“I am disappointed right now,” said O’Sullivan, “but I am really proud of this team.” By KYLE CURTIS GatorBaitMedia.com To paraphrase Yogi Berra, it’s over now that it’s over. The Gator baseball season ended Sunday night on a bit of a downer after an unfortunate weather delay and Florida allowing four runs in the top of the eighth to the Oklahoma Sooners, who won the regional final, 5-4. It was an upsetting day for the Gators and their fans after playing so well prior the 5 ½-hour lightning delay. The Sooners were able to take the lead in the top of the eighth, after a string of hits off Ryan Slater. After a failed comeback effort, the Gators were left with a disappointing taste in their mouth for the season finale. Despite the bitterness of how the season ended, Kevin O’Sullivan’s Gators have a bright future. “I am disappointed right now,” said O’Sullivan, “but I am really proud of this team.” In particular how it fought back after injuries, rallied to fight back to the finals of the SEC and Jac Caglianone’s mid-season surge showed what he is capable of doing in just a half season as a hitter and came out of the regional loser’s bracket to almost knock off Oklahoma. And once his surgery is healed, he will be able to pitch next year. Along with the return of the young talent off this year’s roster, the pitching staff looks promising. It was a sad way to go out for some of the players who may have suited up in the Gator uniform for the last time. Jud Fabian, a Florida legend, left it all on the field Sunday with two highlight-reel plays to save runs, including a wall-banging catch to save a run or so. Sterlin Thompson, projected as one of the highest draft picks from this squad, and went out in style with a stellar season, leading the Gators in batting average. Hunter Barco, expected to also enter the MLB draft, was seen after the game with Brandon Sproat on the mound taking in Florida Ballpark one last time. Colby Halter along with Josh Rivera and a few other key infield plug-ins will also be returning next year and provide experience and wisdom. This will also be a team with a more bullpen answers next year. Phillip Abner and Brandon Neely will be providing a strong weekend combo come SEC play. Along with lefthander Carsten Finvvold, whose “complete game in relief” performance stunned almost everybody, including his coach. B.T. Riopelle will be exiting, giving an opportunity to highly rated five-star catcher out of high school in Rene Lastres. Lastres is a strong hitter and was the top-rated high school catcher in the nation. He was not needed this year with the addition of Riopelle transferring from Coastal Carolina, although he is destined for a bigger role come 2023. O’Sullivan also has his fair share of highly regarded recruits coming in the upcoming class. He also made a coaching staff change by parting ways with assistant coach Craig Bell after 15 years. The 2023 season will likely be filled with excitement about a potential high pre-season ranking. While the Gators are losing some key contributors, they are reloading in O’Sullivan fashion rather than rebuilding. “I will stand firm on what I believe,” Sully told the media. “This team was a great group to coach – it really was. Some years it is not the same, but this group was really fun to coach.”

By FRANZ BEARD GatorBaitMedia.com In the Florida locker room, about 30 minutes after Joakim Noah had shown off his dance moves for the whole world to see following the Gators’ crushing 77-56 win over Arkansas to win the 2007 SEC Tournament at the Georgia Dome, The Imp decided Florida’s charismatic star had sucked just about enough oxygen out of the room. “Jo can’t dance,” Taurean Green announced. Taurean was seated in front of a locker a few steps from Noah, who was holding court to a throng of media types intent on getting the story about the postgame dance that left Verne Lundquist speechless. “He thinks he can dance, but he can’t dance. I’m a lot better dancer than Jo. He doesn’t win all the arguments – I win most of them – and he definitely can’t dance.” Noticing that the few reporters around him were laughing, it was time to take things to a new and different level. He grinned. It was the kind of grin that told you to buckle your seat belt because something big was about to happen. Taurean got to his feet, took a few steps to his right where he parted the media folks surrounding Noah. Noah was in mid-sentence talking about getting his grandfather in Cameroon to offer up a sacrifice – a chicken perhaps? – when Taurean tapped on his shoulder. The look on Noah’s face said it all. He was irritated, disturbed because he had the folks in the media eating out of his hand. When Jo got on a roll in those days, he had everybody’s undivided attention. And now he was interrupted, not by a coach or SID Fred Demarest, but Taurean, who had a way of getting to him like no one else. There was a perturbed look on Joakim Noah’s face. They made eye contact and locked onto each other, Noah frowning, Green smiling. It was the exact moment The Imp had been waiting for. “Jo, you can’t dance,” Taurean announced. This wasn’t just a sharp needle. It was a 7-inch hatpin designed to burst the rather sizeable Noah bubble and provoke a retort. It worked just as Taurean had planned it out in his mind. “I can dance! Yes, I can dance!” Noah shot back. “What a hater! You’re a hater!” Victory! Mission accomplished! Rather than antagonize Noah some more, Green showed mercy at the exact moment he could have completely deflated his teammate. A lifeline was offered. “You can sing Jo, but you can’t dance,” Green offered. Noah, figuring it’s best to grab for anything positive he could at this point, grabbed hold of the lifeline rather than sink to the bottom. Noah replied, “I can sing. I really can sing” to which Green replied, “But you can’t dance! You really can’t dance!” Noah grinned. This, obviously, wasn’t the first time Taurean Green had gotten the best of him, but upon seeing his buddy/teammate/brother by a different mother laughing, Noah could only shake his head. Little did we know that we were getting the first taste of Taurean Green, the coach. Coaches are leaders and this was a leadership moment. Noah was always great copy, but it was Green’s job as the point guard and team leader, to keep everyone grounded and understanding that when it was all said and done, it was all about the team. Not any individual. That is what made this Florida basketball team so remarkable. It was never about any one individual, but always about the team. Three weeks later in the same Georgia Dome where the Gators won the SEC Tournament, the Gators won their second straight NCAA championship, becoming the first team since Duke 1991-92 to go back-to-back. It’s such a rare feat that nobody has done it since. When we think back to that magnificent team Billy Donovan put together we remember Noah for his charisma and defense, Al Horford for his steadiness and toughness, Corey Brewer for his defense and soaring dunks, Lee Humphrey for his long distance bombs and The Imp, Taurean Green, for being the glue that held it all together. In the two national championship seasons, Noah, Horford, Brewer and Humphrey missed games with injuries. Taurean Green never missed a game. He was tough. He had to be. Billy Donovan, an All-American point guard during his playing days at Providence, rode his point guards hard and he probably rode Taurean harder than any point guard he coached in his 19 years at UF. None of the other point guards wear a national championship ring. Taurean has two. Not bad for a kid who was not even the second choice to be the point guard for the 2004 recruiting class. The top two choices were Jordan Farmar, who wound up at UCLA, and Darius Washington, the hotshot from Orlando Edgewater who went to Memphis. Taurean was the third choice but it turned out to be the best choice. Farmar and UCLA got to the NCAA championship game in 2006 where Taurean had eight assists on a night that Joakim Noah sucked all the oxygen out of the RCA Dome to win the MVP of the tournament. Darius Washington’s Memphis team never made it to a Final Four because they were chewed up and spit out by Farmar and UCLA. The next year, the Gators were the No. 1 team to start the season and they finished No. 1 after disposing of Ohio State in the championship, a game in which Taurean hit all three of his 3-pointers, all five of his free throws, good for 16 points with six assists. Three years at Florida. Two national championship rings. 68 wins and 11 losses in those two championship seasons. 1,174 points. 38.9 percent from the 3-point line. 85.7 percent from the foul line. 400 assists. 124 steals. Lasting friendships with Horford, Noah, Brewer, Humphrey and the others who were on those championship teams. Riding around Gainesville, the five of them in Humphrey’s little truck. The “Food Fight of the Century,” so intense, so fun and yet so nasty that Noah’s mother, sister and aunt kicked Taurean, Brewer, Horford and Noah out of their dorm suite for days while they all but needed HazMat suits to clean it up and make it inhabitable again. A forever bond with Donovan. A degree from the University of Florida. Two seasons in the NBA after being drafted in the second round by the Portland Trail Blazers. Eleven years in European pro leagues where he played in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Israel and Poland. Enough memories to last a lifetime and yet there are more to be made. Playing days behind him after winning a championship in the Polish pro league, it is time for Taurean Green to fulfil the answer he always gave when asked what he wanted to do when he grew up? Basketball coach. As the son of a coach – Big Sid (Sidney Green) was a coach after his pro playing days ended – coaching was always in his blood so Taurean could have simply taken the plunge to learn the nuances of coaching on the fly. Rather than that approach, he instead has taken a far more systematic approach by starting from the ground up. The first step on life’s new journey was the year he spent working on Donovan’s NBA staff with the Chicago Bulls. “I put the [coaching] bug in his ear four or five years ago when he was at OKC and he didn’t know what was going to happen,” Green says. “He told me to wait. I was in Poland. I was able to win a championship so I felt it was a good time to get out.” By then Donovan had move from the Oklahoma City Thunder to the Bulls. He was sort of Donovan’s handyman. He worked with players on the court. He scouted. He did video work. He learned analytics. He developed relationships. It was a year of preparation. “We had 8 o’clock meetings every day, the whole coaching staff,” Green said. “Just being in the room with Coach D and he had a great coaching staff … just being able to learn how coaches think, how they game plan, how they prepare for practice, how you manage the team through a drought or whether they are winning. Just going through the daily process of how to coach a team. I think I learned a lot from players. I learned a lot from DeMar (DeRozan), I learned a lot from Ayo (Dosunmu) even though he’s just a rookie.” All that got him ready for the next step, which was to join Todd Golden’s staff at the University of Florida. Before Golden took the Florida job back in April, he consulted with Donovan, who said this is a place with the potential to win championships again. Golden took the job and he has added Green, a link to the championship past to help him restore the program to a championship level after seven years when it felt UF basketball was spinning its wheels and not making a whole lot of progress. Green is Golden’s Director of Player Development. It is a multifaceted job, much like the one he had in Chicago. Getting into college coaching was an important step. Getting back into college coaching in Gainesville, where it all began, made it the obvious next step. “Everything comes full circle,” Taurean said Wednesday morning, standing in the lobby of Florida’s basketball practice facility. He can find his way around the place with his eyes closed. In the lobby where now there is a bigger than life mural of Donovan are the national championship trophies the Gators won in 2006 and 2007. Take the door on the left side of the lobby and the locker room is on the left. Further down are the strength and training facilities. Across the hall is the practice court. Upstairs are the coaches’ offices. It just feels like home. Donovan doesn’t coach here anymore but his fingerprints are all over the place. Some coaches shy away from living in a perpetual shadow, particularly as large as the one Donovan casts over the Florida program. After all, Billy took over at Florida after Lon Kruger left while claiming you could never recruit enough good players at UF to win championships. All Billy did was win two national championships, get to the Final Four two other times, win the SEC six times and the SEC Tournament four times. Golden has embraced living in Donovan’s shadow because it serves as a constant reminder that championships can be won at the University of Florida. “He (Golden) wanted to be here, he’s excited to be here, he’s appreciative of being here,” Taurean says of the new boss. “He works hard, great energy, you know. It’s just a good vibe around him ... I feel the most important thing is he wants to be here.” This is where Taurean Green wants to be also. While the game has evolved since the days when he suited up for the Gators, there are certain things that will never change. You still have to score more points than the other guys. You still have to rebound. You still have to play defense. As a coach, you still have to teach the fundamentals and how to play the game the right way. That is where Taurean believes he can have the biggest impact on Golden’s staff. “That’s part of my job, player development,” he said. “Just trying to teach these kids what’s important, how to move the right way, how to take care of themselves. Just teaching them. These kids need to be taught. They’re still kids at the end of the day. I look back when I was 16, 17, 18, 19, you just got to remember at the end of the day, they’re still kids, man. Ain’t nobody perfect. They’ll make mistakes. You just got to teach them along the way.” To the casual observer, that probably sounds easy, but one of the ways the game has evolved and why so much time has to be spent teaching fundamentals – not just the kind you have to have to do well on the court but fundamentals of life – is because a high percentage of today’s players have never been taught how to accept coaching and how to appreciate opportunities. Additionally, nearly every kid who comes to a high profile basketball program like the University of Florida is convinced he will be playing in the NBA after a year or two, this despite the fact they’ve grown up in AAU programs where there is very little coaching. “I feel like that’s a problem with today’s basketball,” Green said. “A lot of guys don’t know how to play. A lot of guys on the AAU circuit it’s like, hey, go score. That’s what everybody wants to do. I think guys need to be taught the game. A lot of guys in the NBA don’t know how to play the game, still. I think that’s another thing I learned – teach the game. There’s only one basketball. Everybody can’t score. It’s little details that help a team win. I want to be able to teach that and bring whatever I can to help these guys.” When he played point guard for Donovan and the Gators, Taurean Green was a basketball version of what baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson labeled himself – the straw that stirs the drink. Whether it was being The Imp with the devilish grin who could bring Joakim Noah’s feet back down to earth or stepping to the foul line in clutch situations – does anyone remember when he missed critical free throws with a game on the line? – or being the guy who could take what Donovan dished out and then transform it into a team-leading performance, Taurean Green was the indispensable Gator. He couldn’t get injured and he couldn’t foul out. There was no backup who could have gotten the job done. Now, Taurean is back in Gainesville, ready to take all the lessons he has absorbed since he arrived on campus with Noah, Horford and Brewer back in the summer of 2004 to pass on to a new generation of Gators. You don’t have to ask the question to know that this is just the role he’s been preparing himself for. The smile – that million dollar smile that has always been his calling card – tells you everything you need to know.

[ As the Spring seasons come to an end with track and field the last remaining sport for the Gators, many fans will turn their attention to the Florida football and the 2022 season. By LOREN MEADOWS GatorBaitMedia.com Football Analyst Gone is former head coach Dan Mullen, whose fall from grace still mystifies fans and pundits alike. Enter Billy Napier, who brings an “army” and a level of autonomy that rivals a major corporation as opposed to past coaching staffs. Napier has infused new life into a program coming off a coaching change and its first losing season in four years. However, most of the gambling sites that set the over/under for team win totals have the Florida Gators sitting at 7-7.5 wins for the 2022 season. This win total would be a slight improvement from last year’s total, however still below the standard that many expect from the Gators. With a new coaching staff, systems and signal-caller, there may be cause for optimism. Here are 8 reasons why the Gators can win 8 or more games this season. #8-Discipline and (NO) Penalties From workouts during the “Identity” phase of the program where every player was “required” to be dressed alike with T-Shirts tucked in, discipline will reign supreme in everything the Gators do. The 2021 Gators were whistled for 105 penalties in 13 games while Napier’s Louisiana team committed only 77 penalties in 14 games. An early call out to excessive penalties after a spring scrimmage further drives home that undisciplined activity will not be tolerated on and off the field. #7-Defensive Accountability It is no secret that the Florida Gators struggled to defend teams running and passing in 2021. The defense constantly struggled to line up properly and communicate in critical situations. Losses to South Carolina, and LSU saw the Gators allow an unknown quarterback and running back to have career games against the Gators. Defensive coordinator Patrick Toney encourages a “fundamentally sound” defense that allows “different things to look the same, and same things look different”, all while allowing the players to play free and loose. #6-Game Changer (Special Teams) Many a coach has said “special teams are special." The Gators were abysmal on special teams in 2021, with one loss (Kentucky) directly affected by miscues and two others (Alabama, Missouri) looming large as well. The “Game Changer” title for the Gators special teams shows the importance the Coach Napier places on these units. In 2021, Louisiana was Top 10 nationally in net punting, and blocked kicks, while cracking the Top 20 in punting average, and kick return yardage against. The Grade A point of emphasis, the return of Jeremy Crawshaw and the addition of nationally ranked kicker Tre’ Smack should help Napier and Game Changer Coordinator Chris Couch redefine the Gators special teams. #5-Assistant Coaching Hires Given an A+ for his on-field hires, Coach Napier has assembled some of the top coaches also known for burning up the recruiting trail. The Gators have made what many believe are significant upgrades with Offensive Line Coach Rob Sale, Defensive Line Coach Sean Spencer and former Gator Mike Peterson coaching outside linebackers. The most prominent addition could be the arrival of the “Yoda” of defensive back coaches Corey Raymond, who has coached several NFL first round draft picks in Tre’Davious White, Eric Reid, and Derek Stingley Jr. #4-Anthony Richardson Anthony Richardson presents a certain challenge for any defense. At 6-4 , 237 pounds, Richardson has the talent to impact games both on the ground and in the air. While the darkhorse Heisman candidate has been most impressive on the ground, averaging close to eight yards per carry. Richardson did show improved decision -making through the air, completing 75 percent of his throws in Florida’s spring game. Richardson was also singled out by Coach Napier and teammates alike for his leadership and command of the offense throughout the offseason. #3 Difficult But Favorable Schedule While the Gators play in the SEC and open the season with Top-10 Pac-12 foe Utah. The schedule is favorable with some of the Gators’ toughest opponents coming to Gainesville. They will play host to Utah, Kentucky, LSU and South Carolina. While the Gators travel to Tennessee, Texas A&M, and Jacksonville to play Georgia, a win in one of the three and winnable games at Vanderbilt and at FSU could put Florida in a good spot to eclipse the 7 win total. #2 Florida May Just Be Better Florida could be favored in 8 games in 2022 but underdog in the others due to noted deficiencies on the roster. Many players return from the team that was outgained by Tennessee, Kentucky and Missouri in 2021 matchups but somehow came away with the win in only one of those games. The 24-point win against Tennessee demonstrated Florida’s superior talent. A renewed focus on fundamentals and team play could showcase roster superiority with more consistency in 2022. #1 Billy Napier Napier was 40-12 in four seasons at Louisiana. His 2021 team was 13-1. This is a coach who is not accustomed to losing. Napier understands the expectations at Florida, respects NIL, and knows that recruiting is at the center of team building. Napier was given the budget to hire an “army” of support staff, many dedicated to talent acquisition at all levels. More impressive he has been able to clearly outline his goals for his team on and off the field which represents a high level of organizational understanding of the team-building process. Gone are the parking tickets that have affected football players going back to the era of the Head Ball Coach. Meals have improved, expectations have increased and most everyone in the program seems engaged and locked in. Will it all matter? It most likely will take another 20 or 30 bullet points before November to decipher where the Gators will ultimately fall in the win column.

BY MADELINE LAWSON GatorBaitMedia.com There’s good news and sad news for Florida softball after the 2022 season came to an end with an early departure from the Women’s College World Series. Lauren Haeger, Aubree Munro, Stacey Nelson, Michelle Moultrie, Aleshia Ocasio … you know these names, and many more. These are just a few of the many Gator greats to have come through Florida's softball program. Sadly, and begrudgingly, it’s time to add fifth-year senior Hannah Adams to the list and arguably to the top. The upside is that UF has plenty of fresh talent to uphold the Gator standard and add to this infamous list in the coming years. There’s no need to worry Gator fans, with Adams’ departure comes room for new playmakers and Florida legends to be born. Adams is the epitome of a Gator softball player. She’s been the starter at second base since her freshman year and has spent every game except for 13 games this season due to a hand injury, locking down the infield. Adams committed just 11 fielding errors in 5 years but was perfect in her freshman and super senior seasons. She capped off her final season by earning Rawlings Softball inaugural Golden Glove award at second base. In addition to her impeccable fielding, Adams finished her collegiate career with a .329 batting average on 233 hits and 134 RBIs. But the best part about Adams is who she is off the field, just ask her coach. "The next kid to wear No. 1 is going to have to be a special, special kid," head coach Tim Walton said. "That’s one of the best college softball players I’ve ever been around …The personality and to do what she does with the leather is unbelievable." Along with Adams’ departure, pitchers Natalie Lugo and Marissa Mesiemore and outfielder Cheyenne Lindsey graduated this season. Though, no need to fret, sophomore Katie Kistler and freshman Kendra Falby has proved their defensive prowess covering the outfield. Kistler made an outstanding catch at the wall to rob a home run in the game nine matchup against UCLA at the WCWS. Falby quickly made an impression with her addition to the roster. She led off for Florida most of the season, finishing with an impressive batting average of .514 and an on-base percentage of .578. A single for Falby quickly turned into a double with the speed she possesses, having stolen 20 bases her rookie season. In a 3-0 defeat over Mississippi State in the regular season, the freshman swung away and drove the ball deep to left-center field and hit the wall. For Falby, that’s deadly. She raced around the bases and slid across the plate for an inside-the-park home run. Who else does that? As for pitching, freshman Lexie Delbrey survived and, at times, excelled in the pitching circle. It’s likely her place on the rubber felt more like a ring of fire at times, but having started four postseason games, it’s clear her coaches believe in how she spins the ball. The Bainbridge, Georgia, native has plenty to build off of in her sophomore season. Delbrey will look to improve on her 111.1 innings pitched and 1.90 ERA. With so much youth in Florida’s lineup, it will be up to the upperclassman to guide the Gators and lead the team back to the WCWS. Florida will look to redshirt junior Skylar Wallace to be a key factor in the program again. She broke the single-season stolen bases record earlier this year with 37 but would rack up a whopping 52 in total. The shortstop managed a fielding percentage of .969 on the season, but with the loss of golden glove Adams, will she be able to replicate the elite offense the Gators are known for next season? I think it’s highly likely. Wallace began her collegiate career with Alabama but transferred to Florida in 2020. Walton proved he could snag top talent in the portal and secured another offensive weapon in Pal Egan. Egan spent two years at A&M-Corpus Christi before heading to Gainesville with one year of eligibility as a graduate transfer. The utility player was named the 2022 Southland Conference Player of the Year, SLC Hitter of the Year, All-SLC First Team and SLC All-Tournament Team Selection. Egan will be another speedy addition and fit in well as she went 21-for-24 in stolen bases, and her pop at the plate will be welcomed. Olivia Gigante, Kalia Pollard and standout freshman catcher Sam Roe joined Florida on signing day in November of ‘21. Roe traded in prom for an early start in the Swamp behind the dish. Pollard is an infielder from Riverside, California, and won the 2021 Alliance Fastpitch 18U National Championship. Gigante will be another west coast talent from California, moving more than 2,000 miles away from her hometown in San Diego. The right-handed pitcher comes with a hefty bat, hitting .523 as a junior at Patrick Henry High School. I’ll be the first one to beg for a reincarnated Haeger. It's a shot in the dark, but a girl can dream, right? As players come and go, it’s always bittersweet. But we must keep passing the torch or, in this case, the bat. Before Adams, it was Nicole Dewitt, and before Wallace came Sophia Reynoso. Names ingrained in Gator softball history don’t happen by chance but by making the most out of every opportunity. The 2022 season didn’t end in a national championship. However, this group dominated the Gainesville Regional, won on the road with their backs against the wall in the Blacksburg Super Regional and made it back to Oklahoma. This was the 11th WCWS appearance in program history, and getting to experience the biggest stage in college softball will only better this team. “We made it a goal at the beginning of the year to make it back to the World Series, and we worked really hard to do that, even at times when our season wasn’t looking great,” Adams said. Through injury and a postseason plagued with weather delays, the Gators beat the odds and were the only SEC team to make it to the World Series. Adams and her team had accomplished the goal. With a final record of 49-19 (13-11), there’s certainly room for improvement, especially in conference play. Walton became the second-fastest coach to 1,000 wins this season, and if players continue to buy in, Walton and the Gators should have many more wins in their future. One thing is for certain, regardless of wins and losses, as Lugo said in her final post-game press conference: “It really is truly great to be a Florida Gator.”

McDaniel continued: “The coaches are all about mastering fundamentals. We asked them when we were going to get our plays, and they told us we will get them when we get our footwork right! It’s so different than before: they would just hand us the plays and tell us to learn them -- now we are practicing fundamentals constantly and the coaches expect us to execute them to perfection. It’s all about discipline now. It’s real.” By JOHN CAROSIELLO Facebook.com All For The Gators Many fans were chided last season for what was deemed conjecture regarding what went wrong at UF under Mullen in 2021. This author had the privilege of sitting down with a Gator who was there for it all, and when he asked Mordecai McDaniel difficult questions, Mordecai did not hold back. It seems that this author, as well as many other fans, were more on-point than we may have thought we were about what was happening behind the scenes in Gainesville. According to McDaniel, Emory Jones started over Anthony Richardson because Mullen had pre-determined EJ after Trask -- period. McDaniel said: “It was never about who was the better QB or athlete, many of us wanted 15 to play, but Mullen had already made up his mind before the season started!” This author wrote a piece last year titled: “Dan’s Problem is Dan” wherein he suggested Mullen’s stubbornness, not EJ’s merit, was the only reason he was starting over AR-15. Fact check, TRUE! Next, this author and other fans questioned Mullen’s integrity when he claimed AR-15 was still injured and couldn't play … despite doing backflips on the sideline pre-game! McDaniel laughed about this: “He wasn't hurt! Have you ever had an injured hamstring?? You can't walk upright let alone land backflips! Mullen was getting too much heat and needed an out!” Fact check, TRUE! New Info (not suggested by this writer): According to McDaniel, Mullen began taking over the defense last season and it made things worse: “We would go into a game after having practiced a gameplan all week, then it would be game-time, and Mullen would throw out the entire plan and start calling plays! He (Mullen) and Coach Grantham were not getting along at practice or in the games - then we all started getting at each other too- it got bad, man!” Positive Changes Under Napier: Mordecai said that they all feel like the coaching staff actually cares about them now; he said the team has gotten close, way beyond what they used to be -- which has had positive ramifications at practice: “Man, you should see us at practice (laughs), we got guys flying all over the place now!” McDaniel continued: “The coaches are all about mastering fundamentals. We asked them when we were going to get our plays, and they told us we will get them when we get our footwork right! It’s so different than before: they would just hand us the plays and tell us to learn them -- now we are practicing fundamentals constantly and the coaches expect us to execute them to perfection. It’s all about discipline now. It’s real.” Funny Incident at Practice: McDaniel said: “Coach Napier told the team that our shirts couldn’t be baggy - and a lot of us didn’t listen - so after practice, we came off the field and the athletic trainers came out with scissors and gave us all halter tops (laughs), none of us have worn a baggy shirt since (laughs)” McDaniel can hardly wait for September and said that there is just a whole new sense of optimism and energy this year -- but that they are all eager to see what happens under Napier. McDaniel said that the team came together after Napier was hired and collectively decided that they needed to get behind the new coaching staff - and that they would all fully buy-in and then assess things after the season. I asked Mordecai if he was surprised that Mullen was fired: “Nah, he quit after UGA -- he was done. When he called the team meeting to tell us he was let go, I didn’t even go ‘cause I knew what he was gonna say -- but those that went said he came in and said that he wished them well, and walked out -- no conversation. We all saw what he got out of the deal (shaking head) -- that was crazy, man.” McDaniel’s candor was refreshing, and it was also nice to take a break from the gaslighting of many critical fans who thought that any conjecture was mere “armchair quarterbacks” spouting nonsense. Mordecai confirmed what many of us already knew: Our eyes weren’t lying to us last season and they aren’t lying to us about the new culture that seems to be in place under Napier now! I asked McDaniel about Wilson’s infamous shoe-throw against LSU and what he thinks would happen if someone pulled that kind of stunt under Napier. His response is an appropriate closing for this piece: “Man, they would be running until they graduated!” Is it September yet?

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: TAUREAN GREEN: THE GAME HAS EVOLVED Gainesville, in many ways, is a lot like the game of basketball in Taurean Green’s mind. Neither one is anything like it was back in 2007 when he left Gainesville along with the other three members of the fabled Oh-Fours after winning back-to-back NCAA championships while playing for Billy Donovan. “Gainesville was a little town and now it’s a city,” Green remarked Wednesday morning at a press conference at the Florida basketball practice facility. Taurean is the newest member of Todd Golden’s coaching staff. He’s here as the Director of Player Development, which in many ways means he’s the general manager. He’s getting acclimated to the new job just as he is getting accustomed to a far different Gainesville than the one he left. “Time flies, but just being able to be back on campus and seeing everything it’s surreal,” he said, noting that Gainesville now has a Cheesecake Factory and PF Chang’s, neither of which were in existence in the city back in 2007. He thinks the way Gainesville has grown will be good for recruiting. Gainesville has changed. So has basketball since the days when he played point guard for a Florida team that became the first to win back-to-back national titles since the 1991-92 Duke teams. For two straight years, the Gators ran with the same starting lineup – big guys Al Horford and Joakim Noah, Corey Brewer and Lee Humphrey on the wings and Taurean at the point. When Donovan subbed, he brought in big guys Adrian Moss and Chris Richard with guards Walter Hodge and David Huertas in 2006 when the Gators beat UCLA for the national championship. A year later, Donovan brought in Richard and Marreese Speights along with Hodge. That was pretty much the way the game was played and that wasn’t all that long ago. It isn’t just the college game that has changed, either. The game has evolved in Europe, where Green spent all but one year of a lengthy professional career, and in the NBA. “Like, you know, back when I played it was traditional two bigs, a wing, two guards,” he said. “Now it’s about this four out [beyond the 3-point line], you know sometimes five out so it’s just the game has evolved. It’s crazy, but like you have to be able to adapt to how the game’s played now. You’ve got to be able to shoot it. You’ve got fives who can step out to the three now, and you’ve just got to be able to adapt and just go with it.” After spending the last year on Billy Donovan’s staff with the NBA Chicago Bulls, a year in which he spent being a sponge, absorbing everything he could from coaches, scouts and players, he’s on a collegiate staff, starting out in player development. Green says his role with the staff is fairly fluid. He’ll be doing a little bit of everything to help first year Florida coach Todd Golden get the basketball program re-started after seven years of Mike White at the helm. Everything Taurean has seen about Golden tells him this is the right guy at the right time and the right place to get UF back to a championship level. “He [Golden] wants to be here, he’s excited to be here, he’s appreciative of being here,” Green said. “He works hard, great energy, you know. It’s just a good vibe around him … The guys really respond around him … I feel like the most important thing is he wants to be here. You know, he's excited and he's just ready to get rolling.” UF BASEBALL: NIL AND THE PORTAL SHOULD MAKE UF VERY APPEALING Tommy White and Ethan Groff have entered their names in the NCAA transfer portal. If you don’t follow college baseball closely, then White is the best freshman hitter in the country who is departing North Carolina State and Groff is a stud outfielder who has said sayonara to Tulane. White had a monster year for the Wolfpack, hitting .362 with 12 doubles, 27 homers and 74 RBI. Unlike a lot of big boppers who suffer from Pedro Ceranno disease, White makes plenty of contact and only struck out 50 times in 235 at bats. Groff hit .404 for Tulane with 15 doubles, two triples, nine homers and 35 RBI. He struck out only 26 times in 151 at bats. White is from St. Petersburg Beach, who finished his prep career at IMG Academy. Groff is a redshirt sophomore from Orlando (graduate of Trinity Prep) with as many as three years of eligibility remaining because of the 2020 COVID year. White, for sure, is on Florida’s radar. Groff wants to return to the state of Florida although it’s unknown how high he is on Kevin O’Sullivan’s list of transfer portal priorities. Here is why the University of Florida and all the Division I public schools should be very appealing to White, Groff and what is expected to be a tidal wave of transfers, many of whom are kids from the state of Florida. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, limits baseball to 11.7 scholarships that can be spread among 27 players. At the University of Florida where a full scholarship costs about $20,000 a year, KOS has about $234,000 in scholarship money to work with. That gives him an average of about $8,600 per player that he can dole out. With the SEC mandated cost of attendance stipend that every athlete whether on full or partial scholarship receives (thought to be between $5,000-6,000) and a Pell Grant (as much as $6,495) a baseball player can basically attend school at no cost. Now if KOS can get the collectives to spend some money, a baseball player like Tommy White or Ethan Groff can come back home and not have to pay any money out of pocket. Out-of-state tuition at North Carolina State is in excess of $29,000 per year. At Tulane, which is a rather expensive private school, tuition alone is more than $60,000 per year. Both White and Groff will find the financial burdens significantly less by returning to their home state. A high profile baseball program like Florida, which will only need a couple of pieces to make a loaded roster next year might be an ideal landing spot, not just for White and Groff but for others in the portal. UF SOFTBALL: WALTON LANDS A TRANSFER Pal Egan always dreamed of playing softball for Tim Walton and the Gators and now she will have her chance although her route to Gainesville hit a few detours along the way. Egan, who played shortstop last season at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, started her collegiate career at Vernon College (juco) before transferring into Corpus Christi, where she was the 2022 Southland Conference Player of the Year and third team NFCA All-Region. Egan began dreaming of playing for the Gators as a 10-year-old growing up in Bakersfield, California. Even when she was playing juco softball she hung a Florida pennant on her wall to remind her that playing for the Gators was her dream. Now, after a season in which she hit .426 with 17 doubles, 12 home runs, 36 RBI and 27 stolen bases, she will be coming to UF as a graduate transfer. Egan had a .794 slugging percentage and a .555 on-base percentage that ranked eighth nationally. Walton is likely to reach into the transfer portal for another player or two, particularly for power pitchers who throw high-60s for strikes. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL/BASEBALL Alabama: Former All-American offensive lineman (1991) Robert Stewart passed away. He was 55 years old … Former Bama wide receiver Javon Baker, who was at one time committed to transfer to Kentucky, is transferring to UCF. Baker caught nine passes for 114 yards and a TD in two years at Alabama. Arkansas: Sam Pittman, whose 12-11 record in two years represents a dramatic football turnaround for Arkansas, is rather happy with his contract extension that could average out to more than $6 million a year. “It was an honor that the school thought enough of me to give me a longer contract,” Pittman said at a Tuesday press conference ... The Razorbacks (41-19) travel to North Carolina (42-20) Saturday for super regional play. Auburn: The Tigers (40-19) will travel to Oregon State for NCAA super regional play beginning Saturday. Kentucky: John Calipari has hired K.T. Turner as an assistant. Turner spent last season working for Porter Moser at Oklahoma. Mississippi State: Former Michigan reserve defensive back Jordan Morant is transferring to Mississippi State. He played in eight games in 2021, mostly on special teams. Ole Miss: The Rebels (35-22), who were one of the last teams to make in for the original 64-team NCAA field, open play Saturday in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss (40-21) in super regional play. Tennessee: The Vols (55-7) open play in their super regional Friday night against Notre Dame (38-14). Asked what he thinks of the No. 1 seeded Vols, Notre Dame outfielder Ryan Cole said “if I were them I’d be a little scared.” Texas A&M: The Aggies (40-18) open super regional play Friday night against Louisville (42-19-1) in College Station … Offensive lineman Smart Chibuzo, who played in three games in two years, will medically retire. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: It should be a moment to savor for Big 12 Conference outgoing commissioner Bob Bowlsby. Big 12 teams have won the last two NCAA championships in basketball and with Oklahoma and Texas playing for the national championship at the Women’s College World Series, the Big 12 will have won the last two softball titles, too. Back in April, Oklahoma edged Florida by a tenth of a point to win the NCAA gymnastics title. Texas just won the NCAA golf championship, too, and the Longhorns have the No. 1 ranked teams in both men and women’s track and field at the NCAA championships in Eugene, Oregon. As proud as Bowlsby might be, however, the moment has to be bittersweet because Texas and Oklahoma will soon depart for the Southeastern Conference. The Big 12 will be losing its bell cows and the SEC, already the strongest league top to bottom in the entire country, will only be stronger. This is precisely why the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 formed “The Alliance.” They can stomp their feet and throw tantrums until they are blue in the face and they can do their best to obstruct expansion of the College Football Playoff, but the fear goes far beyond the playoff. The fear has everything to do with the SEC dominating everything except maybe hockey, field hockey, lacrosse, water polo, rowing and a bunch of other sports that aren’t SEC sponsored. In sports sponsored by the SEC, here are national championships won in the league since 2000. Since Oklahoma and Texas are joining the SEC, their national titles in the Big 12 will be added to the SEC. Football: 16 Men’s Basketball: 3 Women’s Basketball: 5 Baseball: 10 Softball: 9 Men’s Track and Field Indoor: 15 Men’s Track and Field Outdoor: 14 Women’s Track and Field Indoor: 11 Women’s Track and Field Outdoor: 13 Men’s Swimming and Diving: 15 Women’s Swimming and Diving: 12 Men’s Tennis: 5 Women’s Tennis: 8 Women’s Volleyball: 2 Men’s Golf: 10 Women’s Golf: 3 Women’s Gymnastics: 15 Men’s Cross Country: 1 Women’s Cross Country: 1 It can be argued that the only sport that really matters is football and in terms of generating revenue, it’s definitely the king, but since conferences have networks, these other sports do fill time and therefore create growth which translates into more revenue. More championships means lots of good programming for the network and therefore more money for every team in the league. The fine folks in “The Alliance” have reason to be fearful. For one thing they’ll have to explain to their fans how it is they let the SEC become so dominant and not just for football.

It’s All About The Benjamins. Maybe Also The Starbucks Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte It’s becoming a cliché, but you can hardly write a sports story these days without the subject of money being part of it. Once upon a time it was about the love of competition and love of the game, but it has all been hijacked by the Benjamins. Is all of sports for sale? Filthy lucre reigns supreme. College sports reeks with it, from eight-figure coaching contracts to NIL multi-million-dollar quarterbacks. In other sports, hundreds of millions being guaranteed to PGA Tour players jumping ship to the Saudi Arabian golf league. NFL franchises being bought for a staggering $4.6 billion. And people like Tom Brady are making enough to almost BUY an NFL team. I’m jealous, of course. At the same time, I’m reminded of that old English proverb about the guy who “knows the price of everything … but the value of nothing.” Think about it. And all the Gator Collective is asking: Give up the price of a Starbucks Venti Pumpkin Spice Latte every week for a month to sponsor a UF athlete. (About $20). Or even once a month. ($5) Mo’ Money: They Said It – Or Wrote It So Long Jud, And Thanks Scott Carter makes an excellent point about Jud Fabian on Floridagators.com, who turned down a chance to live as a millionaire to play another year of Gator baseball: “In Monday's loss to the Sooners, Fabian made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Robertson of extra bases in the fourth inning and saved a run with a diving catch in the sixth inning. Fabian departs as one of the best ever to play center field for the Gators. "This guy made a decision that probably most people in this room wouldn't make,’‘(Kevin) O'Sullivan said. "How can you not appreciate that? He will be missed." Who Wants To Get Fired? Maybe Jimbo. Connor O’Gara of Saturday Down South: “Under the current parameters of his contract, Jimbo Fisher could ‘in theory’ go 8-4 the next four seasons and A&M would still need to pay him $57.9 million to fire him at the end of the 2025 season.” The Hustle Ryan Day estimates $13 million needed in NIL money to maintain Ohio State football roster beyond next season. Didn’t Gov. John Bel Edwards, governor of Louisiana, try this kind of blackmail a few years ago when he threatened to drop LSU football if the legislature didn’t approve his budget? How’d that go? Meanwhile, They Said This: “I’m a firm believer that this is a positive. We’re living in a different era … One of the things about my career is I’ve been in the profession and observed this explosion. It’s foolish to say the players don’t deserve a piece of the pie. If there are no players in these stadiums, nobody’s showing up to watch …” -- Billy Napier to Allan Taylor of The Athletic. "It was pretty hard to contain that smile in the ninth inning when I ran out. It was one of the best moments of my entire life." – Rookie Freshman Pitcher Carsten Finnvold. Feleipe A Tight End. Why Not? Former Florida QB Feleipe Franks is moving to TE/WR for the Atlanta Falcons. Had Dan Mullen known that he could have been playing the right guy at quarterback a year earlier – Kyle Trask. My Top Five Coaches Everybody else seems to be chirping about this, so why not me? --SEC: 1. Nick Saban, 2. Kirby Smart, 3. Jimbo Fisher, 4. Lane Kiffin. 5. (tie) Billy Napier and Brian Kelly. --National: 1. Nick Saban, 2. Kirby Smart, 3. Ryan Day, 4. Lincoln Riley, 5. Dabo Swinney. Trenton Tough Wyatt Langford went to the dentist DURING that 5-1/2 hour weather delay of the Florida-Oklahoma baseball game after he collided at second and dislodged two teeth, came back and hit a home run tie the single season record held by Matt LaPorta. Can he play linebacker? The Village Was Never Lovelier On The Plains My friend Rob Browne of Sidelines agrees with this: Auburn’s Butch Thompson deserves consideration for national coach of the year. After being picked to finish dead last in the SEC West, the Tigers swept their regional in dominating fashion and are headed to a super regional. Auburn? Who knew? Return With Us Now To Yesteryear… Taurean Green on his new job as director of player of development for Todd Golden: “It feels great. Everything comes full circle. I’m just appreciative of coach Golden giving me an opportunity to be part of the staff, to come back to the University of Florida. It’s a great opportunity -- young, energetic staff, really knows basketball -- and the guys have really been working so far, but it’s early.” Good News/Bad News 1.There will be a Year Three for Ted Lasso on Apple TV, possibly my favorite TV Show. 2.It will be the last. Why? Today’s Quote Worth Remembering “If you're going to be a symbol for something, what could be more pleasant than a symbol for baby food?" — Ann Turner Cook of Tampa, who was the original Gerber baby and who died last week at 95, per the Tampa Bay Times

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: NO FIRST TEAM GATORS ON ATHLON PRESEASON ALL-SEC Athlon, whose preseason magazine is scheduled to hit newsstands this week, has released its preseason top 25 and All-SEC teams. That the Gators aren’t in the top 25 should surprise no one since they’re coming off a losing season that resulted in a coaching change, but not a single Gator made first team All-SEC. In fact, only six Gators made Athlon’s FOUR preseason All-SEC teams and only two of them – O’Cyrus Torrence and Brenton Cox Jr. – even made second team. Perhaps Billy Napier should try doing Rodney Dangerfield impersonations – “I don’t get no respect” – at his next Gator Club speech. Only Vanderbilt, which is to be expected, had fewer preseason All-SEC selections than the Gators. Second team: OL O’Cyrus Torrence; LB Brenton Cox Jr. Third team: DL Gervon Dexter; LB Ventrell Miller; CB Jason Marshall Fourth team: S Rashad Torrence That 12 of the 14 SEC schools had at least one first team selection – Florida and Vanderbilt the two notable absences – is truly an indictment of Florida’s recruiting the previous four seasons. That the two highest regarded Gators (Torrence and Cox) began their collegiate careers elsewhere only further emphasizes just how poorly Dan Mullen and his staff recruited. There is talent on the UF roster that Napier inherited and has enhanced with freshmen and a handful of transfers, but obviously none of the people at Athlon think a whole lot of what’s left behind. When only Vanderbilt has less representation on a preseason All-SEC team, you know that recruiting has fallen way behind the rest of the league. Although Billy Napier will never say it out loud where it can be quoted in some publication or broadcast on the airwaves, there is absolutely no excuse whatsoever for the University of Florida to ever be in this kind of talent deficit. The rest of the SEC on the preseason Athlon teams: Alabama (18 including 7 first team); Georgia (13 including 5 first team); Texas A&M (12 including 4 first team); Tennessee (10 including 2 first team); Auburn (9 including 2 first team); Kentucky (9 including 1 first team); LSU (9 including 1 first team); South Carolina (9 including 1 first team); Mississippi State (8 including 1 first team); Arkansas (7 including 2 first team); Ole Miss (7 including 1 first team); Missouri (7 including 1 first team); and Vanderbilt (2) Athlon preseason 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. Arkansas; 23. Pittsburgh; 24. Houston; 25. Penn State Overrated 5. Texas A&M: A year from now No. 5 might be a good place to start, but not this year. The Aggies lost too much talent and now they have to play Miami, Arkansas, (at) Alabama, (at) South Carolina, Florida, (at) Auburn and LSU. 7. Notre Dame: The Irish are breaking in a new QB, there isn’t a lot of speed at WR and the schedule includes (at) Ohio State; BYU (in Las Vegas); Clemson and (at) Southern Cal. 10. Oregon: There are 14 returning starters. That’s the good news. The bad news is the QB will be Bo Nix. 15. Cincinnati: Eight players were drafted, one of whom was Desmond Ridder. The Bearcats open up at Arkansas. They also play at SMU and at UCF. 18. Tennessee: The Vols gave up 33.6 points per game and 200.8 yards per game on the ground. They will have to win shootouts. The schedule includes (at) Pitt, Florida, (at) LSU, Alabama, Kentucky, (at) Georgia and (at) South Carolina. 19. Wisconsin: Why the love for a team that went 9-4 last year and returns only eight starters one of which is Graham Mertz, who completes a lot of passes to the other team in big games? Underrated 11. Baylor: Dave Aranda has it going. As long as he’s at Baylor, you can pencil the Bears in for at least 10 wins a season. 12. North Carolina State: Dave Doeren has 17 starters back and the only tough game on the schedule is at Clemson on October 1. 13. Oklahoma: This may sound blasphemous, but the offense might be better now that Lincoln Riley is gone with Jeff Lebby calling the plays and former UCF QB Dillon Gabriel. With HBC Brent Venables taking over the defense, there will be serious improvement. 22. Houston: Clayton Tune might be the best QB you’ve never heard of and Doug Belk is still the DC. The Cougars will be hard pressed not to go 12-0. SPORTING NEWS RANKS BILLY NAPIER NO. 32 DIVISION I HBC Sporting News, which released its top 25 Division I head coach list on Monday, released its rankings for the rest of Division I on Tuesday. Florida coach Billy Napier whose four-year stint as Louisiana’s head ball coach produced a 40-12 record, is ranked No. 32. That makes Napier the 10th ranked coach in the SEC. Sporting news coaches 26-50: 26. Dave Doeren, North Carolina State; 27. Josh Heupel, Tennessee; 28. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern; 29. Kilani Sitake, BYU; 30. Mike Leach, Mississippi State; 31. David Shaw, Stanford; 32. BILLY NAPIER, FLORIDA; 33. Shane Beamer, South Carolina; 34. Herm Edwards, Arizona State; 35. Marcus Freeman, Notre Dame; 36. Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri; 37. Chris Klieman, Kansas State; 38. Chip Kelly, UCLA; 39. Bryan Harsin, Auburn; 40. Jeff Brohm, Purdue; 41. Steve Sarkisian, Texas; 42. Sonny Dykes, TCU; 43. Scott Satterfield, Louisville; 44. Jeff Hafley, Boston College; 45. Gus Malzahn, UCF; 46. Tom Allen, Indiana; 47. Neal Brown, West Virginia; 48. Dan Lanning, Oregon; 49. Brent Venables, Oklahoma; 50. Hugh Freeze, Liberty Other notables: 52. Jamey Chadwell, Coastal Carolina; 53. Jonathan Traylor, Texas-San Antonio; 56. Mike Locksley, Maryland; 57. Scott Frost, Nebraska; 58. Mike Norvell, Florida State; 64. Bill Clark, UAB; 65. Jeff Monken, Army; 66. Dana Holgorsen, Houston; 72. Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech; 75. Dino Babers, Syracuse; 76. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt; 81. Jeff Tedford, Fresno State; 82. Clay Helton, Georgia Southern; 83. Tyson Helton, Western Kentucky; 90. Jim McElwain, Central Michigan; 107. Willie Taggard, Florida Atlantic; 115. Terry Bowden, Louisiana-Monroe; 118. Butch Jones, Arkansas State; 125. Jeff Scott, South Florida BASEBALL STAFF SHAKEUP? Nothing official has come from the Florida SID but Kendall Rogers of D1Baseball reports that longtime Kevin O’Sullivan assistant Craig Bell is leaving the program. Bell was one of the original assistants (Brad Wetzel was the other one), who came to Florida when O’Sullivan was hired by Jeremy Foley back in 2008. Wetzel was fired after the 2019 season and speculation from various close followers of the UF program that the parting of the ways with Bell has been in the works for the past few weeks. Bell worked with Florida’s outfielders, served as the hitting coach and was the third base coach. The outfielders played very well and the Gators hit a lot of home runs (121), but the Gators were inconsistent with runners in scoring position, particularly in the recently concluded SEC and Gainesville regional tournaments. So, who will be Bell’s replacement? One name that is already being heard from Gator fans is former UF All-American and 8-year Major League Baseball veteran Brad Wilkerson, the former National League Rookie of the Year (2001) who spent the past two seasons as an assistant coach on Chris Hayes’ staff at Jacksonville University. At UF, Wilkerson was the first player in collegiate history to hit 20 home runs, steal 20 bases and win 10 games pitching in the same season. In three years playing for the Gators, Wilkerson hit .381 with 55 homers and 214 RBI to go with a 26-11 record on the mound. Wilkerson is a member of the National College Baseball Hall of Fame. Prior to JU, Wilkerson was the baseball coach at The King’s Academy in West Palm Beach. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: In an interview with Dennis Dodd of CBS Sports, Lincoln Riley got a bit defensive when talking about why he did his best Bobby Bowden impersonation in describing why he left Oklahoma, which is about to join the Southeastern Conference, for Southern Cal and the Pac-12. Bowden, if you are old enough to remember, openly admitted that the reason Florida State chose the Atlantic Coast Conference over the SEC back in 1991 was because it was a whole lot easier to win a national championship with an ACC schedule than playing in the SEC. Oklahoma, which has won seven national championships, all of them since 1950, has plenty of football tradition but it’s about to join a league that has won 12 national championships since 2006. Southern Cal not only hasn’t won a national title during that span, but the Pac-12 has only had a team make it to the national championship game twice (ohfer 2) and has only gotten teams in the College Football Playoff twice (Oregon 2014; Washington 2016). To its credit, Oklahoma made it to the playoff four times. “I heard the whole SEC narrative,” Riley told Dodd. “To me, the SEC has nothing to do with it. It’s all about the program you’re at and the position you think you can get to.” Translation: It’s a whole lot easier to breeze through a Pac-12 schedule than it is to play in an SEC that is going to go division-less with a 9-game schedule that will ensure playing every team in the league home and home at least once every four years. Bobby Bowden didn’t like the prospect of having to play Alabama, LSU, Auburn AND Florida every year so he chose the ACC where he could play Wake Forest Gump and Dook. He won two national championships and got to the championship game of the BCS three other times and didn’t finish outside the top four in the final AP poll after FSU joined the ACC. That wouldn’t have happened in the SEC. At Southern Cal, Riley is counting on zillions of dollars just collecting dust in Beverly Hills bank accounts owned by alums buying transfers and enticing locals to stay in LA to play college football. It’s a rather nice sales pitch if you think about it, but even with the rapidly changing landscape that the transfer portal combined with NIL money has made over, the majority of the nation’s good high school kids and transfers are going to still choose to play in an SEC that will get infinitely tougher once Oklahoma and Texas join. For one thing, probably 90 percent of all the kids who sign scholarships with schools from one of the power conferences believe they’ll one day make it to the NFL. In the most recent NFL Draft, the SEC had 65 players taken in the most recent NFL Draft while the Pac-12 had 25. A year earlier, the SEC also had 65 players selected and the Pac-12 had 28. Most every expert expects Lincoln Riley to seriously elevate the talent level at Southern Cal, but there is that teensy little matter of the rest of the league. Beyond Southern Cal and UCLA, there just isn’t much curb appeal to the Pac-12 which is why it is struggling to land a decent television contract when the current one with Fox and ESPN runs out. The networks aren’t exactly beating a path to Pac-12 commish George Kliavkoff’s door to line up future matchups between Oregon State and Washington State. The SEC, meanwhile, will be distributing more than $80 million per school once Oklahoma and Texas leave the Big 12 and the best games in the country every single week will be on ABC and the ESPN family of networks. So back to the original question: Why did Lincoln Riley leave Oklahoma for Southern Cal? Two reasons: (1) USC is stupid enough to give him a 10-year deal worth $11 million a year and (2) the biggest reason of all – Riley can win more games in the Pac-12 than he ever could in the SEC.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: GATORS COME UP SHORT IN REGIONAL, BUT THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT The Oklahoma Sooners were still celebrating their 5-4 win over the Florida Gators that propelled them into NCAA super regional play against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia when Hunter Barco strolled out to the pitching mound at Condron Family Ballpark. Stopped down on the pitching rubber, staring at home plate was Brandon Sproat. He didn’t pitch Monday night, but he was obviously hurt and disappointed. Like everyone else who endured the 5-hour, 39-minute rain delay, Sproat probably wondered what might have been if the skies hadn’t emptied. Florida had all the momentum then, but now that it was over, the ballpark was all but empty. So was the feeling in the pit of the stomach of both Sproat and Barco. They talked for a minute or two, then they hugged. A farewell hug? Probably. In another month both of them are going to hear their names called early on in the Major League Baseball Draft. Barco, who was Florida’s ace before a season-ending injury that required Tommy John surgery, is a hard throwing lefty who is likely to go late first to mid-second of the draft. Sproat, who came on strong in the last month of the season and threw an impressive complete game this past Friday night to beat Central Michigan in the first round of the Gainesville regional, throws consistently in the high 90s. Somewhere between rounds one and four he’ll be selected. It is possible that both Sproat and Barco will reject the contracts offered next month and return to Florida for another year. Possible yes, but likely no. Pitchers with their arm talent probably get offers they can’t refuse. The future is bright for both of them, just as it is bright for center fielder Jud Fabian, second baseman/right fielder Sterlin Thompson and catcher/first baseman BT Riopelle. Like Barco and Sproat, they’ll get drafted and there is very little chance they’ll return to Gainesville for another season. You can’t minimalize the loss of those five talented kids, but just because they have one foot out the door on their way to professional careers doesn’t mean the future isn’t exceedingly bright for Kevin O’Sullivan and the Gators. This was the youngest team O’Sullivan has put on the field since 2010. The Gators had the youngest pitching staff in the Southeastern Conference and one of the youngest in the entire country. Nick Ficarrotta, Carsten Finnvold, Ryan Slater, Hunter Jameson, Brandon Neely, Timmy Manning, Tyler Nesbitt and Phil Abner will be sophomores next year. Pierce Coppola, a 6-8 lefty who got a start the opening weekend and was shut down because of a back injury, should be healthy next year and Jac Caglianone is another big lefty who throws hard. He was the DH the last third of the season (.288, 6 HR) but he is recovering from Tommy John. He’s a potential first rounder whether on the mound or at first. Wyatt Langford came out of nowhere to tie Matt LaPorta’s school record for homers in a season (26) while hitting .355 and driving in 63. Pencil him in as a first rounder next year. Josh Rivera will be back at shortstop unless he gets drafted high enough. Colby Halter will be back at third. Deric Fabian didn’t hit consistently but he’s as talented as anyone on the team and Ty Evans could move to center field to take over for Jud Fabian. Catcher Mac Guscette returns but he will be pushed by redshirt freshman Rene Lastres, who was one of the top high school catchers in the country a year ago. The incoming recruiting class includes catcher Luke Heyman (6-3, 205, Longwood, FL Lake Brantley), righty Jake Clemente (6-4, 210, Coral Springs, FL Marjory Stoneman Dougless), lefty Cade Fisher (6-4, 210, Dalton, GA Northwest Whitfield County) and power hitting outfielder/left pitcher Yoel Tejada Jr. (6-7, 220, Davie, FL North Broward Prep). The 2023 recruiting class is absolutely loaded as well, so the future looks great but it will be great because the foundation for future success was put in place this year when O’Sullivan dealt with injuries to his pitching staff and had the patience to let the kids figure things out. The Gators could have won this regional if not for that rain delay, but that’s something we’ll never know. What we do know is that this team was all but given up for dead when they were 23-17 and 6-12 in SEC play, yet they finished 42-24 and were perhaps one or two pitches away from advancing to a super regional. “Everyone wants to win at the end of the year, we have done that,” O’Sullivan said post game Monday night. “We have also lost in Omaha and that hurts, when you lose in a super regional or a regional, it hurts, but your whole program is built around culture. I think this is a big step in building that culture back and getting to where we want to be, playing for a national championship.” Other SEC teams in regional play Monday: No. 11 Southern Miss 8, LSU 7 (Southern Miss hosts Ole Miss in a super regional); No. 3 Oregon State 7, Vanderbilt 6 (Oregon State hosts Auburn in a super regional); Ole Miss 22, Arizona 6 (Ole Miss advances to Southern Miss super regional); Arkansas 7, No. 7 Oklahoma State 3 (Arkansas advances to Chapel Hill super regional to face 10 North Carolina) THE HEAD BALL COACH SPEAKS In Memphis to receive an award from the Liberty Bowl, Steve Spurrier offered these goodies for public consumption, as reported by the Memphis Commercial-Appeal: Solving the NIL problem “I don’t like the idea of buying the players before they get there or giving them money before they get there. My suggestion would be go back to the original recruiting rules. After a player gets to college, he does very well he can do a deal and endorse. If someone wants to pay him a bunch of money, then it’s perfectly all right but they have come and play one year, and then, you know it’s a free country.” On the Nick vs. Jimbo feud “I didn’t think Coach Saban had accused him of cheating. He just said he bought most if not all, of his recruiting class. Jimbo didn’t like it, I guess. It’ll blow away. I guess maybe it’ll come back up when they play each other this year, but it’s pretty old news.” On the ideal number of teams for an expanded College Football Playoff “I used to say eight but now I would say 16. The top teams are still probably going to win, but we can use all the bowls around the country to get those games and you work it all down. They have 64, I think, in baseball. Sixty-eight in basketball have a shot at it. Football, we just have four of the big teams and it’s about [the] same ones every year. I’d like to see them expand it a bit.” FINEBAUM ON JIMBO VS. NICK; JIMBO AND THE PRESSURE TO WIN On WJOX in Birmingham Monday morning, Paul Finebaum offered another cruise missile across the bow of the SS Jimbo Fisher: “This is not a 2-way feud. Nick Saban doesn’t care. I think in terms of Jimbo Fisher not one thing has changed in three weeks. I think he feels the same way. I think he’s just as angry. He has no interest in that relationship.” And this regarding Jimbo’s public statement “I’m moving on” at the SEC Meetings in Destin: “He just said, ‘I’m moving on. He should have just come out with a statement … but instead he acted like he had stolen the cookie and the father caught him and he was still trying to explain it by saying, ‘C’mon, let’s move on. It just didn’t work and I think that’s where his credibility starts to come into question.” About the pressure to win: “If the record is not vastly improved a year from now I cannot imagine why Jimbo Fisher would not be the story of next summer in terms of the pressure on him to finally succeed.” SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Offensive lineman Dayne Shor (6-6, 295), a former 3-star recruit, is transferring to UConn. Kentucky: Forward Keion Brooks will be transferring to Washington. At Kentucky last year Brooks averaged 10.8 points and 4.4 rebounds per game. SPORTING NEWS TOP 25 COLLEGE FOOTBALL COACHES FOR 2022 1. Nick Saban, Alabama (269, 67); 2. Dabo Swinney, Clemson (150-36); 3. Kirby Smart, Georgia (66-16); 4. Ryan Day, Ohio State (34-4); 5. Luke Fickell (54-22); 6. Brian Kelly, LSU (145-61); 7. Lincoln Riley, Southern Cal (55-10); 8. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M (117-37); 9. Jim Harbaugh, Michigan (90-45); 10. Kyle Whittingham, Utah (144-70); 11. Mario Cristobal, Miami (62-60); 12. Mike Gundy, Oklahoma State (149-69); 13. Kirk Ferentz, Iowa (178-110); 14. Mark Stoops, Kentucky (59-53); 15.Mack Brown, North Carolina (265-139); 16. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss (76-41); James Frankin, Penn State (91-49); 18. Paul Chryst, Wisconsin (84-42); 19. Dave Aranda, Baylor (14-9); 20. Matt Campbell, Iowa State (77-49); 21. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota (65-45); 22. Mel Tucker, Michigan State (18-14); 23. Pat Narduzzi, Pittsburgh (53-37); 24. Dave Clawson, Wake Forest (83-79); 25. Sam Pittman, Arkansas (12-11) ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Three Gators made the ballot for the 2023 College Football Hall of Fame Class – defensive lineman Brad Culpepper, running back Errict Rhett and quarterback Tim Tebow. All three are very deserving, but if you have to put your money on one of them, put it on Tebow. He won a Heisman Trophy in 2007, made the Heisman podium in both 2008 and 2009, and finished his collegiate career with a 35-6 record as a starter at QB. He contributed to the 2006 Florida national championship as a true freshman, then won it as a junior in 2008. In his four-year Florida career, Tebow threw for 9,285 yards (9.3 per attempt) and 88 touchdowns (just 16 interceptions) while running for 2,947 yards (4.3 per carry) and 57 touchdowns. Culpepper the anchor on the defensive line of the first Florida Southeastern Conference championship that wasn’t taken away (1991), was a consensus All-American in 1991 and a two-time first team All-SEC performer. He won the Draddy Trophy as the nation’s top scholar-athlete in 1997. Rhett, a Culpepper teammate, holds the Florida school rushing record of 4,163 yards (4.8 per carry). He ran for 34 touchdowns and also caught 153 passes for 1,230 yards (8.0 per catch) and two more touchdowns. He was a 1993 first team All-America and a three-time All-SEC choice who led the conference in rushing twice. He is the first place in NCAA history to run for more than 4,100 yards and catch more than 140 passes in his collegiate career. To even get on the ballot for the Hall of Fame, a player must have been either a consensus first team All-American by at least half of the recognized publications or a unanimous first team All-American. Others with an SEC connection who were nominated: Eric Berry, S (Tennessee); Gregg Carr, LB (Auburn); Tim Couch, QB (Kentucky); Willie Gault, WR (Tennessee); Dan Hampton, DT (Arkansas, although Arkansas was in the Southwest Conference when he played); Garrison Hearst, RB (Georgia); Josh Heupel, QB (Oklahoma, now Tennessee HBC); Bradie James, LB (LSU); Antonio Langham, DB (Alabama); Jeremy Maclin, WR (Missouri, Big 12 when he played); Chris Samuels, OT (Alabama); Larry Sievers, WR (Tennessee); Justin Smith, DL (Missouri, Big 12 when he played); Kevin Smith, CB (Texas A&M, SWC when he played); Jim Carlen (coach at West Virginia, Texas Tech and South Carolina); Mark Richt (coach at Georgia and Miami). Besides Tebow, I think Berry, Hampton, Samuels and Carlen make it for sure. I think Hearst and Couch have an outside shot along with Culpepper. Rhett maybe next year.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: A HERO IS BORN! CARSTEN FINNVOLD TO THE RESCUE One game after the Florida Gators (43-22) got a 6-5 win over Central Michigan by escaping a bases loaded situation in the ninth inning, Carsten Finnvold came in from the bullpen after 10 warmup pitches with the bases full of Oklahoma Sooners and nobody out. What Finnvold did over the next nine innings not only is the stuff heroes are made of but it saved Florida’s baseball season from extinction and set up Monday afternoon’s (1 p.m.) showdown, winner takes the NCAA Gainesville regional title game. Finnvold pitched as many innings Sunday night as he had pitched all season. Oklahoma, which left the yard four times Saturday night when the Sooners bushwhacked the Gators, 9-4, couldn’t touch him for five innings. The Sooners scored twice in the sixth to tie the game at 2-2, but once the crisis was averted the Florida offense came to life and the Sooners bats went dead the rest of the way. Finnvold (2-1) got the win, allowing just five hits and striking out four without yielding a walk. He threw 116 pitches, 38 more than he did in his previous long outing against Tennessee last week in the SEC Tournament. “Any adjective I use to describe his outing is not going to do it justice” Florida coach Kevin O’Sullivan said. “He had to come in in the first, bases loaded, nobody out. Had to rush him down to the pen and he gets out of it. I was just hoping to limit the damage, and the next thing you know, he goes nine.” In the sixth when the Sooners touched him for their only two runs of the game, Finnvold admitted he was elevating his pitches just a little bit which had everything to do with four hits and two runs he gave up. It was the defense that came to Finnvold’s rescue in the sixth with Ty Evans snagging a line drive in right field for the second out and catcher Mac Guscette making the defensive play of the game for out three. The Sooners had runners on first (Jimmy Crooks) and second (Tanner Tredaway) when OU coach Skip Johnson tried to pull off a double steal. Tredaway got a good jump at second, but instead of throwing to third, Guscette fired a strike to Sterlin Thompson at second who applied the tag to Crooks for the third out on a bang-bang play. “It was a really heads up, instinctual play,” O’Sullivan said. “We do talk about that … It’s easier said than done. It’s easier to tell Mac, ‘Hey, check the trail runner,’ but he was instinctive what he saw, the runner got a good jump at third and he threw out [Crooks]. It was the big play of the ball game, honestly.” Getting out of the jam was an emotional lift for the Gators, who took a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh on a Thompson double and a single to right by BT Riopelle. In the eighth, the Gators scored four more times to put the game on ice. Jud Fabian led off the inning with his second homer (24th of the season) of the night, a line drive to left field on a 3-1 count. Later in the inning, Josh Rivera scored on a passed ball, Thompson drove in Colby Halter on a sacrifice fly to right, and Wyatt Langford scored when Peyton Graham threw the ball away on a Riopelle ground ball. Florida’s other two runs came on a fourth inning solo homer by Fabian and a fifth inning single to left center by Jac Caglianone that scored Thompson, who had singled and stolen second. Just getting to the night game with Oklahoma was an adventure because earlier in the day the Gators went white knuckles to take their elimination game with Central Michigan. After blowing a 5-0 lead, the Gators broke a 5-5 tie in the top of the ninth when Wyatt Langford and Sterlin Thompson reached on walks, advanced a base on a Riopelle sacrifice bunt and Ty Evans delivered a sacrifice fly to right field for what proved to be the game-winner. The Gators got off to a shaky start to the Central Michigan bottom of the ninth when Ryan Slater gave up a leadoff single. He got the next two batters on a liner to Halter at third and a swinging third strike on a ball in the dirt, but a walk and a single loaded up the bases. Slater got the Gators out of the jam by getting Aidan Shepardson to foul out to Halter at third. Halter made the two defensive plays of the game in the seventh when he made a leaping stab of a high bouncer off the bat of Danny Wuestenfeld while moving to his left to start a double play. Shepardson followed with a sharp grounder to the third-short hole that had single written all over it but Halter made a diving stop and threw Shepardson out from his knees for the final out of the inning. Florida’s first five runs came on a Guscette RBI ground out in the second, a Langford homer and a throwing error that scored Thompson in the third, another Langford homer (25th of the season) in the fourth and a double steal that resulted in Rivera taking home without a throw in the fifth. Who the Gators throw against Oklahoma today is anybody’s guess. Fisher Jameson, who threw four 1-hit shutout innings against Texas A&M in Hoover is a possibility although he did give up two hits and two walks in 2/3 of an inning against the Sooners Saturday night. A couple other possibilities are Nick Ficarrotta and Blake Purnell. More than likely, it’s an all hands on deck type of game that O’Sullivan could use six or seven pitchers. UF SOFTBALL: JUST GETTING TO OKC WAS AN ACCOMPLISHMENT This was not a vintage Florida softball team that won one game and lost two at the Women’s College World Series in Oklahoma City. Considering Tim Walton had neither a power throwing ace in the circle nor much in the way of power in his lineup, the fact the Gators (49-19) got as far as they did is a credit to speed and exceptional defense. The Gators went 13-11 in SEC play, a bad year by Walton standards. They were a No. 14 national seed, the first time since 2007 the Gators weren’t a top eight national seed. That meant winning a super regional on the road, a rather remarkable accomplishment in itself. So relish what the Gators were able to do this season. Not only was this one of the youngest teams Walton has ever put on the field, it had the least power and truly average pitching. It was a good year, not great by Florida standards but don’t forget the Gators were the only Southeastern Conference team to get to Oklahoma City in spite of all the obvious flaws. Help is on the way: The Gators lose Hannah Adams, Cheyenne Lindsey and Natalie Lugo for sure. Charla Echols is thought to be coming back to take advantage of her COVID year. Elizabeth Hightower also has a COVID year at her disposal. Returning are starters Kendra Falby, Skylar Wallace, Katie Kistler, Avery Goelz, Sam Roe and Reagan Walsh. Pitcher Lexie Delbrey has tremendous potential if she ever learns to throw strikes consistently. There are three or four players on the roster who haven’t played much during their time at UF who could also transfer out so Walton could be looking into the transfer portal, particularly to find some pitching help. A couple of pitchers in the portal who may draw some interest are Lexi Kilfoyl, 28-11 for her career at Alabama, and Alex Storaka, the Big Ten pitcher of the year at Michigan, who struck out 300 batters. Walton already has Sam Roe, the former No. 1 recruit in the nation who enrolled early to play at UF, on the roster. Middle infielder Kaila Pollard (Norco, CA), the nation’s No. 4 recruit, and pitcher/first baseman Olivia Gigante (San Diego, CA Patrick Henry), a big time power hitter who throws in the high 60s, will be enrolling this summer. Walton’s 2023 recruiting class is being hailed by experts as one of the best in collegiate softball history, led by the numbers one, two and three recruits in the country – pitcher Keagan Rothrock (Indianapolis, IN Roncalli), shortstop Mia Williams (Windemere, FL) and pitcher Ava Brown (Montgomery, TX Lake Creek). Over the weekend, Rothrock pitched Roncalli to a pair of state semifinal wins while contributing in a big way at the plate. Roncalli is 34-0 this season. Rothrock is 27-0 with an 0.73 ERA and 366 strikeouts in 160-1/3 innings. She is also hitting .529 with 14 homers and 54 RBI this year. Roncalli will play next weekend for the Indiana state championship. Brown pitched and hit the Lake Creek Lions (41-0) to a state championship. She finished the year 30-0 with an 0.43 ERA and 335 strikeouts in 183-1/3 innings, plus she hit 10 home runs. In the state championship win over Georgetown, she was perfect through five innings, finishing with a 1-hitter and nine strikeouts plus had the game’s only extra base hit. The others in the recruiting class are Alyssa Hovermale (Norco, CA), Ariel Kowaleski (Fort Bend, TX Travis) and Cassidy McClellan (Bradenton, FL Lakewood Ranch). Hovermale is a power hitting corner infielder who was a high school/travel ball teammate of Pollard. Kowalewski is a catcher who also plays corner infield positions who is a big time power hitter. McClellan, whose high school coach is TJ Goelz, father of UF first baseman Avery Goelz, hit .561 while leading Lakewood Ranch to the state championship. SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL Alabama: Alabama got a commitment over the weekend from 4-star forward Sam Walters (6-10, 180, The Villages, FL The Villages Charter), who the Gators were seriously recruiting. Arkansas: Defensive lineman Dorian Gerald has removed his name from the transfer portal and will return to Arkansas. Auburn: Former LSU wide receiver Koy Moore is transferring to Auburn. He had 27 catches for 248 yards in two seasons at LSU. South Carolina: Wide receiver Rico Powers, a former 4-star recruit who caught four passes in two years at South Carolina, is transferring to Jackson State. Texas A&M: Speaking to the writers at the 12th Man website, Jimbo Fisher said “There is no group of people that deserve a [national] championship and an SEC championship” more than Aggie fans. The Aggies have never won an SEC championship and their only national championship was in 1939. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The SEC meetings concluded back on Friday without commissioner Greg Sankey announcing a scheduling plan for when Texas and Oklahoma join the league. I’m not so sure that isn’t by design. I’m of the opinion that Sankey has already impressed on the holdouts who wish to stick with eight conference games that at this point in time and with ESPN preferring a nine-game model that the 3-6 model is the way the SEC will go. Nine games is what Sankey wants and all things considered, what Greg Sankey wants, he’s going to get. So why the delay? Well, that’s almost a no-brainer. The SEC milked the Jimbo-Nick feud for all it was worth. The nation’s big media people descended on Destin and talked to everybody they could, hoping for something to provoke a real public feud. Ugh Jimbo said he’s moved on. Nick said he has no ill feelings toward Jimbo or the Aggies. Lane Kiffin even suggested that all the coaches acted like adults at their meeting. So there were no fireworks but the SEC was front and center of every major news outlet nationwide for an entire week. Now these same people are going to be talking and writing that the SEC is indecisive about scheduling. If you believe that, then you’re the sucker P.T. Barnum said was born every minute. There is no indecision at all. Greg Sankey is smarter than everybody else and he’s milking scheduling to keep the SEC at the forefront of every news cycle. He may not announce the nine gamer until SEC Media Days, more than a month from now, but take it to the bank: the SEC will play nine games when Texas and Oklahoma join the league and all the media people who were holding their collective breaths will once again discover that Greg Sankey not only is the smartest guy in the room, but someone who knows how to make every media opportunity count.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Madeline Lawson has joined the Gator Bait staff after a rookie sportswriter year on the beat covering Florida gymnastics and softball. Here is her recount of that first year on the beat and her first column for Gator Bait. BY MADELINE LAWSON GatorBaitMedia.com I have never been flexible. I could never touch my toes or contort myself into some kind of human pretzel. Gymnastics was not the sport for me. From age three to six, donning skin-tight leotards, itchy pink tutus and bows half the size of my head, my mother shuttled me to gymnastics classes in Vero Beach, Fla.. I learned how to do a forward roll by tucking my chin to my chest, and a back walkover by watching my hands reach the sky and follow to the floor, but I could never master the splits. The only thing I really remember getting out of doing gymnastics was a wedgie. As I got older, I tried my hand at cheerleading, basketball and volleyball, but I fell in love with softball. I joined the Purple Butterflies when I was six, made the All-Stars team that same season, and never looked back. Coming from a Gator household, I always knew I wanted to be a Gator, it just happened a little differently than I planned. I enrolled at the University of Florida in the spring of ‘21 pursuing a degree in public relations. It wasn’t until the fall that I enrolled in my first-ever reporting course, JOU3101, and it was a doozy. I had never pitched story ideas, interviewed someone or heard of AP Style. The first few weeks of the semester, I was failing. I practically lived in my instructor Cindy Spence’s office hours and was doing everything I could think of to produce a good story. It wasn’t until I started writing stories that I cared about and was truly interested in that I started to see positive results in the grade book. Something clicked, I couldn’t stop typing and my grade skyrocketed. At the end of the semester, Spence encouraged me to pursue writing in different areas. I found the Independent Florida Alligator and applied as a sportswriter an hour before applications were due. A few days later, I got a call from the Alligator informing me I’d been chosen to be the gym beat writer for the upcoming season. I didn’t fully understand what they meant by “gym.” Did they mean gym as in gymnasium or gymnastics? They meant gymnastics – Florida gymnastics. With minimal reporting experience, I was going to cover a program with nine SEC championships and four National championships. I was speechless, but mostly because in my interview, nobody asked me about gymnastics. I learned a few tumbling tricks as a kid, but I had never even been to collegiate gymnastics meet before. I didn’t know how it was scored, how many athletes were in a rotation, who was on the roster and I certainly had no clue what a Yurchenko Arabian was. I spent many late nights and early mornings watching old UF gymnastics meets, reading articles from previous seasons and ingraining the roster in my mind. I wanted to be as prepared as possible, but nothing could prepare me for how Gator Nation shows out for gymnastics in the O’Dome. The first home meet I covered was against SEC rival Arkansas and was the 16th annual Link to Pink meet to support the fight against breast cancer. The arena was flooded in a sea of pink, every seat was filled, and the only thing I’ve experienced louder than UF gymnastics fans is the eruption after a touchdown is scored in the Swamp. Who knew we were a gymnastics school? The Gators went on to beat the Razorbacks by recording two new team records on bars and beam and produced the nation’s highest team total at the time that night. Trinity Thomas and Leanne Wong also scored 10s. I was blown away by the environment UF competes in but quickly realized the athletes deserve every round of applause, chant for a perfect score and Gator chomp they receive. Florida gymnastics is a force to be reckoned with. Just as I began to come down from the high of a dominant win and my first gymnastics meet, I had to pack up my things, follow the gaggle of other reporters and make my way to the post-meet press conference. There were about six rows to choose from where I could sit. I thought, “Do I sit in the back because this is my first time, and I don’t want to be in the way? Or, I could go somewhere in the middle and blend in?” Then this tall, white-haired geezer waltzed in and sat in the very front row and made himself at home. Then I thought, “Well if I want to be the best, I need to act like it.” I sat in the first row too, about three seats over from Franz Beard. Head coach Jenny Rowland, Thomas and Wong sat in front of microphones, and I started recording. Questions began rattling off from other writers in the room and I scrambled to think of something to say. I could feel a frog in my throat and my palms sweaty because this all seemed so professional to me, and I was intimidated. Eventually, I asked something and got a response. I don’t remember what was said, I think I blacked out. It’s always scary to try something new and be a rookie. The number of years of journalism experience in that room was plenty more than the years I had even been alive. Once I got past imposter syndrome, I became more knowledgeable about the sport and set up a chart to follow each rotation, covering the gymnastics beat didn’t feel like work but a privilege. I learned that being thrown into something I was unfamiliar with was a good problem to have. Before I knew it, UF went undefeated in the regular season, and the orange and blue had won another SEC championship. The Gators advanced to the NCAA Championships Team Final in Fort Worth, Texas, the biggest stage in collegiate gymnastics. In my apartment on April 16, I sat on my cheap pink couch, turned on the TV and got my laptop set up. I had never been so invested in a sport, team or championship as I was that Saturday. I didn’t even know who Jenny Rowland was three months prior, but there I was sitting on the edge of my seat, wanting the best for Rowland’s team, looking for every toe point and stuck landing to hit. Florida went on to claim second place in the NCAA finals losing by a fraction of a point to top-ranked Oklahoma. I was shocked. I couldn’t believe it. Florida was my horse in the race, but that’s why you don’t bet at all when your job is to cover the team objectively. I wrote my final gymnastics gamer about Florida's first loss of the season. After an entire season of nothing but winning, this was new to me. I described the series of unfortunate events that lead to the Gators coming up just short when it mattered most. However, the icon that is Trinity Thomas claimed the all-around title with a 39.862, equaling the second-highest score in NCAA finals history. The season didn’t end how anyone in Gator Nation had hoped, but there was plenty to be proud of. As happy as I was for the Gators and their remarkable season, I was also proud of myself. I overcame a challenge and became good at something entirely new to me. I used every tool I learned from reporting class with Spence. I grew a network filled with amazing reporters and professionals that I continue to learn from. What they don’t tell you when you get assigned a beat is that you also join a niche group of writers that you spend the entire season with. I don’t think there’s any chance I could walk across the 4-inch-wide balance beam these days, but there’s a great chance I’ll want to cover Florida gymnastics next season. As the gymnastics season came to an end, so did the semester. I decided I wasn’t done covering sports and writing stories. I joined ESPN Gainesville and remained with the Alligator assigned to the Gator softball beat. I had always wanted to play for head coach Tim Walton, so I was thrilled to get the chance to cover his team. Being in the press box and having a birds-eye view of one of the most beautiful fields was breathtaking but watching Florida play in the SEC Tournament and advance to the semifinals was unforgettable. Going from watching Florida softball with my mom at home on TV as a kid to having the opportunity to forever record moments that define players, and their careers is a gift as a writer. Skylar Wallace committed robbery in the Gainesville Regional Championship stealing her 50th stolen base of the season, an incredible feat. Heading into the post-game presser, I wasn't nervous, I was excited. I wanted to talk to Wallace and I knew what I wanted to ask. The softball beat felt familiar to me, through my experience covering gymnastics and being a former softball player, I was excited to speak to the players and hear from Walton after each game. I’m six months into sports writing and I finally feel like I’m getting my footing. Through writer's block, multiple late nights, weather delays, glorious Gator victories and heartbreaking defeats, I wouldn’t change any of it. My curiosity in sports writing was as if I opened a personalized Pandora's box with the curse of wanting to cover every game of every sport and write a feature on every player. This all may not be possible (in a single semester at least) but I am honored and delighted to keep writing, this time with GatorBait. I may not have ever been able to touch my toes or make the cut on Walton’s roster, but I can write, and I’ll keep writing until the cows come home or until Lake Alice dries up.

"SEC football is becoming The Money Game, if it wasn’t already. And the Golden Rule prevails – you got the gold, you rule. In that regard, Texas A&M and future state conference colleague Texas are the Fort Knox." THE GOLDEN RULE: HE WHO HAS IT RULES. Ah, June, the time we once set aside for pre-season football magazine evaluations and forecasts. It’s time to declare your expectations for your favorite college football team, now known as the “Way Too Early” Projections. Destin is over, SEC Media Days are pending and, as the HBC called it, it's nearly “Talkin’ Season.” So here goes. Of this I am certain: Almost nothing is for certain, even in 2022 -- even in the surefire, Gold-plated SEC. If I were buying stock or gambling on outcomes of the 2022 SEC football season – which only guys like Danny Sheridan should be doing -- I might venture a guess that Georgia will be really, really good again, but Alabama might be a touch better. No revelation there. Texas A&M may not live up to championship expectations. I am trending away from last season’s dark horses like Kentucky, South Carolina and Arkansas, but I am bullish on Ole Miss and Tennessee – as contenders, but not at the championship level of Alabama and Georgia. Legitimate dark horses for 2022 are tough to come by without real world solutions to the TP/NIL yet. And by now that has been cussed and discussed ad infinitum. Just to be upfront about it, put me down as “Undecided” for Florida right now, but trending upward. SEC football is becoming The Money Game, if it wasn’t already. And the Golden Rule prevails – you got the gold, you rule. In that regard, Texas A&M and future state conference colleague Texas are the Fort Knox. Wherefore art thou even a smidgeon of amateurism? So much for that delusion anymore. One of the wizards of CFB, himself nicknamed “mrcfb,” appeared on The Buddy Martin show this week. Tony Barnhart, optimist by day and football commentator by night, warned those planning to join the SEC Cash Dash against the idea of competing with teams in the Oil patch: “When oil is $90 a barrel, these teams have a distinguished advantage.” At the same time, one could see Nick Saban not wanting to pass on an opportunity for leveraging those oligarchs of Alabama football when he had it a few weeks ago. The game is changing rapidly. And for the guy who’s been plucking championships like daises, that’s bad news. “Nick was in a room full of CEOs (about another matter) and told them, ‘Hey, y’all got to step up,’” said Barnhart. “Alabama is not used to having somebody who can hang with them financially. And now they do in Texas A&M.” So Saban threw the first punch, it connected, and the next day Jimbo started The Brawl. After which it was expected to become the Thrillah In Manilla, or the Test-InDestin. Now you understand the sub-plot for the Saban-Fisher Heavyweight Bout which began rumbling a few weeks ago but actually never materialized because both fighters went back to their corners after presumably being admonished by the referee/boss, Greg Sankey. Saban chilled, barely acknowledging his disciple Jimbo in public, and claimed he was misinterpreted about how Fisher “bought” his prized recruiting class, and said it was nothing personal. “I’m just fine with Jimbo,” he said. After his meltdown, Jimbo said even less as he wound up sitting between two SEC officials in Destin because he was chair of the football coaches meeting. His standard answer to every media question about the dust-up with Saban was: “We’re moving on!” And move they did. Most of the work-talk was about the proper model for the new schedule – one permanent opponent or three when Oklahoma and Texas join. Frankly, it’s the kind of boring administrative shop talk that puts the media to sleep. Except for the way it eventually impacts the national tournament. So moving on was a gift. What we can take away is that this is not Bear Bryant’s football anymore – or for that matter, even Steve Spurrier’s. Sanky heeded the football coaches: “It's never going to be the way it was, (but) that doesn't mean it has to be the way it is." On the other hand, it’s just football and they can only put eleven on the field at a time, so maybe we’re making this too difficult. I asked Sheridan, The Wagering Sage who seems to have a solid grasp on this projections/forecast business after all these years: Isn’t it difficult to handicap the fortunes of teams with all these pressing matters? “It's not difficult to handicap CFB games once the players are known,” Sheridan said. “It's the same with the NFL ... if a team is good & improves with a TP (Transfer Portal) QB, it's easily factored in. e.g. barring a major injury, UF will be a 2.5-3 point home underdog to Utah regardless of any TP or NIL deals.” I trust Sheridan’s line. Most of the services have the Gators as 1.5 point underdogs to the Utes. Earlier this year, one of those offshore lines listed UF as a slight favorite. Perhaps moving the game to 7 p.m. and a slightly cooler venue impacted the Wise Guys – I have no idea or inside info. Even with all that, there has never been a summer where so many uncertainties and untried theories have bumfuzzled coaches and fans. Which is why there is such a premium on smart coaches with an exceptional quarterback, a playmaking defense, strong support staff and a solid plan. And you know where that leads us? Right to Hogtown. I’m not going to bloviate on the greatness of Billy Napier’s potential, because that’s a damning word in many ways. Never mind “potential,” let’s just say straight up that he’s served his apprenticeship, he’s ready, he checks all the boxes and could probably deliver them for FedEx — and on time. He’s studied at the feet of the masters, built his football temple on a solid rock foundation and seems poised to strike this fall. Plus he’s a clear-thinker who takes copious notes and has embraced the New School of thought about 2022-style football and how it balances against the Old School values taught to him by his daddy, Dabbo Swinney and Saban. I’m not ready to declare him the next Saban, but Billy Napier is beginning to look like the right guy at the right time. We’ll start to find out Sept. 3. I can’t wait.