Loren Meadows GatorBaitmedia.com Football Analyst What We Thought: The Florida defense came into Saturday’s contest with hopes to turn around what has been an up and down (mainly down) year for the unit. LSU was starting its seventh different offensive line combination of the season and the ability to make the Tigers one dimensional was thought to be an advantage for the unit. Ventrell Miller was coming of an impressive performance against the Missouri Tigers with 11 tackles and was looking for more of the same against a one-dimensional offense. Offensively, Florida would look to establish the running game with the three-man rotation of Montrell Johnson, Nayquan Wright, and Trevor Etienne. In addition, Anthony Richardson would look to play mistake free and put his stamp on the game utilizing legs against an LSU defense that had surrendered 502 total yards to Tennessee one week ago in Baton Rouge. What We Got: Jayden Daniels for Heisman. In all seriousness, the Gators failed to make key 3rd down stops at any point in a game that saw. The Florida defense surrendered 528 yards to LSU while allowing the Tigers to convert 10-14 3rd and 4th downs collectively. LSU was also able to make 13 chunk plays that demoralized the Florida defense as many of those plays came on 3rd down. Daniels finished the game 349 yards passing with 3 touchdowns to go with 44 yards rushing and another three touchdowns. Offensively Florida played its first “flawless” game of the year with no turnovers and 35 points. At times however, the absence of All-SEC guard O'Cyrus Torrence was very noticeable. Anthony Richardson, Montrell Johnson, and Trevor Etienne paced the Gators rushing attack with 194 total yards and 4 touchdowns, including an 81-yard scramble by Richardson to begin the fourth quarter. LSU however did show better defensive pedigree and adjusted with 7 and 8-man pressures to get enough necessary stops to tilt the advantage of a back-and-forth football game. Montrell Johnson (2) rushed 13 times for 57 yards and 2 touchdowns (Loren Meadows photo) The Skinny: Coach Billy Napier was visibly frustrated with the outcome of the game Saturday night. “All parts of our team need to improve,” Napier stated. Florida, while doing some good things on offense, was obviously not great on defense. “We’re going to see things that we can do fundamentally better,”Napier continued. During the two-week break in action many will want to analyze the scheme and schemers who have given up over 500 yards to two of the last three SEC opponents. Truthfully Florida has a roster that is simply devoid of SEC caliber talent and depth necessary to play as Napier calls it “winning football.” On a positive note, in the three Florida losses you see a team that handles adversity, stays together and rejects the blame game that follows teams in the locker room. Coach Napier knows his team is dedicated to the goal of consistent improvement. “I think we are going to be sick when we watch this tape, that’s what I can tell you,” he said. Which means Coach Napier knows his team will not take Saturday’s loss or any thereafter lightly. Saturday night we saw a team that is nowhere near the SEC championship level many expect from the Gators. Napier noted that has been “14 years since Florida won an SEC championship.” A statement not meant to temper fans expectations but to let them know he does not expect it to be 14 more. As the Gators move into a well-needed bye week the opportunity for physical and mental rejuvenation is key. A defense under immense scrutiny will look to find its early season swagger. An offense gaining traction will look to maintain the shine on the operation. The coaches however will hit the road looking not just two weeks from now when the team travels to Jacksonville, but every Jacksonville trip in the future. Who is on that bus one, two, and three years from now will be key as we saw last night the personnel must improve.

Video Credit: Brenden Martin

“Can’t stop the pass or the run. Otherwise we’re in great shape.” – John McKay, from his early days as coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs. Billy Napier knows the feeling all too well but unlike John McKay, he hasn’t anything clever to say about the way his defense has played all season. The word ineptitude comes to mind, but Napier is far too diplomatic to say it, but what else can you say after Florida’s 45-35 loss to LSU in which the defense gave up 13 chunk plays that were good for 315 yards and eight third down conversions that netted 125 yards? Ineptitude. That’s a very harsh word to use, particularly when you’re talking about kids but in the seven games the Gators (4-3, 1-3 SEC) have played it’s a recurring theme. A week ago the Gators gave up 225 yards on 11 chunk plays and they couldn’t get Missouri off the field on third down. It was that way against Utah, South Florida and Tennessee as well. Even D1AA Eastern Washington spent the entire day converting third downs on the UF defense. LSU (5-2, 3-1 SEC) had eight pass plays of at least 15 yards that were good for 220 yards with two of them – a 24-yarder from Jayden Daniels to Brian Thomas Jr. and a 54-yarder from Daniels to Jaray Jenkins – going for touchdowns. The 54-yarder was a third-and-eight conversion. The Tigers had five running plays that netted 95 yards including a 50-yarder by Josh Williams on the first play of the third quarter. Three plays later, Daniels scored on a 9-yard run. When the Gators did get a huge play on defense – an interception by Jason Marshall Jr. with 5:32 left in the game LSU holding a shaky 42-35 lead – the zebras made their presence felt by calling roughing the passer on Gervon Dexter Sr. Dexter came straight up the gut on the pass rush and made a perfect form tackle to take Daniels down a split second after he released the ball. It was a hard tackle that planted Daniels on his back. That is indisputable. Dexter, nearly 6-7 and 310 pounds, was moving full speed and was within a couple of feet from Daniels at the point of release. Unless Dexter is lithe and flexible enough for a starring role with the Bolshoi there was no avoiding the hit. The flag flew and the boos cascaded from the crowd of 90,585. You will never convince them that it was a late hit on the QB. Instead of Florida football at the Gator 42 with the momentum of two straight touchdown drives, it was LSU football, first-and-10 at the UF 46. Right then and there you could feel momentum slipping away. Was it a late hit? Did it merit a roughing call? This is a contact sport and you can’t protect quarterbacks from the inevitable, particularly when it’s a clean hit and not delivered with malice or intention to hurt. “It’s a judgment call, a bang-bang,” Napier said. “The guy (back judge Tom Fimmen) thought it was unnecessary roughness on the quarterback. We didn’t get a replay of it. I wasn’t able to see it. It wouldn’t be right for me to comment on it.” That’s a polite way of saying, “If I say what I really feel and know to be true I get fined by the SEC for criticizing the zebras.” Now, it goes without saying that the Gators still could have gotten off the field if the defense had risen to the occasion once the Tigers were given a fresh set of downs, but LSU squeezed off seven more plays and took another 3:35 off the clock before Damian Ramos came on to nail a 47-yard field goal with 1:57 to go in the game. Trailing by seven, the Gators had the momentum if they could have just gotten the Tigers off the field without giving up any points. Trailing by 10, the Gators were reduced to needing a miracle ending that would rival changing water into wine. They didn’t get the miracle they needed and the game ended with Florida having surrendered 45 points, 528 yards (349 through the air, 179 on the ground), 26 first downs, 8-12 conversions on third down, 2-2 conversions on fourth down and 31:47 time of possession. That offset three explosive plays by the Gators – a 51-yard touchdown pass from Anthony Richardson to Justin Shorter on Florida’s second offensive play, a 39-yard touchdown run by Montrell Johnson Jr. and an absolutely brilliant 81-yard touchdown run by Richardson at the beginning of the fourth quarter that got the Gators back in the game. “Anthony’s a guy who wants to do his absolute best for the team, and that one play it was a good example of that, but when we get it to two scores and we get a stop, we’re going to get sick when we watch the tape,” Napier said. “I think ultimately we got to do more for our players and I think we’ll see a lot of opportunity when we watch the tape.” The offense was neither consistent nor was it efficient, but the Gators did score 35 points and they were within seven points when the interception was wiped off. Generally speaking, whenever you put five touchdowns on the scoreboard, you figure you’re going to win the game. You have to wonder if the Gators could have gotten a sixth touchdown to tie the game at 42 if that interception had counted. The interception didn’t count, though, and therefore the Gators lost a third perfectly winnable game. You really can’t fault the defense for the Kentucky loss, but it’s the only one of the seven so far in which the defense showed up. Only one Kentucky TD can be pinned on the defense. It was the offense that was a no show in that game. In the losses to Tennessee and LSU, the Gators did more than enough offensively to win but the defense didn’t hold up its end of the bargain. Instead, the Gators once again followed that way too familiar pattern of blown coverages, missed tackles and third down failures. We keep waiting to see improvement, any sign of progress that will make us believe the Gators are ready to turn the corner on defensive ineptitude. Even in tiny amounts, progress would be appreciated and would offer a ray of hope to a fan base that is growing more and more frustrated with the same thing every single week. It’s frustrating watching the Florida defense, but as frustrating as it is for us to watch the debacle that is unfolding on the playing field, imagine how tough it is for Napier. He’s being paid $7 million to right a ship that wasn’t sunk but listing badly after consecutive seasons in which the defense under-performed. He brought in a star-studded coaching staff that seems to be an upgrade at nearly every single position, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Yet the problems persist. We’re replaced “Third and Grantham” with “Third and (Patrick) Toney.” New year, same result. Nothing seems to have changed. Napier knows exactly what the problems are and he knows exactly what has to be done to fix them, but when we see the same old mistakes popping up every single week we wonder if we will be too old to care when the issues are fixed. When will we seem tangible answers? The lack of progress and noticeable improvement lends itself to three answers that seem to fit the current circumstance: (1) Either the coaching isn’t getting the job done; (2) there aren’t enough good players or; (3) the players aren’t good enough. Maybe it’s a combination of the three? Napier is too sensitive to the fact that he and his staff are grown men trying to get kids to do something better than they’ve ever done before to ever call them out in public. He might have choice words for them in private meetings or collectively on the practice field or in the meeting rooms, but he’s never going to point public fingers of blame at his players whether it’s to say they aren’t good enough or they don’t have enough good ones, although that seems to be the clear case. For the most part, he doesn’t call out his coaching staff either. He either falls on the sword himself or speaks in coaching generalities as in “we as a staff.” Saturday night, standing there in the South End Zone answering questions from the media, the strain on his face was obvious. His body language was tense. There weren’t any smiles and very little in the way of excuses. Napier didn’t duck any questions and about the only person he really assigned any blame to was himself. “Ultimately, we didn’t do enough to win the game tonight, and when you’re in a leadership position, there’s only one answer: You’ve got to do better for people you’re leading,” Napier said. Later, he added, “So, it’s my job to position the team to win, to have success, and I can do my job better, right, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” There is no doubt that Billy Napier will work harder than ever before to do a better job and he will push his assistants to do a much better job as well. However, neither he nor his staff are the ones who blow assignments in coverage. They don’t miss the tackles. They don’t make all those mental errors that aren’t visible to the naked eye but contribute just as much to winning and losing, both on the scoreboard and on each individual play. It is the players who make all those mistakes, but he’s the coach, the one who’s in charge of holding his coaches and players alike accountable for their actions. Accountability is all about changing the football culture one player at a time. He believes that better people make better football players and there are few press conferences when he doesn’t praise at least one player who has made great strides in becoming a better person. But, when will the better people start showing they have become better football players? We’re past the halfway point of the season. Is there a lights go on moment when we’ll see defensive guys making plays to show their on-the-field abilities are catching up or have caught up with their character? It won’t happen overnight nor will it happen without even more growing pains. “There’s no shortcuts here,” Napier said. “There’s no shortcuts. You gotta go right through every single bit of adversity. It’s not easy for the staff. It’s not easy for the players. It ain’t easy! The key is to take these experiences and use them for the better. We create positive change. We adjust our approach. We have integrity and say, ‘I can do better for the team. I can coach better. I can play better.” So here we are seven weeks into the season and the 8-4 or even 9-3 record that seemed do-able is starting to feel like 6-6 or 7-5 will be an accomplishment. There is a bye week ahead before the October 29 showdown in Jacksonville with No. 1 Georgia, but how much improvement can the Gators make in two weeks? Not enough it would seem to derail Georgia, which has looked like it is rounding into the kind of team that can make a run at a second straight national championship. From the sound of Napier’s post game remarks Saturday night, it seems there will be plenty of soul searching which could lead to shuffling his personnel. Whereas he’s always been quick to tell us how he appreciates the older veteran players he inherited from the previous staff, is it time for some of these vets to be relegated to limited or backup roles while sending younger, more inexperienced kids onto the field of battle for what may turn out to be baptisms by fire? When veterans aren’t getting the job done with any measure of consistency, can the kids be any worse? Only Billy Napier knows that answer for sure. After one particularly frustrating Tampa Bay Bucs loss in his early days as coach, John McKay was asked what he thought about his team’s execution. “I’m for it,” came the retort. Billy Napier can relate and when he looks at the tape of the loss to LSU, he is going to see glaring and consistent lack of execution, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. He will be sick when he sees all the errors. Sick enough to make some wholesale changes for the five games ahead? Is there enough time left in the season to get the Gators on track to make noticeable improvement? Or are we too far gone and all that’s left is devise a series of smoke and mirrors that can allow the Gators to sneak in two or three more wins? It's going to be dicey.

“By FRANZ BEARD GatorBaitMedia.com Senior Columnist In the fall of 1963, Hughes Supply won the county Gainesville midget league football championship. Our star players were John Dulaney, Todd, Rainsberger and Dale Davis. I was the left tackle on that team. The right tackle was Tommy Petty. It was 100-pound weight limit. People don’t know this, but Tommy played football up until the ninth grade at Howard Bishop. I think he got into music a little bit before then, but he chose music over football, a rather smart choice, wouldn't you say? He became fairly famous. When we were still going to Gainesville High he had a band called the Epics. There was another band called Styrofoam Soul. It was a great time for music in Gainesville. Tommy learned guitar from Don Felder, who later went on to play guitar with the Eagles. Don Felder and Bernie Leadon were in a band called the Monday Quintet. Bernie Leadon was in that band, and he went on to be the producer for Linda Ronstadt as well as playing in a number of bands himself, including the Eagles. He wrote a lot of the Eagles early songs. Back in those days if you went down to Lipham music you might be able to get guitar lessons from Duane Allman, or organ lessons from his brother Gregg. It was a great time for music in Gainesville. My sister went to high school at GHS with Stephen Stills. He also became fairly famous. Tommy’s first wife was Jane Benyo, who was one of my friends at GHS. Those were good days for music in Gainesville. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers became one of the iconic rock bands in the country for 40 years. He was proud that when they went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, it was the entire band. He was always all about the band. He was always that way. At his core he was always a Southern Boy from Gainesville. ===== From Scott Carter, FloridaGators.com: A tradition was born, proving again that legends never die. "He was very humble. He would be both embarrassed and delighted by this honor,'' Adria Petty, Tom Petty's oldest daughter, said this week. "He deserves it more than anybody I could think of." When the Gators first paid tribute to the local icon five years ago by playing "I Won't Back Down" at the end of the third quarter, the moment electrified the stadium as 90,000 fans sang along. Capping the last show of the 40th Anniversary Tour with Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, Petty performed his final song on stage the night of Sept. 25, 2017. Before blasting into the classic anthem "American Girl," Petty acknowledged the sold-out crowd at the Hollywood Bowl in southern California. "We love you dearly,'' he said. "I want to thank you for 40 years of a really great time." Petty died a week later on Oct. 2 — less than three weeks shy of his 67th birthday — a loss that stunned fans across the globe and set in motion a plan by University of Florida officials to honor Petty, a Gainesville native, five days later at the Florida-LSU football game.

The annual contest between Florida and LSU has become a yearly thesis in physicality and performance. One of the nations most underappreciated rivalries the game has had national championship implications as well as its share of interesting circumstances. By LOREN MEADOWS GatorBaitMedia.com Football Analyst The annual contest between Florida and LSU has become a yearly thesis in physicality and performance. One of the nation's most under-appreciated rivalries has had national championship implications as well as its share of interesting circumstances. From jump passes, missed extra points, pass interference no calls, and thrown shoes, Florida and LSU fans can look at the last 12 years of this rivalry and pinpoint what happened and who it happened to. This year both teams enter still unsure of who they are as a football team. Florida muscled its way to must-win at home against Missouri while LSU was embarrassed as it failed to keep the boulder from tumbling on them from Old Rocky Top. While this game does not quite have the national importance as games in the past, it represents sort of a crossroads as both programs would love to possess the 364 days of bragging rights that comes with a victory which often leads to recruiting wins as well. The Florida players may also find slight motivation in the fact that the coach who will lead them into battle was passed over by LSU, even though he was perhaps the best and most logical choice. While none of that will matter Saturday night, this is a game that both programs want, but more importantly, need to deem the season a success. LSU Offense: Saturday night LSU will start a different combination on the offensive line for the seventh week. LSU did receive good news as freshman Will Campbell (#66, 6-6, 325) will return from a dehydration-related episode to his left tackle spot on Saturday. Campbell has been a bright spot for an LSU offensive line that has struggled with injuries inconsistent play. Campbell will be tasked with keeping quarterback Jayden Daniels (#5, 6-3, 200) away from an improving Gators pass rush. Daniels who transferred from Arizona State this offseason has been more effective as a runner than a passer during his short time at LSU. Daniels leads the team in rushing with 359 yards on 76 carries. In the passing game he has a pedestrian seven touchdown passes but did not throw an interception until last week’s game against Tennessee. Accuracy has been an issue at time as well. LSU averages 172.5 yards rushing per game and similar to the Gators have leaned on a 3-man rotation in the backfield. Josh Williams (#27, 5-9, 200), Noah Cain (#21, 5-11, 226) and John Emery Jr. (#4, 5-11, 220) make up the bulk of the rushing attack behind Daniels. Emery Jr., who missed all of 2021 with academic issues, was the team’s second leading rusher in 2020. Noah Cain is a tough runner who specializes in yards after contact. Williams is a former walk-on scout player who has worked his way into the running back rotation. Wide receiver may be the deepest position for LSU offensively. However, the group has struggled with drops in key situations. LSU has six receivers with at least 10 receptions highlighted by two receivers that have had success in the past against Florida. Kayshon Boutte (#7, 6-0, 205), who has started slow this season was very effective versus a good Florida secondary in 2020. Jaray Jenkins (#10, 6-2, 200) led all LSU receivers in last year’s game with four catches for 50 yards and three touchdowns. To begin this year Malik Nabers (#8, 6-0, 195) who was All-SEC Freshman team in 2021 has been the preferred target for Daniels with 28 catches. LSU averages 428 yards per game offensively but only averaged 348 yards against Power 5 opponents Florida’s State, Mississippi State, Auburn, and Tennessee. The challenges have been effectively running the ball and driving the ball down the field. Brian Kelly is not necessarily pleased with the fact Daniels has only thrown one interception as it points to his inability or desire to take risks that result in big plays. Florida has played soft in coverage at times to cover for an inconsistent pass rush. This trend will probably continue to as Florida will want to keep an eye on Daniels who is a threat to leave the pocket as opposed to hanging in an going through his progressions. While LSU has been inconsistent on the ground, the 321 yards levied on the Gators last season is still fresh on many of the defenders who were part of the contest a year ago. The Gators however have the luxury of a more disciplined system as well as the presence of potential All-American Ventrell Miller (who missed last season’s game) and an improving Amari Burney to defend the counter schemes LSU will be certain to employ. LSU Defense: While not dominant, the LSU defense still features players that represent some of the best talent in the SEC. LSU defensive coordinator Matt House utilizes a pro style defense from the Kansas City Chiefs that is built on a stout defensive front and varied concepts in the secondary. Ironically, LSU who likes to also describe itself as “DBU” has utilized an entirely retooled secondary with four starters coming via the transfer portal. The best of the LSU defenders is outside linebacker/end BJ Ojulari (#18, 6-3, 250). Twice the SEC Defensive Lineman of the Week Ojulari leads the team with 3.5 sacks and 4.5 tackles for loss. Linebackers Greg Penn III (#30, 6-2, 238) and Micah Baskerville (#23, 6-1, 228) have also had success at times in House’s defense. Baskerville leads the team in tackles (30) while Penn is an every down linebacker with good lateral speed. The retooled secondary is led by safety Jay Ward (#5, 6-2, 188), along with transfers Greg Brooks Jr. (#3, 5-10, 187) and Jarrick Bernard-Converse (#24, 6-1, 205). Ward can play corner, safety, and nickel back and had the wacky interception of Kyle Trask in the 2020 game at the Swamp. Brooks Jr. (Arkansas) and Bernard-Converse (Oklahoma State) bring big game experience to the group with Bernard-Converse starting 47 consecutive games for the Pokes in the Big 12. The wild card could be true freshman Harold Perkins (#40, 6-2, 220) who is fifth on the team in tackles as a key reserve. The LSU defense will be tasked with stopping the running game and containing a quarterback as equally gifted outside the pocket. LSU has struggled at times but still rank in top half against both the pass and the run. This could possibly the most physical defense the Gators have faced this season at all three levels. However, struggles to get key stops against Florida State and a total breakdown at home against Tennessee will have the LSU defense looking to regroup against an up and down Florida offense. Florida will look to run the ball effectively and hit the “gifts” in the passing game. Look for LSU to use a “spy” to discourage Richardson to leave the pocket and become a traditional passer. The Skinny: Florida-LSU probably the most hotly contested of the yearly crossover contest in the SEC. The fan bases have no love for one another, and the players surely feel the same why. Billy Napier and Brian Kelly have done their best to keep things in perspective as new players in the saga. The fan bases know what is at stake. The winner moves one step closer to bowl eligibility, gains a leg up in recruiting, and let’s face it, plain old bragging rights. Many Tiger fans will make the trip from Baton Rough to The Swamp for Tom Petty Night. While others will stay away as they know the The Swamp will be unkind. To the purple and gold this weekend. The Jump Pass, The Hurricane Goal Line Stand, The Shoe and The Counter, are just some of the storylines that make this year and every matchup before and after exciting. Throw in the fact that two key Florida staffers cut their teeth at LSU at one time. This will not be the sharpest game by either team, but it will be physical. Who flinches first will be the deciding factor. The Florida Game Changers decide this one and the Gators end a 3-game losing streak. Prediction: Florida 23 LSU 17

(Chris Spears Photo) "Bring on LSU," Gator fan seems to be saying. We’ve got Tom Petty and Jimmy Buffet and Ronnie Van Zant and Cannonball Adderely and Kodak Black. They’ve got Louis Armstrong and Al Hirt and Wynton Marsalis and Pete Fountain and L’l Wayne – but don’t sing any of their anthems. By BUDDY MARTIN GatorBaitMedia.com Editor Georgia is easily No. 1. But after those Damnable Dawgs you’d have difficulty getting a quorum from Gator fans about who they love to hate the most. Some would say FSU, but it’s tough to get fighting mad at somebody who can’t throw a punch anymore. When you go through the long list of Florida rivals, to me it’s LSU that comes up next. This one Florida needs badly in its four-week, make-or-break gauntlet in quest of an eight-win season that would force the Vegas wise guys to pay off those who took the “over” at 7½. Besides, there is a bit of a grudge match holdover stemming from the 2016 hurricane rescheduling spat. We can continue on with the rivalry and the cultural wars. I bring that up because this is the first Tom Petty Day/Night. We’ve got Tom Petty and Jimmy Buffet and Ronnie Van Zant and Cannonball Adderely and Kodak Black. They’ve got Louis Armstrong and Al Hirt and Wynton Marsalis and Pete Fountain and L’l Wayne – but don’t sing any of their anthems. UAA Graphic In a short period of time, the “I Won’t Back Down” singalong has become one of college football’s most cherished soon-to-be traditions. The singer was born in Gainesville (1950), but never graduated high school or attended UF, although he once held a job on a campus grounds crew and was reputed to have planted a lime tree on campus (which he said he couldn’t remember doing). Petty’s career spanned the late ‘70s up until he died of a overdose from pain medication used on his final tour to offset discomfort from his deteriorating hip, emphysema and other maladies. He had many hits and several genres. I am of the Travelling Wilburys era and love me some End Of The Line. The musical wars … next the food wars… When it comes to food, they’ve got the hard-to-beat Gumbo, Crawfish Etouffee, Jambalaya with Louisiana Hot Sauce, plus those tasty Beignets. They might throw in Red Beans and Rice and The New Orleans Muffaletta. Plus such fine eateries as Commander’s Palace and Antoine's and Galatoire’s. Crawfish Etouffee is fairly scrumptious ... We’ve got Key Lime Pie, Stone Crabs, The Cuban Sandwich and Grouper or Snapper. We could throw in Navel Oranges and Boiled Peanuts. And we’ll offer you these fine establishments: Bern’s Steakhouse and The Columbia Restaurant and Joe’s Stone Crabs. They’ve got Death Valley. We’ve got The Swamp. Which gets us back to the matter of football and why Saturday’s game really matters. And it's tough to beat a good Cuban sandwich Over the last half century, Gator fans have become quite familiar with Louisiana’s amenities after frequent forays into Bayou Country. When Tulane was in the SEC, for Gator fans that meant at least one trip every season to New Orleans or Baton Rouge to face the Tigers or Green Wave -- plus culinary delights. And later there were those occasional trips to the Sugar Bowl, starting in 1965 when Steve Spurrier played and later coached for the Gators. It was he who brought UF back alongside as a legitimate rival. Eventually, you got to know Bourbon Street, Pete Fountain and Al Hirt and the Hurricane drinks at Pat O'Brien's. Longevity counts in a rivalry. Even if LSU is a cross-over opponent, the Gators have been playing the Tigers for nearly 70 years, a long time before Florida State College For Women even fielded a football team. The series is virtually even at 33-32-3. In recent years, we’ve seen some wonderfully bizarre moments-- like the 2006 Tim Tebow Jump Pass Game, the 2007 Tebow Phone Hack and Orgeron Fourth Down Bonanza, the 2020 Marco Wilson Shoe Toss and the 2021 LSU Storm Troopers who ran over the Gators like they were flattening squirrels in a Humvee. Although Florida has a one-game edge, LSU has won the last three – sometimes in a bizarre setting that rivaled an Edgar Alan Poe or Alfred Hitchcock plot. And those losses played a part in the demise of UF’s coach. First off, just the mere shame of losing three times in a row to Ed Orgeron would be enough to have gotten Dan Mullen fired, wouldn’t it? There’s extra incentive for Billy Napier and his former cadre of coaches and players at University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The “little brother syndrome” that may have cost him a legitimate shot at getting hired by Big Daddy LSU and AD Scott Woodward. (Much to the appreciation of Scott Stricklin.) Napier declined to comment about it this week, but immediately invoked his loyalty clause, claiming there wasn’t a single day that went by he wasn’t happy and grateful to be at Florida. Among the wiser, more mature fans, it is reciprocal. The methodical manner in which Napier is constructing his program while displaying his keen organization skills, plus artful communication, has produced instant – if only partial – success. Instead, LSU got Brian Kelly. If he doesn’t win a national title at LSU, he’ll break the string of three straight coaches when Nick Saban started the run. (Yes, Orgeron and Les Miles DID win a natty.) While easily cast as a buffoon by harsh social media takes, Kelly is a highly regarded member of the coaching fraternity who has enjoyed success at every level, but also was smart enough to realize he’d never compete for a national championship without the fertile recruiting territory and generous resources of a place like LSU. And the 95 million bucks wasn’t bad, either. So as they say about successful baseball swaps, “it was a good trade for both teams.” We may not be able to accurately assess right away which school got the better coach, but Saturday night is when we start running the meter. For certain, there doesn’t appear to be any drop-off in the heat of the rivalry – with or without the Hot Sauce.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: OH MY! THIS WEEKEND HAS GATOR WRITTEN ALL OVER IT Mick Hubert will be Mr. Two Bits. Cornerback Dijon Johnson (6-1, 190, Tampa, FL Wharton) and safety Bryce Thornton (5-10, 190, Alpharetta, GA Milton) are going to be Gators. It’s going to be Tom Petty Day at a sold out Swamp Saturday night where the Florida Gators (4-2, 1-2 SEC) take on LSU (4-2, 2-1 SEC). First things first. Mick Hubert will be back at The Swamp after a long and mega-successful career behind the microphone as the voice of the Gators. When he does the Two Bits cheer, they need to give him a microphone and let him say “Oh my!” so everyone in the stadium can hear. And while they’re about it, let Mick lead the Gators out of the tunnel when they come onto the field. That would also be fitting. The commitments of 4-star Dijon Johnson and 3-star Bryce Thornton improve the Gators to No. 8 in the recruiting rankings. A top five class once seemed out of the question. Now, with two months remaining before the early December signing period, it seems inevitable. Tom Petty has been gone from us five years, but his music lives on. When everbody finishes swinging and swaying to “We Are the Boys” at the end of the third quarter, bet the farm that “I Won’t Back Down” will be sung louder and with more meaning than ever before. On top of that, Florida comes into the game having won two in a row for the first time this season and LSU comes to Gainesville having been poleaxed by those same Tennessee Vols – in Baton Rouge no less – that the Gators were a play away from beating in Knoxville. LSU didn’t have a prayer against the Vols. By game’s end, the Vols were praying the clock would flatline before the Gators got the ball in the end zone for a game-winning touchdown. Now all those omens don’t guarantee that the Gators are going to show up focused and ready to play something close to a complete game for the first time this season, but it’s about time they put it all together. This is as good a weekend as any, particularly with the bombardment of so much good news. Here is what it will take for the Gators to win: (1) Set the edge defensively so that Jayden Daniels can’t get outside the tackles where he is most dangerous; (2) beat those LSU freshman offensive tackles off the edge (Daniels has been sacked 21 times) and make sure there is someone in his face at all times; (3) don’t let the LSU wide receivers to get deep; (4) keep BJ Ojulari out of the backfield so he can’t harass Anthony Richardson; and (5) if there’s nobody open Richardson has to take off and run the football. This is a very winnable game for the Gators if defensively they keep Daniels under control and don’t give up chunk plays on defense and offensively get a big game out of Richardson. A week ago, the Tigers were burned regularly by Hendon Hooker, who was just enough a threat with his legs to freeze the safeties, opening up the passing lanes. If Richardson comes up big, the Gators are going to win this game. One last note. A year ago, just an hour west of I-10 in Lafayette, Billy Napier was winning a championship at Louisiana while LSU was floundering. Even though Billy was an hour down the road in Lafayette, he was never a serious candidate. If the Tigers had gone after him, he would have been – at best – the fourth or fifth choice. Instead, he’s at Florida where he’s going to have a long, successful career. His accent is like the one Tom Petty sang about in “Southern Accents.” LSU, meanwhile, has Brian Kelly, the yankee carpetbagger from Notre Dame with the fake southern accent and the rotten dance moves. The Sayer says sooth!: Real Southern Accents 27, Fake It Til You Make It 20 The SEC Soothsayer Vanderbilt (3-3, 0-2 SEC) at No. 1 Georgia (6-0, 3-0 SEC): The spread is 39 points and if Georgia represents like it did last week against Auburn, Gloria Vanderbilt is in deepest and darkest. Now if Georgia plays like the flag football team from a little dive bar in Dahlonega, which is how it did against Kent State and Missouri, then it could be interesting. One thing that’s for certain about this edition of the Poodles: they aren’t even remotely close to the team they were a year ago. The Sayer says sooth!: Midnight Train to Georgia 38, Anderson Cooper’s Mother 10 No. 3 Alabama (6-0, 3-0 SEC) at No. 6 Tennessee (6-0, 3-0 SEC): The folks up in Dollywood are like a dachshund with a weak bladder. They’re so excited about Alabama coming to town that they’re about to pee all over themselves. They do believe that with a big win this week they’ll leapfrog a whole bunch of teams to become the No. 1 team in the country and that Hendon Hooker will play so well he’ll do what Peyton never could and that’s win a Heisman. In the immortal words of the late, great Patsy Cline: “Crazy.” Bryce Young is playing. Will Anderson is playing. Nick Saban is coaching Alabama. The Sayer says sooth!: Been There Done That 31, East Tennessee Hoedown 21 Auburn (3-3, 1-2 SEC) at No. 9 Ole Miss (6-0, 2-0 SEC): The only reason Bryan Harsin hasn’t told Auburn to “Take This Job and Shove It” is because if he is patient enough to get fired, he gets 18 million squeezing by dollars to avoid the food lines at the Salvation Army. The Lane Train has it going so big those poor folks from the Loveliest Village on the Plain will have a bad case of the “Three O’Clock Blues” long before the clock flatlines at zero. The Sayer says Sooth: Night Train Lane 37, Just Go Ahead and Fire Me 10 No. 16 Mississippi State (5-1, 2-1 SEC) at No. 22 Kentucky (4-2, 1-2 SEC): In the last couple of weeks, Mike Leach has offered up advice about getting married and having babies. The ponies are running at Keeneland. Maybe he can offer up the Pick Six at Keeneland? There is a 33 percent chance of thunderstorms in Lexington. By the time the charter lands in Tupelo Saturday night, the Bulldogs will be 3-1 in the SEC and moving on up in the AP. The Sayer says sooth: Tupelo Honey 35, Kentucky Rain 24 Arkansas (3-3) at BYU (4-2): Legend has it that when Brigham Young rose from his sick bed and saw the Salt Lake Valley he said, “This is the place!” and the Mormon exodus across the fruited plain came to an end. There is no truth that when LaVell Edwards arrived at the football stadium in Provo that he, too, said, “This is the place!” although BYU teams have played at the stadium that bears LaVell Edwards’ name like it is every bit as sacred as the tabernacle in Salt Lake City. Arkansas arrives at “the place” Saturday in desperate need of a win to break a three-game losing streak complied against SEC foes. Getting outside the SEC isn’t going to be a picnic even with KJ Jefferson back, but the hunch here is that the Hogs will avoid getting slow smoked over 225-degree coals. The Sayer says sooth: Hog Jowls 30, The Place 27 ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Little Jimmy Phillips, commissioner of the Almost Competitive Conference, who a year ago was claiming that expanding the College Football Playoff to 12 teams would endanger the health of the players, is now telling us there is unity to expand the playoff in 2024. This is the same Little Jimmy Phillips who, along with the Pac-12’s George Kliavkoff, got duped into forming an “alliance” with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren. Georgie and Little Jimmy never realized they were being duped by good ole Kev, who was already engaging in talks with Southern Cal and UCLA to bolt the Pac-12 to join the Big Ten. Little Jimmy is also trying to tell us we should be expanding the NCAA Basketball Tournament to 96 teams, giving all 32 conference champions a bye while 64 at-large teams duke it out in the first round. What Little Jimmy is trying to tell us in so many words is that the ACC is so desperate for money that it’s in favor of wholesale expansion of both football and the NCAA Tournament. Because of the rather silly media rights contract with ABC/ESPN that locks up the ACC until 2036, the league is a financial bottom feeder that won’t be paying out $40 million per school until 2025. The SEC and the Big Ten, meanwhile, will be paying out something close to $100 million by 2025. The ACC and Pac-12 can’t keep up with the SEC and Big Ten when it comes to money and they both stand a chance to drop behind the Big 12, which probably gets a decent contract from ESPN in exchange for freeing up Texas and Oklahoma to join the SEC in 2024. Expanding the basketball tournament to 96 teams would actually add only a couple of days to the tournament but the reality is it would add more schools from second tier leagues than the ACC. The ACC reputation in basketball is such that just about any team that finishes with a winning record in conference play gets in the NCAA Tournament already so most of the at-large bids would be taken by the mid-to-low majors that are typically one or, at the most, two bid leagues. The College Football Playoff is going to expand to 12 teams. That much has already been decided. It isn’t a question of if but a matter of when. If it happens in 2024 it will be because there is a deal in place for Texas and Oklahoma to join the SEC. ABC/ESPN which owns the playoff rights until 2025 and will likely own them when the playoff expands, isn’t about to let the Big Ten, which has its new deal with Fox/CBS/NBC to have a chance to get more playoff teams than the SEC. So deals will be made and they will benefit the SEC and Big 12, not the ACC or Pac-12. As for basketball expansion, that’s for another time and another place. Maybe in the spring there will be talks about adding more teams to the tournament. The small, basketball-only conferences would love expansion but there is a large contingent that believes the current model isn’t broken so there is no need to fix it.

By FRANZ BEARD GatorBait Media This isn’t the West Coast Conference, not that it was a bad place to be playing basketball. Any league that has teams like Gonzaga, Saint Mary’s, BYU, Santa Clara and San Francisco can stack up with any non-power conference in the country. The teams at the top can play with anyone. So the SEC, while a step up when you go top to bottom of the conference, isn’t about to overwhelm Todd Golden. He knew from his experience working with Bruce Pearl at Auburn what to expect when he came to the University of Florida. Having spent the previous three seasons cutting his head coaching teeth at San Francisco in the WCC where he was an overtime loss from advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Golden wasn’t the least bit overwhelmed by the situation or circumstances when he answered the bell to take the next step in his coaching journey. While good coaching is essential, winning in the SEC requires players and Golden isn’t shy at all when he assesses his roster for a season that is three weeks away from tipping off. Speaking to the media a few weeks ago as the Gators were about to officially begin preseason practice, Golden said, “We’ve got some dudes.” And he does. Overall, it is a re-made roster from the one that Mike White went to the NIT with last year, but the key element to last year’s success and success in Golden’s first season on the job has returned. You can’t understate the impact Colin Castleton’s return has on this team. At 6-11, the shoulder that forced him to play the last half of the season with one arm – he still averaged 16.2 points and 9.0 rebounds per game – surgically repaired and rehabbed to go with added muscle and strength (he’s 247 now, stronger than he’s ever been), Colin Castleton is the kind of talent you can build an entire team around. That’s exactly what Golden is planning to do. “He is what I thought he was when we got here,” Golden says. “I knew he was a fantastic player. He had great numbers. I’d watched a decent amount of Florida just being in the league before, but he’s even more talented I would say than we thought. He just has a great ability to play make, he can handle the ball for a big guy. We can get him the ball at the pinch post at the top of the key and he can turn it into a one-on-one move.” Castleton can score the basketball. He’s always been able to score in the paint whether it is with an inside move to the rack, on follow shots or even out to seven or eight feet with that nifty jump hook, but now he’s added range that extends out beyond the foul line. Now he’s comfortable shooting from the elbow and if you leave him unattended at the three-point line he will make you pay. In the paint, he’s a more physical presence, whether it’s protecting the rim by challenging shots or with the ball in his hands. He’s always a threat to score, but he seems to be seeing open shooters even better than he did last year. The bigger, stronger Colin Castleton didn’t waste any time rehabbing from that painful torn labrum. He became a fixture in strength coach Ray Lopez’s weight room. And now the results that Golden and his coaching staff see every day in practice are impressive. “If you can just find a way to get him a catch 12 or 15 feet from the rim, you know it’s going to be a good possession,” Golden said. “That’s incredibly important and valuable thing to have on your roster, especially a guy to his credit who has worked a lot on his body, spent a lot of time in the weight room as we’re rehabbing this summer. It wasn’t like he was just coasting during rehab. He was getting bigger and stronger and more athletic. I think we’re seeing that now. I think he’s primed to have a really big year.” You can win games in any league if you have a great player but the best teams in the best leagues surround their great player with talent that complements. There were wholesale departures when White left and Golden took the job. Three players had exhausted their eligibility, four transferred out and two stud recruits opted to go somewhere else. Before he did anything else, Golden did perhaps the best recruiting job of his career by convincing Castleton to put professional basketball off for one year. Then he sold his vision of the future to Myreon Jones, Kowacie Reeves, Niels Lane, CJ Felder and Jason Jitoboh. He kept signee Denzel Aberdeen and landed four transfers – point guard Kyle Lofton (from St. Bonaventure), shooting guard Will Richard (from Belmont), point guard Trey Bonham (from VMI) and stretch four Alex Fudge (from LSU). The final two pieces of the roster were Aberdeen’s Dr. Phillips teammate Riley Kugel, who originally signed with Mississippi State, and late blooming international big man Aleks Szymczyk, who spent a year in Lakeland but finished up his high school career in Germany. It is a deep and talented roster with three big men – Castleton, Jitoboh (6-11, 305) and Szymczyk (6-10, 235) – and 10 interchangeable parts. Golden can go with a big lineup, a fast lineup, one big and four shooters or even put five elite defenders on the floor at once. Lofton (6-3, 186), Bonham (5-10, 175) and Aberdeen (6-5, 185) are point guards who can also play on the wing. Jones (6-3, 177) is a wing who can play the point. Kugel can play the point and both wings. Felder (6-7, 242) and Fudge (6-9, 205) are stretch fours who can play down low or even step out on the wing. Reeves (6-7, 190) and Richard (6-4, 206) can play either wing and in the right situation take on the role of a stretch four. Lane (6-5, 215) is an elite defensive talent who can get stops at every position but center. “They all have different talents that complement each other really well,” Golden said. “You know, a number of guys that do a good job getting in the paint, I would consider them our playmakers and then I think we have a lot of guys that shoot the ball well, kind of our floor-spacers, three-and-D type guys. We’ve just got to figure out which ones are best with each other. To have different guys that can make plays and get in the paint opens up so much for us and Colin inside is another guy that I would consider can get in the paint and play off of him as well. It gives us some good flexibility in terms of being able to attack defenses.” The style will be attack, attack, attack. The Gators will press. They’ll work out of a base man-to-man, but they’ll drop into an aggressive zone. They’ll push the ball up the court. They’ll surround Castleton with guys who can launch – and hit – the three. They will rebound. They’ll look to outlet a defensive rebound, but at least 11 of the 13 scholarship players can put the ball on the deck after a rebound and start the break off the dribble. They will be physical. Very physical, especially when it comes to going after the basketball once it is shot at either end of the floor. “We were not physical at all on the glass over the summer,” Golden said. “In the fall we’ve really challenged our guys that way and we’ve gotten a lot more physical on the glass. The best thing about what we’ve seen is our group has been really receptive, they’ve been coachable. We’ve challenged them in certain areas and they’ve worked to improve. So I think we can continue doing that over the next couple of weeks before we start games.” Here is a player-by-player assessment after watching the first two weeks of practice: Castleton: He has become the true team leader. “Other guys are going to follow him,” Golden says. “They respect him.” There isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t show something new he’s added to his game, whether it’s putting the ball on the deck and dribbling coast-to-coast for dunk finish or making a pass out of a double team to an open shooter. He takes and makes jump shots well past the range he showed in the past. Lofton: He’s been held out the last several practices with a sore groin after taking a knee at the end of a practice a few days back, but this is a grown man who plays the point and knows how to run a basketball team. He gets into the paint at will and everybody on the team understands that if you’re open, Lofton will get you the ball. Good finish off the bounce and though he isn’t a shoot first guy from the outside, leave him alone and he buries the three. He defends at a very elite level. “Having a 23-year-old point guard, who has gone through the wars as Kyle has – someone who has scored 1,600 points in his career, 600 assists, has been an all-league player, all defensive player – we couldn’t ask for a better person in year one for us because of the experience he has,” assistant coach Carlin Hartman said. Fudge: He’s elite defensively. Hartman says he can defend successfully all five positions on the court without a letdown. He doesn’t have to have the ball in his hands a lot to score because he can do it off his defense. Paired with Castleton, he gives the Gators a second rim protector. He is a streaky outside shooter, but a devastating finisher at the rim. He’s had more than a few rim-rocking windmill dunks in the open court or driving the baseline. Serious verticality. “One out of every three or four possessions, you’ll see a wow!” Hartman said. “Whether it be he’s switching out on a guard and he’s keeping a guy out front, he’s blocking a shot at the rim that he’s not supposed to block, or he goes baseline and dunks it … can you stack up those possessions over and over again on offense and then go to the other end and defend at a high level.” Reeves: The book on him a year ago was catch and shoot, but he’s starting to take his opportunities to drive the ball. He can shoot the three from any place on the court. He’s getting better and more consistent on the defensive end. Recently, he’s gotten more aggressive tracking the ball and rebounding once a shot goes up. He’s another high riser. “He's really doing a great job, especially rebounding, going hard to the offensive glass every single time,” assistant coach Korey McCray said. Richard: He’s only now getting back to practice after a freak ankle sprain that’s limited his activity, but he’s one of the purest shooters on the team with exceptional range. He has an excellent nose for the basketball so he will surprise with the amount of rebounds he gets even though he’s only 6-4. He’s very physical. “He’s one of our best shooters on the team,” McCray said. “He has a knack for rebounding. He’s a really good rebounder. He wants to score so he runs the floor hard. He goes hard to the offensive glass. He makes winning plays other than shooting.” Bonham: He has Kasey Hill-quickness. Oh, if Kasey could have shot the ball like Bonham, who should be nicknamed Area Code because he shoots from outside the 352 area code. “And he makes it!” says Hartman. He’s fearless in the lane and a capable finisher although lately he’s shown plenty of creativity getting the ball to open teammates when he draws the defender. Despite his lack of height, he has the quickness and shooting range to play the wing on the floor with Lofton at the point. Jones: His confidence started sinking early on last season and continued to sink even further as he battled to play with a broken finger. He’s healthy, back for a fifth season of college basketball, and the confidence has returned to his shot. We tend to forget he was a 15 per game scorer at Penn State a couple of years ago. “He’s proven the capacity to be a good impact player at the high major level,” Golden said. “So I’m counting on him to be able to do that again, to be able to bounce back.” Felder: He tried to play through a sports hernia last year so it limited his productivity. He’s gained about 10 pounds of muscle, defends everything but the point and is one of the team’s steadiest and most consistent rebounders. He will have to play a lot as the power forward and will even play some in the low blocks in a smaller lineup. He’s been seen taking a lot of shots after practice. “We need CJ to be a big part of this team,” Golden said. Kugel: Better than expected by a wide margin plus he’s added muscle and is now 207. He can shoot the three, defend, makes good passes and he is a spectacular dunker. “He’s an impactful playmaker, paint toucher,” Golden said. “And what’s great about Riley, he keeps it simple. He just makes the right play every time.” His role grows daily to the point that he’s going to be a significant contributor even as a freshman. Everybody knew he had the offensive skill set, but Golden has been surprised by how advanced he is defensively. Lane has a 43-inch vertical. Kugel outjumps him. Lane: When he came on at the end of last season everybody wondered why he hadn’t seen the floor more often. He was then and is now as good a defender as you’ll see. He harasses people into mistakes and now, he’s shown the ability to convert those mistakes into points whether it’s with his own finishes or good decision passes. “He’s long, he’s athletic, he’s quick and he can bother guys,” Golden said. “He can kind of just get up into them and make them really have issues handling the basketball.” He’s added to his offensive game, which is still mostly layups or open court finishes, but he keeps working on his jumper to eliminate opponents from sagging on him every time he touches the ball. Jitoboh: He’s had four eye surgeries to correct the damage from the injury he suffered in Knoxville last year and he will have at least one more, but he will contribute this year. He’s carrying 305 pounds, but it’s much more muscle now. He’s in the best shape of his life. He catches the ball well, finishes with a soft shot on the rim and he sets devastating picks for teammates. “He’s got great hands, great feet and he can finish,” Hartman said. Aberdeen: He shows flashes of what he can be in the future while playing mostly as a backup point guard. He’s a willing defender, strong in the open court and improving his decision making when running the second team offensively. He can take and make the open three. “I think Denzel is going to be a really good player for us, too,” Golden said. “He’s smart. He’s done a really good job running the point.” Szymczyk: He arrived late on campus (August) and he’s playing a lot of catchup, both physically and as far as understanding both the offense and defense. When he figures it all out, he will be a big capable of shooting the three and he’s a more physical rebounder than perhaps we though when he arrived. “I need to bulk up a little bit more,” Szymczyk said. “It’s a freshman thing I feel like. You get in the weight room and get bigger so you can compete with those guys.”

By KYLE CURTIS GATORBAITMEDIA.COM The last time the Florida Gators (4-2, 1-2 SEC) and LSU Tigers (4-2, 2-1 SEC) met for a primetime matchup in The Swamp, there was no shortage of fireworks. Concluding in an eerie fog that filled Steve Spurrier-Florida Field, we saw a shoe toss from Florida’s Marco Wilson that resulted in a penalty and game-winning field goal for the Tigers. This year, LSU comes into Gainesville with a new opposing coach in Brian Kelly and the Tigers are coming off an embarrassing loss at home against Tennessee where they fell 40-13. Nonetheless, the Florida-LSU rivalry is always a close and competitive matchup. Additionally, this game also puts a spotlight on the athletic director of LSU, Scott Woodward, who ultimately chose Kelly over Billy Napier. When asked about his potential candidacy for the LSU job last offseason Napier said: “I don’t know that something that’s something you talk publicly about. I’m very thankful for the opportunity I was given here.” The quarterback duel will be intriguing to watch as well. Anthony Richardson has looked dynamic at times for Florida, while still struggling in other in some areas. Jaydon Daniels, a three-year starter at Arizona State before heading to Baton Rouge, has been the Tigers' main source of offense. He has produced well in the air with 1,215 yards, along with seven touchdowns -- although Daniels has proved to do most of his damage on the ground. Through six games, Daniels has 76 carries for 359 yards along with another three touchdowns. “I think that’s the No. 1 concern,” Billy Napier said on LSU QB Jayden Daniel’s rush threat. ● This is the 69th all-time meeting between Florida and LSU, 34th matchup in Gainesville. ● Florida has a slight edge in the series with a record of 33-32-3 ● The last three meetings have been times for the offenses to explode with Florida averaging 518 yards per game over the last three meetings with LSU. ● Along with the passing attack, Florida has rushed for 100-plus yards in six straight games and 10 of the past 11 meetings against LSU. ● In last year’s matchup, Anthony Richardson took over mid-game for Emory Jones and threw for 167 yards and three touchdowns while adding 42 yards on the ground and another score. ● Richardson has a turnover in every game this season. ● This is the first meeting between Billy Napier and Brian Kelly. ● The Gators have been successful on the ground this year with 6.4 yards per carry ranking. third in the FBS. ● Gators aAll-American candidate guard O’Cyrus Torrence is questionable for this week after being the top-rated guard in the country at 90.2, according to Pro Football Focus. ● “I think we’ll be okay, we’re just telling you the truth,” Napier says of Torrence’s status. Has yet to have a practice where he is 100% this week. ● This LSU squad also has a new offensive coordinator, Mike Denbrock. This is the third team this year that has a freshly hired OC. Sophomore standout defensive end Princely Umanmielen chimed in on how Patrick Toney and the rest of the Gators prepare for this kind of matchups. ● “When we watch the film of teams, they dig really deep,” Umanmielen said “One team had a new offensive coordinator, and they were back to when he was at three schools ago and things like that. Yeah, I know he (Toney) is going to do some digging and figure out a game plan."

By FRANZ BEARD GatorBait Media “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong and at the worst possible time” – Murphy’s Law Murphy didn’t make that up with the 2022 Florida Gators in mind, although there are moments when it’s easy to think he did. This team that can have you jumping up and down, screaming so loudly that you think your heart is going to explode through your chest and stick to the wall when they do something spectacular, is the same team that can have you swearing off football forever on the very next play. It is why that here with six games in the books, we can say without a doubt that we’ve been tossed out of the moving vehicle that is the 2022 season and out of breath, battered and bruised in the tall weeds on the side of the road. There has been progress. Absolutely there has. But for every two steps the Gators take forward there is one step backward. Hence the 4-2 record. Two wins for every one loss. The simple thing to say is this is a season on the brink, but on the brink of what? There are six games remaining. We’ve seen enough good to know that the Gators could win four or five of the last six. 8-4? An improvement over last year, for sure, and two wins for every loss. That’s what a lot of experts said was Florida’s ceiling for 2022. 9-3? If the Gators do more good things than bad things every time they take the field, that’s certainly not out of the realm of possibility. How about 10-2? That would mean beating Georgia, which has shown enough fragility to make us understand clearly the Bulldogs are kind of like the Gators. Good enough to have us celebrating, inconsistent enough to have us considering throwing something heavy at the 70-inch ultrahigh def television in the living room. The difference is Georgia has found ways to overcome its issues. The Gators’ issues seem ongoing but with each new game, hope springs eternal, that maybe, just maybe, this is the day when Murphy eats his words. Hope this week is that the Gators can find a way to put away an LSU (4-2, 2-1 SEC) team that seems intent on driving its fans as batty as the Gators are driving theirs. LSU can look formidable. See the second half of Mississippi State when everything clicked. The Tigers can stink. See Florida State in game one when LSU got whipped in Nawlins of all places. And then there is last week in Baton Rouge, no less. Tennessee came to town and did a poleaxing on LSU the likes of which hasn’t been seen in years. It was 40-13 and it could have been much, much worse because Tennessee took its foot off the pedal in the second half. Rather than continue to destroy LSU’s secondary, the Vols simply went beast mode and ground the Tigers into pulp. It should be noted that this was the same Tennessee team that is now ranked sixth nationally had all sorts of issues shaking the Gators in Knoxville a couple of weeks earlier. When the Gators look at the tape of that game, they see a giveaway. How else can you explain 17 chunk plays that account for 384 yards, most of which were the result of sometimes only one player on the Florida defense going brain dead? On way too many of the big plays it was one blown coverage in the secondary or one player taking the wrong angle on a pass rush or one missed block? Florida lost by five and had the ball for the last play of the game with a chance to win. Anthony Richardson threw for 453 yards and ran for another 60. Justin Shorter caught seven passes for 155 yards. Ricky Pearsall caught five for 103. The Vols won but they walked off the field knowing the win was a gift. Giving games away because of blown assignments and critical mistakes. Seems like we’ve heard this “Ode to Billie Joe” a bunch of times already this season, doesn’t it? Yet the Gators are 4-2. Go figure. When the Gators execute, they can be really, really good. The running game with Montrell Johnson Jr. and Trevor Etienne at times seems unstoppable. The analytics say Florida’s offensive line, led by O’Cyrus Torrence, is one of the best in the country. The Gators rank third nationally in yards per carry (6.38) and they’re tied for fifth in fewest sacks allowed (5). Take away the chunk plays and the defense is getting it done. In the win over Missouri, the Tigers had 11 big plays (six pass, five run) that accounted for 225 of their 370 yards. The other 61 plays netted only 2.38 yards. The defense gets it done most of the time. It when they aren’t executing that the Gators run into all sorts of problems. When they don’t execute in one or all three phases, they either lose or come darn close to losing. Just once, Billy Napier would love to see the Gators hit it on all cylinders in all three phases of the game – offense, defense and special teams. He has seen sporadic proof that this team is capable of putting it all together but six games into the season he hasn’t seen a cleanly played game from bell-to-bell. “I think we’re very much a work in progress,” Napier said. We’ve been hearing the Gators are a work in progress each of the previous six weeks. It’s fact, not an exaggeration. Napier isn’t crying wolf on us, nor is he sugar coating the problems. He doesn’t call out individual players who blow an assignment or make a glaring error. He insists that he’s got to coach better and is adamant that whatever problems there are, whatever issues need to be resolved, it’s up to a combination of better coaching and better practices to erase the glitches that create on the field deficits. It's a learning process to say the least. “We’re learning how to practice,” he said. “I do think we’re build for winning football. We’ve got a formula that’s won a lot of games (40 in the four years prior to arriving at UF). I think we’re getting better at that process and I’m hopeful we can win more in the future.” It would be very nice if the future were to begin Saturday against LSU. A win would not only end a three-game losing skid to the Tigers but give the Gators the momentum of a three-game winning streak for 2022 heading into the bye week before the Georgia game. It’s certainly winnable, but of course, every game the Gators have played has been winnable, hence the frustration felt by coaches, players and fans alike. We know the Gators could have and should have beaten Kentucky but they handed the Wildcats 23 of their 26 points on a silver platter. We also know the Gators could have beaten the Vols in Knoxville. Of course, three of the Gators four wins could have been losses, too. It’s called living on the edge, which is why we’re left to wonder which Florida team shows up Saturday evening against LSU. If it’s the Gators who hung 33 points and 597 yards on Tennessee and they get some improvement from the defense, then LSU could be in deepest and darkest. If it’s the team that struggled to move the ball most of the Kentucky game and the first half of the Missouri game, and they can’t get the Tigers off the field, then the Gators are the ones with big problems to overcome. If it’s the team that needed a miracle interception in the end zone to beat Utah and lightning striking twice in three plays in the form of one-hop snaps against South Florida, then we’re in for another game that will have us clutching our hearts and promising to make an appointment on Monday with a cardiologist. The Gators are perfectly capable of beating LSU and they’re perfectly capable of self-destructing, too. The Gators desperately need to show up focused and playing with a sense of urgency that hasn’t been seen with any semblance of consistency. Instead of being the football equivalent of the little Dutch boy running out of fingers to plug holes in the dike, they need to show up and play a complete game to go into the bye week with the kind of confidence that they can hang with Georgia for 60 minutes on October 29. They also have to know that LSU coach Brian Kelly has been sounding the urgency alarm with his team all week. The Tigers are coming off an embarrassing home loss and the week after Florida they have Ole Miss. The game after that is Alabama. If they’re 4-5 with three weeks to go in the season, the same LSU fans who have run national championship winning coaches Les Miles and Ed Orgeron out of town will be burning up social media with calls for not only Kelly, but Scott Woodward to be gone. If Kelly is winning he’s tolerable. If he’s not winning, he’s just a carpetbagger who used to coach at Notre Dame and Woodward will be the guy who gave him a 10-year, $100 million deal. Knowing that Kelly and his staff will have the Tigers fully versed in how the season can go south in a heartbeat, this has to be a moment when Billy Napier gets his winning formula implemented and running efficiently. Win or lose there will still be issues that can’t be resolved without more coaching and good recruiting in the future, but there is no questioning the importance of winning this game. The Gators have to treat it like their Super Bowl. No, they’re not going to win the SEC East championship unless something totally unforeseen and bizarre happens, but they can eliminate LSU from any hope of an SEC West title and go into the bye week before Georgia riding the wave of a successful three-game run. In this two steps forward, one step backward type of season, a third straight win is a big deal. It’s a confidence builder, the kind of thing that can make the kids believe even more that this new coaching staff with their totally new approach to doing things has them trending in the right direction. This isn’t an overnight deal but a week-to-week learning process. At some point, Murphy and the Gators are going to part company and instead of too much going wrong at the most inopportune moment, good things will be happening. This would be a very good week for that to begin.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: SATURDAY, PEARSALL AND DANIELS WILL BE RIVALS A year ago, whenever Jayden Daniels needed to find an open receiver, the first person he looked for is Ricky Pearsall. The two of them hooked up 48 times for 580 yards and four touchdowns. Daniels is still throwing passes and Pearsall is still catching them, the only difference they are no longer teammates at Arizona State. Daniels is the starting QB at LSU where he has thrown for 1,215 yards and seven touchdowns while running for 359 and three more. Pearsall has established himself as a go-to receiver for Anthony Richardson at Florida where he has caught 14 passes for 254 yards (18.14 per catch) and two touchdowns. He has also scored once on a 76-yard reverse. There will be a reunion Saturday when they’re on opposite sidelines, each one trying to help his team get to win No. 5. They talk regularly, but especially in the last few days. “I think we’ve been talking for the longest time, since I committed to Florida actually,” Pearsall said. “We FaceTime all the time. He’s definitely talking, but I talk, too, so it’s going to be really fun, a little rivalry with each other.” Pearsall grinned when the subject of trash talk came up and when asked who’s better, the answer shot back without hesitation, “Me!” Pearsall knows exactly what the Gators can expect from his buddy and former battery-mate. “He’s really athletic,” Pearsall said. “He’s a really good runner, so I think that’s a really important thing. When he gets out of the pocket, he’s dangerous. I told Big G (Gervon Dexter Sr.) and I told Jayden, too. I was like, Big G is coming for you so I was trying to get in his head a little bit, but yeah, it will be good.” Florida depth chart for LSU WR: Xzavier Henderson; Daejon Reynolds or Marcus Burke WR: Justin Shorter; Ja’Quavion Fraziars WR: Ricky Pearsall; Trent Whittemore; Ja’Markis Weston LT: Richard Gouraige; Kamryn Waites LG: Ethan White; Josh Braun C: Kingsley Eguakun; Jake Slaughter RG: O’Cyrus Torrence; Richie Leonard IV; Jalen Farmer RT: Austin Barber or Michael Tarquin TE: Dante Zanders; Keon Zipperer QB: Anthony Richardson; Jalen Kitna; Jack Miller III RB: Montrell Johnson Jr.; Trevor Etienne; Nay’Quan Wright or Lorenzo Lingard Defense DE: Princely Umanmielen; Justus Boone NT: Desmond Watson; Jalen Lee; Jaelin Humphries; Jamari Lyons DE: Gervon Dexter Sr.; Tyreak Sapp; Chris McClellan JACK: Brenton Cox Jr.; Antwaun Powell-Ryland Jr.; Lloyd Summerall III or David Reese LB: Ventrell Miller; Scooby Williams or Derek Wingo LB: Amari Burney; Shemar James STAR: Tre’Vez Johnson; Jadarrius Perkins; Kamari Wilcoxson CB: Jason Marshall Jr.; Jalen Kimber; Jordan Young S: Rashad Torrence II; Kamari Wilson; Corey Collier Jr. S: Trey Dean III; Donovan McMillon; Miguel Mitchell CB: Jaydon Hill; Avery Helm Special teams KO: Trey Smack or Adam Mihalek PK: Adam Mihalek or Trey Smack P: Jeremy Crawshaw; Jacob Watkins LS: Rocco Underwood; Chase Whitfield H: Jeremy Crawshaw; Jacob Watkins KOR: Trevor Etienne; Xzavier Henderson or Jason Marshall Jr.; Thai Chaiakhiao-Bowman PR: Xzavier Henderson; Jason Marshall Jr. or Trevor Etienne Injured: CB Devin Moore, out; LB Diwun Black (out); RG O’Cyrus Torrence (questionable); LS Marco Ortiz (out); TE Arlis Boardingham (questionable); TE Nick Elksnis (out) SEC football No. 3 Alabama (6-0, 3-0 SEC): Nick Saban won’t say that Bryce Young will play against Tennessee, but he made it perfectly clear Young wants to play on the SEC Coaches Teleconference. Arkansas (3-3, 1-3 SEC): HBC Sam Pittman said that quarterback KJ Jefferson “had a good week” of practice for BYU after missing last week’s game because of concussion protocol. Auburn (3-3, 1-2 SEC): Greg McElroy says one of the reasons Bryan Harsin still has a job is that there really isn’t anyone on the Auburn staff with enough experience to be the interim. No. 1 Georgia (6-0, 3-0, SEC): Former Georgia coach and athletic director Vince Dooley is out of the hospital after a bout with COVID. No. 22 Kentucky (4-2, 1-2 SEC): Whether it’s Will Levis or another QB Saturday against Mississippi State, he will have to have better protection. The Wildcats are 129th in the nation in sacks allowed (25). Mississippi State pass rushers have gotten to the QB 14 times in six games. LSU (4-2, 2-1 SEC): Offensive lineman Will Campbell, who missed the Tennessee game with dehydration, is expected to play Saturday against Florida. No. 16 Mississippi State (5-1, 2-1 SEC): Asked his views about childbirth, Mike Leach said, “You never know when liftoff is on those things. I almost missed my son. He popped out real fast.” Missouri (2-4, 0-3 SEC): After three straight losses, HBC Eli Drinkwitz said the bye week “came at a great time for our team to recharge and refresh.” No. 9 Ole Miss (6-0, 2-0 SEC): Speaking of QB Jaxson Dart, Lane Kiffin said, “I’d really like him to not throw the ball to the other team.” South Carolina (4-2, 1-2 SEC): With a bye week, South Carolina HBC Shane Beamer will be concentrating on recruiting. No. 6 Tennessee (6-0, 2-0 SEC): Wide receiver Cedric Tillman is still day-to-day. HBC Josh Heupel says a decision to play him against Alabama will be made “as we get closer to game day.” Texas A&M (3-3, 1-2 SEC): Thirteen members of Texas A&M’s top-ranked 2022 recruiting class have already burned their redshirt. Vanderbilt (3-3, 0-2 SEC): The Commodores had a great first half last week at Memphis before they melted down in the second half. With Vandy going to Athens to face No. 1 Georgia Saturday, HBC Clark Lea said, “If we can replicate Vanderbilt football over four quarters, we will put ourselves in good position in Athens.” Our SEC orphans in the Big 12 Oklahoma (3-3, 0-3 Big 12): Dillon Gabriel’s status has been upgraded to probable for Saturday’s game with No. 19 Kansas. Gabriel was knocked unconscious in the TCU game and hasn’t played since. No. 23 Texas (4-2, 2-1 Big 12): Freshman Kelvin Banks has started all six games at left tackle and fellow freshman Cole Hutson has started the last five at right guard. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Call it the upset of the firing season. We went an entire week without anyone getting the pink slip. That could change this week, particularly if Ole Miss blows the doors off Auburn. Of course, the Auburn faithful who want Bryan Harsin gone were thinking that last week when Georgia pounded the Tigers into oblivion. Countdown to Firing Day: Week 7 Extinct Species List Scott Frost, Nebraska: Everybody seems to think Matt Rhule would be the perfect fit at Nebraska since he has already revived dead programs at Temple and Baylor in the past. Does he want to do another rebuild? He may ask with $800,000 a month in Carolina Panthers buyout money for the next four years why go through the agony of starting from scratch again? Herm Edwards, Arizona State: The smart hire would be Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, who played and coached at Arizona State but will he be willing to anchor his coaching future to a school that is going to get absolutely hammered by the NCAA? Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech: Since Collins was fired, interim Brent Key has won two straight to even the record at 3-3. The folks at North Avenue tend to be on the cheap side, so there is every good chance Key will be the replacement since there are no buyouts and moving expenses involved. Karl Dorrell, Colorado: Ryan Walters, the defensive coordinator at Illinois and a former Colorado safety, seems to be the hot name, especially since the Fighting Illini are second nationally in total defense and holding opponents to 67 yards a game on the ground. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin: The guy they want is Kansas coach Lance Leipold, a Wisconsin native who won six Division III national titles at Wisconsin-Whitewater. If Leipold says no they probably stick with interim Jim Leonhard, who was a 3-time All-America safety at Wisconsin after walking on. He’s been the defensive coordinator, knows the state and is a good recruiter. On Life Support Bryan Harsin, Auburn: It’s a given that Harsin won’t be back but somehow he’s still coaching. In the immortal words of Jeremy Foley, “What should be done eventually must be done immediately.” Especially with the possibility of hiring Matt Rhule out there. Scot Loeffler, Bowling Green: The next three games will likely determine if Lefty is back another year. He’s 2-4 with that big win over Marshall but he needs to go 3-3 the rest of the way to have a chance to be back. A 4-2 mark, which is highly unlikely, would do the trick. Neal Brown, West Virginia: The Mounties are 2-3 heading into tonight’s game with Baylor. Brown needs five wins in the last seven to remain gainfully employed. The schedule says that isn’t going to happen. There are buzzards seriously debating whether it’s time to start circling. Dana Holgorsen, Houston: The Cougars are 3-3, certainly not what was expected when the season began and there were aspirations of being this year’s Cincinnati. There isn’t a game of the remaining six that isn’t winnable. Holgorsen really needs to go 6-0 to show he’s worth every penny of the more than $4 million they’re paying him. Will Healy, Charlotte: He’s 1-5, on the verge of another losing season and next year Charlotte moves up from Conference USA to the American Athletic Conference. It’s going to take a minor miracle for Healy to keep his job. Endangered Species List Ken Niumatalolo, Navy: Have the Middies turned the corner on the season? That 53-21 win over Tulsa last week was an eye opener. They’re 2-3 and the schedule is daunting enough that 6-6 might be a stretch, but it would take the heat off Niumatalolo. Mike Bloomgren, Rice: If he wins the Owl Bowl in Boca this weekend, the Rice Owls will be 4-2, meaning Bloomgren is (a) two wins away from bowl eligibility and (b) two wins away from avoiding the pink slip. Willie Taggart, Florida Atlantic: It’s all but imperative FAU wins the Owl Bowl in Boca Saturday. They’re 2-4 and out of excuses for why they’re not better. Willie needs a minimum 4-2 finish to avoid a losing season and walking the proverbial coaches plank. David Shaw, Stanford: Since the 9-4 season of 2018, the Cardinal have gone 12-24, 1-4 this season. The only team worse in the Pac-12 is Colorado, which already sent its coach packing. Shaw makes $8.9 million which has folks thinking they aren’t getting near enough bang for their buck on The Farm. The buzzards might start gathering if Notre Dame drops the hammer this weekend in South Bend. Scott Satterfield, Louisville: The Cardinals are 3-3 but the next six games are all losable and the last three – (at) Clemson, North Carolina State and (at) Kentucky – have the look of a 3-game losing streak at the end of the season. A loss to Pitt this week might set the firing wheels in motion. Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee: Since scoring that shocker of a win over then 25th-ranked Miami, the Blue Raiders have gone in the tank. They’re 3-3 with a schedule that could take them in either direction. A 4-2 finish wouldn’t excite the masses, but it might keep him from getting canned. Jake Spavital, Texas State: The relatively easy win over the Happy Appys raised a few eyebrows. The Bobcats are 3-3 and the next three are very winnable. Progress is being made and a 6-6 season will keep Spavital off a will work for beer street corner.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: LSU IS A CHANCE FOR THE UF O-LINE TO MAKE A STATEMENT Two stats tell us everything we need to know about the Florida (4-2, 1-2 SEC) offensive line’s importance Saturday when LSU (4-2, 2-1 SEC) comes to The Swamp (7 p.m., ESPN) to face the Gators. The Gators are averaging 6.38 yards per running play and opponents have sacked quarterback Anthony Richardson only four times. The 6.38 yards per carry ranks third nationally, while the four sacks allowed is tied for fifth. In their 40-13 loss to Tennessee last week, the Tigers gave up 263 rushing yards on 42 attempts (5.37 per carry) and they didn’t register a single sack. Those numbers tell us that the Tennessee O-line totally dominated the game, which is something Florida’s offensive line will need to do. With a defense that has been as leaky as Florida’s the best way to make the defense better is keep them off the field as much as possible by controlling the football. Pro Football Focus grades every player in Division I every single snap. Here is where they rank Florida’s offensive line: C Kingsley Eguakun: He has the No. 33 center grade in the entire country and he’s the fourth best in the SEC. LG Ethan White: White is the No. 61 guard in the country and the No. 7 guard in the SEC. RG O’Cyrus Torrence: Torrence is the No. 1 guard in the country and the SEC. LT Richard Gouraige: Gouraige is the No. 88 tackle in the SEC and the No. 12 tackle in the SEC. RT Austin Barber: Barber is the No. 17 tackle in the country and No. 1 in the entire SEC. The analytics say that Florida’s offensive line is the strength of the team. Billy Napier’s game plan for LSU should lean heavily on the O-line to pound away in the run game and give Anthony Richardson time to throw the football. Florida Basketball Todd Golden: “I think we’re where we need to be right now” Speaking prior to Tuesday’s practice, UF basketball coach Todd Golden sounded upbeat and positive about what he’s seen from the Gators with the start to the season a little less than one month away. “A lot of things every day,” Golden responded to a question about what he likes so far. “No, I like where we’re at with what we’ve seen. I think one of our biggest strengths will be our depth. We have a lot of guys I feel like will be capable to help us win games so that gives us flexibility for guys to have an off night and some guys to step up so that’s been encouraging. I think we’ve got good length, good athleticism, we’re still trying to figure out how to play with each other to the best of our abilities but for being three weeks, three-and-a-half weeks out from our first game, I think we’re where we need to be right now.” Golden on Colin Castleton: “When we got here. I knew he was a fantastic player. He had great numbers. I’d watched a decent amount of Florida just being in the league before, but he’s even more talented I would say than we thought. He just has a great ability to playmake, he can handle the ball for a big guy. We can get him the ball at the pinch post at the top of the key and he can turn it into a one-on-one move … If you can just find a way to get him a catch 12 or 15 feet from the rim, you know it’s going to be a good possession. That’s incredibly important and valuable thing to have on your roster, especially a guy to his credit who has worked a lot on his body, spent a lot of time in the weight room as he was rehabbing this summer. It wasn’t like he was just coasting during rehab, he was getting bigger and stronger and more athletic. I think we’re seeing that now. I think he’s primed to have a really big year.” Practice highlights Colin Castleton: His best play was a coast-to-coast dunk after a steal on the defensive end. He also had a terrific pass to Riley Kugel who went under the rim and for a layup on the other side. He also had about an 8-foot jump hook in the lane. Kowacie Reeves: He had a couple of nice finishes at the rim, but showed serious hops on a rebound when he had an elbow above everyone else when he corralled the ball. CJ Felder: He had another good day rebounding the ball. He hit a nice three from the top of the key and showed real strength with a power move to score between Jason Jitoboh and Alex Fudge. Trey Bonham: He had the pass of the day, a behind the back delivery to Jitoboh for an easy layup. He and Jitoboh also teamed up later when Jitoboh set a massive screen and Bonham delivered a long three. He got into the paint off the bounce early and often and made really good decisions with the ball. Niels Lane: He went coast-to-coast for a layup after a steal, had a kickout pass off an offensive rebound to Denzel Aberdeen for a long three and a nifty pass to Aleks Szymczyk for a layup. He had his usual lockdown day on the defensive end. Myreon Jones: He nailed a pair of threes from a different area code, played solid defense and was money from the corner when he launched threes. Riley Kugel: He is becoming a daily highlight reel. He had a long three from right of the key, took a crosscourt pass from Castleton into the lane for a monstrous dunk, got a stick back on an offensive rebound and harassed Jones into an air ball. Will Richard: The brace is off the ankle. He went through full court and half court drills but didn’t participate in any contact drills. He should be back to full practices next Wednesday at the latest. He’s got serious range on his jumper. Kyle Lofton: He was held out again today as a precaution. He will be back to full practices next Wednesday at the very latest. SEC football No. 3 Alabama (6-0, 3-0 SEC): On the Paul Finebaum Show, former Alabama QB and ESPN analyst Greg McElroy said he anticipates Bryce Young will play Saturday at Tennssee … Notre Dame and Stanford have forced fewer turnovers than Alabama. The Tide has recovered two fumbles and intercepted one pass halfway though the season … Alabama has scheduled a home-and-home with Minnesota in 2032-33. The Tide will face Minnesota in Minneapolis in 2032 and host the Gophers in 2033. Arkansas (3-3, 1-2 SEC): KJ Jefferson, who missed the loss to Mississippi State while under concussion protocol, is listed as the No. 1 quarterback on the depth chart for Saturday’s game at BYU. Auburn (3-3, 1-2 SEC): In three SEC games, Tank Bigsby has run for 108 yards on 41 carries, an average of just 2.63 per carry. Bigsby ran for 1,099 yards last year when he averaged 4.93 per carry. He has 2,275 rushing yards in his career. No. 1 Georgia (6-0, 3-0 SEC): Does QB Stetson Bennett have shoulder problems? Longtime UGa beat writer Mike Griffith thinks Bennett’s shoulder may be why he’s averaging 8.8 per pass attempt (10.0 last year) and only five TDPs (29 last year). Bennett is throwing more this year (199 attempts; only 287 all of last year) but the overall production is down. No. 22 Kentucky (4-2, 1-2 SEC): Quarterback Will Levis is still day-to-day but offensive coordinator Rich Scangarello says it is “trending in the right direction” for Levis to be back for Saturday’s game with Mississippi State. LSU (4-2, 2-1 SEC): Cornerback Mekhi Garner said there was a players only meeting Monday following the 40-13 loss to Tennessee. This is the second players only meeting LSU has had and we’re only halfway through the season. No. 16 Mississippi State (5-1, 1-1 SEC): After giving up nine sacks in the first four games, the Bulldogs have gone two in a row without allowing Will Rogers to be sacked. Also in the last two games, the Bulldogs have run for 144 and 173 yards, the first time there have been back-to-back games with more than 100 rushing yards since the last two games of 2020. Missouri (2-4, 0-3 SEC): Of the three-game losing skid in SEC play, team captain Martez Manuel said, “I feel like we are one play from turning it around.” The three SEC losses are by a combined 14 points. No. 9 Ole Miss (6-0, 2-0 SEC): Quinshon Judkins has more yards (581) than any freshman running back in the country. Judkins is second in the SEC in rushing … Saturday’s home game with Auburn is a sellout. South Carolina (4-2, 1-2 SEC): HBC Shane Beamer was selected Dodd Trophy national coach of the week after the Gamecocks knocked off then No. 13 Kentucky on the road … The Gamecocks have added D1AA Towson to their 2026 schedule. No. 6 Tennessee (6-0, 2-0 SEC): Starting safety Jaylen McCullough claims complete and total innocence of felony assault charges. McCullough allegedly struck an intoxicated man and knocked him unconscious in Knoxville last weekend. Texas A&M (3-3, 1-2 SEC): Injuries have caused the Aggies to play four different offensive line combinations in the last five games. Vanderbilt (3-3, 0-2 SEC): The last time Vanderbilt made the Associated Press top 25 poll was January 7, 2014. Only Oregon State and Rutgers have had a longer streak without being ranked. Our SEC orphans in the Big 12 Oklahoma (3-3, 0-3 Big 12): There has been no announcement if quarterback Dillon Gabriel (concussion protocol) will be back in the lineup this week but HBC Brent Venables says Gabriel is practicing full speed. No. 23 Texas (4-2, 2-1 Big 12): Saturday opponent Iowa State has lost all three Big 12 games by a combined 11 points. The Cyclones lead the Big 12 and are No. 11 nationally in total defense at 277.5 yards per game. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: We are going to have an expanded College Football Playoff at the latest in 2026, but more likely in 2024. There logistics that have to be worked out are quite serious, but so are the money issues faced by so many Division I schools. The CFB won’t solve everyone’s money problems, but for the lower tier schools that will be a bigger slice of the financial pie than they get right now, the extra dollars will help tremendously. A 12-team playoff certainly is more interesting than the current model which seems to deliver the same teams over and over again. The same teams that make the final four in the current model may make the final four in the 12-team model, but at least there is a greater chance we’ll see some upsets and new faces. Two questions that stand out: (1) How long before the playoff expands to 16 teams; and (2) what will become of the bowls? A lot of people believe it’s inevitable that the playoff expands to 16 teams. They think it’s a matter of when and not if since it won’t add another weekend to the playoff. The advantage of the 12-team model is the top four seeded teams get a first round bye. The advantage of a 16-team playoff is that every conference champ could be included and there would still be at least six at-large teams selected. The other advantage of the 16-team playoff is it would bring in more revenue. The bowls will survive for awhile at least. Just as the NIT has survived when the NCAA Tournament has expanded, the bowls are likely to survive. Some of the bigger bowls can be incorporated into the playoff with the lower tier bowls serving as a reward for schools that didn’t make the playoff.