"I could make a case for Spurrier begetting the Gators’ entire lineage of royalty and greatness. He even inspired Urban Meyer, who confessed he loved “everything about his (Spurrier’s) team, the way it played, the way it took the field …” Part 1: Steve Spurrier, Then And Now (As a public service for all those young Gators who don’t yet realize their heritage.) Maybe you never heard of Edwin Graves. He was a postmaster in Knoxville, Tenn. If you’re a Gator fan, or player, write his name down, because he helped change the future, the fortunes and flamboyance of your Florida football team. He didn’t actually do it, but his brother Ray did. We bring up Postmaster Graves today because I’m thinking about the importance of mentors. Especially after the death of mine last week. (More later, see below.) Edwin Graves, who died in 2005, actually “discovered” Spurrier in nearby Johnson City. He kept calling his brother in Gainesville, talking about this three-sport star at Science Hill High School whom he had seen play. Finally, Coach Graves flew up to see the megastar in Johnson City three times and invited Spurrier to Gainesville. That would change everything, fostering a whole chain of superb mentors in UF football history. It took a while for UF and Spurrier to connect. For one thing, Steve loved making visits to all the other campuses. His mom wanted him to sign with Georgia Tech because of strong academics. His dad wanted him to play for Bear Bryant at Alabama. There was no National Signing Day in 1963 and if there would have been “I’d probably have signed with Ole Miss.” Tennessee wanted him – even offered Steve a basketball scholarship – but the Vols were a singlewing team with no place for his football skill set. So his extended SEC recruiting tour took some time, slowly cooking. Finally, Spurrier arrived on the Florida campus one fine spring day, checked the weather and saw it was about 30 degrees warmer than back home in Johnson City, which made it easier as he’d come to realize he wanted to be a Gator. A few rounds of golf on the UF course helped clinch the deal. But first he was hospitalized with mono-nucleosis at the UF infirmary. Coach Graves commandeered a boosters’ private plane to return him to The Tri-Cities Airport and Johnson City. A few months later in August he was back in Gainesville, decked out in orange and blue for the freshman team. Which makes you wonder: Without Edwin Graves, would there have ever been that statue of Spurrier alongside his Heisman winning quarterback Danny Wuerffel, who was the hero of Tim Tebow, the statue to his right, or Wuerffel, just to his left? I could make a case for Spurrier begetting the Gators’ entire lineage of royalty and greatness. He even inspired Urban Meyer, who confessed he loved “everything about his (Spurrier’s) team, the way it played, the way it took the field …” Paying homage to the past, Urban rewarded both Ray Graves and Spurrier 2006 national championship rings. Steve’s ring is on display at his Steve Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille. And now Billy Napier admits he joined the Steve Spurrier Admiration Society a long time ago. Napier told Zach Abolverdi of Gators Online recently that he met with both Spurrier and Meyer, paying his respects after being hired by Scott Stricklin. Unlike his predecessors, Napier gets it. “For me, heck, I’m still a little starstruck when I see Coach Spurrier,” Napier said. “I’m that age. When you got a legend walking around the building, what a great resource, right? Just listening to him about the dynamic in recruiting, and he helps us with those efforts. Listening to him about the coaching aspect on the field.” As obvious as it sounds, I’m dumbfounded how both Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen almost blew off Steve Spurrier, failing to pick the brilliant mind of The Head Ball Coach. It’s like if you had Vince Lombardi or Bill Belichick or even Bear Bryant living next door — wouldn’t you take time to say hello, take them a bottle of wine for Christmas, or even sneak a peek at their library? Some people disagree with me on that. One of them is Spurrier. “They got their own way of doings things,” Spurrier told me, “And that’s why they got hired. They don’t need me hanging around.” The HBC says he had total access and would drop by Mullen’s office now and then but didn’t feel the need. Spurrier went on to talk about other ex-great coaches and how their presence didn’t necessarily portend success. “When Scott Frost was hired at Nebraska, he moved Tom Osborne’s office to the football building. And that didn’t work to his advantage, did it?” Happily, Steve will keep his office with the other UAA administrators and not move to the new football building. Where he is now he can park nearby, then easily slip in and out to the golf course or the restaurant without fanfare. No matter, Steve's reputation precedes him everywhere, including with Napier: “He was a visionary offensively relative to what was working at the time and how he made them more difficult to defend and prepare for. And then just a general pride of the place, right? You’re talking about someone who really cares about the University of Florida. And he’s done things at places that had never been done before, both here and at South Carolina. So, just a very accomplished person, and having him as a resource is unique and a blessing.” Here's why that’s so smart by Napier. At a time when most folks erroneously presume that young athletes don’t care about history and are wrapped up in Gordon Gekko greed, I think they are missing the chance to educate them. It’s more than just about Lamborghinis and Lollipops. A few former coaches have told me they are discouraged by the NIL and Transfer Portal blitzkrieg. One who has tasted national championship champagne and caviar said, “College Football will never be the same again.” Another was Urban Meyer. Hopefully they’re wrong. When the temporary rush about the bright shiny new thing has subsided, why can’t the quest for excellence and tradition still be a priority? That’s where the need for mentors becomes dire. Young people and novices still crave knowledge and someone to guide them down the right path toward success. They need to hear a voice speaking to that. Who among us wouldn’t have craved a chance to study at the knee of an iconic mentor like Steve Spurrier? In any field or on any mission. It made me think about my youth. * * * I certainly did crave mentoring in my early 20’s when I was floundering around, trying to learn how to become a better sportswriter, hone the craft of writing and reporting and advance my career. I’d never have made it far except for the encouragement, wisdom and patience of Journalism Professor Hugh Cunningham at UF to guide me for a few years. I was lost at sea. Until I was rescued by Jim Head. He opened the gates of the big-time and ushered me into the land of opportunity, teaching me how to hunt down a story, craft it and breathe life into it through passion and curiosity. Immediately after I was hired at Today newspaper in Brevard County, Jim Head told me to pack my bags for Houston, where the world’s first basketball inside a dome was going to be played. Little did I realize I was seeing such ground-breaking history. That night in the Astrodome, the Houston Cougars and Elvin Hayes upset UCLA and Lew Alcindor. At courtside I remember being struck by how differently sound of the bouncing of the ball was in the vast confines of the Astrodome. “Like a BB rolling around in a barrel,” I wrote, perhaps reaching a bit to make the point. That was just my first baby step toward the big-time which would eventually lead to New York, where Jim once worked at the famed New York Herald-Tribune; then Jim later worked at the Miami Herald, Miami News and Detroit Free Press before taking the helm at the upstart Today paper in Cocoa, the forerunner at Gannett’s USA Today. He hired me to work in New York, punching my ticket to Madison Square Garden, the Meadowlands, Yankee Stadium and just about every major sports venue on the planet. Jim would teach me to use my eyes, ears, heart and instincts to tell my story. Sometimes he sent me back to the typewriter for a do-over. And not just sports. Randomly he would choose to assign me a non-sports piece, like attending the funeral of Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong in a Corona Queens Baptist Church – and riding there in a limo with sultry songstress Peggy Lee, who was to sing The Lord’s prayer. I also covered the Moonshot, did an in-studio visit and profile with Today Show anchor Frank McGee (also riding in his limo from Scarsdale) and headed up a team to cover a school bus/train crash that killed five students which would win first place in the New York state AP feature awards. All made possible by working under a master. More importantly, he believed in me. It almost didn’t happen. It took three interviews at this new newspaper before Jim Head hired me (only one with him.) Along the way, we laughed a lot, had a few adult beverages and occasionally broke out in song, him on the fiddle and me on the keyboard in the basement of his upstate New York home in Cold Spring, hard against the Hudson River. It sounded best when we had more than one beverage. James D. Head, from Kansas died last week of covid in a Howie-In-The-Hills veterans retiree home. He was 96. I certainly did crave mentoring in my early 20’s when I was floundering around, trying to learn how to become a better sportswriter, hone the craft of writing and reporting and advance my career. I’d never have made it far except for the encouragement, wisdom and patience of Journalism Professor Hugh Cunningham at UF to guide me through the darkness for a few years. He was one of the few who believed in the small town boy and would whisper in my ear, “you’re going to be an editor someday.” I was lost at sea. Until I was rescued by Jim Head. He opened the gates of the big-time and ushered me into the land of opportunity, teaching me how to hunt down a story, craft it and breathe life into it through passion and curiosity. Immediately after I was hired at Today newspaper in Brevard County, Jim Head told me to pack my bags for Houston, where the world’s first basketball inside a dome was going to be played. Little did I realize I was seeing such transformative history. That night in the Astrodome, the Houston Cougars and Elvin Hayes upset UCLA and Lew Alcindor. At courtside, I remember being struck by how differently the sound of the bouncing of the ball was in the vast confines of the Astrodome. “Like a BB rolling around in a barrel,” I wrote, perhaps reaching a bit to make the point. That was just my first baby step toward the big-time which would eventually lead to New York, where Jim once worked at the famed New York Herald-Tribune; then Jim later worked at the Miami Herald, Miami News and Detroit Free Press before taking the helm at the upstart Today paper in Cocoa, the forerunner at Gannett’s USA Today. He was bold and bodacious and brilliant — even borderline roguish at times. He hired me to work in New York, punching my ticket to Madison Square Garden, the Meadowlands, Yankee Stadium and just about every major sports venue on the planet. Jim would teach me to use my eyes, ears, heart and instincts to tell my story. Sometimes he sent me back to the typewriter for a do-over. And not just sports. Randomly he would choose to assign me a non-sports piece, like attending the funeral of Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong in a Corona Queens Baptist Church – and riding there in a limo with sultry songstress Peggy Lee, who was to sing The Lord’s prayer. Looking back, I am overwhelmed at the blind trust he had in me. I also covered the Moonshot, did an in-studio visit and profile with Today Show anchor Frank McGee (also riding in his limo from Scarsdale) and headed up a team to cover the story of a school bus/train crash that killed five students which would win first place in the New York state AP feature awards. All made possible by working under a master. Who believed in me. It almost didn’t happen. It took three interviews (but only one with him) at this new newspaper before Jim Head hired me. Along the way, we laughed a lot, had a few adult beverages and occasionally broke out in song, him on the fiddle and me on the keyboard in the basement of his upstate New York home in Cold Spring, hard against the Hudson River. It sounded best when we had more than one beverage. James D. Head, from Kansas died last week of covid in a Howie-In-The-Hills veterans retiree home. He was 96. * * * So was it happenstance or fate? Without Jim Head there would have been no Buddy Martin. Without Edwin Graves, there likely wouldn’t be a statue of Steve Spurrier in front of BHG Stadium, or his name on the field. Or a whole lot of other cool stuff about the Florida Gators. NEXT WEEK: Steve Spurrier’s landing spot and why his restaurant has become a recruiting weapon for Napier and the Gators. I head to Spurrier’s Gridiron Grille to order Steve’s favorite meal.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: ALL SIGNS POINT TO A VERY GOOD OFFENSIVE LINE Both Lindy’s and Athlon project Florida’s offensive line as the 8th best in the SEC for 2022, which seems a bit curious when you consider the Gators have a collective 96 career starts and last year UF averaged 208.69 rushing yards per game (SEC best 5.48 per carry), averaged a respectable 7.9 per pass attempt and gave up only 14 sacks in 13 games, which was best in the SEC. Alabama, for example, returns two starters on its offensive line, ranked third by Athlon. The Tide gave up 41 sacks last year, averaged 4.11 per carry and just 150 yards per game on the ground. Lindy’s ranks the Tennessee offensive line fifth, presumably because the Vols return four starters. Those guys gave up 44 sacks last year, dead last in the SEC. I’m not going to predict the Gators will have the top offensive line in the league next year, but I do believe it will be one of the better lines in the league. With Rob Sale and Darnell Stapleton taking over for the departed John Hevesy, the line will be better coached for one thing. The addition of O’Cyrus Torrence – projected as a first team All-America by Lindy’s – at right guard gives UF an absolute beast on the right side. He also wears the tag of the league’s best pass blocker by the folks who rank these things at Lindy’s. He started 35 games at Louisiana. After the spring, the line looks like this: LT Richard Gouraige (6-5, 310); LG Ethan White (6-5, 334) or Josh Braun (6-6, 345); C Kingsley Eguakun (6-4, 305); RG Torrence (6-5, 335) and RT Michael Tarquin (6-5, 301) or juco transfer Jordan Herman (6-8, 370). Prepare to be pleasantly surprised by this bunch. GATORS FINISH FIFTH IN THE DIRECTOR’S CUP STANDINGS Winning the NCAA men’s and women’s track and field national championships vaulted the Gators into fifth place in the Learfield Division I Director’s Cup final standings. The Gators finish with 1130.75 points, the highest total for any SEC school and just 53.75 points behind fourth place Ohio State. Florida’s finish was particularly amazing because the Gators scored no points for football or men’s basketball, plus soccer, a perennial scorer, had a losing season. The Gators won three national championships – all of them in track (women also won the indoor) – and finished NCAA runner-up in gymnastics. Here are the top 25 finishers for 2022: 1. Texas; 2. Stanford; 3. Michigan; 4. Ohio State; 5. FLORIDA; 6. North Carolina; 7. Kentucky; 8. Arkansas; 9. Notre Dame; 10. Southern California; 11. Virginia; 12. Oklahoma; 13. Florida State; 14. North Carolina State; 15. Princeton; 16. Tennessee; 17. UCLA; 18. Duke; 19. Alabama; 20. LSU; 21. Georgia; 22. Wisconsin; 23. Arizona State; 24. California; 25. Oklahoma State. Other notables: 26. Ole Miss; 30. Texas A&M; 33. Auburn; 24. South Carolina; 50. Miami; 57. Missouri; 66. UCF; 69. Vanderbilt; 75. Mississippi State; 108. South Florida; 114. Florida International; 144. North Florida; 146. Florida Gulf Coast; 181. Jacksonville; 209. Florida Atlantic; 225. (Tie) Stetson and Florida A&M. GATORS WILL FACE MISSOURI FOR HOMECOMING Missouri will be Florida’s Homecoming opponent on October 8. The Gators played Mizzou for Homecoming back in 2018 when the Tigers scored a 36-17 blowout win. Last season the Gators beat Vanderbilt, 42-0, on Homecoming. TIMMY MANNING ENTERS TRANSFER PORTAL Lefthanded pitcher Timmy Manning has entered the NCAA transfer portal, joining righthander Nick Pogue, catcher Mac Guscette and pitcher Karl Hartman. Manning had a 1-0 record with a 4.76 ERA. His shining moment came in the SEC Tournament when he held Texas A&M scoreless for five innings, giving up five hits and a walk while recording six strikeouts. Manning has two seasons of eligibility remaining. SEC FOOTBALL/BASEBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: In the past Nick Saban has advocated a 9-game SEC schedule and eliminating games against D1AA opponents. So what has Alabama done? The Tide will be playing Easetrn Illinois in 2025 and Tennessee-Martin in 2028. Perhaps the Bama AD didn’t get the memo from Nick … Alabama will travel to Oklahoma in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge … The Tide has a game scheduled with Gonzaga in Birmingham on December 17. Arkansas: Arkansas is expected to go with Connor Noland (7-5, 3.86 ERA) Saturday when they open College World Series Play with No. 2 Stanford … The Hogs will travel to Baylor in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge … Former Arkansas guard Jaxon Robinson is transferring to BYU. Auburn: The Tigers (42-20) will start Joseph Gonzalez (7-3, 2.95 ERA) Saturday night against Ole Miss in the College World Series … First baseman Sonny DiChaira was named second team All-America by the NCWBA along with pitcher Blake Burkhalter … The Tigers will travel to West Virginia in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge … Auburn’s $92 million Football Performance Center is on track to be completed and open by September. FLORIDA: The Gators will travel to Kansas State in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Georgia: Georgia gave tight ends coach Todd Hartley a $200,000 raise. At $650,000 a year he is now the highest paid non-coordinator in college football … Relief pitcher Jack Gowen was named first team All-America by the NCWBA and starting pitcher Jonathan Cannon was named third team. Kentucky: Kentucky will travel to Kansas in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge ...Relief pitcher Tyler Guilfoil was named first team All-America by the NCWBA. LSU: Defensive lineman Soni Fanua, who had 27 tackles including 6.5 for loss last season, has entered the NCAA transfer portal … The Tigers will host Texas Tech in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge … Outfielder Dylan Crews was named first team All-America by the NCBWA. Third baseman Jacob Berry was named to the second team. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs will host TCU in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge … Second baseman RJ Yeager was named third team All-America by the NCWBA. Missouri: Iowa State will travel to Missouri in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Ole Miss: The Rebels (37-22) are going with Dylan DeLucia (6-2) on the mound Saturday night against Auburn in the College World Series in Omaha … Senior slugger Tim Elko, who has hit 22 home runs this year, was selected third team All-America by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Pitcher Hunter Elliott (4-3) was selected Freshman All-America … Ole Miss pitchers are working on 20 consecutive scoreless innings … The Rebels are traveling to Oklahoma State in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge. Tennessee: The Vols are hosting Texas in the SEC/Big 12 Basketball Challenge ... Perfect Game named UT baseball coach Tony Vitello National Coach of the Year … Named first team All-America by the NCBWA were outfielder Drew Gilbert, 3B Trey Lipscomb and starting pitchers Chase Burns and Chase Dollander. Making the second team were starting pitcher Drew Beam and relief pitcher Ben Joyce while outfielder Jason Hinchman was named third team. Texas A&M: The Aggies (42-18), who open up the College World Series today (2 p.m.) with Oklahoma (43-22), are expected to start Nathan Dettmer (5-2, 4.75 ERA) … Outfielder Dylan Rock, who has hit 18 homers, was selected third team NCBWA All-America. Vanderbilt: Outfielder Enrique Bradfield Jr. was named first team All-America by the NCBWA. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: It was suggested – tongue in cheek – by Rick Neuheisel Thursday morning on the Full Ride radio show that the College World Series would only be complete if Southeastern Conference commissioner Greg Sankey threw out the first ball. With half the CWS made up of SEC teams and future members Texas and Oklahoma also in Omaha, this year’s big event to close out the collegiate sports calendar year does give off the feel of SEC dominance. There is one team from the ACC (Notre Dame) and one from the Pac-12 (Stanford). Of course, you could have said the same thing last weekend when Florida won both the men’s and women’s NCAA track and field championships. On the men’s side, five of the top six teams are either currently in the SEC or headed that way – 1. Florida; 2. Texas; 3. Tennessee; 5. Georgia; 6. LSU. The top six on the women’s side were 1. Florida; 2. Texas; 3. Kentucky; 4. LSU; 5. Texas A&M and 6. Arkansas. SEC dominance is why Texas and Oklahoma chose to bolt from the Big 12. Money had something to do with it, but both Texas and Oklahoma know that if you’re competing against the best in nearly every sport, the money will be there. The SEC will be distributing $73 million or more per team when the new ESPN contract kicks in and that is without the additions of Texas and Oklahoma. Their arrival will be a further windfall for the league, escalating the yearly media rights payout to something in the $85-90 million a year per team range. Experts have predicted the Big Ten will have a mega media rights deal. It was supposed to happen in May and yet it still hasn’t been announced. That isn’t to say it won’t happen, but perhaps the delay is an indicator that the big deal won’t be close to the $1 billion that has been suggested by several media elites. No matter if the Big Ten exceeds expectations or falls short, one thing that is certain is the SEC and Big Ten will be the two richest leagues in the country. The Pac-12 doesn’t have a media rights deal and is coming off a $19 million distribution for the last fiscal year. The ACC hit $36 million for the first time ever, but the league is locked into a media deal with ESPN that won’t provide a substantial increase until it expires in 2036. So far, ESPN has shown no willingness to renegotiate. The Big 12 is curious. It just distributed $42.6 million to each of its 10 schools, but the league is living on borrowed time because Texas and Oklahoma will bolt. There are vindictive types in the league that want to exact every penny out of Texas and Oklahoma if they wish to leave prior to 2025 but that might prove to be a rather stupid stance to take. The smart thing for the Big 12 is to take something like $60 million in buyout money from Texas and Oklahoma to let them leave in 2024 (first year of the SEC/ESPN deal) in exchange for a media contract with ESPN. That would actually be the smart thing to do. Even without Texas and Oklahoma, the reconstituted Big 12 that includes Cincinnati, Houston, BYU and UCF will be not that far off from the top-to-bottom football abilities of the ACC and Pac-12. The one thing the SEC’s current dominance should tell the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12, however, is expand the College Football Playoff and do it rather quickly. The Big Ten is going to do well financially without their buddies from the Pac-12 and ACC, but commish Kevin Warren should make it a point not to piss off Sankey any more than he already has. The Pac-12 and ACC are going to be desperate for the money a 12-team playoff could provide – perhaps $150-200 million per year to each of the Power 5 conferences. The Big 12 needs the money too, but it is already in lockstep with the SEC, which, along with Notre Dame, will prevent The Alliance from stripping the Big 12 of its Power 5 status. Sankey was more than willing to compromise on the 12-team expansion proposal but he’s grown increasingly irritated with the commissioners of the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12. Sankey has more clout than anyone in college sports and he has the complete and undivided attention of the networks, who fully understand this basic concept: You can have a College Football Playoff without a team from the Big Ten, ACC or Pac-12. It’s been done before. But, you can’t and won’t have a playoff without the SEC. So whether or not Kevin Warren, Jim Phillips (ACC) or George Kliavkoff (Pac-12) have figured it out yet, Sankey doesn’t need them but they need the SEC. Use the College World Series as your barometer. We’ll have one dandy CWS and that’s without a team from the Big Ten and only one each from the ACC and Pac-12. We didn’t need the ACC, Big Ten or Pac-12 to have a great NCAA track meet, either. The Alliance needs to think about it.

What makes a championship team is not a fluid formula. Particularly in track and field. Team titles are one by accumulating as many points in as many events as possible with a well-rounded complement of athletes in every event. By LOREN MEADOWS GatorBaitMedia.com The Florida Men’s and Women’s Track Teams have spent the last few days celebrating their triumph in this year’s National Outdoor Track and Field Meet. With a week off before returning to Eugene, Ore., they are taking time to relax, recuperate and reflect. Last weekend was a culmination of hard work, togetherness -- and in many ways, diversity -- which delivered the outdoor national championship for both the men’s and women’s programs. For the Florida women this would be the first outdoor national title in program history and the third overall. They would also become the second Gator team to capture both the indoor and outdoor titles, matching the 2012 Gators Men’s team. The men’s team preceded the women by capturing the national title one night prior. What makes a championship team is not a fluid formula. Particularly in track and field. Team titles are one by accumulating as many points in as many events as possible with a well-rounded complement of athletes in every event. For the Florida men, that formula was not in play nor even necessary. The Gators adopted the approach of less is sometimes more in their quest for the national title. Entering the final day, the Florida Gators had not scored a single point and sat at the bottom of the team standings. With only seven entries a team title seemed like a 50/50 proposition at best. However, the Gators showed up Friday evening in their “Championship White” jerseys and quickly made their way up the board. After finishing a close second in the 4x100m relay, sophomore Joseph Fahnbulleh would start the individual scoring off by winning the 100 meters, outracing a star-studded field that included hometown favorite Micah Williams of Oregon. Fahnbulleh who said that Coach Mike Holloway always tells him, “If I’m even at 30 meters I’m leavin” used superior turnover to overcome the field with a personal best time of 10.00 seconds. Florida would also get points in the 100m Dash from Fort White, Florida native Dedrick Vanover to put the Gators in striking distance of the title. The 400m dash would set the tone for the Gators to begin to push ahead of the pack. Champion Allison, Florida’s anchor on the record-setting 4x400m relay team, would finish second, while relay mate Ryan Willie would finish fifth. The stoic-but-explosive Allison, who came to Florida to “compete with a good team,” actually admits that he did not know much about Coach Holloway when he transferred to Florida from Alabama but openly states “this has been the best move ever for me”. Enter again Fahnbulleh, the defending national champion in the 200 meter dash. Fahnbulleh would double down on Holloway’s “if your even, you’re leavin” theory, blasting the 200 meters field in the last 60 meters to run a personal best 19.83 seconds. This would complete the sprint double for the sophomore who will represent Liberia at this year World Championships. With outstanding performances by their limited entries, the Gators were able to dominate all but two of the marquee sprint races on the program. The Gators were expecting a push from the Texas Longhorns who had 11 entries for the meet, however the Longhorns could not withstand clutch performances by the Gators. The last event would be a four-lap coronation of sorts as the Gators, with the team title in hand, led start to finish in the 4x400 meter relay with a meet and facility record time of 2:58.88. The term “diversity” comes to mind when breaking down the national title run for the Gator women. The women had multiple entries in the 800 meter run, 400 meter hurdles, long jump, and heptathlon. What they didn’t have was participants in the marquee races of the 100 meter dash and 100 meter hurdles. If healthy, those events would have been contested by Grace Stark, the National Champion in both the 60 meter dash and the 60 meter hurdles indoors. Unfortunately, Stark suffered an injury at the SEC Championships and was unable to compete. Along with Starks injury, the Gators also did not come to Eugene with dominant relay teams. Undeterred the Gator women walked into Heyward Field with the swagger of a seasoned championship team. It is said that depth wins the conference and star power wins the natty, in this case the Gators had both. Leading the charge was the national championship trio of Jasmine Moore, Anna Hall and Talitha Diggs. Moore repeated her double championship from the indoor season by winning both the long jump and triple jump in Eugene. Anna Hall who just may be the future of American multi-events, won the Heptathlon in dominating fashion nearly eclipsing the collegiate record. Hall, was possibly the most impressive athlete at the meet male or female as she attempted to complete what ESPN’s Jill Montgomery termed “the impossible double” by also competing in the 400 meter hurdles as well. Many view the 400 meter hurdles and the two-day Heptathlon as two of women’s track and field’s most demanding races. While Hall would finish second in the hurdles, her 18 combined points were valuable to the pursuit of the team title for the Gators. With the women in pursuit of their first outdoor title possibly the most interested was one of their own. Sophomore Diggs, had planned to be here all along. “When Coach Holloway recruited me, I told him I wanted to be great, and I wanted to win the team title,” she said. Lofty goals for 17-year-old, but Diggs did her part to make that dream a reality. Diggs saved her last race of the collegiate season for her best dominating a field of athletes that featured four women who had eclipsed 51 seconds. Diggs executed the perfect race and became only the fifth women in collegiate history to eclipse the 50 second mark with a time of :49.99. The rest of the Gators would also chip in scoring points in all but one individual event contested. To add to the scoring were performances by the charismatic team player Claire Bryant (5th, Long, Jump), SEC Champion Sterling Lester (5th, Heptathlon), Imogen Barrett (4th, 800m Run), Vanessa Watson (7th, 400m Hurdles), and the always steady Natricia Hooper (6th, Triple Jump). Most impressive of the supporting cast may be the emergence of sophomore Parker Valby. The Tampa native spent her indoor season trimming more than three minutes off of her personal best time to become one of the nation’s best in the 5000 meter run. With one event to go, Valby’s impressive runner-up finish in the 5000 would be the deciding points to guarantee the Gators the national title. Diggs who was preparing for the 4x400 meter relay was very aware of the team standings throughout the meet. “I was constantly refreshing my phone and adding up the points” Diggs stated. “I knew Parker only needed to get 8th, for us to win, I couldn’t see her, but I kept hearing the announcer say Florida, Florida, so I knew we were in good shape”. With Valby’s points in the barn, another four-lap coronation followed with the Gators having no need to score a point in the final relay. The Gators could be poised for repeat of the first. Coach Holloway will likely find the formula to put his teams in the hunt when the Gators arrive in Austin next year. As in most cases, the Gators show up in white when the lights shine the brightest and always seem to deliver.

By FRANZ BEARD GatorBaitMedia.com It is 3:33 in the morning in Lexington, Virginia. There is a loud drum roll coming from the barracks courtyard at the Virginia Military Institute. Only minutes before there was the sound of a door being kicked in, a cadet being marched to the courtyard and the drumroll stopping long enough for the president of the honor court to shout that this cadet has violated the honor code. Then come the unmistakable, unforgettable words, “His name will never be spoken in these barracks again!” The drumroll resumes. It’s loud and echoes through the courtyard as cadets stand at the railings and watch the proceedings down below. The cadet who violated the honor code is escorted to the front gates where he is banished, gone forever with no chance of being reinstated. As the cadet waits outside the gates, members of the honor court are in his room, hastily packing his belongings, which will be delivered in an unceremonious manner to the now former cadet who waits outside the gates. This is a time-honored tradition at VMI that dates back to the time when Thomas Jackson was an instructor. He went on to be known as Stonewall Jackson during the Civil War. Trey Bonham never violated the VMI honor code. He spent two years at VMI and he remembers vividly every time he stood on the rails to watch one of his classmates being drummed out, forever disassociated with the school. Drum outs always happen at the exact same time. “3:33 a.m. … halfway to hell, that’s what they say,” Bonham said Tuesday morning in the foyer of the Florida basketball practice facility. Something as simple as a little white lie can result in a VMI cadet taking the halfway to hell march while the drums roll loudly, incessantly until the violator is forcefully removed from the premises. Now that Bonham is at the University of Florida where he has resumed student life as a scholarship basketball player for Todd Golden, he appreciates what he learned at VMI, all the while relishing this opportunity to live life as a civilian in what he knows as the free world once again. He's no longer in the Army. He’s just a student-athlete. Instead of barracks that are fairly Spartan, he lives in an apartment. There is no curfew every night. No 6 a.m. wakeup or 7 a.m. breakfast roll call. No roll call at 6:30 p.m. before eating dinner. No enforced study from 8 p.m. to 11:25. No taps at 11:30. No upperclassmen and higher-ranking cadets going nose-to-nose over even the most trivial matters. Now that VMI is in his rearview, Bonham can appreciate all his experiences at the military school but those first few days in Lexington had him calling his retired Navy dad and begging to come back home to Mobile. His pleas fell on deaf ears. “Yeah, my dad was always on me because I know that first week, I was like, ‘I don’t even want to play basketball no more,’ like, ‘get me out here.’ But, he was just like, it's gonna be better for you,” Bonham said. “You're gonna learn a lot. So he was always in my ear trying to get my hopes up.” The temptation to go over the wall diminished the more he grew accustomed to VMI’s unique way of transforming minds and bodies. The academics are as rigorous as the physical and mental demands. It is not an easy life but the lessons learned there will stick with Bonham forever. So, there are no regrets for the two years at VMI. While he feels free in Gainesville, now adjusting to life without the military restrictions, much of the VMI routine has become ingrained and may never be abandoned. For that, he’s grateful. “I mean, it led to me learning discipline,” Bonham said. “That was the biggest thing I learned from a military school. So I try to keep the same traditions: waking up early, getting in my bed by 11:30. So, same stuff, just nobody yelling in my face now.” Life wasn’t completely grim at VMI. Basketball provided an escape outlet. That is why Bonham went to VMI in the first place. Dan Earl liked a fast, up and down tempo, which was tailor-made for a small, waterbug-quick point guard who is a whirling dervish on the court. After making the Southern Conference All-Freshman team in 2020-21, Bonham averaged 13.6 points, 3.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists for a 2021-22 team that went 16-16 while breaking even – 9-9 – in league play. The SoCon is an underrated low major so even a .500 season is pretty remarkable for a military school that is always challenged to find talented kids who are willing to choose the enforced discipline of a military school over the freedom they will have playing at a civilian school. Bonham chose VMI over schools like Tulane coming out of high school in Mobile. He experienced plenty of positives at VMI but he wanted to expand his game and he wanted a chance to see how his game would translate at the power school level so he entered the NCAA transfer portal. It didn’t take long until he met up with Todd Golden, who sold him on what the University of Florida could offer both from an academic and basketball standpoint. The academics were a given since UF is one of the top five public universities in the country. Playing in the SEC was obviously a step up from the SoCon. The deciding factor was Golden, who laid out perfectly his basketball philosophies. “Florida’s pitch was that he trusted in me, we ran a familiar offense, and the SEC,” Bonham said. “Going to high school in Mobile, Alabama, that’s been my dream to play in the SEC. There wasn’t much they had to do to get me. I was already in as soon as they called.” It may have been one of those he had me at hello conversations, but the more Golden talked, the more Bonham felt that Florida was the right place to be. “Just coach Golden’s philosophies and him just trusting in me,” Bonham explained. “You know, being undersized, he has complete trust in me that I can play the same as I did before. So his trust in me, and they run the same offense that I ran before, so just that familiarity brought me here.” At Florida, Todd Golden is doing a structural and philosophical rebuild of the basketball program. Golden sees no reason why the Gators can’t be a consistent top 25 team that regularly makes deep runs in the NCAA Tournament. Golden believes Final Four appearances are entirely possible complete with national championships. Under Mike White, the coach Golden succeeded, the Gators were good enough to make it to the postseason in all but his first year on the job (2015-16) and the COVID year (2019-20) when there were no tournaments. Other than a second season run to the Elite Eight where the Gators were a bad three-minute stretch from making the Final Four, it seemed the program flatlined. Just good enough to be taken seriously. Not good enough to make a dent in the NCAA Tournament. Then came the seven-year itch. After another season of good but not good enough, White grew weary of Florida’s restless fan base that remembered how Billy Donovan proved you can win championships at Florida. That White elected to bolt didn’t surprise many people. That he chose Georgia was somewhat of a shock. At Georgia, expectations will be several notches below what they are at UF. A 20-13 record at Florida makes the fan base nervous whereas at Georgia it gets a contract extension and a raise. Georgia has never won a national championship (Florida has won two) and has only one trip to the Final Four (UF has five). At Florida, White had some very good recruiting classes like the one in 2019 that featured 5-star recruits Tre Mann and Scottie Lewis, but they never got the Gators on a deep run in the NCAA Tournament. White also was active with transfers and he brought in some good ones like Canyon Barry, Kerry Blackshear Jr. and Tyree Appleby but again, none of them had the magic the Gators needed to keep up with the likes of Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. Golden has six holdovers from the White era – Colin Castleton, Myreon Jones and CJ Felder who all started college somewhere else and Jason Jitoboh, Niels Lane and Kowacie Reeves who were recruited out of high school. He has brought in a pair of very good high school recruits from perennial Florida powerhouse Dr. Phillips in Riley Kugel and Denzel Aberdeen. He has brought in four transfers – Bonham, Kyle Lofton (from St. Bonaventure), Alex Fudge (from LSU) and Will Richard (from Belmont) – a highly regarded group, all of whom were heavily recruited once they entered the portal. Fudge and Richard were wings at their previous stops but both are multi-dimensional and capable of playing and defending more than one position. Lofton and Bonham are pure points but both are explosive enough scorers and good enough full court defenders that they can play and thrive together on the court at the same time if Golden chooses to go that way. While Lofton is 6-3 with a 6-9 wingspan, Bonham is pint-sized and ultra-quick. Asked if he’s 5-11, Bonham just grinned and responded, “We’ll say that … yeah! I’ll take it!” He is a streaky outside shooter with a nice pull-up midrange shot. A lack of height isn’t a deterrent for taking the ball fearlessly to the rack. At VMI he was known for blowing by defenders to get into the paint where he forced the other team’s big guys to either challenge him or let him get all the way to the rim. “Being my size, you can’t go in scared,” Bonham said. “You’ve got to be a dog. I’m not scared of nobody. I don’t think six inches [difference in height] is that much anyway.” Now that he’s done with the military life and settling in to the expanded social scene that he finds in Gainesville and adjusting to new teammates, it’s the daily basketball workouts that have him both motivated and excited about the future. He is getting coached up like never before when the Gators work out. “You’ve got six coaches watching everything you do,” he said. “They’re on you, motivating you, getting on your case for every single detail.” Details. They were part of Bonham’s daily life at VMI where the days were planned out from start to finish. Here at Florida and out of the military life, there isn’t nearly as much structure to life away from basketball but on the court, that’s a different story. Golden likes a free-flowing game in which tempo is pushed at all times, but adequate attention is paid to every detail. On the practice court, Golden is not simply an observer. He is a hands on coach but unlike the upperclassmen at VMI who never missed an opportunity to get in his face and yell about something, Golden takes a quieter although no less intensive approach. He’s a teacher, not a screamer. “He’s not yelling and bouncing off the walls, but he’s talking to you and making sure you’re doing every little thing right,” Bonham said. “He’s just as involved as everyone else.” Intense and involved. That’s the way Bonham likes it. It’s a whole new life, a whole new approach to basketball and he no longer hears doors being kicked in and the sound of a constant drum roll as a classmate is banished from school. Perhaps it’s too early to tell if Trey Bonham has found basketball heaven, but one thing he knows for sure, this isn’t halfway to hell.

By KYLE CURTIS GatorBaitMedia.com “Tight end is one of the hardest positions to play in football. It’s right up there with quarterback and cornerback. You have to have the skills of a wide receiver and the strength of an offensive lineman, and it’s not easy to balance those two,” NFL Hall of Famer Tony Gonzales. Back during Spring practice, one of the underlying concerns was the health and depth of the tight end room for the Florida Gators. The Gators took an initial blow with the transfer of Kemore Gamble to in-state rival UCF. Additionally, both Jonathan Odom and Nick Elksnis, the two scholarship tight ends left on the roster, were injured and held them out for the remainder of spring . In Billy Napier fashion, he welcomed the next-man-up mentality while recognizing they were short at a position vital to his offensive scheme. Dante Zanders started playing football in middle school where he was the center for his local youth league. Once he moved to high school, he made the transition to tight end and then eventually defensive end. “The coach asked what position I played the first day of tryouts,” Zanders said. “I looked at my friend next to me and was like 'I don’t want to play to center anymore,' and I told them I played tight end.” Zanders went on to be recruited for both defensive end and tight end across the country before ultimately choosing Florida. Over the past two years, Zanders has contributed to the Gators’ defense as a defensive end until the lack of depth in the tight end room. This gave him a chance to prove himself. “I came to Florida thinking I was going to be a tight end, after two years I transferred over to the other side of the ball, I thought defense was the right position,” Zanders said. “Then Coach Napier showed me a different way… He told me he could get me where I wanted to go, just trust him. That’s what I’ve done.” Zanders did just that while showing what he can do during spring through practices and was the leading receiver in the Orange and Blue game with six catches. Napier called his development "the story of the spring." With Zanders holding down the fort during Spring, it gave Odom and Elksnis time to get healthy for the fall. During last year’s season, Elksnis took a redshirt season while appearing in just three games while Odom was primarily in a special team’s role. Odom is ready for his role to be elevated along with potential breakout star and fellow tight end Keon Zipperer. “The coaches sat us down, me and (Keon) Zipperer, and said 'y’all two are the leaders of this room,'” Odom said. “The time is now; the time is here.” After much doubt in the midst of spring practice and some concern that the tight end room could be a weak point, Napier put trust and confidence into his guys. Now there’s real potential that the Gators have a four-headed monster waiting to be released in Odom, Zipperer, Elksnis and Zanders. In a run-heavy offense, blocking will be key but will also open opportunities for the double tight end sets to have more of an impact in the passing game as well. Odom continued to stress how close this group has been even going back to Kyle Pitts’ days. “That is a huge key that Coach Napier made us all realize is that this is more than football and we are tied together at the hip for life,” Odom said. “The bond in the tight end room is amazing.” A potential weak point of the Gators’ offense at one point in the offseason can now be argued to be one of Florida’s strongest. Working together and being the glue of the offense will be a focal point for Napier’s tight end room but is a task that will be faced head-on with full force from a close knit group of guys.

BY MADELINE LAWSON GatorBaitMedia.com Truthfully, there’s no reason why there shouldn’t be a 2023 NCAA National Championship trophy in Gainesville at the end of the next gymnastics season. The most lucrative award in collegiate gymnastics hasn’t been brought back to the Swamp since the Gators pulled a three-peat in ’13,’14 and ’15 under head coach Rhonda Faehn. Florida was a favorite to win it all in 2022 after going undefeated in the regular season and winning the SEC tournament. Jenny Rowland took over the program in 2016 and has yet to produce a Natty, even with Trinity Thomas, arguably the greatest college gymnast in 2022 and on the short list for greatest of all time, on her roster. Florida came up just short in Fort Worth, Texas, on a night that required perfection. The Oklahoma Sooners defeated the Gators by a little more than a tenth of a point to reign victorious and win the 2022 National Championship. For Gator Nation the unthinkable came to fruition, but how did this happen? It was the perfect season, and it all slowly went wrong at the last meet of the season in the Lone Star State. First, let’s make one thing clear: these are student-athletes, and more importantly, human beings. They’re not perfect, and they won’t be flawless in each and every performance. With that said, these girls were prepared for this. They’ve trained to compete at the highest level since before they were potty trained. Most of the team had made an appearance at nationals prior, as Florida has made it to every NCAA tournament since its introduction in 1982. This makes it hard for me to believe that the stage became too big for them or that they weren’t prepared. So, was it just a fluke? A bad day to have a bad day? To be fair, a bad day in the orange in blue is a second-place finish, but you don’t come to Florida to be second. One crucial routine that hurt the team's overall score was Nya Reed’s vault. The senior shared second place in the Southeastern Conference and NCAA Auburn Regional Final vault standings at 9.95 and earned eight vault scores of 9.9 or better on the season. But, when competing for it all, Reed stumbled and posted a lowly 9.700 that was eventually dropped. I’m sure if Reed could turn back time and sprint down that runway again, she’d love a do-over. You can’t put a loss solely on one individual. But, with a deficit to OU of .113, it’s difficult to think if Reed would’ve executed her vault the way she’s capable, a very different story could’ve been written. The highlight of Nationals for Florida was the unbelievably consistent and dominant Trinity Thomas. She won the all-around title with a 39.862, which equaled the second-highest ever in NCAA finals history and the titles for vault, bars and floor with her 12th perfect 10 of the season. Reading her stats is a dizzying feat, but the most exciting part is that the Gator legend is eligible for one more year, which might be the only good thing to come out of the COVID pandemic. If Rowland can retain this powerhouse athlete, it’ll send shockwaves through the gymternet, and anyone’s hope of being the next all-around title winner will have to take a backseat. Thomas has been named the 2022 Honda Award winner for being the top athlete in her designated sport. I can only assume that completing a season slam, where she recorded a 10 on each apparatus at least once, had something to do with it. But if you were wondering, she has three gym slams in total with collegiate bests of 10s on vault (three times), bars (four times), beam (three times) and floor (10 times). Along with Thomas, there are five other seniors able to take advantage of their remaining year of eligibility. Leah Clapper announced on May 1 that she’ll be back for Florida as a super senior. Gator Nation now awaits with bated breath for Thomas, Reed and Savannah Schoenherr to all report their return to UF as well. Knowing how competitive the Gator lineup is, it’s not too far of a stretch for Thomas and Reed to consider coming back for redemption and earning the National Championship they deserve. For a team composed of half upperclassmen, if the seniors come back, Florida would be the big kid on the playground that steals all your toys, and there’s nothing you can do about it. Can you imagine how much more Thomas can hone her craft? Depending on how well Clapper’s off-season goes, she might come back magnetized to the beam. The 2022 season wasn’t just carried by the seniors. Leanne Wong and Sloane Blakely both had noteworthy freshmen outings that are encouraging for the future. Wong is already halfway toward a gym slam, having recorded perfect scores on vault and bars. She’s also the SEC beam champion with a collegiate-best 9.975, 2022 All-SEC and an eight-time All-American. Her floor routine was breathtakingly delicate yet dynamic and demanded attention. Wong’s opening pass was a triple twist that got so high off the ground you could walk under it. Blakely joined her fellow freshman in the 10s club with one of her own against Auburn on the floor. In her debut on the beam, she earned 9.95 and has a collegiate-best of 9.95 on vault. So, if the seniors say farewell to the orange and blue, the next generation of gymnasts seem to have it handled. The talent keeps rolling into Gainesville and next season is no different. Morgan Hurd, who missed all of 2022 after suffering an ACL tear, was the 2017 gold medalist for all-around at the 2017 world championships. Ellie Lazari, the 2021 SEC balance beam champ who missed most of 2022 after tearing her Achilles, will be back as will Riley McCusker, who had a nice freshman season and is a former gold medalist with the US National Team at the world championships. Incoming freshman Lori Brubach should find a place in the vault rotation next season after winning the vault title in all three Level 10 meets in 2022 she competed. Rowland also signed Kayla DiCello, the 2021 World Championships’ all-around bronze medalist and member of the U.S. Senior National Team. Along with the new youth, the Gators will welcome former U.S. National Team member and Georgia transfer Victoria Nguyen. Nguyen will add depth to the roster and should boost team totals on bars and beam. Some of the most recent news out of the UF gymnastics program is the promotion of Adrian Burde. After 16 seasons, the assistant coach was promoted to associate head coach in early June. With an elite coaching staff and talent, Rowland should have no issues duplicating the impressive 2022 season. Now, can Rowland follow through and bring it home? Florida fans who remember the three-peat national championships might be restless but given Rowland’s track record and recruiting prowess plus her incredible graduation rate, it’s difficult to imagine any dissatisfaction from athletic director Scott Stricklin. We shouldn’t forget that Rhonda Faehn had the Gators knocking on the NCAA championship door for 10 years before they kicked it down in 2013. Rowland has the Gators knocking on the door. Will this be the year they kick it down?

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: “You keep thinking Butch. That’s what you’re good at” – The Sundance Kid THINKING OUT LOUD ON A THURSDAY It’s better to be underrated than overrated A year ago, the Gators were thought to be a team just outside the top ten and very capable of making a run at a second straight SEC East title if all the stars and planets aligned. Judging by the way the Gators dominated Alabama for three quarters and then gave the Vols a woodshed beating, you would have thought the preseason prognosticators had UF pegged just right. Then came exposure and a meltdown by the head coach. The 6-7 record says the Gators were vastly overrated. Players from last year’s team tend to think they would have done just fine if the head coach hadn’t checked out and checked in to a first class cabin for a trip to Never Never Land. Enter Billy Napier, new assistants, The Army and The Process. Everyone seems to think this Florida team is destined to finish fourth in the SEC East Georgia, Tennessee and Kentucky. All the experts look at the recruiting rankings of the past few years and believe anything better than a 7-5 record might bring the walls of Jericho tumbling down again. You could call the 2022 Gators – at least in the eyes of the preseason experts – the Rodney Dangerfields of the SEC because nobody is giving them any respect. When he hears what everyone else thinks, Billy Napier probably looks around to see that nobody is looking before he breaks into giggles. The Gators are underrated for sure and maybe rightly so, but the disrespect card will be played over and over again. There is nothing like a team playing with a chip on its shoulder and by the time the first Saturday in September arrives, Billy Napier may have grown that chip so large that it could qualify for its own area code. Here are three reasons why I think the Gators might be vastly underrated this year: 1. Anthony Richardson is capable of marvelous things if he can stay healthy. A healthy Richardson could be somebody’s No. 1 draft pick in 2023. If Richardson can throw some darts, then Justin Shorter will have a year that will remind everyone why he was a 5-star coming out of high school. 2. The Gators will play defense with their offense. This offensive line is not getting near enough respect. O’Cyrus Torrence is going to be a beast. This will be ground and pound football like it’s 1984 all over again. The running back room, just like the O-line is not getting enough respect. Control the ball with the running game, throw it over the top when they try to stop the run with eight in the box and keep the defense off the field. The 1984 Gators controlled the clock so much that the defense was on the field less than 20 minutes per game. One of every 10 Kerwin Bell passes went for a touchdown. 3. The defense will be much, much better. I know. How could it not be? You worry about the depth on the line, but the back seven will be among the best in the country because the coaching will be that much better thanks to Patrick Toney and Corey Raymond. I like this defensive coaching staff. This is the best defensive staff top to bottom the Gators have had since 2012 when Dan Quinn, DJ Durkin, Bryant Young and Travaris Robinson worked for Will Muschamp. FINALLY SOME LOVE FOR WYATT LANGFORD Isn’t it interesting that the SEC coaches couldn’t vote Wyatt Langford first team All-SEC yet the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association recognizes the sophomore outfielder from Trenton as a second team All-American? Perfect Game also recognized Langford as a second team All-American. USA Today named Langford first team All-SEC. It seems everyone was cognizant of Langford’s abilities except the SEC coaches. To say Kevin O’Sullivan was a teensy bit perturbed by the snug would be the understatement of the century. All Langford did was hit .355 with a .719 slugging percentage, which ranked second in the SEC. He had the most total bases (184), finished second in hits (91), first in home runs (26) and tied for first in runs scored. In the SEC Tournament and the Gainesville regional he was 15-45 with five home runs. Langford was also named first team All-Southeast Region by ABCA/Rawlings. Pitcher Brandon Sproat made second. Team All-Southeast Region. TOO MUCH LOVE FOR THESE GUYS? Marcus Freeman, HBC, Notre Dame: You would think he was there with Moses to part the Red Sea the way the media has gone ga-ga over Freeman. He may turn into the greatest thing since the invention of the frostproof freezer but there is also the chance he will turn into the next Ron Zook or Will Muschamp. Zooker and Muschamp may have turned into fine head football coaches if they had spent three or four years beating the bushes to learn how to be a head coach. Zook succeeded Steve Spurrier with no head coaching experience and Muschamp succeeded Urban Meyer. It was like giving the keys to the Mercedes to the cabana boy. Marcus Freeman has never been a head coach. If the Irish bust this year there will be lots of buyer’s remorse in South Bend. Lincoln Riley, Southern California: The Trojans are going to score plenty of points, which is what Riley offenses tend to do. Will they stop anybody? He went 55-10 at Oklahoma and never won a College Football Playoff game because the Sooners never figured out that it isn’t illegal to tackle people before they run into the end zone. During his time at OU, the Sooners never had a top 20 defense. To put in better perspective, Florida had a better defense than Riley put on the field every year except 2020. What happens if the Trojans meet up with a team that can slow down their offense this year at USC? Dan Lanning, Oregon: He was Georgia’s defensive coordinator but how much of that great defense was Lanning and how much of it was Kirby Smart … and how much did Will Muschamp play into turning Georgia’s defense into the best we’ve seen since Alabama 2011? Oregon is a preseason top 10 pick but it’s questionable because the QB will be Bo Nix and the OC will be Kenny Dillingham, whose 2019 offense at Auburn was middle of the pack SEC and whose last two years coordinating FSU’s offense saw the Seminoles finish 9th in the ACC both years. JT Daniels, QB, West Virginia: This is his third stop on his way to a Heisman Trophy. Oops. Hasn’t won one has he? He won’t this year, either. NOT ENOUGH LOVE FOR THESE GUYS? Billy Napier, HBC, Florida: He went 40-12 in four years at Louisiana yet some of these folks who rank head coaches rank first year guys who have never been head coaches ahead of him. Florida will be better than most expect this year. After that, the Gators are going to be very, very good. Dillon Gabriel, QB, Oklahoma: He threw 70 TDPs and only 14 picks at UCF. Now he’s reunited with Jeff Lebby, who was his OC in 2019-20. He will slice and dice the Big 12 defenses with Lebby calling the plays. Dave Aranda, HBC, Baylor: Baylor went 12-2 last year and won the Big 12. Not Oklahoma, whose offense Aranda held to 14 points and 260 yards. By the end of the year, Baylor was the team nobody in the Big 12 wanted to play. It will be that way this year too. He turned down Southern Cal and LSU. How long will he stay at Baylor? Someone’s going to back up a Brinks Truck to get him. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss: Lane knows he can’t recruit better high school kids to Ole Miss than the ones that go to Alabama, Georgia, Texas A&M and the like, but he showed he knows how to restock a roster with the transfer portal where he got QB Jaxon Dart and TE Michael Trigg from Southern Cal, RB Zach Evans from TCU, RB Ulysses Bentley (SMU), RT Mason Brooks (Western Kentucky), DT JJ Pegues (Auburn) and linebackers Troy Brown (Central Michigan) and Khari Coleman (TCU). Ole Miss could very well finish second in the SEC West. Lane Kiffin can coach in case you haven’t noticed. GROUP OF 5 TEAMS THAT POWER 5 TEAMS WISH THEY WEREN’T PLAYING Houston: Everybody knows about QB Clayton Tune but the guy that keeps opposing defensive coordinators burning the midnight oil is wide receiver Nathaniel Dell, a Daytona Beach native who caught 90 passes for 1,329 yards and 12 TDs last year. Bet the farm that DC Doug Belk will be someone’s head coach in 2023. That defense will be nasty. The Cougars play big 12 Texas Tech and Kansas in their first three games. Texas-San Antonio: The Roadrunners went 12-2 last year and they figure to be better this year. They’re good enough to put the fear of God in Texas on September 17. Remember the name Frank Harris. He might be the best QB you’ve never heard of. If Jeff Traylor stays at UTSA, the Roadrunners will be the next Cincinnati. Coastal Carolina: There are only a handful of Power 5 teams that Grayson McCall wouldn’t start for. He’s thrown 53 TDPs and only six picks the last two years while averaging a mind boggling 10.9 yards per attempt. Jamey Chadwell runs a funky offense that is hard to stop. Why isn’t he a Power 5 head coach? That’s one of life’s great mysteries. Circle November 19 when the Chanticleers travel to Virginia. Fresno State: Jeff Tedford is back as a head coach and he’s got a stud QB in Jake Haener. The Bulldogs will light up scoreboards and DC Kevin Croyle is a name to pencil in as somebody’s future HBC. The Bulldogs could light up Southern Cal in week three. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: When the College World Series begins play in Omaha Friday, the SEC will make up half the field, three-fourths if you include Texas and Oklahoma, which will probably be joining the league in a couple of years. Even though Texas and Oklahoma are still in the Big 12, they add a distinct SEC feel to the CWS field which includes No. 5 Texas A&M, No. 14 Auburn, Arkansas and Ole Miss. What makes the field even more interesting – and a testament to just how good the baseball is at these six schools – is the fact that only Texas A&M made it to Omaha after hosting a regional and a super regional. No. 9 Texas had to go on the road to Greenville to beat No. 8 East Carolina in its super. No. 14 Auburn had to go on the road to beat No. 3 Oregon State in the Corvallis super regional. Arkansas had to go on the road to win the Stillwater regional against No. 7 Oklahoma State and then to No. 10 North Carolina. Oklahoma had to beat No. 13 Florida in Gainesville and then No. 4 Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Ole Miss was one of the last three teams that got in and had to win on the road at No. 6 Miami in the regional and at No. 11 Southern Miss in the super. What we’ll be seeing in Omaha is a preview of things to come. As dominant as the SEC has been in baseball in the past 12 years (7 national champs, 6 runners-up), it’s going to get worse for the rest of the country and NIL plus the transfer portal will have plenty to do with it. With the baseball draft pared down to 20 rounds, kids are going to be transferring in droves to the SEC where there are big stadiums, plenty of games on the SEC Network, and more opportunities to be seen by Major League scouts. When Texas and Oklahoma left the Big 12 for the SEC last summer, the nice boys and girls in “The Alliance” had apoplectic fits all because of football. Maybe they ought to pay attention to sports like baseball, too. And maybe sports like swimming, track and field, tennis, softball, golf and women’s gymnastics while they’re about it. National champs were won in all those sports by SEC teams and future SEC teams.

GatorBait Inside Straight Newsletter #3 JUNE 15, 2022 "...I am not alone in this darkness for journalists. If there’s one bright light shining, it’s the willingness of Florida athletes to talk about their athletic experiences at Florida, their families, hopes, dreams, teammates and coaches in the interviews I’ve conducted with the help of The Gator Collective. By BUDDY MARTIN GatorBaitMedia.com Editor I’ve made a decision about not trying to explain things that I know almost nothing about. Frankly, I’m tired of 10-cent opinions from know-nothings with 25 Twitter followers. I confess that I, too, am pretty much in the dark on most of the NIL deals and have very little true insight on how recruiting is going or how the transfer portal is working. But I’m learning. All I can do is try and offer what insights that I can glean from reliable sources and share few quotes from people I’ve interviewed --- commenting on their actions or words. Otherwise, those dime-store theories, cheap opinions and feigned knowledge is worthless and a waste of all our time. *OK, there was this one time (see below). Having said that, I am not alone in this darkness for journalists. If there’s one bright light shining, it’s the willingness of Florida athletes to talk about their athletic experiences at Florida, their families, hopes, dreams, teammates and coaches in the interviews I’ve conducted with the help of The Gator Collective. This came about because of 1) My realization that I was completely clueless about these kinds of things and wanted to learn; 2) The willingness of Eddie Rojas and Jen Grosso of Gator Collective to form an alliance so that we might connect with the players without their orchestration or any caveat for what we asked them; 3) The willingness of players to cooperate. My colleagues Ben Troupe, Franz Beard and I have had the pleasure of holding lengthy conversations with 18 different Florida athletes – most of them football players – on The Buddy Martin Show/Gator Collective Corner since we began over four months ago. Actually, it turns out that they’ve been extremely forthcoming and have enjoyed speaking to the fans through us. The measure of trust established has been remarkable and it almost gives me hope that we might eventually return to the type of working relationships I’ve enjoyed with athletes like Steve Spurrier, Carlos Alvarez, Scot and John Brantley, Chris Doering, Shane Matthews, Ben Troupe, etc. over the years. The athletes’ personalities have popped out in a manner I’ve not seen since more than 30 years, and for this I am grateful. It has given me hope that we are going back to establishing relationships with players for mutually beneficial reasons – mostly helping them tell their stories. We don't pay them a dime for it, nor do we get a dime. I don’t know why it has taken us so long to show Gator Track & Field Coach Mike Holloway the respect, love and admiration he’s been due for long time. Perhaps because his sport is not as revered as it is around the globe. Including Europe, where sprinters are like gods. But Holloway’s latest “Double” in winning both men’s and women’s national championships on the same weekend has some media going ga-ga. Like suggesting on a Mount Rushmore of Gator Coaches, “Mouse” belongs right there with Steve Spurrier, Billy Donovan and Urban Meyer. Don’t disagree. Meanwhile, how about the Ring of Honor? HO HUM! ANOTHER 'BAD YEAR': Two track Nattys, a near-miss in gymnastics and now a singles championship in tennis – hardly a “bad” year. On Saturday, Florida became the first men’s tennis program since 2004-05 to have different competitors win back-to-back NCAA Division I Men’s Singles National Championships. No. 2-ranked Ben Shelton defeated No. 6-ranked August Holmgren of San Diego 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 to clinch the title. Shelton, a sophomore and the son of men’s tennis coach Bryan Shelton, joins Sam Riffice (2021), Jeff Morrison (1999) and Mark Merklein (1994) as Gators singles champions. *A Sleek Look: Rashada and the Lambo (UAA Photo) WHY I DON'T NECESSARILY SEE RASHADA IN ORANGE & BLUE *(OK, It’s Just A Hunch) HI hope I’m wrong, but when Shane Matthews asked me on his “PodUp With Matthews” show if I thought 4/5-star quarterback QB Jaden Rashada from Pittsburg (Cal) would commit to the Gators on Saturday, I just took a shot with a wild hunch and replied “no.” Why? Before all you recruiting warriors start stalking me: Scouts say his arm talent, accuracy, poise in the pocket and escapability make him more than just a bright, shiny thing. But I have absolutely no inside information. Realizing how important the validation of Billy Napier’s program would be by such a highly regarded athlete committing and knowing Gator fans crave the notion of scoring a 4/5-star like Rashada, I’m certainly not throwing cold water on the idea. But as exciting as hitting the jackpot would be, I’m also confident in Napier’s ability to recruit, train and grow a quarterback behind Anthony Richardson. And I doubt anybody can speak into existence the 6-4,185-pound California quarterback becoming a Gator. As long as they’re reaching, why not Arch Manning? (Sorry.) BTW, the Lamborghini in the photo belongs to Hugh Hathcock, founder of Gator Guard and several recruits posed with the car. It just seems to fit Rashada better. THERE'S THIS OTHER QB The Worldwide Network has embraced Anthony Richardson as a future star and ESPN has anointing him as one of the five hottest QB prospects. Mel Kiper Jr. picks AR-15, Alabama’s Bryce Young, Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud, Kentucky’s Will Levis and Miami’s Tyler Van Dyke as “the ones to watch.” Frankly, almost all the eyes are going to be on Young, but it signals a bright future for Richardson. BAD NEWS? Hearing former Gator WR Tyrie Cleveland went down on the final play of Denver Broncos practice Monday and had to be carted off in a stretcher, onlookers feared it was some sort of leg injury that looked serious. Later we learned it wasn’t serious. “The MRI came back negative,” Cleveland tweeted. Only a sprained ankle. OFF THE GATOR BEAT CALL YOUR TRAVEL AGENT: All due respect, I know the young prospects are excited about their recruiting trips, but I really don’t need to know your itinerary of visits on Twitter. As far as I’m concerned you just clutter my feed. Call me when you’ve got your list down to two. RAYS REPORT: FOR THE TWO FANS WHO CARE Followers of The Buddy Martin Show know that I’m a Tampa Bay baseball fan and follow the Rays closely, just as a break from Gators 365/52 weeks/24/7. Although they were 10 games out in the AL East, I give Rays Manager Kevin Cash props for keeping his team in contention with about eight of his starters missing, including superstar to be Wander Franco, 2021 home run hitting leader Brandon Lowe, catcher/quarterback Mike Zunino and top relievers JP Feyereisen, Andrew Kittredge and Pete Fairbanks. The red-hot Yankees are in town. Last year when the Rays won the AL pennant, they went 11-8 vs. the pinstripers. They lost a heartbreaker in the opener of the four-game series vs. Gotham 2-0. LET'S CHECK THE MENU FOR TAKEOUT I can’t be the only one annoyed by the robot-like reflexes of athletes who continually have to stare at their cue cards before making a move on defense or throwing pitch. Don’t athletes use instincts anymore is every move pre-programed? MORE BLOWBACK Rory McIlroy said: “Last week in Canada … LIV will never have that. Last week meant something. What they were doing over there meant nothing.” TWEETS WORTH REMEMBERING “Don't just be good to others, be good to yourself too.” — Pastor West.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: ONCE KYLE LOFTON VISITED UF, TODD GOLDEN SOLD HIM ON BEING A GATOR When Kyle Lofton, a self-described North Jersey type who had just spent four years lighting up defenses in the Atlantic 10 Conference at St. Bonaventure made his official visit to the University of Florida, the Gators weren’t anywhere close to the top of his potential transfer list. He was basically tagging along with center and St. Bonaventure teammate Osun Ossiniyi, who the Gators were trying to lure with a full court recruiting press. Lofton had his sights set on Rutgers, Ohio State, Purdue and Arizona but things changed when he got to Gainesville. “When I came on my visit this really wasn’t one of my top schools, but I came here with Osun – he ended up going to Iowa State – but I liked the staff and the goals they had for me,” Lofton said Tuesday at the Florida practice facility. “I think this is a great place to be.” Todd Golden and the Florida staff impressed Lofton with their offensive philosophy and energy. At St. Bonaventure Lofton scored 1,613 points and totaled 604 assists in 116 games, averaging 13.9 points and 5.2 assists per game while making All-Atlantic 10 each year. In the 2021-22 season, Lofton averaged 12.8 points, 3.6 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.5 steals while leading the Bonnies to a 23-10 record. Lofton picked Florida because of Golden, the 36-year-old first-year coach who came to Florida after three very successful seasons at San Francisco. Since arriving on campus, Lofton has discovered a side of Golden he didn’t know existed when he signed his scholarship papers to transfer. “He lifts with us,” Lofton said. “I don't think a lot of coaches do that, and just his spirit walking around the gym. It reminds me of a big brother … He's pretty strong. I didn't know he could do pull ups. He does everything we do, basically." That Golden gets so involved with a roster that he’s still getting to know checks a lot of boxes for Lofton. “It just shows that he's willing to be with us,” he said. “He doesn't have to do that. He can be in his office. He wants to be with us and learn us and we can learn him." There was a time when the SEC forbid any coaching in the summer but gradually the rules have been eased to where coaches have opportunities to work with individuals and the team as a whole. When the Gators work out, Golden is quite actively involved. It’s not a hands off approach, which is welcome. Everything Lofton has seen so far of Golden’s offensive philosophy tells him the Gators are going to push the tempo and run every opportunity. That should be music to the ears of Florida fans, who grew weary of an offense that seemed guaranteed to have at least one lengthy scoreless stretch every single game. Lofton not only made a name for himself as a scorer and distributor at St. Bonaventure but as a natural leader who teammates want to follow. Even though he’s been at Florida just a short time he has found a kindred soul in Colin Castleton, a two-time All-SEC performer who chose to return to Florida for his COVID year. Castleton is rehabbing from surgery to repair a torn labrum so he hasn’t been able to work out but he and Lofton have already formed a bond. “I feel like we're the veterans here, so me and him talk a lot,” Lofton said. “I haven't got to work with him. I'm excited to do that, but going over to his house, you know, just kicking it with him." If there is one thing clear to Lofton it is a chemistry that is building among teammates. “I just like that everyone is happy to be here,” he said. “Everyone wants to learn, wants to get better and you want to be around that to win.” ATHLON RANKS UF NO. 33; NO GATORS ON FIRST TEAM ALL-SEC Athlon’s college football preseason magazine has hit the stands and not surprisingly, the Florida Gators aren’t in the top 25. The Gators, who are ranked No. 31 in the Lindy’s preseason magazine, are No. 33 in Athlon, which means they’re 10th among the SEC’s 14 teams. Athlon projects the Gators to play in the Gator Bowl against Pittsburgh. Florida right guard O’Cyrus Torrence, selected first team All-America by Lindy’s, didn’t even merit first team All-SEC by Athlon. Torrence is second team All-SEC on Athlon along with outside linebacker Brenton Cox Jr. Selected third team were defensive lineman Gervon Dexter, linebacker Ventrell Miller and corner Jason Marshall Jr. Alabama had seven first team selections, five second teamers and two third teamers. Georgia had five on the first team, four on the second and two on the third team. Athlon top 25: 1. Alabama; 2. Ohio State; 3. Georgia; 4. Clemson; 5. Texas A&M; 6. Michigan; 7. Notre Dame; 8. Utah; 9. Southern California; 10. Oregon; 11. Baylor; 12. North Carolina State; 13. Oklahoma; 14. Michigan State; 15. Cincinnati; 16. Wake Forest; 17. Oklahoma State; 18. Tennessee; 19. Wisconsin; 20. Miami; 21. Kentucky; 22. Pittsburgh; 23. Arkansas; 24. Houston; 25. Penn State Other notables: 26. LSU; 28. Ole Miss; 30. Mississippi State; 33. FLORIDA; 36. Florida State; 40. Auburn; 42. South Carolina; 45. UCF; 53. Missouri; 79. Louisiana; 94. Vanderbilt; 100. South Florida; 105. Florida Atlantic; 128. Florida International Athlon SEC position ratings (top ranked plus Florida) Quarterbacks: 1. Alabama; 8. Florida Running backs: 1. Alabama; 11. Florida Wide receivers: 1. Georgia; 9. Florida Offensive line: 1. Georgia; 8. Florida Defensive line: 1. Alabama; 10. Florida Linebackers: 1. Alabama; 5. Florida Defensive backs: 1. Alabama; 5. Florida Lindy’s SEC position ratings (top ranked plus Florida) Quarterbacks: 1. Alabama; 6. Florida Running backs: 1. Alabama; 11. Florida Receivers: 1. Alabama; 10. Florida Offensive line: 1. Georgia; 8. Florida Defensive line: 1. LSU; 9. Florida Linebackers: 1. Alabama; 3. Florida Secondary: 1. Alabama; 7. Florida Special teams: 1. Auburn; 8. Florida SEC FOOTBALL/BASEBALL Alabama: Shortstop Ed Johnson, who hit .331 with a .406 on-base percentage at Tennessee Tech is transferring to Bama where he will move to third base in an attempt to fill the shoes of Zane Denton, who is in the portal after hitting .263 with 13 homers and 48 RBI for the Tide in 2022. Arkansas: The unseeded Hogs (43-19) open up in Omaha against No. 2 seed Stanford. A year ago Arkansas was the nation’s No. 1 seed but was eliminated in the super regionals by North Carolina State. Auburn: SEC co-player of the year Sonny DiChiara has homered in six of the last seven games for the 14th-seeded Tigers (42-20) who open play in the College World Series with Ole Miss (37-22). Kentucky: UK could be the landing spot for D1AA All-American running back Ramon Jefferson, who ran for 1,155 yards and 13 touchdowns last year at Sam Houston State. LSU: Wide receiver Kayshon Boutte has been cleared to start running again at full speed. Before he was injured in game six last season, Boutte had 38 catches for 509 yards and nine touchdowns. Ole Miss: The Rebels (37-22), who were one of the last teams in on selection Sunday, are 5-0 in NCAA play. They face Auburn (42-20) Saturday, a team they beat two out of three in Auburn back in March. Tennessee: On his Monday show, Paul Finebaum called Tennessee’s exit loss to Notre Dame in the Knoxville super regional “a complete meltdown.” Texas A&M: The 5th-seeded Aggies (42-18) open play in Omaha against Oklahoma (43-22). The Aggies are one of only two top eight seeded teams to make it to the College World Series. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Just when you thought it was safe to go in the water! Okay, that was from “Jaws,” but since we don’t have a 22-foot-long great white shark eating people off the Gulf coast, the Nick vs. Jimbo feud will have to suffice. Following the SEC Spring Meetings in Destin that ended 12 days ago, meetings that, by the way, were relatively peaceful, leave it to the little brother Aggies (Texas was, is and will always be big brother in that state so the Aggies have always and will always feel dumped on), to play the disrespect card to the hilt. Here is what happened over the weekend. The president and athletic director of Texas A&M sent emails to Greg Sankey suggesting the Southeastern Conference commissioner fine and suspend Saban for stating that Jimbo Fisher and the Aggies had bought every player in its top-rated recruiting class. In the letter, A&M president M. Katherine Banks and AD Ross Bjork wrote, “A public apology from Coach Saban to Coach Fisher, Aggie football and Texas A&M University is a good starting point but the league should also consider monetary and participation penalties against Coach Saban.” If the Aggies had anything but an inferiority complex, they would simply keep their mouths shut and on October 8 in Tuscaloosa “go a-ridin’ into town, a-whoopin’ and a-whumpin’ every livin’ thing that moves within an inch of its life.” Yeah, I stole that line from Blazing Saddles but it’s what the Aggies should have done, but noooooo. Instead they threw a few 40-gallon drums of gasoline on an already raging fire. That led to Paul Finebaum weighing in. One thing the Aggies still don’t seem to grasp is that only Aggies like to hear other Aggies talk. Non-Aggies tend to tune into Finebaum and take what he has to say seriously, which only diminishes any arguments Aggies can come up with. So here is how Finebaum responded on WJOX in Birmingham Monday morning: “It’s extremely disappointing if you’re a believer in the SEC, where you have 14 schools – about to be 16 – and everyone tries to work together and air grievances in a gentlemanly way as opposed to schoolyard running to the principal and telling on your classmate. But I will say this, and you guys are welcome to disagree, but those who know Ross Bjork are not surprised. This is how he operates. He’s a grievance-oriented administrator. If he heard something on this program he didn’t like, instead of calling you guys … he would go over your head and try to find the highest authority that he could make a formal complaint to. That’s apparently what he did here. “I don’t know what’s wrong with picking up the phone and calling Greg Sankey and saying, ‘Commissioner, what do you advise here. What do you suggest?’ Instead he enlists the president of the university to go along with him, which I’m sure was nothing more than a digital signature, and writes this absolutely laughable letter to the commissioner of the SEC. I’ll try to say this with a straight face: trying to get Nick Saban suspended or fined for expressing a thought that many others have expressed in various forms – I don’t know how to describe it other than petty, petulant and unprofessional. What was even more remarkable is that Greg Sankey tried to head this off. He called Jimbo Fisher on the morning of Jimbo Fisher’s rant and warned him, and he did it anyway.” I have to wonder if Jimbo had anything to do with the letter to Sankey. Jimbo worked for Nick and he has to know that Nick doesn’t lose grudge matches. What the letter has done is not only turn October 8 into the grudge match of the century, but given Nick Saban a reason to get up in the morning. If Laurence Tureaud – also known as Mr. T – were to offer his two cents right about now, his tirade would begin with “I pity the fool …” and the fool in this case is anyone associated with Texas A&M on the second Saturday of October in Tuscaloosa.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: NUMBERS THAT MUST IMPROVE FOR THE GATORS IN 2022 There is that old adage that you can manipulate statistics to say whatever you want but when it comes to football, stats tell quite a story. In the case of the 2021 Florida Gators, it only takes a scan of a few critical stats to understand why the Gators finished 6-7 last year and what new head coach Billy Napier has to do to turn the Gators around in 2022. Here is a revealing look at seven critical statistical areas: Scoring: The Gators scored 30.7 per game, which ranked seventh in the SEC, not bad but certainly not what was expected. If you take away the 70 points the Gators scored against D1AA Samford and the numbers dip to an abysmal 27.4 per game which is barely better than the Gators scored during the Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain years. The Gators gave up 26.8 per game, which is dreadful and ranked 11thin the SEC and 73rd nationally. The only two years out of the last 12 that the Gators gave up more were 2020 and 2017. The moral of the story: Score more points, give up fewer in 2022. Rushing: The Gators actually led the league in yards per carry (5.48) while averaging 208.69 yards per game but there wasn’t a run by a non-quarterback that went for more than 32 yards, so the number is deceptive. With the exception of a pair of long runs by Anthony Richardson (73 against Florida Atlantic; 80 against South Florida) there weren’t many explosive runs. While the Gators ranked 8th nationally in runs of 20 or more yards (28), only nine of the runs went for 30 or more yards and just three for 40 or more. Florida’s running game was quarterback heavy and far too predictable. Defensively, the Gators gave up 163.92 yards per game and 4.46 per carry. Four games stand out – giving up 321 yards to LSU, 193 to Georgia, 284 to South Carolina and 288 to UCF. The Gators lost all four games. The Gators gave up 70 runs of 10 or more yards, which was 10th in the SEC and 93rd nationally. Billy Napier arrives in Gainesville committed to running the football, but he also knows this universal truth: You aren’t going to win many games if you can’t stop the other team from running the football. Passing: The Gators averaged a respectable 254.2 yards per game, which was sixth in the SEC, and 7.9 per attempt. The Gators threw 27 touchdown passes. That’s the good news. The bad news is 18 interceptions, which not only was worst in the SEC but dead last in the entire country. The Gators averaged just 12.47 yards per completion, which is very average. The Gators had 121 pass plays of 10 or more yards, 7th in the SEC and 52nd nationally. Defensively, the Gators gave up 203.9 yards per game, which ranked fourth in the league. Not only do the Gators need to complete more passes to their own receivers and fewer to the bad guys, but they need to average at least 13.5 yards per reception. The Gators intercepted nine passes, which tied for 12th in the SEC. That has to improve in 2022. The Gators gave up at least one completion of 30 yards or more in 11 of their 13 games, another area that has to improve next season. Opponents had 19 completions of 30 or more yards, 10th in the SEC and tied for 64th nationally. The Gators have excellent athletes who need to make the secondary a no-fly zone and when the bad guys do catch a pass, they have to get hit and put on the ground immediately. Total offense: The Gators averaged 462.8 yards per game (fourth in the league) and 6.6 yards per snap (second in the league, 12th nationally). Because the Gators only scored 30.7 points per game, the numbers indicate a lot of activity between the 20s, inefficiency in the red zone and way too many turnovers (19 picks, 3 fumbles). The Gators had 208 plays that went for 10 or more yards, middle of the pack (7th) in the SEC. From a yardage standpoint, the Gators were really good last year but in the last three SEC games, the Gators averaged only 351.6 yards and 15.7 points per game. Take away the Samford game and the Gators closed the season with five straight games with fewer than 377 yards and 25 points. Total defense: The Gators ranked eighth in the SEC, 51st nationally, allowing 367.8 yards per game and 5.48 yards per play. Contrast that to Georgia, which gave up 267.9 yards and 4.15 per snap and you understand why Georgia won a championship and Florida finished with a losing record. The Gators gave up 166 plays of 10 or more yards (5th in the SEC) but 29 that went for 30 or more yards (13th in the SEC), 91stnationally. Stop the big plays and the Gators are on the right track for serious defensive improvement. Sacks: The Gators had 37 sacks which ranked 6th in the SEC and 30th nationally. Obviously, those numbers need to improve although they aren’t all that bad. The best way to improve the pass defense is to get after the quarterback. Brenton Cox Jr. needs to have a big year. For all the talk about poor offensive line play, the Gators allowed only 14 sacks all season, which was the best number in the SEC and tied for fifth nationally. Some of that can be attributed to mobile quarterbacks and an offense that gave the option to run or throw, but it’s still an impressive number, particularly when you consider Alabama’s Heisman Trophy QB was sacked 41 times. The offensive line will be more experienced and with O’Cyrus Torrence at right guard, the pass protection up the gut – a problem last year – should be vastly improved. Third down conversions: The Gators were middle of the pack in the SEC (7th), converting 72 times in 174 attempts (41.38 percent). Nationally, the Gators ranked 56th. By contrast Alabama converted 52 percent of its third downs. Defensively, the Gators ranked 5th in the SEC (62-176, 35.23 percent). Georgia was only slightly better (35.15 percent). Florida was 31st nationally in that category. UF BASEBALL: GATORS HIRE TAYLOR BLACK AS ASSISTANT COACH Kevin O’Sullivan wasted little time in hiring the replacement for Craig Bell. Florida’s new assistant coach is Taylor Black, who comes to UF after a four-year stint working in the Detroit Tigers organization. Black played collegiately (shortstop) at Kentucky and spent four years as an assistant coach at North Carolina State. COLLEGE WORLD SERIES IS SET WITH FOUR SEC TEAMS Auburn (42-20) secured the final spot in the College World Series Monday night by knocking off No. 3 seeded Oregon State in Corvallis. The Tigers join Texas A&M, Arkansas and Ole Miss from the SEC in Omaha. Here is the schedule for the College World Series which starts Friday: Friday: Oklahoma (42-22) vs. No. 5 Texas A&M (42-18); Notre Dame (40-15) vs. No. 9 Texas (47-20) Saturday: Arkansas (43-19) vs. No. 2 Stanford (47-16); Ole Miss (37-22) vs. No. 14 Auburn (42-20) MATT HAYES RATES THE SEC QUARTERBACKS Here is how Matt Hayes of Saturday Down South rates the SEC quarterbacks. Here are my comments after each one. 1. Bryce Young, Alabama Comment: He’s the reigning Heisman Trophy QB and a likely first round draft pick. There’s no question he’s an elite thrower. 2. Hendon Hooker, Tennessee Comment: I’m still miffed at why Josh Heupel started Joe Milton over Hooker when the season began last year. Milton is a show pony. Hooker is a thoroughbred. 3. Will Levis, Kentucky Comment: He’s got a new offensive coordinator and new receivers to throw to. Could be a boom or bust year for Levis. Pro scouts think he will boom. 4. Stetson Bennett IV, Georgia Comment: Georgia people kept saying all last year that JT Daniels would really make the Bulldogs go. All Bennett did was keep on winning all the way to the national title. It’s easy to doubt him, but hard to argue with the results. 5. KJ Jefferson, Arkansas Comment: He has the potential to be scary good. He throws darts and is a 250-pound sledgehammer when he runs. I would have him at No. 3. 6. Spencer Rattler, South Carolina Comment: A year ago everyone thought he would be the No. 1 player taken in the draft when he was at Oklahoma. Now he’s at South Carolina where he won’t be playing with near the talent he had at Oklahoma. 7. Will Rogers, Mississippi State Comment: Bet the farm that he puts up Star Wars numbers this year. He’s a third-year starter for Mike Leach so he’ll be throwing from the time he gets off the bus. 8. Max Johnson, Texas A&M Comment: Forget the other quarterbacks on the roster including that stud freshman. Max Johnson will be the guy who makes the Aggies go. 9. Myles Brennan/Jayden Daniels/Garrett Nussmeier, LSU Comment: Brennan has been hurt his whole life. Daniels is unpredictable. Nussmeier has the best arm. Brian Kelly never developed an elite QB at Notre Dame. Nothing has changed. 10. ANTHONY RICHARDSON, FLORIDA Comment: Considering he’s spent the last three years (senior in high school, two years at UF) injured, this is a good place for him to be. However, there may not be a QB with a bigger upside in the SEC if he can stay healthy. 11. Zach Calzada, Auburn Comment: He’s better than Bo Nix, that’s for sure. 12. Jaxson Dart, Ole Miss Comment: Huge upside, big arm and Lane Kiffin will be coaching him up. Figure he will move up the ratings in a hurry. 13. Mike Wright, Vanderbilt Comment: He’s the QB at Vandy. Enough said. 14. Brady Cook/Tyler Macon/Sam Horn, Missouri Comment: Horn could go first round in the MLB Draft. Don’t count on him being there. Cook and Macon? They’ve thrown a combined 65 passes. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Big 12 announced officially that BYU, UCF, Houston and Cincinnati will be joining the league in 2023. UCF, Houston and Cincinnati owe the American Athletic Conference $18 million to leave and none of them have $18 million to spare, but an arrangement has been made to pay it out over time. BYU as an independent has no exit fees. This means in 2023 the Big 12 will have an awkward schedule because Texas and Oklahoma will still be in the league. The Big 12 will have 14 teams so the round-robin schedule will be thrown out the window for at least one year. The scheduling issues will last even longer if the Big 12 is unable to work out a deal for Texas and Oklahoma to make an early exit to the SEC. And there is the question of further expansion for the Big 12 once Texas and Oklahoma bolt. At least four American Athletic Conference teams (SMU, Memphis, East Carolina and South Florida) would crawl backward to join the league. Will the Big 12 follow the SEC model and go with 16 teams. It seems far more workable than 12 or 14. There has been talk that Texas and Oklahoma could be joining the SEC in 2023, but you can all but table that idea. Since donkeys might fly before CBS sells ESPN its final season of broadcasting SEC football, you can all but bet the farm Texas and Oklahoma won’t join until 2024 when ESPN takes over the SEC contract. The exit fee for leaving the Big 12 early will be reduced to something more manageable for 2024. The SEC and ESPN are likely to chip in to help Texas and Oklahoma leave and there is a distinct possibility that ESPN will offer a TV deal to the Big 12, whose current media contract with ESPN and Fox expires in 2025. The combination of exit fees and an ESPN contract should sway the Big 12 to release Texas and Oklahoma early. The new TV deal probably won’t be as lucrative as the current contract, but the new Big 12 will have a nice television footprint so a decent – not great – deal is entirely likely.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: DOUBLE DIPPING! GATORS WIN MEN’S/WOMEN’S NCAA TRACK TITLES For all his accomplishments as Florida’s track and field coach, the one thing Mike Holloway had never done is win both the men’s and women’s NCAA outdoor track and field championships in the same year until this past weekend in Eugene, Oregon. The Gators pulled off the Friday night shocked when the men sprinted past the favored Texas Longhorns to take the fifth outdoor title in Holloway’s illustrious career. Then Saturday night, the Gators put away Texas for the women’s outdoor title in Holloway’s career. Earlier this year, the Florida women won the first NCAA indoor title for Holloway. The two NCAA championships brought Holloway’s total to 12: 10 for the men (five indoor, five outdoor) and two for the women. In winning both the men’s and women’s outdoor titles, the Gators became only the seventh team in history to pull What made the UF men’s title so impressive was they did it without scoring a single point in any of the jumps, throwing or distance running events. It was all done in the sprints, led by Joseph Fahnbulleh winning the 100 and 200 meters. Fahnbulleh also ran the anchor leg on Florida’s second place 4X100 relay team. The Gators scored 12 points in the 400 behind a second place finish by Champion Allison and Ryan Willie, who were part of Florida’s winning 4X400 relay team. The Gators were so far out in front of Texas that they had clinched the national championship even before the 4X400 relay was run, but the Gators poured it on with a 2:58.58 with Jacory Patterson, Willie, Jacob Miley and Allison obliterating the field. Saturday, the Gators were led by Jasmine Moore, who won the long jump and triple jump, and Anna Hall, who won the heptathlon and finished second in the 400 hurdles. Moore won the jumper’s grand slam – NCAA titles in the long jump and triple jump at both the indoor and outdoor championships. Talitha Diggs, who won the 400 indoors, also won it outdoors. When the heptathlon results came in (Hall won, Sterling Lester 5th), the Gators knew they needed only one point in the final two events to clinch the title. In the 1,500 meters, the next to last event of the championships, freshman Parker Valby ran a personal best 15:20.10 to finish second for eight points to provide a final margin of 16 (74-58) over the favored Longhorns. UF SOFTBALL: KEAGAN ROTHROCK GATORADE NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE YEAR About the only thing better than winning the Gatorade National Player of the Year for Keagan Rothrock was pitching the Roncalli Royals to an undefeated state championship season. The Gatorade award came last Wednesday. Saturday, Rockrock pitched a 2-hitter, striking out 15 of the 24 batters (only 94 pitches) she faced as Roncalli smashed Harrison, 16-0, to finish the season 33-0. It was the second straight state title for the Royals. Rothrock finished the season 28-0 in the circle with a phenomenal 381 strikeouts. She also hit .529 with 14 home runs. Rothrock has a weighted 4.1 GPA and is editor of the school yearbook. Brian Haenchen of the Indianapolis Star reported that throngs of young girls lined the stairs above the bullpen just to watch Rothrock warm up. "It's just awesome knowing I can be somebody's role model and that I can inspire somebody in that way," Rothrock said. "I want to continue to do it so those young girls have an inspiration. I know I had a role model when I was their age and it was (Florida pitcher) Kelly Barnhill. So it's just nice knowing that I'm able to be somebody else's role model and to give back to our community." Only a junior, Rothrock is part of a recruiting class that ranks among the best of all time – SS Mia Williams (Windermere, FL), P Ava Brown (Montgomery, TX Lake Creek), SS/3B Alyssa Hovermale (Norco, CA), C/1B Ariel Kowalewski (Fort Bend, TX Travis) and OF Cassidy McClellan (Bradenton, FL Lakewood Ranch). SEC FOOTBALL/BASEBALL/TRACK Alabama: Arch Manning visited Alabama over the weekend where he donned Alabama football gear for photo ops. He did the same thing when he visited Georgia. If I’m a betting man, I think he either chooses Alabama or Texas … At the NCAA track meet, the Tide men finished 11th while the women finished 15th. Arkansas: The unseeded Razorbacks (43-19) scored two runs in the bottom of the ninth to knock off 10th-seeded North Carolina, 4-3, and win the Chapel Hill Regional. Buddy Slavens drove home the game-winner with a two-out single. This will be the 11th trip to Omaha for Arkansas, the seventh under head coach Dave Van Horn … At the NCAA track meet, the Arkansas women finished sixth while the men finished 23rd. Auburn: Oregon State forced a game three in the Corvallis super regional by taking down Auburn (43-20), 4-3, Sunday evening. Auburn faces the Beavers today with the winner going to Omaha … At the NCAA track meet, the Auburn men finished 46th while the women finished tied for 62nd. Georgia: The Georgia men finished fifth while the women finished 45th at the NCAA track meet in Oregon. Kentucky: If you watched the final event of the NCAA women’s track and field championships Saturday night then you saw Kentucky’s Abby Steiner make up at least 25 meters on the third leg of the Wildcats winning 4X400 relay team. Steiner, who had set the collegiate record in the 200 meters a few minutes earlier (she also finished third in the 100), caught the Texas runner at on the final turn and then had a 10-meter lead when she made the handoff for the final leg of the relay … The Kentucky women finished third while the UK men finished 36th. LSU: Dylan Tebrake, the Big East pitcher of the year the last two years, is transferring to LSU. He was 8-2 with a 2.81 ERA and 115 strikeouts in 2022 ... At the NCAA track meet, the LSU women finished fourth while the men finished sixth. Mississippi State: The MSU men finished 30th at the NCAA track meet. Missouri: The Missouri men finished 50th at the NCAA track meet. Ole Miss: The Rebels (37-22) were one of the last teams to make the NCAA Tournament field, but after their sweep of Southern Miss in the Hattiesburg regional, they’re on their way to Omaha for the College World Series. Hunter Elliott paved the way for the Rebels by pitching 3-hit baseball over 7-1/3 innings with 10 strikeouts … At the NCAA track meet, the Ole Miss women finished 19th while the men finished 39th. South Carolina: The South Carolina women finished 23rd at the NCAA track meet. Tennessee: The Vols finished their baseball season with a 57-9 record after losing in the Knoxville regional to Notre Dame ... The Tennessee women finished third while the men finished in a tie for 62nd in the NCAA track meet. Texas A&M: The Aggies (42-18) were the first team in the country to punch their ticket to the College World Series after they swept Louisville. Reliever Jacob Palisch came on in relief in the ninth to get two strikeouts and a fly out to preserve the win. First-year coach Jim Schlossnagle has the Aggies going to Omaha just one year after they failed to make the SEC Tournament … The Texas A&M men finished 25th at the NCAA track meet. Vanderbilt: The Vanderbilt women finished 49th at the NCAA track meet. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Think of the 2022 Tennessee Vols as the college baseball equivalent of Lee Westwood. You know what they call Westwood every time there is a golf tournament in which he’s playing – “The best player to never win a major.” Well, just a few days ago Vol fans and a few in the media were proclaiming the 2022 Vols as the greatest college baseball team in history. Now that they’ve been slapped silly by Notre Dame, which arrived in Knoxville wearing the ugliest uniforms on the planet and shiny golden helmets (Golden Domers vs. Mobile Homers was what this super regional was dubbed), it is safe to say that if the Vols were indeed the greatest then they are the greatest to never. It was suggested by a well-meaning friend of mine that the Vols would have won the Knoxville super regional except they left their game on the back row of the “Dreamland Drive-In” show at nearby Dollywood USA. How else, he asked, could the greatest team ever – the No. 1 seed in the entire NCAA Tournament – not only get kayoed in its own super regional but by a team that wasn’t even seeded. Color me not surprised. Not surprised in the least. For weeks I’ve been of the opinion that the only national championship the Vols might win this year is arrogance. There is supreme confidence and there is arrogance. I love supremely confident teams. I am annoyed by arrogant teams that flip bats, argue with umpires and do their best impressions of pimps in the dugout when someone hits a homer. It’s been years since I saw a team as arrogant as Tennessee. I’m reminded of that great line by Lou Holtz, who always reminded his Notre Dame teams, “When you get to the end zone, act like you’ve been there before.” When you’re that good you don’t have to tell the world how good you are. The world will notice anyway. I will concede that Tennessee is loaded with talent, but the team with the most talent rarely takes home the big trophy when the dust settles on the College World Series in Omaha. You have to go all the way back to 1999 to find the last No. 1 seeded team to win the College World Series. That was Miami back when Miami was always on the short list of the best teams in the country. The 2015 Florida team arrived in Omaha as the No. 1 seed. Talk about a loaded roster, the Gators had it. On that Florida roster were 13 who made it to the Major Leagues including Pete Alonso, Alex Faedo, A.J. Puk, Dane Dunning and Harrison Bader, six who made it to Triple A and one to Double A. We’ll have to wait and see if the 2022 Tennessee roster yields that many big leaguers. With the exception of Georgia, I always pull for SEC teams when they have a chance to make it to any national championship event. The only reason I see any Gator should ever cheer for Georgia is if a Georgia win betters Florida’s chances to win a championship. I grudgingly hoped Tennessee baseball 2022 would make the College World Series. Grudgingly. The Vols didn’t make it. I can’t say that I’m happy about it, but I’m certainly not the least bit upset. Nor was Lane Kiffin. Responding on Twitter to a Vol fan trying to get under his skin by asking about son Knox, Kiffin replied with this: “Awesome thanks for asking!! We are watching Ole Miss baseball advance to the CWSOmaha!! What are you guys today in Knoxville?”

“You are what you are when you act.”-- French playwright Jean-Paul Sartre. “Heroes act on impulse but can in no way be created.”— Sixty Minutes. “If Florida wins this game and goes on to win a national championship, they ought to build a statue of this kid.” — ESPN color analyst Dave Dellucci. By BUDDY MARTIN GatorBaitMedia.Com Editor We tend to immortalize most Florida Gator sports heroes in bronze around these parts. The three gladiator statues standing out front Ben Hill Griffin Stadium set the gold standard. Except they don’t even come close to encapsulating all that greatness is, or can be. They are just sports models. There are more statues in waiting, players to be named later -- as they say in baseball trades. Perhaps one at this very moment, another No. 15, except wearing the name "Richardson" on the back of his jersey? (More on that later.) That’s the thing about heroes you never know -- who, or where, or when. Sometimes heroes come from wars or religious faith or politics, although not so much the latter lately. Really, they are more likely to emerge from everyday living, like a cop or teacher or neighbor or even random stranger. Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, often unsuspectingly and sometimes when least expected. That was affirmed for me the other day when I saw a Sixty Minutes piece on heroes, outlining and highlighting the heroism of people who “willingly or knowingly risked their lives” to save or help others. They all said the same thing: “I did it without thinking.” We need heroes more than ever today for something we can believe in as a metaphor for inherent goodness because evil seems so rampant in our world. Sports can be relevant for its sheer irrelevance. No way we can compare the courage of a person saving the life of somebody they don’t even know with some athletic achievement. However, it underscores the true essence of a person when they step up to perform an exceptional feat that seemingly in no way will benefit them. At heart, we are all hero worshippers. They often provide us with inspiration for navigating our own mucked up lives and help us conjure up courage needed for overcoming our own daily unconfidence or cowardice. That brings us to the unlikely prospect of Carsten Finvvold. The final box score showing that Finvvold pitched an incredible complete 27-out, nine inning game in relief with a tortoise speed fastball in the Florida win over Oklahoma – let me say that again! IN RELIEF! – was almost incomprehensible. Especially in a day when only a random few major league starting pitchers are capable of doing that. Even if the Gators couldn’t pull off the final game regional victory, he got the win and a memorable lifetime moment. I realize that pitching nine innings in a baseball game is nowhere even remotely comparable to the feats of Steve Spurrier, Danny Wuerffel or Tim Tebow. Or even Kyle Trask. But in that moment what Finvvold did by appearing from bullpen obscurity to pitch the baseball team out of a bases loaded, no-outs jam amazed even ESPN’s broadcasters with no ties to the UF program was fairly epic. “If Florida wins this game and goes on to win a national championship,” said ESPN color analyst and former big-leaguer Dave Dellucci, “they ought to build a statue of this kid.” That’s a huge stretch I realize, but it underscored the heat of the moment and remarkable achievement by a guy who had only pitched nine innings in his entire career at UF and was so irrelevant to the story that he often wasn’t even dressed out or taken on most road trips. “Heroes act on impulse, but can in no way be created,” somebody said on Sixty Minutes. Seems like I remember this quote from my college philosophy course by French existentialist/ playwright Jean-Paul Sartre: “You are what you are when you act.” Which brings me around to today’s most likely hero-statue-in-waiting, Anthony Richardson. Aside from his amazing athleticism which he displays leaping over would-be tacklers and doing pre-game backflips – plus the one widely publicized speeding ticket in a shiny new sports car – there’s really not much we know about the quarterback nicknamed AR-15. Except he was born in Gainesville just 21 years ago (May 22) and most likely will soon became a multi-millionaire. Here are some things I just learned about Richardson after hearing the excellent 84 Reasons podcast by my colleague and Gator Collective Corner cohost Ben Troupe: --Although he grew up in Gainesville and went to Eastside, Anthony wasn’t enamored with only the University of Florida. “Honestly, it wasn’t always just about the Gators,” he said. In the end, he chose Florida because he was sold on more than just football – “they were talking about football AND academics.” --He almost didn’t choose to wear No. 15 because of obvious pressures. He didn’t want to “let Tim Tebow down at first.” He also had worn No. 2 through high school until his senior year “and my nickname was ‘Two.’” In the end, he accepted the challenge as motivation, even though he’s not likely to equal the feats of Tebow, who’s one of Anthony’s biggest fans (calls him “A Freak!”) and supporters. --Billy Napier: He knows almost everybody in the building by name, where they’re from and what position they play. He pays rapt attention to detail. “He really cares about you … and that’s what I love about him.” --There have been some epic basketball pickup matches involving two Gainesville guys, wide receiver Trent Whittemore and his QB. Asked to compare their hooping skills in half court, AR15 said: “To be honest, I’m gonna give it to him. He’s got more finesse that I do. He’s got a smooth jumper.” --He wasn’t always a quarterback. Before he got to UF, he also played running back, defensive tackle, linebacker and safety. His 6-4, 240-pound frame even blows his teammates’ minds. “THAT’S OUR QUARTERBACK???!!!” exclaimed 6-foot-5, 335-pound offensive lineman transfer O’Cyrus Torrence. --Perhaps the most impressive thing he told Troupe on the 84 Reasons Podcast is that he realizes the money and perks (like hot sports cars) he earns from the Name/Image/Like deal are contingent on his performance. “I’m the one earning the money and I realize if I don’t perform, it goes away.” Sounds like a hero. Looks like a hero. Walks and backflips like a hero. I guess Anthony Richardson, to quote Sartre, “will be what he is when he acts.”