A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: EARLY SIGNING DAY IS HERE … I LIKED THE OLD WAY BETTER The early signing day which begins at 7 a.m. when the first faxes start rolling in wherever college football is played is a sign of progress. Not only do we still have the February signing date, but we’ve got one in December, too, and probably 80 percent of all the kids who will sign a Division I scholarship will sign today. Florida’s recruiting class was already lagging behind, but since Dan Mullen was fired and Billy Napier was hired, it is going to be a slim Wednesday for the Gators. I’m of the opinion that the early signing period stinks and is one of the root causes of much that is wrong with college football these days. Personally, I’d like to see the early signing period eliminated completely with one exception and go back to the way things used to be for the good of the game. As I look back on the days when there was only one national signing day – the first Wednesday in February – I think college football was in a much better place than it is today. From a fan and personal standpoint, I liked the buildup of excitement leading up to the traditional NSD that we used to have. Once the college football season ended, we had the recruiting season which occupied the entire month of January. People used to take the entire day off work on National Signing Day because nothing was assured until the fax rolled in. We had master flippers (Will Muschamp was great at flipping recruits at the last minute when he was UF’s head coach) and signing day surprises. Florida fans used to panic because FSU held its football banquet on the Saturday night before NSD and for years Bobby Bowden landed one formerly uncommitted 5-star recruit after another that weekend. We had February adventures that we no longer have that added to the excitement and kept people talking for months on end. One memorable example is the Wednesday morning of February 3, 1999. Early morning, Anquan Boldin called Steve Spurrier to tell him he was going to sign with Florida at 8:30 a.m., but when 8:30 rolled around it was announced that the announcement would be delayed for an hour. Allegedly, Boldin needed the time to pray about his decision with a pastor there in Pahokee. At 10 a.m. Boldin signed with Florida State after much prayer and supplication. There were hot and heavy rumors that a brand new garnet and gold Ford Explorer – obviously sent down from heaven from God himself during the prayer time – was a sign that (a) the Almighty himself wanted Boldin to sign with FSU and (b) that Steve Spurrier would never play a black quarterback but would switch him to wide receiver. Funny how Anquan was switched to wide receiver on either the second or third day of FSU’s August camp. Boldin and running back Nick Maddox, another one who told Spurrier he was going to be a Gator an hour before he signed with FSU that morning, were part of a small FSU class that was going to set the world on fire. They didn’t. Florida’s far less heralded class was deemed a bust by the “recruiting gurus” because Boldin and Maddox pulled their signing day surprises. That “bust” of a Florida class produced three first or second team All-Americas (Rex Grossman, Jabar Gaffney and Lito Sheppard), six first or second team All-SEC selections (Grossman, Gaffney, Sheppard, Daryl Dixon, Taylor Jacobs and Bobby McCray), nine who started at least two years (Grossman, Gaffney, Sheppard, Jacobs, McCray, Dixon, Bam Hardmon, Clint Mitchell and Mike Nattiel) and 11 who were either drafted by the NFL or signed as free agents (Grossman, Gaffney, Sheppard, Dixon, Jacobs, McCray, Nattiel, Hardmon, Mitchell, Tron LaFavor, Ran Carthon and Matt Farrior). Anyone remember Lobster Willie’s Big Adventure in Tallahassee in 2001? FSU was never the same after Willie Williams spent the banquet weekend in Tallahassee and then signed three days later with Miami. I actually miss those days. It was more fun, but I believe it was better for both coaches and kids that there was only one National Signing Day in February. When the early signing date in December was put in place, it seemed like a good idea at the moment. Like so many things the NCAA puts in place, there have been far reaching unintended consequences and this is even before we factor in the transfer portal and NIL. For years it was argued that a December signing period would allow kids who had made up their minds to get their recruiting out of the way. One of the cornerstones of the argument was kids who had made up their minds became dazed and confused by all the pressure in February. So, we got an early signing period and instead of a few kids signing early, the bulk of every recruiting class at the higher levels of Division I has been almost completely filled, leaving only a few stragglers who perhaps hadn’t qualified academically in December to sign in February or got cold feet back and decided to wait. I don’t have the exact percentages, but a lot more coaches are getting fired during the season since the early signing date was implemented and new coaches are hired quickly to come in and salvage the recruiting class. With rare exceptions, when a head coach is fired, nearly every assistant coach who’s been busting on the recruiting trail also gets canned. It happened at Florida. Dan Mullen was fired the Sunday before the Gators’ final game. The following Sunday, Billy Napier was hired from Louisiana for seven years and $51.4 million after taking the Ragin Cajuns to an 11-1 regular season. Napier wasn’t introduced until the Sunday after Louisiana beat Appalachian State for the Sun Belt Conference championship on December 4. He’s had 10 days to dismiss all of Dan Mullen’s assistant coaches, hire four new assistants, and deal with recruiting. Most of the kids who were committed to Mullen such as quarterback Nick Evers (to Oklahoma), wide receiver CJ Smith (to Georgia) and wide receiver/athlete Isaiah Bond (to Alabama) have de-committed the Gators for other destinations. Unless Napier is a recruiting magician capable of pulling proverbial rabbits out of a hat, this will be the kind of December signing class that is going to make a lot of Gators nervous. We were warned of this back on December 5 when Napier said Florida’s recruiting class would really take shape in January after he had a full coaching and an “army” of support staffers in place to sign kids that didn’t put their signature on an LOI and transfers. More than a few Gator fans are already writing off the 2022 recruiting class. Florida’s situation isn’t all that unusual. There are currently 130 schools in Division I. Twenty-eight coaches were fired in 2021, one before the season even began (Les Miles, Kansas), most during the season and a couple after the regular season concluded. The ripple effect is enormous when you add the number of recruits affected by coaching changes to the number of assistant coaches, strength and conditioning staff, recruiting coordinators and other staffers who are now in limbo. Another unintended consequence of all the firings is record salary inflation. Concerned that LSU would come after Mel Tucker, Michigan State gave him a 10-year deal worth $100 million. Jimbo Fisher, who signed a contract extension that added 10 years to his existing deal and raised his pay to somewhere between $9-10 million, turned down $125 million to leave Texas A&M for LSU. Lincoln Riley was offered the same deal. LSU ended up hiring Brian Kelly from Notre Dame with a 10-year $95 million deal. LSU fans are likely to boast about the $30 million saved by hiring Kelly. When Southern Cal showed interest in James Franklin, Penn State gave him a 10-year deal that has $70 million guaranteed. Southern Cal interviewed several other coaches but ended up hiring Lincoln Riley away from Oklahoma for eight years at $13 million a year with unheard of perks such as USC buying his two houses, giving him a $6 million mansion in LA and unlimited use of a private plane. Miami fired Manny Diaz while he was out recruiting and on the same day hired Mario Cristobal away from Oregon for 10 years and $80 million. All this just to have a coach in place before the early signing period. An unintended consequence of the College Football Playoff is the bowls have been neutered. Kids who aren’t playing for the four playoff teams, are opting out of bowl games. Mullen had to endure a flogging at the hands of Oklahoma in last year’s Cotton Bowl when Kyle Trask’s three top receivers – All-Americans Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney plus Trevon Grimes – were among several Gators who opted out, claiming they were fearful of injuries that could hinder their NFL Draft status. C.J. Henderson did the same thing the year before when he opted out of the Orange Bowl. The playoff has made bowls dinosaurs whose only hope of survival is an expanded playoff with lesser bowls becoming the equivalent of the NIT. The bowls are traditional but traditions seem to have no place in the game these days. When you add in the transfer portal and NIL, it’s not difficult to surmise that college football is in a very bad place. We’ve seen kids entering the transfer portal during the season, which was never intended. Last year’s record total of 2,626 transfers will likely pale in comparison to the number who are looking for a new place to play this year. How many of the transfers are leaving because of coaching changes? How many are freshmen or sophomores who aren’t willing to hang around and compete for a job, figuring it’s easier to simply go somewhere else? How many of the transfers are leaving for a new school because they (a) didn’t get an NIL deal at their current school or (b) have heard that kids at another school are making big bucks off NIL? We’re not going to eliminate the transfer portal nor is NIL going to be cut off, but here are five practical solutions that could bring some measure of sanity back to college football before it literally destroys itself. 1. Seriously reduce the number of kids who can sign early: You do this by allowing only those who (a) are academically qualified to enroll in January and (b) have been accepted. It’s rare that more than 9-10 kids enroll early leaving the bulk of the recruiting class to sign in February. 2. Make December a dead period for high school/juco recruiting except to sign early enrollees: This would go a long way toward eliminating the in-season firings. Athletic directors who have dismissed their head coaches would have an entire month to find a new head coach without rushing one in place for the ESP. The new coach would have time to hire his staff and spend January recruiting kids who are going to sign in February. 3. Set windows for kids to enter the transfer portal: Coaches admit they are spending way too much time re-recruiting players on their current rosters throughout the season. One way to solve this is to set a 10-day period in December and a 30-day period in May for kids to transfer. If a kid doesn’t use the designated transfer portal windows, he has to sit the next year. The only exceptions should be legitimate health concerns of a parent or family member that can be documented. 4. Set academic standards for kids who want to transfer: Any kid who wants to transfer out who doesn’t have at least a 2.5 GPA will have to sit a year. No exceptions. 5. You can’t eliminate NIL, but you can eliminate NIL deals from August until the College Football Playoff is over: This doesn’t change a kid’s ability to make money off his name, image or likeness, but it eliminates the kid doing business during the season then using it as a reason to transfer out. There are probably other solutions out there that make every bit as much sense, but it’s time for very smart people to put their heads together to come up with a plan that can save college football from destroying itself. Eliminating or seriously tweaking the early signing period would be a good place to begin.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: THE QUARTERBACK MARKET IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS Former Florida quarterback commitment Nick Evers has cast his lot with Brent Venables, Jeff Lebby and the Oklahoma Sooners. We will never know if he had been a good fit for the offense that Billy Napier plans to introduce to the Gators, just as we don’t know who among Florida’s current quarterbacks – Emory Jones, Anthony Richardson, Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and Jalen Kitna – elect to stick it out, at least through the spring. Nick Evers is a talented kid, but he’s going to Oklahoma where, by all accounts, Caleb Williams is planning to stick it out. So, barring injury or a sudden slump in Williams productivity, Evers is going to sit awhile, which is what he would have done at Florida. Three years ago, we might be in a mild state of panic over losing a 4-star QB recruit, but now with the NCAA transfer portal, why lose any sleep? Not when you can go to the portal and bring in someone with experience to plug in and play immediately. That’s what Kentucky did last year when Will Levis left Penn State. Levis was a serious upgrade from Terry Wilson and one of the main reasons Kentucky finished 9-3 and second in the SEC East. South Carolina upgraded its quarterback room significantly Monday night when Spencer Rattler, who began 2021 as the odds-on favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, announced he’ll be a Gamecock. Rattler was 140-187 (74.9 percent) for 1,483 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 11 touchdowns (5 picks) but was benched for Williams. He’s thrown for 4,595 yards and 40 touchdowns and still has three years of eligibility remaining. Here are 12 other quarterbacks of significance that are on the market: Kedon Slovis: He’s the reason JT Daniels transferred out of Southern Cal. Now he’s in the portal after throwing for 7,576 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 58 TDs in three years. Because of 2020, he has three seasons of eligibility remaining. Dillon Gabriel: He was all but a lock to Ole Miss before Jeff Lebby took the OC job at Oklahoma. Now it’s a tossup between UCLA and Ole Miss. At UCF, Gabriel threw for 8,041 yards (8.8 per attempt) and 70 TDs (just 14 picks). He has two seasons of eligibility. Cameron Ward: This may turn out to be the hottest QB on the market. Back in the spring at D1AA Incarnate Word he threw for 2,260 yards and 24 TDs (only four picks) in six games. In the full fall season he threw for 4,648 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 47 touchdowns in 13 games. He is big (6-3, 220), fast and has what is described as an NFL arm. He’s already visited Ole Miss and has been linked to several Power Five schools including Florida. Max Johnson: He has three full seasons of eligibility remaining after throwing for 3,883 yards (7.4 per attempt) and 35 touchdowns (only 7 INTs) at LSU. He’s thought to be Florida State-bound as a package deal with his 4-star tight end younger brother. Bo Nix: You wonder what might happen if he ever gets some good coaching. During his time at Auburn he threw for 7,251 yards (6.9 per attempt) and 39 touchdowns and ran for 838 yards and 18 more TDs. He beat Alabama as a true freshman in 2019. He’s a grad transfer with two years of eligibility. Myles Brennan: Can he stay healthy? In the first three games of 2020 before he was injured, Brennan threw for 1,112 yards (8.5 per attempt) and 11 TDs (3 picks). Next year will be his sixth year since leaving high school but he still has two years eligibility remaining. Zach Calzada: In his only season as a full-time starter he beat Alabama. He threw for 2,185 yards and 17 touchdowns (9 picks). He has three seasons of eligibility. Jack Plummer: He’s been good when he’s healthy. He has a big arm and two seasons of eligibility. At Purdue he threw for 3,405 yards (6.9 per attempt) and 26 touchdowns (10 picks). Jack Miller: He got caught up in the QB glut at Ohio State where he threw only 14 passes (completed 7 for 101 yards). His upside is four years of eligibility remaining. No questioning the talent. Chubba Purdy: He was a big time recruit to Florida State but things didn’t pan out for him there so he’s in the portal with four years of eligibility. He’s the younger brother of Iowa State star Brock Purdy and that could be his next destination. Harrison Bailey: He’s another one with four years of eligibility due to the COVID year in 2020. That’s when he threw for 578 yards and four touchdowns at Tennessee. He played in one game in 2021 when Josh Heupel brought in a pair of transfer quarterbacks. Michael Penix: He’s never had a full season healthy, but when he’s upright and able to move, there’s no question he’s talented. The Tampa native is leaving Indiana after throwing for 4,197 yards (7.3 per attempt) and 29 TDs (15 picks). He’s also run for six touchdowns. GATORS DROP OUT OF TOP 25 HOOPS RANKINGS Not that anyone should be remotely surprised, but the Gators (7-3) dropped completely out of the top 25 rankings in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls. The loss to Maryland Sunday by itself wouldn’t have hurt that much, but the Texas Southern loss last Monday means UF is going to have to make up a lot of ground in the eyes of the voters before they ever sniff the top 25 again. Associated Press Top 25: 1. Baylor 9-0; 2. Duke 7-1; 3. Purdue 9-1; 4. UCLA 9-1; 5. Gonzaga 8-2; 6. Alabama 8-1; 7. Kansas 8-1; 8. Airzona 9-0; 9. Villanova 7-3; 10. Southern Cal 10-0; 11. Iowa State 10-0; 12. Michigan State 9-2; 13. Auburn 8-1; 14. Houston 8-2; 15. Ohio State 8-2; 16. Seton Hall 9-1; 17. Texas 6-2; 18. Tennessee 7-2; 19. LSU 9-0; 20. UConn 9-2; 21. Kentucky 7-2; 22. Xavier 9-1; 23. Colorado State 10-0; 24. Arkansas 9-1; 25. Texas Tech 7-1 Coaches Top 25: 1. Baylor 9-0; 2. Duke 7-1; 3. UCLA 9-1; 4. (Tie) Purdue 9-1 and Gonzaga 8-2; 6. Arizona 9-0; 7. Kansas 8-1; 8. Alabama 8-1; 9. Southern Cal 10-0; 10. Villanova 7-3; 11. Iowa State 10-0; 12. Michigan State 9-2; 13. Houston 8-2; 14. Auburn 8-1; 15. Ohio State 8-2; 16. Seton Hall 9-1; 17. Texas 6-2; 18. Tennessee 7-2; 19. Arkansas 9-1; 20. LSU 9-0; 21. Kentucky 7-2; 22. UConn 9-2; 23. Colorado State 10-0; 24. Texas Tech 7-1; 25. Xavier 9-1 OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Named to the Associated Press All-America first team were quarterback Bryce Young, wide receiver Jameson Williams and linebacker Will Anderson. Offensive tackle Evan Neal made second team and safety Jordan Battle made third team. Arkansas: Former LSU defensive end Landon Jackson is transferring to Arkansas. Auburn: Running back Tank Bigsby, who placed his name in the NCAA transfer portal, has decided to remain at Auburn after all … Quarterback Bo Nix, however, is transferring out as a graduate. Because of the COVID year (2020) he will have two years of eligibility … Corner Roger McCreary was named first team AP All-America. Georgia: Defensive tackle Jordan Davis and linebacker Nakobe Dean made first team AP All-America. Tight end Brock Bowers made second team as did D-lineman Devonte Wyatt. Safety Lewis Cine made third team … Drew Bobo, son of fired Auburn offensive coordinator Mike Bobo, de-committed Auburn and has committed to Georgia. Bobo is a 3-star offensive lineman. Kentucky: Offensive tackle Darian Kinnard was named first team AP All-America … Former Auburn offensive lineman Tashawn Manning announced that he is transferring to Kentucky. Manning spent five years at Auburn where he played in 12 games in 2021, starting the last three at left guard … Linebacker Marquez Bembry, who had 37 tackles in three seasons, is in the transfer portal. LSU: Brian Kelly is trying to lure Kentucky defensive coordinator to Baton Rouge according to FootballScoop.com. Mississippi State: Redshirt freshman safety Janari Dean, a former 3-star recruit, has entered the transfer portal. He played in nine games in 2021 and was in on three tackles. Missouri: Running back Tyler Badie made second team AP All-America and center Michael Maietti made third team … Mizzou running backs coach Curtis Luper is being targeted by new Virginia coach Tony Elliott. Ole Miss: Edge rusher Sam Milliams made third team AP All-America … Although he’s leaving Ole Miss for Oklahoma, Jeff Lebby will call the plays for Ole Miss against Baylor in the Sugar Bowl. South Carolina: In addition to the news that quarterback Spencer Rattler is transferring in from Oklahoma, the Gamecocks got another transfer from OU, tight end Austin Stogner, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining. Stogner caught 47 passes for 654 yards and eight touchdowns while at OU … Offensive lineman Vincent Murphy, a former 3-star recruit out of St. Thomas Acquinas, has entered the transfer portal. Murphy played in eight games in 2021 at both center and guard. He has three years of eligibility remaining. Texas A&M: Quarterback Zach Calzada has placed his name in the transfer portal. Calzada threw for 2,189 yards and 17 touchdowns while leading the Aggies to an 8-4 record that included a win over Alabama … Former 4-star defensive back Dreydon Norwood, who took a redshirt in 2021, has put his name in the transfer portal … 5-star defensive tackle Walter Nolen has decided he will not sign in December but will wait instead until February. Does that mean he will flip to Tennessee or Florida? … Defensive tackle DeMarvin Leal made first team AP All-America while offensive guard Kenyon Green made second team. Vanderbilt: Proof that when you’re Vanderbilt you may have to take unconventional recruiting routes is the new defensive tackle commitment. He’s Yilianan Ouattara, a 6-6, 275-pound defensive tackle from Cologne, Germany. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Leave it to Lane Kiffin to call it what it is. Asked about transfers Monday, Kiffin said, “I don’t think people really say it this way, but let’s not make a mistake. We have free agency in college football. The kids a lot of times go to where they get paid the most. No one else is saying that maybe, but the kids say, ‘This is what I’m getting here for NIL’ and so what we really have is what it is … free agency has been created in college football, except you can’t lock people into a contract. They can go at any time. So, it’s a new world that we’re in. Sometimes they want to come to you and say, ‘I get this much money if I go there,’ so this is just a whole new thing to deal with.” The transfer portal is taking its toll because now, in addition to recruiting high school and juco kids, a coach has to recruit players from the transfer portal as well as re-recruit his own players. Well, at least those he wants to stay. Counting walk-ons, 2,626 college football players transferred in the 2020-21 cycle. By the time we hit May or June of 2022, you can expect more than 3,000 will have said good-bye to their scholarships at one school in search of a greener pasture somewhere else. When you throw in the NIL money, transfers will go where they’re getting paid just as recruits from high school and jucos. None of this was an intended consequence, but it is what we have now. It’s time to admit college football is officially the minor leagues of the NFL.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: ALL QUIET ON THE RECRUITING FRONT Unless he’s got some recruits carefully hidden from plain view, the early signing day rankings for Billy Napier and the Florida Gators are going to rank dead last in the Southeastern Conference. Commitments started bailing on the Gators even before Dan Mullen was fired but they have continued to look elsewhere since Napier took over. When he spoke at his first UF press conference last Sunday, Napier didn’t seem the least bit fazed by the fact the ESD numbers will probably be very, very slim. “I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t sign many at all, to be honest with you but there may be a few out there that are willing to jump in her in the last minute,” Napier said. Napier can continue to recruit in January for the February National Signing Day so he will have a chance to at least top Steve Spurrier’s last recruiting class of 2001, which is perhaps the lowest ranked (No. 47 nationally) in school history. Spurrier had an abundance of seniors and while this class didn’t have the numbers it also lacked quality. It included a non-qualifier (Dallas Baker), one who passed away (Eraste Autin), five that transferred out (Ingle Martin, Sylvester McGrew, Larry Kendrick, Wesley Bryant and Antoine Sharp) and one who was on scholarship five years but never played a single down of football on game day (Jonathan Marvin). Urban Meyer’s transition class of 2005 ranked 12th but it didn’t produce a lot of quality, either. Of the 15 signees, only Ryan Stamper, David Nelson, Louis Murphy, Kestahn Moore and Jonathan Phillips finished their playing careers as Gators. One thing for certain, Napier isn’t going to take a lot of chances. Thanks to the transfer portal, he doesn’t have to. There is an advantage in the transfer portal. High school kids who come to Florida or any other school who don’t like it or find themselves buried, can transfer out after one or two years. A transfer portal player has to sit a year if he elects to transfer a second time. GATORS COME UP SHORT AGAINST MARYLAND It came down to a final shot for Tyree Appleby, and unlike the 3-point dagger that beat Ohio State in Fort Myers a couple of weeks ago, this one rimmed out at the buzzer. Instead of another heart attack finish, the 20th-ranked Gators (7-3) dropped a 70-68 decision to Maryland in the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Appleby hit all five of his 3-pointers in the second half including two in a row after Maryland took a 59-52 lead with 6:26 to go and threatened to blow the game open. It was Appleby’s pull-up three on the fast break at the 1:16 mark that put the Gators up 66-65 for their final lead of the night. After Maryland re-took the lead at 68-66, Anthony Duruji tied the game on a driving layup with 43 seconds left, but Maryland took the lead again with 16 seconds to go and Appleby’s last second shot wouldn’t go. Although the Gators shot better from the 3-point line (11-27) than they had in any of the previous three games, it was another poor shooting performance that did them in. Florida was 11-31 on 2-point shots and just 22-58 (37.6 percent) for the game. It was particularly surprising that CJ Felder and Jason Jitoboh played so little after being so effective in the first half. Felder played nine minutes in the first half and hit 3-4 from the 3-point line but he played only four minutes in the second half. Jitoboh matched his career best with six points in nine first half minutes but he played less than a minute in the second half. The Gators are idle until Saturday when they play host to South Florida. SEC Basketball Sunday’s scores: Maryland (6-4) 70, No. 20 FLORIDA (7-3) 68; South Carolina (7-2) 66, Florida State (5-4) 65 Saturday’s scores: No. 8 Kansas (8-1) 102, Missouri (5-5) 65); No. 9 Alabama (8-1) 83, Houston (8-2) 82; Notre Dame (4-4) 66, No. 10 Kentucky (7-2) 62; Oklahoma (8-2) 88, No. 12 Arkansas (9-1) 66; No. 13 Tennessee (7-2) 76, UNC-Greensboro (7-3) 36; No. 18 Auburn (8-1) 99, Nebraska (5-6) 68; No. 25 LSU (9-0) 69, Georgia Tech (5-4) 53; Colorado State (10-0) 66, Mississippi State (6-3) 63; TCU (8-1) 68, Texas A&M (7-2) 64; Western Kentucky (6-4) 71, Ole Miss (6-3) 48 Tuesday’s games: South Carolina-Upstate (2-7) at No. 13 Tennessee (7-2); Northwestern State (2-8) at No. 25 LSU (9-0); Allen University at South Carolina (6-2); Georgia State (5-3) at Mississippi State (6-3); No. 9 Alabama (8-1) at Memphis (5-4); North Alabama (6-3) at No. 18 Auburn (8-1); CANCELLED DUE TO COVID Tulane (3-6) at Texas A&M (7-2) OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Bryce Young won the Heisman Trophy and Will Anderson finished fifth in the voting. How Aidan Hutchinson of Michigan finished second in the voting and Anderson finished fifth is beyond belief. Both Young and Anderson will be back next year as neither one is draft eligible (both just two years removed from high school). Arkansas: Sam Pittman, one of the lower paid head coaches in the SEC at $3 million a year, is asking for a reworked contract that is in the 7-year, $50 million range. Jimmy Sexton (who else) is his agent. Auburn: Running back Shaun Shivers is transferring to Indiana. He ran for 1,020 yards and eight touchdowns during his time at Auburn. The 2022 season will be his final year of eligibility ... A couple of names that have surfaced prominently in Auburn’s search for a new offensive coordinator are Seattle Seahawks QB coach Austin Davis and Georgia running backs coach Dell McGee. Georgia: Defensive coordinator Dan Lanning is leaving for Oregon but will remain with the Bulldogs for the College Football Playoff. Kirby Smart has named former UF/South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp and Glenn Schumann, his top recruiter, as co-defensive coordinators. Kentucky: Quarterback Will Levis is organizing UK athletes to help with the relief effort for communities hammered by tornadoes in Kentucky. LSU: Kerry Cooks, who spent the last two seasons as a defensive analyst at Notre Dame, is joining Brian Kelly’s staff as a defensive assistant. Mississippi State: Mike Leach has blasted players who opt out of bowl games. Speaking to the Clarion-Ledger, Leach said, “You’ve got an obligation to the place that helped build and develop you and finish it out in the bowl. That’s part of it. You owe it to your team, you owe it to your fans, you owe it to your coaches and it’s the most bizarre thing in the world to me. Somebody says, ‘Well, I can’t play one more game.’ They think they’re going to have a storied 10-year NFL career, and then they can’t play one more college game. Well, that’s ridiculous. I mean, guys will go to the NFL, they’ll make the Pro Bowl and they they’ll play in the Pro Bowl. It’s one of the biggest absurdities that I’ve seen, and it’s selfish, too.” Amen preacher. Left tackle Charles Cross, who has made some All-America teams and is projected a first rounder, did not practice Saturday for MSU’s upcoming Liberty Bowl game with Texas Tech. Ole Miss: Incarnate Word QB Cameron Ward, who won the Jerry Rice Award as the best freshman in D1AA, visited Ole Miss over the weekend. Ward threw for 4,648 yards and 47 touchdowns … Joe Brady, who was the passing game coordinator for LSU’s phenomenal national championship offense in 2019, is mentioned prominently as the offensive coordinator to replace Jeff Lebby. South Carolina: The South Carolina recruiting class is expected to take a hit with safety commitment Jy’Vonta McClendon reportedly facing felony charges for a road rage incident in which he shot into an occupied vehicle. He faces charges for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon without the intent to kill. Tennessee: Quarterback Hendon Hooker will return to Tennessee in 2022. After transferring to UT from Virginia Tech, Hooker threw for 2,567 yards (9.8 yards per attempt) and 26 TDs (only three INTs) while running for an additional 561 yards (3.8 per carry) and five TDs … Defensive back Alontae Taylor has opted out of the Music City Bowl game with Purdue to prepare for the NFL Draft. Texas A&M: Defensive lineman Jayden Peevy, who had 43 tackles and two sacks in 2021, is entering the NFL Draft. Safety Leon O’Neal will declare for the draft and will not play in the Gators Bowl against Wake Forest … Derek Mason, the former Vanderbilt head coach who is Auburn’s defensive coordinator, is one of the names being mentioned to replace defensive coordinator Mike Elko, who is now the head coach at Duke. FOOTBALL IN THE MINOR LEAGUES Oregon: Oregon went a surprising route by taking Dan Lanning, who has no west coast experience and has never been a head coach. He has offered the offensive coordinator job to Kenny Dillingham, the Florida State offensive coordinator. Oklahoma: Brent Venables has added former Troy defensive coordinator Brandon Hall to his defensive staff. Hall was a graduate assistant for Venables early in his coaching career ... The OU defensive coordinator will be Ted Roof, who has been the defensive coordinator at 10 difference schools previously including Duke, Minnesota, Auburn, UCF, Pen State, Georgia Tech and Appalachian State. BYU: Kilani Sitake signed a contract extension that will keep him at BYU through the 2027 season. Ohio State: At $1.9 million per year, new defensive coordinator Jim Knowles is now the highest paid assistant coach in Ohio State history. Texas: Quinn Ewers, who got a million dollars from NIL but wasted a year at Ohio State, is transferring to Texas. He took two snaps and handed the ball off both times at OSU. Florida State: Randy Shannon has been named co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach after spending the 2021 season in an off-the-field role at FSU. Penn State: Quarterback Sean Clifford will use the COVID year exception and return for a sixth season in 2022. Clemson: Don’t be surprised if Dabo Swinney brings back Chad Morris as his OC. Clemson went 42-11 with Morris calling the plays from 2011-14. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Florida State and the academic scandal that spanned several sports, but especially football. North Carolina and the academic scandal that spanned several sports, but especially basketball. The college basketball scandal in which 11 schools were caught red-handed by the FBI in the buying and selling of players market. What do they have in common? They are living proof that the mess we have in collegiate athletics is largely because other than the federal government, there is no more ineffective organization in the entire United States than the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Florida State got caught with a cheating scandal that spanned 10 sports and involved 61 athletes in 2007. Track and field got hit the hardest with two NCAA championships vacated, but football, which had the most athletes involved, got a slap on the wrist although 14 of Bobby Bowden’s wins were vacated. It could have been and should have been worse. North Carolina’s cheating scandal dated back 18 years and involved bogus classes attended by players who won three NCAA basketball championships (1993, 2005, 2009). UNC challenged the NCAA and basically won. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, concluded that the academics were troubling but didn’t merit penalties. Well, women’s basketball and women’s soccer got hit, but not men’s basketball. This should have been nuclear winter but it wasn’t. And now we have the college basketball cheating scandal that dates back six years ago. Auburn got a big slap on the wrist over the weekend. LSU, whose coach Will Wade is caught on wiretap bragging about buying players, is going through an independent trial process. If it’s anything like the NCAA delivered to Auburn, it will result in a slap on the wrist again as will the cases against Louisville, Arizona, North Carolina State and Kansas. How can it be when there is wiretap evidence that the NCAA can’t drop the hammer on people? How is it that Mark Emmert has a job? More important, why haven’t the Division I football schools seceded from the NCAA to form their own organization with their own rules? It’s about time.

“Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology. We have the capability to build the world's first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man.” – Oscar Goldman from “The Six Million Dollar Man” television series that was based on the novel “Cyborg,” written by former Gainesville resident Martin Caidin Scott Stricklin must have felt like Oscar Goldman when he surveyed a Florida football program that crashed and burned during the 2021 season. A once great program that from 1990-2009 won three national championships, eight SEC championships and went 202-52-1 did a belly landing in 2021, forcing Stricklin to fire Dan Mullen, the coach who just a year earlier seemed to have the Gators within an eyelash of the College Football Playoff. Mullen was the third Florida football coach since 2011 and all three were chewed up and spit out by expectations that are considered outlandish at most Division I schools, but then again, most Division I schools never had a 12-year run like the one Steve Spurrier had from 1990-2001 (122-27-1, six SEC titles, one national title) or the 6-year run of Urban Meyer (65-15, two SEC titles, two national titles). When you’ve had that kind of success, an 11-year run of 87-51 (35-15 under Mullen) with nine bowl games just doesn’t cut it. Mullen went to three consecutive New Year’s Six bowl games, but during the third year, the engines started sputtering, leading to a 6-6 flameout in 2021. Stricklin knows and understands the expectations all too well. He came to Florida from Mississippi State, which has never sniffed a national championship in football and only last spring (baseball) came home with the first NCAA title in any sport. At Florida, any year without at least one national title in some sport is considered borderline disastrous. It had to pain him to see Mullen, who he brought to Gainesville from Mississippi State, fall so short of the higher expectations, particularly when it seemed the Gators were going onward and upward until The Great Shoe Toss Incident of 2020. Mullen was 29-6 when Marco Wilson tossed the shoe that set up LSU’s Cade York for a game-winning 57-yard field goal in a fog-shrouded Swamp last December. Up until that point, the Gators seemed to have one foot in the College Football Playoff door. The door slammed shut on Florida a week later in the SEC Championship Game. Not even Mullen’s next generation offense quarterbacked by Kyle Trask throwing laser-guided passes to The Unicorn (Kyle Pitts) and The Rubber Band Man (Kadarius Toney) could save the Gators from a second straight loss and when Pitts and Toney (and others) opted out of the Cotton Bowl, UF was in for an epic beatdown at the hands of Oklahoma. The shoe toss just like the silly penalties that cost the Gators a 6-point loss to Alabama was only a symptom of deeper issues within the Florida program that continued to manifest themselves during the 2021 season. Mullen went from 29-6 in his first 35 games on the Florida job to 6-9 in his last 15, but Stricklin pointed out at the press conference when he announced Mullen was gone that wins and losses were only part of the problem. This was like Oscar Goldman surveying the wreckage of Steve Austin’s NASA test plane and making the decision to rebuild only this rebuild will cost more than $6 million. This rebuild is going to cost $51.8 million over a seven-year period to fix, in other words $7.4 million per year. Do understand that “Cyborg” was written in 1972 so we do have to account for inflation. And we have to take a bit of Hollywood-style license with the script since it isn’t a man that needs to be rebuilt, but a football program. Billy Napier – Florida’s $7.4 Million Man – is in charge of turning the Florida Gators into the bionic football program that can slug it out with Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher and all the other mere mortal coaches who make the Southeastern Conference the toughest football league in the country. This will not be an easy job for a variety of reasons but let’s start with the single most important factor in the rebuild – the approximately 65-70 scholarship players that Billy Napier inherits. None of these guys were recruited by Napier, nor were they recruited to play in a system even remotely close to the one that Napier brings to Florida from his 4-year stint as the head football coach at Louisiana. Some of the inherited players will adapt to the new system easily while others will feel like square pegs trying to fit into a round hole so they’ll be looking for new places to call home. That’s almost expected. Already five Gators have put their names in the NCAA transfer portal and we don’t know if Napier will take an open door approach to welcome them back if they have a change of mind or if he’ll move on quickly to who and what is next. Given Napier’s pedigree as a coach, having grown up in the profession under the watchful eyes of Dabo Swinney and Nick Saban, smart money is that he’s one of those don’t let the screen door hit you on your way out types. At his initial press conference, Napier made it abundantly clear that he wants players who want to be Gators. That goes for the ones who are already on the roster and it goes for recruits. He is a no-nonsense type who isn’t going to tolerate a lot of drama. “Our mission here is to make life-changing impact on the players, for them to experience success in life as a result of time in our program,” Napier said on Sunday. “As people first and foremost, we’re going to be values-based here. Our players are going to understand commitment. They’re going to understand self-discipline. They’re going to understand sacrifice, resiliency.” That doesn’t sound like a coach who will tolerate players who think they can write their own ticket. The players on Florida’s roster will have a chance to audition for Napier and any assistants that have been hired on the field in the week leading up to Florida’s December 23 Gasparilla Bowl game in Tampa. Since the early signing day is December 15, Napier and his coaches will be able to watch football practice and evaluate for (a) who wants to be here, (b) who needs to be looking elsewhere and (c) what positions need to be addressed on the recruiting trail. Napier has already done several in-home visits and he’ll be at it through Sunday. Then comes the early signing day on December 15, a day that might not yield a large number of future Gators who have signed their letter-of-intent. The most important recruiting Napier does in December will be to fill out his staff of assistant coaches and bring in what he describes as “an army” of recruiting analysts and specialists. Stricklin is not only paying Napier $7.4 million but he’s opened up his checkbook to increase the salary pool for assistants and double or triple the money for infrastructure positions. Through Thursday, Napier had announced the hire of three assistants. Running backs coach Jabbar Juluke and co-defensive coordinator/safeties coach Patrick Toney were hired from Louisiana and they have been out recruiting. Wednesday, Napier pulled off a stunning coup by bringing in LSU recruiting coordinator/secondary coach Corey Raymond, long considered the best secondary coach in the country and author of recruiting classes that have finished fourth and third nationally in the last two cycles. It is being leaked out that Jacksonville Jaguars defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi, who made a name for himself as the nation’s top recruiter when he worked for Nick Saban at Alabama, will be joining the Florida staff once the NFL season is over. Ja’Juan Seider, a Belle Glade native who was on Jim McElwain’s Florida staff in 2017, is expected to be joining Napier from Penn State. Once he has a full staff working together, recruiting can take place in earnest. As we’ve seen in transition classes from former Florida coaches Ron Zook, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain and Dan Mullen far too many snap judgments were made resulting in very few contributors. With each of these coaches, the second class – the first full recruiting class – was a vast improvement. Napier said that taking over at Florida and expecting a great recruiting class by December 15 is like “getting into the game and there’s three minutes left in the fourth quarter.” He is on record saying that he wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Gators sign only a few on December 15. Based on the rash of de-commitments from kids who were recruited by Dan Mullen, there may be only a handful who remain in place but that’s okay with Napier because he doesn’t have to rely strictly on high school kids. On paper it seems like an entire recruiting class is about to be lost, but Napier knows the high schools aren’t the only place to find players. Napier got the Louisiana program off the ground by taking advantage of the exceptional relationships he had with the junior college coaches and kids so that’s an option. And then there is the transfer portal. It is thought by some industry analysts that the portal will max out somewhere between 1,500 and 2,000 players and no doubt a good many of them will let it be known they would gladly consider an offer from the University of Florida but not all of them can play at this level. Working the transfer portal has to be done systematically to bring in players who have the potential to provide immediate help. Napier’s old friend Mel Tucker, who served with him on the Alabama staff, used the portal to bring in 21 players who helped transform the Spartans from a losing team to one that will be in a New Year’s Six bowl. So, strengthening the roster can be done even if it’s not the traditional way with 25 high school recruits. “We’re going to evaluate the situation a little bit this week and over the next 10 days or so, but you can expect us to be very conservative, very patient, trying to position ourselves for post-signing day to evaluate all the players that are left over, all the players in the transfer portal,” Napier said. “And then when we do have our entire staff and organization put together, position ourselves for some really strong weekends in January, and then try to close strong in February.” It took awhile for Oscar Goldman to figure out all that the rebuilt Steve Austin could do with his bionic parts, but the rebuilt Steve Austin was even better than the one who crashed his NASA experimental plane. It was worth every dime of the $6 million it took for the rebuild. Scott Stricklin is betting that his $7.4 million man will be able to rebuild the Florida football program better than it has been in years. What attracted him to Billy Napier in the first place was the way he systematically broke every phase of the football program down into functioning parts, each part relying on the other so that when everything was in place, it was like a well-oiled machine. The Gators need a well-oiled machine, but the Gator Nation has to understand first and foremost that it isn’t going to happen overnight. Based on what he has done in the past, no one should be the slightest bit surprised if Napier has success sooner and not later, but it will require patience for the $7.4 million man to do it right. He won’t cut corners, but no one will outwork him either. Given all that he has at his disposal, Billy Napier has the tools to turn the Florida Gators into the bionic football program capable of restoring Florida to football glory. When Oscar Goldman ordered the rebuild of Steve Austin, he knew the technology was there to make Austin even better than before. When Scott Stricklin ordered the rebuild of the Florida football program, he was willing to bring in a $7.4 million man to make it better than before. Now for the hard part, putting in the work and effort to make it succeed.

With the hire of offensive line assistant Darnell Stapleton, Billy Napier’s coaching staff at the University of Florida is taking shape. Currently, Napier has four coaches hired, two on each side of the ball. Nearly all of them have some link to Napier, whether it was during collegiate days at Furman, on the staff at Clemson or Alabama or with him at Louisiana or through another coach. Stapleton is part of a two-coach approach to the offensive line. He played for Greg Schiano at Rutgers where he was a finalist for the Rimington Trophy in 2006. He played three years for the Pittsburgh Steelers, starting 15 games at right guard including the Super Bowl win over the Arizona Cardinals. He coached at Bucknell and Sam Houston State before spending the last two years at Louisiana where the O-line produced All-American Max Mitchell, a left tackle who will be playing in the Senior Bowl. This is all speculation but the two names that are heard the most for the top offensive line assistant coaching job are Brent Key and Rob Sale. Key is currently the offensive line coach at Georgia Tech, his alma mater. He was the O-line coach at UCF for George O’Leary from 2008-2015. He worked for Nick Saban at Alabama from 2016-18. He was on the Bama staff with Napier in 2016. Sale played collegiately at LSU for Nick Saban, where he was a three-year starter at both guard positions and at center. He worked for Saban on the strength staff and as an analyst at Alabama from 2007-11) and was the O-line coach for Mark Richt at Georgia in 2015. Sale and Napier worked together at Arizona State in 2017 (Napier OC, Sale OL). When Napier took the Louisiana job Sale came with him and was the offensive coordinator and O-line coach. Currently, he’s the O-line coach of the New York Giants. The name that is being heard for tight ends coach is Ja’Juan Seider, who coached running backs for Jim McElwain at Florida in 2017. Napier was McElwain’s wide receivers coach in 2012 so that is the connection. Currently Seider is the running backs coach at Penn State. He’s from Belle Glade and played collegiately at West Virginia before transferring to Florida A&M where he played quarterback his senior year. He worked for former UF safeties coach and recruiter extraordinaire Doc Holliday at Marshall and spent four years coaching running backs at West Virginia. Seider is a super recruiter and a connection to The Muck – Belle Glade, Pahokee and Clewiston – and Palm Beach County which is loaded with talent. Plenty of speculation is swirling about Desmond Kitchings, currently the running backs coach of the Atlanta Falcons. He was a college teammate of Napier’s at Furman where he was an All-America wide receiver and kick returner. After a brief NFL career, he coached for Bobby Johnson (collegiate coach for Napier and Kitchings) at Forman and Vanderbilt. He coached for Troy Calhoun at Air Force and spent eight years working at North Carolina State where he was Dave Doeren’s offensive coordinator in 2019 and one year working for Will Muschamp at South Carolina. If he were to join the Florida staff it’s likely he would coach wide receivers and be the special teams coordinator. The secondary positions are set now that Corey Raymond has been hired from LSU to coach the corners with co-defensive coordinator Patrick Toney coaching the safeties. Raymond is almost legendary for his development of defensive backs at LSU which earned the nickname DBU during his time there working for Les Miles and Ed Orgeron. Toney got his start working for Ron Roberts, the former head coach at Southeastern Louisiana whose “creeper” defense is being copied nationwide to handle spread offenses with lots of RPO. Roberts worked as Napier’s defensive coordinator in 2018-19 and is now the DC for Dave Aranda at Baylor. Toney is considered a rising star in the coaching profession. We keep hearing two names for the defensive line coach – Karl Dunbar and Chris Rumph. Dunbar played at LSU and worked for Saban there in 2000-01. He has an extensive pro background, but spent 2016-17 on the Alabama staff where he was a colleague of Napier. He’s been coaching the D-line of the Pittsburgh Steelers the last four years. Rumph is connected to Napier on the staff at Clemson and Alabama. He was Florida’s D-line coach under Jim McElwain in 2015-16 and the co-defensive coordinator for the Gators in 2017. He was the co-DC at Tennessee from 2018-19 and has spent the last two years in the NFL, currently with the Chicago Bears where he is the D-line coach. Perhaps the worst kept secret – at least if you believe all the noise in the Twitterverse and from a few who have their finger on the pulse of what Napier is putting together at UF – is that Tosh Lupoi will be leaving Urban Meyer’s staff with the Jacksonville Jaguars once the NFL season is concluded to come join old buddy Napier (they were on the Alabama staff together from 2014-16) as the co-offensive coordinator at outside linebackers coach. Lupoi was Rivals’ national recruiter of the year in 2010 when he was at California and was Alabama’s top recruiter for four years (2015-18) when he was instrumental in landing Tua Tagovailoa and Devonta Smith among others. The inside linebackers coach is pure speculation but it does make sense – Kevin Steele. He’s been a head coach (at Baylor) and the interim head coach at Auburn when Gus Malzah was fired. He’s 63 years old and knows the Southeastern Conference like nobody else. He played for Johnny Majors at Tennessee and has coached in the SEC at Tennessee, Alabama, Auburn and LSU. Additionally, he spent four years as the linebackers coach and assistant head coach for Bobby Bowden at FSU. He was the defensive coordinator at Clemson when Napier was the offensive coordinator and was the personnel director for Nick Saban in 2013 and his linebackers coach in 2014 when Napier was on the staff coaching wide receivers. WHAT THE STAFF COULD LOOK LIKE OFFENSE (Bold face already on staff; non-bold speculative) QB: Billy Napier RB: Jabbar Juluke TE: Ja’Juan Seider (Currently RB Penn State) WR/STC: Desmond Kitchings (Currently RB Atlanta Falcons) OL: Brent Key (Currently OL Georgia Tech) or Rob Sale (Currently OL New York Giants) OL: Darnell Stapleton DEFENSE DL: Chris Rumph (Currently DL Chicago Bears) or Karl Dunbar (currently DL Pittsburgh Steelers) OLB/CO-DC: Tosh Lupoi (Currently DL Jacksonville Jaguars) ILB: Kevin Steele (former DC Auburn) CB: Corey Raymond S/CO-OC: Patrick Toney

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: COPELAND IN THE TRANSFER PORTAL I wish I could sound terribly disappointed by Jacob Copeland’s choice to put his name in the NCAA transfer portal, but I’m not. Just like I’m not all that terribly concerned that Khris Bogle, Gerald Mincey, Lloyd Summerall III and Dante Zanders have put their names in the portal. While I think some of them may reconsider once they’ve had a chance to sit down and talk things over with Billy Napier and the new position coaches he’s bringing in, it’s not necessary that they return. In this respect, I’m completely on board with Billy Napier. I want players who want to be Gators. I’m not all that certain the every single player on the 2021 roster was 100 percent committed to being a Gator. I’ve heard stories. We’ve all heard stories. Since I was not in the locker room regularly or at practice every single day, I can’t be sure if even one of these stories is true but I can judge what I saw on the playing field. I saw players who didn’t go hard every play and, in some cases, went through the motions. Guys who do that aren’t committed to anything or anyone but themselves. If they aren’t committed to their teammates, then they really aren’t all that interested in being Gators so good riddance if they go. I’d rather have a roster of former 3-stars who are willing to give everything they have to being the best Gators they can be than some who came here with all the high school accolades who have never shown me that they are 100 percent committed. I’ve seen Jacob Copeland’s talent. When he’s motivated he can be very, very good. I’ve also seen Jacob Copeland drop way too many passes, whiff on far too many blocks and run lazy routes that get absolutely zero separation. If he wants to come back to Florida fully dedicated to maxing out his potential, then I’m all for Copeland coming back if returning is what he wants to do but I’m not so certain he wants to. If he doesn’t wish to come back committed to Florida, then I wish him well at his new landing spot and hope that whoever his coach is can do what no Florida coach could ever do, which is to motivate him. Jamar Chaney to UF as an analyst: Jamar Chaney, who played linebacker for Dan Mullen at Mississippi State and worked for Mullen in the personnel department at Florida in 2019, is returning to UF as an analyst for Billy Napier. Chaney has spent the last two years as an analyst on Mike Leach’s Mississippi State staff. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: As a prelude to Saturday night’s Heisman Trophy ceremony, Bryce Young won the Maxwell Award and the Davey O’Brien Award. Linebacker Will Anderson won the Bronko Nagurski Award. Anderson finished fifth in the Heisman Trophy voting ... Anderson and offensive tackle Evan Neal were named to the Walter Camp All-America first team. Wide receiver Jameson Williams and Young were named to the second team ... Starting corner Josh Jobe has had surgery on his foot and will miss the College Football Playoff. Arkansas: Running back Josh Oglesby is transferring to Stephen F. Austin, which will be leaving D1AA for Conference USA. Auburn: Zak Hill, who was thought to be a leading candidate for the vacant offensive coordinator job, has decided to remain at Arizona State ... Starting center Nick Brahms has had a knee procedure that will keep him out of Auburn’s Birmingham Bowl game with No. 20 Houston on December 28. Georgia: Defensive tackle Jordan Davis won the Outland and Bednarik Awards. Davis finished ninth in the Heisman Trophy voting. Linebacker Nakobe Dean won the Butkus Award ... Davis and Dean were named to the Walter Camp All-America first team while offensive tackle Jamaree Salyer was named to the second team. Kentucky: Offensive lineman Darian Kinnard was named to the Walter Camp All-America first team … Defensive end Isaiah Gibson, a redshirt freshman, has entered the transfer portal. He’s the sixth player to announce his intentions to transfer out. LSU: Running backs coach Kevin Faulk, one of the all-time great players in LSU history, will not be retained by Brian Kelly … Nebraska sent its entire coaching staff to Baton Rouge to entice quarterback Myles Brennan into a transfer commitment ... Linebacker Damone Clark was named to the Walter Camp All-America second team … LSU will be paying Frank Wilson $900,000 a year. He has a three-year deal ... Wide receiver Deion Smith, who caught two touchdown passes in six games, is in the transfer portal as is defensive end Landon Jackson. Mississippi State: Redshirt junior linebacker Aaron Brule is transferring to Michigan State. Brule had 142 tackles and eight sacks in his MSU career. Missouri: Running back Tyler Badie was named to the Walter Camp All-America second team … Defensive back Akalyeb Evans, who transferred to Mizzou from Tulsa in 2021, has declared for the NFL. He had 28 tackles and six pass deflections for Mizzou in 2021. Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin’s new contract starts at $7.25 million per year and escalates by $100,000 a year. There is also a $150,000 bonus for each SEC win above five each year … QB Matt Corral finished seventh in the Heisman Trophy voting ... Defensive end Sam Williams was named to the Walter Camp All-America second team. South Carolina: Defensive back Jaylan Foster was named to the Walter Camp All-America second team … If South Carolina wins its Duke’s Mayo Bowl game against North Carolina, one of its players could get a $5,000 NIL endorsement deal as the “Duke’s Mayo Bowl Ambassador.” Tennessee: Former Tennessee defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox, now the head coach at California, has interviewed for the Oregon HBC job. Texas A&M: Defensive tackle DeMarvin Leal was named to the Walter Camp All-America second team … Former Aggie HBC Kevin Sumlin has been contacted about becoming the head coach at HBCU Prairie View A&M. Prairie View’s former head coach submitted his resignation and is expected to become the new HBC at Southern University in Baton Rouge. FOOTBALL IN THE MINOR LEAGUES Miami: Billionaire John Ruiz has indicated an interest in building a new stadium for the Hurricanes either on campus or nearby. Hard Rock Stadium, where the Hurricanes play their home games, is a 45-minute drive from the Coral Gables campus. Oregon: Chip Kelly is very much the favorite to return to Oregon as the head coach. He has a $9 million buyout to leave UCLA, but since Miami had to pay a $9 million buyout to Oregon to hire Mario Cristobal, it’s not going to be difficult for Kelly to leave UCLA if returning to Oregon is what he wants to do. Virginia: Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott has a contract offer and until noon today to decide if he wants to be Virginia’s HBC. Meanwhile, Virginia has also interviewed Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. Florida State: Randy Shannon, the former Miami head coach and UF interim head coach/defensive coordinator, is being promoted from analyst to an on-the-field role as a defensive assistant … Louisville athletic director Vince Tyra turned down an offer to become the AD at FSU so FSU turned to former Central Michigan AD Michael Alford, who has been the head of Seminole Boosters the last couple of years. Clemson: Associate AD Graham Neff has been elevated to the AD job now that Dan Radakovich has taken the job at Miami. Nevada: Oregon inside linebackers coach Ken Wilson is expected to be named the new head coach at Nevada to replace Jay Norvell, who left earlier in the week to become the new HBC at Colorado State. Oklahoma: Former Florida strength and conditioning coach Jerry Schmidt has departed Texas A&M to take over the strength and conditioning position for Brent Venables at Oklahoma. Texas Tech: Former Oregon defensive coordinator Tim DeRuyter is the new defensive coordinator at Texas Tech. Also joining the Texas Tech staff is former Texas A&M and Boise State defensive coordinator Marcel Yates. NCAA: The fake slide by Pitt QB Kenny Pickett that broke up the ACC Championship Game with Wake Forest, has been outlawed by the NCAA. That sure makes Wake Forest feel better, I’m sure. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The holdup for an expanded College Football Playoff is being caused by a pair of rookie commissioners. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips wants an 8-team playoff with all five power conference champions guaranteed to get in. Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff is playing the part of wishy-washy, claiming he’ll support an 8-team or 12-team model. That’s decisiveness for you! Meanwhile the other eight conference commissioners and Notre Dame favor a 12-team model although there is some variance such as a guarantee the five power conference champs will get in or the working group proposal from the summer of the top six conference champs plus six at large. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby and Notre Dame are completely against an 8-team model. The Pac-12 and ACC commissioners think the SEC and Notre Dame are propping up Bowlsby with the promise to keep the Big 12 as a power conference in exchange for letting Texas and Oklahoma out of their Big 12 obligations so they can join the SEC. It is entirely possible that ESPN will negotiate a deal with the expanded Big 12 and perhaps throw in some incentive cash to pay buyouts to the American Athletic Conference in exchange for cutting ties with Texas and Oklahoma. What seems to go right over the top of the heads of Phillips and Kliavkoff no matter how the playoff expands, the Southeastern Conference will be the richest conference in the country. The new contract with ESPN that kicks in after the 2023 football season guarantees that the SEC will have more revenue than any other conference. When Texas and Oklahoma join the league it could mean another $15-17 million per year to each SEC school. So, from $63 million a year to $80 million a year is possible. Meanwhile the ACC and Pac-12 are bottom feeders. The ACC is locked into a contract (currently less than $33 million) that ESPN won’t re-negotiate until 2036 and the Pac-12 won’t have a media rights contract (currently a bit more than $33 million) after 2024 and none of the networks are in a hurry to negotiate a new deal, not even with Lincoln Riley as the head coach at Southern California. Even Kliavkoff says his league is “stuck” with its current media rights deal. At some point, you would think that Phillips and Kliavkoff, and to a lesser extent Big Ten commish Kevin Warren, would cave in favor of getting a new playoff deal on the table since it could mean as much as $80-100 million a year to their leagues. But, that would make sense and if there is one thing we’re learning about these three commissioners, if it makes sense the probably won’t understand it.

Who decides when an injured player can return to action? "Situations like this arise fairly frequently in real time. The question is: how do they get resolved?" -- Former Florida Team Physician Pete Indelicato. By Peter A. Indelicato MD Emeritus Head Team Physician University of Florida Gators The titled question is, out of necessity, being asked more and more frequently with regards to the medical care “chain of command” concerning the health care of student athletes at the University of Florida. A simple example may help explain the situation at hand. Player “X” sustains an injury to his/her knee during practice a few weeks prior to the start of the season. The athletic trainer and team physician decide that the injury is significant enough to warrant an MRI. The results, a few days later, reveals a torn meniscus that, given today’s advances in sports medicine could either be sutured together or partially removed. If sutured and allowed to heal, the long-term benefit would most likely be lowering of the likelihood to develop arthritis in that knee in the future. However, if sutured, the player will probably miss the entire season in order to allow required protection and rehabilitation of the repair. If removed, on the other hand, the athlete probably could return to competition within a few weeks, thus not missing a significant period of play. Obviously, this can present as a dilemma for both the athlete, parents, teammates and coaches. They may feel that he/she should have the damaged meniscus removed (rather than repaired) thus, allowing him/her a opportunity to return to competition relatively soon. On the other hand, the sports medicine Health Care Team may recommend an attempt to repair the damage thus, once healed, would very likely decrease the likelihood of further knee problems in later life. And there lies the dilemma that athletes, athletic trainers, team physicians, parents, coaches and administrators face on a regular basis. Situations like this arise fairly frequently in real time. The question is: how do they get resolved? The correct answer is based on two accepted points: (1) That the ultimate primary purpose of the designated Sports Medicine Health Care Team (Team Physician, athletic trainers, strength and conditioning coaches, physical therapist, nutritionist, sports psychologist) is both the short- and long-term health care of the student athlete. The University Athletic Association not only needs to recognize this but also empower and support its Health Care Team to be successful in accomplishing this singular goal. In addition, it needs to be recognized by everyone involved (including coaches) that the unquestionable leader of that team is the Head Team Physician. (2) That the player (like any patient) always maintains a certain level of autonomy in the decision-making process: namely, that he/she needs to participate actively in that process (ie, it is a shared and informed decision-making process…shared between the athlete, team physician and any other qualified health care professional). "I have never been challenged by any coach and/or administrator' -- Dr. Pete Indelicato (Photo courtesy Pete Indelicato) Patient autonomy is one of the basic tenets of medical ethics. Athletes face some unique challenges when making informed decisions regarding medical treatment when it involves return to play issues. They routinely must tackle external pressures from coaches, teammates as well as internal drives and individual goals that they set for themselves which may influence their treatment decisions. At the University of Florida I can personally attest to the fact that, over my 35-year tenure as Head Team Physician, I have never been challenged by any coach and/or administrator as to what I thought was the best option for treating and injured athlete. I have been blessed with coaches and administrators that shared the unchallengeable goal of providing excellent health care advice and management to all of our student athletes. This has not always been the situation at other NCAA institutions as evidence by the fact that a few years ago, the NCAA stated that every member institution had to adopt a clear administrative statement that coaches were to have no influence on medical decisions made by the institutions Sports Health Care Team. To be perfectly frank, the media further complicate matters. Media coverage introduces another distinctive aspect in the decision making in sports medicine because the physicians care comes under an added level of scrutiny that can have either a positive or negative influence on the physician’s practice and, consequently, his or her career. Today, public perception of the athlete’s outcome may influence the public’s perception of the physician’s competence. This was never a problem years ago. Stated briefly, the Head Team Physician at the University of Florida, should be and is, the head to the chain of command when it comes to the safety and health of all the student athletes. He/she continues to have the full support of the administration and my personal experience with all the coaches that I have had the privilege to work with over my tenure have been nothing but supportive of our overriding goal of quality health care of the student athlete for both the short and long term.

“The news that Napier and Florida had just hired one of CFB’s best defensive minds, ace recruiter Corey Raymond from LSU, broke the sound barriers Wednesday like a shot heard around the SEC World.” The faster I go, the behinder I get. Like Dickens wrote, “The best of times, the worst of times.” Technology is my friend, technology is my curse. I spend a minimum of 30 minutes per day updating programs for my computer or TV, or having to assure somebody at Google that I am who I say am, or agreeing to a new set of terms (again), or wondering why in the hell I can’t get ESPN-Plus when I’ve signed up for it three times? And by the way, why can’t I also get Netflix or Amazon Prime anymore when I’m paying for it? Exhausting! I won’t even go into crapshoot of doing a live sports streaming sports show four nights a week and what happens to all the changing of all protocols because the provider insists I “update” the software, which means I just lost my audio. I can’t keep this up! Thank goodness for a refreshing respite from the frenzied pace, courtesy of Billy Napier. All of which is to say is, I totally get Napier’s preference of deliberate pace, which is why I picked out the adage “MEASURE TWICE, CUT ONCE” to describe his demeanor in my first blog about him. In the parable of the tortoise and the hare, Napier ain't no rabbit. Napier emphasized that deliberate style in Florida's introductory presser, saying while he intended to deploy “an army” of aides in his quest to build UF football into an SEC powerhouse, but in the fullness of his time. He warned he might not have many – if any – new commits for his current recruiting class. When the number in the 2021 class dropped to six this week, total Twitter hysteria broke out among Gator recruitniks. Included in the decommits was the highly rated quarterback prospect Nick Evers. Surely the world was coming to an end! Adding to the Twitter frenzy was the angst over Jacob Copeland, Jeremy Mincey and Kris Bogle entering their names in the transfer portal (although there are reports at least two of them may yet play in the Gasparilla Bowl.) Patience Grasshopper! Slowly, the Billy Napier train is beginning to pull out of the station. Photos of him in living rooms with top players all across the South emerged on social media. One of them was a five-star QB from Louisiana who was previously headed to Louisiana Lafayette. Hmmmm. “He’s done more recruiting in four days than Dan Mullen did in four years,” chirped one Twitter-er. This message of assurance was a call-out to downtrodden Gators to come in out of the cold and rain -- and not to jump off the ledge. Help is on the way, and a good portions already in place. For those who did not hear Napier’s repeated reference about his intended cautious approach, listen up: He knew some people wouldn’t understand the importance of trusting his own personal evaluation over the stars-system of recruiting services; his preference for relationship-building over one-night-stands in living rooms. Then, BOOM! The news that Napier and Florida had just hired one of CFB’s best defensive minds, ace recruiter Corey Raymond, as the new assistant head coach/recruiting whiz broke the sound barriers Wednesday like a shot heard around the SEC World. Full disclosure: I don’t cover other SEC programs or follow their coaching staffs, so I don’t know Corey Raymond -- recruiting not being an area of my expertise. But Raymond is already a big rising star among coaches, currently making 600G or more, known as “The Godfather of DBU.” Even I know that much. Unlike a certain coach who tried to act like he just walked off the set of Gone With The Wind after a personal conversation with the dialect coach for Clark Gable, I’m not going to fake it. But I’m not immune to reading and listening to my friends’ reaction to the news about Raymond’s impact on LSU and why he might be a home run for Florida football. This is a huge upgrade for the man in Gainesville, who’s busily measuring and soon to be cutting more. He also just dropped a bomb. An example of the shock waves coming out of The Bayou was this You Tube report from After Further Review host Matt Moscona of ESPN Radio in Baton Rouge/New Orleans: Why Corey Raymond to Florida is a GIGANTIC loss for LSU So was Brian Kelly telling the truth that he hadn’t yet “made any decisions”? It makes you wonder why Kelly, the newly self-appointed pseudo Rhett Butler of The Bayou, didn’t attempt to stop Raymond’s exit out of Baton Rouge. My sources say Kelly disrespected one of the best defensive coaches in CFB. Matt Moscona wrote: “The Godfather of DBU is headed to the enemy.” Moscona called Raymond’s loss to LSU “devastating” and the acquisition by SEC rivalry – or “enemy” -- a huge get. Who is Corey Raymond? The official UF statement read: “Raymond, who played six years in the NFL, spent the last 10 seasons at LSU where he coached defensive backs (2012-17) and cornerbacks (2018-21). Most recently, Raymond also served as the recruiting coordinator (2020-21) for the Tigers, in addition to his duties a cornerbacks coach. Raymond's secondary produced seven first team All-Americans during his time at LSU, including Eric Reid (2012), Jalen Mills (2015), Jamal Adams (2016), Tre'Davious White (2016), Greedy Williams (2018), Grant Delpit (2018 and 2019) and Derek Stingley Jr. (2019, 2020). Additionally, Delpit claimed the 2019 Jim Thorpe Award as the nation's top defensive back.” Some of my friends say losing Raymond already means two strikes on LSU’s new coach Kelly and that if this keeps up, we may soon be witnessing an exodus of Louisianans moving to Gainesville. If so, maybe someone should start a new Cajun subdivision on Archer Road. With the number of coaches coming from Lafayette already, I’m thinking it might also be time to start a new food store in Gainesville specializing in Louisiana hot sauce, gumbo, boiled crawfish and jambalaya for the new Cajun colony’s 2022 tailgate parties. Meanwhile, it’s getting pretty interesting up in here. You can sense that “The Master Carpenter” is building something special. And only age 42, this could bode well for the future of Florida football. Scott Stricklin kept using the word “sustained” success. Now we can begin to understand what he was talking about. Might Napier become the longest-tenured coach since Steve Spurrier logged in 12 seasons? Finally, for those who might have wondered why Napier wasn’t breathing fire like a Southern Baptist preacher at his initial press conference, do not mistake this man for a low-energy, conservative play-caller who has no pulse. Anybody who has ever ventured out over their skis on a wager -- once or twice getting above your pay grade as a gambler -- you will completely understand the meaning of his un-intentionally adopted battle cry: “Scared Money Don’t Make Money.” Napier just placed a bet on Corey Raymond, who made a big dent in that $7.5M salary pool for assistant coaches ponied up by Stricklin. In case you didn’t know by now, they are serious about their commitment. Get ready to see the stars falling on Florida – just as they said in the song, “Stars Fell on Alabama.” I believe Stricklin and Napier just pushed all their chips to the middle of the table, without flinching.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: COREY RAYMOND IS A SIGN OF THINGS TO COME The best defensive backs coach in all of college football will be coaching the corners for Billy Napier and the Florida Gators in 2022. Corey Raymond, for ten years the coach who was synonymous with the phrase LSU/DBU is coming to Gainesville, a move that speaks volumes to the kind of coaching staff Napier is bringing together. Some coaching hires create a few ripples. This one is a tidal wave, not only because Raymond is unsurpassed for taking high school kids and transforming them into future NFL defensive backs, but because he is an absolute monster on the recruiting trail as well. Raymond was LSU’s recruiting coordinator the last two years when the Tigers brought in the fourth (2020) and third (2021) ranked classes in the nation. The timing is marvelous as it comes at a moment when the recruiting class assembled by the previous staff took a hit with the decommitment of a 4-star quarterback (Nick Evers) and two 4-star wide receivers (CJ Smith and Jaydon Gibson) all within the span of 36 hours. Hiring Raymond should send out a loud and clear message that Napier (a) knows what he’s doing and (b) is about to assemble a coaching staff capable of bringing in the best players in the country and developing them into the kind that can win championships. During his 10 years at LSU, Raymond produced seven first team All-America selections including Grant Delpit, who won the 2019 Thorpe Award. Fourteen of his players were taken in the NFL Draft including three first rounders and five second rounders. Raymond is not the kind of coach who would take a job at Florida if he weren’t certain that Napier is going to surround him with outstanding coaching talent and recruiters who will bring in highly regarded high school, jucos and transfers. There are rumors all over the place about who Napier will be adding to his staff, but the two names that are being heard most are current Jacksonville Jaguars defensive line coach Tosh Lupoi and Penn State running backs coach Ja’Juan Seider. Lupoi spent five years on the Alabama staff including three with Napier. He’s considered one of the best recruiters in the business. Seider is a Belle Glade native who was on Jim McElwain’s Florida staff in 2017. Napier, if you remember, worked for McElwain as the wide receivers coach in 2012 so there is a connection. Like Lupoi, he’s an outstanding recruiter. THE SCORE WAS IRRELEVANT, THE FLOOR BURNS WEREN’T FOR THE GATORS Mike White even said post game that the final score of Florida’s win over North Florida – 85-55 – wasn’t nearly as important as the number of floor burns he saw from the Gators (7-2) Wednesday night at the O-Dome. Just 48 hours after one of the least inspired UF basketball efforts of the past 30 years, the Gators came out with a high level of intensity that showed up in the number of floor burns. The Gators were diving to make steals or corral loose balls. They were moving their feet on defense instead of trying to reach for everything. Although outrebounded 39-36 by the visiting Ospreys, that had more to do with a lot of long rebounds because they were shooting jumpers instead of trying to get into the paint. Monday night the Gators lost by 15 points to previously winless Texas Southern, a game in which they showed very little energy and hustle. Wednesday night, they were determined to play to what White says is “our identity.” Penn State transfer Myreon Jones, who scored 14 points to go with four rebounds, one assist and two steals, said that Tuesday’s practice was all about regaining the defensive focus and intensity that were the Gators calling card in their first six games. “We just had to find our identity back, you know,” Jones said. “That’s what we focused on the most, finding our indentity and getting back to who we are. Just starting the game off with an indentity, that’s what got us this win.” This was a night when everyone from the starters to the guys coming off the bench got into the intensity act, especially at the defensive end. The Gators forced 28 North Florida turnovers that led to 33 points. The Gators were credited with 21 steals, the most in any game since White became Florida’s head coach and the most since a 1999 game with VMI. Monday night, Texas Southern shot better than 50 percent from the field overall and the 3-point line. The Gators held the Ospreys to 34 percent (18-53) from the field and just 23.8 percent (5-23) from the 3-point line. Colin Castleton, who had a career-high 26 points to go with eight rebounds, two assists, one blocked shot and two steals against North Florida, took the loss to Texas Southern personally. He didn’t get much sleep Monday night and by practice Tuesday, he stepped up as a leader. “I took it personal and put it to work,” he said. Wednesday’s team effort and intensity had everything to do with not just Castleton, but the entire team taking responsibility for the poor effort against Texas Southern. “You have to take accountability for what you do and how we play out there,” Castleton said. “Like I said after the loss, the coaches put us in the position to win a game, but we just didn’t execute it or play the way we were supposed to. We knew we had to get it done tonight and it’s just what we have to do every night to win games.” Tyree Appleby scored 13 points and led the defensive effort with three steals. The Gators had another bad shooting night from the 3-point line – just 5-23, which makes them 14-71 in their last three games. Unlike the last two games, however, the Gators did move the basketball and most of the 3-point attempts were good looks at the basket. Overall, the Gators hit 44.6 percent from the field (29-65). Additionally UF outscored the Ospreys 48-26 in the paint, scored 28 off fast breaks and there were 10 dunks. Next up for the Gators is a Sunday afternoon game with Maryland at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn in the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational. SEC BASKETBALL Wednesday’s game: No. 20 FLORIDA (7-2) 85, North Florida (2-9) 55 Friday’s game: Loyola Chicago (8-2) at Vanderbilt (5-3) Saturday’s games: Nebraska (5-5) at No. 18 Auburn (7-1); No. 12 Arkansas (9-0) at Oklahoma (7-2); Mississippi State (6-2) at Colorado State (9-0); Missouri (5-4) at No. 8 Kansas (7-1); UNC-Greensboro (7-2) at No. 13 Tennessee (6-2); No. 10 Kentucky (7-1) at Notre Dame (3-4); No. 25 LSU (8-0) at Georgia Tech (5-3); TCU (7-1) at Texas A&M (7-1); Western Kentucky (5-4) at Ole Miss (6-2); No. 14 Houston (8-1) at No. 9 Alabama (7-1) Sunday’s games: No. 20 Florida (7-2) vs. Maryland (5-4) at Brooklyn, NY; Florida State (5-3) vs. South Carolina (6-2) at Rock Hill, SC OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Alabama had four players named first team All-America by CBS Sports: QB Bryce Young, WR Jameson Williams, LT Evan Neal and LB Will Anderson. Named to the second team was S Jordan Battle. Arkansas: Wide receiver Treylon Burks (67-1,123, 11 TDs) is opting out of the Hogs’ Outback Bowl game with Penn State rather than risk an injury that could affect his NFL Draft status. Auburn: The three names that have emerged as Auburn’s next offensive coordinator are Florida State offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, Georgia running backs coach Dell McGee and Texas A&M wide receivers coach Dameyune Craig. Craig is a former Auburn quarterback. Georgia: Georgia’s “generational” defense landed only two players on the CBS Sports All-America team, DT Jordan Davis and LB Nakobe Dean. Freshman tight end Brock Bowers made first team on the offensive side of the ball. Kentucky: OL Darian Kinard was named first team CBS Sports All-America and defensive end Josh Paschal made second team. LSU: College football insider Brett McMurphy reports that LSU was prepared to offer Jimbo Fisher an 8-year deal worth $125 million to leave Texas A&M … New coach Brian Kelly, who signed a paltry 10 years and $95 million will retain offensive line coach Brad Davis, whose troops gave up 38 sacks and opened the holes for 109.4 rushing yards per game (3.22 per carry). Mississippi State: Mississippi State linebacker Rodney Groce Jr., who played in one game in 2021, is transferring to Arizona State … Liberty Bowl officials will allow Mississippi State fans to bring their cowbells for their game with Texas Tech. Missouri: Running back Tyler Batie made second team CBS Sports All-America … Wide receiver Ja’Mori Maclin, has transferred to North Texas. He suffered an ankle injury and had no stats in 2021 at Mizzou. Ole Miss: Former Ole Miss offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby, who will be paid $2 million per year as the OC at Oklahoma, sent his good-bye message to Ole Miss via Twitter ahead of taking the job at OU … Lane Kiffin is not leaving Ole Miss for Oregon although there were reports that Oregon benefactor Phil Knight wanted Kiffin to come to Eugene. South Carolina: Defensive backs Dominic Hill and Jahmar Brown have entered the NCAA transfer portal. Tennessee: Running back Tiyon Evans, who was the Vols’ leading rusher when he surprised everyone by entering the transfer portal with a couple games remaining, has committed to Louisville. Texas A&M: Defensive tackle De Marvin Leal made first team CBS Sports All-America and OT Kenyon Green made second team … Defensive back Keldrick Carper is retiring from football for medical reasons. He played in 50 games during his career at A&M, recording 126 tackles. FOOTBALL IN THE MINOR LEAGUES Miami: Dan Radakovich is leaving Clemson for Miami with a deal that will more than triple his $800,000 salary. It’s interesting that Miami will pony up $8 million a year for Mario Cristobal and nearly $3 million a year for Radakovich but won’t invest in a stadium. Florida State: Vince Tyra is about to leave Louisville to become the athletic director at FSU. Tyra was let out of his non-compete clause Wednesday per Football Scoop. Virginia: With Anthony Poindexter electing to stay at Penn State, Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott is expected to be named Virginia’s head coach. Florida International: Former San Jose State and Colorado head coach Mike MacIntyre is the leading candidate to replace Butch Davis at FIU. Houston: This is fairly unprecedented. Houston’s Marcus Jones made first team CBS All-America as an All-Purpose player and second team as a punt returner and cornerback. Fresno State: Jeff Tedford, who retired after the 2019 season for health reasons, apparently has regained his health. Fresno State hired him again Wednesday in a 5-year deal worth $8 million. Nebraska: Mark Whipple who was the offensive coordinator at Pitt where he coached up Heisman finalist Kenny Pickett, has been named the offensive coordinator at Nebraska. Troy: New head coach Jon Sumrall has retained former Gator Bam Hardmon as the outside linebackers coach. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Now that this latest rash of coach firings and hirings has alarmed the hierarchy in college football, the NCAA football oversight committee is talking about changing the early signing period. It’s about time someone paid attention to the consequences of a mid-December signing period, the biggest one being in-season firings that lead to hiring coaches sometimes within a day after the regular season ends to get a jump on salvaging a recruiting class. SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, who was never a proponent of a December signing period, told ESPN that the problems early signing could cause for coaching changes was “foreseeable” back in 2009 when a white paper discussed all the drawbacks. “There was something sensible about February [national signing day],” Sankey said. “You were through the hiring cycle … very rarely did you have any coaching changes after signing day. There was relevance to that.” I am convinced that there should be a December signing day for only kids who have qualified academically to early enroll, but everyone else should be required to sign in February. I would also like to see December declared a dead period except for coaches to call kids who are academically qualified and have been accepted for early enrollment.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: THINGS WILL GET WORSE BEFORE THEY GET BETTER With the Tuesday de-commitments of quarterback Nick Evers and wide receiver CJ Smith, Florida’s 2022 recruiting class is officially in free fall. With only a week remaining before the early signing date, it’s very difficult to imagine that Billy Napier is going to have much chance to salvage much of anything on the recruiting trail in the immediate future. Based on his remarks at his introductory press conference Sunday night, it’s also difficult to imagine that Napier expected anything less, particularly since he’s already dismissed the previous coaching staff and he only has two assistants working the recruits. “So, we’re going to evaluate the situation a little bit this week over the next 10 days or so, but you can expect us to be very conservative, very patient, trying to position ourselves for post-signing day to evaluate all the players that are left over, all the players in the transfer portal,” Napier said Sunday night. “And then when we do have our entire staff and organization put together, position ourselves for some really strong weekends in January, and then try to close strong in February. “But reality is you’re getting in the game and there’s like three minutes left in the fourth quarter and I think the last thing we need to do here is make some mistakes. So, we’ll probably – I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t sign many at all to be honest with you, but there may be a few out there that are willing to jump in here in the last minute.” Translation: We’re going to bring in players that fit what we want to do at the University of Florida. We’re not going take chances loading up in the early signing date with players recruited by the previous staff who may not be a good fit for what we want to do. Unless Napier is a pied piper who can get kids to de-commit and follow him to Florida, December 15 will be grim, but if you’ve followed Napier as a recruiter at Clemson and Alabama and then watched how he filled his Louisiana classes with kids who were right for his system, then you should also know this – it will get better. Just not immediately. UNF A MUST WIN? YOU BETCHA A couple of thoughts kept running through my head Monday night when I watched the Gators (6-2) sink like the Titanic against previously winless Texas Southern. My first thought was this was the basketball equivalent of the 2013 football loss to Georgia Southern. Georgia Southern was D1AA at the time. The Eagles beat the Gators, 26-20, at Florida Field without completing a pass. If they had such a thing as D1AA in college basketball, then Texas Southern would be D1AA. My second thought again was tied to Florida football. I often wondered how it is that the Gators could outplay Alabama for three quarters and lose by two points, then go down in flames by 23 points to South Carolina? Some things just don’t make sense. How could the Gators out-tough both Florida State and Ohio State for 40 full minutes only to spend 40 minutes of complete futility against a Texas Southern team that doesn’t have a single player on its roster that could even dress out for either FSU or the Buckeyes? Here are the numbers that just blow my mind: In the last two games, both losses (Oklahoma and Texas Southern), the Gators have hit 9-48 from the 3-point line and they have only 17 assists compared to 26 turnovers. Texas Southern doubled up the Gators in rebounds – 46-23. And then there are the things that don’t show up in the box score. Things like getting outhustled to just about every loose ball. Things like trying to grab rebounds with one hand instead of grabbing them with two to secure the ball. Getting physically shoved off the blocks and off the 3-point line. Reaching instead of moving feet defensively. I like Mike White personally. I thought he had put together the kind of team that had the defensive intensity to win basketball games even when the shots weren’t falling. Then I saw the Oklahoma game. Even worse, I then saw the Texas Southern game, a game in which his team was outplayed and he was completely outcoached. Now I have genuine concerns because we haven’t even gotten to the SEC portion of the schedule and folks, the SEC might be the best league top to bottom in the entire country this year. There are four teams in the league that have a legitimate chance to get to the final four – Alabama, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. It’s difficult to call tonight’s game at the O-Dome (7 p.m., SEC Network) with North Florida (2-8) a must win, but that’s exactly what it is. Not only is it a must win, it’s a game that the Gators have to stomp the basketball life out of the visiting Ospreys. This can’t be even remotely close. SEC BASKETBALL Tuesday’s scores: No. 10 Kentucky (7-1) 76, Southern (3-6) 64; No. 12 Arkansas (9-0) 86; Charlotte (4-4) 66; Texas Tech (7-1) 57, No. 13 Tennessee (6-2) 52; Georgia (4-5) 69, Jacksonville (4-3) 58; Temple (6-3) 72, Vanderbilt (5-3) 68 (OT); Missouri (5-4) 72, Eastern Illinois (2-8) 44 Wednesday’s games: North Florida (2-8) at No. 20 FLORIDA (6-2) AIDAN HUTCHINSON VS. WILL ANDERSON Michigan defensive end Aidan Hutchinson is a Heisman finalist. He is an exceptional player on a great team. In 2021 he had 14 sacks for -73 yards in losses, 15.5 tackles for loss (sacks included) for -75 yards, 55 tackles, three pass breakups, 12 QB hurries and two forced fumbles. No question those are fine stats. Alabama edge rusher Will Anderson leads the nation in sacks with 15.5 for -96 yards in losses which leads the nation. He has 31.5 tackles for loss for -134 yards which also leads the nation. He has 91 tackles, two pass breakups and nine QB hurries. Hutchinson is a fine player on a playoff team that won the Big Ten championship. Anderson is a fine player on the No. 1 seeded team in the playoffs that won the SEC championship. Stats don’t always tell the entire story, but when you’re talking about guys that come off the edge, stats are very telling. In the case of Aidan Hutchinson vs. Will Anderson, I’m still trying to figure out how Hutchinson has a chance to win the Heisman Trophy and Will Anderson doesn’t. I realize that Anderson plays on the same team as Bryce Young, who will probably win the Heisman, but two Alabama players were finalists last year. There should be two this year as well. NOTABLE QUARTERBACKS IN THE TRANSFER PORTAL Dillon Gabriel, UCF: He’s considered a mortal lock to transfer to Ole Miss, but what if Jeff Lebby takes the offensive coordinator job at Oklahoma? Lebby was Gabriel’s OC/QB coach two years at UCF. He had already thrown for 818 yards and nine TDs when he went down with a broken collarbone in game three in 2021. He has thrown for 8,041 yards and 70 touchdowns. If Lebby and Lane Kiffin stay together at Ole Miss Gabriel could set records. Max Johnson, LSU: It only took him a week of the Brian Kelly era at LSU to go into the transfer portal. He’s a big arm lefty pocket passer who isn’t very mobile so he will need to find a drop back style offense to transfer into. He threw for 27 touchdowns in 2021 and for his career he has 3,883 yards and 35 TDs. He has three years of eligibility. Harrison Bailey, Tennessee: He’s big, strong, has a power arm and four years of eligibility due to the COVID year and playing in only one game in 2021. He was a 4-star recruit out of Marietta, Georgia. He had offers from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, LSU, Ohio State and Oklahoma. In seven collegiate games at Tennessee he threw for four touchdowns and 594 yards. Chubba Purdy, Florida State: The younger brother of Iowa State star QB Brock Purdy, he was a 4-star recruit out of high school in Arizona who just never really got a chance to play. He threw for 219 yards and two TDs in 2020 in three games behind a horrendous O-line. He was 5-5 in 2021 for 98 yards and two TDs. There is a lot of SEC interest but wouldn’t surprise anyone if he wound up in the Big 12 either at Iowa State or Kansas State. He has four years of eligibility remaining. Michael Penix, Indiana: Even though next year will be his fifth since he left high school in Tampa, he has two years of eligibility remaining due to the COVID year. Plenty of talent, but can he stay healthy? He’s had three straight seasons end because of injury. He’s thrown for 29 touchdowns and 4,197 yards. Jack Miller, Ohio State: He was a 4-star recruit out of high school but he had the misfortune of being in the same recruiting class with CJ Stroud and then the Buckeyes brought in 5-stars Kyle McCord and Quinn Ewers. He had offers from Alabama, Michigan, LSU, Florida State and Auburn among others out of high school. He has four years of eligibility remaining. Myles Brennan, LSU: After waiting three years for his chance in 2020, he suffered a season ending injury after 1,112 yards and 11 TDPs through 2-1/2 games. He missed all of 2021 with an upper arm injury. He has the big arm and he’s quite accurate, but can he stay healthy? Someone will take a chance, but unlikely in the SEC or a power conference. Adrian Martinez, Nebraska: Has any quarterback in recent memory led more stirring comebacks only to come up seven or fewer points short than Martinez? Four years playing for the Fighting Frosts saw him pass for 8,495 yards and 45 TDs (30 picks) while running for 2,288 yards and 35 TDs. He’s from Fresno, California? Does he go home? His style actually fits Chip Kelly perfectly but is Kelly going to be at UCLA or Oregon? Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma: He was the preseason Heisman favorite, but Lincoln Riley benched him. Now Riley is at Southern Cal. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Rattler wound up at UCLA? A lot of folks are predicting that’s where he tries to put his career back together. He threw for 4,595 yards and 40 TDs at Oklahoma and ran for nine more TDs. Quinn Ewers, Ohio State: He skipped his senior year in high school to get a 7-figure NIL deal and then showed up in August at Ohio State where he spent the season as the scout team QB. He took two snaps at the end of the Buckeyes’ 56-7 win over Michigan State. Scuttlebutt has it that his Ohio State teammates weren’t impressed with his attitude or his NIL deal. Wherever he goes he will have to win over a locker room and that might not be easy. He would have been the No. 1 prospect in the 2022 recruiting class. He could end up at Texas Tech, particularly since his high school coach (Riley Dodge) is expected to get a job on Joey McGuire’s staff. McGuire has added Zach Kittley as his offensive coordinator. With Kittley calling the plays at Western Kentucky, Bailey Zappe threw for 5,545 yards and 56 touchdowns in 2021. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: If you have spent any time listening to sports talk on either television or radio since Saturday, then you’ve heard a lot of “experts” blame Kirby Smart for not replacing Stetson Bennett IV with JT Daniels in Georgia’s 41-24 loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship Game. Excuse me, but wasn’t that a “generational defense” that Alabama shredded for 536 yards? Wasn’t that an Alabama offensive line that gave up seven sacks the week before to Auburn that stonewalled the Georgia defensive front? What are those brown stains on the seat of the pants of the Georgia safeties futilely chasing Jameson Williams? The last time I checked, Stetson Bennett IV put up 24 points on Alabama, which would have been more than enough to win the game if Kirby Smart’s defense had bothered to show up.

` Napier is here to put Humpty Dumpty back together again after The Great Fall. (UAA photo) This just in: I think Billy Napier won the press conference. That being said, so did his predecessor. This one feels a little different, though. I didn’t get this sense of optimism for the M&M&M boys -- Will Muschamp or Jim McElwain, or Dan Mullen. . . Departing third from the plane, peeking around the corner without mugging for cameras, then peering down to inspect the 4 1/2 steps that stood between him and being the Boots-On-The Ground Gator coach. He arrived in Gainesville as the 28th UF coach, fresh off the victory trail, with a scent of that victory still wafting behind him, less than 24 hours removed from his home turf in Lafayette where his Ragjn’ Cajuns stamped their names for a second time on the Sun Belt Championship trophy by beating Appalachian State, 24-16. After a congratulatory handshake and two pats on the back with new boss Scott Stricklin, he moved deliberately through the short greeting-party line. Billy Napier is here to put Humpty Dumpty back together again after The Great Fall. Dressed tastefully in an almost electric-Royal blue suit with tan shoes and a light orangish tie, he has the kind face of a new neighbor who’d willingly loan you his lawn mower, or help with some heavy lifting, or drive you to the repair shop if your car was on the fritz. And if he has a big ego, he must have checked it before arriving. He also looks like he has the broad shoulders and patience for the task at hand. Tennessee-born William Hall Napier came packing a recipe box for success, some of it seemingly with a plan that covers everything from upgrading recruiting, to perhaps a new nutrition program that includes the proper way to make a Gatorade Smoothie (just kidding.) He warned us Sunday not to expect much change in his/Dan Mullen‘s recruiting class which has been leaking oil and is down to 11, saying he’d be surprised if he received any more commitments for 2022. But you got the feeling he was sandbagging a little. And while he’s known as a methodical coach who likes to change culture organically, there was this one time this season when he rolled the dice on fourth down at the 1-yard line as time was winding down in the first half against Ohio, where he blurted out over the headsets, “Scared money don’t make money.” Which has probably become the adopted battle cry of Gator fans. “I’m never going to live that down,” Napier said almost sheepishly, saying it was well calculated part of his analytics for their fourth-down strategy. Later he also explained that he likes to play poker – mostly five-card draw and Texas Hold ‘Em – where that phrase is fairly common. I doubt the former Furman quarterback is going to be calling plays with scared money. Napier’s presser https://www.facebook.com/GatorsFB/videos/965633227381413/ Billy Napier plans on winning more than just the press conference. (Chris Spears photo) This just in: I think Napier won the press conference. That being said, so did his predecessor. This one feels a little different, though. I didn’t get this sense of optimism for the M&M&M boys -- Will Muschamp or Jim McElwain, or Dan Mullen – perhaps because they came after Steve Spurrier’s and Urban Meyer’s national championships. He started to work Sunday, drawing on that 7-year, $51.8 million deal to coach the Gators. In these days of gi-normous coaching salaries, that almost sounds like a bargain. Napier was chosen by Florida because of his winning record, program-building acumen, recruiting savvy, patience and a resume that included stints under coaching icons, Nick Saban and Dabo Swinney. After a high-stakes poker game by three of the biggest brands in college football, he was the first domino to fall when Florida announced him as Mullen’s replacement, followed shortly by USC’s hiring of Lincoln Riley and LSU’s anointment of Brian Kelly. All of Scott Stricklin’s roads led him to Louisiana. And so did the words. “It was interesting,” said Stricklin, “I kept hearing certain descriptions over and over again, words like ‘genuine,’ ‘authentic,’ ‘organized,’ ‘detailed,’ ‘disciplined,’ ‘methodical,’ ‘caring,’ ‘competitive,’ ‘hardworking,’ ‘thoughtful . . .” Napier’s first time setting foot on Steve Spurrier Field — blown away! Great new hype video in the Swamp. https://twitter.com/GatorsFB/status/1467899677773291529/video/1 The very fact that he stayed to coach his team to a conference championship proved his loyalty. Of course, you have to first be IN a championship game, which neither Kelly at LSU or Riley at USC were. He does his first Chomp correctly -- right over left. (UAA Photo) As I watched the last 30 seconds of his final game at Louisiana tick off the clock, I made note to ask what he was thinking while wearing his stoic look, despite churning emotions inside. He said he wanted his players to experience the feeling of having accomplished an important goal. “So to see them finish the job, I mean it was an incredible journey,” said Napier. “But I think the most important part is that they got the result and the reward for all of that work. And it changes the entire dynamic for the next 12 hours, right? I was telling one of my good friends that earlier; it's one thing to get on a plane and fly to Florida after a championship game. It's another to get on the plane as a champion.” This time there was no previous DNA to Florida, but the Tennessee-born, Georgia-raised, self-admitted “football junkie” is very aware of what’s been going on around Hogtown. The son of a deceased football coach remembers going to a high school game on Friday night and either attending or watching a college game on TV Saturday. “I can still remember growing up watching Florida play, and Coach (Steve) Spurrier throwing that ball around the park. I could still remember watching Danny Wuerffel, a long list of players when I was a young person. I'm well aware of the history and the tradition here. This is one of the few places in the country -- you're talking about a championship culture. We're talking about it's been done multiple times. I think one of the interesting things here is the success all the other teams in the athletic department have had. It's unprecedented and unmatched.” Billy also said when his dad became the head coach of a high school team and changed the uniforms, “our uniform was exactly like the Florida Gators. So my dad was a big fan for sure.” He gagged a little when talking about his late father and what former Murray County High coach Bill Napier might say if he were with him at Florida, but then deferred to the assurances of his Christian faith: “He’s here,” he said. “That’s what I would tell you. He’s here. So, he’s smiling. I’ll tell you that much.” In is first presser, Napier lays out his plans to the media. (Chris Spears photo) As for Billy’s Scared Money mantra, “he’d have probably got on me about that.” Prayer plays a big part in Napier’s decision making. During the press conference he cited scripture from Joshua 1:9, “be strong and courageous.” Later as we were all dispersing, I walked up to him and asked if he had any particular favorite bible verse. “Oh I have a lot of them,” he replied. “How about one?” I asked. “Proverbs 3:5-6,” he said. I recognized it immediately as one of Danny Wuerffel’s and Tim Tebow’s favorite scriptures, as well as mine: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart And lean not on your own understanding. In all ways acknowledge him And he will direct your path.” Perhaps his path was directed right to Gainesville, Fla. for good reason.

few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: SHOCKING LOSS? NOT EVEN CLOSE TO REALITY To simply call Florida’s 69-54 loss to previously winless Texas Southern at the O-Dome Monday night shocking doesn’t even come close to reality. This was nuclear winter. Armageddon comes to mind, but we’ll know more about that Wednesday night when the Gators (6-2) play host to a North Florida team that on paper is a lot worse than Texas Southern. The Tigers (1-7) played like they were the No. 20 team in the nation while the Gators resembled nothing like the team that earned its way into the rankings because of their toughness and physicality. On this night, the tough and physical team was the one from the Southwestern Athletic Conference that earned the first win in school history over a ranked team from the Southeastern Conference. The Gators played like a team that didn’t want to be in the arena, much less playing a basketball game. Let’s start with the basics. Texas Southern shot 54.4 percent from the field overall (31-57) and 45.5 percent from the 3-point line (5-11). The Tigers didn’t need to shoot many threes because they were constantly getting into the paint where they outscored the Gators 42-26. When they did launch a three it was typically late in the shot clock when they were trying to avoid a violation. Much to Florida’s chagrin, their threes were on target. The Gators, whose calling card was defense, were lazy and inefficient all night. Now for the really tough part. Texas Southern outrebounded the Gators 46-23. How did they do that? They hustled. The Gators did not. Instead of blocking out and getting good rebounding position, the Gators were lackadaisical in their approach to going after the ball. Texas Southern beat the Gators to the basketball consistently. If there was a loose ball, they got to it. The Gators shot 38.2 percent from the field overall on 21-55 shooting. If you thought the poor shooting from the three-point line was an aberration against Oklahoma (4-24), then think again. Only a couple of late threes enabled the Gators to shoot better than they did against the Sooners, but not by much. Florida was 5-24, a miserable 20.8 percent. In the last two games the Gators are shooting 18.75 percent from the three-point line. You don’t win many games shooting that poorly. Additionally, the Gators were a poor 7-16 from the foul line and they had as many turnovers (10) as assists. What was obvious from the outset was the Tigers had a good game plan on both ends of the floor. Offensively, they moved without the basketball and the result was 12 first half points on back door cuts. Defensively they pushed and shoved the Gators and unlike in the previous games, the Gators didn’t push and shove back. They let Texas Southern dictate the pace and the physicality of the game. Texas Southern led 35-25 at the half, which was stunning, but the sparse O-Dome crowd had to figure that after a good tongue lashing in the locker room, the Gators would come out with enough energy to put the Tigers away. It didn’t happen. “I was worried how we played for sure,” Mike White said about how the Gators came out of the locker room at halftime. “We got off to a start in which we, again, were fouling early, didn’t defend the glass, didn’t block out as well as we should have, didn’t rotate out of the post defensive situations we had, gave them some open threes … “ Brandon McKissic, who led the Gators with 15 points, kept saying post game, “That wasn’t us.” No, it wasn’t the Gators we saw through the first six games, the ones who Ohio State coach Chris Holtman said were as physical and tough as any team the Buckeyes will face in the Big Ten. “It takes a team effort and we just have to get back to the team we are,” McKissic said. “We have to get back to being us. Defense is the root of this team. We define ourselves on it. We have been letting offense dictate and we have to get back to letting defense dictate.” We’ll learn a lot about the Gators Wednesday night. If the Gators play anything like they did against Texas Southern, it is probably a sign that we’re in for a very long season. If they come back and play with the kind of intensity and toughness we saw in the first six games, then perhaps we can write Texas Southern off as an aberration. SEC Basketball Tuesday’s games: Southern (3-5) at No. 10 Kentucky 6-1; Texas Tech (6-1) at No. 13 Tennessee (6-1); Jacksonville (4-2) at Georgia (3-5); Temple (5-3) at Vanderbilt (5-2); Eastern Illinois (2-7) at Missouri (4-4); Charlotte (4-3) at No. 12 Arkansas (8-0) The Associated Press Top 25: 1. Purdue 8-0; 2. Baylor 8-0; 3. Duke 7-1; 4. UCLA 8-1; 5. Gonzaga 7-2; 6. Villanova 6-2; 7. Texas 6-1; 8. Kansas 6-1; 9. Alabama 7-1; 10. Kentucky 6-1; 11. Arizona 7-0; 12. Arkansas 8-0; 13. Tennessee 6-1; 14. Houston 7-1; 15. UConn 8-1; 16. Southern Cal 8-0; 17. Iowa State 8-0; 18. Auburn 7-1; 19. Michigan State 7-2; 20. FLORIDA 6-1; 21. Ohio State 6-2; 22. Wisconsin 7-1; 23. Seton Hall 7-1; 24. BYU 7-1; 25. LSU 8-0 The Coaches Top 25: 1. Purdue 8-0; 2. Baylor 8-0; 3. Duke 7-1; 4. UCLA 8-1; 5. Gonzaga 7-2; 6. Villanova 6-2; 7. Kansas 6-1; 8. Arizona 7-0; 9. Alabama 7-1; 10. Arkansas 8-0; 11. Texas 6-1; 12. Kentucky 6-1; 13. Houston 7-1; 14. Tennessee 6-1; 15. Southern Cal 8-0; 16. FLORIDA 6-1; 17. Wisconsin 7-1; 18. UConn 8-1; 19. Iowa State 8-0; 20. Michigan 7-2; 21. Auburn 7-1; 22. Ohio State 6-2; 23. BYU 7-1; 24. LSU 8-0; 25. Seton Hall 7-1 DAY ONE: BILLY NAPIER ERA Napier spent the day on the recruiting trail, but while he was whizzing around the country, we got the first glimpses of what the Florida coaching staff will look like with the following announcements: Patrick Toney, Co-DC/Safeties Mark Hocke, Associate Head Coach/Strength and Conditioning Jabbar Juluke, Running Backs Ryan O’Hara, Offensive Analyst/QBs Kyle Kazakevicius, Director of Recruiting and Football Logistics Toney is a rising star in the profession. He’s only 31 years old but he already has a track record of success. He was the defensive coordinator the past two seasons at Louisiana. Hocke came up in the Alabama system where he worked six years under Scott Cochran. He’s been with Napier for the last four years (they were on the staff at Alabama together). It says plenty that he was the associate head coach at Louisiana and will have that title again at UF. Juluke was the head coach at Louisiana high school power Edna Karr. Two of his Louisiana running backs were drafted in the NFL and Elijah Mitchell ranks second among rookie running backs in rushing this year. Napier calls his own plays and coaches the quarterbacks, but O’Hara will spend as much time with the QBs as anyone since Napier has head coaching responsibilities. He’s served as an offensive coordinator (Alabama A&M). This is coming home for Kazakavicius, who played high school football at Trinity Catholic and wide receiver at Alabama. He will be the head of what Napier has already called an “army” of specialists who will try to bring Florida out of the dark ages and into the 21st century of recruiting. YOU CAN’T TELL THE COACHES WITHOUT A PROGRAM Mario Cristobal: After being linked to both LSU and Oklahoma, he left Oregon for Miami. It might have had something to do with the 10-year deal that will pay him $8 million a year. To get Cristobal, Miami had to first fire Manny Diaz, the coach of the previous three seasons who led the Hurricanes to five wins in their last six games after D’Eriq King went down with a season-ending injury. Diaz is a teensy bit bitter as you might well imagine. Duke: George Edwards, who played for Steve Spurrier at Duke and was an assistant with the 1991 Gators, could be named the head coach at his alma mater. He’s currently a defensive assistant with the Dallas Cowboys. He’s been a defensive coordinator in the NFL with the Bills and Vikings. Bob Shoop: He’s been the defensive coordinator at Tennessee, Penn State and Mississippi State. Now he will try to keep South Florida HBC Jeff Scott’s seat from getting too warm by taking over the defense next season. He spent the last two seasons working as an analyst for Manny Diaz at Miami. Virginia: The leading candidate to take over for Bronco Mendenhall, who surprised everyone when he stepped down to re-evaluate what’s next in life after taking the Cavaliers to five straight bowl games is Anthony Poindexter, who has been either defensive coordinator or co-coordinator at UConn, Purdue and Penn State the last eight years. HEISMAN FINALISTS The four who will sit on the podium in New York when they name the winner of the 2022 Heisman Trophy Saturday are Bryce Young, QB (Alabama); Aidan Hutchinson, DE (Michigan); Kenny Pickett, QB, Pittsburgh; and C.J. Stroud, QB (Ohio State). Surprisingly the top four did not include Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker III and Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral. It will be one of the major upsets in Heisman Trophy history if the winner Saturday is anyone other than Young, who led Alabama to the SEC title and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff while throwing for 4,322 yards and 43 touchdowns. COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY: REGULAR SEASON OVER Extinct Species List Les Miles, Kansas (Permanent replacement Lance Leipold) Randy Edsall, UConn (Permanent replacement Jim Mora Jr.) Clay Helton, Southern Cal (Permanent replacement Lincoln Riley) Chad Lunsford, Georgia Southern (Permanent replacement Clay Helton) Ed Orgeron, LSU (Permanent replacement Brian Kelly) Nick Rolovich, Washington State (Permanent replacement Jack Dickert) Matt Wells, Texas Tech (Permanent replacement Joey McGuire) Gary Patterson, TCU (Permanent replacement Sonny Dykes) Tom Arth, Akron (Permanent replacement Joe Moorhead) Walt Bell, UMass (Permanent replacement Don Brown) Jimmy Lake, Washington (Permanent replacement Kalen DeBoer) Butch Davis, Florida International Justin Fuente, Virginia Tech (Permanent replacement Brent Pry) Chip Lindsey, Troy (Permanent replacement Jon Sumrall) Dan Mullen, Florida (Permanent replacement Billy Napier) Doug Martin, New Mexico State (Permanent replacement Jerry Kill) Rod Carey, Temple Skip Holtz, Louisiana Tech (Permanent replacement Sonny Cumbie) David Cutcliffe, Duke Steve Addazio, Colorado State Manny Diaz, Miami (Permanent replacement Mario Cristobal) On Life Support Scot Loeffler, Bowling Green: He’s still hanging on by a thread, but it’s possible he survives. Mike Bloomgren, Rice: Academics are tougher than Stanford. You don’t win football games with Boy Scouts and MENSA candidates. Who are they going to get that’s better? Endangered Species List Geoff Collins, Georgia Tech: He’s getting another year. He hired former Notre Dame OC Chip Long to transform an offense that stinks. Steve Sarkisian, Texas: He’ll get a second year even though boosters would gladly write the checks to fire him. Only God has more money than the Longhorns. Dino Babers, Syracuse: Anything less than seven wins next year and he’s unemployed. Chip Kelly, UCLA: At 8-4 everyone is happy, but now he has to contend with Lincoln Riley at USC. Seth Littrell, North Texas: A 5-game winning streak and a bowl game saved his hide. Now can he do a repeat performance next year. Phil Montgomery, Tulsa: He’s going bowling, otherwise he would be a goner. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: There is something seriously wrong with both the transfer portal and the way we’re hiring coaches. A good example is Washington naming Fresno State’s Kalen DeBoer as its new head coach to replace the fired Jimmy Lake. DeBoer is a fine coach who led Fresno State to a 9-3 record and a bowl game. As soon as DeBoer took the Washington job, quarterback Jake Haener (3,810 passing yards, 32 TDPs) put his name in the transfer portal and announced for Washington. So Fresno State will play UTEP in the New Mexico Bowl on December 18 minus the coach who led the team and the quarterback who made the offense dynamic. If the bowls are supposed to be a reward for teams that do well, then the kids who sacrificed and worked so hard all year should be given a legitimate chance to win the games instead of working with skeleton coaching staffs and players who can transfer at any point. This is not the way the system is supposed to work and it needs to be tweaked.