Former Coach’s Mea Culpa Comes About Two Years and $20M Too Late I should have known the day I asked Billy Napier about his favorite Bible verses. It was an easy question. A softball. The kind of question you lob to a man who wears his faith on his sleeve, in his press conferences, and on his recruiting pitches — the kind of question that any Sunday school teacher in Alachua County could answer between the offering and the doxology. What’s your favorite verse, Coach? Give me one. Give me a fragment. Give me John 3:16, for crying out loud, and I’ll write it down and thank you for your time. He wouldn’t do it. Non-committal. Vague. A little smile that said, “Oh, there are a lot of them.” Now, I’ve been around this business a long time, and I’ll ask you something: What kind of Christian doesn’t want to share his favorite verses in the good book? What kind of man of faith treats “name a scripture you love” like it’s the nuclear launch codes? That was the moment — and I didn’t fully appreciate it then, but I do now — when a little bell should have rung in the back of my head. Ding. Trouble. This one’s going to be different. And different he was. The Press Conference Charade You want to know what covering Billy Napier was like? Imagine driving an hour up I-75 to Gainesville. Imagine parking, walking in, setting up, and waiting your turn — and then not getting a turn. Not one question. Not a follow-up. Nothing. His SID had marching orders to keep a running clock like it was the fourth quarter of a one-score spring game, and Billy would stand up there dispensing non-answers to non-questions and then walk out the side door before a real reporter could get a word in edgewise. An hour up. An hour back. And a notebook full of nothing. You do that once, you shake your head. You do it twice, you start grumbling. You do it a dozen times and you realize the man doesn’t want to be covered — he wants to be transcribed. And there’s a difference, friends. A big one. The men I’ve covered at Florida — and I’ve covered a passel of them, going back decades — understood the deal. No quarter asked, no quarter given. You do your job, I do mine, we shake hands, we move on. Some of them became friends. Some of them stayed at arm’s length. All of them respected the arrangement. Billy Napier didn’t respect the arrangement. Billy Napier thought the arrangement was beneath him. The Arrogance Was the Tell I wasn’t trying to be Billy’s best friend. I wasn’t trying to get invited to the lake house. I wanted to be able to communicate — to ask a question, get an honest answer, and produce a column that told Gator fans something true about the football team they love. That’s the job. That’s ALL the job. But he wouldn’t have it. He got increasingly stubborn as the losses piled up. He got increasingly difficult to defend as the offense sputtered to 57th in the country and the record staggered to 22-23. And around the press box, you’d hear the same question passed from chair to chair like a hymnal at a country church: “Who’s going to defend him when he gets in trouble?” Certainly not I. Not after the Bible verse blowoff. Not after the non-answers. Not after all those wasted hours on the interstate. You don’t get to stiff-arm the people whose job it is to tell your story and then expect them to write you a love letter when the wolves show up at the door. He thought he knew better. He KNEW he knew better. And on his worst days, he’d almost flaunt it — that little half-smile, that patient tone, like he was explaining long division to a room full of second-graders. The condescension came off him like heat off a Florida parking lot in August. The Confession, Cashed and Deposited So now — NOW — from the relative comfort of his new office at James Madison, with about twenty million dollars of Florida’s buyout money sitting somewhere accruing interest, Billy Napier tells On3 that he “probably was a little stubborn.” Probably. A little. He tells us he should have delegated. He should have given up play-calling. He should have hired exceptional people and empowered them. He should have adapted to NIL and the portal instead of trying to shoulder the whole operation himself while his offense finished 57th, 82nd, or wherever it was on any given Saturday. Well. Lah Tee Dah! He tells us all of this now, when it costs him nothing. Well, hallelujah and pass the collection plate. That’s a mighty fine mea culpa, Billy. Truly. Very self-aware. Very reflective. Very well-crafted for the offseason coach-rehabilitation news cycle. Now, where was that guy when I was standing in your press room with my hand up and your SID looking at his watch? I’ll tell you where he was. He was hidden behind the arrogance. He was buried under the certainty that he had it figured out and the rest of us — the reporters, the columnists, the fans, the boosters, the letter-writers, the talk-radio callers — were just noise to be tuned out. He got fired not because the portal beat him and not because NIL beat him. He got fired because he wouldn’t respond to criticism, wouldn’t consider he might be wrong, and thought he was above it all. Right up until the moment he wasn’t. No Sympathy at This Address I’d like to tell you I feel sorry for the man. I don’t. I’d like to tell you I see a tragic figure brought low by forces beyond his control. I don’t. I see a coach who walked into one of the great jobs in college football, drew one of the great paychecks in college football, walked out with one of the great buyouts in college football, and left behind one of the great messes in college football. He’s collecting twenty-odd million to run a program in the Shenandoah Valley. He’ll be fine. His family will be fine. His retirement account will be fine. What’s not fine is what he did to Florida — the four wasted years, the recruits who came and went, the fans who kept the faith and got nothing back for it, the assistants whose careers hitched to a wagon that wouldn’t roll. And what’s not fine, in this small corner of the press box, is the way he treated the people whose job it was to chronicle the whole sorry business. I cannot defend him. I have tried, in fairness, to keep the personal out of the professional — you’ll find columns of mine over the last four years where I gave him the benefit of the doubt, where I said give the man time, where I looked for the silver lining. But you can only extend that courtesy so far before you realize the man on the other end isn’t extending anything back. He got what he deserved. And because I cannot defend him, I cannot give him a whole lot of credit either — not for the facilities, not for the “infrastructure,” not for the staff Sumrall kept. A man who won’t answer a question about his favorite Bible verse does not get to hand me a self-graded report card and expect me to sign it. The mea culpa came. It just came too late for Florida but just in time for Billy. He had already disrespected us — the fans, the writers, the program, and, I suspect, if we’re being honest, the game itself. Enjoy Harrisonburg, Billy. I hear the leaves are pretty in the fall.

And What’s Next at James Madison? Billy Napier is still talking about the mistakes he made at Florida, and bless his heart, he just can’t seem to stop. Every few weeks now, like clockwork, another reporter gets him on the phone and out tumbles a fresh confession. It’s become a traveling show — Napier’s Apology Tour, now playing at a Group of Six microphone near you. He dove even deeper on those bad decisions the other day with CBS Sports, going over how his stubbornness and his unwillingness to hand over the keys hurt the people around him. And as I’ve said before, those are four years The Swamp isn’t getting back, and plenty of us aren’t in a hurry to forget. Napier told CBS he was “a little stubborn” during his four years in Gainesville, pointing to his refusal to delegate play-calling and his failure to keep up with the runaway freight train that is modern NIL and the transfer portal as the reasons it all came apart. Funny how clarity shows up right on schedule, the moment a man no longer has to answer to Gainesville. After going 22-23 and getting shown the door in October, Napier signed a five-year deal at James Madison in December. Heading into 2026, he’s calling his new Group of Five gig a “godsend” — which, translated from coach-speak, means: thank goodness somebody with a real budget still wanted me. The Reflected Mistakes, As Confessed Refusal to Delegate. Napier admitted that trying to be both head coach and primary play-caller diluted his own strengths, and that once his back was against the wall, he didn’t have the confidence to hand it off to somebody else. This is the same coach who built one of the biggest support staffs in SEC history and then apparently forgot he’d hired them. You don’t hire an army and then insist on doing all the fighting yourself. That’s not stubbornness. That’s just bad math. NIL and Portal Overload. He said the program never fully adjusted as the House settlement blew the doors off NIL, and that roster retention and financial negotiating buried his daily schedule. Fair enough — the whole sport got hit by that truck. But most coaches figured out how to duck. Lack of Organizational Detail. Because he didn’t empower the right people in the right roles, his own staff drowned in busywork, and the program’s attention to detail sagged along with it. By my math, that’s a coach who wanted the corner office and the mailroom job at the same time — and did neither one particularly well. What’s Next at James Madison? Relinquishing the Playbook. Applying his freshly learned lessons at lightning speed, Napier hired Cam Aiken as a dedicated play-calling offensive coordinator so he can focus on being a CEO-type program manager instead. Good for him. It only took losing an SEC job to figure out what half of Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was screaming at him for four straight years. Inheriting a Winning Culture. Napier raised eyebrows by declaring he’s “starting on second base” at JMU — no rebuild required, since the Dukes just made the College Football Playoff and haven’t had a losing season since 2002. Bob Chesney got the Dukes to the CFP. Curt Cignetti went 52-9 there before hauling that success up the road to Indiana. Mike Houston won an FCS national title there. Napier likes to say success leaves behind clues — well, in Harrisonburg, the clues are basically a trail of breadcrumbs leading straight to the end zone. All he has to do is not step on them. The Underdog Mentality. Napier says he loves the Sun Belt roster because every Duke plays with a chip on his shoulder, something to prove, highly motivated. (Or because he’s back at his level?) Napier is motivated too, he says. After four years and $21 million worth of buyout money changing hands in Gainesville, motivation ought to be the least of anybody’s worries. A month and a half, it turns out, is plenty of time for a man to do some reflecting and some self-blame. Napier told CBS the hardest part of getting fired was watching all the people who lost their jobs because of him. That’s a genuinely human thing to say, and I’ll give him that one for free. But it doesn’t erase four years of a Gator offense that finished no better than 57th nationally in scoring, or the fact that plenty of us tried to hand him this exact same wisdom back when he could’ve actually used it. “I’ve tried to take that experience and use it,” Napier said. Just do us all a favor up in Harrisonburg — hand somebody the playbook, hand somebody the depth chart, and this time, actually let them keep it. We’re done now. Best we go on radio silence — that’s almost what it sounded like to some of us in the media here for the past four years.

Next on the pitch, I’m ready to see the chunk play by a quarterback, preferably one wearing orange and blue in Gainesville AI generated graphic By Buddy Martin GatorBaitMedia.com OK, it’s time to get off the pitch and on the grass. Fall belongs to football season, not to that round ball everybody insists on calling “the beautiful game” — beautiful being a stretch when the final score is 1-0 and half the stadium leaves not knowing whether to cheer or file a missing person’s report. We already have The Beautiful Game here in America! I’ll confess we got a little punch-drunk on World Cup fever there for a few weeks or minutes, same as everybody who suddenly became an expert on offside rules. And it left me wondering, out loud, in mixed company, whether college football ought to steal a page from soccer’s playbook. Maybe just consider this. I still say bring back ties. I know, I know — somewhere a talk-radio host just choked on his coffee. But there’s real strategy in playing for a draw down the stretch of a rivalry game instead of stacking overtime after overtime until your third-string quarterback is throwing jump balls into the end zone at 1 a.m. It worked in the World Cup, nobody’s grandma had a heart attack over it, and it might spare us a few more late-November disasters that end with a kicker weeping into his helmet. Plus a little less wear and tear on bodies in this prolonged season. Now the red-card idea for targeting — that one’s got a real pulse and the NCAA already flinched toward it without quite having the nerve to call it that. This season, a first-time targeting ejection no longer costs the guy the start of his next game — he’s right back out there the following week like nothing happened. Second offense costs him a half, third costs him a game. Although I think that’s fairer, the red-card crowd — gone for good, no grace period, no lawyer on retainer — still has a case to make. Targeting is about somebody’s brain, not a style point, and if the sport wants to get serious about it, half-measures aren’t going to cut it. For now I’ll take it, however, after learning first-hand from a team physician the heightened level of technology now being used to monitor bodily functions in play. So what else needs fixing before kickoff? Start with the playoff, because we always do, and because the people in charge spent all winter arguing about it like it was the Treaty of Versailles before landing exactly where common sense told them to land months ago: Still 12 teams, because the Big Ten and SEC couldn’t agree on 16 versus 24 and both went home mad. Every Power Four champ now gets an automatic bid, the top Group of Six champ tags along, and Notre Dame gets its usual golden-ticket treatment if it cracks the top 12 (NCAA.com). Twelve is probably the right number. Sixteen just means more 8-4 teams from leagues nobody can spell getting a participation trophy flight to a bowl site. And speaking of teams that won’t be sweating a playoff bid — hello, Gators. Florida shoved Billy Napier out the door mid-season, handed the keys to Jon Sumrall fresh off a CFP trip with Tulane and is now bravely marketing a schedule that mercifully skips Alabama, LSU, Tennessee and Texas A&M, as if avoiding four bullies makes the rest of the SEC gentle. I mean, it just looks time-warped without seeing a Tennessee or an LSU on the schedule this season, although we gladly welcome Auburn back. Coming off a 4-8 season, the smart money has Florida somewhere between 6-6 and 7-5, which in Gainesville currently qualifies as a laser show and a parade. More optimistic Gators see an 8-4 eight in their Way Too Early prognostications. Nobody in Vegas is booking Gators playoff futures, and nobody in the Swamp should be either — but hey, stranger things have happened, and Sumrall’s never had a losing debut season yet. That’s not a playoff case. That’s a Hail Mary with a nice résumé attached. What we all want to see at UF is a program on an upward trajectory that immediately lands us on a pathway back. And it feels like Sumrall is rapidly changing things in that direction. Flaws and all, bring on college football — the great American game. It kicks off for real on Thursday, August 27, with the rest of the country piling on the following weekend, and Week 1 already looks like appointment television — Lane Kiffin’s Tiger Stadium premiere against Clemson, a triple-header out of Alabama and Atlanta, and Ohio State-Texas roasting in the Austin heat not long after. Soccer had its month in the sun. Now, get off my TV — football’s back.

Denzel Aberdeen (UAA Photo) A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: Denzel Aberdeen’s case to get a fifth year of eligibility from the NCAA got a huge boost Thursday from a judge in Ohio who issued a preliminary injunction for 24 men’s and women’s basketball players who are going through the courts to fight the NCAA for a fifth season of eligibility. Cincinnati judge Christopher Wagner ruled that the NCAA’s newly implemented 5-for-5 legislation has been applied unfairly. In ruling against the NCAA, Judge Wagner said, “Despite arbitrarily excluding a class of athletes from taking part in a fifth season of intercollegiate competition the NCAA seeks to evade judicial review and possibly punish member institutions for their participation in the legal process.” The class of athletes Judge Wagner is talking about were fourth-year seniors last year, excluded from a fifth year of eligibility by the new NCAA rules while third-year juniors get two more years. Judge Wagner rules that application of the rules blatantly discriminates and therefore is unfair. Aberdeen was not part of the case in Ohio, but the ruling certainly favors his case to play basketball for the Florida Gators in the fall. Aberdeen has applied for a waiver that will grant him a fifth year but there is no certainty that the NCAA will rule favorably. The NCAA tends to be all over the place when it comes to eligibility. Franck Kepnang, who transferred from Washington to Kentucky, got a waiver to play a seventh season in the fall. The 24 players in Ohio were denied waivers asking for a fifth year. Aberdeen is prepared to go to court to fight the NCAA if the organization fails to grant his waiver request. Should that happen, the ruling by Judge Wagner offers legal precedent for a temporary restraining order against the NCAA that will free Aberdeen to play for the Gators. The NCAA, of course, has promised to appeal but as the Trinidad Chambliss case at Ole Miss proved, state courts don’t necessarily look favorable on the NCAA due to its selective enforcement of rules. Figure Denzel Aberdeen will play for the Gators this fall. The only question is who makes him eligible: the NCAA or the courts? URBAN MEYER ON LANE KIFFIN On his Triple Option podcast, Hall of Fame coach Urban Meyer spoke of the pressure to produce at the highest levels faced by Lane Kiffin at LSU. Brian Kelly was fired by LSU even with a 34-15 winning record because he never even sniffed the College Football Playoff. Kiffin is the replacement and expectations in the LSU community are so high that a national championship is the only acceptable outcome. Meyer said: "The reason I bring up Lane Kiffin is, is it national championship or bust? Because if it's anything less, he's going to get hammered. … He doesn't have to win it, but he's got to be within a swing of it." THINGS SAID AT BIG 12 MEDIA DAYS Cody Campbell, Texas Tech mega-booster: "We don't have a problem with the Big 12. We want to find a way to get all other Big 12 schools to elevate themselves. Everybody needs to do some version of what we've done. That's the path forward for this conference. A rising tide lifts all boats. People not on board with that and those that want everyone worse so they can be relatively better, we'll have a problem with those institutions." Sonny Dykes, HBC, TCU: “What you can get is a model that has proven to work for the last 100 years: the NFL model. They have collective bargaining. Everybody understands what they’re getting into. There’s no lawsuits. There’s no finding a judge you know is going to be sympathetic to your cause. There’s none of that stuff. You have somebody that’s in charge and somebody that says yes or no, and there’s rules.” Deion Sanders, HBC, Colorado: “When you start talking money in college, that kind of runs people off and runs people away because that’s not what the intention is … I do believe that college athletes should be compensated for their name, image and likeness, but it’s not about name, image and likeness right now. It’s just about pay-per-view. If it is what it is, then let it be it. Say what it is. Don’t hide from it.” Dave Aranda, HBC, Baylor: “Home field, margin of victory, injuries, all these things. But the thing they don’t have is, dude, there are teams spending $30-40 million on rosters playing teams spending $15 million. It’s the minor leagues versus pro.” Willie Fritz, HBC, Houston: “I wish we had it where everybody spent equal. Certain people don’t want to do it that way and I don’t think it’ll ever change.” Rich Rodriguez, HBC, West Virginia: “We’re going to look back at this time in 10 years and say ‘What the hell is going on?’ But if I’m a school with a $40 million roster and I have a competitive advantage, I’m not changing. Why would I want to change?” Scott Frost, HBC, UCF: “Whoever has the richest boosters gets the best players. That’s not the way college is supposed to be, but that’s the way it is.” Sonny Dykes, HBC, TCU: “Why not institutionalize something like a luxury tax? Problem is, this money is coming under the table and not being reported. It’s against the rules, but if they did something like (a luxury tax), it wouldn’t be a bad thing. If Texas wants to spend $50 million, pay $75 million and give $25 million to Iowa State and Kansas State.” CBS SPORTS RANKS FLORIDA NO. 6 RUNNING BACKS ROOM “Jadan Baugh leads the Gators' rushing attack after averaging 5.3 yards per carry. He excels in inside-zone runs with good patience, vision and the ability to break arm tackles. Baugh had almost 800 yards after contact and should be featured even more in Jon Sumrall's scheme. “Florida also has quality depth behind Baugh with Evan Pryor and Logan Montgomery, who were productive starters at Cincinnati and East Carolina, combining for 1,300 rushing yards last season. Duke Clark is also expected to have a role after gaining limited experience last season.” The top 10 running backs rooms: 1. Miami; 2. Texas Tech; 3. Oregon; 4. Louisville; 5. Southern Cal; 6. FLORIDA; 7. Missouri; 8. Texas; 9. Ohio State; 10. Georgia FIVE PLACES I WANT TO VISIT AGAIN 1. Teotihucan, Mexico: Along what is known as the Avenue of the Dead is the Pyramid of the Moon. It’s not as tall as the Pyramid of the Sun, so climbing it was less strenuous. Sitting on top I surveyed what was a city of perhaps 100,000 centuries before the Aztec empire. 2. Tikal, Guatemala: Some 3,000 ancient Mayan structures have been cut out of the surrounding jungle. Sitting on top of a smaller pyramid late one afternoon I watched two young kids poking under a large bush down below. Suddenly they jumped up and down with the older boy unsheathing a machete. He hacked twice then held up the head and the body of a bushmaster that I would guess was 10 feet long. Imagine a moccasin on steroids and you have a bushmaster. 3. Mount Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia: On the drive up to the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia where orangutangs live, their safety fiercely protected, we stopped to walk across this narrow bridge suspended above a river. I was halfway across when someone yelled to look at all the crocodiles below. There were dozens of them. I think they looked at me and said, “Happy Meal!” 4. Gettysburg, Pennsylvania: This is hallowed ground. I still get chills thinking about how the Civil War turned when Pickett’s Charge was turned back at a place called Cemetery Ridge. 5. Normandy, France: Like many other Americans who visit the beaches where American, British and Canadian troops stormed ashore in the 1944 D-Day invasion, I couldn’t hold back the tears. So many brave people died for the cause of freedom. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: What a week it was. First, Billy Napier tried something straight from the Roseanne Rosannadanna playbook – “It’s always something; if it isn’t one thing it’s something else” – by blaming his inability to properly deal with NIL as the chief culprit for why he got fired at Florida. It wasn’t. His problem was he lost too many games because the Gators were poorly coached. Napier’s quarterback the last half of 2025 and all of last season was DJ Lagway, formerly the No. 1 high school recruit in the country. In 18 starts at UF, Lagway was 9-9 with 28 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions. When Napier was fired and Jon Sumrall hired, Lagway elected to go into the transfer portal where he committed to Baylor. Since arriving at Baylor, Lagway has claimed fan pressure made life difficult, that he stayed in his room or at the football complex rather than venture onto campus. Speaking to Matt Hayes of USA Today, Lagway said, “I was in a bubble down there [Florida]. I didn’t feel like a normal person. I didn’t even know what the campus looked like.” Hayes points out that notoriety never prevented Tim Tebow or Joakim Noah from attending class on campus. It should also be noted that Lagway was a regular at Florida softball games where he was regularly seen mugging for photos with admiring fans. At Big 12 Media Days Thursday it was Baylor coach Dave Aranda’s turn to take up the poor, pitiful DJ narrative. Aranda claimed that Lagway has found freedom to be himself in wacky Waco that he never found while at Florida. “He’s very driven, there is a huge chip on his shoulder,” Aranda said. “I could see on the recruiting trip, … I could see someone that just wanted to be free. Like [he was in a] straight jacket, maybe, someone that is just all boxed in and boxed up and just wanted to be free, express himself, play free. And I think he’s felt that … at Baylor.” “He’s smiling more, he’s open more, he’s engaging with teammates more. He’s taken the O-line out to eat, he’s taken the receivers off to [practice] seven-on-seven, or they’re at his house watching films. He’s just totally engaged, totally driven. So guys are connected to him and want to play for him, they don’t want to let him down.” Gag time. None of these three is giving us the unvarnished truth. They do their best to paint themselves as victims and the University of Florida as the big, bad bully. Maybe that sells in Harrisonburg, Virginia and Waco, Texas but nobody outside those cocoons is giving it more than a nanosecond of serious thought.

10 BEST QUARTERBACKS IN FLORIDA FOOTBALL HISTORY 1. Tim Tebow: Won the 2007 Heisman and was on the Heisman podium as a junior and senior. Backup QB on the 2006 national championship team, starting QB for the 2008 national champs, 35-6 record as the starting QB. In 2007 threw for 30 touchdowns and ran for 23. Career threw for 9,285 yards (9.3 per attempt) and 88 touchdowns while running for 2,947 yards and 57 TDs. 2. Danny Wuerffel: Part-time starter in 1993-94, 24-2 as the full-time starter in 1995-96, leading the Gators to the national championship game both years. Heisman podium as a junior, Heisman Trophy as a senior when he led the Gators to their first national championship. Holds the school record with 114 touchdown passes and 10,875 yards (9.3 per attempt). 3. Steve Spurrier: From the time he took over as the starting quarterback midseason his sophomore year he was the most feared quarterback in the Southeastern Conference. First team All-America as a junior when he led the Gators to the Sugar Bowl, unanimous first team All-America and Heisman Trophy winner as a senior in 1966 when he led the Gators to a 9-2 record and an Orange Bowl win over Georgia Tech. 4. Shane Matthews: He threw three passes in two years and was the sixth string QB when Steve Spurrier became the head coach in 1990. Two-time SEC Player of the Year (1990-91) and second team All-American both years. The only quarterback who learned Spurrier’s offense in one spring. Threw for 9,287 yards and 74 touchdowns. 5. Rex Grossman: After a redshirt year in 1999, Grossman started 2000 as the backup to Jesse Palmer but earned the starting job against LSU and never looked back. Second team All-SEC in 2000, first team All-SEC, first team All-America and Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2001. Second team All-SEC in 2002 after Ron Zook took over as head coach. Threw for 9,164 yards and 77 TDPs. 6. Chris Leak: The top recruit in the country in 2003, he became the starter three games into his freshman year and started every game thereafter. Second team All-SEC three straight years (2004-06), led the Gators to the national championship in 2006, outplaying Ohio State Heisman Trophy QB Troy Smith in the national championship game. Went 35-12 as the starter with 88 touchdown passes. 7. John Reaves: Brilliant sophomore campaign in 1969 is almost overshadowed by diminishing numbers in 1970-71 after Douglas Adair Dickey became the head coach. At the time his eligibility ended after the 1971 season he was the NCAA’s all-time leading passer with 7,549 yards and 54 TDPs. 8. Kyle Trask: An unknown recruit from Texas who wasn’t his high school’s starting QB, Trask led Florida to a stunning fourth quarter comeback to beat Kentucky in 2019 when Feleipe Franks broke his ankle. Led the Gators to an Orange Bowl win over Virginia. As a senior in 2020 threw for 43 touchdowns while taking the Gators to the SEC Championship Game and the Cotton Bowl. Career 69 TDPs, 9.1 per attempt. 9. Kerwin Bell: A walk-on redshirt freshman from Mayo, Bell became Florida’s starter the Tuesday prior to the 1984 season opener against Miami, then led the Gators to a 9-1-1 record, winning SEC Player of the Year honors. Led the Gators to a 9-1-1 record again in 1985 then the scholarship limitations from NCAA sanctions kicked in resulting in a 12-11 record the next two years. Threw 56 TDPs and averaged 8.0 per attempt for his career. 10. Doug Johnson: During his three years as Florida’s starting QB (1997-99), the Gators went 29-8. When Johnson was on, he could be brilliant, but he couldn’t resist trying to show off his arm strength by trying to wedge the ball into tight openings. Still, an exceptional quarterback who threw 60 touchdown passes. 10 BEST BASKETBALL PLAYERS IN FLORIDA HISTORY 1. Neal Walk: Led the nation in rebounding two straight years and was the second pick in the 1969 NBA Draft. Career averages 20.8 points and 15.3 rebounds. Basketball career cut short by a spinal tumor that kept him wheelchair bound for the last 20 years of his life. The second pick behind Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the 1969 NBA Draft. 2. Al Horford: The emotional rock of Florida’s back-to-back national championship teams. Scored (1,123 points in three years), rebounded (7.9 per game) and defended. Played in 109 games, started 108. All-SEC first team as a junior. How he was excluded from All-America is one of life’s great mysteries. Next year will mark his 20th season in the NBA. First round pick of the Atlanta Hawks in 2007. 3. Walter Clayton Jr.: Consistent first team All-America in 2025 when he was the MVP of the NCAA Tournament. Easily the best clutch shooter in the country. Averaged 16.6 points, 4.6 rebounds and 4.3 assists in his two seasons at UF after transferring in from Iona. Scored 1,346 points in two UF seasons. First round pick of the Utah Jazz in 2025. 4. Corey Brewer: One of the most versatile defenders in UF history. Could guard all five positions. Second team All-SEC in 2006, first team All-SEC in 2007 when he was MVP of the NCAA Tournament. Averaged 11.3 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. First round pick of the Minnesota Timberwolves in 2007. 5. Joakim Noah: Hardly played as a freshman but was the NCAA Tournament MVP as a sophomore and All-American as a junior. Averaged 10.5 points and 6.4 rebounds for his 108-game career of which 78 were starts. First round pick of the Chicago Bulls in 2007. 6. Vernon Maxwell: Vernon could score on anyone. Inside, outside, he was in range when he stepped into the arena. Leading scorer in UF history (2,450 points, career 18.8 per game). Two-time first team All-SEC. NBA second round in 1988. 7. Gary Keller: Exceptional defender who averaged 14.5 points and 11.3 rebounds per game in a three-year career (freshmen weren’t eligible yet). Two-time second team All-SEC, first team as a senior. Led UF to its first 20-win season in 1967. Selected by the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Draft but signed with Minnesota of the ABA. 8. David Lee: A top three recruit out of St. Louis, he was All-SEC third team as a sophomore, second team as a junior and first team as a senior. Averaged 11.3 points and 6.8 rebounds for his four-year career at UF. NBA first round pick. 9. Tommy Haugh: If he has the kind of year he’s capable of having next season, he will move way up the list. Second team All-American last year as a junior and vital contributor off the bench for the national championship team in 2025. Last season averaged 17.1 points and 6.1 rebounds per game. 10. Mike Miller: The top recruit in the country in 1999, he helped get the Gators to the national championship game as a sophomore then went pro. Averaged 13.3 points and 6.0 rebounds in two seasons. NBA first round pick. 10 CONCERTS TO REMEMBER 1. The Beatles, 1964: I won two tickets by being the ninth caller to a Gainesville radio station. My grandparents drove a friend and me to Jacksonville where The Beatles sang 12 songs. They were onstage for 36 minutes. 2. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, 2006: The homecoming concert for a homegrown Gainesville guy who left town and made it big. Tommy was the right tackle and I was the left tackle on the 1963 Hughes Supply team that won the county football championship, weight limit 100 pounds. My two favorite songs from the concert were “I Won’t Back Down” and “Southern Accent.” I always thought “Southern Accent” was Tommy’s way of reminding everyone that he was proud of where he came from. 3. Hall and Oats, 1982: They put on a great show at the O-Dome during their Private Eyes tour. When seeing them in person it only took a couple of songs to understand it was all Daryl Hall. John Oates was very much in the background, but the entire show was fantastic. 4. David Sanborn, 1995, West Palm Beach: He was the greatest saxophone player of his time and maybe the best there ever was. He was a headliner at Sunfest, which used to be one of the great four-day jazz festivals in the country. Unlike Richard Eliot, who looks like the vein in the center of his forehead will burst any moment, Sanborn hit notes no one else could imagine reaching and do it with such ease, then offer up a smile that seemed to say, “I can do this any time I want without breaking a sweat.” 5. Queen, 1980: Saw them in Baton Rouge. Freddie Mercury was electric. He had the entire crowd at the Riverside Centroplex almost in a hypnotic daze. 6. Rolling Stones, 1975 Jacksonville, 1978 Lakeland, 1981 Orlando: Mick Jagger was at his best all three times I saw the Stones in concert. I still can’t believe they played the Lakeland Civic Center. Van Halen was the opening act for the Orlando show. 7. Pat Metheny Group 1995: While still a freshman at the University of Miami, Pat Metheny was elevated to full professor of music. He is the single most innovative guitarist I’ve ever heard. When he had his band together with Lyle Mays on the keyboards they were head and shoulders the best jazz band in the world. A Pat Metheny concert to this day is a minimum three hours. 8. Elvis, 1976, Tampa: Elvis was past his peak but still a good show. Attending his concert was an act of homage. He was, is still and will always be the king. 9. Ray Charles, 1997, Montreux, Switzerland: One of my goals all-time was to go to the Montreux Jazz Festival. I was in Europe already, saw Ray Charles on the venue and had to go! When he belted out “I Can’t Stop Loving You” it was a sing-along. 10. Allman Brothers, 1971, Fayetteville, NC: Duane and Gregg Allman, Berry Oakley, Dickey Betts, Butch Trucks and Jaimoe rocked the now gone Fayetteville Coliseum for three hours. This was February. Months later Duane died in a motorcycle accident in Macon and a year later Berry Oakley died in a motorcycle accident three blocks away from where Duane died. The songs I remember best are “One Way Out” and “Statesboro Blues.” When they were the Allman Joys, originally from Daytona Beach, they were essentially the house band at ATO and they worked during the week at Lipham Music. FIVE UNFORGETTABLE RESTAURANTS 1. Great American Land and Cattle Company, El Paso, TX: The best steak I’ve ever eaten and the view of the Rio Grande valley of El Paso and Juarez is spectacular. 2. Spring Deer, Mody Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong: This is where locals go for Peking Duck. 3. La Cantina, Seoul, Korea: I never expected to find a 4-star Italian restaurant in the heart of downtown Seoul but the food was astonishingly good. 4. Salt Raker Inn, Grand Turk Island, Turks and Caicos Islands: The grouper you eat was speared while on his way home to see the wife and kids earlier in the day. 5. The Angus Barn, Raleigh, NC: It’s a landmark for a reason. The food is fantastic and the service is outstanding. Fantastic prime rib.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday afternoon: “Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention.” – from “My Way” by Frank Sinatra Maybe Frank Sinatra’s regrets were few and far between, but now that he has $21 million of Florida buyout money banked and a new head ball coaching gig at James Madison, Billy Napier has a regret worth mentioning. In a new twist on taking personal responsibility, Napier admitted he should have ditched play calling responsibilities during his four years as the head Gator but blames the mistake in judgment on NIL. “I think that I was a little stubborn,” Napier said about his determined hold on calling the plays. That goes down as both an understatement and a serious miscalculation. Understatement in that despite tangible results – an offense that never averaged as many as 30 points a game – should have told him something wasn’t working and that changes should have been made. A miscalculation in that Napier placed far too much trust in his own acuity. Rather than delegate authority, Napier went the control freak route while at Florida. His fingerprints were on every aspect of the football program, each day planned down to the second. That approach might have worked well when he was coaching at Louisiana, but it certainly failed at Florida. Napier’s ultimate responsibility was to put a winning football team on the field. Failure to put competent people in place to handle the non-coaching responsibilities ultimately distracted from winning football games. He points the finger at NIL, which would have been far less a problem if he had hired the right people and given them the authority to handle it properly. The Jaden Rashada case should have been an early warning of bad things to come in that respect. “I think that we really struggled to manage the workload that came with NIL, that came with the portal,” Napier said in the conversation with On3. “I think in general there, the work continued to be loaded up in terms of my responsibility to our team and to our entire organization. So, for me, in general, if I can sum it up, I would say the ability to delegate and hire exceptional people in certain areas and hand over more responsibility to those guys and empower them to do their job at a high level. I think that you have to continue to adapt and evolve, and certainly college football the last few years, that part has been really important. We didn’t do that as well as I would like us to do it. And ultimately, that was my responsibility.” NIL makes for an easy target. Florida had and will continue to have enough money to compete when it comes to building a successful roster. For sure it is complicated, but that is why the head coaches doing the best job of all that NIL entails hire competent people and give them the authority to make it work. The same thing applies to every aspect of being a head football coach. The HBC is the CEO of the engine that funds the entire athletic budget, which, in the case of Florida, is a more than $200 million a year endeavor. It is the job of the CEO to make the entire organization function like an efficient, high powered machine. That goes for those who deal with daily administrative tasks and extends to the assistant coaches tasked with prepping a team to win football games. Both require capable people and a CEO who trusts them to get the job done. Napier admits he didn’t trust his people, but again, it is too easy to blame something else – NIL in this particular case – for the problem. “I think that that [NIL] took away from the level of detail that I had provided in a lot of those areas in the past,” Napier said. “And then once my back was against the wall, I wasn’t confident or comfortable enough to hand that over to somebody else.” If it hadn’t been NIL it would have been something else. THE LATEST ESPN TOO EARLY TOP 25 FOR BASKETBALL Led by No. 1 Florida, eight Southeastern Conference teams have made it into ESPN’s too early top 25 basketball rankings. The Big Ten and Atlantic Coast conferences placed five teams each in the top 25 while the Big 12 landed four. The top 25 (SEC teams bold face): 1. FLORIDA; 2. Duke; 3. Illinois; 4. UConn; 5. Michigan; 6. Tennessee; 7. Texas; 8. St. John’s; 9. Michigan State; 10. Arizona; 11. Arkansas; 12. Southern California; 13. Louisville; 14. Virginia; 15. Alabama; 16. Houston; 17. Kentucky; 18. Miami; 19. Gonzaga; 20. Vanderbilt; 21. Missouri; 22. Nebraska; 23. Kansas; 24. Iowa State; 25. North Carolina SUMRALL LANDS TWO KEY COMMITMENTS Jon Sumrall’s latest success on the recruiting trail are corners Kamari Whitfield (5-11, 193, Orlando, FL The First Academy) and Raheem Floyd (6-1, 180, East St. Louis, MO). Whitfield is a very fast and physical 3-star corner from Orlando while Floyd is a 4-star cover corner from the St. Louis metro area. To land Whitfield, the Gators outrecruited Penn State, Notre Dame, Miami, Nebraska and Oregon among others. For Floyd, the Gators outrecruited Indiana, Michigan, Ole Miss and Missouri among others. Whitfield is rated one of the top 60 high school players in the entire state of Florida and the No. 72 corner in the nation. Floyd is the No. 20 corner in the nation and a top 200 prospect nationally. Here is Florida’s recruiting class as of July 7, 2026: Quarterback: Davin Davidson (6-6, 215, Sarasota, FL Cardinal Mooney) Running back: Andrew Beard (5-9, 195, Bogart, GA Prince Avenue Christian) Wide receiver: Elias Pearl (5-11, 183, Port Charlotte, FL); Tramond Collins (6-0, 185, Cottondale, FL); Anthony Jennings (5-11, 170, Fort Lauderdale, FL Dillard) Tight end: Tommy Douglas (6-5, 235, Princeton, NJ The Hun School); Jackson Ballinger (6-5, 230, Centerburg, OH) O-line: Maxwell Hiller (6-6, 300, Coatesville, PA); Elijah Hutcheson (6-5, 275, Roanoke, VA Roanoke Catholic); Peyton Miller (6-5, 300, Anna, TX); D-line: Zahmar Tookes (6-4, 270, Rochester, NY Brighton); Stive-Bentley Keumajou (6-3, 300, Coral Gables, FL); Cain Van Norden (6-7, 300, District Heights, MD Bishop McNamara); De’Voun Kendrick (6-4, 300, Tampa, FL Carrollwood Day) EDGE: Cahron Wheeler (6-5, 250, Baltimore, MD St. Paul’s); Linebacker: Ja’Bios Smith (6-2, 210, Swainsboro, GA); Ellis McGaskin (6-0, 220, Mobile, AL Williamson); Tre Geathers (6-2, 200, Charlotte, NC Providence Day School) Secondary: Aamaury Fountain (6-3, 182, Warner Robins, GA Northside); Amare Nugent (5-11, 180, Plantation, FL American Heritage); Kamarion Johnson (6-0, 190, Homerville, GA Clinch County); Kailib Dillard (6-2, 175, Tulsa, OK Jenks); Kamauri Whitfield (5-11, 193, Orlando, FL The First Academy); Raheem Floyd (6-1, 180, East St. Louis, MO) Special teams: Aaron McWilliams (5-11, 185, Sharpsburg, GA East Coweta); Jaydee Lane (6-1, 220, Mendenhall, MS Simpson County Academy) ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Two steps forward and one gigantic step backward. That is the summary of the US Men’s National Team in the World Cup after a brutal 4-1 slapdown by Belgium in Seattle Monday night. Four previous wins in World Cup play were marked by crisp passing, great defense and relentless pressure on opposing defenses. Then came Belgium and suddenly the American team looked like so many American teams in the past when facing a highly-regarded European team – totally outmatched. It is bad enough that Belgium was so much better in every phase of the game Monday night, but there was the ultimate insult that Belgium did it without the necessity of playing two of its better players. Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku watched from the bench as their mates handled the Americans with been there, done that precision and intensity. Other than a matching goal of a deflected free kick that made the score 1-1 in the first half, the US rarely found openings in the Belgian defense. Compounding matters were far too many glaring mistakes, none as obvious as the one made by US goalie Matt Freese that allowed the Belgians to go ahead 3-1. There was still plenty of time to rally and make the game interesting after Freese’s brain took a leave of absence, but to rally would have meant the US suddenly found a semblance of the game that got them to the round of 16 in the first place. That wasn’t happening. There is no sense in sugar coating what happened Monday night. Despite a home field and home country advantage as great as there has been since France won in 1998, the US wilted when it desperately needed an inspired performance. A close call, white knuckles loss would have been tolerable, almost admirable. Instead it was a humiliating slapdown. Not a beatdown, mind you although a three-goal loss in soccer is the equivalent of losing by 30 in American football. Belgium didn’t need to show off a Mike Tyson-like iron fist to the jaw for a knee-crumbling KO. Rather than bloody its fists, Belgium removed its silk gloves and used them to deliver a series of smacks to the face. This was America’s chance to not only make soccer history but elevate the sport to unprecedented levels in the minds of the entire country. Millions of fans on TV and the 70,000 or so jammed into Seattle’s Lumen Field were prepared to turn soccer fever into a contagion that would sweep the country, elbowing its way into the same conversations with baseball, basketball and football. Instead of a statement that soccer can compete with America’s established professional sports, there was a not ready for prime time reality check for the whole world to see. This was a huge setback, make no mistake about it. Recovery is possible, but don’t expect rapid progress. You only have to follow the money to understand why. In the rest of the world where soccer is the only true sport of significance, billionaires pour money into their teams and entire nations rally together every four years with the hope of bringing home the World Cup. American billionaires own NFL, MLB and NBA franchises which are proven money makers. Plus there are college sports which not only command the loyalty and investment by millions of fans while serving as a farm system to the pros. There is only so much money to go around and for now, at least, the money spent on soccer in America will be a trickle compared to the established sports. The faucet was all but turned off Monday night, leaving only a drip, drip, drip. This isn’t to say soccer can’t grow. It probably will, but it is not going to happen at warp speed. The process is going to take awhile and cannot afford missed opportunities like the one the US team had in a World Cup played on American soil.

“It’s these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, nothing remains quite the same” – Jimmy Buffett Nothing remains quite the same for Florida football and it starts with the changes in attitudes starting at the top. Unlike Billy Napier, whose laid back demeanor never inspired enthusiasm, the way Jon Sumrall goes about the business of being the head Gator in charge has optimism free-flowing and expectations on the rise. He isn’t doing it through constant rah-rah, but he isn’t afraid to discuss expectations with just about anyone who will take the time to listen. If you were hoping Florida would hire a positive, let’s get it done now type of coach you got your wish. That he’s transparent enough to let the world in to see how he goes about the process of turning Florida from a team that has posted four losing seasons in the last five to one that could scare the bejabbers out of future opponents is a bonus. To make it happen, Sumrall has to find answers on both lines of scrimmage. He has potentially electric talent at the skill positions led by running back Jadan Baugh and a room full of stretch the field fast receivers. The back seven on defense, led by linebacker Myles Graham and import safety DJ Coleman should thrive under new coordinator Brad White, who did much with less at Kentucky. Only one starter (LG Knijeah Harris) returns on an offensive line that will be coached by Phil Trautwein, the starting left tackle on Florida’s 2006 and 2008 national championship teams. Harris and transfers Harrison Moore (center, from Georgia Tech) and TJ Shanahan Jr. (RG, from Penn State) should provide a strong interior, but questions remain at the tackles. Sometime starter and fourth-year Gator Caden Jones could nail down right tackle. Stanford transfer Emeka Ogorji started eight games last year so he has the inside position to start at left tackle, but he could give way to Fletcher Westphal, a huge and enormous talent who has had injury problems. There are enough players to provide good depth, but experience – or lack of – is an issue. On the defensive line it’s all about depth at the tackles where Brendan Bett and Joseph Mbatchou figure to be the starters. There isn’t much in the way of size or experience backing them up so staying injury free is the chief concern and finding players capable of playing 20-25 snaps at an SEC level is next. On the outside, the Gators should be just fine with LJ McCray, Kamran James, Jayden Woods and Kofi Asare, all of them capable of providing a fierce pass rush. If Sumrall and his staff can find answers at the tackles on both sides of the ball, Florida’s chances of being the surprise team in the SEC rise exponentially. BIGGEST CONCERN FOR EVERY OTHER SEC TEAM Alabama: Alabama’s inept offense was exposed last season when the Crimson Tide failed to generate at least 300 total yards in each of the last four games, hitting rock bottom in the College Football Playoff against Indiana (38-3 loss, 190 total yards. Alabama was credited with 48 rushing yards COMBINED in the last three games. Bama managed a single touchdown and 209 yards in the SEC Championship Game with Georgia. Kalen DeBoer stuck with Ryan Grubb as his offensive coordinator. With an inexperienced QB and five new O-line starters can Grubb resuscitate the offense? Arkansas: The Hogs lost their last 10 games a year ago and most experts predict they will occupy the cellar in the SEC this year under new head coach Ryan Silverfield, who won 50 games in six years at Memphis. Turning Arkansas into a winning program isn’t an overnight task, but one that is going to take a long time to accomplish. Silverfield is a good coach. The question is whether those Arkansas gozillionaire boosters will give him the time to fill in all the gaps so he can win on a consistent basis? Auburn: New head coach Alex Golesh turned South Florida around in a hurry, winning 23 games in three seasons including nine last year. His USF offense finished third nationally last year, led by quarterback Byrum Brown, who accounted for 45 touchdowns while throwing for 3,158 yards and running for 1,008. Brown did that against American Conference defenses. Now he’s in the SEC with Golesh. Can Brown put up big numbers to revive last year’s stagnant Auburn offense? Georgia: There are new receivers and a couple of new starters on the O-line, but the Georgia offense will be just fine now that Gunner Stockton has a year of starting experience under his belt. The concerns are all on defense, which has been sliding backward since the back-to-back national championships (2021-22). The defense hasn’t cracked the top ten nationally the last two years and doesn’t have the depth it had during the national championship years. A year ago Georgia managed only 20 sacks, dead last in the SEC. If the Bulldogs can’t put more pressure on opposing quarterbacks the downward slide of the defense will continue. Kentucky: They wanted change at Kentucky and they got it. Mark Stoops, the winningest coach in UK history is gone and the new coach is Will Stein, the offensive coordinator the previous three seasons at Oregon. He has one starter returning on offense and the new quarterback is Kenny Mincey, who has 29 pass attempts and no touchdowns to show for three years at Notre Dame. Three starters return on defense for new coordinator Jay Bateman. Help is needed everywhere. Alabama and Texas A&M are the games two and three opponents. There is only one gimme win (Youngstown State). Can Stein finagle a way to get the Wildcats to three or four wins? LSU: Expectations are through the roof with Lane Kiffin taking over as head coach and Charlie Weis Jr. calling the plays for what could be a dynamic offense. The questions are all on the defensive side where LSU struggled when faced with good teams a year ago. DC Blake Baker has only three returning starters. The rest of the lineup will be filled by transfers. Can he build the kind of chemistry it takes to field a defense capable of getting stops? Mississippi State: Kamario Taylor is an emerging talent at quarterback and Jeff Lebby has surrounded him with good skill people. The Bulldogs averaged more than 30 points per game last year, numbers that should improve now that Taylor is established as the starter. The question is can the Bulldogs stop anyone? They gave up 409 yards and more than 30 points per game, numbers that have to improve if MSU is to flirt with a winning season. Missouri: Once again, expect Mizzou to be underrated. Eli Drinkwitz never gets enough credit for getting the most out of talent that on paper doesn’t measure up with the rest of the SEC. The offense, even with a new QB (Ole Miss transfer Austin Simmons) will be adequate since running back Ahmad Hardy returns, but there are no starters returning on defense. The schedule will be tougher with Ole Miss, Texas and Georgia added. Mizzou should be able to score, but will the defense be able to hold its own and keep opponents out of the end zone. Oklahoma: With head coach Brent Venables coordinating his own defense, Oklahoma could be even better in 2026 than last year. The problem is on the other side of the ball. When he’s healthy, quarterback John Mateer can be scary good, but he has to have an O-line capable of keeping him upright while opening up enough holes that OU can run the ball successfully. Oklahoma averaged 118.5 rushing yards per game last year, 112th nationally. Can the offensive line get the job done and keep the defense off the field? Ole Miss: Quarterback Trinidad Chambliss and running back Kewan Lacey return, providing a dynamic foundation for the offense. The receivers are new but there is no lack of speed and talent. Three interior line starters return and the tackles are both highly regarded transfers. Ole Miss doesn’t lack personnel or talent but the play caller is brand new. Charlie Weis Jr. departed for LSU and John David Baker, who had very good offenses at East Carolina was brought in as the replacement. Can he keep the offense at the same level as last year when Ole Miss finished second nationally while averaging more than 36 points per game? South Carolina: Based on his 2024 production, LaNorris Sellers was expected to be in the mix for the 2025 Heisman but the Gamecocks dipped from 9-4 to 4-8, falling off eight points and 70 yards per game. It wasn’t Sellers’ fault. Head coach Shane Beamer is the one who promoted Mike Shula to offensive coordinator for 2025. Shula was fired and Kendal Briles was hired from TCU where he ran explosive big play offenses. At TCU Briles ran a pro-style offense with a stay in the pocket passer. Can he adapt his scheme to Sellers, a dual threat type who can go for big chunks of yardage with his legs? Tennessee: The Vols have an experienced offensive line, a thousand-yard rusher (Desean Bishop) and enough good receivers to deal with inexperience at quarterback. The questions are all on the defensive side, where Tennessee was an SEC bottom feeder a year ago, finishing 13th or worse in the SEC in all four serious stat categories (scoring, rushing, passing, total). To resolve the issues on defense, Josh Heupel brought in Jim Knowles as his new coordinator. Knowles was brilliant leading the Ohio State defense in 2024 when the Buckeyes won the national title, but fairly average last year at Penn State. For the Vols to remain among the top half of the SEC, Knowles has to transform the Vols leaky sieve into a formidable unit. Texas: On paper, Texas had a pretty good defense a year ago, giving up 20.3 points and 338 yards per game, both middle of the pack numbers in the SEC. An embarrassing loss to Florida (Longhorns were torched by DJ Lagway and couldn’t stop Jadan Baugh running) and four straight games in which the defense gave up at least 30 points brought Steve Sarkisian to the conclusion change was necessary so he brought Will Muschamp out of semi-retirement. Muschamp was the actual play caller for Georgia’s two national championship defenses. He’s been in semi-retirement since but now that he’s emerged at Texas. Can he give the Longhorns that sharp edge they’ll need defensively to make a national championship run? Texas A&M: In the Aggies final two games – a loss to Texas and a College Football Playoff loss to Miami – quarterback Marcel Reed threw no touchdown passes and four interceptions. Reed was a boom or bust QB last year. When he was on his game the Aggies had the look of a national championship contender, but he looked dazed and confused in the last two games. Were those last two games a fluke or a sign that the gig is up and Reed has been exposed? Vanderbilt: With Diego Pavia at quarterback, Vanderbilt exuded confidence and believed every game was winnable. The result a remarkable 10-3 season in which Pavia threw for 29 touchdowns and ran for 10 more. Pavia is gone now and the keys to the Caddy have been given over to true freshman Jared Curtis, a 5-star recruit poached from Georgia. He certainly has the talent, but the SEC has a history of being unkind to freshman quarterbacks. Can he win enough to prevent Vanderbilt from sliding back to bottom feeder status?

Jadan Baugh runs through a gaping hole against Tulane in 2024 (Photo by Chris Spears) A few thoughts to jump start your Sunday morning: When we think of the Air Raid offense that Buster Faulkner grew up at Valdosta State we think it’s everybody out for a pass with an occasional run mixed in. Obviously, somebody tore the thou shalt not run the ball more than a dozen times per game page out of his playbook because Faulkner’s offenses in his three seasons as the coordinator at Georgia Tech were very balanced. Tech led the Atlantic Coast Conference in rushing in 2023 (203.77 yards per game, 5.38 per carry) and finished second (187 yards per game, 4.95 per carry) in 2024 behind Miami, second again in 2025 (197.46 yards per game, 5.54 per carry) behind Florida State. In those three seasons, Georgia Tech averaged 431 total yards per game, 6.46 yards per snap and 30.56 points per game. Georgia Tech ran for 84 touchdowns and passed for 60 while Faulkner designed the offense and called the plays. Contrast those numbers to those of Florida the last three seasons. The Gators averaged 149.83 rushing yards per game in 2023 (8th in the SEC), 161.23 per game (9th in the SEC) in 2024 and 136.75 (12th in the SEC) in 2025. The Gators ran the ball for 57 touchdowns and averaged 4.37 yards per carry from 2023-2025. Florida’s offense averaged 379.32 yards per game, 5.91 yards per play and 26.1 points per game. The best year of the last three was 2023 with Graham Mertz at QB in which the Gators averaged 409.1 yards, 6.05 yards per play and 28.4 points per game. Overall, Florida scored 113 touchdowns the last three years (57 rushing, 56 passing). From a pure talent perspective, Florida had more than Georgia Tech the last three years both at running back and wide receiver. Despite talents such as Ricky Pearsall, Chimere Dike and Elijhah Badger catching the ball and Montrell Johnson Jr. and Jadan Baugh running it, Florida under-achieved. Faulkner got far more efficiency out of his offense and much of it has to do with scheme. The way Faulkner spreads the field and uses the quarterback as both a runner and an efficient passer, it opens up lanes for the running backs. Running backs are heavily involved in the passing game as well. As the lead back the past three seasons at Georgia Tech, Jamal Haynes ran for 2,534 yards and 21 touchdowns, while catching 81 passes for 574 yards for four more touchdowns. At Florida, Faulkner has an excellent collection of wide receivers whose speed will create lanes for his running backs, led by Baugh, back for a third season in which he is being touted as one of the best in the country. In ranking Baugh the No. 2 running back in the entire nation, ESPN offered these quotes to back up their selection: "He might be the best running back in the country," one SEC personnel director said. "Baugh might be one of the best backs I've ever watched on tape," a Big Ten scout added. "For him to be 230 pounds and to have the lateral agility he has, with the burst and the vision, that's unique," one former Florida staffer said. "His stature and his movement skills at that stature make him elite, and then he can finish runs with toughness. He can make plays when there is not a play there." High praise for Baugh, who needs 157 yards to reach 2,000 for his career and 744 to pass Tony Green for seventh on Florida’s all-time rushing list. Baugh is going to get his carries, but Faulkner has a diverse group of backs to create problems for opposing defenses. Redshirt freshmen Duke Clark and Byron Louis are big backs who are at their best between the tackles while transfers London Montgomery and Evan Pryor are speed backs who can factor in the passing game as well. This will be an offense capable of ground and pound when the Gators need to move the chains and keep the clock running as well as stretch defenses to their breaking point by using the backs both in the running game and the passing attack. Here is a look at the Florida running back room: Jadan Baugh (6-1, 228, JR): In high school at Decatur (GA) Columbia, he was the Swiss Army Knife who played quarterback, running back and wide receiver on the offensive side of the ball, safety and linebacker on defense. Florida recruited him as a running back, securing his services over offers from Alabama, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas among others. A 4-star recruit, Baugh was the No. 19 athlete in the country, the No. 35 recruit in the state of Georgia. Got four starts as a true freshman at Florida where he led the Gators with 673 yards (5.06 per carry) and seven touchdowns while catching four passes for 33 yards (8.25 per catch) and a TD. Second team All-SEC as a sophomore in 2025, he ran for 1,170 yards (5.32 per carry) and eight touchdowns while catching 33 passes for 210 yards (6.3 per catch) and two more TDs. Carried 38 times for 266 yards and two TDs in the win over Florida State, the second best single game rushing total in Florida history. Duke Clark (6-2, 202, RFR): Former 4-star recruit out of Tampa Plant, the No. 116 recruit in the ESPN 300. Chose the Gators over Alabama, Georgia, Miami, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oklahoma. Saw action in four games in 2025 and took a redshirt. Ran for 58 yards on 15 carries (3.9 per carry) and caught two passes for 14 yards. Best game was the win over Texas in which he carried nine times for 38 yards. Evan Pryor (5-10, 194, RSR): The nation’s No. 2 all-purpose back out of William Amos Hough in North Carolina and part of Ohio State’s No. 2 ranked recruiting class. Injured in 2021, spent the next two seasons in a stacked backfield before transferring to Cincinnati. He is more of a third down type of back who is very good once he gets the ball in space. In two season s at Cincinnati he carried 132 times for 940 yards (7.1 per carry) and nine touchdowns while catching 25 passes for 288 yards (11.5 per catch) and two more TDs. London Montgomery (5-10, 194, RJR): A former 4-star recruit out of Scranton (PA) Prep, Montgomery was the No. 3 player in the state of Pennsylvania and the nation’s No. 13 running back. A member of Penn State’s No. 13 recruiting class in 2023, took a redshirt as a true freshman at Penn State. Montgomery transferred to East Carolina where he was the effective No. 2 running back in 2024 when he gained 359 yards and scored a couple of touchdowns. As the lead back for ECU in 2025 he gained 742 yards (4.76 per carry) and scored seven touchdowns while catching 15 passes for 76 yards out of the backfield. Career numbers: 227-1,1101 rushing (4.79 per carry) for nine touchdowns; 20 catches for 105 yards (5.3 per catch). Anthony Rubio (5-9, 188, RJR): Graduated from UF in the fall of 2025. Third team All-Dade out of Belen Jesuit where he gained 1,474 yards as a senior. Walked on at UF where he has 11 carries for 59 yards and a TD in two seasons as a backup running back. Son of former US Senator Marco Rubio, now the Secretary of State. Byron Louis (6-0, 198, RFR): A 4-star recruit out of American Heritage in South Florida, Louis was the No. 9 running back and No. 31 overall recruit in the state of Florida. Originally committed to Florida State, flipped to Florida along with QB Trammel Jones Jr. Had offers from Alabama, Miami, Ohio State, Michigan and Penn State. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Don’t think I’ve gone soft and embraced soccer as the next great thing – I haven’t – but the World Cup is making a statement to the powers that be who are debating what’s next for college football. Think twice before cutting the little guys out. Cape Verde, a tiny island nation that 95 percent of Americans have probably never heard of, stunned the soccer world by making the round of 32 at the World Cup, then had the audacity to leave brown stains down the back of the shorts of mighty Argentina. Argentina prevailed 3-2 in overtime to advance to the round of 16 Friday night but advancing was nothing short of a miracle of changing water into wine proportions. This wasn’t a fluke. Cape Verde belonged and could have very well won the game, which would have gone down as perhaps the greatest upset in World Cup history and ranked among the greatest upsets ever in any sport. In proving itself against Argentina, Cape Verde reminded us of that funny line by Dudley Moore in the movie Arthur when he said, “It’s a terribly small, tiny little country. Rhode Island could beat the crap out of it in a war. That’s how small it is.” Cape Verde is the feel good story of the World Cup, but not the only team that saw its carriage turn into a pumpkin when the clock struck midnight. Ivory Coast, which in an international friendly pre-World Cup, beat France, should have beaten Germany in group play. Germany then lost to Paraguay in the round of 32. Congo tied Portugal, should have beaten Colombia and had England on the ropes. Those are just a few examples of how close the World Cup was to the chaos that would have erupted worldwide if some of these near Cinderellas had managed to keep their glass slippers on. Ever since Tulane and James Madison were easily disposed of in last year’s College Football Playoff, the first time two Group of Five schools had a chance to play with the big boys, we’ve heard all the grousing about how the little guys don’t belong. I admit that I have more than once advocated for the Group of Six (it expanded by one more conference this year) should have its own division, separate from the power conferences, and its own national championship playoff, but the World Cup has opened my eyes to the possibility that a conference champ from the Group of Six could do some damage in a playoff. Yeah, I know, it is like comparing apples and oranges when you compare soccer and American college football. And, yes, I know that we haven’t had a Cinderella story in college basketball since 1963 when Loyola upset Cincinnati, which was going for a three-peat NCAA championship. VCU made the Final Four and Butler made it to the national championship game twice, but otherwise a champion from a power conference emerged the winner. The odds say whether it’s college basketball or college football the little guys have almost no chance to take home the big trophy, but shouldn’t they be given a chance. One defensive stand by Cape Verde and one stroke of good fortune for Argentina is all that prevented the greatest upset ever in soccer. It can be argued that this might not happen in another World Cup in a hundred years. However true that may be, shouldn’t the Cape Verde’s of the world at least have their chance to take a bite of the apple? Shouldn’t we also take time to re-think shoving the little guys out of the championship picture in college football?

UAA Photo The career numbers are staggering by any measure, but they don’t begin to tell the story. Let me tell you something I’ve been wrestling with for a long time, and I figured over the Fourth of July — a day built for big declarations — is as good a time as any to say it out loud. Tim Tebow may be the greatest college football player who ever lived. Now hold on. Don’t come at me yet. I know what you’re thinking, because it’s what I always think when somebody starts throwing around “greatest ever” like it’s a door prize. Those words carry weight. They imply disrespect — almost by definition — to all the others who earned their place in that conversation. I still believe Jim Brown was the greatest football player I ever saw, period, full stop. Not just in college. Ever. And I saw a lot of them. But we’re talking college football here and pressed to pick somebody — really pressed, the way an old sportswriter gets pressed when he’s been around long enough to have actually watched these things unfold in real time — I keep coming back to the same name. Why not Tim Tebow? I was there for all of it. All four years. From the moment he came off the bench as Chris Leak’s backup in 2006 and helped the Gators win a national championship before most people even knew how to spell his name, to the night in January 2009 when he helped lift that crystal football for a second time and the whole state of Florida exhaled as Tebow led the win over Oklahoma. I watched it happen. The first time he did it in 2006,Tebow was as a collaborator with Leak. The second time, two seasons later, he delivered it in a promise. That’s not a Wikipedia entry to me. That’s memory. That's will. The career numbers are staggering by any measure, but they don’t begin to tell the story: One hundred and forty-five career touchdowns. More than 13,000 career yards. Fifty-seven rushing touchdowns — an SEC record that still stands. He was a Heisman finalist three times, and in 2007 he became the first sophomore in the history of college football to win the Heisman Trophy. Think about that the next time some blue-chip freshman takes a campus visit and the internet declares him a generational talent. Tebow actually went out and did it, at 19 years old, against grown men. The hardware is almost embarrassing to list. Heisman Trophy. Two Maxwell Awards. The Davey O’Brien. The Manning Award. Three-time All-American. Two-time SEC Male Athlete of the Year. Two national championships. BCS Championship Game MVP. College Football Hall of Fame. At some point you run out of shelf space. But here’s the thing about Tebow that no trophy cabinet can hold — the mythology. The stats come second. I was in The Swamp the day Florida lost to Ole Miss in September of 2008. It was one of those upsets that felt like a gut punch, the kind of loss that breaks hearts, destroys confidence and unravels teams. And what did Tebow do? He stepped to a podium and made a promise. He promised the fans, the university, his teammates, that they would never be outworked again. He promised suffering and sacrifice and redemption, in that order. One of the greatest Double Downs since Vegas invented it. They put that speech on a plaque. Then they implied perpetuity with a statue. When does a press conference statement become scripture? When Tim Tebow says it, apparently. And then there was the jump pass in his first game against LSU. That improvised leap over the pile, the ball arcing through The Swamp air to Tate Casey. And then again to David Nelson in his 2009 BCS National Championship clincher against Oklahoma. Meyer developed and first ran the "jump pass" in 2003 while he was the head coach at the University of Utah. Urban pulled it out of his archives hat from Utah. It just happened, the way great things sometimes just happen when the right person is in the right moment. You can’t coach that. You can only be fortunate enough to witness it. Great moments by great players stick to our memory. Was Tebow flawless? No. Was his throwing motion something only a mother could fully love? Yes. Did he get drafted in the first round and have a long, decorated NFL career? He did not. But we’re not talking about the NFL. We’re talking about 48 games in the Swamp and Death Valley and all the other cathedrals of college football, and in those 48 games, Tim Tebow was something the sport had never quite seen before and hasn’t quite seen since. I’ve covered a lot of football. A lot of players. Some of them were better athletes. Some of them were purer passers. Some of them left for the draft after two years and I never had to look them in the eye when things got hard. Tebow stayed. Tebow promised. Tebow delivered. Greatest college football player ever? I’ll leave that debate for people younger and more certain than me. But I’ll tell you this much — there is nobody else like him. Not before. Not since. And I was there to see every single yard of it. --- Buddy Martin covered Florida football for four decades. He is the host of The Buddy Martin Show

My mom and dad in 1945 A few thoughts to jump start your Saturday morning: Today we celebrate the 250th birthday of the United States of America, an experiment in governing like no other in the history of the world. On this day in 1776, delegates from 13 colonies met in Philadelphia at the Second Continental Congress and unanimously voted to declare independence from England, the only true super power in the world at that time. The men who signed that sacred document were willing to risk their lives and fortunes for the concept of liberty. Some 87 years later at Gettysburg, Abraham Lincoln called it government of the people, by the people and for the people as he led a divided country through the turbulence of a civil war. Somehow, the union prevailed and continues to exist to this day. Ronald Reagan called America the shining city on the hill. Like no one else before or after, Ray Charles sang “thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears.” Despite all the difficulties that plague our nation, this is still the place that the world looks to as the standard bearer for freedom, innovation, opportunity and leadership. This is still the place where if we don’t like the people who lead us we have the opportunity to vote them out of office and bring in new people with new ideas. We live in one of the very few places on earth that someone with an idea, determination and a willingness to overcome any obstacle in the way can go from absolutely nothing to immense wealth. I’ve been blessed to travel the world, 62 countries so far. I’ve had the chance to see things and experience things that I could only imagine when I was growing up. In the fifth grade class of Miss Tillis at Lake Mary Elementary I sat in the very back where in my free time I could thumb through her collection of National Geographic magazines. She began subscribing back in the 1930s so she had more than 200 magazines. Those magazines inspired me to travel to remote places that I saw in the photos and I’ve seen so much more. Every place I have traveled I have learned something that went far beyond any description or photo in a magazine. I’ve learned to appreciate the cultures of the nations of the world, but in discovering what makes each country and its people unique, I’ve learned what makes America so special. Today’s media hits us with a constant negative barrage about how the United States is perceived around the world. My travels – at least to the countries I have visited – have taught me that our media doesn’t tell us the truth. Everywhere I’ve been people ask about life in America, punctuated by their own dream of somehow making their own dreams come true in cites, towns and states that we too often take for granted. Years ago when my mother and stepfather had a ministry at their Gainesville church for international students and immigrants from around the world, I got a chance to pick up a Cambodian family on a Sunday morning. Driving them to church I listened as they told me about their escape from the maniacal Pol Pot, who turned entire villages into mass graves. They lived in subsidized government housing in Gainesville. “Our children’s friends say we are so poor,” they told me. “We tell our children we are so rich. We had nothing in Cambodia, now we have freedom to make a better life.” From subsidized housing and clothes from the Salvation Army they worked hard, sent their kids to the University of Florida and became independently wealthy. Only in America. On this day I think about my father, a pharmacist mate/medic on the USS Chemung during World War II. The Chemung was a tanker, first owned by John D. Rockefeller. Tankers and troop ships were the prized targets of the German U-boats so each crossing of the Atlantic Ocean was fraught with danger. Mr. Rockefeller had the foresight to double hull his tankers so they could stay afloat even when hit by a torpedo. One evening at our home in Sanford, my dad and several friends sat around our dining table drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and doing serious damage to a large pot filled with boiled peanuts. I remember like it was yesterday my dad talking about how the Chemung took a torpedo while crossing the Atlantic, its tanks filled with gasoline. They limped into England, the hole in the outside hull repaired quickly and then sailed off to the English Channel where they were a gas station for the landing craft that stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. The Chemung doubled as a hospital ship so that the incoming landing craft dropped off the wounded and departed with a filled tank. My dad spent the next three days sewing up and removing bullets from wounded soldiers. “As soon as we sewed them up, kids were begging us to let them get back into the fight with their buddies and brothers,” my dad recalled. “The channel was red with blood and dead bodies floated in the water. Wave after wave of kids stormed ashore with bullets flying and explosions everywhere. American kids were fighting a war to free up people whose countries had been taken from them by the Nazis. They knew the odds were they would die but they believed it was worth fighting for. They believed America was worth fighting for.” America was worth fighting for then, just as it is worth fighting for today. There is no country like this anywhere on earth. If America is as bad as some would have you believe why is it people from all over the world are willing to leave everything behind and risk their lives to come here? This is still the place that symbolizes what is good in this world, the place that inspires people to come with nothing for the concept of being free enough to be a proud American citizen. Today as we not only celebrate the birth of our nation but a future limited only by our own imagination, my prayer is that we will appreciate what our forefathers were willing to fight and die for. This is the Fourth of July, a day to celebrate the greatest nation in the history of the world where we have freedoms that make us the envy of the world. While you are celebrating, do yourself a favor. Call a parent, a sibling, a relative or a friend with whom there is a strained relationship. Mend the fences. Say I love you. Tell them how you appreciate living in a country that gives the freedom to humbly ask for and dole out forgiveness. You won’t regret it. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: I am a confessed non-soccer purist who has tried and failed to embrace the world’s game even to the point of being a dutiful Arsenal season ticket holder when Mayfaire House in Shepherd’s Market in London’s West End was my stomping grounds back in 1997. For the most part, I find soccer only slightly more interesting than using the leaf blower to clean off the patio of my Lake Eustis condo. Friday night, however, I got caught up in a soccer match like never before. I found myself openly cheering for Cape Verde, which pushed World Cup super power Argentina almost to its breaking point before falling, 3-2, in extra time. Cape Verde is a group of 10 small islands off the coast of Africa, which, at 1,557 square miles makes it only slightly larger than Rhode Island. The population, less than 500,000, is about the size of Raleigh. Cape Verde was little David going against soccer’s Goliath. Argentina, nearly 50 million people living in the eighth largest country in the world in terms of land mass, has won three World Cups and finished second three times. Argentina boasts the greatest goal scorer in the history of the World Cup in Messi. Think of him as you would Michael Jordan or Babe Ruth. Messi scored Argentina’s first goal in almost routine fashion in the first half and throughout the match even non-soccer purists could easily distinguish why he is considered by many the greatest of all time. He was everything he’s cracked up to be and yet Cape Verde refused to tremble in awe. Its goalie Vozinha protected the net with almost superhuman anticipation. When Sidny Cabral of Cape Verde scored on an impossible shot from left of the goal just inches from the outstretched fingers of the Argentinian goalie, knotting the score at 2-2 in the extra time, the impossible dream seemed reachable. The impossible dream was brought back to reality by Messi, whose corner kick curved and found the head of a teammate who leaped a couple inches higher than everyone else in a pack to the right of the Cape Verde goal. Argentina’s fans teared up as they celebrated, saved from going down in what would have been the World Cup’s greatest upset ever. For Argentina’s fans the final whistle was like the warden calling a split second before the switch is pulled to electrocute a prisoner strapped into the electric chair. For Cape Verde fans the call came too late. The switch was pulled and the hopes of an entire nation were fried. My emotions collapsed at the final whistle. That part of me that cannot resist cheering for the Don Quixotes of the sports world begged for another five minutes to give Cape Verde one more chance to even things up so the match could be decided by penalty kicks. I hate penalty kicks, one more reason why soccer ranks snake’s belly low on my 1-to-10 scale of watchable sports, but my heart was telling me if only Cape Verde could somehow, anyhow, get to penalties, the pride of the entire population of a tiny nation in the Atlantic Ocean could soar higher than one of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rockets could take it. Now, did this match change my mind and turn me into a soccer fan? Not really. For every match that ends with the color drained from my knuckles there are a hundred whose only saving grace is the passion of the fans. Argentina-Cape Verde had the passion of the fans but it also had the adrenaline rush of a less talented team proving it belonged among the best of the best. I watched and I’m glad I did.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: Friday, July 3, 2026 began like every other day. At 4:30 I woke up, no alarm necessary, a habit that became daily routine for more than 20 years of taking care of elderly parents. Both Dom and Carleta Underwood have passed away during the last 18 months but the habit of waking up to check up on them remains intact. Of course, they are absent so the early morning hours are now spent reading, writing and reflection. In the quiet of another morning on Lake Eustis, home to some very large bass and even larger reptiles, the word loyalty flashes through my mind almost like one of those gigantic electronic billboards, connecting names like Jon Sumrall, Jadan Baugh, Todd Golden, Alex Condon, Tommy Haugh and Rueben Chinyelu. During the past seven months these six have offered up a rather exquisite understanding of the impact of loyalty. Start with Sumrall. He took the Florida football job only after Scott Stricklin and the UF administration agreed to let him coach Tulane for the American Conference championship and the College Football Playoff. Unlike a certain coach of an SEC team that abandoned a team capable of winning the national championship, Sumrall remained loyal to the kids he coached and the people who had opened the door for him to take the next step up on his coaching journey when he left Troy after two Sun Belt Conference championship seasons for Tulane. In the three weeks following his taking the Florida job, Sumrall made certain the recruiting class he was bringing to Tulane stayed intact. There were no de-commitments. At the same time he convinced 16 of Florida’s 18 committed recruits to sign with the Gators despite immense pressure for them to go elsewhere. That couldn’t have happened if Sumrall didn’t exude integrity and loyalty. Next up he convinced running back Jadan Baugh to come back to Florida for his junior year, no small accomplishment considering the amount of NIL money that rival schools were willing to offer. ESPN ranks Baugh the No. 2 running back in the country for the 2026 season. The way Buster Faulkner designs and calls an offense, it isn’t a reach to think Baugh could very easily become college football’s premier running back. When he announced he would return for his junior year Baugh told Florida Victorious, “Being a Gator means everything to me.” When Florida’s basketball season ended, Todd Golden had opportunities to take an NBA job. Before Steve Kerr announced that he would be back for the 2026-27 season as head coach of the Golden State Warriors, Golden could have had that job. It was his job if he wanted it but he said no, choosing loyalty to a Florida program that has won the 2025 NCAA championship, the 2025 SEC Tournament and the 2026 SEC regular season championship in just four years on the job. It didn’t hurt Golden’s decision-making process that Alex Condon and Tommy Haugh announced they would be returning for one more season. Haugh would have been a lottery pick in the NBA Draft. Condon would have been a first rounder. Following the NBA Draft Combine in Chicago, Rueben Chinyelu announced that he, too, would be back. NIL money was part of the lure of returning to Florida, but that was only part of the equation. Some say that with the endorsements that will be coming his way, Haugh may be college basketball’s $10 million man. Condon and Chinyelu will make more money at Florida than they would have in the NBA. And, of course, all three could further enhance their status for the 2027 NBA Draft. All three are very close friends and there is a very strong bond between them and their other teammates. A feeling of loyalty to Golden also factored in their decisions to return. Golden and his three big guys also know that next year’s Florida team could win another national championship and potentially go down as one of the greatest teams in recent college basketball history. Haugh calls it a “championship or bust” mentality that infects this team. A key word here is team and what separates the merely good teams from those that win championships is the loyalty it takes to produce a championship environment. It takes loyalty to the school, loyalty to the team and each of its members as well as loyalty to the coach. The wonderful thing about loyalty is that it creates a bond that cements players, coaches, staff and even an entire fan base. This next Florida football team probably won’t win a championship this year but with loyalty such an integral part of the foundation, championships can and likely will be achieved in the future. As for basketball, the Gators will be the most experienced and talented team in the country. With loyalty as their bond, the Gators are near consensus pick to win it all. Wonderful word loyalty. It speaks volumes for the year ahead for the Gator Nation. BILLY DONOVAN TAKES ASSISTANT HEAD COACHING JOB WITH SAN ANTONIO SPURS He could have had the North Carolina job or any college coaching job he wanted. He could have had other NBA head coaching jobs but instead Billy Donovan has agreed to become the assistant head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. Surprised? Most are but there are close ties to San Antonio that factored into the decision starting with Spurs CEO RC Buford, who was a Florida assistant coach for Lon Kruger prior to Donovan taking the UF job in 1996. Buford has worked his way up the ranks in San Antonio as the chief scout, assistant coach to Greg Popovich and general manager. Along the way he and Donovan have maintained a close friendship. Donovan and Popovich are also good friends. At San Antonio Donovan will be able to mentor Mitch Johnson, who got the Spurs to the championship finals in just his second year on the job. With Victor Wembanyama as the centerpiece at both ends of the court, the Spurs will be prohibitive favorites to win the NBA title next year, after which Donovan is certain to be on a lot of NBA short lists. There will also be the possibility of returning to college basketball at Kentucky if Mark Pope goes a third season with double-digit losses. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: I am not a soccer fan nor do I ever anticipate that I will fall in love with the sport. The reasons are many starting with a loose ball that nobody scoops up and runs with it. Through the years I have been lectured by soccer purists that if I only take the time to understand the game I will embrace its beauty and the many nuances will make logical sense. I understand the game. When I was in London in the mid-1990s, I had Arsenal season tickets, a gift from a former Arsenal midfielder who was a scratch golfer as well. He taught me the beauty of sticking an 8-iron on the green from 140 yards out but failed in his efforts to get me to appreciate things like stoppage time or offsides. “It’s the world game,” Bob would tell me as we watched our caddies diligently search for one of my errant tee shots that disappeared into the trees and rough of the back nine at the Cariari Country Club. Bob’s tee shot was in the middle of the fairway, some 40-50 yards farther along. I knew then and know now that it is the world game, but as I pointed out to Bob Thompson, that we grow up with our own games in the United States complete with our own heroes. I, for example, grew up dreaming of becoming the third baseman for the Baltimore Orioles when Brooks Robinson retired. That dream lasted until some kid with a nasty hook discovered my bat had an aversion to contact with a breaking ball. The shattered baseball dream gave way to being the next Bill Bradley. After watching him score 57 points for Princeton in a Final Four consolation game (they had consolation games back then), I wanted to shoot like Bill Bradley. I obsessed with shooting but couldn’t play a lick of defense. My mind was willing but my feet just wouldn’t cooperate. At a reunion of players he coached at both Santa Fe and Gainesville High School at Hitchcock Ranch a few years ago, Garnie Hatch told me I was hands down the worst defensive player he ever coached. He loved my jump shot but couldn’t justify putting me on the floor knowing fully well that I would give up as many or more points at the other end. In the years since my athletic dreams rode off into the sunset I have been blessed with a career writing about sports. You name the sport I’ve written about it. Even soccer. I admire the writers whose words can make the game come alive for millions of readers. They love the game and they have a gift for explaining it. I also admire the passion of soccer fans, on full display here in the United States as the World Cup plays out on our stages. I don’t know who has more fun, the Norwegian fans or the Samba Kings from Brazil. I enjoy the fans and how they carry the hopes of entire nations in hearts ready to swell with pride if their team/country wins. I feel their disappointment and dismay when their World Cup dreams are shattered. I appreciate how American fans have embraced Team USA, almost as if they feel a collective urge to push our team to unprecedented success. It seems to be working. I can only imagine how deafening the crowd will be Monday night in Seattle when Team USA faces Belgium, the winner advancing to the quarter-finals. This might be the greatest home field advantage since France won the World Cup in 1998 by stunning Brazil, 3-0. This match with Belgium will represent the greatest chance ever for soccer to become something other than a fringe sport in the United States. If the United States wins and is one of the last eight teams standing in the battle for the 2026 World Cup, the impact could be felt long into the future. Americans will support a winner so making the quarter-final round may seem like a “we have arrived” statement but it is only the first and greatest step so far. There is a lot of catching up to do. We don’t have soccer rivalries of any distinction here in the US. Soccer doesn’t have a Yankees-Red Sox or Celtics-Lakers or Alabama-Auburn rivalry here in the United States. We have no history of producing soccer players so great that one name – Pele or Beckham or Ronaldo or Messi – rolls off tongues with a measure of reverence. For soccer to grow exponentially in the United States, rivalries and superstars are a necessity but those will be the by-product of winning on the world stage. There may never be an opportunity like the one afforded by this World Cup for American soccer to have lasting importance.

If history holds true, Dr.Stuart Bell's stars will align (U. of Alabama photo) During the Spurrier and Meyer years, Florida wasn’t just singing — they were in perfect harmony as far as alignment, like the stars up above. There are certain names in the Florida archives that don’t just sit on the page — they jump off it. Steve Spurrier. Urban Meyer. Two eras. Two dynasties. Two men who didn’t just win — they changed what winning looked like at the University of Florida. So what was it? Were they smarter? Better organized? More driven? Did they simply have better players? Sure. All of that plays a role. But when you dig a little deeper, when you really study those championship years, you begin to uncover something less obvious and far more powerful: Alignment. And no, I’m not talking about how they lined up on offense. I’m talking about something bigger. Something institutional. Something cultural. A philosophical alignment that started at the very top — flowing from the president’s office, through the athletic department, into the coaching staff, and finally onto the field. “They have to all be singing from the same page and the same hymnbook,” said Mr. College Football himself, Tony Barnhart. During the Spurrier and Meyer years, Florida wasn’t just singing — they were in perfect harmony as far as alignment, like the stars up above. Urban Meyer didn’t just win two national championships because he ran a tight ship. He won because the ship had a clear captain’s voice from above. The university leadership understood what big-time football meant — and they supported it. Go back even further. Ask former interim president Bob Bryan about his proudest achievement at Florida, and he didn’t hesitate: “Hiring Steve Spurrier as football coach.” That’s alignment. And while Jeremy Foley gets some credit for bringing Urban Meyer to Gainesville, those close to the story know there was another hand helping guide that decision — a then-new president Bernie Machen, who arrived from Utah after watching Meyer light that program on fire. You think that connection mattered? You think they were aligned? Now fast forward to more recent years, and it’s fair to say Florida hasn’t always been singing from the same hymnal. Or that they had one. At times, it felt like the program was operating without a clear, unified voice at the top. Not for lack of effort — Scott Stricklin has worked tirelessly and some of the key boosters stepped in to keep things moving — but true alignment without a president is a tough ask. Call it what you want, but it’s hard to drive a championship culture when the leadership structure feels incomplete. Which brings us to today — and some long-awaited news that should have Gator Nation feeling a little more optimistic this Independence Day week. The Florida Board of Governors has officially confirmed Dr. Stuart Bell as the 14th president of the University of Florida. And just like that, the possibility of alignment is back on the table. Bell comes to Gainesville from Alabama, where he saw firsthand what a fully aligned athletic and academic powerhouse looks like. And he didn’t waste time making his priorities clear. “You have to understand what the needs are, and I’m talking about both in-house and out-of-the-house,” Bell said. “We’ve got great people running our athletic programs, but they certainly need to feel the support.” Support. Understanding. Unity. Those aren’t just nice words — they’re the foundation of every great era in Florida football history. And then there’s something else — something that resonates deeply with thousands of Gator fans. Tradition. Bell also addressed the potential return of the “GatorBait!” chant and its place within the program’s identity. “Traditions matter,” he said. “There’s a lot around the ‘GatorBait.’ I think that’s exciting. It’s meaningful to the Gator family. I hope that we’re able to really have some great conversations around that.” That’s not just about a chant. That’s about reconnecting a program with its roots — with the energy, passion, and pageantry that make The Swamp one of the most iconic venues in college football. For a while now, Florida has been searching — not just for wins, but for cohesion. For clarity. For a shared vision. Now, for the first time in a while, it feels like the pieces are coming together again. A president who understands athletics. An administration that can align. A program ready to reconnect with its traditions. Add to that a national champion ship basketball program ready to repeat under Todd Golden. And a hot young football coach in Jon Sumrall dying to bust out. That sounds pretty “aligned.” In fact the stars looked aligned, too. No, championships aren’t won in July. But make no mistake—this is how they begin. And if history has taught us anything, it’s this: When Florida gets aligned, the rest of college football better pay attention. ::