook in the nightcap. SEC coaches pick Castleton preseason All-SEC Colin Castleton was selected first team preseason All-SEC by the league’s coaches. Castleton (6-11, 250, 5th YR), who made All-SEC second team in the previous two seasons, was the only Gator picked on first or second team by the coaches. All-SEC first team: Colin Castleton, Florida; Jahvon Quinerly, Alabama; Nick Smith Jr., Arkansas; Oscar Tshiebwe, Kentucky; Sahvir Wheeler, Kentucky; Tolu Smith, Mississippi State; Kobe Brown, Missouri; Santiago Vescovi, Tennessee; Zakai Ziegler, Tennessee Second team: Brandon Miller, Alabama; Wendell Green Jr., Auburn; K.D. Johnson, Auburn; Kario Oquendo, Georgia; KJ Williams, LSU; Matt Murrell, Ole Miss; Josiah-Jordan James, Tennessee; Henry Coleman III, Texas A&M SEC football No. 6 Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC): Alabama travels to Baton Rouge to face LSU. In three Alabama road games this season, the Crimson Tide has been flagged 42 times for 331 yards. Arkansas (5-3, 2-3 SEC): Liberty will be the third ranked non-conference opponents the Hogs have faced this year. Auburn (3-5, 1-4 SEC): Former Gator All-American and SEC Network analyst Chris Doering says Lane Kiffin appears to be Auburn’s top choice to replace Bryan Harsin. No. 1 Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC): Georgia averages 7.24 yards per offensive snap, which is fourth nationally, but the Bulldogs have only four plays all season that have gone for 40 or more yards. Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC): The Wildcats are dead last in the SEC in sacks allowed (30), which is 123rdnationally. No. 15 LSU (6-2, 4-1 SEC): Protecting Jayden Daniels has to be priority No. 1 for LSU against Alabama. Daniels has been sacked 26 times this season. Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3 SEC): Special teams are an issue. The Bulldogs rank dead last in the SEC in field goal kicking (5-8) and extra points (29-33) Missouri (4-4, 2-3 SEC): The Tigers rank third in the SEC in total defense, allowing just 310.6 yards per game and 4.9 yards per snap. No. 11 Ole Miss (7-1, 3-1 SEC): The Rebels lead the Southeastern Conference in sacks (21), which ranks ninth nationally. South Carolina (5-3, 2-3 SEC): The Gamecocks are tied for first nationally with Central Michigan and Notre Dame in blocked kicks this season with five. South Carolina is fourth nationally in kickoff coverage, allowing just 13.65 yards per return. No. 2 Tennessee (8-0, 4-0 SEC): The Tennessee offense gets all the publicity, but the Vols allow only 92.88 yards per game on the ground and just 2.9 yards per carry. That’s second in the SEC and ninth nationally. Texas A&M (3-5, 1-4 SEC): Running back Devon Achane leads the Aggies with 765 rushing yards and four TDs. He has also caught 33 passes for 195 yards and two TDs plus he’s run back 11 kickoffs for 312 yards and a TD. Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-4 SEC): Vanderbilt has lost an SEC record 25 consecutive conference games. The last SEC win came against Missouri in 2019. Our SEC orphans in the Big 12 Oklahoma (5-3, 2-3 Big 12): Quarterback Dillon Gabriel has thrown 14 touchdown passes with only one interception this season. Texas (5-3, 3-2 Big 12): Quinn Ewers averages 8.0 per pass attempt with 11 TDPs and five interceptions. Hudson Card has better numbers: 8.6 per attempt, six TDPs and only one pick. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The reason it took so long for Auburn to fire Bryan Harsin, which everybody knew was going to happen even before the season began, was the hiring of a new athletic director. Once John Cohen was hired away from Mississippi State, Harsin was shown the door. That makes seven Division I coaches who didn’t make it until November. November is going to be interesting. Schools that may be contemplating a change might accelerate the process in order to (a) get a head start on hiring a replacement so that (b) recruiting can be salvaged. Countdown to firing day: Week 10 Extinct Species List Scott Frost, Nebraska: Dave Doeren wouldn’t be a home run hire, but he’s solid, has a 93-55 head coaching record at Northern Illinois and North Carolina State, and his coaching roots are in the Midwest. His name has some traction. Herm Edwards, Arizona State: Given the success Oregon has had with former Georgia DC Dan Lanning, Georgia offensive coordinator Todd Monken could emerge as a front runner. He’s reportedly on the list. Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech: A new name out there in the search is Tulane’s Willie Fritz, who wins everywhere he goes. He knows how to recruit in the backyard of a recruiting monster (LSU) so he might fit in well recruiting in the shadow of Kirby Smart. Karl Dorrell, Colorado: Former TCU HBC Gary Patterson’s name is gathering momentum. He’s 181-79 career, knows how to recruit Texas which is a necessity for CU, and he knows what it takes to build a program into a winner without an abundance of 5-star recruits. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin: The two names that continue to get the most mention are Kansas HBC Lance Leipold and Wisconsin interim head coach and DC Jim Leonhard. Leonhard seems the likely guy in that he was a walk-on for Barry Alvarez, who still carries a lot of weight with Wisconsin athletics. Will Healy, Charlotte: North Carolina offensive coordinator Phil Longo and Florida State offensive coordinator Alex Atkins are names that are getting plenty of mention. Bryan Harsin, Auburn: Harsin’s go away money is $15.5 million, half of which he gets in 30 days, the other half over the next four years with no offset. The money Auburn has spent to pay coaches not to coach would fund a rather decent revolution in a lot of third world countries. On Life Support Neal Brown, West Virginia: He’s 3-5 this year and only one of the final four games seems remotely winnable. The boosters and fans are ready for change, but are they willing to pony up the $20 million it will take to give him the old heave ho? Ken Niumatalolo, Navy: He got a win over Shirley Temple last week to improve to 3-5 but the final four games are Cincinnati, Notre Dame, UCF and Army. Bowl eligible is a longshot but if he beat Army would that be what is necessary to extend for one more year? Jeff Scott, South Florida: His career record is 4-25. Normally that gets you fired, but injuries have been a problem and he’s not going to have a chance to win consistently until he gets an on campus stadium. Right now they’re debating where on campus to build one so figure it’s four or five years out. It’s doubtful Scott lasts long enough to lead USF out on the field in the new digs. Tom Allen, Indiana: The Hoosiers are 3-5 and with Penn State and (at) Ohio State the next two weeks, a mortal lock to finish with a second straight losing record. He’s 29-37 for his career, 16-32 in the Big Ten. Three wins will save him, but the situation looks grim. Endangered Species List: Willie Taggart, Florida Atlantic: The Owls are 4-5 thanks to an unlikely win over UAB last week. The next two are FIU and Middle Tennessee. Win them and FAU is bowling, which likely means Willie lives to coach another year in Boca. David Shaw, Stanford: He is 3-5 this year, 14-24 since 2018 and for that, boosters are questioning why they are paying him $9 million a year. Three of the last four are winnable games and that would not only get the Cardinal to a bowl game but it would keep the boosters satisfied for another year. Danny Gonzales, New Mexico: The Lobos are winless in the Mountain West and working on a 5-game losing streak. This will be the third straight losing season for Gonzales. The only thing that might save him is his DC is Rocky Long, who had a 10-year run as UNM head coach when the Lobos were respectable. Justin Wilcox, California: The Bears have lost four in a row and Southern Cal is next. This will wind up as the third straight losing season for Wilcox. If he can finish 5-7 he probably gets another year. Jeff Hafley, Boston College: Hafley is 2-6 this year, 14-17 overall. They fired Steve Addazio for going 44-44 and making five bowl games in six years. He probably survives but will be on a very short leash next year. Phil Montgomery, Tulsa: He’s 41-51 for his career at Tulsa and 3-5 this year. Making a third straight bowl game would help his cause but two of the remaining four games are very losable. They’d probably like to get a new coach, but money is tight in Tulsa so he probably gets one more year.

Gator redshirt freshman defensive back Kamar Wilcoxson announced on Twitter he will be entering the transfer portal following the conclusion of the 2022 season. "Thanks, Coach Napier and his staff for everything they have taught me since January,” said Wilcoxson via Twitter. “I want Gator Nation to know there wasn’t anything I wouldn’t have done for this logo, however sometimes the best thing to do in life is reset and figure things out.” Wilcoxson signed with the Gators in 2020 at the age of 17 after reclassifying from the 2021 class. After initial success in his 2020 campaign, his 2021 season was cut short due to a knee injury that required surgery in the offseason. As a result of missing time, Wilcoxson saw his name fall on the depth chart and playing time decreased this season. He now joins long-snapper Marco Ortiz, offensive lineman Joshua Braun and edge rusher Brenton Cox Jr. as players who are no longer a part of the team. “Go Gators,” Wilcoxson said. “I wish you guys the best and will be rooting for my guys from a distance.”

By KYLE CURTIS GatorBaitMedia.com Who knew there would be so many questions about Texas A&M's quarterback in the ninth game of the season when Conner Weigman's coach is nicknamed "The Quarterback Whisperer." Maybe Jimbo Fisher should have been "The Quarterback Shouter." The Florida Gators (4-4, 1-4 SEC) travel to College Station this weekend for what was supposed to be one of the anticipated road matchups this season. Instead, the Texas A&M Aggies (3-5, 1-4 SEC) have had an underwhelming year in Jimbo Fisher’s fifth season. The Aggies opened as a 3.5-point favorite over the Gators and are coming off a tough loss to No. 15 Ole Miss 31-28 where they had their third starting quarterback of the season take his first snaps. Amazingly, in the process they may have found their guy. Texas A&M gave true freshman quarterback Conner Weigman the nod Saturday against Ole Miss and the-five-star recruit impressed not only the Aggies' faithful but more importantly the head coach. Weigman has similarities to former Texas A&M and Oklahoma standout Kyler Murray with a background in baseball. In addition, many around the Aggies' program believe Weigman is the most accurate passer to ever come through the program. “I liked what I saw, and Haynes (King,) previous starter] was banged up,” Fisher said to the media following the decision to start Weigman. “And we knew it. He could’ve been available, but it wasn’t right to play him again this week. I feel very comfortable with Conner. He’s done it in practice and really gotten the reps and jumped in there.” Fisher confirmed that Weigman will be the starter against the Gators. Weigman was efficient in his first career start, completing 28 of his 44 pass attempts with no interceptions and four touchdowns. “I know it has been a revolving door at quarterback,” said Florida head coach Billy Napier. “But the rookie played really well this past week.” Unlike A&M, the Gators have had one lone starter at quarterback this season, Anthony Richardson, who has experienced the highest of highs and the lowest of lows. In his first full season as starting quarterback, Richardson through eight games has 1,638 yards passing with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. Richardson’s turnovers have been an issue, although he has not recorded one in his past two outings. When given the opportunity, Richardson has proven to be an asset with his legs. He has 67 carries for 414 yards and an additional six touchdowns on the ground. A pure athlete, Richardson is rated the No. 23 prospect for the upcoming NFL Draft by CBS Sports. In a season where he hasn’t produced winning on the field, his athleticism and ability cannot be denied. He will be tested this week, as Florida’s leader in receiving yards this season, Justin Shorter, is questionable and tight end Keon Zipperer was ruled out for the remainder of the season earlier this week. Florida’s defense has struggled against opposing quarterbacks this season. Florida’s defense took a hit this week, with edge rusher Brenton Cox Jr. being dismissed from the team and declaring for the upcoming NFL Draft. Additionally, Gators freshman cornerback Devin Moore had surgery on a shoulder injury prior to his arrival in Gainesville. Napier expects Moore to be ready by the offseason, although it is a hit to the defensive back depth for the remainder of the season. Moore tweeted the following after his surgery, “Surgery went great!”

GatorBait Photo "...the Gators will win three of their next four games, landing right on the number of 7-5 where I projected them to be, maybe losing this weekend at College Station..." The other day I went for a stroll on Lemerand Boulevard and made another visit with The Statues. It’s kind of like an Orange And Blue Field of Dreams, except our guys don’t come out of corn fields. They’re cast in bronze, so people have a difficult time trusting that my conversations are real. They’re the same ones that don’t believe in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Texas A&M’s Twelfth Man. Or Shoeless Joe coming to life in Iowa. I know what some of you are thinking: “Buddy, you’ve totally lost it again. What little bit of cred you had is going down the drain with your B.S. story about some imaginary conversation with objects made from copper. You need to check in over at UF Health Psychology and come back to reality.” OK, stop right there. Let me give you my thoughts up front, before we talk to Steve, Danny and Tim. I’m no statue, but I think Billy Napier’s program, while in a bit of a crucible, will survive and one day flourish, that the Gators will win three of their next four games, landing right on the number of 7-5 where I projected them to be, maybe losing this weekend at College Station, but bouncing back to beat South Carolina, Vanderbilt and FSU. And I didn’t need the statues’ approval or secrets – I figured that out for myself. Remember, as bad as you may feel about being 1-4 and non-relevant among SEC teams, what’s important is the trajectory. So even 6-6 and a bowl bid is not a disaster, because the cupboard will be replenished with transfers and new commits as Napier shapes his roster for the future. And they get 15 post-season practices. So hang tight. As for talking to the statues … Yes, I am among the privileged, because the Spurrier, Wuerffel and Tebow statues do, on occasion, allow me to hear and share the nature of our private conversations – statue talk only. So I bear a great responsibility. There’s something they’d like you to know. So they issued this joint statement: While they love and appreciate you and your support, they’re a little sick of your grousing. “We’re working here,” Coach Spurrier said. “It’s tough to watch and listen to you Gator fans complain as you walk past us,” said Danny, never one to complain. “We feel you, but you must realize that your negativity is like poison to others.” “We hate the pigeons when they fly over and leave their calling cards,” said Tim, “but honestly, the stuff we hear from some of you people smells worse!” They went on to say that while they understand being a 4-4 team under Napier ain’t exactly something you’re proud to write home to mama about, it comes with the territory. The transition process can be painful, they said in the statement, but it’s necessary. “So strap it on,” said Spurrier. “It’s called a ‘crucible,’” said Wuerffel, who has spent his whole life following a path of faith and serves as president of the Wuerffel Foundation and founder of Desire Street Ministries. Definition of crucible: “A situation of severe trial, of which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new.” Which translated, means we all have to pay our dues and wade through the morass to reach our human and spiritual potential. As did the prophet Elijah, who encountered plagues, droughts, pain, hunger and doubt, but lived through, remaining obedient. We sometimes forget that all three statues are “Sons Of A Preachermen.” There was one last request by Wuerffel and Tebow. While they both applaud the success of their rivals in Knoxville, they are drawing the line. That color of orange they’re wearing isn’t Gator-sanctioned. And Coach Spurrier’s open admission about being a closet Vols fan isn’t openly endorsed. On the Paul Finebaum Show recently, the HBC admitted: “I was watching that Alabama game with some friends and a guy looked at me and said, ‘Coach, you pulling for Tennessee?’ I said, ‘Well, of course I’m pulling for Tennessee. I’m from Tennessee. You know that?’ He said, ‘I thought we always pull against them.’ I said, ‘Well, if the division race depended on them losing, of course we’d hope that would happen.'” Hmmm. They didn’t issue any statements about that little rift – the statues don’t fight each other -- as our conversation on Lemerand came to a close, but Danny and Tim made note that as much as they love their former coach, there are certain things they don’t agree on. All three of them also wanted you to realize that the next few weeks are going to be challenging, as we hear and read about players leaving the program. More news this week following the dismissal of starter Brenden Cox as five-star safety prospect Kamar Wilcoxson announces he is gone to the transfer portal. Change is afoot everywhere and there will be many more. That’s what Napier meant in his Wednesday presser when he referred to it as modern day CFB free agency. The trimming of the roster is by design and we’re going to lose some players that were among our personal favorites. Plus, who all will come out for the draft, including Anthony Richardson? If you’re not in for the long haul, then perhaps you should go find another team to root for next fall. Gator fans are going to need staying power and the willingness to endure a crucible. Maybe you need to have your own conversations with the statues.

Live from Franz Beard noon Monday/ GAINESVILLE Just leaving the Billy Napier press conference: The impression that Billy gives is that the dismissal of Brenton Cox Jr. had its origins long before the Georgia game. What happened during and after the Georgia game is most likely the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. In some respects, this is a statement by Billy Napier that entitlement, a lack of respect and an inability to deal with teammates will not be tolerated. I think others may follow, although we will have to wait and see how this all plays out. After his first year at Louisiana, there were 39 players on the 2018 roster that were not there in 2019. I’m of the opinion that there will be at least 35 currently on the Florida roster who won’t be there next year. Think of the Brenton Cox dismissal as the beginning of a purge. More later tonight on @The Buddy Martin Show and Franz Beard Column to come here.

THOUGTS OF THE DAY By FRANZ BEARD November 2, 2022 A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning. Yes, there are four games remaining and of course, it’s one game at a time for the Florida Gators (4-4, 1-4 SEC), but the importance of winning two more cannot be stressed enough. A 2-2 record makes the Gators bowl eligible. A 6-6 record would put the Gators on the bottom rung of SEC bowls, sort of like last year when UF won its final two games to earn a spot in the Gasparilla Bowl. Should the Gators go 3-1 or even 4-0 in the last month of the regular season, they’ll most likely get to a fairly decent bowl game. Currently, Jerry Palm of CBS projects the Gators will face Washington in the Las Vegas Bowl on December 17. Kyle Bonagura of ESPN projects the Gators going against Baylor in the Liberty Bowl on December 28, while Mark Schlabach of ESPN has the Gators matched up with North Carolina State in the Gator Bowl. These aren’t top tier bowl games, but they do serve the important purpose of giving Napier 15 extra practices. It’s like a second spring practice, an opportunity for the coaching staff to gauge the progress of younger players who were redshirted or may not have seen the field early and often during the regular season. Napier addressed getting bowl eligible at his Monday press conference. “Well, I think one of the benefits of going to a bowl game is that you get additional time with the players from a developmental standpoint,” Napier said. “More meetings, more walk throughs, more practice opportunity. There’s no question this is a developmental game and you do that in a practice setting. “Certainly it’s another opportunity for your team to compete and play, so more experience for players, opportunities for player to increase their value relative to their career. And, certainly an opportunity to celebrate some of the positive things that come from the year.” Napier didn’t address attrition, but the additional practices might very well determine if some of the players on the current roster will be returning next year. With the dismissal of Brenton Cox Jr., the Gators currently have 82 on scholarship with three who will be completing their eligibility at the end of this season. Napier has 22 committed recruits with expectations to add another five or six. That would put the Gators at 107 scholarships if Napier signs 28. Then there are transfers. Judging by depth and areas that need a drastic infusion of talent, it’s reasonable to expect Napier to go after 12-15 transfers. So, do the math: 122-85 equals 37. It’s entirely possible that 37 – or more – players on the current roster won’t be with the Gators next year. After his first season at Louisiana, there were 39 from his 2018 roster that weren’t with the Ragin Cajuns in 2019. Richard scores 11 in 15-minute scrimmage at the O-Dome Todd Golden gave the public their first glimpse of the 2022-23 Florida basketball team Tuesday night with a 15-minute scrimmage at the O-Dome. Sophomore wing guard Will Richard scored 11 points for the Blue team as they scored a 34-29 win over the White. Richard nailed three 3-pointers and got scoring help from Myreon Jones (7) and freshman Aleks Szmczyk (7). Leading the way for the White team were Kowacie Reeves (8) and Niels Lane (7). All 13 scholarship players and walk-ons Alex Klatsky and Jack May played in the game. Asked if there has been a real surprise since fall practice began back in September, Golden said, “Our depth. It’s a challenge for me and the staff to really drill down on an 8-man rotation at this point. To be honest, we can’t and we won’t even try.” The Gators open their season next Monday night against Stony Brook at the O-Dome. Three Gators earn SEC weekly swimming honors Skip Donald was named SEC Men’s Diver of the Week while Aleksas Savickas and Zoe Dixon were selected SEC Freshmen of the Week. Donald had first place finishes in the 1-meter and 3-meter against Georgia. Savickas won the 100 and 200 meter breaststroke events against Georgia to go with a leg of the winning 400 medley relay team. Dixon took first in the 200 backstroke, second in the 400 IM and third in the 200 butterfly. Parker Valby Women’s National Athlete of the Week Parker Valby who ran the fastest 6K cross country time in Southeastern Conference history to win the SEC individual championship, was named Women’s National Athlete of the Week by the USTFCCCA. Valby ran an 18:25.87 which not only set the SEC record but broke the previous University of Florida record by 29.11 seconds. Valby and men’s runner Jordan Shapiro were named to the All-SEC teams. Vols take No. 1 spot in first CFP poll With the most impressive resume in the country – 5-0 against ranked teams – Tennessee took the top spot in the first College Football Playoff poll. Georgia, which is No. 1 in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls, is No. 3. Three other SEC teams made the top 11 teams – No. 6 Alabama, No. 10 LSU and No. 11 Ole Miss. College Football Playoff top 25 (SEC teams bold face): 1. Tennessee 8-0; 2. Ohio State 8-0; 3. Georgia 8-0; 4. Clemson 8-0; 5. Michigan 8-0; 6. Alabama 7-1; 7. TCU 8-0; 8. Oregon 7-1; 9. Southern California 7-1; 10. LSU 6-2; 11. Ole Miss 7-1; 12. UCLA 7-1; 13. Kansas State 6-2; 14. Utah 6-2; 15. Penn State 6-2; 16. Illinois 7-1; 17. North Carolina 7-1; 18. Oklahoma State 6-2; 19. Tulane 7-1; 20. Syracuse 6-2; 21. Wake Forest 6-2; 22. North Carolina State 6-2; 23. Oregon State 6-2; 24. Texas 5-3; 25. UCF 6-2 SEC football (Associated Press rankings) No. 6 Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC): Injured nose tackles DJ Dale and Jaheim Oats have returned to practice. Nick Saban says their availability for LSU will be determined in practice this week. Arkansas (5-3, 2-3 SEC): Backup quarterback Kade Renfro is done for the year after undergoing knee surgery. Auburn (3-5, 1-4 SEC): Former Gator All-American Ike Hilliard was named co-offensive coordinator along with Will Friend by interim head coach Cadillac Williams. Named as associate head coach was defensive backs coach Zac Etheridge. No. 1 Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC): Georgia confirmed that edge rusher Nolan Smith is done for the year after suffering a torn pectoral muscle in the win over Florida. Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC): The Wildcats have been plagued by rotten special teams play all season, prompting HBC Mark Stoops to answer “there’s a possibility” when asked on his radio show if he’s considering changes with the units. No. 15 LSU (6-2, 4-1 SEC): Brian Kelly says the difference in QB Jayden Daniels now and earlier in the season is “he was waiting on those receivers but now he can get the ball out of his hands without the receiver out of his break.” Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3 SEC): Mississippi State is 5-0 in games that Will Rogers throws for more than 300 yards, 0-3 in games that he doesn’t make it to 300. Mississippi State has thrown for an average of 216 yards in the three losses. Missouri (4-4, 2-3 SEC): HBC Eli Drinkwitz expects Kentucky’s best game because after the blowout loss to Tennessee, “They’re going to want to atone for last week.” No. 11 Ole Miss (7-1, 3-1 SEC): Lane Kiffin is thought to be one of three front runners for the vacant Auburn job along with Liberty’s Hugh Freeze and Jackson State’s Deion Sanders. South Carolina (5-3, 2-3 SEC): In the ongoing issue about tight end Jaheim Bell, who never got a pass thrown his way against Missouri, HBC Shane Beamer said, “To me, Jaheim needs to be on the field more than he was on Saturday. That’s on me. I’m the head coach.” No. 2 Tennessee (8-0, 4-0 SEC): Wide receiver Jalin Hyatt’s 14 touchdown catches are a school record. Hyatt has caught 11 touchdown passes in the last four games. Texas A&M (3-5, 1-4 SEC): Prior to throwing for 338 yards and four touchdowns in the loss to Ole Miss, freshman QB Connor Weigman had thrown for 91 yards and zero TDs. Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-4 SEC): Our SEC orphans in the Big 12 Oklahoma (5-3, 2-3 Big 12): Brent Venables was unhappy with the Sooners’ offensive execution in their win over Iowa State. Venables said, “You can’t live in second-and-10 all day. That’s not being efficient.” Texas (5-3, 3-2 Big 12): Running back Bijan Robinson was named a semifinalist for the Maxwell Award. Robinson has run for 920 yards and 11 touchdowns while catching passes for 280 yards and two more TDs. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The last time the Florida Gators won a championship in football was 2008 when they beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game and followed that up with a national championship game win over Oklahoma. A year later, the Gators seemed poised to repeat but they were derailed by Alabama in the SEC Championship Game and finished the season 13-1. From 1990-2009, the Gators were the winningest team in all of college football – 202-52-1 – with eight Southeastern Conference championships and three national championships. Since 2010, the Gators are 99-61. That is 58 fewer wins than Alabama (157-18) and 31 fewer than Georgia (130-39). The closest the Gators have come to a championship since 2010 were two SEC East titles under Jim McElwain (2015-16) and a 2020 SEC East title under Dan Mullen. Since 2010, Alabama has won five national championships and seven SEC titles. Auburn (2010), LSU (2019) and Georgia (2021) have won national championships. The facts and figures of the last 12 years should tell us just how monumental the task facing Billy Napier, who is charged with digging the Gators out of a hole that had its origins long before he was Florida’s head coach. The program that Napier inherited from Dan Mullen was not in good shape. What Mullen did in his first three years on the job at UF were like Novocain. That Mullen made it to three straight New Year’s Six bowls and darn near beat Alabama in the 2020 SEC Championship Game numbed us to the reality that the program had been slip-sliding for years. When the talent level dipped to astonishingly low levels, even Mullen’s superior Xs and Os couldn’t save him. We can point fingers at Mullen for poor recruiting but neither Will Muschamp nor McElwain before him recruited well enough. There were way too many holes in their recruiting classes. Mullen simply added a few more and now it’s up to Billy Napier to patch up the program by bringing in the kind of talent it takes to compete with the likes of Nick Saban and Kirby Smart. Restoring the program can be done but just like the program didn’t hit its current level overnight, getting it back to a consistent championship level will take time and more patience than Florida fans are accustomed to showing. The current recruiting class and Napier’s history tell us he is more than capable of getting the job done, but it’s going to take patience.

THOUGHTS OF THE DAY The closest Napier came to specific reasons why Cox is gone was to say it was “cumulative” and a “decision made in the best interests of the team.” By FRANZ BEARD GatorBait Sr. Columnist A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: The question kept coming back at Billy Napier for the 15 or so minutes he stood before the media at his Monday morning press conference. Why? Why was Brenton Cox Jr. dismissed from the football team? Napier never would go into specifics. Was that because of student confidentiality laws or simply because he thinks it is way too personal? That we don’t know. What we do know is Florida’s top edge rusher is done for the season, coming at a time when the Gators (4-4, 1-4 SEC) hit the final third of the season needing two wins in the final four games for bowl eligibility and the 15 extra practices that come with it. Although Cox’s 2022 numbers weren’t anything to write about, it should be noted that he got a double team on at least 90 percent of all the snaps. For 2022, Cox had 35 tackles, two sacks, eight tackles for loss, nine quarterback hurries and one pass breakup. For his Florida career, Cox was credited with 117 tackles, 14.5 sacks, 32 tackles for loss, 39 quarterback hurries, seven pass breakups and one forced fumble. In Saturday’s loss to Georgia, Cox had two tackles, one pass breakup and one quarterback hurry. The closest Napier came to specific reasons why Cox is gone was to say it was “cumulative” and a “decision made in the best interests of the team.” More than once, when pressed for more information, Napier said, “We keep that in house.” On his Twitter account, Cox posted, “I find it hard to express my disappointment in being dismissed from the team. It is truly a shock. I have always had a competitive spirit. I think sometime that gets misconstrued.” As with Napier, there were no specifics. Right guard O’Cyrus Torrence also offered no specifics but said “some thing you do, you just can’t put up with as a team, as a whole. We’re in this thing together so some things you do just can’t be accepted.” Cornerback Jaydon Hill admitted the Cox dismissal caught him by surprise. If he knew what was at the root cause of the dismissal, he wasn’t saying. However, Hill did make one very interesting comment. “It definitely sends a strong message to the locker room,” Hill said. There are plenty of ways to read into that comment and none of them are positive. With Cox gone, where will the Gators find pass rush Saturday when they face Texas A&M (3-5, 1-4 SEC) in College Station? The Aggies rather dormant passing game came alive in a loss to Ole Miss over the weekend behind big arm freshman quarterback Connor Weigman, who threw for 338 yards and four touchdowns. He had a strong pocket presence because he only ran the ball three times and the Ole Miss pass rush got to him just twice. Even with Cox in the lineup the Gators never once got to Georgia’s Stetson Bennett, who stood like a statue in the pocket while throwing for 316 yards and a pair of touchdowns. The Gators have gotten to opposing quarterbacks only 13 times all season. In the previous Florida pass rushers averaged 39.5 sacks. In the last decade, Florida’s worst pass rush season was 2013 when the Gators managed only 19 sacks. Napier said Antwaun Powell-Ryland Jr. and Lloyd Summerall III will share Cox’s place in the lineup. Zipperer done for the season?: There are unconfirmed reports that tight end Keon Zipperer is injured and done for the season. Zipperer has caught 13 passes for 177 yards and a TD. SEC football No. 6 Alabama (7-1, 4-0 SEC): Nick Saban says Alabama’s keys to winning at Tiger Stadium against LSU are, “We can’t beat ourselves. We’ve gotta have enough poised to be able to execute in this environment” … Backup kicker/punter Jack Martin will transfer out. He graduates in December and will have two seasons of eligibility remaining. Arkansas (5-3, 2-3 SEC): Backup running back Dominique Johnson tore an ACL at practice last week and is done for the year … Raheim Sanders leads the SEC in rushing with 1,041 yards (6.67 yards per carry, 7 TDs). Auburn (3-5, 1-4 SEC): Not only did new AD John Cohen fire Bryan Harsin almost from the moment he walked through the door, but offensive coordinator Eric Kiesau, tight ends coach Brad Bedell, football chief of staff Brad Larrondo and recruiting coordinator Darren Uscher were give the heave-ho. Running backs coach and former Auburn great Cadillac Williams will serve as the interim HBC for the final four games. No. 1 Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC): Georgia will be without linebacker Nolan Smith for Saturday’s encounter with 2nd-ranked Tennessee. For the season Smith has 18 tackles including seven for loss and a pair of sacks. Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC): Linebacker DeAndre Square who spent the second half of the Tennessee game in a walking boot and on crutches is doubtful for Saturday’s game at Missouri. Square is Kentucky’s leader with 55 tackles. No. 15 LSU (6-2, 4-1 SEC): Wide receiver Jack Bech (back) should be back in time for Saturday’s game with Alabama. Running back John Emery Jr. (Achilles) is day-to-day as is guard Garrett Dellinger (MCL). Safety Major Burns has been cleared to practice and play. Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3 SEC): Ross Dellenger of Sports Illustrated says Georgia Southern AD Jared Benko, San Diego State AD John David Wicker and Eastern Michigan AD Scott Weatherbee could be candidates to replace John Cohen, who left for the Auburn job. All three have ties to Mississippi State. Missouri (4-4, 2-3 SEC): The win over South Carolina marked only the second time this season that Missouri has had a turnover-free game. The week before at Vanderbilt, the Tigers gave the ball up four times although they did win the game. No. 11 Ole Miss (8-1, 4-1 SEC): Asked if he talked to Jimbo Fisher after the Rebels beat Texas A&M, Lane Kiffin said, “He never really came over. The media guys said don’t feel bad because he blew them off the day before for their meetings. It is what it is. Can’t control other people.” South Carolina (5-3, 2-3 SEC): In the week leading up to South Carolina’s loss to Missouri, offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield called tight end Jaheim Bell “one of the most talented football players I’ve ever seen in my life.” So, why is it that someone so talented wasn’t targeted with a single pass in the Missouri game? No. 2 Tennessee (8-0, 4-0 SEC): Speaking of Tennessee head coach Josh Heupel, Tony Romo of CBS told broadcast partner Jim Nance, “He’ll be on the radar for every NFL team after this year” … QB Hendon Hooker, now considered the Heisman Trophy front runner, has thrown 21 TDPs this season with only one interception while running for 338 yards and four more. Texas A&M (3-5, 1-4 SEC): On WJOX in Birmingham Monday morning, Paul Finebaum talked about the national perceptions about Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies after their 4-5 start. Finebaum said, “I think the issue becomes far more important from a recruiting standpoint right now than anything else because everything is set and I really am interested in whether or not Jimbo Fisher can hold onto the upcoming class, the one that has yet to be signed as well as the can hold onto the players that he has.” Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-4 SEC): Quarterback AJ Swann, who suffered a concussion in the loss to Missouri a couple of weeks ago, is expected to be recovered in time to play against South Carolina Saturday. Our SEC orphans in the Big 12 Oklahoma (5-3, 2-3 Big 12): In their win over Iowa State, the Sooners had eight tackles for loss for the second straight game and multiple interceptions (3) for the second straight. Texas (5-3, 3-2 Big 12): Stud QB recruit Arch Manning will early enroll in January rather than help his New Orleans high school try to win a second straight state championship. With Harsin gone, who will be Auburn’s next head coach? No sooner had John Cohen begun his first day on the job as Auburn’s athletic director than Bryan Harsin was on his way out the door. He’ll have to squeeze by on an adjusted buyout of $15.5 million, not bad for 21 games worth of work. So who will be the replacement, or as Matt Hayes of Saturday Down South tells it, “Who in their right mind wants the job?” Here are five names that have already popped up as potentially crazy enough to take the job: Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss: He’s well on his way to a second straight 10-win season. Hayes says, “Ole Miss will not only pay Kiffin whatever he wants, it’s a better job than Auburn.” If he were to leave it could be because the state of Mississippi has a law that forbids contracts longer than four years for state employees. Hugh Freeze, Liberty: Dennis Dodd of CBS says that Freeze is all but dying for a shot at another Power Five job, but he just signed an 8-year extension at Liberty, which is akin to a lifetime contract. Unless he gets off the rails in his personal life again, it’s a job that might be impossible to get fired from. Even thought it’s a Group of Five school, Liberty has enormous financial resources and better facilities than many Power Five schools including Vanderbilt in the SEC. Hayes says, “Why in his right mind would he want the (Auburn) job?” Deion Sanders, Jackson State: He’s ready for a Power Five job. He’s charismatic and he’s proven he can coach. With Atlanta nearby, he could tap into a recruiting gold mine, plus he might bring his son Shedeur along to be the QB, who is a serious talent. Would Deion’s ego be willing to share the state of Alabama with Nick Saban? Matt Rhule: He will make more than $800,00 a month for the next four years NOT to coach the Carolina Panthers. Word is that he wants to sit a year, but would coaching in the SEC change his mind? He’s never worked in the SEC which could be a drawback. Kevin Steele, Miami defensive coordinator: The boosters wanted him when then-Auburn AD Alan Greene hired Harsin. He’s 64 years old and his Miami defense is middle of the ACC pack. He would crawl backwards from Miami to take the job. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The public will get its first good look at first year coach Todd Golden’s Florida basketball team in the Orange and Blue Scrimmage at the O-Dome tonight (7 p.m.). The Florida roster includes six returnees, four transfers, three freshmen and two walk-ons. During the numerous preseason practices that have been open to the media, it’s fairly obvious Golden brings a faster tempo than we saw the last several seasons under former head coach Mike White. The ball moves quicker around the perimeter, there is more emphasis ball movement and getting penetration into the paint. There has been great emphasis on getting the ball up the court in a hurry to beat defenses in transition, but if the break isn’t there, the offense becomes one set piece in the middle with four revolving players on the perimeter. Defensively, the Gators operate mostly in a tight man-to-man scheme that forces a lot of turnovers. The Gators will press and we’ll see some zone, too, with a lot of double teams in the corners. Golden said last week that only All-SEC center Colin Castleton (6-11, 250, 5th YR) and St. Bonaventure transfer point guard Kyle Lofton (6-3, 188, GR), a three-time All-Atlantic 10 selection, had nailed down starting jobs. Chances are the remainder of the starting lineup will be Kowacie Reeves (6-6, 192, SO) and Belmont transfer Will Richard (6-4, 206, SO) on the wings with CJ Felder (6-7, 240, SR) at the power forward.

“We walked into the locker room with a lot of disappointed players, that were emotional, that care, that have passion, that want to do their job for the team,” Napier said. “There’s an old war term called a ‘foxhole guy.’ A guy that you can trust. A guy that is loyal. A guy that you can turn your back from and know that he is going to do what he is supposed to do and you’re doing the same thing on your side …” Maybe if Billy Napier doesn’t want his money to be “scared,” perhaps then it should at least be more frightened, afraid, fearful, nervous, panicky, agitated, alarmed, worried, intimidated or terrified. Those are all the synonyms I could find for “scared.” While we admire the Bravado, the fact that he chose to gamble on fourth and a long six at his 49-yard line with just under 14 minutes to play in the fourth period proved to be an unwise decision and a buzz-kill. But there are some of us who like bold coaches, as long as they don’t become The Gambler, addicted to gambling. Those kinds of coaches are like dogs that chase cars – it’s a risky deal. It was a risky deal Saturday in Jacksonville and Billy got burnt. At that point, the Gators were making a run, had just made it a one-score game, but had allowed the Bulldogs’ runners to make huge chunks of yardage on an ensuing 78-yard drive. Trailing 35-20, Napier hoped to regain the momentum on this call. On the play-by-play sheet, it looked like this: 4th and 11 on UGA15 RICHARDSON, Anthony pass to the left incomplete intended for PEARSALL, Ricky broken up by STARKS, Malaki at the UGA0; QB hurried by DUMAS-JOHNSON, Jamon; UFL turnover on downs, clock 08:59. [08:59] Asked about the decision in the post-game interview, Napier said he just viewed the fourth down failure as a “turnover.” “It’s a turnover. It’s a turnover on downs,” Napier told the media. “Turnover affected the outcome of the game. No different than them turning the ball over allowed us to get back in the game. We don’t convert on fourth down and we turn the ball over to them. We had our opportunities. We can coach better, and we can play better.” Never heard that theory before. To paraphrase Marc Antony’s quote in reverse, however, “I didn’t come here to bury Caesar today, but to praise him.” There are dozens of things we could harp on about Napier’s loss to Georgia. Some of us didn’t care for his rather un-inspired play-calling in the first half, or the fact that during the two-week open date period the Gators appeared to forget how to run the football. When you’re a 4-4 football team that has now lost two straight, it’s not a time to ask for a raise or run for governor. I get it. There’s going to be some breakage. Impatient, novice fans will be screaming like banshees on social media, calling for heads, trashing recruits for not committing to their school and in general, making asses out of themselves. Let them scream. In reality they ought to be doing the opposite, as intelligent fans would remind them. You may not like his buzz cut, or the way he gets chummy with his longtime friend Kirby Smart or the fact that his third down defense is scarier than anything you’ll see this year on Halloween. And what I’m about to say won’t please some. But Billy Napier is absolutely the right man for the job, even if he sorely needs to dig deeper in the transfer portal, catch some bigger fish in the recruiting ocean, make some defensive modifications, get better consistency out of his quarterback and win games. He's a WIP – work in progress. For one thing, Florida is right where it was projected to be by the so-called experts and wise guys in the desert. This was expected to be a 7-5 team. Three more wins to go, but all four games that are very winnable. And I saw the answer to what needed to happen on Saturday night in the third quarter. There is some fight in these Gators and their spunk in the third quarter that Napier can build on. That needs to be bottled for the future. He found some guys he believes can be the difference makers. “We walked into the locker room with a lot of disappointed players, that were emotional, that care, that have passion, that want to do their job for the team,” Napier said. “There’s an old war term called a ‘foxhole guy.’ A guy that you can trust. A guy that is loyal. A guy that you can turn your back from and know that he is going to do what he is supposed to do and you’re doing the same thing on your side … there’s no comparison military wise, but I think there’s some things that we can learn a lesson from relative to those intangibles.” And if you’re one of those people who keeps calling for the replacement of Anthony Richardson, you’re short-sighted. What needs to happen is the opposite. I say, for the good of himself and the whole Gator football program, A.R. needs to be thinking about skipping this year’s NFL Draft and returning to play another season. Yeah, I know he’s projected as a first-rounder, but my guess is that he’ll drop to a lower pick as other quarterbacks like Hendon Hooker, CJ Stroud, Caleb Williams and maybe even Will Levis and K.J. Jefferson give chase to returning Heisman winner Bryce Young, Richardson’s stock won’t rise. In fact, if Tennessee beats Georgia this week, which I think is going to happen, Hooker will likely become the top Heisman prospect. And where was he last year? Who was Hendon Hooker? He was a lot like Anthony Richardson this season. So why not come back and become him? What a year it would be for Richardson living large in his hometown, sleeping in his own bed, making some serious cash, ballin’ out with his buddies and learning his trade to improve his 2023 stock? Money won’t be an issue. Richardson has plenty now. He would stand to make millions more if he came back and led Florida to a run for the SEC East title in 2023. As far as the fear of his financial risks due to injury if he skipped the NFL, much could be allayed by an NIL deal for a major insurance policy – say $25 or $30M. Who would fund that? Ever heard of Gatorade? He’s already their client. Hey, A.R., shoot for the statue. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves that far yet, because there’s plenty of game left on the table. There’s a maligned, angry Aggies squad with a worse record waiting for the Gators in Central SE Texas. Aggie fans are talking about raising the $85M to buy Jimbo Fisher out. Sometimes these things don’t work out as anticipated. Sometimes, if you wait and exercise prudence, they do. It's a big gamble.

“That's just us. That’s nothing new for us. We’ve been in plenty of games like that before this year and we’ve always fought through it,” Richardson said. By: KYLE CURTIS GatorBaitMedia.com JACKSONVILLE -- Anthony Richardson looked to have tweaked something in his lower body on the first possession of the game. Nonetheless, that didn’t stop Richardson from going out and passing for 200-plus yards for the third time in his career. While the Gators lost the game, they fought all four quarters. Richardson led the third-quarter surge connecting with Xzavier Henderson on a 78-yard touchdown reception. “That’s just looking at the coverage,” Richardson said. “The call we had there was basically like a quick out to Ricky [Pearsall] and I was looking to throw that, but I saw the corner squat, and I just knew the holeshot was going to be there eventually, so I waited and saw Xzavier there, and he just ran.” Thanks to Henderson’s catch and run the Gators went on to score 17 unanswered points in the third quarter to get back within one score. “That's just us. That’s nothing new for us. We’ve been in plenty of games like that before this year and we’ve always fought through it,” Richardson said. “So, that’s just is. That’s just how we play ball. We try not to put ourselves in a hole like that early, but that’s how we play ball. We like to fight and just play aggressively.” The comeback came up short when Georgia began finding success in the ground game. Following Stetson Bennett’s second interception of the day to Florida’s Amari Burney, Georgia stuck with the run game. “We got it to one score and they rushed the ball very effectively in that possession and ended up scoring a touchdown to get it back to two scores. We will watch the film and we will see a lot of areas that we can do better,” Napier said. “We can coach better, and we can play better. But yes, they got the momentum back when they scored. I think in that drive they rushed the ball primarily after the quarterback had thrown a handful of interceptions.” While the defense has been the focal point of the losses this year, there were both highs and lows from Saturday's performance. The Gator defense forced three takeaways but also allowed 500-plus yards. “You got to kind of take it for what it is. You’ve got to look at it, you got to kind of accept and you got to understand that what happened was a product of how we played at times," said Tyreak Sapp, a redshirt freshman defensive lineman. "And then the good things that we made happen were things that we had to make happen… The better we play together as a team, as a defense, the better outcomes we had.” Kirby Smart and Georgia have assembled one of the best rosters in the nation in terms of recruiting over the past few years, freshly coming off of a national championship. Still, Billy Napier is not using the excuse of a talent gap for the reason his team came on the losing end Saturday. “It doesn’t matter if there’s a talent gap or not,” Napier said. “It matters who executed the best today. We didn’t execute the best today.”

Thoughts of the Day By FRANZ BEARD A few thoughts to jump start your Halloween morning: “We made too many wrong mistakes” – Yogi Berra -Yogi was talking about baseball, but he could have very well been talking about the Florida football team, particularly the defense. For 61 plays, the Gators were as close to flawless as they have been all season. They forced and recovered a fumble and picked off two Stetson Bennett passes while limiting the No. 1 Georgia to 172 yards. That’s 2.81 yards per play for the nation’s No. 2 offense. It's the other 17 plays Georgia ran that were the problem. There were eight pass plays that produced 237 yards including a fluke of a 73-yards touchdown pass from Bennett to Brock Bowers. On that play Amari Burney got a hand on the ball to knock it away, but it caromed off his helmet and into Bowers’ hands. Bennett and Bowers also connected on passes of 29 and 24 yards. There was a 30-yarder to Ladd McConkey and a 25-yarder to Marcus Rosemy-Jacksaint. Bennett was 11-30, good for 79 yards on his other throws. That’s 2.63 yards per ATTEMPT. Additionally, there were nine running plays that gashed the Gators for 146 yards. On Georgia’s other 31 running plays, the Bulldogs were stopped for 93 yards, or 3.0 per attempt. In losing to LSU a couple of weeks ago, the Gators gave up 13 chunk plays – 220 passing yards on eight completions and five running plays that netted 95 yards. On LSU’s other 57 plays, the Tigers managed 213 yards or 3.73 per play. This is a recurring theme. Yogi would say it’s déjà vu all over again because with the exception of the Kentucky game, a 26-16 loss for which the UF offense shoulders most of the blame, the Gators have given up at least 10 chunk plays in every game. You don’t have to be a dreamer to see that Florida could own wins over No. 2 Tennessee and No. 15 LSU if the chunk plays had been eliminated. Instead of 4-4 (1-4 SEC) the Gators could be 6-2 – or better – but they have been giving games away. Nobody has to remind Billy Napier that it’s the same thing over and over again. He gets the tough questions every week and his answers sound pretty much the same, but it’s not like he can bring in new people once the season is under way like they do in the NFL. For the most part, he’s got the same players who went 6-7 last year under the previous coach. If there are changes to be made, they’ll be made after the regular season ends. Until then, it’s pretty much like Napier said Saturday night after the loss to Georgia: “Got to coach better, got to lead better, players need to play better. Simple enough.” There are four games remaining in the regular season. How well his players react to getting more coaching and more leadership will determine how many will be on next year’s roster. UF volleyball The 14th-ranked Gators (18-4, 10-2 SEC) are in sole possession of first place in the SEC after taking out Arkansas twice over the weekend. The Gators earned a straight set win Saturday, then came back to stop the Hogs in five sets Sunday. UF swimming The Gators split with Georgia in Athens over the weekend. The 11th-ranked Florida women downed Georgia, 173.5-126.5, while the 7th-ranked Georgia men topped the 3rd-ranked Florida men, 156-144. The AP and Coaches polls Associated Press top 25 (SEC teams bold face): 1. Georgia 8-0; 2. (Tie) Tennessee 8-0 and Ohio State 8-0; 4. Michigan 8-0; 5. Clemson 8-0; 6. Alabama 7-1; 7. TCU 8-0; 8. Oregon 7-1; 9. Southern California 7-1; 10. UCLA 7-1; 11. Ole Miss 8-1; 12. Utah 6-2; 13. Kansas State 6-2; 14. Illinois 7-1; 15. LSU 6-2; 16. Penn State 6-2; 17. North Carolina 7-1; 18. Oklahoma State 6-2; 19. Tulane 7-1; 20. Wake Forest 6-2; 21. North Carolina State 6-2; 22. Syracuse 6-2; 23. Liberty 7-1; 24. Oregon State 6-2; 25. UCF 6-2 AFCA Coaches top 25: 1. Georgia 8-0; 2. Ohio State 8-0; 3. Tennessee 8-0; 4. Michigan 8-0; 5. Clemson 8-0; 6. Alabama 7-1; 7. TCU 8-0; 8. Oregon 7-1; 9. Southern California 7-1; 10. Ole Miss 8-1; 11. UCLA 7-1; 12. Utah 6-2; 13. Illinois 7-1; 14. Kansas State 6-2; 15. North Carolina 7-1; 16. Penn State 6-2; 17. LSU 6-2; 18. Oklahoma State 6-2; 19. Wake Forest 6-2; 20. North Carolina State 6-2; 21. Tulane 7-1; 22. Syracuse 6-2; 23. Liberty 7-1; 24. Kentucky 5-3; 25. UCF 6-2 SEC football No. 6 Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC): Even though Alabama will be on the road to fabled Death Valley, the Crimson Tide is a two touchdown favorite over LSU Saturday night in Baton Rouge. While most of the betting sites list Alabama as a 12-13 point favorite, BetMGM’s opening line is 17. Next week: at No. 15 LSU (6-2, 4-1 SEC) Arkansas (5-3, 2-3 SEC): A couple of weeks ago, the Hogs lit up BYU, 53-25. Saturday they’ll go toe-to-toe with Hugh Freeze and Liberty, which bushwhacked BYU, 41-14, and whose only loss was to Wake Forest Gump in Winston-Salem. Arkansas is a 14-point favorite but this one has an upset feel to it. Next week: vs. No. 23 Liberty (7-1) Auburn (3-5, 1-4 SEC): Joseph Goodman of Al.com called Bryan Harsin “dead man walking” after getting rung up by Arkansas. Next week: at Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3) No. 1 Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC): Just how big is Saturday’s matchup with No. 2 Tennessee? HBC Kirby Smart tweeted, “Saturday we need Dawg Nation to affect the game!! If you can talk when you leave, you didn’t yell enough!! Next week: vs. No. 2 Tennessee (8-0, 4-0 SEC) Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC): The beatdown loss to Tennessee and a 2023 recruiting class that ranks 11th in the SEC and 44th nationally has some folks thinking Mark Stoops may be willing to listen if Nebraska or Wisconsin come calling. Next week: at Missouri (4-4, 2-3 SEC) No. 15 LSU (6-2, 4-1 SEC): For the Tigers to have any chance against Alabama, Jayden Daniels is going to have to play as well or better than he has in the last two games. For the year, Daniels has thrown for 1,812 yards and 12 TDs (only one pick) while running for 524 and nine more TDs. In the last two games, he has passed for five TDs without a pick and run for six more. Next week: vs. No. 6 Alabama (7-1, 4-1 SEC) Mississippi State (5-3, 2-3 SEC): The Bulldogs have been outscored 57-23 in their last two games (both losses). In both games, the offense failed to generate 300 yards. Next week: vs. Auburn (3-5, 1-4 SEC) Missouri (4-4, 2-3 SEC): The Mizzou defense, which ranks third in the SEC, held South Carolina to 203 yards and only 32 on the ground. The Tigers forced two turnovers and got to Spencer Rattler four times for -28 yards. Next week: vs. Kentucky (5-3, 2-3 SEC) No. 11 Ole Miss (8-1, 4-1 SEC): The Rebels are the No. 3 rushing offense in the country at 267.22 yards per game. Freshman Quinshon Judkins is second in the SEC with 1,034 yards and 13 touchdowns. Next week: Open South Carolina (5-3, 2-3 SEC): After the Gamecocks loss to Missouri, quarterback Spencer Rattler gave what seemed to be a backhand slap at offensive coordinator Marcus Satterfield when he said, “I don’t feel like we had a good idea of knowing what to do.” Next week: at Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-4) Tennessee (8-0, 4-0 SEC): For all the talk about the Tennessee offense, which leads the nation both in scoring (49.4) and total yards (553 per game), it was the UT defense that was so impressive against Kentucky. The Vols held the Wildcats to 107 rushing yards and just 98 passing while intercepting Will Levis three times and sacking him four for -23 yards. Next week: at Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC) Texas A&M (3-5, 1-4 SEC): The Aggies apparently have found their quarterback even in defeat. Freshman Connor Weigman was 28-44 for 338 yards and four TDs in the loss to Ole Miss. Next week: vs. FLORIDA (4-4, 1-4 SEC) Vanderbilt (3-5, 0-4 SEC): The Commodores are 7.5-point home underdogs for their game against South Carolina. Next week: vs. South Carolina (5-3, 2-3) Our SEC orphans in the Big 12 Oklahoma (5-3, 2-3 Big 12): The Sooners defense came through against Iowa State, picking off three passes and holding the Cyclones to just 66 rushing yards and 5.4 yards per pass attempt. Texas (5-3, 3-2 Big 12): The Longhorns face Kansas State on the road Saturday. K-State comes into the game on the heels of a 48-0 beatdown of Oklahoma State, a team that whacked Texas by a touchdown two weeks ago. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: That Auburn would hire John Cohen as its new athletic director is rather curious considering his first order of business will be to (a) give Bryan Harsin the pink slip and (b) hire a new coach. Firing? Well, he’s fired a coach before, but that’s the problem. The coach he fired was Joe Moorhead, the coach he hired to replace Dan Mullen when he left for Florida. Moorhead went 8-5 in season one at MSU, then 6-7, after which Cohen fired him, saying he wasn’t a good fit in Starkville. What? A coach whose previous experience included such football powerhouses as Georgetown, Akron, UConn and Fordham – plus two years as the OC at Penn State – wasn’t a good fit for Mississippi State, whose stadium can be from 30 miles out as you’re driving in from anywhere in the state? Cohen replaced Moorhead with Mike Leach, who has been a good football coach, but whose record is 16-16. Leach at least wins the press conference. So why Cohen? If he is the best fit at Auburn, the question is why? He’s a baseball guy, a former Florida assistant who became the head coach at Kentucky and Mississippi State before ascending to the boss chair as AD in Starkville. He’s not particularly well known as a fund-raiser, as if that really matters at Auburn where billionaire donors tend to inject their two cents into every decision. Is Cohen the right fit because these same billionaire donors think they have a guy they can control? If Cohen’s hire is because the boosters believe they have a guy they can control then Auburn is headed down a familiar path. Lest we forget, they paid Gene Chizik $8.78 million to go away, then forked out $21.4 million to Gus Malzahn. It’s going to cost a tidy $18 million to send Harsin on his way. That’s darn near $50 million for the last three coaches. No matter why Cohen has been hired, he better hire the right football coach or else he will be sent packing as well. Paul Finebaum says Hugh Freeze is the guy Auburn should go after but Hugh just signed an 8-year deal to remain at Liberty that will pay him $5 million a year, which will make him the highest paid Group of Five coach. They love him at Liberty, built him a beautiful home on a mountain overlooking the campus and he apparently loves them back. Deion Sanders might be a home run hire, but does Deion’s ego want to be parked in the shadow of Nick Saban, who may wish to coach until the turn of the next century? Lane Kiffin? He's got too good a gig at Ole Miss to deal with the Auburn boosters as well as be judged by what Nick is doing in Tuscaloosa. We’re running out of good candidates and Cohen hasn’t even gotten the old desk cleaned out in Starkville and new carpet in his new office just down the street from Toomer’s Corner.

It is certainly worth questioning if Georgia is the No. 1 team in the country based on what we saw in the third quarter. The polls and the first half may continue to say so when they come out Sunday, but the Bulldogs certainly didn’t pass the eyeball test in the third quarter. By FRANZ BEARD GatorBaitMedia.com JACKSONVILLE – The lesson of Saturday’s Florida-Georgia game is appearances can be so deceiving. If you simply go by the final score – Georgia 42, Florida 20 – then you would think the Bulldogs are every bit the No. 1 team in the nation. The way Georgia played in the first half alone would lead you to believe that, but then came the third quarter and with it came seeds of doubt. In a first half in which Georgia (8-0, 5-0 SEC) grabbed a 21-0 lead and then took a 28-3 lead into the halftime locker, the Bulldogs were dominant as Stetson Bennett threw for 262 yards and a pair of touchdowns and the defense gave up 88 total. Even that is deceiving when you consider 41 came on an Anthony Richardson to Justin Shorter pass that was effectively an NFL pitch and catch against tight coverage. This was a take no prisoners first half. Georgia’s players looked like real men. Florida’s players looked like boys who didn’t belong on the same football field. And yet in the third quarter, Florida came out swinging. The blowout of 1982 proportions – Georgia won that one Herschel’s junior year, 44-0 – never materialized. If you didn’t know better you would have thought the Gators were the top-ranked team in the country. The Gators scored 17 unanswered points on offense and the defense turned the Bulldogs over twice, leading to 10 Florida points. Now, the Bulldogs did pile on a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns against a gassed Gator defense to finish with a 42-20 win, but the contrasts of the first half and the third quarter were startling. In the first half Bulldogs played with confidence and swagger. The third-quarter Bulldogs wore the look of a team with just enough flaws that the oddsmakers in Las Vegas may make Tennessee a prohibitive favorite when the two teams square off for what figures to be the SEC East Division championship game next week in Athens. It is worth questioning if Georgia is the No. 1 team in the country based on what we saw in the third quarter. The polls and the first half may continue to say so when they come out Sunday, but the Bulldogs certainly didn’t pass the eyeball test in the third quarter. Actually, they didn’t really pass the eyeball test for the entire game. Remember, this is a Florida defense that is one of the worst in the country. The Gators did give up 555 yards and 42 points, but 383 of those yards came on 17 of Georgia’s 78 offensive snaps – eight pass plays that resulted in 237 yards and nine running plays that went for 146. On those 17 plays, Georgia averaged 22.5 yards. So, on the other 61 snaps, Georgia gained 172 yards and averaged 2.81 per play. That’s the story of Florida’s season so it’s not like Georgia really did anything special. The Bulldogs simply did what everybody else has been doing all season. Giving up chunk plays has been Florida’s defensive M.O. Against Georgia’s defense in the first half, the Gators had to fight for every inch on the ground 13 running plays netted 13 yards – and without the threat of a run, Richardson looked like the proverbial lost ball in the tall grass. But then things changed with a bit of help from the Georgia defense. On Florida’s first possession of the second half, the Gators elected to go for it on fourth-and-four from the Georgia 46, but just before the ball was snapped, Florida coach Billy Napier got a time out called. Georgia linebacker Bear Alexander never heard the whistle and blindsided Richardson. The personal foul gave the Gators a first down at the Georgia 31 and from there it took seven plays for the Gators to get into the end zone on a three-yard run by Trevor Etienne. That TD was followed by a Georgia fumble forced by Amari Burney and recovered on the Georgia 23 by Trey Dean. The Gators got to the Georgia 11 where the drive stalled. Adam Mihalek, whose 52-yard field goal accounted for Florida’s first-half points, came on to drill a 26-yarder to make it 28-13 with 6:07 left in the third quarter. Burney, whose near spectacular play against Georgia All-America tight end Brock Bowers turned into a 73-yard touchdown pass in the first half, picked off a Stetson Bennett pass intended for Daijun Edwards at the Florida 33 (then brought back to the 18 after a roughing penalty). Three plays later, Richardson hit Xzavier Henderson racing down the west sideline for a 78-yard touchdown pass to close the gap to 28-20. That was as close as the Gators came. Georgia went ground and pound for an answering TD and when Florida couldn’t convert a fourth down from the Florida 49 early in the fourth quarter, Bennett led the Bulldogs to the clinching TD, setting it up with a 29-yard pass to Bowers, who had five catches for 154 yards to show for his day at the office. It is what Florida did in the third quarter that is the head-scratcher. Why couldn’t the Gators play with that level of intensity and efficiency in the first two quarters? If they had, the Gators could have won this football game. “I don’t think we came out as aggressive as we did in the third quarter,”Richardson said. That was obvious, but why? This could have been a defining moment for a team that has struggled to find consistency all season. Personnel has something to do with it. Georgia’s roster has 25 former 5-star players. The Gators have five. Georgia just keeps running talent in and out of the game. One reason the Gators ran out of gas in the fourth quarter is that their lack of quality depth caught up with them. When a Georgia player gets gassed, the Bulldogs simply run another stud out there who was either a 4-star or 5-star recruit out of high school. Their roster oozes talent. Florida has a roster that will change dramatically in the offseason. Simple mathematics tells us that’s the case. There are 83 on scholarship right now and just four who will exhaust their eligibility. Napier already has 22 committed recruits with expectations of five or six more. A class of 28 recruits would put UF at 107 on scholarship and that is before any transfers are added. What does that tell us? It says that a whole bunch of players – perhaps 35 or more – on the current roster won’t be with the Florida football program next year. It’s one of the cold, cruel realities about college football these days and times. The team with the best players is the one that wins the championships. Right now, Georgia has them. Florida does not. Even so, the Gators have enough talent to play close games. In the case of Saturday against Georgia, the Gators could have been in the hunt except for the disastrous start. Of course, that has a lot to do with talent as well. Napier basically tried to sidestep the talent issue, but there is no question, he knows that the differential between the two rosters is enormous. He talked post-game about a Florida team that showed heart and desire, going so far as to say the Gators may have turned the corner for the better. “I think today might have been a turning point to some degree relative to what is really in there, in your heart, in your soul, between your ears,” Napier said. “I think there’s some things we can learn.” It has been a season filled with learning experiences which is true in most transition seasons when a new coach takes over a program that lost more than it won the year before. Napier is correct when he says “got to coach better, got to lead better, players need to play better. I think execution can be better.” All those things are true, but a team with better players tends to be better coached and better led. Players tend to play better when they have more talent than the other team. It’s a whole lot easier for good players to execute than players who aren’t as good. Saturday, Georgia’s better players made more good plays than the Gators. The Gators are a team that has such a narrow margin for error that they can’t afford to have a first half like they had against Georgia. There are four games remaining and every single one is losable if they play the way they did in the first half. If they play a full game the way they did in the third quarter, all four games can be won. Win four and the Gators finish 8-4. Do that and it ranks right up there with healing the ten lepers. If UF finishes 6-6 or 7-5, it is what they were predicted to do when the season began. Georgia, on the other hand, is expected to run the regular season table and at a bare minimum make it to the SEC Championship Game. Play as they did in the first half, and the Bulldogs meet or possibly exceed the bare minimum. Play like they did in the third quarter and the season will crash and burn.