As college football season quickly approaches and “talking season” is in full swing, it’s easy for other news from around campus to get buried under all the football buzz. Nonetheless, it’s been a busy week for UF sports. Here’s a brief roundup from campus this week: Women’s basketball brings aboard coaching veteran Just weeks after former head coach Cam Newbauer stepped down from his post, Florida women’s basketball seems to be trending in the right direction. The women’s basketball program added Julie Plank to its staff of coaches, interim head coach Kelly Rae Finley announced on Wednesday. Plank, a 26-year coaching veteran, has been around the block. Her most recent stint was as an assistant coach with the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream. In addition to 12 seasons in the big leagues, Plank also served as an assistant at Stanford for 10 seasons. While with the Cardinal, Plank helped coach Stanford to eight straight tournament appearances, four Final Fours and two national championships in 1990 and 1992. Plank has also found success internationally after helping the women’s national team secure gold medals in the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney. “We are thrilled to welcome Julie to Florida. After initial conversations it became clear that Julie is the perfect fit for our program as a whole. Her contagious energy, attention to detail, experience and positive outlook on life will impact us all each day," Finley said. "Julie has invested significant time elevating the game of women's basketball and her impressive resume speaks for itself. She brings years of experience coaching at the highest levels and we are confident that together we will provide the best possible environment for our student-athletes to succeed on and off the court." The hiring of Plank seems to be a step in the right direction after Newbauer’s departure, which had given the program a black eye. While little is known about Newbauer’s decision to “step away”, Cydnee Kinslow, who played under Newbauer last season before graduating, has posted videos to the social media platform TikTok asserting that Newbauer was actually fired for being emotionally abusive towards his players. In his absence, Finley was promoted to interim head coach for the 2021 season. Football’s Lorenzo Lingard to promote Chomp The Violence The effect that name, image and likeness (NIL) has had on college sports is often scrutinized. While some players are signing endorsement deals, launching their own apparel company or being paid for exclusive interviews with media publications, Florida Gators’ running back Lorenzo Lingard is taking a different approach. Lingard announced on Twitter on Thursday morning that he would be joining Paving Peace, a Gainesville-based organization, in its Chomp The Violence event on August 29. The event, which is described as a “family friendly evening of BBQ and activities to chomp out local violence in our streets”, is set to be hosted at the Stayable Select hotel in Gainesville and will feature a meet and greet with Lingard. While it’s unclear if Lingard is being paid for his partnership with the event, it’s refreshing seeing a college athlete use this new opportunity for good in the community. While Mullen stay coy regarding vaccination percentage, UF softball rallies around Hannah Adams’ father’s battle with the virus With the coronavirus and the Delta variant surging back into everyone’s lives, Dan Mullen told media members on Thursday that he and the team recently had a meeting regarding the current state of the virus and the variant, as well as precautions players could take to remain healthy. “Having been through it, (we’re) a little bit more educated on the situation, of a preventative aspect of it and where to be comfortable and how not to be and what not to do,” Mullen said. “So we have changed that but we have not put any mandates in on anybody.” Despite the absence of mandates and requirements, Mullen said the team’s vaccination percentage continues to climb. In true Dan Mullen fashion, however, Mullen would not disclose the exact percentage of players that had received their vaccines. “We’re at a grade that you could bring home to your parents, you wouldn’t have to hide that report card,” Mullen said. “We’re at that percentage where you’d be proud to bring your report card home.” Meanwhile, Florida softball is rallying around Hannah Adams, the Gators’ tried and true senior second baseman from the 2021 season. Posts to Adams’ Instagram stories have detailed her father’s battle with COVID-19. According to Adams’ posts, her father Shane has been on a ventilator and receiving treatment in the ICU.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: MULLEN SPEAKS … After Thursday’s practice, Florida HBC Dan Mullen sounded off on several topics during a media ZOOM call: On Emory Jones and his progress at quarterback: "Really good. I think he has a good grasp. He obviously has a really good grasp of the offense, been around a couple of years. I think it's really getting into more of how to function, how to use the offense, constantly on accuracy, balance, making all his different types of throws that he needs to make and then his comfort level of how to make plays and when to make plays. We limit some of that in practice. You have the freedom to scramble today. There will be days where I won't give him that freedom, you have got to stand in the pocket. Then you actually gotta coach beyond that and say, 'Hey, I hope you would have scrambled in that situation, because there was a huge running lane and go take advantage of it. We give him a lot of different things. I think his grasp of the offense is really good. It's getting him prepared in every situation in how to be the best playmaker he can be." On the competition for the starting placekicker job between Chris Howard and Mississippi State transfer Jace Christmann, who was Mullen’s placekicker in 2017 in Starkville: "Yeah, it'll be a good little competition between those two guys. You know, obviously, Chris has been with the program since I've been here and I've seen unbelievable improvement of him from one year to the next within our program. I think, comes into the year with a lot of confidence. And then obviously, Jace, knowing Jace, recruiting Jace out of high school, having him play for me. Heck, you know, I mean he scored the points the last time we were in a stadium and I was just on the opposite sideline this time. He's the one that scored the points when we went out there to play him a couple years ago at Mississippi State against us. So, I know that he has experience and a background. So, it'll be a good little battle for those two guys, but I think they work together and it gives us the opportunity to make sure we have two kickers that are ready to go play." On NIL and how the Gators are dealing with the opportunity to make money: “I'll be honest with you, I think our guys probably, the most part are very focused on football and that's consuming a massive amount of time right now in everybody's lives. So, you know, there's probably not that time to sit there and say, 'Okay, how am I doing this deal? How am I working this? How am I working that?' when their focus is football and being better in football right now. So, we discussed it, we had a little team meeting earlier today to discuss a couple of little small factors in it. But all of those are still growing deals and making sure we're doing it the right way, following the law the right way, how are we doing it? As we continue to learn, here's some different information to continue to give them, you know? But guys come up and they're asking questions all the time. I think you're going to continue to see, you know, little things here and there that guys are continuing to work on." On the torn ACL suffered by corner Jaydon Hill, who will miss the entire 2021 season: “I think massive disappointment. Being ready for this opportunity to be the guy, but you’re looking at a young guy that’s been through this once and came out on the positive end on the other side. I think he understands how to come through it, what he needs to do and how he can get through it and how it’ll improve. I think with him knowing the program, knowing the defense, knowing his maturity, he’s a guy that’s going to be pretty comfortable, I think, saying I put myself in the position to be a starter. I had this little setback, but I’ve worked hard. Nothing was ever handed to me. I had to work hard to be a starter. If you’ve done that, if you know the path of hard work, how to get into that role, when you get knocked off course, you know how to get back there. If it was just handed something, maybe it was harder. But he’s worked his tail off to earn everything he’s gotten here. I think that makes it easier because you und how to get back there. I know that path. I know what I need to do, and I plan on being back full speed here shortly.” On redshirt freshman Fenley Graham and others in the punt and kickoff return game: “Fenley coming out of high school, obviously everybody knew that was a guy that was very much a utility player, a really good football player, can return punts, can return kicks, can move him around defensively. A guy who has a really natural instinct for the ball. Obviously in the return games he’s up there big. Trying to work Demarkus Bowman into that situation to return kicks. For new guys, I’m trying to think who else we got back there … we really just started with kickoff return so I haven’t seen those guys do that. Punt return, obviously you have Xzavier Henderson back there, Kaiir Elam, guys that have been back there in the past to go do that stuff as well. We’re just kind of working through those things with that. Ja’Markis Weston is a guy I’m really excited to see in a kickoff return role possibly. We kind of really have been more on technique and individual part of special teams rather than the return game and the full-on scheme; that’s coming in the next week.” OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Lane Kiffin is given credit for changing Alabama’s offense from ground and pound to a wide-open spread during his three years as offensive coordinator. “People want to give me credit for changing the offense there but as a head coach, especially a head coach who is set in his ways – for him to want to change the offense, it was his idea,” Kiffin said on Colin Cowherd’s radio show Thursday. Arkansas: Tight end Levi Draper, who has had three previous surgeries on his shoulder, injured his shoulder once again and will take a medical hardship. Auburn: Running back Tank Bigsby has an NIL deal with Bojangles restaurants. Georgia: Offensive coordinator Todd Monken says quarterback JT Daniels has grown more comfortable with his teammates and the offense. “As we keep evolving offensively, he really appears to be in control of what we want done,” Monken said. Kentucky: Freshman wide receiver Dekel Crowdus, a former 4-star recruit, suffered a significant injury in practice Thursday. It’s unclear if the injury will require surgery and how long Crowdus will be out. LSU: Defensive lineman Glenn Logan has a broken foot but might be able to return to the team this season. “It’s going to take a little bit of time to heal,” Coach O said Thursday. “We’ll get him sometime this season.” Mississippi State: Southern Miss transfer quarterback Jack Abraham, who was expected to challenge for the starting job, has missed all the practices since last Friday due to an injury. Missouri: Freshman O-lineman J’Marion Gooch, who is 6-8, 360, has been medically disqualified after something showed up when he took his physical. Ole Miss: Ole Miss gave Lane Kiffin a raise to $4.5 million with a $500,000 bonus if he is the coach at the end of the season. His contract was extended through 2024. South Carolina: Cornerback Karon Prunty, who transferred to South Carolina from Kansas, has placed his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Tennessee: Offensive lineman K-Rojhn Calbert has had surgery and will miss an extended amount of time per HBC Josh Heupel … Quarterback Brian Mauer was absent from practice for a second straight day. He could be entering the transfer portal soon. Texas A&M: Paul Finebaum says the Aggies have a legitimate shot at knocking off Alabama in College Station on October 9. “I think they have a shot at Alabama,” Finebaum said on ESPN Radio. “The one thing about Alabama I don’t know is what Bryce Young is going to look like. I know how much he’s making on the side … but he’s going to have to do more than make money to prove to me that he is an adequate replacement for Mac Jones.” AUTOGRAPHS … AT $150 A POP Oklahoma quarterback Spencer Rattler appeared recently at the National Sports Collectors Convention in Chicago where he signed 600 memorabilia items at $150 per signature. That’s $90,000 from signing his name. Rattler also makes money from his merchandise website “SpencerRattlerShop.com.” Rattler is said to make $6,600 from a single post on Instagram. I have to wonder if he will be able to focus on football in three weeks when the season begins. Meanwhile Clemson quarterback DJ Uiagalelei has added a gig to appear in a Dr. Pepper commercial to go with his deals with Bojangles and Candy Digital. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: You can stick a fork in the NCAA, its many volumes of ridiculous rules and regulations and their notion that collegiate sports are all about the student-athlete and not about money. Proof that the only thing lacking to pronounce the NCAA dead is a priest to read last rites came Thursday from, of all places, Brigham Young where a company called Built-Brands signed all the BYU walk-ons to an NIL deal that will pay for their tuition. Additionally, Built-Brands is signing the BYU players on football scholarships to an NIL endorsement deal. When a private company can give financial benefits to all 123 scholarship players and walk-ons, it’s a sure sign that the NCAA has lost complete control of college athletics. These are no longer student-athletes. They are pros. What this tells me is it’s only a matter of time before college sports teams are going to wear the logos of the corporation that pays its players. Get ready for college football jerseys that bear a strong resemblance to the soccer jerseys you see in Europe. And hopefully, we’ll see at least the football schools in Division I breaking away completely and setting up their own rules and regulations. I have to wonder that once one school takes on a corporate sponsor and all these athletes become paid employees, if it will signal an end to all these Title IX regulations about balancing out equal scholarship opportunities for men’s and women’s sports. For example, if a corporation like Publix decided to do an NIL deal with Florida baseball, could the Gators have a fully-paid 35-man roster instead of the current 11.8 scholarships spread among 27 players?

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: CHRISTIAN ROBINSON SOUNDS OFF ABOUT UF LINEBACKERS University of Florida linebackers coach Christian Robinson spoke Tuesday about some of the linebackers he’s coaching up. UF has more depth and talent at the position than it has in years. Here are some of Robinson’s comments: Ventrell Miller: “My Dad told me the best thing you could do as a coach is to create other coaches. With Ventrell being together, a lot of the things he’s gone through personally and a lot of things he’s gone through learning the system and being a part of what we did, I no longer have to take on every single little task because as a leader and wanting to be a player-driven team he’s able to take those tasks for me in the room and say, ‘Hey, this is what we’re doing.’ When things start to slip with a guy, I don’t have to be the one who always has to do it, so it makes my life easier. But on the field you hear a guy taking charge and really controlling what goes on out there, and that’s always been the dream for him and any player that comes in our room.” Mohamoud Diabate: “He’s done everything I’ve asked him to do. And Coach Savage and just being a gym rat his body looks the way a linebacker’s supposed to look. He has more to grow and he knows that he has to keep developing and doing his part. And he’s become a leader. If you ever come out this summer and see him pushing those guys, it’s pushing the group forward together. It takes somebody like him, Ventrell and somebody else in the room to do that. He’s done that one the field and in the classroom.” Diwun Black: “To come in and just be thankful for this opportunity when you think that opportunity might be taken away, your attitude of being thankful for where you're at and what you have, I think that attitude is going to translate to him helping us this season and the seasons to come. Being thankful for where you're at and knowing it's not as hard as it could be. I'd rather be doing this then wearing a different logo somewhere else. He's just thankful to be here. He's excited just to have our strength staff, our nutrition staff, to have somebody to help him organize his class assignments and make sure he's on time. Sometimes when you get used to what you have you forget that it's a blessing. I think he knows he's blessed to be here and we're glad to have him finally." Amari Burney: “He’s played the STAR, he’s been everywhere. When a young DB gets out there and they might not know what to say, he’s getting on them. Sometimes position groups get on each other. What ultimately you want is a group that the older guys talk to every position. ‘Hey, what is this going to do in a game? That might not help us.’ You know, ‘Hey, you showing over here, that might not be what we need to do where the offense doesn’t know what we’re doing.’ So to have multiple coaches, that makes the room better. That makes the team better. We have to be a coach-driven team in order to get where we want to go in December.” SANKEY, EXPANSION, THE PLAYOFF AND OTHER THINGS The good news is that football season is going to begin in 16 days and when it does, maybe the folks in the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC can find something to talk about other than (a) Greg Sankey is nothing more than a greedy old meanie; (b) adding Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC was a sneak attack and Sankey is lower than the petrified whale poop at the bottom of the Marianna Trench; (c) Sankey only wants an expanded College Football Playoff so that the SEC can totally dominate; and (d) at least three other Power Five conferences and maybe some of the Group of Five are going to unify and pay back Sankey for “stealing” two teams from the Big 12. Let’s go through this point-by-point: Adding Texas and Oklahoma was NOT about greed. Did money play a part of it? Of course, it did and so did ESPN. There would not have been a deal if ESPN had told Sankey this won’t work and that adding Texas and Oklahoma would dilute the money being paid out to the other 14 SEC schools. ESPN may not have been involved directly with the negotiations but the network let it be known the $300 million a year contract with the SEC that goes into effect in 2024 will be amended to accommodate the additions of Texas and Oklahoma. Considering what some economists are predicting, adding Oklahoma and Texas could mean each SEC school may be getting a check for somewhere between $75-85 million. YEARLY. If the SEC had not added Texas and Oklahoma, the yearly check would be something like $62-63 million yearly. Greg Sankey’s job is to do what is best for the SEC. Mission accomplished. The sneak attack part is so laughable. Was Sankey supposed to email or text Bob Bowlsby and say, “Hey Bob, Texas and Oklahoma came to me in confidence about leaving the Big 12 and joining the SEC. Just wanted to let you know so you can alert the other members of your conference so you can torpedo the deal. We make plenty enough money in the SEC so we really don’t need them. Just want you to deal with this best you can! Love, Greg?” If Sankey had violated the trust of Texas and Oklahoma you can bet all that you hold sacred that they would have gone straight to the Big Ten. Do you think for even a nanosecond that the Big Ten or any other conference out there would have said no? Texas and Oklahoma were NOT going to stay in the Big 12 for two basic reasons: (1) OU and Texas decided when the Big 12 didn’t expand in 2016 that the league would become unsustainable economically and (2) both schools lost a ton of revenue because of the pandemic in 2020 and neither could see the Big 12 generating enough to cover those losses. Just as Greg Sankey did what was best for the SEC, Texas and Oklahoma had to do what they see is best for their athletic programs. Maybe everyone was caught by surprise, but it wasn’t a sneak attack. The SEC already dominates the College Football Playoff. Sankey has said repeatedly he’s perfectly content if the playoff remains at four. Expanding to 12 teams will indeed mean more SEC teams have a chance to get in the playoff, but it also opens the door for conferences that don’t have a seat at the table and won’t have a seat if the playoff remains at four. One additional thought. Is it the SEC’s fault that the other conferences can’t keep up with its level of excellence? Just what do these other leagues hope to accomplish by uniting against Sankey and the SEC? Torpedo playoff expansion and they shoot themselves in the foot. With or without an expanded playoff, the SEC is going to make the most money. An expanded playoff will more than double and quite possibly triple the playoff paycheck each Power Five league makes and it’s going to make more money for the Group of Five conferences than ever before. Do you think that the Group of Five conferences are going to align against the SEC when it’s the SEC commissioner that is making it possible for them to have a shot at being Cinderella? So, let them talk until they’re blue in the face. When it comes time to vote, they will all approve of playoff expansion because they all need the money. *** The Big 12 is struggling to stay a viable Power Five conference. The Pac-12 and its rookie commissioner are clueless. ACC commissioner Jim Phillips knows how badly his league needs Notre Dame. The league that actually needs to move quickest is the Big Ten, whose media rights contract with ESPN and Fox expires after the 2023 athletic year. Financially, the Big Ten dwarfs the Big 12, Pac-12 and ACC, but it will be relegated to second place by the SEC expansion. There are only a handful of options when it comes to finding a school that can move the Big Ten needle. For all the talk about Southern Cal and UCLA as a possibility, Kansas may make the most financial sense. It’s a little-known fact that Kansas (and Kentucky) basketball scores television ratings right up there with ESPN’s Saturday night prime time football game. Kansas hasn’t attempted to disguise its desire to bolt to the Big Ten. What would make geographic and academic sense for the Big Ten would be to poach KU and Iowa State from the Big 12. It is something the Big Ten needs to do before Bob Bowlsby can make a deal to merge with the Pac-12 or invite eight American Athletic Conference teams to join the Big 12. What about the ACC? Notre Dame isn’t going to join the ACC so the ACC needs to add West Virginia and UConn. Neither will move the football needle, but both will help the league’s basketball profile plus UConn opens up the Metro New York City market. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Nick Saban says that the recent practice absences of tight end Jahleel Billingsley are due to COVID-19. “We had some COVID protocols that we had to go through with him,” Saban said. “He’s back out at practice. He needs to work his way back up the depth chart because he missed a little bit of football.” Arkansas: Per several reports, former Florida Gator and Arkansas Razorback quarterback Feleipe Franks is the surprise of the Atlanta Falcons training camp. Franks is trying to make the team as an undrafted free agent. Auburn: It might be the upset of the century if a quarterback not named Bo Nix is the starter when the season begins, but LSU transfer TJ Finley already has teammates talking. Georgia: Georgia is hoping this is the breakout year for former 5-star recruit Nolan Smith, who had 22 tackles and 2.5 sacks as a sophomore in 2020. Kentucky: Mike Renner of Pro Football Focus lists Kentucky as one of his five most underrated teams in all of college football. LSU: Defensive lineman Glenn Logan will be out for an undetermined amount of time with an undisclosed injury. Logan has 99 tackles and six sacks in four years at LSU. Mississippi State: Southern Miss transfer quarterback Jack Abraham has not participated in any practice or training drills since Friday. Missouri: Mizzou president Mun Choi made it abundantly clear Wednesday that former athletic director Jim Sterk didn’t leave voluntarily. Choi said, “The fact that for us to develop into champions, we have to work harder than Alabama. We have to work harder than Florida. Are we going to bring that high level of expectation that starts at the top? That’s the reason WE made the decision.” Former UNLV AD Desiree Reed-Francois is the new athletic director at Mizzou. Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin had “Rocky Top” blasting away at practice Wednesday. South Carolina: Junior college transfer cornerback Isaiah Norris has reported to the team. Tennessee: Former UT tight end Jason Whitten and running back Alvin Kamara will no longer have their images displayed on the Neyland Stadium scoreboard. Texas A&M: Wide receiver Demond Demas is apparently back in the good graces of Jimbo Fisher although he can’t practice yet because of a foot injury. Demas, who was suspended during the spring when he was arrested on a marijuana charge, has been spotted on an exercise bike at practice. Vanderbilt: New HBC Clark Lea is implementing a cultural change for Vandy football. “It’s not just based on weight room performance or speed performance or football performance,” Lea said. “It’s everything. It’s how we meet and greet people in the hallway. It’s the extra work we do in conditioning. It’s the investment we put into the program outside of the work when we’re on the clock together. I want teammates talking to teammates about what they want to create here.” ONE FINAL PITHY COMMENT: Six years after the Baylor sexual assault scandal cost the jobs of school prez Ken Starr, athletic director Ian McCaw and head football coach Art Briles, the NCAA punted. Instead of dropping the hammer on Baylor for failing to report multiple incidents of sexual assault and misconduct by football players, the NCAA said none of its rules were broken. It’s hard to imagine that an organization with as many lawyers as the NCAA could take six years to investigate without finding a way to punish Baylor adequately. When six years nets absolutely nothing, it’s time for a brand new organization. The NCAA’s sell-by date has expired.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: GATORS BEGIN AT NO. 11 IN THE COACHES POLL In private, Dan Mullen has to be absolutely giddy. The first Coaches Poll came out Tuesday and the Gators are ranked 11th, just close enough that a couple of good wins can put them in College Football Playoff and SEC East contention, just far enough away that the pressure is on the 10 teams ranked ahead of UF. Mullen has to like it that the targets are squarely on the backs of No. 1 Alabama, No. 5 Georgia and No. 6 Texas A&M, the three SEC teams ranked ahead of the Gators. This is nothing new for Alabama to start the year ranked either first or second, but the three main offensive weapons – Devonta Smith, Mac Jones and Najee Harris – have all departed for the No Fun League along with what seems like half of the Tide’s national championship team from 2020. With a 14-game winning streak on the line and a brand-new quarterback who has never started a game, the pressure might be greater than usual. Georgia personifies Murphy’s Law: “If there are two or more ways to do something and one of those ways can result in an absolute catastrophe, someone will do it.” See the national championship game in 2017, the SEC championship game in 2018, the loss to unranked South Carolina in 2019 and the Florida-Georgia game in 2020 as the most recent examples. The Aggies, who haven’t won a national championship since 1939, experienced one of those Georgia-like near national championship moments last year when their only loss was by 28 points to Alabama. History says that at some point in the season the Aggies will want to move to Manila and change their name to the Folders. And then there is Florida. Sure, there’s pressure at No. 11. All the teams ranked below the Gators will want to score an upset, but when you’re No. 11 you can win ugly and no one will notice nearly as much. If you happen to lose to a higher-ranked team – Alabama comes to The Swamp September 18; Georgia in Jacksonville October 30 – you were SUPPOSED to do it. Win those two games and the Gators will find themselves championship contenders. At No. 11, the Gators are about where most of the preseason prognosticators have them. Well, everyone but Phil Steele, who has the Gators outside his top 25, which is the equivalent of starting the season in Siberia. Don’t believe it? Just ask Auburn 2004, which went 13-0 but was never considered a BCS Championship Game contender because the Tigers started the season too far out at No. 17. When he met the media last week, Mullen seemed more subdued than usual. Perhaps it’s because he is quite happy that Florida is being low-balled by the experts. I’m of the opinion he doesn’t want to tip his hand that he’s got a team he likes very much with a quarterback situation he likes with Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson to go with the best running backs room he’s ever had as a head coach dating back to his Mississippi State days. The offense is going to be just fine and if the defense stages a turnaround from last year’s disaster and the Gators avoid the injury bug, they’re going to win 10 or more games. THE PRESEASON COACHES TOP 25 POLL 1. Alabama 2. Clemson 3. Oklahoma 4. Ohio State 5. Georgia 6. Texas A&M 7. Notre Dame 8. Iowa State 9. North Carolina 10. Cincinnati 11. FLORIDA 12. Oregon 13. LSU 14. Southern Cal 15. Wisconsin 16. Miami 17. Indiana 18. Iowa 19. Texas 20. Penn State 21. Washington 22. Oklahoma State 23. Louisiana 24. Coastal Carolina 25. Ole Miss OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Evan Neal, who most preseason magazines project as a first team All-America offensive tackle, has lost 15 pounds and expects to play at or near 345 in the fall. “I’m a lot more light on my toes,” Neal said. Arkansas: There may not be a more underrated trio of linebackers anywhere in the country than Grant Morgan (111 tackles in 2020, 1 interception returned for a TD, 7.5 tackles for loss), Bumper Pool (101, 6.5 tackles for loss, 5 pass breakups) and Hayden Henry (25, 3 tackles for loss). Auburn: Defensive tackle Tyrone Truesdell, a starter the last two seasons, is no longer part of the team according to HBC Bryan Harsin. Truesdell was back for the NCAA extra year of eligibility granted to everyone who played in 2020. The 6-2, 335-pound nose tackle made 19 starts and played in 44 games in four years. Georgia: Officially, Will Muschamp is Georgia’s new special teams coordinator. Dan Lanning, the defensive coordinator says, “I definitely think he [Muschamp] will be involved on defense.” Bet the farm that Muschamp will be put in charge of Georgia’s secondary. Kentucky: Kentucky has moved former 4-star wide receiver Michael Drennen to running back. Drennen caught three passes for 26 yards last season as a true freshman. LSU: In the early days of August camp, LSU is short-handed when it comes to experience at running back. Junior Tyrion Davis-Price is sidelined with a calf injury and fellow junior John Emery hasn’t practiced while he finishes up some schoolwork. Mississippi State: The battle for the starting quarterback job is being waged by Will Rogers, who had six starts as a true freshman in 2020, and South Alabama transfer Chance Lovertich. Rogers threw for 1,976 yards and 11 touchdowns last year while Lovertich threw for 619 yards and five TDs. Missouri: New Missouri AD Desiree Reed-Francois has a six-year contract with a base salary of $800,000. She has deferred compensation of $150,000 per year paid if she finishes out her contract and $150,000 in incentives. Ole Miss: Lane Kiffin knows he needs John Rhys Plumlee on the field so that’s why the former quarterback is focusing on learning to play wide receiver. Kiffin says Plumlee will be used in many different ways and can take snaps at QB when he’s in the game, too, but the focus will be on catching passes. Kinkead Dean and true freshman Luke Altmeyer are battling for the backup QB position behind starter Matt Corral. South Carolina: Running back MarShawn Lloyd, who sat last season after tearing his ACL in August, is fit and ready to go this fall. He could be the first-game starter if last year’s SEC leading rusher Kevin Harris still hasn’t recovered from a back procedure. Tennessee: Tennessee athletic director Danny White says the Vols have been 100 percent cooperative throughout the NCAA’s investigation into irregularities in the football program during the watch of former HBC Jeremy Pruitt. Since February, the Vols have been billed $756,453 by the legal firm of Bond, Schoeneck and King. Texas A&M: HBC Jimbo Fisher is giving redshirt freshman Haynes King and redshirt sophomore Zach Calzada equal opportunities to win the starting quarterback job by alternating the days they work with the first team offense. Vanderbilt: Although it will likely make Vanderbilt football more of an SEC bottom feeder if that is even possible, athletic director Candice Lee says adding Oklahoma and Texas “is a great day for the SEC” … Vanderbilt has already raised $200 million of the $300 million it plans to invest on athletic department infrastructure. RANKING THE TOP TEN QUARTERBACKS IN COLLEGE FOOTBALL 2021 My list is probably at odds with some of the “experts” at the preseason mags and some other websites, but I might have watched as many games as anyone so I feel good about my rankings. I refuse to rank top 10 a quarterback who has four or fewer starts at his current school. 1. Sam Howell, North Carolina: If UNC is to challenge Clemson for the ACC title it will be because Howell lights everyone up. He has 7,227 passing yards (9.4 per attempt) and 68 TDPs in two seasons. 2. Matt Corral, Ole Miss: He threw for 3,337 yards (10.2 per attempt) and 29 TDs plus ran for 506 and four more last year in a brand-new offense without the benefit of a spring practice. He’s had a spring and an offseason with Lane Kiffin. He could be scary good. 3. Spencer Rattler, Oklahoma: Once Rattler got over the early season jitters last year, he was very, very good. He threw for 3,031 yards (9.6 per attempt) and 28 touchdowns and ran for six more scores last year, his first as a starter. 4. Malik Willis, Liberty: Auburn screwed up when they let him get away. Last year he threw for 2,250 yards (8.5 per attempt) and 20 TDs while running for 944 (6.7 per carry) and 14 for a 10-1 Liberty team. NFL scouts believe he could be a top 10 pick. 5. D’Eriq King, Miami: He’s the reason Alabama is sweating the season opener with Miami. Last year he threw for 2,686 yards (8.6 per carry) and 23 touchdowns while running for 538 and four more. He has 73 passing TDs and 32 rushing TDs in his college career. 6. Kedon Slovis, Southern Cal: He is the reason JT Daniels transferred out at USC. In 18 collegiate games he has thrown for 5,423 yards (8.3 per attempt) and 47 touchdowns. 7. Desmond Ridder, Cincinnati: The Bearcats could run a second straight regular season schedule if Ridder stays healthy. His three-year totals are 6,905 passing yards (7.5 per attempt) and 57 touchdowns while rushing for 1,825 (4.7 per carry) and 22 TDs. 8. Carson Strong, Nevada: Never heard of him? Every NFL scout has after last season when he threw for 2,858 yards (8.1 per attempt) and 27 touchdowns in just nine games. 9. Grayson McCall, Coastal Carolina: Coastal almost scored a perfect season last year when McCall threw for 2,488 yards (10.0 per attempt) and 26 touchdowns while rushing for 569 yards (5.1 per carry) and seven TDs as a redshirt freshman. Coastal is good enough to run the table again if McCall stays healthy. 10. Brock Purdy, Iowa State: Iowa State is in everybody’s top ten this year because Purdy is that good. In 35 collegiate games, he has thrown for 8,982 yards (8.5 per attempt) and 62 touchdowns while rushing for 939 and 18 more TDs. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: A couple of weeks before the Gators put the kibosh on Ohio State in the national championship game in 2006, D-line coach/co-defensive coordinator Greg Mattison and I walked from the practice field to the stadium talking about the advantages he thought the Gators had with their defensive tackles. “They can’t handle us inside,” he told me. “They’ll have to keep their fullback and running back in to keep us from pressuring straight up the gut. That’s where great pass defense begins. When you can pressure in the middle, there’s no help for the guys on the outside so if you have quality guys at the ends, you should make life miserable for the quarterback.” Ohio State managed all of 82 yards of offense and one offensive touchdown as UF destroyed the Buckeyes 41-14. Derrick Harvey and Jarvis Moss combined for five sacks on the outside because Steven Harris, Ray McDonald and Joe Cohen forced the Buckeyes to hold their fullback and running back in. By the second quarter, Ohio State was in max protect, holding in the tight end which meant two-man routes the rest of the way. In the years since, every outstanding Florida defense has been strong in the middle without exception. A year ago, the Gators rarely got pressure up the gut and couldn’t stop the run. A soft middle has a lot to do with why the defense stunk. I believe things are about to change. If this season’s inside rotation of Daquan Newkirk, Antonio Valentino and Gervon Dexter is as good as I think it’s going to be, then Florida’s defense has a chance to be top 30 and perhaps top 20. If the Gators are that good they will be contenders.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: NO KYLE PITTS NO PROBLEM? Florida tight ends coach Tim Brewster admits that Mackey Award winner Kyle Pitts was “a generational-type player,” which might have something to do with the fact the Atlanta Falcons made him the highest drafted tight end in NFL history. But Brewster doesn’t sound like he’s losing all that much sleep about the tight ends he will be coaching this fall while Pitts is cashing substantially large No Fun League paychecks. “You’d be hard pressed to have a better, more complete tight end room than what I have,” Brewster said after the Gators finished practice Monday. “I think that we’re going to be – we’re going to be just fine this season.” Brewster doesn’t have a single player with Pitts’ unique combination of size, speed and ball catching skills. His five scholarship tight ends – Kemore Gamble (6-4, 243, RSR); Keon Zipperer (6-3, 242, JR); Jonathan Odom (6-5, 240, RFR); Nick Elksnis (6-6, 243, FR) and Gage Wilcox (6-4, 230, FR) – are talented guys but if you combine their career stats – 31 catches for 394 yards and six touchdowns – the numbers are less than Pitts put up in 2019 (54-649, 5 TDs). Last year, in winning the Mackey, Pitts caught 43 passes for 770 yards and 12 touchdowns in only eight games. Yet, Brewster seems quite confident his guys will get the job done, particularly Gamble, who caught 10 passes for 160 yards and three touchdowns while doing most of his damage as the hand in the dirt blocking tight end in 2020. “Everybody says we’re going to miss Kyle Pitts,” Brewster said. “What are we going to do without Kyle Pitts? Well, guess what? Kemore Gamble’s going to be the best tight end in the SEC. What do you think about that?” The best in the SEC? Athlon chose four preseason All-SEC teams in its magazine, not a one of them named Kemore Gamble. The four tight ends are Jalen Wydermyer (Texas A&M, 46-506, 6 TDs in 2020), Jahleel Billingsley (Alabama, 18-287, 3 TDs), Nick Muse (South Carolina, 30-425, 1 TD) and Darnell Washington (Georgia, 7-166). There isn’t a shred of doubt in Gamble’s mind that he’s capable of being the tight end Brewster predicts he will be. “Well, I think, if I keep my head on right and if I keep grinding how I’m grinding, I think I can be the best tight end in the nation, not just SEC,” Gamble said Tuesday. Brewster does know a thing or two about coaching up decent tight ends. When he was coaching in the NFL at San Diego (2002-07), his protégé was Antonio Gates, an undrafted former basketball player (2003) out of Kent State who went on to catch 955 passes for 11,841 yards and 116 touchdowns in a 16-year pro career. At Florida State in 2014, he coached Nick O’Leary, who won the Mackey. At Texas A&M in 2018 Brewster coached Jace Sternberger, who was the consensus All-America tight end. Is Gamble capable of putting up All-SEC or All-America numbers or will Brewster need to go with a by committee approach to compensate for Brewster’s absence? File that under to be determined, but one thing Brewster does know is that Dan Mullen is as good at scheming an offense as anyone in the country. “We’re going to play two tight ends,” Brewster said. “We’re going to play three tight ends. We’re going to have multiple tight end groupings. I have no problem. We are not going to be situational. You’re not going to be able to look at our offense and say, ‘Gamble is in the game, they’re going to do this; Keon Zipperer is in the game, they’re going to do this. Both those guys are going to be able to go out and perform and do all the things necessary to compete and play well. And whoever’s lined up, if Kemore ends up being the guy to play the whole game or, you know, Keon, you know, it’s … it’ll play itself out but I know this, I have amazing confidence, extreme confidence that that group of kids, those guys are gonna play really well. I think they’re gonna surprise a lot of people with how they play this season.” BRUCE FELDMAN ON DAMEON PIERCE AS AN ATHLETIC FREAK The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman compiled a list of what he considers the 25 greatest athletic freaks in college football, rating Florida tailback Dameon Pierce No. 21. Feldman wrote: “He led the Gators in rushing with 503 yards last season and also caught 17 passes for 156 yards. The 5-10, 215-pound senior might have the strongest lower body of any running back in college football. Pierce squats 705 pounds and vertical jumps 37 inches. He’s clocked a 4.50 40 and has just 6 percent body fat. In addition, he benches 390 pounds.” GEORGIA HEADS ESPN’S LIST OF UNDERACHIEVING FOOTBALL PROGRAMS “Georgia is the inspiration for the underachiever tiers,” writes Adam Rittenberg of ESPN, who came out with his list of college football’s ultimate underachievers of the last 40 years Monday. Rittenberg puts Georgia in a league all by itself, unable to win a single national championship since Herschel Walker’s freshman season in 1980. Rittenberg writes that despite Georgia having a great stadium, being an hour away from the remarkable talent hotbed of Atlanta, good academics, the social life of Athens and a tradition of sending players to the NFL, it comes up short when it comes to national championships. “Still the list of national championship winners since 1980 includes every major program surrounding Georgia but Georgia – Clemson, Alabama, Florida State, Florida, Miami, Tennessee, and, of course, rivals Auburn and Georgia Tech. Georgia’s failure to win a title puts the program in a tier of its own.” We would be remiss not to mention the following national championship numbers since 1980: Clemson (3), Alabama (7), Florida State (3), Florida (3), Miami (5), Tennessee (1), Auburn (1) and Georgia Tech (1). Louisiana isn’t a surrounding state, but since the Tigers belong in the SEC it’s worth mentioning they’ve also won three. Here are the other tiers and their teams: Tier 2: Texas A&M, UCLA, Texas The Aggies last won a national title in 1939. Texas won back-to-back in 1969-70 and got another one in 2005. UCLA hasn’t won one since 1954. Tier 3: North Carolina, Arizona State, Maryland Who? North Carolina has never won a football national title, but the Heels have done rather well in basketball. Maryland won a national title in 1953 in football and won one in basketball in 2002. Arizona State was awarded national championships in 1970 by something called Polling System and in 1975 by Sporting News. Tier 4: Miami, Michigan, USC, Nebraska, Tennessee Maybe they are has beens but Miami has five national championships, Michigan one, Southern Cal two, Nebraska three and Tennessee one since Georgia's last. Tier 5: Miami (OH), Houston, East Carolina Really? Tier 6: Illinois, Syracuse, Cal The Galloping Ghost, Jim Brown and Wrong Way Riegels have long since come and gone. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Tight end Jahleel Billingsley’s absence from practice is not injury related. Nick Saban said, “He does have a lot of ability. He can be a positive contributor on the team, but he’s also got to buy into the principles and values of the team and be a good teammate. Do the things that everyone else in the organization does so that he has the respect of his teammates. We’re certainly trying to help him do that and hopefully, he’ll be back out there with us in a few days.” Arkansas: Center Ricky Stromberg suffered an MCL injury. No date has been set for his return to practice … Cornerbacks coach Sam Carter and running backs coach Jimmy Smith got contract extensions and raises. Auburn: Quarterback Bo Nix has impressed new offensive coordinator Mike Bobo. “I’ve been extremely impressed with how hard this young man works,” Bobo said. “He’s an ultimate competitor. He wants to win in everything, not just football.” Georgia: Starting center Warren Ericson will be out for a few weeks after suffering a hand injury. He will be replaced by redshirt freshman Sedric Van Pran-Granger ... Will Muschamp is the new special teams coordinator. Kentucky: Suspended wide receivers coach Jovon Bouknight was in court Monday to plead guilty to driving at least 26 miles per hour over the speed limit while in possession of an open alcoholic container. DUI charges were dismissed but since Bouknight refused a blood-alcohol test his driver’s license will be suspended for the same period of time it would have been if he had been convicted of DUI. LSU: Redshirt freshman defensive lineman Eric Taylor has entered the NCAA transfer portal. He is a former 4-star recruit from Trussville, Alabama. Mississippi State: HBC Mike Leach is impressed with what he’s seeing from quarterback Will Rogers, who started six games as a true freshman last year. “He’s more consistent than he was starting as a true freshman without a spring,” Leach said. “There’s plenty of progress to make, some of it is getting tuned in with your receivers.” Missouri: Missouri’s new athletic director is Desiree Reed-Francois, who comes to Columbia from UNLV. She once oversaw the men’s basketball program at Tennessee. Ole Miss: HBC Lane Kiffin is some 30 pounds lighter than he was last season. Speaking to Chris Low of ESPN, Kiffin said, “I saw a picture of me at the bowl game last year and told the players that I looked like an anaconda that had swallowed a deer and the deer got stuck in my neck.” South Carolina: Last year’s leading rusher in the SEC, Kevin Harris, is waiting medical clearance from a back injury before he is allowed to begin practice. Harris and HBC Shane Beamer seem confident Harris will be able to go when the Gamecocks play Eastern Illinois in the season opener on September 4. Tennessee: “There’s no more Mondays around here,” says Tennessee offensive tackle Dayne Davis, talking about how things have changed under new HBC Josh Heupel as compared to former coach Jeremy Pruitt. Texas A&M: Commenting on Texas and Oklahoma joining the Southeastern Conference, Jimbo Fisher said, “We voted them in. Glad to have them. It’s a great conference. This is the best ball in the country, so we’ll line up and play, and [we] look forward to playing them.” Vanderbilt: Texas state senator Drew Springer, no fan of Texas and Oklahoma leaving the Big 12 to join the SEC said “If it was Vanderbilt leaving the SEC, if they left nobody in the SEC would really care.” ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Last week Washington State president Kirk Schultz called the Southeastern Conference predatory for adding Texas and Oklahoma from the Big 12, adding, “What the SEC has done is unify the other conferences in a way that nothing else could have, in terms of working together.” This came after Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby talked about tapping the brakes on expanding the College Football Playoff in retaliation. Who do either of them think they’re fooling? The College Football Playoff is going to expand to 12 teams and they’ll be in lockstep to make it happen. Why? Because it will dramatically increase the amount of revenue all 65 of the Power 5 schools make from the playoff. The sooner it happens, the better for what’s left of the Big 12 and the Pac-12, a perennial revenue bottom feeder. They aren’t going to stand in the way of making an additional $65-150 million per year when the playoff expands. While they may gripe that an expanded playoff will mean more SEC teams get in, remember the words of Greg Sankey, who said, “We’re fine with four teams.” In a four-team playoff the SEC will still dominate, the Pac-12 will rarely get a team in and the Big 12, if it survives, may not ever get another one in. When the playoff expands to 12, they’ll have a serious chance to get their conference champ in. So forget all the chest-beating and bravado. The Pac-12, Big 12 and other conferences will vote yes for expansion and will grit their teeth all the way to the bank.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: THIS IS WHY THE TRANSFER PORTAL HAS BECOME A POWERFUL RECRUITING INSTRUMENT There were reports Sunday that Jaydon Hill, the Gators’ junior cornerback from Huntsville, Alabama, injured his knee over the weekend. Hill has been thought to be the likely starter at opposite Kaiir Elam. If the reports are true, then Hill will have to have an MRI to determine the extent of the injury and the length of time he will be missing. If the injury is not all that serious, Hill could be out only a few weeks. If it’s a bad tear of an ACL, he could be out the entire season. We await official confirmation. Losing Hill would be a crushing blow to a Florida secondary that is trying to bounce back from a very bad year in 2020 except that thanks to the transfer portal, Dan Mullen has two strong candidates to step in and get the job done plus true freshman Jason Marshall Jr. , a former 5-star recruit. The transfers are Jedarrius Perkins (6-1, 182, JR), a former teammate of Diwun Black at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College who transferred in from Missouri, and Elijah Blades (6-2, 190, GR), who will arrive as a graduate from Texas A&M sometime during the week. Marshall oozes talent and he will be in the rotation when the season begins, but both Perkins and Black are older and more experienced. They are both very physical corners who have speed. Their presence will allow defensive coordinator Todd Grantham to let Marshall grow comfortable with the speed and faster pace of the college game and increase his responsibility as the season moves along. If the Gators are able to avoid further injuries, the secondary – and the entire defense for all that matters – should be vastly improved, in no small part because Mullen has a proven track record for filling gaps successfully with transfers. Transfer rules have changed and with it so has recruiting. The best coaches will be saving 5-7 scholarships for transfers in the future. Instead of taking their chances with unproven kids, if there is an immediate need, they will use experienced talent from the transfer portal. YES, HE WAS A SEMINOLE, BUT BOBBY BOWDEN WAS A MARVELOUS MAN When the inevitable happened sooner than anyone expected, Bobby Bowden passed away from pancreatic cancer Sunday morning. Upon hearing that he had taken his last earthly breaths, I was flooded with memories about a great coach who was a greater man. He was a rival and a Seminole, but that doesn’t change who he was. I would like to share three memories with you. My first encounter with Bobby Bowden was in 1972. He was the football coach at West Virginia and I was doing a feature story on him for the Sunday sports page of the Savannah News-Press. Bobby was the former head ball coach at South Georgia College in Douglas, which was in the News-Press circulation area at the time. It was a telephone interview and to my surprise, his secretary punched me right on through. I was expecting her to take my number and tell me a time to call back. The first thing he did was repeat my name out loud and then came, “Savannah, you say? Oh Lordy, what I’d give to sit down at Mrs. Wilkes Boarding House again. Used to go there all the time when I’d come to Savannah to recruit. Still remember how good her fried chicken was. You go there to eat?” I answered affirmatively and when asked, told him my apartment was the third floor of the old Armstrong mansion. Bobby knew exactly where it was and he told me a couple of stories about wandering around in the historical district of Savannah. We spent 10 minutes talking Savannah before we ever got around to talking football. When we did talk about his time at South Georgia, he made me spew the Coke I was drinking when he recalled how, as the athletic director at SGC, he had to fire the basketball coach. “You ever fired yourself?” he asked. In addition to his role as athletic director At SGC, Bobby was also the head football coach, head basketball coach and track coach. Admittedly, he was far better coaching football than he was basketball. *** Bobby left West Virginia, where he went 9-3 in 1975, ending the season with a 13-10 win over Lou Holtz and North Carolina State in the Peach Bowl, destination Florida State. It seemed like a dead end job. Doak Campbell Stadium was a 40,000-seat erector set and for what seemed to be a dead end job at Florida State, which had gone 9-35 in the previous four years. Things looked bleak when the Seminoles opened the 1976 season in Memphis on the short end of a 21-12 score. The following Saturday night FSU was stomped 47-0 in the Orange Bowl by a Miami team that would win only two more games. I was writing the FSU perspective of the game for the Miami News. In the FSU locker room after the game, Bobby remembered who I was, shook my hand and asked how I was doing. Then, back to the wall, he began to rhythmically thump his head against the wall as he took questions from the few reporters covering the game. Thump. Thump. Thump. Question. Answer. Thump. Thump. Thump. Question. Answer. He looked at me after maybe a third question and said, “This was bad. Next week we’re at Oklahoma.” From what I had seen against the Hurricanes, I thought Barry Switzer and the Sooners were going to hang 70 or more on the Seminoles but a funny thing happened on the way to the blowout. FSU stunned Oklahoma. No, the Seminoles didn’t win, but they made Oklahoma fight bell to bell before eking out a 24-9 win that OU fans felt was almost like losing. From that 0-3 start, FSU went 5-3 the rest of the way. That 5-6 record was the only losing season Bobby Bowden ever had as the FSU football coach. *** On the morning of March 18, 2010, I was at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Oklahoma City where the Gators were going to take on BYU in the first round of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. It was early morning and I was about to leave for the arena when I got a call from my longtime friend and mentor Jack Hairston, the former columnist for the Gainesville Sun who first hired me when I was a senior at Gainesville High School in January of 1969. Jack told me he was dying and that he had told the doctors not to prolong his life. It hit me like a baseball bat across the nose. When I got back to Gainesville, I went to the hospice where Jack would live out the final chapter of his life as many nights as possible. As the time of his passing was drawing near, I made a call to Bobby Bowden to let him know that Jack didn’t have much longer to live. Bobby immediately asked for the number where to reach Jack. Within the hour, he called and the two of them spent a full two hours on the phone talking life and football. When I arrived at hospice that evening to visit with Jack, he told me about the call. “The first thing, he wanted to know was if I knew where I would be when I took my last breath,” Jack told me. “I told him my faith is strong. I’ll be in heaven. He was happy about that. Next thing, wanted to know if there was anything – anything at all – he could do for me or for my family. I could tell he meant it, that it just wasn’t something to say to make me feel good. Then we talked football and a lot about Pete (former FSU coach Bill Peterson; Bowden was Pete’s wide receivers coach from 1963-65 and one of Jack’s buddies). We laughed a lot and we talked about how remarkable his career was at FSU. I don’t know if anyone will ever match what Bobby did for those 14 years (1987-2000). Then he gave me the ultimate compliment you can give a sports writer. He told me, ‘Jack, I always knew you would be fair with me. I never knew you to criticize unfairly and that’s something I always appreciated about you.’ That really meant something to me.” By now, I’m sure Bobby has met his maker, who told him, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.” I don’t doubt for a second that he and Jack Hairston have already hooked up to chat about the state of football at FSU and UF. THREE FOOTBALL WHAT IFS ON A MONDAY MORNING What if Florida had stood by Charley Pell?: I’ve often wondered what might have happened if University of Florida president Marshal Criser had kept his word and stood by Charley Pell. It’s not like other schools hadn’t stood up to the NCAA and stuck with their coaches. Oklahoma stuck by Barry Switzer (1973, 1980). Auburn stuck by Pat Dye (1983). Georgia was a multi-year offender under Vince Dooley (1978, 1982, 1985). Southern Cal stuck by John Robinson (1982). Florida State didn’t fire Bobby Bowden (1984). It’s a long list of coaches who ran afoul of the NCAA but whose school stuck by them and weathered the storm. Had Criser and UF stuck by Charley, it’s entirely possible UF would have won an SEC championship that counted before 1991 and a national championship prior to 1996. At the time Charley was fired, UF was dominating recruiting in the state. He left behind what is essentially a National Football League team. It was only a matter of time before UF broke through in a big way. Had Charley Pell remained at Florida, Bobby Bowden would have never had the success he had at FSU. What if Jimmy Johnson had never left Miami?: Jimmy Johnson went 52-9 in five seasons at Miami, 44-4 in the last four years. He won the 1987 national championship and his only loss in 1988 was by a single point in South Bend to eventual national champ Notre Dame. The five greatest talent evaluators I’ve ever met in more than 50 years of writing about football are Charley Pell, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Jimmy Johnson. After Jimmy left for the Dallas Cowboys after the 1988 season, Miami won two more national championships (1989, 1991) with Dennis Erickson as head coach. Erickson won big mostly with talent left behind by JJ. If Jimmy had remained at Miami for another 10 years I think he would have won another 5-6 national championships. What if Nick Saban had been successful in the NFL?: This is one Alabama fans don’t even want to think about. Saban made the decision to leave the Miami Dolphins when team doctors failed Drew Brees when he took a physical. The Dolphins were 9-7 in 2006 and an excellent quarterback away from becoming a consistent playoff team. Brees was a free agent QB who made a deal with Saban to join the Dolphins but then he flunked the physical. Saban consulted with Dr. James Andrews, who had operated on Brees. Dr. Andrews said Brees would be just fine but Miami physicians flunked him. Brees went to New Orleans, where the doctors gave him a passing grade. He signed with the Saints and that spelled the end of Nick Saban’s career with the Miami Dolphins. Saban left for Alabama where he’s 170-23 in 14 years with six national championships. I can’t see there is a single coach that Alabama could have hired who could have done what Saban has done. If it gripes you that he’s so successful at Alabama, point your finger of blame at the Dolphins team physicians. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: I rarely tuned in the Olympics this year. No, it wasn’t about the politics although I’m one who wishes athletes – no matter what the sport – would park their politics in the locker room instead of using a sport to make a political statement. Other than the swimming to see Gators Caeleb Dressel and Bobby Fincke bring home a bunch of medals, plus the march to the gold by heavyweight wrestler Gable Steveson, I just couldn’t get excited. Obviously, I’m not the only one because the television ratings are among the lowest, if not the lowest they’ve ever been. Normally, I am riveted by the track and field events, but not this year. The United States brought home two gold medals – shot put by Ryan Crouser and the 4X400 relay – and five by the US women in the track and field events. This year, there was no Carl Lewis and no Flo Jo or Jackie Joyner Kersey. Usain Bolt has retired so the 100-meter dash had no appeal to me, either. From where I sit, the games lacked star power and that contributed mightily to me watching old Peter Sellers movies like Dr. Strangelove, Being There and the entire Pink Panther series. Maybe I’ll watch in 2024 if the US team has a few superstars strutting their stuff on the world stage.

“I don’t think of Emory as a ‘dual threat,’” said veteran running back Dameon Pierce. “He’s more of a ‘mobile pocket passer.’” It had been two years since I set foot on Florida Gator soil, an absence I hadn’t experienced since Galen Hall was coach while I lived in New York. So imagine the anticipation that welled up in my sportswriter soul when I arrived at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium/Steve Spurrier Field Thursday for Dan Mullen’s presser with a half dozen or so players to talk, in the flesh, about what we hope will be a full 2021 season. I had a good solid plan – to write about “The Quarterback Whisperer” and his next promising apprentice. In an advance social media tease, I wrote how much I was looking forward to my visit with the next in line of stellar quarterbacks. Unfortunately, the only one of those Mullen quarterbacks was downstairs in bronze. And the statue of Tim Tebow didn’t have much to say. (I tried!) Presumed starter Emory Jones wasn’t there -- and, for whatever reason, neither was Anthony Richardson. They were not hand-picked for media duty. So whatever was gleaned about Mullen’s QB starter came from him, or light banter from several teammates. In the box score, Jones was a DNP. Not that I read any skullduggery in this, but I will admit it was a little disappointing for those of us wishing to update The Whisperer’s worksheet. So I failed to deliver on my promo. *According to a Florida PR person, Emory Jones will be made available to the media next week. He was held back today to get a practice under his belt as the starter first. Naturally the press wanted to know about Covid protocol and how many Gators have been vaccinated (roughly over 85 percent) and how Commissioner Greg Sankey’s new play-or-forfeit mandate would impact the SEC. Mullen’s go-to responses became: 1. “I’m just a football coach.” 2. “That’s a question for the guy down the street.” And: 3. “I dunno, my information came from watching the news.” The best of what Mullen and his players had to offer was mostly about how Florida will intersperse five solid running backs in the offense, whether the defensive unit can avoid last season’s deficiencies, whether the offensive line will be stout enough to support a good ground game, the current emphasis on player conditioning and body weight management and whether Emory was predominantly a runner or passer. Of course there were questions about the style of the 2021 offense from the 30 or so media members who were invited on a limited basis. Which of Emory’s skills would be featured? (He is almost equally adept both through the air or on the ground). “I don’t think of Emory as a ‘dual threat,’” said veteran running back Dameon Pierce. “He’s more of a ‘mobile pocket passer.’” And that term became the preferred mantra of the day. It also speaks to the how highly Emory’s skills are valued. And it presents this interesting concept. If his own teammates are not completely sure about it, how will opposing defensive coordinators defense him? All but one of the six players agreed, but as offensive lineman Stewart Reese pointed out, “I personally think of Emory as a ‘dual threat,’ but in some games this year he will have to be a ‘mobile pocket passer.’” Wide receiver Justin Shorter put it best: “Emory is an athletic human.” While Mullen is about to gives Jones the keys to the big Orange & Blue Truck, he held them back and jangled them in his face just a little, insisting Emory still had to earn the starting job. “He’s got to go win the job still, but I think everybody looks at you as the guy who’s going to be the guy. There’s certain different levels of expectations for you within the good and the bad and I think the maturing certainly helps him be able to handle all that.” I asked Mullen about his first impression of Emory as a young teenager. “That goes back a long time ago now. I think he was like a sophomore in high school, maybe I think it was. That’s an age question. But I think you saw somebody that obviously has elite arm talent, you know where the ball jumps out of his hands, and then an athletic ability to improvise and make plays with his legs. “The first time you see somebody you’re watching film and like, ‘OK, where are his strengths?’ Every player you look at … what do they do well? What are areas you’re going to be able to coach and improve them on? There’s a lot of things you can teach and there’s things that are harder to teach, you got to look at the things they do well and what they don’t. I guess the first thing with him is seeing a guy where the ball just jumps off his hands and a guy that has ability to improvise.” The point is that Mullen was recruiting Jones so long that he couldn’t remember. Which speaks to the issue of how much he invests in a young player when he sees one that impresses him. That trust that was developed between them probably became the glue for Jones to stay at Florida for three seasons with only limiting playing time. Now it’s his time. And Jones learned a lot of patience by watching Kyle Trask become the Ultimate Next Man Up. Now he has added “maturity” to his dossier without ever being a starter. “I think for him (it’s) the expectations but being a mature guy it helps. Being around the guy (Trask), seeing how they handle it, now to prepare for different situations, how he gets himself ready for the season. I think there’s a lot to that within the maturity of knowing how to prepare and how to do things. And then the expectations that come along with it and all the responsibility when everybody’s looking at you.” The important aspect of the day was that was a good energy in the room and you could feel the expectations of August, foreshadowing the promising days ahead. Coach Mullen could feel it. Dan Mullen was happy to be back at the podium again on Thursday. (GatorBait photo by Chris Spears). “You know I hope we’re able to get the stadium where we want it to be and get the excitement back in the stadium and you know that feeling of feeling the energy, and feeling the noise of the Gator Nation on the field. Not just hear it, but you can feel it. That’s what‘s special in that environment of playing here.” How could you not be psyched when you realize you’re about to become a member of the college football elite: The best damn conference in college football. If it wasn’t already before the annexation of Texas and Oklahoma. And of course, there’s that Sept. 18 Date when national champion Alabama comes to play on Steve Spurrier Field. "You know what? I think you look and the tradition in the Southeastern Conference of the schools, you want to say, I mean, just that the power academically, the power athletically that the conference has,” Mullen said, without gloating. “The competitive nature of being a championship-level conference. The number of championships over the last 20 years now, really I guess going back to really 2006. The streak of championships in this league is pretty special. And then you're looking at two academic schools, two schools with very strong football traditions. Two excellent football programs. Very passionate fanbases that really fit what this league is all about. And so it makes sense.” It was almost enough to make you forget about the gaping holes in that 2020 Florida defense and some recruiting-shaming. Well almost. But it’s still only August.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: DAN MULLEN ONE DAY BEFORE AUGUST CAMP BEGINS On first impressions of Emory Jones when he first began recruiting him … “That goes back a long time ago now. I think he was like a sophomore in high school, maybe I think it was. That’s an age question. But I think you saw somebody that obviously has elite arm talent, you know where the ball jumps out of his hands, and then an athletic ability to improvise and make plays with his legs. That’s one of the things, one of the first things that you see, because the first time you see somebody, you’re watching film and like, OK, where are his strengths. Every player you look at … what do they do well? What are areas you’re going to be able to coach and improve them on? There’s a lot of things you can teach and there’s things that are harder to teach, you got to look at the things they do well and what they don’t. I guess the first thing with him is seeing a guy where the ball just jumps off his hands and a guy that has ability to improvise.” On expectations that Brenton Cox Jr. will recover from foot surgery to have an exceptional season … “Yeah we expect him to be back. I don’t know if we’re going to let him go 100 percent right on day one, but he’s going to be out there practicing right away and building him up. Right now, with the time he’s missed, building him up, getting him back ready to being 100 percent, in not just the foot injury but his training and conditioning and all that stuff. You know I expect big things out of him, because I thought he had a really solid year last year. Now a second year in the system, more experience, more a veteran guy, an older guy, having to learn, look at what he did well importantly last year and how to build off that. I have tremendous respect for Brenton, because you look at a guy, highly profiled recruiting guy, people had all kinds of questions about him. He’s come in here and I think been SEC Academic Honor Roll since the day he stepped on campus. Handles his business at an extremely high level in the locker room, in the classroom, and on the practice field. I mean the effort and what he was able to do the year he knew he couldn’t play, to come out every day, work, get better, be a team guy, give the team a good look and excel in the classroom, I think shows a lot of the character and the type of person that he is and really why he fits being a Florida Gator.” On keeping all these talented skill people happy when there is only one football to go around … “There’s a bunch of receivers and tight ends and quarterbacks. Everyone wants the ball. There’s only one ball. Heck, defensive guys want the ball sometimes. Go get it. You can go get it anytime you want on defense. Go get it for us. But no. I think one of the things that those guys have done is really bought into what we do of, one, our job is putting guys in position to do what they do well on the field. I wouldn’t be shocked to see us with multiple running back packages this year, with more than one on the field at a time a little more than we’ve done maybe in the past. Just utilizing our talent and our depth of what we have at that spot. But also those guys really buying into the program and understanding how big a role they can make in special teams. When you get into play count of the ability to stay healthy, the ability to stay fresh by rotating a bunch of guys through, and our guys have really bought into that. When you look at our running back stats as a whole position group, they’re pretty good and maybe not one guy gets all the stats, and everybody else gets nothing. It’s allowed us to be pretty successful over the last several years, and guys having the opportunity here as well as the opportunity beyond here because of how we’ve done things.” On playing time for Anthony Richardson as the backup quarterback … “I think you’re going to see him on the field this year, I would imagine. You know me, that’s part of the development and the developmental process, and getting him out there. He’s a weapon with the ball in his hand, both running and throwing within his growth and his development. He’s a guy coming in wanting to compete to be the starter, understanding that he’s one play away from being the starter. I think going through and seeing how guys handled themselves last year really gives guys the maturity on how to learn and handle the situations. I think when you can sit back and you watch, ‘Hey, boy, Trask prepared this way, look at how Emory was prepared, look at when, you know, the situations that he’s had in his career when he gets called, whether with package inform or whether something happens and he’s got to go play, he’s always ready to go perform at that moment’. This is what I need to do to make sure I’m there, that I prepare, from practice 1 of training camp I’m preparing to be the starter. One, to compete for it, but two, to be ready for that moment. And he’s learned how to do that.” On leadership brought to the team by the transfers … “I am really happy with the experience those guys have brought to the table. You know, not just their talent and their ability to kinda create the depth that comes in and fills some gaps with some over-positions if you will, but I do think they also – because I talked to them coming in about hey not just coming in as a player but coming in as a leadership role as an older guy, you know, which is sometimes hard to say, ‘you’ve been here 6 months but you’re kinda counting on me to be a leader’. But I talked about that when we brought them in, that’s kinda a role also they have to be ready to fill, and I think they’ve done a really good job of that.” On expectations for a more physical team in 2021 … “I certainly hope we're more physical. You know, especially more physical on the defensive side of the ball. I think naturally we'll probably be more physical on the offensive side of the ball. I can't get into every bit of that last year but you know I think, people look at physicality and how physical you are in running the football and the consistency of running the football and 'hey we're gonna power way over you.' I don't know that we even tried to do that at times last year. I mean, you go through drive recaps and like 'hey we threw the ball eight times and ran it once on this touchdown drive,' you know, and 'okay, let's get the next drive ready.’ It wasn't like, we're gonna rear back and knock you off the ball and play this long ball control game. That wasn't who we were last year. But I think also, maybe part of that led to the other side of the ball, you know, I mean if you're looking and saying 'hey, you're gonna go play teams and if the team is looking—if we go into a game and I know the team we're gonna play is gonna score 40 points, like we were doing on several occasions, like a bunch last year, your approach to the game on both sides of the ball changes you know. I think there's, there has to be a full team philosophy and how you're going into the game on both sides of the ball. And so this year we'll see how we do. If we’re gonna be lighting up scoreboards and throwing it nine out of 10 plays, that that could change the physicality of how both sides of the ball end up playing.” On things that caused the defense to be so bad last year … “I think there were several different things that reared their head at different times during the course of the year. You know, and for us, you know, there's times last year we played great defense. And then there's times we didn’t. So, there was, you know I mean an inconsistency is one of them. And then, why was there inconsistencies? But I think we've addressed a lot of different situations that we feel a lot more comfortable moving forward, you know. Whether it's from our flexibility within our packages, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of our players, playing more together as a team, keeping guys out of bad situations, you know, and finding ways to play at a consistent level within. Leadership coming from our coaches and from our players and that mesh, all of those things combined, I think we're in a better place. And then a better understanding than where we were last year because I think different things would rear its head at different times that we didn't know until kinda afterward. It's easy to look back, you know, but one of the keys is making sure that we're doing it in real time and fixing issues in real time.” KALEB BOATENG TRANSFERRING IN FROM CLEMSON Per Jason Higdon, redshirt freshman offensive tackle Kalen Boateng will be transferring in from Clemson as of today. Boateng, who is 6-5 and 313 pounds with an 80-inch wingspan, signed with Clemson in 2019. He redshirted while playing in four games in 2019 and played in only one game in 2020 while playing behind a pair of veteran former 5-star recruits. Boateng was a 3-star recruit out of Fort Lauderdale High School who had offers from Florida, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Florida State among others. Boateng gives the Gators 15 scholarship offensive linemen. GATORS NO. 12 IN ESPN PRESEASON RANKINGS It’s the usual suspects ranked 1-5 in ESPN’s preseason rankings. The Gators are ranked No. 12, which is fairly consistent with where everyone else has them ranked. 1. Alabama; 2. Oklahoma; 3. Clemson; 4. Georgia; 5. Ohio State; 6. Texas A&M; 7. Iowa State; 8. Oregon; 9. Notre Dame; 10. North Carolina; 11. Cincinnati; 12. FLORIDA; 13. Southern California; 14. LSU; 15. Miami; 16. Wisconsin; 17. Indiana; 18. Iowa; 19. Washington; 20. Penn State; 21. Texas; 22. Coastal Carolina; 23. Louisiana; 24. Ole Miss; 25. Arizona State ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The NCAA Division I Board of Directors has announced immediate changes to its Independent Accountability Resolution Process. What this is supposed to mean is that schools that choose to have their infractions cases heard before an independent group that isn’t affiliated with any particular school can go to trial quicker. LSU basketball coach Will Wade, for example, was caught on a Federal wiretap that was part of the college basketball corruption scandal bragging about offering recruits thousands of dollars. LSU has chosen the IARP. Kansas, which was allegedly paying for players, has also chosen this route as has Arizona. It has been five years since all the evidence was gathered. This should be an absolute no-brainer since all the evidence was submitted under oath in Federal court under penalty of perjury. The NCAA should have been able to take that evidence and issued a swift punishment, but instead has allowed things to drag along for five years. I’m reminded of the book by my friend the late, great Lewis Grizzard: “When My Love Returns from the Ladies Room Will I Be Too Old to Care.” These schools need to have the hammer dropped on them, but will anyone actually care when it happens? Better yet, will it actually stop anyone from cheating even if the NCAA penalties are harsh?

It’s taken 18 months, an uncertain season, a generational offense, a disappointing defense and a global pandemic, but things are finally starting to feel normal again for the Florida Gators. Fall camp starts on Friday, as preparations begin for the 2021 season—a season that, as of now, promises to be a return to normal life and possibly a much more well-rounded team than the 2020 Gators who spent all season in the Top 10 before ending with an 8-4 final record. “You can’t even really explain the two,” said Head Coach Dan Mullen on Thursday, trying to put words to an exasperating situation. “Last year was a very different situation in every aspect of the program. The mental and emotional stress and toll it took on you was very hard. You don’t know if you’re playing a game or who is playing until Friday night or Saturday morning, just from week to week with offseason preparation being thrown out. “I think one thing you look at is a lot of football players and football programs, you’re used to a very scheduled, regimented approach on how you prepare and how you do things, how you get ready, and how you go through a game week, when all of that is interrupted by massive amounts of uncertainty, that’s really hard. “I think our guys, you can’t complain, you’ve kind of had a regimented offseason leading into training camp right now for us. But there’s a lot of guys in our program that haven’t learned a routine or schedule yet because they haven’t been a part of it. You look at guys going into their third season. Fifty percent of it is not natural, so it’s still a learning process.” Mullen met with local media on Thursday to preview what he expects out of the Gators this fall camp and season. Who is he expecting the most from this fall? How does he feel about Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC? What will the Gators COVID protocols be this season? All of that and more in these six takeaways from Mullen’s first press conference of fall camp. Team Will Return to Hotel In the first big return to normalcy, the Gators will stay in a team hotel for this fall camp. It’s an annual move that was abandoned last fall amidst COVID-19 concerns. Staying at the team hotel during camp helps keep guys locked in to the team during the annual bonding period. Classes have yet to begin and the only thing they focus on is football. Losing that time last season hurt many a team, Florida included. While returning to the team hotel for the next two weeks is crucial to development, it will still come with COVID protocols in place, due to the ongoing Delta variant. “We're going to have some protocols that we put in place,” explained Mullen. “I think everyone's a little bit more educated about it now moving forward. Last year you kind of, I mean, I wasn't ever used to wearing a mask my entire life. How you pay attention to all these different protocols that are in place, I think there's a lot more familiarity with it right now. "When you look at what our protocols, how we're going about it within the ability to wear a mask, when we're wearing them, what situations, indoor compared to outdoors with what we're doing matching the number of guys and looking at how we're managing guys that have been vaccinated compared to non-vaccinated. I think we're just a lot more educated on how we adjust within what we're doing to keep everybody as safe as possible." COVID Vaccinations Are Up Speaking of handling those vaccinated versus not, there is a serious competitive advantage to having most of the team vaccinated for COVID-19. The oft accepted threshold for herd immunity is 85% and that is the number the SEC is pushing teams to reach. No games will be reschedule this season due to COVID outbreaks. Instead, teams will be forced to forfeit. “We have a very high percentage of our organization as a whole that has been vaccinated. We're not at 100%, but an extremely high percentage within the organization has been vaccinated. "I'm very confident with our medical staff. I think Paul Silvestri has done an awesome job. His whole medical staff has done an amazing job within their preparation, within their knowledge, of keeping everybody within the setup of where we need to be within training camp. As far as where I think everything will be down the road? I'm getting ready to coach some football. There's some people that would have better answers on that stuff." Mullen was pushed on where exactly the Gators numbers sit and if it’s over that 85% threshold. He remained adamant that things fluctuate, presumably with what protocols might be and case numbers rising, and how that might change the threshold number required. But if a person is vaccinated, that itself doesn’t fluctuate. So the coach was pushed on that point. He wouldn’t commit to a number, but did say, “I think we're probably over it at this point, to be honest.” Fixing Defensive Issues Is Key Between SEC Media Days and other appearances, Mullen has talked ad nauseam about the 2020 defense at this point. More pointedly, what went wrong. The Gators fielded not only one of their worst program defenses in years, but one of the worst defenses in the country. In fact, the Gators were 83rd overall in total defense. “I think there are a lot of different things. And almost game-by-game issue of what I could go point out,” explained Mullen. “I think there were several different things that reared their head at different times during the course of the year. You know, and for us, you know, there's times last year we played great defense. And then there's times we didn’t. So there was, you know I mean an inconsistency is one of them. And then, why was there inconsistencies?” Mullen infamously kept Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham, but replaced both secondary coaches. The secondary players will be young and the front seven will be full of veterans. “I think we've addressed a lot of different situations that we feel a lot more comfortable moving forward,” predicted Mullen. “Whether it's from our flexibility within our packages, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of our players, playing more together as a team, keeping guys out of bad situations, you know, and finding ways to play at a consistent level within. "Leadership coming from our coaches and from our players and that mesh, all of those things combined, I think we're in a better place. And then a better understanding than where we were last year because I think different things would rear its head at different times that we didn't know until kinda afterward. It's easy to look back, you know, but one of the keys is making sure that we're doing it in real time and fixing issues in real time.” Bowman and Cox Should Be Full-Go Outside linebacker Brenton Cox and running back Demarckus Bowman are two of the bigger names Mullen has recruited out of the transfer portal. Cox was forced to sit out a year after transferring from the Georgia Bulldogs, as the NCAA denied his waiver to play immediately. He finally took to the field last season and was faced with double teams as the rest of the defensive line lacked physicality. He was victim to a foot injury this offseason, leading to wide speculation as to his availability. But Cox has recently began posting videos of himself working out, showing someone ready to play. “We expect him to be back,” revealed Mullen. “I don’t know if we’re going to let him go 100% right on day 1 [of practice], but he’s going to be out there practicing right away and building him up. Right now with the time he’s missed, building him up, getting him back ready to being 100%, in not just the foot injury but his training and conditioning and all that stuff. “I expect big things out of him, because I thought he had a really solid year last year. Now a second year in the system, more experience, more a veteran guy, an older guy, having to learn, look at what he did well importantly last year and how to build off that. I have tremendous respect for Brenton, because you look at a guy, highly profiled recruiting guy, people had all kinds of questions about him. He’s come in here and I think been SEC Academic Honor Roll since the day he stepped on campus. Handles his business at an extremely high level in the locker room, in the classroom, and on the practice field. “I mean the effort and what he was able to do the year he knew he couldn’t play, to come out everyday, work, get better, be a team guy, give the team a good look and excel in the classroom, I think shows a lot of the character and the type of person that he is and really why he fits being a Florida Gator.” Clemson Tigers running back transfer Demarckus Bowman is cleared to play, per Mullen at SEC Media Days. His progress to be ready for the fall is still in process, but coming along according to Mullen. “I mean he looked good in the little bit in spring but we’ve gotta see how he picks things up and how he learns. Obviously, that hurts, being a first year player when you kind of miss a whole installation — this is kind of now almost like he’s going through the installation and learning it all for the first time because he missed the installation in spring.” Gators Will Lean On Running Backs Speaking of the running backs, Bowman rounds out an incredibly deep group for the Gator this year. Five deep and all insanely talented, the running back unit will undoubtedly be a strength of the team. Coupled with a mobile quarterback in Emory Jones, the Gators are poised to become a ground game team. But how in the world do you get one ball to five guys? Lean on them all equally. “I think one of the things that those guys have done is really bought into what we do of, one, our job is putting guys in position to do what they do well on the field. I wouldn’t be shocked to see us with multiple running back packages this year, with more than one on the field at a time a little more than we’ve done maybe in the past. Just utilizing our talent and our depth of what we have at that spot. “But also those guys really buying into the program and understanding how big a role they can make in special teams. When you get into play count of the ability to stay healthy, the ability to stay fresh by rotating a bunch of guys through, and our guys have really bought into that. When you look at our running back stats as a whole position group, they’re pretty good and maybe not one guy gets all the stats, and everybody else gets nothing. It’s allowed us to be pretty successful over the last several years, and guys having the opportunity here as well as the opportunity beyond here because of how we’ve done things.” Texas and Oklahoma Shockwaves reverberated through the SEC and college football two weeks ago, when it was announced the Texas Longhorns and Oklahoma Sooners would be joining the SEC. Since made official by both schools, the Big XII and the SEC, the process is in full swing. It will undoubtedly change the landscape of the Southeastern Conference, as well as all of college sports. Mullen thinks it’s a great move though, as the SEC welcomes two more teams who fit the personality of historically the most successful and passionate fanbase in athletics. “I think you look and the tradition in the Southeastern Conference of the schools, you want to say, I mean, just that the power academically, the power athletically that the conference has. The competitive nature of being a championship-level conference. The number of championships over the last 20 years now, really I guess going back to really 2006. The streak of championships in this league is pretty special. “And then you're looking at two academic schools, two schools with very strong football traditions. Two excellent football programs. Very passionate fanbases that really fit what this league is all about. And so makes sense. I think I've said this, college football in the next couple years will look differently than maybe what it's looked like in the past. That's just going to be another step of it, and exciting to have those two great schools and great football programs coming into our league. “I don’t know if there’s really a league in college football that could compete top to bottom with the SEC from top to bottom before those teams coming now, and now it’s going to be even a stronger footprint of teams. I guess if you throw them into it, you’re going back before 2006 with Texas - they won 2005? - so now with them and with Oklahoma that won in 2000, so you’re really looking at since the turn of the century now teams that are going to be in this league have been some of the most powerful teams in college football. You look at OU’s run of going to College Football Playoffs over the last several years. I know the term is, there aren’t mega-conferences yet, but if you look we’re as close to being to that now, and then you add those two teams and certain it is the strongest conference in college football.” BONUS: Coaching In the Snow Missouri and Florida infamously got into a halftime brawl during the 2020 game, in which Florida won 42-17. On the last day of SEC Media Days, Missouri Tigers head coach Eli Drinkwitz raised eyebrows and drew chuckles when he took a shot at Dan Mullen during his time on camera. Asked about the Gators visiting Columbus, Missouri in November, Drinkwitz said, “I’m praying for snow. Dan is going to complain about everything anyways.” Mullen is a New Hampshire native who got his start in coaching up and down the East Coast. He then really got into the swing with Urban Meyer at Bowling Green and Utah, both places that get pretty cold in the winter. In other words, he’s used to coaching in the snow. “I mean I’ve done it,” laughed Mullen when asked about the possibility on Thursday. “It’s cold. I mean I’ll give you a funny snow story. We’re coaching, we’re at Utah at BYU for the Mountain West Championship — a game we won 3-0. I think it was 3-0. It was, right? It was our first year at Utah (2003). I’m on the sideline trying to signal plays. You’ve got these big gloves on and you’re trying to signal plays. Alex (Smith) is like, ‘it’s hard to see’, well you better figure it out because I’m not taking the gloves off. Figure out what I’m signaling to you. I remember kind of the blizzard, it was coming out sideways, freezing cold. Mike Sanford’s up in the box as the OC and he says it looks like it’s kind of calmed down, gotten a little nicer down there on the field for us to open things up. I was like why don’t you come out of the box to see what it’s like down here on the field. You think it’s a lot nicer down here but it’s still about 10 below zero with snow coming sideways. “Played one in Wyoming the next year, which was I mean as many clothes as you can have on. We had a 10 am kickoff at Air Force one time. It was a 10 am kick and you couldn’t see the field with the snow covering it. The last high school game I ever played was on a grass field and you can’t bring the truck out there but there was 10 inches of snow the night before and you had to go play in it. Snow is fun to go skiing in, to play backyard football in, but I don’t know that I need to be out there coaching in it. That’s why we live in Florida.” In other words…how soon can the Missouri-Florida game get here? It’s suddenly become much more interesting.

On the eve of the first practice that will begin prepping the Florida Gators for their season opening game with Florida Atlantic, Dan Mullen sounded relieved that there is a sense of normal returning to college football. A year ago, Mullen wasn’t even sure there was going to be a football season, but once SEC commissioner Greg Sankey gave the go-ahead to open camp, there were rules, regulations and precautions to be followed to prevent spreading the COVID-19 virus. There was no spring practice in 2020. There was no offseason workout program and no strength and conditioning so critical to prepping a team for the rigors of a full schedule. It was an abbreviated schedule, all 10 games against Southeastern Conference opponents with a limited amount of on-the-field practice time allowed before the first game. Once the season began, schedules had to be reshuffled as games were postponed from one date to another. The Gators had to sit a couple of games at midseason that were rescheduled for a later date. The only certainty was the uncertainty. “Last year was a very different situation in every aspect of the program,” Mullen said at his pre-first practice press conference. “The mental and emotional stress and toll it took on you was very hard. You don’t know if you’re playing a game or who is playing until Friday night or Saturday morning, just from week-to-week with offseason preparation being thrown out.” Because football is a game of repetition and regimen, the 2020 season was like no other that Mullen has ever coached. Players couldn’t associate and congregate off campus. In-person meetings had to be conducted with social distancing protocols followed. There was no time to make up for the lost tackling practices that are an important part of each spring, something the UF defense paid a stiff price for once the season got under way. Mullen couldn’t afford injuries suffered in practice since he didn’t know if he was going to have enough players in a position group on game day due to the virus. Travel rosters couldn’t be decided until late in the week. The list of changes and adjustmentswent on and on and on. “I think one thing you look at is a lot of football players and football programs, you’re used to a very scheduled, regimented approach on how you prepare and how you do things, how you get ready and how you go through a game week,” Mullen said. “When all of that is interrupted by massive amounts of uncertainty, that’s really hard.” This year there was spring practice. Nick Savage conducted mat drills and he was with the players during the summer getting them in condition and supervising their workouts. As fall practice is set to begin, Mullen feels things are almost back to normal, but he knows that’s not true for everyone. “I think our guys – you can’t complain – you have kind of had a regimented offseason leading into training camp right now for us.” Mullen said. “But there’s a lot of guys in our program that haven’t learned a routine or schedule yet because they haven’t been a part of it. You look at guys going into their third season. Fifty percent of it is not natural, so it’s still a learning process.” Yes, it is a learning process, but Dan Mullen would much rather do it this way than last year when a few days into August he wasn’t even sure there would be a season. *** Stress and Stewart Reese became all too familiar with each other in 2020. By nature, Reese is laid back and easy going. Any aggressiveness is channeled to football where he has 45 career starts (34 at Mississippi State, 11 at Florida) as a Southeastern Conference offensive lineman. Reese is a grad student with an eye on med school one of these days when it’s time to hang up his cleats permanently. When he transferred to Florida from Mississippi State last year, he thought it was going to be an easy transition since he was reuniting with Mullen, the coach who signed him to a scholarship at MSU back in 2016, and John Hevesy, who spent two years as his O-line coach. Of course, this was before the global pandemic slammed the brakes on the world economy and forced lockdowns all over the United States. Classes were canceled at every university which also meant spring football was cancelled as well as off-season workouts and conditioning programs. There were no group offseason workouts permitted. Players went home and all they could do was wait. And, in Reese’s case, eat. Eating was Reese’s way to cope with the enforced lack of direction that prevented any organized workouts or players on campus. Whenever the munchies held his stomach hostage and demanded food for ransom, it was like sending up the Bat signal from his refrigerator that it was time to make a raid. While he waited back home in Fort Pierce for word there would be football, Reese ballooned to 367 pounds, a full 22 more than his playing weight at Mississippi State. “This past year I got kind of undisciplined with my eating and it took a toll on me during the season, catching COVID and all that kind of stuff,” Reese said. “I came in at 367 last year, and then got put up two weeks for coming into contact with someone with COVID and I gained another 17 pounds. So I came in at 380 and had to work my way down in a very short amount of time. Even at 360 it was still a struggle.” He was sluggish and slow last year, not the same guy who was so versatile at Mississippi State that he played all five positions on the offensive line, once starting 26 straight games at right tackle. The emotional and mental stress was every bit as difficult as the physical stress of trying to play football at an uncomfortable weight. When things got back to normal on the Florida campus this past spring, the stress began to disappear. Instead of isolation, players were able to work out together and socialize. Team dinners and dinner among position groups was back in vogue. Strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage put everybody through mat drills to toughen them up and prep them for spring practice. Then there was spring practice followed by a summer conditioning program and workouts with his offensive line teammates. Things were normal again and with teammates able to work out together once again, camaraderie has come back that was missing last year. “All the big guys push each other,” Reese said. “All the offensive linemen, especially … because we’re the biggest group and we struggle the most with trying to maintain weight. We all kind of lean on each other to work on losing the weight, maintaining the weight and cutting down on fat and eating better. “It’s not fun. It’s not fun at all. I would rather be able to go to McDonald’s at 2 in the morning and get a Big Mac meal, but I know I can’t do it. If I want to move forward with my life with what I want to do and help the team move forward and compete at a high level, I have to be disciplined not to do that type of stuff. Discipline, eating right and being able to work out were my three big things. Having my teammates to lean on really helped me lean up this offseason.” *** From a strictly athletic standpoint, Jeremiah Moon is a total freak, a plug and play guy that defensive coordinator Todd Grantham can use effectively almost anywhere on the field. When he’s healthy – he wasn’t last year – he can be a major contributor. He knows the value of the offseason conditioning programs and the benefits of those 15 practices during the spring. “Spring this year definitely helped a lot,” Moon said. “Coach (David) Turner, Coach C-Rob, Coach Gran, Coach Jules … everybody coming together and just leading the way and everything just being scheduled. I know during [last] spring we didn’t have a schedule. Everybody did everything on their own. Just coming back in the facility and being able to just be together definitely helps.” Like Stewart Reese, the COVID-19 virus took a toll on Moon. He’s not sure which was worse: the mental or the physical part. “I definitely missed everybody during quarantine,” he said. “I know we couldn’t really be together, but I would say both mentally and physically played a big role. Obviously, the mental part. You have your guys pushing you every rep. Then the physical part. I know everybody went off and did what they wanted to do, but I know Coach Savage is the best strength coach in the country. That would have helped.” Moon suffered a season-ending injury two games into the 2016 season. He started five games at linebacker in 2017 while playing in 10 of Florida’s 11 games. In 2018 he had four starts in 13 games as part of the regular defensive rotation. He was nine games and eight starts into the 2019 season when he went down with another injury, cutting short a promising and productive season. Moon started all four games he played in last year. The lack of offseason conditioning very well might have had something to do with the injury that ended his season. For sure, it had something to do with Florida’s slide from the No. 9 defense nationally in 2019 to No. 83 in 2020. “It [conditioning] definitely plays a big part,” he said. “Like I said, we have a really tough strength and conditioning program and I know if we would have had that whole offseason like we just did it would have helped a lot.” *** Justin Shorter transferred in from Penn State last year. The lack of spring practice and being in Gainesville in the offseason prevented him from getting the reps that could have made him more productive in the fall. It’s not that he had a bad season – 25 catches for 268 yards and three touchdowns – but he was behind receivers who had been at UF awhile and already knew the offense. Back home in New Jersey while waiting on word that there would be a football season, Shorter ran routes with a quarterback but it wasn’t the same as being in Gainesville working out with teammates and catching passes from Kyle Trask and Emory Jones. Once he got on campus in August, he had the advantage of getting coached up by Billy Gonzales, widely considered one of the best coaches in the country at preparing receivers to be productive in college and then move on to the next level. “Coach G did a great job of getting me right with all the plays and stuff like that,” he said. “I feel like everything wasn’t all that bad.” A former 5-star recruit, Shorter expects to have a much larger role in the offense in 2021. Instead of almost exclusively running drag routes out of the slot, he figures to be more of a downfield threat in the passing game this year. Having a season under his belt and now a spring practice to go with offseason workouts and conditioning, Shorter should be able to take advantage of his size (6-5, 228) and speed (sub-4.4) that will make him a matchup nightmare. “Having spring ball this year was awesome because you get to go out there and we got the other guys who came in from high school and we were all learning the playbook early,” he said.

Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media on Thursday, to preview fall camp, which opens on Friday. He talked about expectations for quarterback Emory Jones, the running back group and the differences that will have to be seen in the defense. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are happy to offer this transcript in full. Opening statement: “I hope everybody is doing well. We’re really excited to get things kicked off here, to get the season going. Looking at our team, talking to guys, they’ve worked hard and are excited to get back out on the field. You get that transition right now from that offseason mode of training, getting bigger, faster, stronger… prepping. I know the excitement to get out there and play some football is pretty high. I really like the attitude where everybody’s at as we get ready to kick it off and I know they can’t wait till a couple of weeks from now to kick off the season here in The Swamp. You know I hope we’re able to get the stadium where we want it to be and get the excitement back in the stadium and you know that feeling of feeling the energy, and feeling the noise of the Gator Nation on the field. Not just hear it, but you can feel it. That’s what‘s special in that environment of playing here.” Will this team come in with a bit of a chip on its shoulder? “I don’t know if they notice that. I think it’s an edge of their competitiveness of a team. I don’t know, I don’t ask our guys, I don’t pay much attention to that stuff to be honest with you. I like looking at the edge of our team and where we’re at and the competitiveness of our guys. I don’t know about a chip on our shoulder about that. I think about the chip on our shoulder… just kind of edgy about who they are and the type of team they want to become that they have that chip on their shoulder to want to go and compete and be a championship team.” No spring last year compared to this year? “You can’t even really explain the two. Last year was a very different situation in every aspect of the program. The mental and emotional stress and toll it took on you was very hard. You don’t know if you’re playing a game or who is playing until Friday night or Saturday morning, just from week to week with offseason preparation being thrown out. I think one thing you look at is a lot of football players and football programs, you’re used to a very scheduled, regimented approach on how you prepare and how you do things, how you get ready, and how you go through a game week, when all of that is interrupted by massive amounts of uncertainty, that’s really hard. I think our guys, you can’t complain, you’ve kind of had a regimented offseason leading into training camp right now for us. But there’s a lot of guys in our program that haven’t learned a routine or schedule yet because they haven’t been a part of it. You look at guys going into their third season. Fifty percent of it is not natural, so it’s still a learning process.” LAST YEAR HAD TO CURTAIL HITTING BECAUSE OF COVID CONCERNS, HOW DID THAT PLAY INTO TAKING AWAY FROM PREPARATION? "I don't think we hit less last year. We tackled probably, scrimmaged probably, a little less. But I mean the hitting part, if you're referring to tackling, which is different than just hitting, that just was what it was, but a lot of that was trickle-over from spring and all that stuff, a lack of technique in tackling aspect of missing those numbers of practices." TEXAS AND OKLAHOMA NOW IN SEC... THOUGHTS ON THAT? "You know what? I think you look and the tradition in the Southeastern Conference of the schools, you want to say, I mean, just that the power academically, the power athletically that the conference has. The competitive nature of being a championship-level conference. The number of championships over the last 20 years now, really I guess going back to really 2006. The streak of championships in this league is pretty special. And then you're looking at two academic schools, two schools with very strong football traditions. Two excellent football programs. Very passionate fanbases that really fit what this league is all about. And so makes sense. I think I've said this, college football in the next couple years will look differently than maybe what it's looked like in the past. That's just going to be another step of it, and exciting to have those two great schools and great football programs coming into our league." THE TEAM DIDN'T STAY IN HOTEL FOR CAMP? "No." THIS YEAR? "Yes." APPROACH THERE? "Yeah, I mean we're going to have some protocols that we put in place. I think everyone's a little bit more educated about it now moving forward. Last year you kind of, I mean, I wasn't ever used to wearing a mask my entire life. How you pay attention to all these different protocols that are in place, I think there's a lot more familiarity with it right now. When you look at what our protocols, how we're going about it within the ability to wear a mask, when we're wearing them, what situations, indoor compared to outdoors with what we're doing matching the number of guys and looking at how we're managing guys that have been vaccinated compared to non-vaccinated. I think we're just a lot more educated on how we adjust within what we're doing to keep everybody as safe as possible." LAST YEAR BEFORE SEASON NOT MANY PEOPLE EXPECTED TRASK TO GO OFF THE WAY HE DID... HERE COMES EMORY WAITING FOR FEW YEARS... PEOPLE NOT EXPECTING TON OUT OF HIM IN SAME WAY... SEE SIMILARIRIES? EXPECTATIONS? "Similarities within their personalities, similarities within their approach, similarities within how they've developed and how they've matured. Obviously their skill sets are extremely different. One of the things that is extremely important for us is to play to the skill sets of our players, and you're going to do things differently. Do things differently at the quarterback position, do things differently at every position where you have new faces, that you're playing to their skill sets and their strengths out there on the field. But I think Emory has learned an awful lot from a guy like Kyle Trask that two years ago I don't know that anybody would have maybe -- except for you guys who kind of know the roster and cover the team -- even a regular Florida fan wouldn't have known his name that much, to kind of be in the national spotlight, Heisman Trophy finalist, NFL Draft pick type of guy. I think Emory has learned a great deal in the maturity of how to handle himself, how to prepare, how to be ready for your moment. I mean I expect great things out of him this year." WHAT'S YOUR CONFIDENCE LEVEL ABOUT SWAMP BEING NORMAL WITH DELTA GOING AROUND? "You know, I mean I coach football. I don't want to pull out my Jurgen Klopp... I'll tell you, I'll be honest with you, that's probably way above me. I think we're confident a little bit more knowing who's vaccinated, who's not. We have a very high percentage of our organization as a whole that has been vaccinated. We're not at 100%, but an extremely high percentage within the organization has been vaccinated. Then I think we have a little bit better understanding of where our, what situations potentially are more dangerous than other situations, if you will, more at-risk situations. So what is our plan on how we're handling those things? So I mean I'm very confident. I'm very confident with our medical staff. I think Paul Silvestri has done an awesome job. His whole medical staff has done an amazing job within their preparation, within their knowledge, of keeping everybody within the setup of where we need to be within training camp. As far as where I think everything will be down the road? I'm getting ready to coach some football. There's some people that would have better answers on that stuff." Recruiting impact of Texas/Oklahoma addition? “I just think the recruiting impact strengthening the league. You’re looking right now I don’t know if there’s really a league in college football that could compete top to bottom with the SEC from top to bottom before those teams coming now, and now it’s going to be even a stronger footprint of teams. I guess if you throw them into it, you’re going back before 2006 with Texas - they won 2005? - so now with them and with Oklahoma that won in 2000, so you’re really looking at since the turn of the century now teams that are going to be in this league have been some of the most powerful teams in college football. You look at OU’s run of going to College Football Playoffs over the last several years. I know the term is, there aren’t megaconferences yet, but if you look we’re as close to being to that now, and then you add those two teams and certain it is the strongest conference in college football.” How does mental challenge change for Emory knowing he’s going to be ‘the guy’? “I think for him the expectations, but being a mature guy it helps. Being around the guy, seeing how they handle it, now to prepare for different situations, how he gets himself ready for the season. I think there’s a lot to that within the maturity of knowing how to prepare and how to do things. And then the expectations that come along with it and all the responsibility when everybody’s looking at you. He’s got to go win the job still, but I think everybody looks at you as the guy who’s going to be the guy. There’s certain different levels of expectations for you within the good and the bad and I think the maturing certainly helps him be able to handle all that.” How much better feel for personnel than during COVID-ravaged 2020, especially with everyone recruited by you guys for these systems? “I don’t know if I recruit everybody exactly for the system. We recruit guys that kind of fit our profile of living up to the Gator standard and what it is to be a Florida Gator on and off the field and all of that as best as you can get to know people, to me on that side of it. But I think our job as coaches to be able to have the flexibility to adjust to their strengths and I think obviously having spring you’re going to be a lot more comfortable with what everybody’s strengths and weaknesses are moving forward. There’s a lot of guys that have played, you kind of know what they do well and how they’re improving and how they’ve gotten better. The guys that haven’t played, you have a lot more knowledge and where you put them to go succeed and how you put all the piece together to execute as an entire team.” Opening with two non-conference games impact how prepare during camp rather than SEC opener? “No, they’re two teams that are coming in the first two games … FAU is going to come in here expecting to win the game. I imagine that game at South Florida in Tampa is going to be a rocking stadium. That will be a big-time atmosphere. So they’re going to be two tough team we got to prepare for just like any other game.” First impressions of Emory Jones? “That goes back a long time ago now. I think he was like a sophomore in high school, maybe I think it was. That’s an age question. But I think you saw somebody that obviously has elite arm talent, you know where the ball jumps out of his hands, and then an athletic ability to improvise and make plays with his legs. That’s one of the things, one of the first things that you see, because the first time you see somebody you’re watching film and like, OK, where are his strengths. Every player you look at … what do they do well? What are areas you’re going to be able to coach and improve them on? There’s a lot of things you can teach and there’s things that are harder to teach, you got to look at the things they do well and what they don’t. I guess the first thing with him is seeing a guy where the ball just jumps off his hands and a guy that has ability to improvise.” How is Emory like you have coached? “Everybody has their own unique deal, so I don’t really compared guys that way of guys I’ve coached. I know them so intricately it’s hard to say, oh he’s comparable to this guy because he’s different. Certain guys have different traits that they’re really good at it, and Emory certainly has it, his ability to have great arm talent with how he throws and then his ability to make special things happen with his legs is probably different than other guys.” Real cradle of coaching, New Hampshire (Chip Kelly, Ryan Day): “It must be that whole little north end of Manchester, New Hampshire that provides it. I don’t know about ‘cradle of coaching,’ but I do think this: I think all of us, you’re talking guys that are really good football coaches. But anytime in life you also have to have opportunity. One of the benefits of Chip to me and me to Ryan and all of us together have really helped each other out at different parts of our careers and in different ways. And I think those little things provided opportunities and then we’ve all been able to take advantage of those opportunities and have success. That bond of Manchester that just gave us some opportunities, opened some doors and then we were all able to take advantage of it.” Opening camp is the same process every year? “The first part of it is there’s similarities. You’re always looking and tweaking and changing things up. What do we like? What do we don’t like. What fits this year’s team compared to other team? Where’s our depth? Where’s our roster? Where’s the experience at so where’s our focus going to be within camp? Obviously, last year was an extremely different year than you normally would have. There’s still some variables out there that it’s not as traditionally as it would maybe always be. This year, obviously, not anywhere close to the extreme of last year. And you have rule changes. There’s a bunch of rule changes that the NCAA throws on you at all times that you’ve got to go follow and you’ve got to adjust to and that changes your setup to maximize. My No. 1 concern, and obviously within training camp, is player safety, one, and then player development, two. They keep changing rules on you and I’ve got to change to make sure I’m … I’ve got to try as best I can to keeps guys safe within the rules that they give me. I think there’s always those variables from camp that you look at and you go through as a staff to see what applies to this year’s team and what rules are put in place for you to deal with.” Any position changes in camp? “Position changes?” McDowell maybe? “Oh, yeah, Griffin McDowell’s going to try to play some defensive line to see how that fits for us.” Guys tell on Twitter/IG: “Uniforms, pictures and the kids put stuff out, ‘I’m going to try different things.’ I don’t know. That would be one. The problem is I probably … it’s something that happened that I knew happened a while ago that I’m not thinking about right at this second because, for me, that’s something that I already processed. Like Kahleil Jackson at wide receiver. I’m racking my brain. That’s two. What else have you guys heard?” You could release a depth chart? “I don’t have a depth chart; we haven’t even practiced yet.” Kamar Wilcoxson at safety? “Who?” Kamar Wilcoxson, he put on 20 pounds. “Not 20 pounds. He’s still working a little bit at that stuff, of developing and getting bigger. They’re no (Dameon) Pierce. He’s back there.” “Secondary guys, it’s hard to me because we move guys around at that spot and within different packages. I don’t view that as like position changes. Guys can be at nickel or safety in this package. To me, it’s not a position change. It’s kind of … what position did Kyle Pitts play last year? It depended on what package we were in, whether he was moving, whether he’s a H-back movement guy, whether he’s in one of the several wideout positions or he’s on the line at tight end. Your packages dictate that more than guys changing positions.” Where were you when you heard about Texas/Oklahoma? “Uh, hmm, I was at our lake house. I was surfing or doing something, hanging out there, and I saw some report. I mean I’ve heard that report before. It happened a couple of years ago that there was a report that all this different stuff happened. But I didn’t take it -- to be honest with you – that seriously. I guess that’s the benefit of going first at SEC Media Days, I was already done. When it came up the second day I called Scott and asked him if there was any reality to that? He kind of gave me the scoop of what was going on a little bit.” Neutral site games “I’m just looking at the schedule, I mean I didn’t even know (about Texas and Oklahoma). I just know we have a neutral site game that is kind of a really cool, interesting experience. We lose a recruiting opportunity maybe because of that on campus but I think they are really cool things and to keep, if you ever went to nine conference games you have four home, four away, and a neutral, it’s hard to argue that you have an advantage with five home games this year compared to this team that only has four home games and five away. It gives you a way to neutralize it and make it all fair for everybody.” Talk about offensive coordinator Garrick McGee “I’ve known Garrick for a long time. You go all the way back to way, way back in our careers. I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for him. To me, the ultimate test is what are you putting on film, what are you doing, how are your guys developing? I’ve always had huge respect for him throughout his career. So when we had the opportunity to get him on as an analyst, I felt like that was huge. I was excited to really get around him as a person more and see the type of guy he was. When the spot opened up we were very fortunate that he was already here. It made it an extremely easy transition because he was already here. Having him around I got to know a lot more about him so that had answered or got rid of maybe any hesitation I had about the quality of coach he was and I think he’s going to do an amazing job.” Demarckus Bowman limited in spring have you seen enough? “We’ll see. I mean he looked good in the little bit in spring but we’ve gotta see how he picks things up and how he learns. Obviously, that hurts, being a first year player when you kind of miss a whole installation — this is kind of now almost like he’s going through the installation and learning it all for the first time because he missed the installation in spring.” How would you feel about coaching in the snow? “How would I feel about coaching in the snow? I mean I’ve done it.” Is it any different? “Yeah. It’s cold. I mean I’ll give you a funny snow story. We’re coaching, we’re at Utah at BYU for the Mountain West Championship — a game we won 3-0. I think it was 3-0. It was, right? It was our first year at Utah (2003). I’m on the sideline trying to signal plays. You’ve got these big gloves on and you’re trying to signal plays. Alex (Smith) is like, ‘it’s hard to see’, well you better figure it out because I’m not taking the gloves off. Figure out what I’m signaling to you. I remember kind of the blizzard, it was coming out sideways, freezing cold. Mike Sanford’s up in the box as the OC and he says it looks like it’s kind of calmed down, gotten a little nicer down there on the field for us to open things up. I was like why don’t you come out of the box to see what it’s like down here on the field. You think it’s a lot nicer down here but it’s still about 10 below zero with snow coming sideways. That one, played one in Wyoming the next year, which was I mean as many clothes as you can have on. We had a 10 am kickoff at Air Force one time. It was a 10 am kick and you couldn’t see the field with the snow covering it. The last high school game I ever played was on a grass field and you can’t bring the truck out there but there was 10 inches of snow the night before and you had to go play in it. Snow is fun to go skiing in, to play backyard football in, but I don’t know that I need to be out there coaching in it. That’s why we live in Florida.” On Jeffrey Simmons, how do you evaluate when to take a risk on a kid and how much to talk about it in public or ignore it when people pile on “Well, I think one, I think in his situation I had a lot more information about him as a person and about the whole situation and the background of everything that had gone on within that time frame. There were moments to this day I can’t defend the six seconds of video and I don’t think he can defend the six seconds of video. If you had all the information before and after, it’s easier to make decisions. I think one of the things is a lot of times people get judged on their decision off of six seconds worth of information not off of everything that I have, multiple years’ worth of information. And so at a time like that, I felt very, very, very comfortable with my decision because I had a lot of information, so I had no problem putting my name on Jeffery Simmons for the type of man he is, and I think anybody that knows him or gets to know him now probably understands why I gave him that opportunity, knowing that he was someone who was going to take full advantage of that opportunity that he was given. And that that was more a horrendous mistake in his life over a character flaw and who he was. So you hate to be judged on just that in your life.” (last year’s expectations – CFP. What are your expectations for this year?) “The whole thing, I don’t know like…what’s your win total or all of this as you go into a season? Expectations is that we’re a better team at the end of the year than we are at the beginning. That’s my expectation. That we play with relentless effort and maximum effort. That you come out of every game without a regret within the game, that we left everything we could on the field. If we do that, it’ll give us an opportunity to be successful. Your goal is to worry about what you can control, and that’s winning the SEC East. If you do that, you get an opportunity in one game. Then if you win that game, possibly, you never know, chances are within our league you’re going to be getting more opportunities as it pertains to playoffs. Our focus is always on worrying about all the things that we can control and things that — don’t worry about things that we can’t control. That’s always kind of been my focus. My expectation this year is the same as last year. So it’s maybe the outside perception changes.” (85% vaccinations? Nearing that?) “Yeah. I think as that pertains to a lot as you’re getting into the games. I don’t know how that would change. I don’t want to get into the exact numbers, because I don’t want to misquote it, but I think we’re at a very, very high level on the team and within the organization as a whole with where our vaccination rate is right now. I’m feeling pretty comfortable with where we’re at and what Paul Silvestri and his staff have done and some of the protocols we’re going to put in place as we continue moving forward.” (RB room – how keep everyone happy and use everyone with only one ball?) “There’s, yeah. There’s a bunch of receivers and tight ends and quarterbacks. Everyone wants the ball. There’s only one ball. Heck, defensive guys want the ball sometimes. Go get it. You can go get it anytime you want on defense. Go get it for us. But no. I think one of the things that those guys have done is really bought into what we do of, one, our job is putting guys in position to do what they do well on the field. I wouldn’t be shocked to see us with multiple running back packages this year, with more than one on the field at a time a little more than we’ve done maybe in the past. Just utilizing our talent and our depth of what we have at that spot. But also those guys really buying into the program and understanding how big a role they can make in special teams. When you get into play count of the ability to stay healthy, the ability to stay fresh by rotating a bunch of guys through, and our guys have really bought into that. When you look at our running back stats as a whole position group, they’re pretty good and maybe not one guy gets all the stats, and everybody else gets nothing. It’s allowed us to be pretty successful over the last several years, and guys having the opportunity here as well as the opportunity beyond here because of how we’ve done things.” (What benefits does Anthony Richardson get by watching Emory or playing?) “I think you’re going to see him on the field this year, I would imagine. You know me, that’s part of the development and the developmental process, and getting him out there. He’s a weapon with the ball in his hand, both running and throwing within his growth and his development. He’s a guy coming in wanting to compete to be the starter, understanding that he’s one play away from being the starter. I think going through and seeing how guys handled themselves last year really gives guys the maturity on how to learn and handle the situations. I think when you can sit back and you watch, ‘Hey, boy, Trask prepared this way, look at how Emory was prepared, look at when, you know, the situations that he’s had in his career when he gets called, whether with package inform or whether something happens and he’s got to go play, he’s always ready to go perform at that moment’. This is what I need to do to make sure I’m there, that I prepare, from practice 1 of training camp I’m preparing to be the starter. One, to compete for it, but two, to be ready for that moment. And he’s learned how to do that.” Dan, mentioned it’s a young team coming in, brought 4 transfers in, they taking younger players under their wing? “I am really happy with the experience those guys have brought to the table. You know, not just their talent and their ability to kinda create the depth that comes in and fills some gaps with some over-positions if you will, but I do think they also – because I talked to them coming in about hey not just coming in as a player but coming in as a leadership role as an older guy, you know, which is sometimes hard to say, ‘you’ve been here 6 months but you’re kinda counting on me to be a leader’. But I talked about that when we brought them in, that’s kinda a role also they have to be ready to fill, and I think they’ve done a really good job of that.” SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey just received an extension. “Good for him, did he get a good deal?” No financial terms “I’ll tell you what, no, that’s awesome. I’m really excited. I have a great relationship with Commissioner Sankey. He has done an amazing job for this league, you know, and what he does and the leadership he provides and his communication with the coaches, like I said I have a lot of respect for him. I think he does a tremendous job and that’s pretty exciting for the league, and I’m really excited about it because of the relationship I have with him and his leadership within the league.” Brenton Cox had to sit out a year before playing, what are you expecting from him after now having had a season at UF under his belt, and update on his foot injury? “Yeah we expect him to be back. I don’t know if we’re going to let him go 100% right on day 1, but he’s going to be out there practicing right away and building him up. Right now with the time he’s missed, building him up, getting him back ready to being 100%, in not just the foot injury but his training and conditioning and all that stuff. You know I expect big things out of him, because I thought he had a really solid year last year. Now a second year in the system, more experience, more a veteran guy, an older guy, having to learn, look at what he did well importantly last year and how to build off that. I have tremendous respect for Brenton, because you look at a guy, highly profiled recruiting guy, people had all kinds of questions about him. He’s come in here and I think been SEC Academic Honor Roll since the day he stepped on campus. Handles his business at an extremely high level in the locker room, in the classroom, and on the practice field. I mean the effort and what he was able to do the year he knew he couldn’t play, to come out everyday, work, get better, be a team guy, give the team a good look and excel in the classroom, I think shows a lot of the character and the type of person that he is and really why he fits being a Florida Gator.” Comfort level with Emory replacing Trask compared to previous QB transitions? “No, I’m great. Kind of the same way. I think there’s little things you don’t know until it happens, right? And there’s situations that maybe these guys have never been in before. I had a lot of confidence in Kyle when we put him into the game, but he was going into a situation I have not seen him in a ton, and how he was going to handle that. And he handled every situation that was thrown at him extremely well. My confidence in Emory as a player is extremely high, my confidence with his maturity is extremely high. Now he’s going to get put in situations we haven’t seen him have to handle. Everyone’s favorite player on the team is the backup quarterback, right mostly, I mean everyone loves the backup quarterback. So I think that is such a big deal of now all the extra responsibilities that you haven’t had to handle that come that are really almost non-football related, more mental and handling different situations and pressures. Not how’s he going to handle a third down-and-4. I have no worries about that, it’s really how’s he going to handle all of what comes with being a starting quarterback.” So wait and see this point. "Yeah, I mean we’re gonna coach him through it. I don't, there's nothing that’s gonna tell me he's not going to handle it, like, as good as anybody I've ever had. Follow up on COVID, you said that it might fluctuate, week to week. "As far as, I turn on the news. That's from me watching the news.” About the levels of vaccination that you have to have 85% “That's from me watching the news, you know — I'm saying — that press conference, honestly, those questions are answered down the street.” In order to meet the protocols of the SEC and the NCAA— “As of what I understand them to be now? But again that's a question for down the street.” But if it stays at 85%, which is organization wide, you know, once you're vaccinated, that doesn't fluctuate—you either are or you aren’t. Do you know how many players are how many players and organization have to meet that 85%? "I feel like, I think we're probably over it at this point, to be honest. I don't know, I didn’t, I haven't gone into the exact number but I mean, in talking with our medical people—because we're not at a point where we need to be at a threshold yet, we’re several weeks away from that. Four weeks ago I would think we're probably in a different place now than we were four weeks ago. But that, again that's for me just turning on the news. I don’t know where we’ll be four weeks from now. I know where we’ll be as a football team, practice wise. Practice schedules, reps all of those. Defensively, have you figured out what the number one issue was last year, and how confident are you that you guys will get back to the level of defense that you played around here for a long time? "I don't know if you say this was our number one issue. I think there's a lot of things that went into, you know, different deals last year. Was it a buy in issue? "I don't know a buy in issue. I think there are a lot of different things. And almost game-by-game issue of what I could go point out. If the easiest thing is if it’s this one thing, and that's not hard to fix one problem. I think there were several different things that reared their head at different times during the course of the year. You know, and for us, you know, there's times last year we played great defense. And then there's times we didn’t. So there was, you know I mean an inconsistency is one of them. And then, why was there inconsistencies? But I think we've addressed a lot of different situations that we feel a lot more comfortable moving forward, you know. Whether it's from our flexibility within our packages, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of our players, playing more together as a team, keeping guys out of bad situations, you know, and finding ways to play at a consistent level within. Leadership coming from our coaches and from our players and that mesh, all of those things combined, I think we're in a better place. And then a better understanding than where we were last year because I think different things would rear its head at different times that we didn't know until kinda afterward. It's easy to look back, you know, but one of the keys is making sure that we're doing it in real time and fixing issues in real time. Given the talent experience the front seven, and also kind of the size of that interior line that we've discussed, how much more physical of a team's it's going to be? “I certainly hope we're more physical. You know, especially more physical on the defensive side of the ball. I think naturally we'll probably be more physical on the offensive side of the ball. I can't get into every bit of that last year but you know I think, people look at physicality and how physical you are in running the football and the consistency of running the football and 'hey we're gonna power way over you.' I don't know that we even tried to do that at times last year. I mean, you go through drive recaps and like 'hey we threw the ball eight times and ran it once on this touchdown drive,' you know, and 'okay, let's get the next drive ready.’ It wasn't like, we're gonna rear back and knock you off the ball and play this long ball control game. That wasn't who we were last year. But I think also, maybe part of that led to the other side of the ball, you know, I mean if you're looking and saying 'hey, you're gonna go play teams and if the team is looking—if we go into a game and I know the team we're gonna play is gonna score 40 points, like we were doing on several occasions, like a bunch last year, your approach to the game on both sides of the ball changes you know. I think there's, there has to be a full team philosophy and how you're going into the game on both sides of the ball. And so this year we'll see how we do. If we’re gonna be lighting up scoreboards and throwing it nine out of 10 plays, that that could change the physicality of how both sides of the ball end up playing.” Who’s gonna make a Kadarius Toney like jump on this team? “I don’t know anybody because he is who he was and we knew what his skill set was. And then as he matured and grew it and rolled into being a first round draft pick. I don’t know if we have a guy like that. We didn’t have a first round receiver the year before.” I just meant similar. “His skill set is such unique, you utilize him differently. So I don't know anybody, the same, like I don't know who's gonna be Kyle Pitts skill set this year for us. But we're gonna utilize those guys in very different ways. I don't know if there's anybody that we would utilize the way we used him within our roster.”

Last Friday night kicked off the biggest weekend of recruiting for the Florida Gators. Before Florida’s Friday Night Lights football camp could get underway, Dan Mullen and the Gators had already reeled in their first commit of the weekend. Terrance Gibbs, a 4-star running back out of Winter Park, was one of Florida’s top targets in the upcoming recruiting cycle. Gibbs was offered by some of the top teams in the country, including Alabama, Georgia and Ohio State. The running back was also being heavily recruited by Cadillac Williams out of Auburn. But on July 30, hours before Florida’s Friday Night Lights camp got underway, Gibbs announced in an exclusive video with GatorSports.com that he’d be staying in-state and playing for Mullen and the Florida Gators. After announcing his commitment, Gibbs didn’t workout during Florida’s camp. Fortunately for curious Gators fans, Gibbs’ stats speak for themselves. As a freshman, Gibbs was named to the MaxPreps Freshman All-American team after tallying over 1,500 rushing yards and 21 touchdowns in 2018. During his sophomore season, Gibbs ran just under 1,100 yards for Oviedo High School, which went 9-2 that season. Last year, after transferring to Winter Park, Gibbs tore his ACL in preseason practices. He’s slated to return to action this month. Unable to watch Florida’s new pick-up in Gibbs, once camp got underway, all eyes were on Nick Evers, the four-star quarterback out of Texas who had committed to the Gators in March. Also holding offers from Ole Miss, Auburn and Cincinnati, among others, Evers has become one of, if not the most prominent face of the Gators’ recruiting class. A member of the Elite 11 roster, Evers can sling a football. Last season as the starting quarterback for the Flower Mound Jaguars, Evers threw for over 2,500 yards and 21 touchdowns. He added another 218 yards and five touchdowns on the ground. And between him and his mother Monica, who has also been quite the social media recruiter for the Gators since her son committed, Evers has stayed in the ear of other players around the country that Mullen is targeting. Perhaps number one on Mullen and Evers’ list is blue-chip receiver Evan Stewart. Stewart, who also comes out of Texas, is ranked as the No. 1 wide receiver in the 2022 recruiting class. With the hometown Texas Longhorns pursuing Stewart hard, the Texan made a head-turning appearance at Friday Night Lights. Despite there being other quarterbacks participating at the camp, if Stewart was running a route, Evers was the one delivering the pass. And anytime the two lined up, it seemed as though magic happened. Stewart has a helluva release from the line and Evers can deliver passes where only his receiver can come away with it. The two Texans really put on quite a show: The receiver-quarterback duo have chemistry from being on the same 7-on-7 team in Texas. They believe in each other. And it showed on Friday night. Since completing the camp, Evers has said that he is lobbying hard to get Stewart to join him in The Swamp. And Stewart has since said that Evers is the only quarterback that he works with that has already committed to a team and that of course it plays a role in his recruiting process. Dan Mullen spent a lot of time chatting with Stewart on Friday night. Former Gators Ahmad Black, Major Wright and Brandon Spikes also paid Stewart a visit as they helped the defensive prospects at the camp. While Gibbs, Evers and Stewart drew most of the attention on Friday night, the Gators hosted countless other commits and picked up other commitments for the 2023 and 2024 recruiting classes. Julian Humphrey, Jamarrien Burt and CJ Hawkins, all commits for this upcoming cycle, were all in The Swamp on Friday night. Humphrey and Burt, both defensive backs, each had solid showings. While CJ Hawkins, a tight end, got lots of one-on-one work with Florida’s tight ends coach, Tim Brewster. For many, the Gators’ 27th-ranked 2022 recruiting class has been nothing to write home about. But after watching some of the guys in action, especially if Florida can land Stewart, rest assured -- the Gators are in good shape.