For two quarters Saturday afternoon at Raymond James Stadium, Emory Jones looked the part of a quarterback who can get the job done in the Southeastern Conference. He made right reads, good decisions and that 35-yard laser beam of a touchdown pass to Xzavier Henderson in the second quarter provided more than enough proof that Jones is capable of making the kind of big time throws that Dan Mullen has been raving about the last two years. If the game with South Florida had only ended after 30 minutes, our opinion of Emory Jones would be that he built upon the mistakes he made last week against Florida Atlantic and was officially ready to take on mighty Alabama, which comes to The Swamp next Saturday afternoon. Jones was that good in a first half in which the 13th-ranked Gators (2-0) held a 35-3 lead over a USF team that should call the season a roaring success if it can win three games. Unfortunately, for Jones, there was a third quarter in which he looked like he had ordered quarterback lessons from Amazon and the delivery truck was late. How many times in your life have you heard that old adage, two steps forward and one step backward? Well, the second half of Florida’s 42-20 win over USF seemed more like the two forward steps of the first half were followed up by at least three or four steps in the wrong direction. Contrast the tale of Jones two halves: First half: 8-11 passing for 109 yards and a TD including a 35-yard laser beam for a TD to Xzavier Henderson in the second quarter; 4-45 rushing including a most impressive option read in which he took off for a 33-yard touchdown sprint. Second half: 6-11 passing for 42 yards with two interceptions, both of which were the result of bad decisions; 9-36 rushing including a -8 on a sack in which he, not the O-line, is to blame. You can win football games with a quarterback playing like Jones did in the first half. Second half? You lose a lot. It is the inconsistency of Jones’ play that causes such trepidation. The touchdown pass to Henderson and the touchdown run tell us what he’s capable of doing. If only he would do that all the time. The two interceptions in the third quarter and the bad pass that should have been a third pick in the fourth tell us that Jones is a long way away from being the quarterback you can count on to win games in the Southeastern Conference. Those drives should have resulted in touchdowns, not turnovers. Fortunately, they were against a bad team. Turn the ball over at the goal line twice in an SEC game and odds are good that you lose. “Those are just some growing mistakes,” HBC Dan Mullen called the two interceptions in his postgame remarks. “The first one was a bad one. The second one, he just has to speed up his read. He was just late on his throw on the second one.” Bad? Late? It seemed a lot worse than simply bad or late and no matter how you label them you can’t have bad throws and hesitation from quarterbacks in their fourth year in the system. Mullen isn’t trying to make excuses for Jones. He hasn’t started before so he is indeed a work in progress, but how much time does it take before the bad plays become a thing of the past? Do you think for even a split second that Alabama fears a quarterback who sometimes pumps the football four times when there is an open receiver only to throw when the zone has a chance to collapse around the intended target? The good plays Jones makes ooze potential. The bad plays raise anxiety levels through the roof and make you wonder just how long will it take before Mullen either turns the starting job over to Anthony Richardson or at least gives Richardson an equal number of snaps because for the second straight game, while Jones was still trying to figure things out, Richardson was beyond spectacular. If you thought AR15 had it going against Florida Atlantic last week, then that paled in comparison to what he did to South Florida. In the two series he played in the first half, he directed a one-play touchdown drive with a flick-of-the-wrist throw while rolling to his left that fit into an NFL-small window. Jacob Copeland made the catch for a 75-yard touchdown. On his second series of the half, Richardson directed a 6-play, 80-yard touchdown drive on which he gained 18 yards almost effortlessly on one run and culminated with a 41-yard touchdown strike to Copeland, who finished the game with five catches for 175 yards and two touchdowns. After Jones had thrown his two interceptions in the third quarter, Richardson came off the bench and in three plays took the Gators 53 yards to the USF seven on a pair of runs that netted 17 yards and his third big strike to Copeland, this one for 36 yards. On that play, Richardson’s helmet came off so he had to sit a play and this is where the real controversy at quarterback began to bubble over. With Richardson forced to the sideline, Jones went into the game but instead of building on the momentum, the drive stalled out, in part because Jones was indecisive. Trent Whittemore was open in the end zone and Jones hesitated, then made a poor throw which should have been intercepted. On fourth and goal at the one, Mullen went for it but Jones made another poor throw on a pass intended for Nick Elksnis, this one fortunately resulted in an incompletion. This was so reminiscent of what happened in the second quarter last week against Florida Atlantic, which Jones was sent into the game on third-and-goal from the 12 after Richardson had taken the Gators down the field. On that play, Jones had an open receiver, but he hesitated, which allowed an FAU safety to get into position to make an interception. This led to another déjà vu moment. In the fourth quarter against FAU, Richardson took off on a 75-yard touchdown run in which he looked like the second coming of Gale Sayers the way he burst through an opening and then simply outran everyone. On Florida’s next possession after the stalled drive at the USF one, Richardson had another one of those one-play scoring drives. On what seemed the almost identical play to the one in which he ran 75 yards for a TD the week before, Richardson went 80 yards for the TD. The long TD run, however, is now a further source of high anxiety. When Richardson reached the end zone, he grabbed his hamstring. Given the nature of hamstring injuries it will be dicey all week long whether or not he plays next week against Alabama after a week in which his stat line read 3-3 passing for 152 yards and two touchdowns, 4-115 rushing and one TD. In two games, Richardson is 6-11 passing for 192 yards and two touchdowns, 11-275 rushing for two more TDs. In those same two games, Jones is 31-49 for 264 yards with two touchdowns and four interceptions, 23-164 for one touchdown. Statistically speaking, Anthony Richardson has it all over Emory Jones but the most important stat is the turnovers. Jones has played probably 70 percent more snaps than Richardson and Richardson has yet to turn the ball over. Jones, meanwhile, has thrown four interceptions, all of them drive killers when the Gators were about to turn a comfortable win into an absolute blowout. Complicating matters is Richardson’s penchant for the spectacular. There is no doubt about it, he’s electric. Sure, it is still just two games into the season and the Gators have yet to play a quality opponent, but there is real electricity any time the ball is in Anthony Richardson’s hands. Watching the Florida sideline, it’s reminiscent of when Percy Harvin was in the game from 2006-08. When Percy was in the game, teammates who were on the sidelines moved to a better vantage point because they didn’t want to miss a chance to see Percy do something memorable. You see the same thing with Richardson’s teammates. Obviously, from seeing him in practice, they know and understand that he’s capable of doing something special every time he takes a snap. There is also an electricity in the stands when Richardson is in the game, something that could be quite helpful next week against Alabama. The Gators are going to need as much help as they can get from an enthused, vocal crowd and so far this season, whenever Richardson touches the ball, they expect the unexpected. The roar from the crowd when Richardson makes a play seems twice as loud and the buzz continues well after the play is finished. So what will Mullen do this week? Postgame he seemed rather defensive about Emory Jones, which, as the head coach, he should be. If Richardson’s hamstring is out of whack next week and he can’t go full bore against Alabama, he’s going to need Emory to play at a high level. He can’t afford to throw Emory under the bus either by being too critical of his play or by being too praiseworthy of Anthony Richardson. It is almost as if Mullen has to walk on eggshells. He sees the same things everybody else sees and he can’t hide the fact that whenever Richardson is in the game, big things happen. He can hope all he wants that Jones will overcome his indecisiveness to become the consistent player the Gators need him to be to win games, but so far we haven’t seen it. We can only go by what our eyes tell us. Our eyes are telling us that whether Mullen likes it or not, he’s going to have to make a huge executive decision, probably a lot sooner than he wants. He no longer has tuneup games like the ones against Florida Atlantic or South Florida to get Emory Jones up to speed and he has to know that if Jones makes the same silly mistakes against Alabama that he made against FAU and USF that the Gators are likely to get clobbered. Even though Richardson doesn’t have the experience of Jones, who is in his fourth year at Florida, he is a playmaker with athletic ability we have never seen at quarterback at the University of Florida. Even if Mullen is uncomfortable staring Richardson right now, he at least needs to put him on the field more often. This isn’t a democracy, but the eyes definitely have it when it comes to who should be Florida’s main squeeze at QB.

Dan Mullen had the chutzpah to stand up in the face of criticism from some members of his own fan base, the social media and the legit working media, who were all shouting: “PUT ANTHONY RICHARDSON IN THE STARTING LINEUP!” Turns out maybe Dan Mullen was right. At a time when it was looking like a battle of the fans’ will and his own coaching philosophy colliding from both sides of the aisle, the head coach stood up and took the bullets. It takes two quarterbacks to run his offense. And we were reminded of The Unintended Consequence of Mullen’s mule-stubborn philosophy the moment Anthony Richardson pulled up lame after his dazzling 80-yard touchdown run against South Florida. It’s good to have a permanent backup. There’s no quarterback controversy when only one is physically capable of playing. Is that the case this week? Who knows yet? Stay tuned. Just how much the wunderkind Richardson will get on the field against Alabama depends on what the medics say and how well he can run on that gimp right hamstring. Although we don’t speculate on health issues, there is a strong buzz around Gainesville that the MRI shows good news: No tear or damage. So yes, there is a chance. Mullen had the chutzpah to stand up in the face of criticism from some members of his own fan base, the social media and the legit working media, who were all shouting: “PUT ANTHONY RICHARDSON IN THE STARTING LINEUP!” No, he said, this is still Emory’s team. Just about everybody, including me, was bumfuzzled. We’d seen enough from one of the most spectacular players to ever don the Orange & Blue. And after all, are we all the experts here? Raise your hand if you were screaming at the TV, or yelling in the stands, “PUT ANTHONY RICHARDSON IN THE DAMN GAME!” After two spectacular games of lightning-strike offense that has rarely, if ever, seen before from a young Florida player, we all pretty much asked the group rhetorical question: “How can he keep Richardson off the field?” Especially after the way he played in the win over South Florida, right down to losing his helmet, losing his chance to finish off the drive (Mullen’s choice) and coming back after two picks by Emory Jones to reignite the offense for Florida’s only second half touchdown. And let’s just be honest here: With child-like glee we’re all infatuated with the notion of homegrown #15 taking Steve Spurrier-Florida Field to slay the giant. Mullen will argue that while spectacular plays are fun to watch, the quarterback position is also about knowing the offense and being a team leader. Most of you will argue that when you put up the numbers like Richardson has, doesn’t that mean you know the offense pretty well? Especially when 90 percent of it runs through No. 15. But, hey Dan, don’t you see what we all see? ''He does special things. He doesn't always do the right thing, but he does special things,'' Mullen said of his red-shirt freshman phenom. ''We have to keep coaching him up.'' He went on to say that Jones will start and both will play vs. No. 1 Alabama in a Top Ten (Or top 11, depending on the poll you like) SEC matchup that has playoff implications, with the Crimson Tide favored by 15. On the QBs, I’m going to defer to the wisdom of Dan Mullen, whose sufficient knowledge about the position trumps all of ours. At the same time, if I’m allowed an appeal, I’d offer up what the experts on College Football Committee often default to: The Eye Test. In 50 years of watching Florida, I’ve never seen a young quarterback with more dynamic skills and combustible playmaking as Anthony Richardson this early in his career. I get Dan Mullen’s loyalty and admire it. If Richardson is healthy and his brilliance doesn’t come shining through to warrant him being Florida’s No. 1 Quarterback by next week, then what I’m seeing with my eyes is all a big lie. For right now, however, it’s good to be the man with two quarterbacks. After all it’s not bigamy.

The No. 13 Florida Gators defeated USF Bulls 42-20 on Saturday, giving Head Coach Dan Mullen his 100th win as a head coach. Mullen met with local media after the win to break down the rotation between quarterbacks Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson, running back and tight end usage, and more. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. Congrats on the 100th win. "Thank you. I'd forgotten all about it until Megan and them came on the field afterwards. Like 'Hey I've completely forgotten all about it.' She's like, 'Congrats on number 100.' I'm like, 'That's pretty, that's pretty awesome." Anthony Richardson, my God, it's like every time he touches the ball, he does something special. What would you think of his performance today and what's his status? Did he pull a hammy? "Yea, hamstring tightened up on him. Yeah, he does special things; doesn't always do the right thing but he does special things, you know. So, you know, we got to keep coaching him to be efficient and make sure we're making all the right reads." You know how fan bases are, I mean we're watching the game up here. What is he not doing too [be on the field?' "I mean I can, I mean, it'll bore you—" What is it? "It'll bore you actually, but I mean we're pretty lucky. We have two quarterbacks that are pretty talented guys, can make plays happen out there on the field. But there's a lot of things. You got to read, there's a lot that the quarterback has to do, a lot of different reads that are out there on the field, so if that makes sense, I mean a lot. And you're like, 'oh what a spectacular run.' The long touchdown was a great read. He read it properly, broke a tackle, scored a touchdown...But I mean, there's, I mean, I don't know I mean, I have great appreciation, our fans, have great appreciation of, you know, watching things and watching great athletes out there on the field. And great guys make great plays out there on the field. We're pretty fortunate, we have two quarterbacks right now that can make great plays out there on the field, play both of them. Both of them, I thought were pretty efficient in the first half. Both of them were so-so at times with different situations in the second half with things that go on. You know, it's a long season and we have young quarterbacks that I got to continue to grow and continue to develop into being really good football players." Does seniority play a factor in Emory starting over Anthony “Nope. We’re trying to win football games. Know what I mean? I have a responsibility to put everybody on the team in position to win and there’s an awful lot that goes into that. I know everybody loves just looking at the two quarterbacks. There’s 10 other guys on the field until I put in our two quarterback offense, which I haven’t shown yet. Then there’s only nine other guys on the field. When you look at those things my job is to put us in the best position to win football games and develop this football program to be the best it can be. That’s what we’re doing.” Dameon Pierce started but didn’t play much late what did you see from the RBs “Dameon Pierce, I know Greg rotates those guys. We have a bunch of good backs. That’s probably a good question, why did Pierce, I mean you saw the spectacular touchdown run that he made, I mean unbelievable run. We have a bunch of good backs that we roll through and, again, long season we want to keep those guys fresh, keep those guys healthy. Those guys usually do a good job for us on special teams as well. So, you know, that’s kind of part of it.” Disappointed about the performance in the 2nd half? “Yeah. I thought we, I didn’t think we were very efficient in the second half. We made some critical errors. Now, we did some good things there. You know what, we played a lot of guys as we want to do early in the season and see where we’re at, give guys opportunities. When you give guys opportunities to get on the field and everybody wants chances, everybody wants opportunities and if you get it though you better live up and play to the Gator standard. Guys are going to be able to tune on the film and watch the film and realize, you know what? I didn’t play to the Gator standard today. That’s not what it’s about. that’s not playing and executing, and I don’t mean with the attitude, the effort, the energy, I think our guys have great attitude and energy. I think with the execution with every single play, the detail that goes into every single play, and how exact you have to be on every single play. We have a lot of guys missing those things. We’ll say, hey, we’ll coach, hey, I did it right four out of five plays and that’s not the Gator standard. The Gator standard is doing it right five out of five plays with relentless effort.” Jean Delance on crutches after the game “No. I don’t have updates on any of the injury guys right now. They came to me, they didn’t think there was anything real serious with anybody but I’ll find out later.” How did Emory respond to interceptions? “Uhhhhhhhh … he was fine, you know, he was fine. He came back in, continued to manage the game. Those are just some growing mistakes. The first one was a bad one. The second one, he just has to speed up his read. He was just late on his throw on the second one. Those are things you got to continue to learn. I thought he played much better this week than last week, in the first half for sure. I think we just got sloppy in the second half. You have to execute every single snap of the game there’s so few opportunities.” Is Emory still the starter? “Yeah … wh … yes. Like I said, we have two really good quarterbacks. You’ll see both of them play every single game. You know what you never ask? Why don’t you ask who the starting running back is? Who started today?” When fans start asking me all the time at running back I’ll ask. “Who started at running back today? Do you know?” Malik. “Oh, I didn’t know that. OK, Cool. Cause we have really good running backs. We roll those guys through. We’re pretty fortunate at quarterback, too.” Avery Helm, Jason Marshall, other CBs? “I mean, good and bad. But you know what, they’re young guys getting thrown out there, getting thrown into that situation. Obviously the injury that we had did not help us, with where we’re at there. But those two guys are gaining valuable experience and are getting a little bit better from one week to the next. I thought their performance was much better today than it was last week, which is a real positive and hopefully we take another big step next week.” Overall assessment, what can improve on? “Everything, we can improve on everything. We played pretty solid defense in the first half. We had the one drive that I wasn’t real pleased with in the first half. Second half we came out in some situations, made some stops, made some mistakes defensively at the end of the game. Offensively, we came out and we made a bunch of explosive plays and kind of really did well in the first half even though we were not as clean and efficient as I wanted to be. In the second half, we came out we weren’t as efficient as we wanted to be, made some mistakes as the game wore on and we got to be better that way. Kicking game, made some mistakes, obviously gave up a huge return, made a poor judgment in fielding a kick and trying to run it out. Our kickoffs need to get better. I mean, overall, do I like our attitude, our energy, our effort of what we played with? Yes. Did our guys take care of what they needed to to win the game? Yes. Do we need to get a lot better? Yes.” (On Kaiir Elam not being on the field for 2nd half, and if there was injury concern) "Nope. We were giving our guys a lot of opportunities today to see what they can go do, it's a long season. So, I think you probably saw that with a lot of players, and so we put a lot of guys in the game so they could learn. We had a lead, and we were very fortunate to have that lead and fortunate to be able to give guys a lot of opportunities to go on the field and see what they can do, and go learn and grow and develop. And, you know, that's a huge deal for our program, is the player development. And we were fortunate, we had a lead, I want to see other guys get in the game and I want to see them grow and develop and we were able to get a lot of guys reps that they can learn from moving forward." (On tight end position group fitting into the offense) "Yeah, doing a great job, they're doing a great job. I don't know that we threw to them today, did we?" (Didn't see any grabs) "I think we threw one on the fourth-down play on the goal line. Yeah, that was kind of the game plan. So, they're doing a great job, production is excellent, their production is excellent with the tight ends. Really pleased how they're playing."

The first game of any football team’s season can be a mixed bag of results. There is rust to shake off, new packages to try out and players putting their chemistry to the test for the first time with real opposition. As a result, Week 1 often gives teams a blueprint on everything that needs to be addressed for the rest of the season. It also allows for some possible overreaction and claims that may or may not be true, but are fun to consider nonetheless. So as the No. 13 Florida Gators prepare for their second week of play, we examine the five things we learned about this team in their season opener, and what it can be going forward. The Front Seven Can Be That Unit “I thought we got after the quarterback…a lot of times when they got the drop back pass we got a bunch of pressure, got some sacks,” noted Head Coach Dan Mullen after the Gators 35-14 win over the FAU Owls on Saturday night. Some sacks, six sacks, it’s all the same. In addition to the six sacks the Gators defense racked up, they had eight total quarterback hurries, a forced fumble and two fumble recoveries. With an incredibly young secondary, the key to assist in their coverage is to provide a better pass rush up front. Pressure the quarterback, and it either sends him on the run giving the secondary more time, or causes an errant throw. So while the youthful backend catches up and takes their lumps, the front seven full of upperclassmen and older transfers can provide the key to a successful defense. But defensive end Zach Carter promises last Saturday was just the beginning. “This is just a sneak peek. I know we can do a lot better. We’re just scratching the surface. It’s the first game. We have a lot to correct.” For Dan Mullen’s part, he sees that correction coming quickly. Now that the guys have had a full offseason in which they were allowed to be physical again, plus finally played in a game instead of a practice with a quarterback in a non-contact jersey, the coach predicts an even “stouter” week 2 from the front seven. “Those [sacks] were all done up front; a little bit soft in the run game at times so you know that I want us to be a little bit stouter on that part of it. “But overall, you know, and I think those guys, especially older guys, they have a pretty high expectation for themselves so I think they want to get better, you know, and this transition into playing games and how different it is, you know from all the practice stuff so you know I think we'll see a big jump this week." Zach Carter Can Be That Dude If the front seven can be that unit, then Zach Carter can be that dude. He had three of the Gators six sacks and was a disrupter all night. Before one sack—in which he forced a fumble—Carter showed a twitch on the line that should’ve alerted everyone in the state that he was coming…but his pure power allowed him to still push into the backfield and force the turnover. “Well I gotta give credit to my back end, they did a great job covering tonight, helping me get back there,” said Carter on Saturday. “Especially my guys inside for giving me that push. It was just one of those games. I was feeling it tonight and, you know, I’m excited for this year. I’m planning on having a big year. I’m excited.” Carter’s decision to return for another season and put the NFL off until next year changed the complexity of the defensive line. Putting him on the opposite edge of Brenton Cox provides the Gators with two dynamic pass rushers. You can’t cover them both. So if the stout Carter can continue to push into the backfield—or just demand double teams, freeing up Cox, or vice versa—his decision to return will pay off in dividends for both he and the Gators. The Tempo Can Be Even Faster The Gators ran 81 plays while holding the ball for 30:13 in time of possession. In each of their five scoring drives, the Gators practically flew down the field, averaging 3:44 on each scoring possession. They weren’t quick strike, chunk drives, but instead methodical, short yardage drives. Each scoring drive averaged nine plays, indicating a quick succession from one play to another. It’s the style of the game these days, with offenses dictating so much of what happens. Mullen wants to take advantage and plans to kick up the tempo even more. “We really want to play with tempo, you know obviously what goes on in the situations, you know, determine that and the yardage and where the ball is but we'd like to do a lot more tempo this season." Trey Dean Belongs At Safety Defensive back Trey Dean should’ve been at safety this entire time. It’s the position he played in high school and where he looks most natural. After a year at corner, a year at nickel, and a year rotating in at safety, Dean is finally back in the starting lineup at his old position. On Saturday night against the Owls, he looked smooth, quick and decisive. He finished with six tackles and a pass breakup. On one play in particular, he cheated up from the secondary and met a receiver at the point of attack for a sideline throw. Dean waited for the receiver to jump then pushed him out of bounds, while also tracking the ball and knocking it away. He blew up the play two different ways. And arguably from a position he wouldn’t have been able to make the play had he been at corner, where he could’ve been flipped as the receiver passed. In a young secondary, Dean’s vocal and cerebral approach can provide a necessary veteran presence. And finally back in the spot where he can play more comfortable and most free, he can bring the boom the Gators defense needs. Emory Is Learning To Speak Up On a 4th a goal that quickly became infamous, Emory Jones ran a QB power that went nowhere. It looked strange and off from the snap and even Dan Mullen’s face was broadcasted with a befuddled look. Naturally the question arose on whether or not Jones had audibled with a bad play. It turns out, he’d simply ran the wrong play. “He got the wrong signal from the sideline, thought we called something we didn’t and missed communication,” explained Mullen. The miscommunication was a bad missed opportunity in the moment. But it provided for an invaluable lesson for the newly starting quarterback. “Great things there to learn from, I mean, if he’s not sure with the communication I didn’t know he wasn’t sure when we’re running a play because it looks like we’re in the right formation and all that stuff he wasn’t sure with the play call. That’s an experience deal in a first start right there. He’s sitting out there and saying I got to make plays. You called this and I got to make a play and he got the wrong signal from the sidelines. In that situation it doesn’t seem right, he’s got to take a timeout for us and say, this doesn’t seem right, just let me just make sure and have the, you know, fix errors that come from the sideline fix it on the field.”

There are moments in your life that you never forget. For my father’s generation it was Pearl Harbor. Until the day he died he could remember even the most minute detail of where he was and what he was doing December 7, 1941. A day later he stood in line to enlist in the Navy only to be told come back two years later when he was 18. My dad and I shared one of those never forget moments on November 22, 1963, the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Fifty-eight years later, I can remember small details such as the moment David Bricker came bursting into the locker room where we were dressing after Coach Mike “Fuzzy” Fratella’s phys ed class at Westwood Junior High in Gainesville. He was in tears and he blurted out, “They shot him! They shot President Kennedy!” Moments later our principal Mr. Simmons voice came on the intercom instructing everyone to proceed immediately to our home rooms. Walking to my home room I remember the distinct shuffling of feet and hearing voices barely above a whisper. Once in home room, Mr. Simmons again spoke, telling us that President Kennedy had been shot and that we were to go home immediately. The bus ride from the Westwood campus to Gainesville High where we got off was deathly silent. That was Friday. That night my dad and I went to the PK Yonge football game at Citizens Field. We sat quietly throughout the game. Everybody did. The only football game I ever saw that quiet involved the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind. The Gators played and beat Miami, 27-21, Saturday. Sunday morning, we watched on television as Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald. Later that day the National Football League played a full schedule. Monday, President Kennedy’s funeral was held at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington. That same day, my Hughes Supply football team played our final game of the season in Hawthorne and won 30-0. On the ride over and back, hardly anyone spoke. We were still stunned by the chain of events. I could bore you with more details. I remember complete conversations I had that weekend, hearing Otis Boggs describe the 70-yard touchdown run by Hagoode Clark that broke open the game with Miami, NFL scores, Walter Cronkite’s commentary on CBS, John Dulaney, Todd Rainsberger and Dale Davis scoring touchdowns against Hawthorne. Some things you just never forget. My most recent never forget moment was September 11, 2001. I had just returned from an early morning walk and was eating breakfast when it was reported a plane had struck the World Trade Center. As the first photos came in, the commentators were asking out loud how this could happen? How could a plane stray this far off course? They were still asking when the second plane came in view on a glide path straight for the second tower. At this point the commentators were telling us this was not some random accident, but America was under attack. The rest of the morning we watched in horror as we heard about the plane going down in Pennsylvania and how another had struck the Pentagon in Washington. That morning I talked to my longtime close friend Gene Bazemore, whose son was working for Prudential’s investment division in New York. His son was due to be on the upper floors of the World Trade Center about the same time the first plane struck. Gene didn’t know if his son was alive or if he had escaped. He was fearful. He watched on TV as people leapt to their death as the fires consumed the towers. I remember vividly the fear and pain in his voice. Gene was trying to be brave, but he was struggling. There was no way to get any kind of phone call to New York as both land lines and cell phones were jammed. It would be days before Gene found out that his son was early for his appointment, so was drinking coffee about a block away when the first plane struck. That saved his life. The attacks happened on a Tuesday. By Wednesday with what was left of the Twin Towers in New York and the damaged Pentagon still smoldering, all air traffic was suspended nationwide and with that decision, sports came to a standstill nationwide. It was Tennessee week for the Florida Gators, time for what was, at the time, the unofficial SEC East championship game. The SEC added South Carolina and Arkansas in 1992, expanding to 12 teams that were divided into two six-team divisions. Either Florida or Tennessee had won every SEC East title (Florida 1992-96, Tennessee 1997-98, Florida 1999-2000) since divisional play began and the 2001 game was expected to once again decide who would play for the SEC title in Atlanta in December. The Vols were ranked eighth, having opened their season with a 33-9 win over Syracuse followed by a 13-3 win over Arkansas. In both wins, Tennessee’s defense was outstanding but the offense wasn’t impressive despite Travis Stephens running for 317 yards in the two games. The Gators were ranked second with blowout wins over Marshall (49-14) and Louisiana-Monroe (55-6). Rex Grossman already threw for 706 yards and six touchdowns and Jabar Gaffney had 13 catches for 204 yards and two TDs. In both games, the Gators could have scored more, but it was almost like Steve Spurrier was just toying with the two opponents. The national perception was Spurrier was holding back for the Vols. Wednesday the SEC announced that all games scheduled for September 15 were postponed and would be re-scheduled for December 1. Florida fans were disappointed because the Gators were on such a roll that it seemed impossible the Vols could stop them, particularly in Gainesville where the Vols hadn’t won since 1971 when Douglas Adair Dickey was the UF coach. When the football season resumed on September 22, the Gators blew the doors off Kentucky in Lexington, 44-10, as Grossman threw for 302 yards and four touchdowns. A week later, the Gators returned to The Swamp to face 21st-ranked Mississippi State. It was another blowout win, 52-0, and another brilliant game for Grossman, who threw for 393 yards and five touchdowns on a day that was all about the United States of America. There was a patriotic theme to the entire day. When the Florida band played the “Star-Spangled Banner” pre-game the entire stadium joined in singing to the point that it made the hair standup on necks and forearms. The same thing happened at halftime when the show was all patriotic music. When the band played “God Bless America” even the folks who found carrying a tune troublesome joined in at the top of their lungs. Somehow, just 18 days removed from the 9/11 attacks, it began to feel as if things were getting back to normal. A stadium full of football fans will do that for you. Most Florida games in 2001 were by blowout with the exception of a shocking loss to Auburn on October 13 when the unranked Tigers took down the No. 1 Gators and a tough, 24-10, win over Georgia in Jacksonville. In the Auburn loss, the Gators were playing without injured running back Earnest Graham. Without Graham there was little to no running game and Auburn rendered the Gators one-dimensional for a 23-20 win. Graham got hurt again on November 17 when the Gators stomped 20th-ranked Florida State, 37-13. The injury against FSU remains one of the more controversial plays in Florida football history. Graham was tackled early in the third quarter by Darnell Dockett. It seemed a routine tackle, but replays showed what seemed like extra-curricular activity by Graham. Postgame, there were reports from the FSU locker room that Dockett boasted, “Did you see what I did to Earnest Graham?” Spurrier believed what he saw on film and, combined with the reports from the FSU locker room, thought he had to stand up for his injured player. Over the next two weeks prior to the re-scheduled Tennessee game, Spurrier complained early and often that Dockett had indeed done something to Graham. Few in the national media were convinced and the national uproar that followed was all negative against Spurrier, whose complaints were viewed as an attack on the integrity of Bobby Bowden. Spurrier was dismayed that neither athletic director Jeremy Foley nor interim UF president Charles Young offered much in the way of support. The Graham injury simmered for two weeks and reached a boiling point when Graham was unable to play two weeks later when the re-scheduled game with Tennessee was played in The Swamp. For all the deserved kudos for Grossman’s play that season – he threw for 3,896 yards and 34 touchdowns – Graham was critical to Florida’s offense because he not only picked up the tough yards running, but he was an exceptional pass blocker who rarely missed picking up the blitz. Without Graham, there was once again no running game and Grossman was without his personal protector. Despite 371 passing yards by Grossman, No. 2 Florida only netted 36 on the ground and lost 34-32 to the fourth-ranked Vols. Although Florida put 32 points on the board, there was a distinct feeling throughout the game that the Gators were leaving points on the field that they would have scored with Graham in the lineup. Thirty-two points were plenty enough to win except the Gators couldn’t make critical stops defensively, particularly in the second half against UT running back Travis Stephens. Stephens finished the game with 226 yards of which 186 came on four carries. In the second half, Stephens ripped through the UF defense for runs of 35, 68 and 48 yards. On a radio show the following week, UF defensive coordinator Jon Hoke proclaimed that the Gators played great except for those four plays. Of course, the internet and every call-in radio show in the southeast erupted. One of the kinder comments on what was the largest Florida message board at the time was, “That’s like a pilot saying except for crashing the landing I flew that 747 perfectly.” Had the Gators beaten Tennessee and then followed that up a week later with a win over LSU in the SEC Championship Game, they would have gone to the Rose Bowl to play No. 1 ranked Miami in the BCS National Championship Game. Instead, a month after the Tennessee debacle, the fifth-ranked Gators walloped sixth-ranked Maryland, 56-23, in the Orange Bowl on a Wednesday night. Five days later, Spurrier resigned, leaving after 12 seasons, a 122-27-1 record, six Southeastern Conference championships, one national championship and no season with fewer than nine wins. Two weeks later, Spurrier was off to the NFL to coach the Washington Redskins. There are questions that still haunt Gator fans about that 2001 season. What would have happened if the Gators had played Tennessee on the originally scheduled date? Most observers tend to think that with a healthy Earnest Graham – the Gators lost the only two games he didn’t play in 2001 – Florida would have handled the Vols quite easily. The game would have been played in the bright Florida September sunshine with a 3:30 p.m. kickoff, a time when the Vols had shown a penchant for wilting in the past. The re-scheduled game was at night and the Florida heat was not a factor. Additionally, in the time between the originally scheduled game in September and the re-scheduled game in December, the Vols figured a few things out offensively to become better balanced and less predictable. Had the game been played in September when the Tennessee passing game was fairly pedestrian the Gators would have had a tremendous advantage. Another question that continues to haunt Florida fans: Would Spurrier have resigned if he had felt Young and Foley had his back? People who were close to the program at the time offer differing opinions but nearly everyone agrees that Spurrier felt wounded when neither Young nor Foley really stepped up to support him when he tried to make the case that Darnell Dockett intentionally tried to injure Earnest Graham. Had the Gators beaten Tennessee, they still would have had to face LSU in the SEC Championship Game, but Florida had already destroyed Nick Saban and the Tigers in Baton Rouge earlier in the season, 44-15. But, win the SEC Championship Game and it would have been a Florida-Miami national championship game in the Rose Bowl. This was a Miami team that would eventually send more than 35 players to the NFL, one that had defeated the Gators 37-20 the year before in the Sugar Bowl. A lot of Miami people to this day believe the 2000 Hurricanes were better than the 2001 team. It could also be said that the 2001 Gators were an improved team over the one that lost to Miami in 2000. Would a healthy Florida with Earnest Graham have beaten the Hurricanes in the Rose Bowl? That’s a question we’ll never know the answer to, but it leads to another question that involves Spurrier. Had the Gators won that 2001 national championship, would Spurrier still have bolted for the NFL? Spurrier, if you remember, had one foot out the door after the Gators beat Florida State, 52-20, for the national championship in 1996 but after thinking things over, decided to stay with the Gators. In 1996, the FSU dynasty was still roaring and Miami was on its way back under Butch Davis, but five years later, the FSU dynasty was beginning to wobble and Butch Davis had moved on to the NFL, leaving behind Larry Coker. Even the heartiest of Hurricane fans found it hard to imagine Coker sustaining the program at the level it was when Davis left because Davis owned South Florida recruiting and Coker was perceived to be a below average recruiter. Spurrier might have sensed that Florida was on the verge of even greater things had he been able beat Miami for the national championship in the Rose Bowl. Would Jabar Gaffney, Reche Caldwell and Lito Sheppard have gone pro if Spurrier had announced he was staying another year? We will never know the answer to those questions and it’s senseless 20 years later to assign blame to anyone in the athletic department. However, just as life in America was permanently altered by 9/11 so was Florida football. In the 20 years since that 2001 season, the Gators have had one spectacular pocket of success from 2005-10 when Urban Meyer went 65-15 but otherwise the consistency that was always there with Spurrier has been missing. Meyer won SEC and national championships in 2006 and 2008, but neither Ron Zook (2002-04), Will Muschamp (2011-14) nor Jim McElwain (2015-17) won big and all three were fired. Dan Mullen is 30-9 since taking over from McElwain so it seems Florida football is creeping closer to a championship level program once again but it’s not there yet. The fear of every Florida football fan is that the glory years have come and gone, but this is a new football season and with the new season there is reason for hope. Saturday, when the Gators face South Florida at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, UF will wear commemorative helmets and uniforms to honor those who died on 9/11 and the first responders who saved countless lives. It’s just a football game and perhaps many will see this as a small gesture, but it is also a reminder that just as America rebuilt from the terror attacks Florida football can also be rebuilt. Hope does spring eternal. The twin towers weren’t rebuilt overnight but rebuilt they were and the new towers are glimmering masterpieces to the resolve of America. Perhaps Florida football will also be rebuilt as a glimmering masterpiece of what once was before the 9/11 attacks. Some things you just never forget.

"My admiration for Coach Spurrier for doing that is … It’s hard to imagine that when I came here in 2005. This guy in the shadows of Steve Spurrier and we become good friends." It was one of those photos that resonated deeply with the Florida Gator diehards. On the surface, just two coaching dudes taking a curtain call. Inside the Orange & Blueblood family, it felt like a tiny olive branch. But it was a lot more than that. This was also a homecoming. Meyer was back on home ground, even though the soil underfoot was now memorialized by the name of the guy standing next to him, Steve Spurrier. The greatness achieved on that grass by those two in that era is forevermore etched with victories and championships. If you’re scoring, that’s 187.5 wins and 11 titles. “Yeah, I guess Urban and I pretty much have them all,” Spurrier mused at the observation. Between the two of them, the two coaches have all that bling. Maybe eight SECs don’t sound like much compared to Alabama’s 28, but when you haven’t won anything in the first 81 years it takes a bit of catching up. Those titles for the Gators all came in the last three decades. “It was good to see Urban there,” said Spurrier, who’s been to Jaguars camp and remains friends with Meyer. What also needs a bit of catching up is mutual respect and appreciation. For some still-angry fans that may still take a minute. Haters gonna hate. And let’s not even try to adjudicate a few with ill feelings toward Urban for leaving Florida to work for ESPN -- and then winding up at Ohio State. Some have moved on since then, some have not. There was a loud cheer – presumably not all for Spurrier. And no boos. “It was almost surreal,” Urban told me later. Last summer, Pat Dooley wrote this for a UF Website: “But Florida has taken it slowly because of Meyer’s conflicts and the conflicted feelings of the fans. Stricklin has asked me several times about when I thought the time would be right, and I know he doesn’t want to pull the trigger and then have Meyer coaching back in college again. “I do think it has softened a bit, this anger toward Meyer because of the way he left Florida, but it’s still there. There is certainly a concern that a Ring of Honor ceremony could lead to booing from those fans who don’t want it to happen, and that would be embarrassing to the school and the program. That’s why there is a possibility that Florida will have Steve Spurrier introduce Meyer, and if you boo the HBC, you are no longer a Gator.” That sort of happened last Saturday. “It was great to hear them cheering for Urban again,” said someone close to him. So maybe Urban Renewal is underway. Now that he’s a resident of Florida again, coaching that NFL team up north, Urban’s blood is running a bit more Orange & Blue than Scarlet & Gray, in between pulses of Teal & Black. The next day in his Jaguars press conference, Urban addressed the issue of his departure from UF for the first time. "I love Gainesville, I love Florida. I wish I had left differently," said Meyer. "But that was a deeply personal situation, but I'll always be respectful to the Gators and I'll always be a Gator fan. My former coach is a coach there and I support them and, shoot, I even pumped up a recruit when he walked by me." Perhaps a little short of an apology for those who would have preferred one, but at least they got a mea culpa. Maybe it was a gesture to help heal any scars. Some people seem to feel they are owed an apology before Urban is inducted into the Ring of Honor. Perhaps lost in that brief ceremony was the power of the glory these two men have brought to the University of Florida. "First time here since I was the coach,” Urban said to Scott Carter of FloridaGators.com. Meyer noted also that it was the first game he’d come to The Swamp in his own car. "Coach Spurrier, we've become good friends. Love hanging out with him." Before the game Urban took in the Gator Walk, which was established by UF under his regime, where the players walk the gauntlet of fans through the North end zone in street clothes before kickoff. "You could feel the energy," said Meyer. We spoke a few days before Urban’s first game as Jags coach and the good feelings were still reverberating. “I’m grateful to Scott Stricklin,” he said, “and to the Spurriers for hanging out for three hours before the game … watching games together. My admiration for Coach Spurrier for doing that is … It’s hard to imagine that when I came here in 2005. This guy in the shadows of Steve Spurrier and we become good friends. And we hang out on the field together.” So what did they talk about all that time? “We talked about restaurants. We talked about family. We talked about Crescent Beach. Jacksonville. Talked about the quarterback situation. Dan Mullen. And football plays. And a little bit about the NFL. He shared some of his experiences with me.” Regarding his statement about wishing it could have ended differently, Urban took it a step further. “I made a comment (later) when I asked the question,” he said, “that I never really got the chance to like apologize for the way it ended. It happened fast and it was deeply personal. If there’s any doubt or hesitation about my love for Florida, Shelley’s love for Florida, the appreciation we’ve had for Gator Nation and those players that played … three times they went 13-1 and won two national titles. That will always be there. And I’m extremely grateful for that.” Perhaps standing there together on Steve Spurrier-Florida Field, flashing a Gator chomp in the brief re-introduction to fans, was exactly the tonic needed to celebrate the past and move on to the future. You’re up, Dan Mullen.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: THE GOAL SHOULD BE IMPROVEMENT IN EVERY PHASE OF THE GAME The Las Vegas line for ninth-ranked Florida’s game with South Florida (0-1) in Tampa Saturday afternoon (1 p.m., ABC) at Raymond James Stadium is 28.5 points. Given the fact South Florida gave up 293 rushing yards in their 45-0 loss to North Carolina State last week and the Gators (1-0) ran for a nation-leading 400 against Florida Atlantic, the Vegas line seems awfully low. Florida is going to win this football game, the only thing we don’t know is by how much? With Alabama coming to Gainesville next weekend, the Gators need to focus on across the board improvement. Too many points were left on the field last week on the offensive side of the ball. The defense was too soft in coverage and despite six sacks, the Gators could have put more pressure on FAU quarterbacks. On special teams, kickoffs were consistently too short, something that will come back to bite UF against teams with speedy returners. When the Gators depart Tampa to return to Gainesville Saturday evening, then need to feel confident that they’ve gotten better. Here are the five areas that call for the most improvement: 1. Emory Jones must make better decisions in the passing game: Emory Jones needs to leave Tampa feeling confident that he’s going to play well against Alabama and the best way to accomplish that is to put last week’s FAU game in the rearview. It’s a new week, a new opponent, and Jones has now started a college football game so he should feel more confident. Perhaps no one put more pressure on Emory Jones last week than Emory Jones. He can relax now. He’s started. He’s got a win. Now he can focus his attention on getting better, particularly in the passing game. Florida didn’t lack for open receivers last week, but the passing game did lack for good decision making and strong throws. Dan Mullen has raved about how well the ball comes out of Jones’ hand. We need to see that against USF. He needs to make good reads, step into his passes instead of throwing off his back foot, and he needs to hit receivers downfield on the break. If he can do that, not only will he feel better about his chances to move the football against Alabama next week, but so will a Gator nation that is waiting to be convinced Jones is the right man for the job. 2. Get some meaningful snaps for Anthony Richardson: Richardson can’t simply see the field once the game is out of reach. He needs some meaningful snaps because if anything were to happen to Emory Jones, he’s the next man up. He definitely needs some snaps with the No. 1 offensive line and receivers. As talented as he is, Richardson still needs the experience because on the job training against a team like Alabama is never a good thing for a freshman. 3. The O-line has to make it two straight games without allowing a sack: The Gators ran for 400 yards last week, averaging 8.7 yards per carry. That was impressive, but what had to please Dan Mullen and O-line coach John Hevesy was zero sacks allowed and not a single quarterback hurry. USF managed only seven sacks last season and just one against North Carolina State. If UF allows a sack it most likely means someone on the O-line either lost his focus or was flat out lazy. 4. Take away the middle in the USF run game: FAU managed only 92 rushing yards and 2.49 per carry in week one, but those averages are tempered by six sacks that were good for -36 yards. Still, it’s a genuine improvement over 2020 when UF gave up more than 170 yard per game and 4.56 per carry. South Florida is probably going to try to shorten the game by running the football straight at the UF middle. If they try to go wide, Florida has too much speed, so it’s essential that the Gators eliminate all the gaps between the tackles. Expect Des Watson to be on the field for perhaps 15-20 snaps. He can be a run-stuffing weapon. 5. Eliminate the penalties: The Gators averaged fewer than 5.5 penalties per game in each of the last two seasons. Against Florida Atlantic, the Gators committed nine for -91 yards, which is more penalties in a game than there has been since the LSU game in 2018. You can get away with that in a game with the likes of FAU but it’s a bad precedent. Nine penalties including four personal fouls will get you beat against Alabama. The Sayer Says Sooth: FLORIDA 59, South Florida 7 THE SEC SOOTHSAYER Mercer (1-0) at No. 1 Alabama (1-0): Alabama gets its charitable donation to a D1AA team out of the way. There are two chances Mercer wins this game: no way and no how. The only thing Alabama has to fear is that one of its key players gets hurt, which would require Nick Saban looking down his bench and stroking his chin as he decides which former 5-star recruit gets the call to be the replacement. The Sayer says sooth: Alabama 63, Mercer 7 UAB (1-0) at No. 2 Georgia (1-0): The people in Las Vegas are really concerned that JT Daniels might have to sit this game with a core injury, which would mean redshirt freshman Carson Beck, who has never thrown a pass in a real game, would get the start. They’re so concerned that the Poodles are a 24-point favorite. UAB coach Bill Clark is terrific and should one day hold down an SEC job, but no matter how well he prepares a team, he doesn’t have the horses to hang with Georgia. Still, it might not be a blowout of epic proportions. The Sayer says sooth: Georgia 30, UAB 7 No. 5 Texas A&M (1-0) at Colorado (1-0): It’s a road game against a team from the pathetic Pac-12. Haynes King can have a repeat of last week when he completes passes to the other team and it won’t matter because the Aggies are going to win. They might go boring and just run the ball. They can do that. The Sayer says sooth: Texas A&M 35, Colorado 17 Austin Peay (1-0) at #20 Ole Miss (1-0): Did you happen to catch the Ole Miss defense against Louisville Monday night? They weren’t exactly write home to mom about, but they were vastly improved over last year when every snap by the other team was a 10-yard play looking for a place to happen. Austin Peay may not score. Matt Corral will have this one in the win column before halftime. The Sayer says sooth: Ole Miss 60, Austin Peay 14 No. 15 Texas (1-0) at Arkansas (1-0): There was a time when Texas-Arkansas was as big a game as there was in all of college football. That was the old SWC (Sure We Cheat) days when the coaches were Darrel Royal and Frank Broyles. Much has changed since then, but with Texas coming to the SEC within the next three or so years, the rivalry can be rekindled. It might not be as big as it once was, but it will be nice to see the two teams squaring off again. The Sayer says sooth: Texas 28, Arkansas 17 Alabama State (1-0) at #25 Auburn (1-0): A second straight cupcake means Auburn needs to be checking its team A1C. Bo Nix was sizzling last week against Akron, which is only slightly better than D1AA Alabama State. He will sizzle again Saturday which will have Auburn fans thinking he’s going to be a stud QB this year. Let’s see how much sizzle he has when he faces Penn State in Happy Valley next week, but for now, he’ll look like he actually knows how to hit a receiver on the numbers. The Sayer says sooth: Auburn 61, Alabama State 10 Missouri (1-0) at Kentucky (1-0): The first SEC game of the season might be the best game of the day considering the number of games that will be blowouts. Kentucky is a 5.5-point favorite based on its big win over Louisiana-Monroe, a game in which the Wildcats threw for an unheard of 419 yards. Mizzou got nine sacks last week against Central Michigan. If the Tigers can get even half that much pressure on Will Levis this week, this could be white knuckles to the bitter end. The Sayer says sooth: Kentucky 24, Missouri 21 North Carolina State (1-0) at Mississippi State (1-0): The Bulldogs played like they were comatose for three quarters last week before they erupted for three fourth quarter touchdowns to beat Louisiana Tech. If they get off to a similar start against North Carolina State it will be a long day at the office. This will come down to Mississippi State’s ability to stop the NC State ground game. If the Bulldogs can hold NC State to 150 or fewer yards, they win. If they can’t it’s an embarrassing loss to a team from the Always Climpson Conference. The Sayer says sooth: Mississippi State 28, North Carolina State 24 Pittsburgh (1-0) at Tennessee (1-0): The Vols are 3-point underdogs but it feels like it should be worse. Pitt isn’t that bad and has a proven quarterback in Kenny Pickett. Joe Milton looked good running the ball last week but he was very inconsistent throwing. If the Vols are unable to throw with any consistency against Pitt, they’ll go down in flames. The Sayer says sooth: Pittsburgh 28, Tennessee 21 South Carolina (1-0) at East Carolina (0-1): It really doesn’t matter who the Gamecocks start at quarterback, whether it’s last week’s starter Zeb Noland or Luke Doty, who missed last week with an injury. Winning Saturday is going to be all about who runs the ball best and with Kevin Harris back from injury to go with MarShawn Lynch, the Gamecocks will have the advantage over an ECU team that was hosed last week by Appalachian State of the Fun Belt. The Sayer says sooth: South Carolina 30, East Carolina 24 McNeese State (0-1) at LSU (0-1): A week ago LSU was ranked with people talking about how close the Tigers were to getting back to a championship level. After the way they played last week at UCLA, a lot of people are revising their estimates and thinking this might be a 6-6 season. If it’s a break-even season, Coach O will be on Lane Kiffin’s staff at Ole Miss next year. It will be dial-a-score Saturday against D1AA McNeese State. The Sayer says sooth: LSU 49, McNeese State 10 Vanderbilt (0-1) at Colorado State (0-1): Just how bad is Vanderbilt? Well, the Commodores are 7-point road dogs to a Colorado State team that got trashed last week by D1AA South Dakota State. The Fighting Addazios are going to get their first win of the season. October 2 can’t get here fast enough for Vanderbilt. That’s when UConn comes to Nashville for the last game the Commodores have even the slightest chance of winning. Another oh-fer season is on the way. The Sayer says sooth: Colorado State 30, Vanderbilt 7 ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: College football will be played Saturday on the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, DC. Football and all sports came to a screeching halt that week as all flights were grounded nationwide but sports seemed so insignificant at the time. There was an attack on US soil that cost thousands of lives and that was all that was important. Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when the planes struck the twin towers?

Rick Wells is soft spoken, a raspy voice that he keeps registered in a low timbre; a voice that speaks of humility and perhaps even a cautiousness, leery of attention. It’s recognizant of his raising, molding him to work even when the pay off couldn’t be seen, to stay true even when life lied. If he slipped up, get up. If he messed up, fix it. If he made a commitment, keep it. Now heading into his sixth year in Gainesville, the Jacksonville native is seeing his patience come to fruition. “I mean everything I’ve been through, transferring never came through my mind,” Wells admitted this week. "The way I grew up, I grew up on loyalty. They’ve been loyal to me so I’m loyal to Gator Nation. So why not stick with them?” That’s exactly what he’s done the past few years. The sixth year Florida Gators receiver freely admits his path has hit bumps. Some were self inflicted, as a young kid learning how to be on his own for the first time. Others a result of bad timing as the Gators received an influx of transfer receivers. But he waited, he worked and he prepared. “The journey has been a lot of ups and downs and just seeing so many guys do it the right way, seeing so many guys do it the wrong way. Just picking up on things trying to put it into my life and trying to be the best person I can be. It’s been a long road, but I feel like it’s been a great one. A lot of learned lessons to better myself as a person and a player.” For the past five years, Wells would follow a pattern. He’d put on an excellent spring practice performance, then taper off in fall camp, leading to others receiving more snaps in the regular season. Instead of becoming bitter, Wells elected to become better, studying those that were getting playing time. “The guys that were ahead of me, they were great guys. They were great football players, I mean, very talented guys. Everybody has to wait their turn. So just being behind those guys, why not learn from them? Learn everything that they’re doing just to put it towards my game. “Learn from KT [Kadarius Toney], learn from Josh Hammond, one of the smartest guys I ever been around. Just learning, man. And putting things into your life and trying to do things the best way that you can.” Football is often said to create great athletes, but even more importantly, create great men. When Head Coach Dan Mullen arrived in Gainesville, Wells had been on the team for two years…and not played a single snap. He redshirted his freshman year and spent his sophomore year away from the team, serving a suspension for one of those aforementioned bumps. He paid his due so we won’t continue to rehash a man’s worst moment from which he’s already grown. Suffice to say, he recalls now a time in which he needed to reshape his mindset. It was something Dan Mullen admits he and Wells had to work on, but it was worth the work. “Rick just shows, you know, the perseverance,” Mullen bragged on Saturday night, following the Gators 35-14 win over FAU. “I mean he's a guy, he's worked his tail off. You know when I got here, early on I had questions whether he would make it and then I said 'hey, eventually you got to buy into the program.' “And he bought all into the program, and I saw a change in him, and then all of a sudden he got stuck kind of behind some guys even though he bought in. But it never deterred him, and he just, you know, I mean he kept battling and kept working, kept his head down, kept grinding and now he's reaping the reward of, you know, of all that hard work.” Adds Wells, “I saw a change that I had to make in myself just to try to get where I want to be, not just with football, but just being who I want to be and the impact that I have on people. I mean, that was the change that I was really looking for. Just the impact that I have on people and the way that they see me was the biggest thing for me.” While Wells waited for his turn, he also worked to do the best he could off the field as well. He graduated last May, which he calls one of the best feelings he’s ever had. And when the NCAA offered a sixth year of eligibility in light of athletes losing a normal year in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Wells took it for a simple reason; “I would say God is good. It’s better being here than being back home, God is good.” On Saturday night, in front of a packed Swamp, playing in his last home opener, Rick Wells finally had his moment. After a big first down pickup from Wells helped the Gators move downfield for their first scoring drive of the night, of the second trip to the redzone, Florida was facing a 1st and goal from the 9-yard line. Quarterback Emory Jones swung a screen to his left, finding Wells. The receiver bounced his way through defenders, then high stepped the last yard into the end zone. It was his first career touchdown. “Just run. Just run man. Just run. That was the only thing in my head, just run,” laughed Wells. The play was almost just as special for the quarterback who threw the touchdown. “Just giving him his first touchdown,” mused Emory Jones, “when I threw it and he scored, he came back and told me ‘Thank you.’ And I said ‘You know I’ve got you.’ “I know what he’s been through in his time here. He’s been through a lot off the field — stuff that not a lot of people know about. I was just excited to give him an opportunity to go score. He’ll definitely be in the rotation a lot. He’s been making plays at practice. He’s ready.” He’s ready; moreso, he’s been ready. Because there was never a chance he could give up. Rick Wells knew that as long as he could, he’d be here for the Florida Gators. “My family just preaches loyalty, really. We got a saying in our family, it’s called we all we got. Loyalty over love. So, I mean, that’s what I go by. Loyalty over love.”

Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media this week to preview the No. 13 Florida Gators week 2 matchup against the USF Bulls, reflect on 9/11 memories with the 20th anniversary upcoming, and break down the two-quarterback system. As a valued GatorBait Magazine Subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. Opening: “Obviously excited this week, an exciting week here in Florida, exciting week, really, think of the Tampa area this week, right. You get the Bucs opening up the defense of their Super Bowl against the Cowboys Thursday night and Florida-USF Saturday. Kind of exciting week for the people in the Tampa area. Going to be a big game obviously for us. A fun game, guys are going to know each other, a lot of Florida players on the roster. The opportunity when you get to play those in-state games, that’s what happens. Obviously going to be going into a tough, hostile environment down in Tampa with the USF fans. I’ve already seen their players come out saying this game’s been circled for them for years. It will be a big game for us in a big-game environment. We’ve got to have a great week of practice and take some big steps forward.” Timetable where trust a QB knows the offense? “Anthony knows the offense. It’s just getting the reps and the experience of the decision-making and making all the reads and checks within the offense. You go watch the film, he made spectacular but missed some very, very simple checks within the game plan. It’s just that comfort, and then that comfort of being able to execute it within a game, so obviously you can make that time work however you need to make it work sometimes. But it’s the best when you can let guys learn it the right way and build a really solid foundation.” TALKED IN OCTOBER 2019 ABOUT TEBOW/LEAK DYNAMIC... CAN YOU ENVISION PLAYING THEM OFF EACH OTHER (JONES/RICHARDSON)? “Well sure. I mean we'll see how this week's game plays out.” YOU UNDERSTAND THE ENTHUSIASM FOR RICHARDSON, RIGHT? “There's always enthusiasm for everybody, you know? When they come in... and he made some great plays. Hey, I was here in '06 and there was enthusiasm, huge enthusiasm for Tim Tebow and he played about six, seven plays a game. But those six, seven plays are a lot of enthusiasm. So yeah, I've seen it before and understand it." O-LINE, 400 YARDS, NO SACKS... TIGHT ENDS AS WELL NO CATCHES BUT BLOCKED WELL ON BIG RUNS “Yeah, I thought the offensive line did a solid job. I think one of the things, there's some experience with those guys right there. So you see a little probably less Game 1 jitters and being back out there. To them it's not, 'Hey, I'm out on the field, wow, this is a crazy experience.' Their adjustment is, 'We're back out on the field.' So they're kind of adjusting to game mode, game speed, game dynamics more than just the experience of playing. But I thought those guys handled it pretty well. You see some really good things they did and they missed a couple things here and there that we'll get corrected." Rick Wells and Malik Davis, guys that have been on periphery lately had a big game, speak to the program? “I think the deal is that guys grow and gain that experience You see a lot of guys that transfer out and wherever they go they grow and they learn and they eventually end up having good careers. So I think it’s more about your development and your overall development from the beginning to the end of your career. Those guys took very different paths. Malik’s career obviously has hit speed bumps due to injuries and that’s kind of slowed him down through the course of his career and Rick, his was a lot more development based. For either of them to never be discouraged along the way but to put their head down and grind and keep working, it’s always great to see people that do that, do things the right way to have success.” Where do you want to see offensive line improve? “Well a lot of different ways, missed a couple of blocks here and there. In the scheme they missed a couple of decisions within our scheme and what we were doing. I mean that way would be a big way to get those guys to continue, not all of them graded out. You know just more consistency of play would be important.” What’d you think of Avery Helm’s performance and the other CBs? “Yeah, they you know, I mean, good experience both really Avery and Jason, getting in there a bunch. You know, and then Blades coming in too, that's their first action plan in The Swamp for those guys. So, you know, I think overall they held up, you know, and I think now they're going to be able to take a bigger step forward right there, you know, now that, kind of like, ‘Hey I've been on the field, I played in the game, I've played in front of 90,000 people’, or what, however many were here, and you know, ‘Now I know what that's all about. Now I just get back to playing football’.” When people talk about two quarterback system and being able to run it, they refer back to Leak and Tebow being one of the best examples of it. You saw it up close better than anybody, so what’s the difference rotating a quarterback in for a series here and there versus a true two quarterback system, and if so what made it work, how could you possibly replicate it now? “I mean the real two quarterback system, you probably got to go ask the coach Spurrier, you know, and he was rolling them through by play in there. That to me is more of a two quarterback system. You know, the other way we did it with, with Chris and Tim, we kind of had, Tim had his package of plays that, you know, he did really well and it was kind of this group, like it wasn't like he was going in to run the same offense. He was going to run a special package of plays when he was a freshman, you know, and so, you know, or when he was young and doing that with Chris. So it is kind of different in different fields. I guess there's a lot of different ways you can go about it. You can do the Coach Spurrier play where you rotate them by play. That I guess would be a real true two quarterback system. You know what we did on Saturday which is, you know, development of the two quarterback system which is— you know, I mean Anthony's never really played much in games so to get him out there to get him experience, kind of like we used to do with Emory, throw him in—and then the last year you had kind of more of the other one, where you'd have Emory would have maybe a couple of packages of plays that we put in for him for a game so there's different ways you can do it.” You're playing Saturday, on September, 11, the 20th anniversary of course of September 11. Especially for yourself being from that area, what do you kind of remember about that day and how do you relay its importance to a team of guys that were some of them weren't even born when it happened? “Yeah, I haven't thought about that within our team, yet as much, you know. You’re kind of right now getting into the game part of it all, you know, getting the first game under our belt and getting ready for the second game. You know I kind of get all that the pre-game and all that stuff ready a little bit later in the week. Right now you're kind of working on the plan, a little bit more. But it is—I remember a lot about that day, you know that whole situation. I was coaching at Bowling Green and, you know, we're sitting in there and like someone said' hey you know a plane crashed in the World Trade Center.’ We’re game planning, supposed to play South Carolina that week. And you know, you're like being from, living in New York for four years, you're like, 'something must have gone horribly wrong right there at LaGuardia airport or something for that to happen.' And, you know, then you realize what was really going on and it's kind of a very, very scary day and, you know, kind of canceled football for that week, had a huge impact on that season for us, in football aspect of things, but obviously, you know, bigger impact on on life. You know, and it's, I think as everybody remembers it's changed a lot about the world, you know, in those 20 years, it's changed an awful lot about the world and how we carry ourselves on a daily basis.” How did QBs grade out compared to each other? “I don’t have all the specifics. They were both OK. I kinda look at, we go down in the room —we have the meeting with them to maybe go through some of the reads. If you go, like, how we do our grades, Anthony probably graded a little higher because he had explosive plays, and you get extra points for having the big, explosive plays. But if I went pure without giving the bonus points in, probably very similar.” State opponents like USF, FAU. Why are those important to you? “I think for one, it’s a pretty neat game for people in the state of Florida. Again, this might not have national implications right now. I don’t know that, besides the Gator Club of Seattle, everybody in Seattle can’t wait to see. I’m sure there’s, like, high school players that are excited to watch the Gators play all over the country. But the general fan in Seattle’s probably not all, can’t wait for this game to happen. But I think here in the state of Florida, this game’s a big game. The fans. You’re going down to the Tampa area, for their fans to be able to come see that, for players – both teams, the highest percentage of players are going to be from the state of Florida, their families can come see this game. Guys know each other from growing up and seeing the two teams play, so I think that’s what always makes it fun on these kind of – when you can create little in-state rivalry games like this, I think it’s good for the state.” Worried about losing matchups like USF with SEC possibly going to a nine- or 10-game slate? “Yeah, I don’t know. That’s just … that’s like a talk radio discussion right there. You can have me get on talk radio and discuss for hours what everybody should do in the future of college football.” Thought process behind using Richardson on the Hail Mary? “Well, I think one of those … Last year that was Kyle Pitts’ position, you know. Where you kind of have a point guy that can go up and get a rebound. You’re just throwing the ball on a hail mary into the end zone. And so when you look, if we want out on the basketball court and he’s going to be our best power forward, that’s the guy you kind of want to put at that spot right there to go try to jump up and make the play. So, it’s something we came up with in training camp, put him in that position. And again, it’s just one of those things, how are you utilizing the personnel on our team as much as possible?” Andrew Chatfield still with the team? Practicing? “Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he played in the game on Saturday.” You guys hoping to keep him here? “That would be up to him, I guess, more than us. I mean, there’s nowhere to go right now. So, he’s still here with the team.” Injury update, did you exit the game clean? “Yeah, we did. We don't have any injuries coming out of the game, which is very fortunate. Hoping to get, you know, Lamar Goods back this week on the defensive line. Jalen Lee is going to be questionable, we're not sure, he'll be right there on the edge of being ready for this game on the defensive line. So you know, having four interior D-linemen out, that was tricky in game one so hopefully we get two of them back this week. Jaelin Humphries and Chris Thomas will both be another week or two, so, that way. Who else you got? Kamar Wilcoxson is going to miss the year, he had a knee surgery so he's going to miss the rest of the season. Am I missing people? Anybody else you want to know about or, like I mean, I didn't bring my sheet up with me." What did you think about Steve Spurrier alternating QBs when you were a WR coach at Columbia, did you think it was insane? “I'll be honest with you, I didn't. I mean, I have so much respect for Coach Spurrier, I just, I would never think anything that he did would be insane. As a young coach, you're sitting there saying, 'I wonder what's behind it all.' And it's a really unique deal. I mean, there's a lot you can get out of it. Now, it can affect the rhythm of your team and it can affect the rhythm of the players, but as long as the players, one of the most important things is that the guys know what the plan is, you know? There's not a shock or a surprise, you know? I mean coming into this game on Saturday, 'Hey, we're gonna get Anthony in the third series of the game unless something weird happened,' you know, and we did that. And then, you know, I didn't have the set, 'Okay, he's going in the fifth series,' then it was we want to get him a couple more series in the course of the game, which I think we did. He got, I think he had three series. I think it was, maybe four at the end, we had an extra one. And, you know, so I think our guys kind of knew the plan going in. So I think that helps. And if you do do like an alternating thing, I think, you know, it's somewhat useful deal to be able to talk to the quarterback. You know, and say, 'Hey, you know, hey, we're gonna run this play, this is what I think they're going to do, go do it.' And you know, you get, it's kind of like the NFL, they have that little earpiece thing that you can talk to them on. That's a way you can talk to the quarterback between the plays, if you're going to rotate it by play.” Playing an opponent that got blown out last week, is that a tough sell or do you talk about opportunity to your team? “Well, you talk about it all. Now, they played a very, very good team in NC State. You know, a team that's, you know, might be one of the best teams in their conference last week, so I mean, I think you got to see that. But, obviously, and then you read the stuff in the paper, this is like the biggest game they've had there and their players have been circling it for years. And so, you know, I mean you look at that of it's gonna be a different type of team that we see this week maybe than we saw from them last week."

Florida Gators defensive coordinator Todd Grantham met with local media to recap the Gators win over FAU, preview the Week 2 matchup against the USF Bulls, talk Zach Carter, the secondary and more. As a valued GatorBait Magazine subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. HOW DO YOU ASSESS WEEK 1 AND WHAT YOU WANTED TO SEE AND WHAT YOU DID SEE? "Yeah, I think, one, it was great to get back in front of the fans, just the energy, the electricity of being in front of fans, it was really like nothing we experienced last year from that standpoint, so it was good. The biggest thing we talked about is being able to handle the tempo, getting lined up with some young guys, and I thought they did a really good job with that, for the most part. Communication was pretty clean. There was one or two things he could have done better. Because when you play a team, say, Game 1, they've had all year to, or offseason, to kind of put in new stuff that you may not be able to look at, so you've got to follow your concepts and your rules. And there was a couple times where something came up early in the game that we could have maybe played a little cleaner and guys came to the sidelines and it came up later on and we either got a negative play or a sack on that exact play, so that was good to see. In other words guys working the game from that standpoint. Overall it was just good to get guys out there, get them working. And I was pleased with our effort. I think that we're moving in the right direction. We understand that we've still got to work hard and continue to improve, but when you can go into the fourth quarter not giving up any points -- because at the end of the day the most important thing is not giving up any points -- that's a good thing. And as we went through the fourth quarter we kind of gave some young guys some opportunities to see what they can do and also took some other guys and kind of moved them to other positions to let them give us some flexibility. And it was good for those guys to get the experience, so we were able to get some things out there with them to kind of clean up, and that's what we focused on to help ourselves moving forward so we can be the kind of defense we want to be." ZACH CARTER CAME BACK THIS YEAR, STATED PRETTY LOFTY GOALS, WANTS TO RAISE STOCK. WHAT YOU THINK OF WEEK 1 FOR HIM? "Well I think any time you can get three sacks in a game you're going to be raising your stock, I don't care who you play. But the other things that show up is his ability to set the edge of the defense, his ability to be stout in the run game, then obviously when he's one-on-one that's a mismatch in our favor and that's really what you try to create every week, is guys like him getting those one-on-ones. Not only did he make plays and production, but he was a good teammate to other guys with his energy, his leadership, coaching guys. He didn't really play probably midway through the third quarter on -- there was really no reason to play him -- but he was in the game working the game and helping some of the guys we're going to need from a depth standpoint get the coaching they needed." OFFSEASON FOCUS WAS PRESSING MORE IN SECONDARY, WHAT GOES INTO DECISION TO DO THAT VS. MIXING ZONE COVERAGE? "We're going to play press pretty much majority of the time. Now sometimes based on splits and things like that you may not press, and you've got to be able to handle that, so that's why it's important that you have, we always say 'tools in your toolbox' relative to alignments and formations that you can play tight coverage. Because at the end of the day with quarterbacks being, the ability to be accurate, you want to play tight coverage to make guys more accurate with the ball, so that's something we'll continue to do." How comfortable during first ‘live’ look? “They were fine. They were fine. The calls were honestly the same as they’ve been in the past. The guys did a good job with the press and we mixed in some other things. We’re going to be a press team.” Looked like one CB pressing and one off on third-and-shorts, what goes into that? “You’re going to press, but it’s all based on splits and calls. If you go and look sometimes when they get in those stacks and things, you have to be able to pass things off. There were a couple we could have jumped a little bit quicker, a little bit cleaner and made the play. In actuality, going back to what I said in my first statement about taking the coaching and working the game in the third quarter I don’t think they had a conversion and they actually ran some of the plays that happened in the first half, two of them for example we could have played a little cleaner. You know, when you get up and press a guy it’s going to be based upon splits and things like that so that you don’t get rubbed. If you tell a guy to go play man and there’s a guy within close proximity, offensive guys like to use the word rub but in reality they’re going to pick you. So you gotta have tools within your defense to be able to handle those mesh routes and those rubs, as they like to call them, to be able to play tight coverage.” Rush four without blitzing a strength? “Yeah, we do have some guys up front that can make some plays. If a guy is going to basically catch the ball and throw on one step, it doesn’t make sense to pressure that much because the ball’s coming out. From that standpoint, guys on the rush have to understand that when you have to work to get your hands up because you’re probably not going to get there if a guy is catching and throwing. I think they had a good idea of the sense, we probably can’t block these guys on a traditional dropback because if you go back and look at traditional dropback passes probably the first one of the Zach gets a sack ball out. Actually, I think we ended up, we actually had seven sacks in the game and one was eliminated because of a penalty on 38 attempts. So if you can have that kind of ratio as far as sacks on pass attempts you’re going to be pretty good. In saying that you just got to understand if people are going to be quick with the ball then you want to be able to get tight coverage, maybe bracket guys but also understand up front you have to get your hands up so you can bat some balls and things.” Secondary play overall? “I liked the way they worked the game. You gotta figure there were a couple guys out there that hadn’t been in front of that kind of atmosphere, that crowd. When that happens you have to learn to keep your poise and stay within yourself. It’s great to be excited and charged up, but at the same time you have to make sure you can execute. I thought those guys did a good job of staying within themselves. They did a good job of working the game as far as understanding here are the things that are coming. And we played them a little bit cleaner the next time that they saw them. I think we just got to continue to coach them that way and progress them that way because they’re talented guys that just need reps.” What do you want to see them do better? “Getting back to it we could have been a little cleaner on a couple stacks as far as how to pick those things up. Probably not panic, there were a couple third down penalties there that were more of maybe not having awareness or panicking a little bit and just use your ability and you’ll be fine. I think it’s just understanding, you’re a good player, understand your leverage and what’s getting ready to happen relative to the situation, and then just go execute the call.” Cornerback 2 rotation (opposite of Elam), how important to solidify that this week “Yeah, I think as we move forward through the season they’re all gonna play. I don’t think that we can say we’re gonna put one guy out there for 80 snaps. I don’t think thats the way we’re gonna go about it. They just each gotta continue to work and compete and then they’re gonna get their reps. They’re earning their reps in practice right now. We’re going to continue to play both those guys, then come out, let them get a little bit of a breather, let them catch their breath a little bit and let the other guy go compete. In the league, we play in you’re gonna see some dynamic players and we’re gonna work them that way as far as making sure the guys are rotating and keep them fresh.” What did you like what you saw between Marshall/Helm? “The biggest thing is, when you go back and look, there were no explosive plays until the fourth quarter. I mean, if you go back and look, I want to say that through the first three quarters it was roughly slightly under four yards a pass attempt. That’s extremely low and that parts good. There are some plays we could have played better and that’s always going to be the case. Don’t give up explosive plays, be able to challenge balls, and be able to take coaching on the sidelines because what you maybe didn’t play as clean they’re going to come back and do. In the game that happened and we went from possibly giving up an explosive play on an incomplete pass to we got a sack and that’s guys taking coaching and making sure they work the game. That’s what I like.” Bend but don’t break defense? “I wouldn’t say, the first, we’re not going to be a bend but don’t break style. We’re going to challenge people. We could have played third downs a little cleaner in the first half, but you know, two of those third downs were on penalties that we really won the down and we had a penalty that allowed the drive to extend. And then two other ones we could have played cleaner and we actually played the same player later in the game in the third quarter and executed the way we needed to. We’re not going to be a bend but don’t break, we’re not going to give up points. That’s the biggest thing. To say bend don’t break, that’s not really the style we were playing. To me, the issue there in that game was the third down penalties in the first half allowed drives to extend and that’s what created some double digit drives right there. We played the same way in the third quarter and I think they had maybe 30 yards total offense or something like that and they were zero for three on third downs. I think actually it was like one first down and out. I think they had like four plays each series in the third quarter, so we're going to work to be more like that. In saying that, at the end of the day, the most important thing is don't give up points. But like I said, it was some young guys that played a little bit cleaner as the game went along in some of those situations and they'll work to improve this week and we'll work to get better and hopefully, when those things come up this week or next, be able to make those plays in the first quarter.” Balance with getting Desmond Watson on the field vs tech? “We're going to teach him the techniques before he goes out there. He’s going to know the techniques. You can’t let someone go out there without knowing techniques for how to play blocks. So he kind of understands that aspect of it. Now, as he gets older and more mature, his craftsmanship is going to become better from that standpoint, but we're always going to work to have him learning techniques and try to be able to play the blocks and being stout. I think with a guy like him is you got to look at a guy that can possibly be a two-down player for you, be able to give you a backup role, a rotational role to keep guys fresh because it's a long season, it's a long game and you just try to play as many guys as you can up front to try to keep them fresh. So that'll be his role moving forward is try to give him a few snaps to keep some guys fresh in the early downs of a game.” new DTs in Newkirk and Valentino: “I love those guys’ energy and effort. Those guys were into it, they brought energy. I thought their ability to play stout was good. They flashed some ability to separate and make some plays, and they'll continue to work hard with everybody else upfront to give us a rotation. I think our strength is going to have to be our ability to rotate some guys up front and keep them fresh to allow us to play with that physicality we feel like we need.” Jeremiah Moon's impressive first half: “Yeah, Moon’s a guy that did a really good job for us. He’s a guy that’s been here a long time. He worked his tail off to get back. If you look, he was pretty impressive in his edge rushes and he has a knack for knowing where the ball is. He was able to shed off some blocks and make some tackles in the run game. So he's certainly a pleasure to have around and I thought he played really good in the game.”

By CARLTON *NOT THE DOORMAN" REESE The Bulls will get their payday, their undeserved home game, and the Gators will get whatever Tampa-area exposure it deems necessary for recruiting. I had to eat a little crow with Carlton The Doorman last week, at whose assurances that FAU would cover 24.5 at Florida I chose to sneer. Well, he’s at it again, taking USF and 29 points against the Gators, but I feel confident this time my gut instincts are better than his Guy’s system. Think about South Florida for a moment: coached by Jeff Scott, son of former South Carolina coach Brad Scott. Need we say more? The South Florida football program was built by Jim Leavitt, who took the Bulls from scratch to a No.2 national ranking in his 11th season. But he was mean to a player and deemed unworthy of the USF stature and was fired following the 2009 season. The USF house built on the rock of Jim Leavitt has devolved into a grass hut that now plays in the shadow of Central Florida, a one-time stop in the incredible life journey of Lou Saban. After Leavitt, we’ve seen Skip Holtz then our good friend Willie Taggart, who incredibly re-built the Bulls to a national ranking in 2016. Then came Charlie Strong on his way down the coaching ladder and now Scott, who coaches next to offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. Scott and Weis somehow have ridden their father’s names to positions in college football. And why not? The two dads combined for a stellar 64-82-1 record as collegiate coaches, so their kids must be destined for greatness. Saturday, though, is not about head coaches – it’s about the Florida quarterbacks. This will be the final scrimmage for Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson in what looks like a battle for a starting job now. The Bulls will get their payday, their undeserved home game and the Gators will get whatever Tampa-area exposure it deems necessary for recruiting. Then it’s on to host Alabama. Lest anyone think Florida’s players are looking past USF to the Tide, you had better be correct. What possible reason could Florida have in taking this game seriously, what with the Bulls’ solid opening-day performance against N.C. state? This team is just plain bad, and that may be what keeps the Gators from covering those 29 points. No matter how bad USF is, this is the Game of the Decade for the Bulls and they will be playing on sky-high emotion. The emotion-level for Florida may be something akin to standing in a Russian breadline. Perhaps that emotion can carry USF for a quarter or so and catch the Gators napping early, but this game will be handed over to the backups at some point in the third quarter and therein lies the reason Carlton The Doorman may get his win with the 29 points. As for me, I don’t think there is enough emotion in Tampa to steer the lack of talent within 29 points of the Gators. Carlton The Doorman reveals his Guy’s picks for this week: Home dogs- Connecticut plus 33.5 over Purdue Akron plus 7 over Temple Road dogs- Tulsa plus 13.5 over Oklahoma State Toledo plus 16.5 over Notre Dame Ball State plus 22 over Penn State Buffalo plus 13.5 over Nebraska Hawaii plus 11 over Oregon State Home favorites to consider- Coastal Carolina minus 25.5 over Kansas Army minus 7 over W. Kentucky East Carolina minus 2 over South Carolina USC minus 17.5 over Stanford Carlton The Doorman’s Games of Note this week: Florida by 24 over South Florida Pittsburgh by 20.5 over Tennessee Georgia by 13.5 over UAB Texas by 12 over Arkansas Mississippi State-N.C. State EVEN Ohio State by 18.5 over Oregon Iowa by 0.5 over Iowa State Michigan by 9 over Washington BYU by 1 over Utah USC by 28 over Stanford Miami by 3.5 over Appalachian State

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: SATURDAY’S GAME IS CRITICAL, HERE’S WHY When I think about the South Florida Bulls, who the Gators play in Tampa Saturday afternoon, I’m reminded of those old Johnny Carson monologues. Johnny would say something like “they were so bad” and Ed McMahon and the studio audience would immediately chime in with, “how bad were they?” How bad are the Bulls? Well, they’re so bad that the Gators can probably play the worst game they’ve played in the Dan Mullen era at the University of Florida and still cover the 28.5-point spread, which seems awfully low. Despite what is almost certain to turn into a blowout early on, this is a critical game for the Gators for a variety of reasons but especially these three: (1) More cohesion in the defense; (2) get Emory Jones playing in a game the way he does in practice; and (3) more experience for Anthony Richardson, who will definitely need it in the event something were to happen to Emory either against USF or Alabama. It’s important to point out that through three quarters against FAU, the defense was pitching a shutout and had given up only 173 yards (70 rushing, 103 passing). Todd Grantham played a lot of kids in the fourth quarter and FAU picked up 180 yards and two touchdowns. Grantham has to get the rotations he wants set and know who he can depend on before Big Bad Bama comes to town, so he needs a game that’s intense with everyone knowing their role and what to do when the call comes in from the sideline. Emory Jones had this self-assessment of his play against FAU: “Just watching, I didn’t look very comfortable to myself, and I mean, I’m very comfortable every day in practice. I’ve been doing this for a couple of years, so just watching it, I didn’t feel like I looked really comfortable, like it was my first start.” Jones has to play better this week, especially in the passing game. He’s got to make better reads and has to get the ball down the field. You can’t beat Alabama throwing 2-inch passes. Richardson had the better outing against FAU whether we’re talking his one series in the first half or the last 10 minutes when he made some highlight reel plays. Like Jones, however, he’s got to do a better job in the passing game. We know he can run like a deer, just like Emory, but he’s got to show that he can make good throws to open receivers. If something were to happen to EJ either Saturday or during the Alabama game, the last thing the Gators need is a quarterback who can’t make the defense respect the pass. The Gators are going to win Saturday, we just don’t know by how much. The game is critical because if the Gators are going to stand a chance to beat Alabama, they have to show some real improvement against USF. STATS THAT MATTER: WHERE THE GATORS RANK NATIONALLY/SEC Total offense (13/5): 553 yards per game, 6.83 yards per snap Rushing offense (1/1): 400 yards per game, 8.7 yards per carry Passing offense (106/11): 153 yards per game, 4.7 per attempt Sacks allowed (Tie 1/Tie 1): 0 sacks allowed Scoring offense (Tie 45/Tie 9): 35 points per game Total defense (64/10): 353 yards per game, 5.04 yards per snap Rushing defense (46/8): 92 yards per game, 2.49 per carry Passing defense (90/12): 261 yards per game, 7.9 per attempt Sacks (Tie 5/Tie 3): 6 sacks for -36 yards Scoring defense (Tie 35/8): 14 points per game OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama (1-0): Ahead of Saturday’s game with D1AA Mercer, Nick Saban was questioning his team’s intensity. “The scoreboard affects us,” Saban said. “Who we’re playing affects us. The heat affects us. The media and what you guys write every day affects us, so, to me, we have to prove we can play and maintain intensity and do things the way we’re supposed to.” Arkansas (1-0): HBC Sam Pittman wants the targeting rule re-examined. “It seems like the crime and the punishment don’t match,” Pittman said on the SEC Coaches Teleconference. In their season opening win over Rice, linebacker Grant Morgan was ejected for targeting in the first half and linebacker Bumper Pool was ejected for targeting in the second half. Pool will have to sit the first half of Saturday’s game with Texas. Auburn (1-0): Quarterback guru Jordan Palmer, whose past clients include Josh Allen and Joe Burrow is predicting big things from Bo Nix this year. “From an arm-talent standpoint, he’s ready to rock,” Palmer said … Basketball: Allan Flanigan, who averaged 14.3 points and 5.5 rebounds last year, has undergone surgery on his Achilles tendon. He will miss a minimum of 12-14 weeks so he could be back in time for the SEC portion of Auburn’s schedule. Georgia (1-0): Quarterback JT Daniels may miss Saturday’s game with UAB due to a core injury. He is currently listed day-to-day. If Daniels is unable to go, redshirt freshman Carson Beck will get the start. Kentucky (1-0): Offensive coordinator Liam Coen says missed blocking assignments, among other things, contributed to UK running for only 145 yards against Louisiana-Monroe in the season opener. “We should’ve had a lot more rushing yards than we probably ended up with and those guys see that and they’ll fix that stuff,” Coen said Wednesday … Freshman corner Maxwell Hairston is not with the team due to personal reasons. LSU (0-1): Paul Finebaum called out both Coach O and corner Daryl Stingley Jr. on his show Monday. Regarding Coach O, Finebaum said, “I thought somebody was telling us Friday that they were going to knock Alabama off or at least contend. Ed O opened his yap and suddenly pressure is building on the bayou.” Regarding Stingley, who had just two tackles, Finebaum said, “I think every LSU fan who’s a legitimate fan knows who the best player on that team is and just watch the end of the game [UCLA] and see what kind of effort he was giving.” Mississippi State (1-0): Quarterback Will Rogers has signed an NIL deal with the Moe’s Original Barbecue chain which has locations in 14 states. Missouri (1-0): Missouri leads the nation in sacks with nine for 68 yards in losses. Ole Miss (1-0): HBC Lane Kiffin, who had to sit out the season opening win over Louisville due to COVID-19 protocols, will be on the sideline Saturday when the Rebels host D1AA Austin Peay in Oxford. On the SEC Coaches Teleconference, Kiffin said, “I have no symptoms. I’m great now. I will be back for the game so I’m excited about that.” South Carolina (1-0): Defensive back R.J. Roderick, who missed the season opener due to a suspension, is expected to return to the South Carolina lineup this week. Tennessee (1-0): Tennessee is still waiting to hear from the NCAA regarding the eligibility of junior college transfer linebacker Byron Young. “Hopefully we’ll have it here within the next 24-48 hours,” HBC Josh Heupel said on the SEC Coaches Teleconference. Texas A&M (1-0): When talking about having a dual threat QB like redshirt freshman Haynes King, Jimbo Fisher said, “I’m a guy who believes you win from the pocket, your accuracy … and then you have to add your legs onto that. Having a guy who can do all those things is a blessing.” Vanderbilt (0-1): Tight end Ben Bresnahan is out for Saturday’s game at Colorado State and is listed as week-to-week. Bresnahan suffered a lower leg injury in the loss to East Tennessee State last week. GET READY FOR THE RIPPLE EFFECTS WHEN THE BIG 12 ANNOUNCES EXPANSION PLANS Friday, the Big 12 is expected to announce it has accepted the applications to join the league from independent BYU and Cincinnati, UCF and Houston from the American Athletic Conference (AAC). That’s been in the news cycle for a week so it’s nothing new. What is new is the expected ripple effect from the Big 12’s moves to counter the exit of Texas and Oklahoma to the Southeastern Conference. BYU can join the Big 12 immediately since it’s an independent. Sources tell Sports Illustrated and others that Cincinnati, UCF and Houston intend to begin competing in the Big 12 as early as 2023. All three AAC schools will have to pay a buyout to leave sooner than the 2024 season. So, where would they come up with the money? SEC commissioner Greg Sankey says the SEC is perfectly content to wait until after the 2025 athletic year when Texas and Oklahoma can leave the Big 12 without an exit fee. To leave earlier would cost the two schools something in the neighborhood of $80 million. This is where ESPN figures to step in. It takes over the complete SEC media rights contract in 2024 unless it buys out one or both the remaining years of the CBS contract, which is entirely possible since CBS will be in negotiation to keep its NFL television contract and might need the extra cash to ensure it wins. The earlier Texas and Oklahoma are in the SEC, the more money ESPN will make, so it is entirely possible ESPN will both pay off CBS and the exit fees for Texas and Oklahoma. Maybe not for 2022, but 2023? Entirely possible. Therefore, armed with the exit fees plus a likely media rights contract from ESPN, FOX or NBC, the Big 12 can assist Cincinnati, Houston and UCF with their buyouts. And, armed with the buyout money and perhaps some sort of media deal of its own, the AAC can go about its own expansion. AAC commissioner Mike Aresco made it perfectly clear Wednesday his league already has contingency plans to add new teams. What this is going to do is hasten the implementation of an expanded College Football Playoff. The Big 12 will desperately need an expanded playoff to make up for the loss of media revenue from the departure of Texas and Oklahoma. With most projections calling for a tripling of the next CFP television contract to nearly $1.5 billion per year, the Big 12, as one of the autonomous Power Five conferences, would receive close to $200 million a year as its yearly cut. As for all the bluster of this alliance from the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC, they are not going to stand in the way of an expanded playoff. Their leagues need the money too because (a) the SEC is expected to be distributing as much as $80 million per school and the expanded playoff is the only way leagues like the Pac-12 or ACC will have a chance to get anything more than their conference champ in. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Gavin Wimsatt of Owensboro, Kentucky, who was the No. 11 rated prep quarterback in the country, played in a high school football game last Friday. As of Monday he was enrolled in school at Rutgers, hoping he can get an NIL deal like Quinn Ewers got when he left Southlake Carroll High School in Texas to early enroll at Ohio State. Ewers has signed a $1.4 million NIL deal without ever having played a collegiate game. According to Ari Wasserman of The Athletic, Winsatt’s family asked Rutgers coach Greg Schiano, “Could we do that?” That’s going to happen more and more until a sufficient number of high school kids either bust as collegians or turn out to be mediocre. Not everyone can be a star.