Florida Gators’ Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media on Saturday to recap the Gators final scrimmage of spring practice and what comes next for the 2021 offseason. A few things of note stood out. We have highlighted those below. Farther down, we are happy to offer the full transcript of Mullen’s press conference to our valued GatorBait Magazine subscribers. Notes: Injuries The Gators made it out of spring with few injuries according to Mullen. He did literally knock on wood as he revealed that however, just to be safe. However, spring practice can be rough on a body, so the upcoming week off will be crucial according to the coach. “We’ve got a bunch of guys banged up right now. I don’t think we have any serious injuries coming out of spring, but a lot of guys were banged up today, so we were kind of really down on numbers. I think we finished with like 10 total offensive linemen today, so you have to kind of mix and match and do some different things.” Details To Improve Mullen more than once complimented both side of the ball for making plays, especially in this Saturday’s scrimmage. Still spring is for fixing the issues, and the staff has seen both progress in that area…as well as the gaps that still need to be addressed. “The biggest thing for me was that guys made plays. We made a bunch of plays out there on the field. But a lot of it is going to continue to be our consistency of performance, eliminating false starts and offsides penalties, eliminating things that we can control out there on the field, mastering specifics of things that we can control on the field. I think there were more plays made in today’s scrimmage than maybe in the other scrimmages on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively, which is what you want to see, because as spring goes on, you want to see guys understanding the system, and then making plays within what we ask them to do.” Defense It’s no secret that the defense was a weak spot during the 2020 season, so it can really only go up. That’s been the case according to Mullen, who says the defense has dominated spring practice and scrimmages. “I look at every little detail, what was bad and what was good on the defensive side of the football. I thought our defense had a really good spring. You’d say the defense won pretty much all the scrimmages that we had. So I think overall the defense had a very good spring. But we got to continue to take those steps and create that depth. There was some negative things about the defense last year, but also I look at are we making adjustments and improvements to change those things in certain areas.” Full Transcript Watching March Madness? "I was waiting for, I was watching, saw the game the other day, we were waiting, where they were playing I thought Jimmy Chitwood would come running out there. Right? With 19 fateful seconds on the clock, get the ball to jimmy at the top of the key right there, he'll make it. "I will say it should be the best sports movie of all time. Is it not? Hoosiers?" WOULD YOU SAY EMORY IS STARTING QB IN OFFSEASON? "You know what, it's so hard for me because I don't even think in those terms right now, to be perfectly honest with you. I mean you would have to say yes, but I mean I'll give you an honest answer... so I would say yes, but I don't think of it in terms like that because I'm so much in; I mean you've got to prepare at least two quarterbacks ready to go if that makes sense. So my thought process is, 'How are we getting two starters ready and then we have the two young guys, so what's the backup plan after we have two starters?' Does that make sense? I don't know if I'm explaining it in the right way, but in my mind that makes sense, you know what I mean? Instead of, 'Hey, Emory's the starter, you're the backup' we need two starters and then I've got to figure out the backup situation we've got." WHAT DOES EMORY NEED TO DO IN TERMS OF GROWTH AS A LEADER? PHYSICALLY IS HE WHERE HE NEEDS TO BE? "I think if you've watched him, you want to get guys the size; if you watch him, he plays physical and strong at his size. He plays physical and he plays strong at his size out there, so it's about when I get on the quarterbacks, it's about having the stability. The body stability in physical physique, it's that body stability that means you're physical and you're able to stay healthy when you run the ball and when you take hits in the pocket. Do you have the size and the core strength and the body makeup that prevents injury more than getting a specific weight or size or strength. It is that core body makeup for you. Then the other things, we're constantly on him: consistency and the consistency within his performance. He has great talent to go make plays, but getting the timing down. You know, we have some younger receivers, getting all the timing down with them. Him taking that role, both really he and Anthony. I talked to the guys today and—yesterday really it was about it— about, you know quarterbacks and receivers right now, you have, April, May, June and July, you have four months where you guys can get out there, you get your timing down, you get that exactness down, you get comfortable with each other and where you're going to be and how you're going to make the throws, and you get the communications down, beyond the coaching where you guys have that kind of feel of how guys are, where they're going to be on field. I think that's a huge part for those guys moving forward.” Dan, you’re ending your for your third, fourth, excuse me fourth spring. You didn't have one last year. “So I'm actually ending my third spring but..." Okay, fourth spring drill. Is the program where you feel like it should be, you want it to be I mean, obviously I know, you always want to win every game, but are you happy with where the program's at and heading into year four? "I think this, I think, you know I mean for me, you guys know me, I've never satisfied with what we are and how we're trying to improve, But you know I mean I think to build, to become a great program you have to win and you win on a consistent basis, you know, and do—we've gone to three straight New Year’s Six bowl games; last year got the opportunity to go compete for the SEC championship. You know it is that consistency—you know winning on a consistent basis—is where we want to be as a program. I think we've been able to do that, and you know and need to continue to do that in the future.” First of all, the greatest sports movie of all time is the Replacements and I'll die on this hill. "Is that like, is that Keanu Reeves?" Yes, in his Pinnacle role. "I mean that's coming from a Keanu Reeves fan right there and I'm a Keanu Reeves fan, trust me, Point Break man, awesome…to say he was better in replacements than Point Break, come on." What is the message to the players after spring? “I want the next week for everybody to take a break. I want everybody to take a break, everybody to physically and mentally take a week off to try to refresh your motor, refresh everything. Everybody then has to understand their very different levels of where they’re at. We’re going to have a great offseason of May, June, physically getting bigger, faster, stronger, and a huge offseason. But everybody’s at different levels, and one of the most critical things is learning how to develop. You can have guys say, ‘Hey Coach, I’m going to come in and watch film every day.’ Great. Well, what are you watching? Are you able to watch film and realize when you made a mistake and how to correct that mistake? Do you know what to see? Or am I just kind of watching it to watch it? It’s so critical for each individual to learn how to develop, where they’re at in their career, and what are the big things they need to go work on. I mean, you’ve got a guy that’s going into a fifth-year senior, so I mean, you take Zach Carter, like, what he’s working on might be very different than what Gervon Dexter is working on. Even though there are some similarities and they’re working on the same things, they’re also working on some different things. Maybe I’ve got to work on some of the specifics and I’m working on some more general things that Zach already has kind of mastered. That’s jut an example. It’s so specific with each person, but it’s understanding where you’re at and what you need to do and how you need to learn to develop, because we’re not around them all the time. There’s so much personal development going on, but if you don’t know how to do it, if you’re not in there watching film and you don’t know how to watch the film and what you’re specifically looking for, you’re not really developing. Like I told our guys, you might as well be watching SpongeBob Squarepants or watching The Replacements. I don’t know if you’re getting much out of it.” Any notes from scrimmage? “No. We treat it like a scrimmage. We did a slightly different format, but it’s still a scrimmage. We didn’t split the team in half or any of that stuff. It was still a scrimmage deal for us. I think the biggest things coming out of spring, the top things are, I think we have a great attitude as a team. I think we have guys that go hard. I think we have guys that really like football. I think you can see that by steps and improvements guys have made throughout spring. Their commitment and the energy level they bring every day. We’ve got a bunch of guys banged up right now. I don’t think we have any serious injuries coming out of spring, but a lot of guys were banged up today, so we were kind of really down on numbers. I think we finished with like 10 total offensive linemen today, so you have to kind of mix and match and do some different things. But the biggest thing for me was that guys made plays. We made a bunch of plays out there on the field. But a lot of it is going to continue to be our consistency of performance, eliminating false starts and offsides penalties, eliminating things that we can control out there on the field, mastering specifics of things that we can control on the field. I think there were more plays made in today’s scrimmage than maybe in the other scrimmages on both sides of the ball, offensively and defensively, which is what you want to see, because as spring goes on, you want to see guys understanding the system, and then making plays within what we ask them to do. And I think we saw a lot more of that today all over the field, both offensively and defensively.” What are the biggest improvements you saw Emory make over the spring? "Well, I think one thing he did, he really went from a guy that understands the offense to a guy that's making his reads and working on his technique, fundamentals at the quarterback position, you know? At the backend of spring, if you watch his balance in the pocket throwing the football, instead of just trying to make plays, him focusing on being on balance with his accuracy, you know what I mean? Which is going to improve the accuracy, you know, of making the different types of throws and changing your arm angle to make the different types of throws to be on balance. You know, and I think a lot, because he's getting a lot of the one reps, so now it's on him and I think, you know, with that comes the responsibility. Also comes that he's comfortable within the offense, so to sit there and say 'Okay, hey, here's the read,' he knows the read, so let's get through on every aspect of being detailed and exact with making the throw." What are some things you learned for reinforced this spring about the team as a whole? "Well one, we've got to make sure we keep a great attitude as a team, you know what I mean? Our attitude, our energy, our effort is critical. Second, we're going to be a great team because we're going to have some depth on the team, right? I mean we're going to be, we have the opportunity to win. We might not have, you know, the household name players like Kyle Pitts that we had last year, you know what I mean? Where, you know, you have this. But, we have the opportunity to have a great deal of depth and players and experience of guys that we can roll through out there and play as a team, so we've got to keep that attitude. But if you are that type of team, you know what, you've got to play with great attention to detail in every aspect because you never know when your number is going to be called, and when you're out there on the field, you better play with that attention to detail." Is there any area of the team that you don't feel comfortable with, or feel great about, coming out of spring? "Hmm. Thought, um, feel pretty good with our running backs. I feel really good with our running backs and linebackers, you know, I think there's some solid depth right in there. I'm comfortable with some of the O-line, you know what I mean? Of where we're at with some guys, and, but also creating the depth on that, of solidifying who the five are and the next three are, we're still getting there. Um, you know, the quarterback position as you say, I mean, we're trying to create the two starters and then get the young guys caught up to be the backup, to give it by position. The tight ends, I thought those guys played pretty good. I'm comfortable with those guys. They're going to be hard to compare. You can't really compare them to last year because they have very different skill sets, too. But I thought they had a pretty good understanding. Receivers are coming along. Like one guy to me, Ja'Markis Weston, I thought took huge steps this spring. Was a guy that probably played the least (last year). You know the guys that played last year as we roll the guys out there. Tyree and Van Jefferson were out here at the scrimmage today and those guys had great NFL years last year. Next year you'll be sitting there and saying KT and Grimes had great NFL years and we kind of keep rolling those guys through. Some of the guys have played, but I thought he took a big step forward. Defensive line wise, you look at the guys you expect to be great. But I do think we're creating that depth. The two new guys, Daquan Newkirk and Valentino (Antonio Shelton), I thought those guys embrace the role. They stepped in and just took over right from Day 1. I mean, we expect Zach to be where he is. Gervon I thought, Dexter took some good steps forward this spring. Coming off the edge, with Moon coming back I think that's gonna add some solid depth to us with edge guys as well. I thought we were able to create some depth there. Secondary I feel good. We gotta get the depth. I think we'll feel good with putting four to five guys out there on the field, but you want to get to six, seven, eight in a hurry. I think we feel comfortable with a couple of those guys, but we need a bunch of those guys to really grow moving forward." How have Montinar and McGriff helped the secondary? "It's a very young group. So for those guys, they have all new guys. A lot of new guys playing. I thought they bring high energy and attention to detail in every little thing that they're doing. They've built a bond and you see those guys, kind of the leadership within the group and those guys playing closer together. And the communication. I think we're much cleaner in our communication on the back end." Who would be on your basketball team? "If I went into the locker room right now, you have about 80 guys that think they would be in the starting five. Usually in the spring, we've done it in the past, we might wait here at the end of April, we might do a basketball tournament with the team, and we'll see how they shape up and how they do. Maybe that's something we invite you guys to and you get a little feel.. invite you to the basketball tournament and you can make the judgement and you guys can call out who was good and who was not. We can bring some reality to the situation." (inaudible follow up) "That would be a huge argument as to who is who and who would do that. I am trying to think, there are probably a few guys that would surprise you and they would retty legit out there." Yeah you got some hoopers "I just can't.. I'm not reeling off who they are." Who lean on for leadership during offseason? “It’s so much by position group in a lot of ways. So you’re looking at, hey Zach Carter, the guys up front, the whole defensive front, you gotta take control of that. You’re look at Kaiir in the secondary, you have to make sure those guys are communicating and getting the work in donig what they’re supposed to do. Ventrell Miller at linebacker. You’re looking at guys like Big Stew and Ethan White, Richard Gouraige on the offensive line of making sure they’re getting the work in they need to get in. Emory obviously a lot. You look at certain positions, the running back position has so many veterans, those guys kind of there’s not one guys teaching the young guys how to do it because you have so many veteran guys that know what to do, does that make sense.. Emory and Anthony have to get the tight ends and receivers and all that, they got to work on the same page. So it’s kind of the veteran guy at their position group pulling ajl the other guys along, saying, this is the work we need to do. When I was talking about how to prepare, how to learn, how to develop, it’s the older guys saying, this is how you do it. Kyle Trask last year getting everybody on the same page to do it. Emory watched how he did it, so now it’s his turn for him to go show those guys how to do it, and then Anthony learns and then shows them how to do it. It’s kinda that effect that goes all the way through the groups. It’s not really a specific guy or two it’s guy within their position and are to get it done.” What work ethic of the team? “I think they have a great work ethic. Our guys show up every day with a great attitude, excitedto work , excited to get after it, whether we’re lifting weights … it’s learning how to do it on your own, does that make sense. If I went in the locker room real quick and said, ‘Hey, let’s go out scrimmage tomorrow. OK, let’s go coach. What do you want us to do?’ But now I’m not here, it’s on you. How are you taking the onus on yourself to do it. That’s the critical part of the improvement.” Defense improve during spring, a lot of noise last season? “I think you have to look, I look at every little detail, what was bad and what was good on the defensive side of the football. I thought our defense had a really good spring. You’d say the defense won pretty much all the scrimmages that we had. So I think overall the defense had a very good spring. But we got to continue to take those steps and create that depth. There was some negative things about the defense last year, but also I look at are we making adjustments and improvements to change those things in certain areas. Where were they, what were they? It’s easy to look at statistically at certain things, but then statistics can tell you maybe what, but why are the statistics that way, what made them that way and are we addressing those factors. I think we have some good coaches. I think Todd is an excellent football coach. That he’s able when you look, this is the problem, how do you go fix the problem, and how are we making adjustments to make sure we’re going that.” Anything you learned about this team this spring? "Just having a spring certainly helps. I think we're going to come back now as a coaching staff, that we weren't able to do last year, and really put together offensive and defensive things that ..we are able to put guys in position to do what they do well. I think we will eliminate some things on both sides of the ball, and we might emphasize some things a little bit more. We put a lot in and we are going to trim all the fat and go, 'this is what we did well, here is what we... here are things we don't do well.' So whether it's in certain situations, we're not.. how do we adjust these situations that we're not great in or avoid those situations.. and then here's play by play on things that the guys do well, we don't do well, we execute well, we don't execute well. These are the type of plays this player can make; these are the type of plays they don't make as well, so let's scheme around those. I think we do have a much better..pretty good feel. Certainly watching us, I certainly think more through an offensive mind just generally who I am, hey I have a good idea of, this is the type of emphasis of the offense going to be moving forward. But I also look at guys and say, these guys made a lot of plays defensively, make sure these guys are in the rotation. In key moments of the game, I don't want a guy next to me on the sidelines that has made a lot of plays for us. Make sure whatever we need to do to tweak to get those guys on the field, they are on the field. We didn't have any of that last spring."

Florida Gators men's basketball head coach Mike White met with local media on Saturday to recap the Gators opening win over Virginia Tech in the opening game of the NCAA Tournament. He also previewed the Gators Sunday night game against Oral Roberts and updated the status of Tyree Appleby and Omar Payne. A few things of note stood out. We have highlighted those below. Farther down, we are happy to offer the full transcript of White's press conference to our valued GatorBait Magazine subscribers. Notes: Tyree Appleby's Probable Return Appleby took an elbow to the face during Friday afternoon's game. He was helped off the court and had his head stitched up in the locker room. He was never in concussion protocol. As for his return against Oral Roberts? This is what Mike White had to say. “He seems fine, seems normal. Happy smile on his face this morning. Facial laceration, I have been told. Game-time decision. Got a bandage over his forehead. That’s all I know.” Omar Payne's Probable Return Forward Omar Payne took heat for sending an elbow to the face of Tennessee Volunteer John Fulkerson during the SEC Tournament. It was considered to be malicious due to a second swing. While the league nor NCAA levied any punishment, Mike White did bench Payne for the Gators first game of the tournament. As for his status moving forward? That'll be handled in house according to White, who provided this answer on Friday. "Definitely a teaching moment. it's just, it wasn't overly difficult. It's difficult that he can't play obviously, but it's just, it was the right thing to do. Omar handled it like a champ. Omar's very remorseful. We all make mistakes. He's a great young man...it's an in-house situation leading into this game. I'm not gonna talk about leading into the next one." Full Transcript Conference USA wins? “Huge win for the league. Louisiana Tech, the Dawgs, had a big win last night as well. I hated that the Rebels took an L. That was a tough for me to choose who to cheer for, but a big game there late in the NIT.” Communication with socially distanced benches? “Definitely more yelling, definitely harder to communicate, probably more miscommunication not only among staff but among players as well. Par for the course. Another obstacle because of the pandemic and something that we’ve all had to overcome. At this point in the season, we’re all used to it now.” Up three and not fouling at end of regulation? “Everyone’s got different philosophies on all that, of course. With us, we practice fouling some, definitely a lot more in the past couple years. This season has given us less opportunity to practice special situations, of course. It was definitely something we were considering, that I was considering. I was planning on using one (timeout) there to try to set our defense. Unfortunately, we missed a couple (free throws). I didn’t want to freeze my own shooter, of course. Unfortunately, we missed a couple and we didn’t get even get matched. Alleyne hit another big one. He’s a really good player and fortunately we were able to overcome it again in overtime. Moving forward, yes, something that we’ll definitely consider. I think some teams are really good at it. Some teams practice it a lot. Some teams practice other things. Something we’ll continue to practice and consider and evaluate every situation a little bit differently.” How dangerous is Oral Roberts because of the 3? “Incredibly dangerous, one of the most difficult matchups for us defensively all year. I don’t want to take anything away from their defense. They really battled last night. Obviously a championship team, a team that’s on a great run. It starts with how they spread you. They all shoot it. Their top six can all pass, dribble and shoot. I’m not talking about good shooters. Really, really good shooters led by Abmas and Obanor. The nation’s leading scorer. Obanor shoots it as well as any post player that we have player since I’ve been at Florida. Shoots it like a 2 guard. Their sixth man comes in at 6-8 and shoots it like a 2 guard. They just space you and spread you, which opens up driving lanes for arguably the fastest guy in our game. We have our hands full trying to defend these guys.” What’s it like facing Cinderella? “Yeah, I could care less what people in the stands are thinking, what people on TV are rooting for. I don’t really care about that. We’re going to have certain people rooting for us, certain people against us. It has nothing to do with the outcome of the game. Have we played a Cinderella? Have I played one? I don’t know as a coach here at Florida. You’d have a better idea. I can’t remember. Nothing comes to mind. I think the biggest thing is making sure your guys understand it doesn’t matter. We have to have our guys’ attention. And after these guys watched clips on these guys, um, they at least come off as having Oral Roberts’ attention. It’s easy for an Ohio State or a Virginia or a blue blood to get your guys’ attention. These guys beat Ohio State, and Ohio State’s absolutely terrific. If everyone wants to call them a Cinderella, it really doesn’t matter. Our guys’ mindset and approach is the most important thing.” Do you remember facing Colin Castleton in the tournament two years ago? – “I don’t. I remember shaking his hand, looking him in the eye and shaking his hand in the hand-shake line, saying ‘Good game’ and ‘Good luck in the next one,’ cause we had developed a little bit of a relationship.” Tyree status? “He seems fine, seems normal. Happy smile on his face this morning. Facial laceration, I have been told. Game-time decision. Got a bandage over his forehead. That’s all I know.” After reviewing the game, more on the resiliency and impact of Scottie Lewis “I have to shoot you straight. I haven’t [re-watched ]the game. That’s really rare for us, but without a three- or four-day prep it’s really different. We got back and I shoved a few slices of pizza down my throat and guzzled some electrolytes, then went up to the room and watched the end of Oral Roberts/Ohio State, and was glued to the television, of course. After the game, it was a blur. From that point until we laid it down really, really late, we had some meetings as a staff and a had a ton of watching film of Oral Roberts. I really haven’t had a chance to watch it. I’m going to glimpse at some offensive stuff today. I’ll have some notes to relay to our guys for our walk-thru tonight. Maybe I can find some similarities with how we were defended last night and how we’ll be defended tomorrow. But I do know this, you called it, a big factor in that game, Scottie Lewis was a major contributor. And, on top of that, we talked about the resilience, especially after ‘App” went down. But Colin Castleton becoming a lot more of a presence than he was late season. Again, that had a lot to do with the defenses we faced late-season, but he got it going yesterday. Some of it, a lot of it, was him, but a lot of it was his teammates putting him in a position to be successful.” ‘Cinderella this and that,’ but are there really any Cinderella’s in the Round of 32? This team just beat Ohio State “They’re really good, really good. I know this, we’re walking through stuff with our guys – ‘How we going to guard this action? How we going to guard that action?’ We do this, and we have to understand this go shoots it, quick release, at 50 percent and he plays the ‘5’ and this guy, if you don’t pick him up at the spot it’s like a HORSE shot for him’ – our guys understand these guys are really good. I don’t know what you label them other than a really good team that just won a championship a week ago and now just beat Ohio State. And Ohio State, we all know, is a terrific team and program. Did you ever play Oral Roberts while at La Tech? “No. I think this is the first time we’ve had a chance to compete against Oral Roberts University. I’ve actually known Paul Mills for a long time, going back to working University of Utah Rick Majerus, God rest his soul, one of the best basketball coaches are game has ever seen, basketball camps in the summer. Paul is a really good coach and he’s done a phenomenal job there.” Do you know where Oral Roberts is? “Don’t try to trick me into saying something crazy. Tulsa, Oklahoma. They’re the Summit League champs.” Just thoughts on way Tre played down the stretch, and 44 minutes also? “Yeah Graham, I don’t even really need to go back and watch it to your point to remember vividly a couple of those shots he hit. The step-back in the left wing across from our bench and then stringing the ball-screen catch out right toward our bench going right, late clock and really we had … I started saying it so I might as well put t out there… we had one guy out of position who hadn’t played a lot of minutes in the last month. So it was a little bit of a broken play there where he’s just in space and he just steps up and makes a huge shot. An all-league guard making an all-league shot in the NCAA Tournament. He’s worked his butt off of course and he’s put himself in position to do that.” You saw some Oral Roberts, so what do you think Colin’s impact can be against this team, and maybe getting Omar Payne back here or too early? “That’ll be something we handle in-house Graham. With Colin Castleton, we’d love to get him going every game of course. But a lot of that will depend on how we execute our stuff and how selflessly we play, how good he is on the offensive glass, and how he has defended and how they approach their game plan against us. Most importantly against them, we’ve got to figure out how to guard these guys. And I think that the way that they stretch you, the way that they can all pass, dribble, and shoot it, and really shoot it, it’s going to be very difficult for our bigger guys, our longer guys to be in rotations, to be guarding one-on-one on the perimeter. They’re going to have to put forth an unbelievable effort in terms of moving their feet, defending without fouling, closing out shooters. It’s an unorthodox defensive task for guys like him and Omar Payne.” Thoughts overall o what NCAA Tournament can do with the development for guys that haven’t played a lot like Jitoboh, Niels, and Samson and get in during the NCAA Tournament? “Yeah, I think it helps definitely with the continuity of your program, especially guys as they return having this experience can only help them moving forward. It can only give them a little bit confidence, give them a little bit of momentum. Challenge them to a certain extent. ‘Hey it was really, really exciting, I wish I had a chance to play a little bit more, this is what I have to do in the offseason to work a little bit harder. But at the same time, with this crazy transfer portal business, you don’t know year-in and year-out. I think program continuity throughout the country is going to continue to decrease to an extent. So for personal development, it may be as much personal with all of these guys in the NCAA Tournament as it is program development, but positive none the less. Keys to getting out on shooters without fouling and still guarding them etc.? “Yeah Mark, easier said than done. I told our guys it’s going to be really, really difficult. Everything we’ve got in the arsenal we’re going to have to throw at them in my opinion. I don’t know how we can guard them effectively, conventionally. That said, I don’t know if any trickery will work with these guys, they’re so skilled as well and Paul will have them prepared. We’re still working on the game plan. We’ll probably be working on it really until tip and we’re going to have to probably going to have to make some adjustments on the move during the game. These guys are just that good offensively. And they’re in such a rhythm. They’ve been good offensively all year, but if you look at the run that they’ve made here recently, the confidence level in which they’re playing, it makes for a tough scout.” Tre Mann playing off ball screens “Without question he’s gotten better at it and it took him a little bit of time. It took a ton of reps. This is something we changed midseason. If you think about it he didn’t play on the ball hardly at all last year, in high school, when you are playing with a bunch of guys about as big as you or smaller it’s not like they are running spread pick and roll stuff, and he’s reading dives to the basket and lifts and interchanges, so his, we call them spread reads, we go through them every day, I’m sure most programs do, depending on if they are ball screen programs or not, we are the last couple of months, and he’s gotten better and better, there’s a couple of reads that he missed yesterday, we had a couple of dives at the rim that were open and again he’s great at, hey man, I know you threw it here, I know you shot it and even if you made it, I want you to at least see the dive, I’ve got you, yeah I should have seen it, and he’s always eager to look at it and watch and learn, but yeah, it’s just work and he studies film and he’s getting better at, a lot of it is just reps. His confidence continues to grow coming off ball screens and he’s obviously really talented.” In bounds plays, struggle v press “It’s a great point, what’s the best way I could answer it for you, last year we had a guy named Andrew Nembhard who took the ball out of bounds and he’s a terrific, terrific passer. You are always evaluating who your better guys are getting open, who your better guys are entering the ball, last night at that point we had Tre and Scottie in, we brought Colin Castleton up into the mix because when in doubt you’ve got a 6-11 guy you can lob it up to at the foul line, for whatever reason we just didn’t do a very good job of getting it in, we also had a timeout, in my guys defense, I should have used one, that five second violation, in fact I told the official, I may use one here, I may use one, and there was a couple of different times within that five second count I thought that we had an opening to get to the guy and then the whistle blew and I said dang it should have used it. It was a good job by our opponent of course, it’s something we can continue to work to improve. Going Hinkle to Indiana’s Farmers? “Yeah Kevin I’ve got to dodge this I have no idea, I have no idea when we are shooting, where we are shooting, I’m just locked in on ORU … Difference for either team in teams of shooting or adjusting? “I’m sure the NCAA is going to make it all a level playing field, and it’s the same thing going into yesterday’s game where us and Virginia Tech, same deal, they are going to give us the same amount of time, the same amount of opportunities on that court. We’re going to walk through tonight, I don’t know where it’s going to be, I don’t know where we’re shooting tomorrow, but it will be even, and we’ll tip that thing up and see who’s more prepared.”

Stadiums don’t win football games. But there is an almost pithy spiritual-like quality that tethers the souls of college football disciples to the brick-and-mortar, especially down here where it matters more. In Gainesville it’s the Church of the Gators with Rev. Dan Mullen. In Alabama, Nick Saban is Pope. It’s Kirby Smart’s pulpit in Athens. Over the years, some intensity in these hallowed places has waxed or waned, but there are still remnants of sacred ground in Baton Rouge, Knoxville, Auburn, College Station, and maybe even Oxford. The amphitheaters for college football are almost held sacred Down South. The question is, when all of those “churches” are reopened and the veil is lifted on the Pandemic, will the congregation return in full form? And if they ever do, will the fire and brimstone still be there? As we were saying in 2020 before we were so rudely interrupted… There were times last fall year when battle fatigue almost won. Look no further than Florida, which saw an SEC East-winning squad stumble and fall with three consecutive season-ending losses. What happened? Was it a trend or was it an anomaly? And did it blunt the enthusiasm of the fan base? New habits change commitments. They say if you stop eating meat that you don’t miss it so much after a while. Can you lose a taste for fine Scotch? Or does absence really make the heart, and the taste buds, grow fonder? Furthermore, our family budgets have taken a hit. As we approach the season of 2021, the financially strapped must choose whether the in-stadium experience is critical to support of the team. Is buying tickets more important than tithing to the real church … or saving up for college tuition … or paying for braces or prom dresses? Hollering and screaming and throwing things at the 75-inch TV set just wasn’t the same, but there was also the realization that Zoom calls and slimmed-down remote sports broadcasts piped in like Muzak were better than Australian Rules football. To be sure, human interaction is very much a part of the game. Forevermore some things have changed, like working at home -- definitely here to stay for some. Nothing trumps human-to-human. Dan Mullen was reminded of that while strolling the fairways with his family as a member of the gallery at TPC Sawgrass. Here’s how he reacted when I asked about the possibility of semi-disconnection by some members of Gator Nation: "I don't know. I was up at Sawgrass this weekend at the Players, got to go up there one day and see that. I think you can feel the energy and the excitement of people wanting to get back into being fans and being there and being live. There's nothing like being in there in person to see it. There's nothing like being in the Swamp on a Saturday. There isn't. You watch on TV, it looks cool. It's exciting, it's fun, it's easy to watch. But it doesn't have the same energy, it doesn't have the same effect. Everybody when they talk about sports, 'I was there when this happened.' You don't always hear many people say, 'Oh, I remember seeing that. I was there right in front of my TV when this happened.' It's much bigger to say, 'I was there. I was in the stadium. I saw that play.'” Two things happened: He was re-baptized by the exhortation of a few good “Go Gators!” And the sheer joy of seeing his son Canon, an aspiring competitive golfer, eliciting a “hi” from Bryson DeChambeau, who almost won the Players. No doubt that goes in Canon’s unforgettable memories scrapbook. Mullen sees this is a sign of fans’ pent-up demand and is confident the fans are anxious to return. Still, will there be any leakage of steam in The Swamp? ”So I think hopefully we're able to get back to some normalcy in the fall when we hit the field again and I think all the Gator Nation is going to be excited,” Mullen responded “Everyone I see is like, 'Boy, I hope we can pack the Swamp. I hope we get there, I hope to get it back to where we want it to be as the fans!' They're desperate to get back into the stadium and to go experience Saturdays in the Swamp. And so, hopefully through all the precautions and everything going on we’re able to stay safe and we’re able to fill The Swamp this fall.” As spring practice wraps up, almost entirely under the radar with no Orange And Blue Game, Gator fans are pretty much in the dark as to what they should expect in 2021. The usual themes of questioning by media have yielded very little. And now it’s time to take the show on the road as Mullen begins the usual round of Gator Club visits. I suggested two of the most asked questions would be: 1. Can the Gators beat Alabama on Sept.18, game three of the season, in The Swamp? 2. What’s the progress on Emory Jones as Kyle Trask’s replacement? He answered: 1. “Well, we were six points short of beating Alabama last year. So that’s a possession away.” 2. “The quarterbacks are, you know, they’re growing, they’re developing. Our job is to make sure we highlight their strengths of what they do well. We’re teaching, we’re installing a lot of things. There’s stuff we’ve installed that I wanted to look at, I want to see, I want to see how it fits. There’s some stuff that we installed that you look at now that you thought we would definitely do this and we’re not going to. And there’s stuff that you didn’t think you would do that you’re probably going to do. That’s just something that we keep moving forward with and we’ll evaluate again.” Let me unscramble No. 2. Jones is the quarterback. He is just fine as a passer, but his feet will play a bigger part in games where the passes he throws may number under 25. Anthony Richardson will likely get a series or two in games. With five good running backs and a more experienced offensive line, the ground game will become more of weapon. And it may take pressure off the defense. Much will depend on the development of Jones and Richardson over the summer – not to mention players staying safe from Covid and out of trouble with the law. Mullen always says the most important time for quarterback development is the end of spring ball to the start of training camp, “and I’m not on the field with them – how they handle that is critical.” Wisely, Mullen is awaiting the NCAA’s decisions on regulations before establishing full summer protocol. But it looks like his decision to go early with spring practice and use the rest of March, April and May for meetings and conditioning could maximize the time – setting up a summer of voluntary important workouts to prepare for fall. He is poised to see what’s ahead after spring ball. “It’s obviously a very different calendar still with the NCAA rules this year,” said Mullen. “We’re still adapting to all of that. How we kind of work and set our schedule and our work schedule and how we define what we’re going to do over the next couple of weeks, couple months really, from Saturday, spring ball ends. I still don’t know when we’ll be on the field (next). I think there’s a lot of discussion about that, if they’re going to make changes to all the rules over the summer and then we kind of focus on what that next step is going to be as development and the quarterbacks will be a big part of that.” Despite those critics who whine about recruiting and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and not winning the SEC since 2008, Gator football is in the capable hands of the most successful Gator coach since Urban Meyer. Which is a long time, of course. But they have to admit that with a record of 29-8 after last season’s four losses, things look fairly bright at Florida. Even if it’s going to require renewed energy and fresh mojo after less-than-happy ending in 2020. Of course, outside of the state of Alabama, nobody can be happy about 2020 – except when it’s in the rearview mirror.

Spring has definitely sprung for the Florida Gators, whose 15 NCAA allotted practices will conclude with a Saturday scrimmage rather than the annual Orange and Blue dog and pony show in The Swamp. While the Orange and Blue game is nothing more than a show for the fans, in the past it has at least given a glimpse of what went well during practice. Dan Mullen has kept a rather tight lid on things and information leaks have been held to a minimum. Typically, spring practice begins mid-March and ends mid-April, but there has been nothing typical about the Florida football program dating back to the blowout Cotton Bowl loss to Oklahoma. That was Florida’s third consecutive loss and it brought an overwhelming feeling of disappointment to a season that was filled with more offensive excitement than Gator fans had seen in more than a decade. Couple the losing streak at the end with Mullen’s failure to promptly address rumors that he was seeking an NFL job, the early start to spring football and the lack of a spring game and there is a prevailing sense of unease among the Florida fan base. Whether intended or not, Mullen may have turned what fans perceived to be a chaotic situation into advantage Gators. Connect a few dots if you will. (1) Considering the way the 2020 season ended, it was important for Mullen to get things pointed forward in a hurry. Scheduling spring practice a month earlier than usual got the Gators on the field, effectively putting 2020 out of sight and out of mind. Rather than another month to dwell on the past, it was full steam ahead toward the future for returning veterans, early enrollee freshmen and a few transfers. (2) Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the Orange and Blue Game would have been reduced to a crowd perhaps 60 to 70 percent less than the normal 40,000 or so who show up in April. Since the NCAA limits spring practice to 15 days Mullen concluded that it would be best to hold a real scrimmage that might last three hours rather than a staged event in which the scrubeenies and walk-ons get more playing time than the veterans. The Orange and Blue game actually takes up two practice days away because there has to be a walkthrough day once teams are divided up and then there is game day itself. Instead of a show game that accomplishes nothing more than to hide all the things that weren’t accomplished in the previous three or four weeks, Mullen will get in two solid final practices that will help him and his staff evaluate where things need to be when football resumes in August. (3) By starting practice in February and ending it in mid-March, players will have approximately six weeks without the encumbrance of football practice to make sure their academic house is in order. (4) The cancellation of spring practice and offseason conditioning due to COVID-19 in 2020 had the dual effect of too many players who struggled with football condition throughout the season and a lack of leadership since leaders always emerge during summer’s dog days when workouts are voluntary. The early start and finish of spring football will allow players to get a head start on conditioning and for leaders to emerge. Coaches can’t participate in the summer workouts so the players have to take the reins and lead. Another of the damaging effects of the lack of a 2020 offseason was inadequate leadership. (5) Was Mullen keenly aware of the NCAA plans to end the recruiting dead period on May 31 when he scheduled the earlier than usual spring schedule? It seems far too coincidental that Florida will have a full month head start on the rest of the SEC when it comes to prepping for the end of the almost year-long ban on official visits and coaches being able to interact face-to-face with high school and junior college kids. The early end to spring practice gives the coaches a chance to do their post-practice evaluations, make decisions about position changes, figure out depth charts and coming up with play lists for game planning purposes all ahead of May 31. Already the Florida recruiting staff is being bombarded by a larger than usual number of requests about camps as kids who have been unable to take recruiting visits get ready to descend on Gainesville. (6) The NCAA, also in its infinite wisdom, is expected to announce implementation of a one-time transfer rule that should take effect about the same time as the end to the dead period. Getting spring practice over earlier will give kids who intend to transfer out extra time to locate a new landing spot and will give coaches more time to evaluate a growing stack of requests from kids who are looking to leave their current situations. Florida added several transfers to its 2021 recruiting class. At least 2-3 more are expected to choose the Gators in May or June. This sequence of events isn’t the result of some cosmic big bang theory in which two random football atoms collided to set things in motion. There seems to be a master design to all this and despite the uncertainty moving forward, Mullen has the Gators well prepared to take advantage of whatever situation presents itself. While the rest of the Southeastern Conference will be pressed to get everything in order prior to the lifting of the dead period, Mullen and the Florida staff will have been working for more than two months to prepare for what is expected to be an absolute onslaught of visitors. In preparation for the June camp season and subsequent recruiting blitz, Mullen and staff have the next two months to take what they saw during the 15 practice days and formulate plans that will be put in place when football reconvenes in August. “There's a lot of things we're doing that we're probably not going to do in the fall, but we want to evaluate those things first,” Mullen said. “So what we're gonna do is go through – we install, we put everything in, we look at where the strengths of individual players are, we mash those strengths together and how we put that all together within the package – and then we go forward from there. So, you know, I, there's a lot of things I like, but I couldn't sit here and tell you this is the strength of this team yet because we were still evaluating it all.” What little we know about what has taken place during practice is that the quarterback position has been inconsistent as has the offensive line although it seems that Richard Gouraige, Ethan White, Stewart Reese and Josh Braun have established themselves as starters. Running back is deeper, more talented and faster than it has been in years with Lorenzo Lingard showing that he’s regained the speed and elusiveness that made him a 5-star recruit before he went to Miami and hurt his knee. Although Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney are gone, there shouldn’t be much in the way of dropoff at wide receiver, particularly with Justin Shorter and Xzavier Henderson emerging as big play types. The interior of the defensive line, bolstered by wide body transfers Daquan Newkirk and Antonio Shelton, has been improving on a daily basis. The back seven is much improved, especially in the secondary where new assistant Wesley McGriff has brought in much-needed energy. The Gators are going to be young but there is no shortage of talent, particularly at corner where Kaiir Elam is likely to be named to nearly every preseason All-America team. Emory Jones will finish the spring as the No. 1 quarterback. From the few leaked practice and scrimmage reports, it appears Jones was hot and cold throughout the spring, often on the same day. He has enormous physical gifts but has to figure out on his own that his job is to be the first Emory Jones and not the next Kyle Trask. Years of churning out quarterbacks who make an offense hum along at a highly productive level should erase much of the worry among the Florida fan base, but Trask was so successful last year that he at times seemed robotic and few think Jones can put up numbers anywhere close. Mullen has made it perfectly clear he believes Jones has everything necessary to be very successful but he still throws caution to the wind because once practice comes to a halt on Saturday he can no longer coach Jones up until fall camp opens up in August. “The most important time I always think for a quarterback is the end of spring ball to the start of training camp,” Mullen said. “You go back to the interview last year and I bet you hear me say that and you can go back to the interview before that and you’ll hear me say that and the one the year before that and you’ll hear me say that again. The end of spring ball to the start of training camp is one of the most developmental times for the quarterback and I’m not allowed to be with him for that time on the field. What they do and how they’re able to handle it is critical.” From Saturday through the end of May, everything will be geared toward preparing for an anticipated record camp season. It might be the single most important evaluation period for recruiting since Mullen came to Florida in 2017. There have been no official visits for more than a year and with the NCAA mandated recruiting dead period in existence for at least two more months, the evaluation process has been put on ice, replaced by a good bit of guesswork. Complicating matters is a lack of clarity from the NCAA, which hasn’t indicated when the current rules become obsolete and when new rules are put in place. In past years, the NCAA had clear guidelines for when camps could be held, how many official visitors are allowed and which periods on the calendar allow for coaches to have contact with recruits, their coaches and families. “It’s obviously a very different calendar still with the NCAA rules this year,” Mullen said earlier in the week. “We’re still adapting to all of that, how we kind of work and set our schedule and our work schedule and how we define what we’re going to do over the next couple of weeks, couple months really, from Saturday, [when] spring ball ends.” At its best, recruiting is always a crapshoot, but there was nothing normal about the 2021 class for any school in the country. It is thought that Mullen and staff landed a very good 2021 recruiting class, but a good portion of the signees never took an official visit or had any substantial amount of time on campus or with UF coaches. No summer camps and the inability of coaches to get on the road to recruit only highlighted the need for the Gators to bring in as many early enrollee freshmen as possible back in January. Thirteen freshmen joined three scholarship transfers and two other transfers who arrived as walk-ons. The return of the camp season should add a feeling that things are at last getting back to normal on the recruiting trail since the Florida staff will once again have the opportunity to evaluate potential recruits in person, see how they respond to coaching and see how they interact with potential teammates. Even though a record number of kids are expected to camp with the Gators in June, there is nothing concrete until the NCAA issues its latest edicts. “There’s still just so many questions,” Mullen said. “Is it June 1 and life back to normal? Does it include the summer dead period? Is it official visits, unofficial visits, camps, everything?” Although there are vaccines that appear quite effective and the number of COVID-19 cases seems to have flatlined recently, the virus is part of a new reality and it will factor in what happens moving forward. “That’s something we have to be smart and careful about with COVID to avoid a spike, to avoid issues within our team when there’s this mad rush of kids trying to get to every campus as fast as possible,” Mullen said. “It will be interesting. Hopefully they’ll get us the information sooner rather than later so we can have the opportunity to put a strategy in place before it gets thrown on us.” Whether the information comes sooner or later, it’s doubtful Mullen will be caught flatfooted. Nothing about his recent decisions would indicate he will be anything less than prepared no matter what the NCAA or the virus or anything else dictates. Just a month ago, some national pundits speculated that the decision to begin spring football a month early was just the latest dumb move by a coach with one foot out the door. A month later, it’s fairly clear that everything Mullen did was calculated and insightful and not the moves of a coach with his eyes set on a new destination

Needing Tommy John surgery isn’t widely considered to be a death sentence – unless you’re the Florida Gators. Eighteen games into the 2021 college baseball season and ulnar collateral ligament tears have been the pesky storm cloud hanging over the head of Kevin O’Sullivan and the Florida Gators’ baseball program. In each of Florida’s five losses on the year, that dark cloud has opened up and rained down on the Gators. Florida baseball entered the 2021 season boasting its status of unanimous preseason No. 1. And the Gators’ staff of pitchers were widely touted as the best staff in the country. Florida’s roster lists 22 pitchers – two of which won’t see action in 2021 after undergoing infamous Tommy John surgeries. Three days before the start of the Gators’ season, righthanded sophomore Nick Pogue was tabled for his surgery. “Unfortunately, we’ll miss him for the year, obviously,” O’Sullivan said before the season started. What an understatement that was. Pogue wasn’t regarded as Florida’s ace. In the shortened 2020 Pogue saw just 10.1 innings of action. But in his five appearances in relief, the sophomore posted a 0.0 ERA. The Melbourne native also tossed three or more strikeouts in four of his seven appearances. Not to mention, Pogue has college baseball experience – something 11 of Florida’s 22 pitchers on staff don’t. The need for an ace isn’t the glaring part of Florida’s pitching troubles. Jack Leftwich and Tommy Mace are taking care of business on the weekends. The two have combined for a perfect 6-0 record in their appearances on Friday and Saturdays. The pair are also responsible for nearly a third of Florida’s innings pitched in 2021. But the Gators haven’t been nearly as successful in their midweek slates. Florida’s Wednesday night losses to Florida Atlantic and most recently Florida State, have given the Gators a black eye. In 10-inning pitching duel against the Owls on March 3, six different pitchers took the mound for the Gators. Florida’s staff gave up nine hits en route to the 3-2 loss. Admittedly, Florida’s performance from the plate shouldered just as much of the blame in the loss to the Owls. But that wasn’t the case when the Gators fell to the rival Seminoles in game one of the Sunshine Showdown on Tuesday night. Like the game against FAU, O’Sullivan called six different pitchers to the rubber on Tuesday night. But after Florida’s starter gave up seven runs in the first inning, the damage had already been done. Garrett Milchin got the nod to start against FSU. The redshirt junior is one of the more seasoned pitchers on the roster – sorta. While he’s been on the roster longer than most of the other guys in the bullpen, the Florida native has undergone two Tommy John surgeries. Milchin didn’t play in his second or third seasons. So perhaps it’s fair to call it rust. But eight of Milchin’s first-inning pitches were hit into play on Tuesday night. That led to a seven-run opening inning for FSU, a deficit that proved far too much for Florida to overcome. The Seminoles notched 13 hits on Tuesday night. Six went for extra bags. Mike Martin Jr. And the Noles have claimed the last two matchups against the Gators – including the last game to be played at the now-demolished McKeethan Stadium. The Gators weren’t expected to lose to Florida State the first time in 2020 – just like Gators’ pitchers Tyler Nesbitt and Pogue didn’t expect to need Tommy John surgery and miss this season. And Florida definitely wasn’t expected to fall to the Seminoles a second time on Tuesday – just like Milchin never saw a second surgery coming. It’s a real pain. But with Florida opening conference play with a home series against Texas A&M this weekend, there’s plenty of time for the Gators to find their bearings on the mound.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: WIN THE BATTLE UP FRONT AND UF WILL ADVANCE For the No. 7 seed Florida Gators (14-9) to advance beyond today’s NCAA Tournament first round (12:15, CBS, Hinkle Field House) matchup in Indianapolis, the defensive focus has to be on Virginia Tech’s two big guys – 6-9, 235-pound center Kevin Aluma (15.0 points, 8.0 rebounds) and 6-7, 230-pound power forward Justyn Mutts (9.6 points, 6.5 rebounds). Neutralize those two guys and you have to like Florida’s chances to play Sunday against the winner of No. 2 seed Ohio State (21-9) and No. 15 Oral Roberts (16-10). The first option for the Hokies is to pound it inside where Aluma and Mutts are physically imposing. Both Aluma and Mutts will take the 3-pointer if opponents leave them alone, but both are more comfortable inside five feet. Aluma is hitting 35.1 percent on his 57 3-point attempts and 48.9 percent overall, while Mutts is shooting at a 51.6 percent clip overall and 34.1 percent from distance. The problem for the Hokies is if either Aluma and Mutts get in foul trouble, there isn’t much in the way of size or quality coming off the bench. Both 6-11 Colin Castleton and 6-10 Omar Payne can defend the Hokies inside, but can they score? Castleton has scored only 10 points in the last two games while Payne has managed only 11 in Florida’s last four. It will take a better offensive game than that for Florida to win. Additionally, Anthony Duruji has to stay out of foul trouble. He’s not much of an offensive force, but Duruji is a strong defender and rebounder who is quite capable of neutralizing Mutts. Prediction: Castleton will play the best game he’s played since a 14-point outing against Kentucky in Lexington and Tre Mann will eat up whoever guards him. If Tyree Appleby finishes with more assists than turnovers, Florida advances. SPRING PRACTICE ABOUT TO END FOR UF FOOTBALL The two words I keep hearing about Florida’s spring football practice, which will end with a Saturday scrimmage, are erratic and improved. Erratic as in an offense that has struggled to find rhythm and consistency. Improved as in the defense, which spent 2020 in a funk like we’ve never seen at UF. While I believe it will be extremely difficult to match last year’s yardage and point production, I do believe Dan Mullen will figure out what works and what doesn’t in the offseason. The product I believe we will see in the fall will take advantage of the best speed UF has had at running back in years and another explosive group of wide receivers. I think the guy who will surprise us in the fall at running back is Lorenzo Lingard, who finally seems to have regained his speed and elusiveness after the knee injury he suffered when he was at Miami. I expect Justin Shorter to be an absolute beast wide receiver. The two question marks with the offense are quarterback and the play on the line. Mullen’s history of developing quarterbacks tells me he will find a package of plays that Emory Jones can execute at a high level and go with it. It might not be as sophisticated as the play sheet Kyle Trask worked off of, but Jones doesn’t have to be the next Kyle Trask, just the first Emory Jones. Although the line play has been a problem in the spring, I expect improvement in the fall, particularly if Stewart Reese moves out to right tackle. I think the left side with Richard Gouraige and Ethan White will be solid and I think Josh Braun is going to be very good at right guard. Reese came to UF to play right tackle, which is what he played at Mississippi State. Jean Delance has been given every opportunity for two years to prove he can get it done at right tackle. I don’t think he’s capable. The question will be can Kingsley Eguakun step in at center. If he can, the O-line will be improved. Improvement is the word for the defense but let’s be real here. It won’t take a whole lot to be better than last year. What encourages me to believe the improvement will be consequential are the two transfers in the middle. Daquan Newkirk and Antonio Shelton are big guys – both 6-3 and 318 pounds – are both effective run stoppers. I keep thinking back to the Texas A&M game when the Gators couldn’t contain Isaiah Spiller. I think these guys will lead a renaissance in the middle of the line with help from Gervon Dexton and Desmond Watson. If Watson can get his weight down from 430 to the 380 range he’s going to be beastly. Everything I’ve heard is that the linebacker play will be much improved and that there is newfound aggressiveness in the secondary thanks to new hire Wesley McGriff. It’s a long time between now and September, and while not all the news coming out of spring practice has been encouraging, I get the feeling the Gators aren’t going to do much of a backslide in 2021. Georgia is going to get all the hype and I’m fine with that. I don’t think it’s necessarily a bad thing for UF to fly under the radar for 2021. GATORS THRASH AGGIES 13-4 TO OPEN SEC PLAY The 5th-ranked Gators (14-5, 1-0 SEC) opened up the SEC portion of their schedule Thursday night, riding a 16-hit attack and an 11-strikeout performance by Tommy Mace (4-0) to take a 13-4 win over Texas A&M. It was quite a turnaround from Florida’s disappointing 10-2 loss to Florida State in Tallahassee back on Tuesday. Florida did all of its damage in three innings – a 3-run third, a 6-run fourth and a 4-run sixth. That was more than enough for Mace (4-0), who scattered six hits, didn’t walk a batter and gave up only two earned runs in seven innings. Florida found the Aggie pitching far more palatable than what it saw in Tallahassee Tuesday night when the Seminoles struck out 16 Gators. Florida hitters whiffed only five times Thursday night. Down at the bottom of the Florida batting order it was all about the freshmen. Catcher Mac Guscette had a 4-4 night with a double and an RBI and second baseman Colby Halter went 2-4 that included a 2-run homer, his third of the season. Nathan Hickey went 3-4 with a double and an RBI and Jud Fabian had a double, his 7th homer and three RBI. The Gators face the Aggies tonight with Jack Leftwich (3-0, 1.82 RBI) going for his fourth win of the season. BUSY WEEKEND FOR UF SPRING SPORTS Gymnastics: Already the SEC regular season champion, Florida’s No. 1 ranked gymnastics team heads to Huntsville, Alabama for the Southeastern Conference Championship meet. The Gators have posted the nation’s highest score this year (198.275) and feature the nation’s top individual gymnast in Trinity Thomas, who ranks No. 1 in the all-around, floor exercise and uneven bars while ranking 6th on the vault and 8th on the balance beam. LSU, which ranks fourth nationally, is the No. 2 seed while 8th-ranked Alabama is seeded 3rd and 9th-ranked Arkansas is seeded 4th. Due to positive COVID-19 tests within the program, Georgia will not compete in Huntsville. Men’s tennis: The Gators (13-1, 8-0 SEC) venture outside the SEC this weekend when they host Florida State Sunday afternoon. The Gators have won 10 straight matches and are now ranked No. 2 nationally. Softball: The 5th-ranked Gators (18-2, 2-1 SEC) travel to Starkville to face Mississippi State (15-8, 0-3 SEC) for a three-game weekend series. Women’s swimming: With 53.5 points, the 7th-ranked Gators are in 14th place after two days at the NCAA Championships in Greensboro, North Carolina. Volleyball: If the 7th-ranked Gators (16-2) can take out unbeaten and 3rd-ranked Kentucky (16-0) twice this weekend at the O-Dome they can win the Southeastern Conference championship. The Gators and Kentucky go at it today at 1 p.m. and Saturday at 4 p.m. Lacrosse: The 11th-ranked Gators (3-2) will open up play in the American Athletic Conference this weekend in Philadelphia where they take on Temple Friday and Sunday. Because COVID-19 wiped out last year’s conference season it has been more than 650 days since the Gators played in a league game. Women’s golf: The 22nd-ranked Gators tee it up at the Liz Murphey Invitational Tournament in Athens, Georgia today. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: The No. 2 seed Crimson Tide (24-6) is a solid 17-point favorite to take out Iona (12-5) in the East Region at Hinkle Fieldhouse (4 p.m., TNT). Arkansas: The No. 3 seed Hogs (22-6) are 8.5-point favorites to beat Colgate (14-1) in today’s first round South Regional Game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse (12:45 p.m., TRUTV). Auburn: Wide receiver Anthony Schwartz ran an unofficial 4.26 40-yard dash at Auburn’s pro day Thursday. Henry Ruggs of Alabama had the fastest time at the NFL Combine last year in Indianapolis (4.27). Georgia: Kirby Smart says former Florida and South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp, now an analyst at Georgia, is “probably the guy I lean on most.” Muschamp, who is receiving a $15 million-plus buyout at South Carolina, is being paid $300,000 at Georgia. Kentucky: Junior defensive end Josh Pascal, who had 32 tackles, 1.0 sacks and 6.5 tackles for loss in 2020, is being singled out by HBC Mark Stoops as a candidate for a breakout season in 2021. “Just with his work ethic, his comfort zone, moving in, I think you’re going to see him be an impact guy,” Stoops said. LSU: The No. 9 seed Tigers (18-9) remain scant 1.5-point favorites to knock off No. 8 St. Bonaventure (16-4) in Saturday’s first round East Regional at Assembly Hall on the Indiana University campus (1:45 p.m., TNT) … Myles Brennan’s abdominal injury that kept him out of the final eight football games last year was so unusual that the surgical procedure would have been named after him if he had decided to go that route. Brennan elected to let the injury heal on its own. He’s currently participating in LSU’s spring practice. Mississippi State: Although Will Rogers (1,976 passing yards, 11 TDPs in 2020) is the incumbent starter at quarterback, he’s competing this spring against Southern Miss transfer Jack Abraham (1,224 passing yards, 7 TDPs) ... Mississippi State will travel to Saint Louis Saturday for a first round game in the NIT. Missouri: Even without second-leading scorer Da’mion Harris, No. 8 Oklahoma (15-10) is a 1-point favorite to take out No. 8 Missouri (16-9) in the first round Saturday at Lucas Oil Stadium (4 p.m., TNT). South Carolina: When South Carolina opens spring practice Saturday, Luke Doty (405 passing yards, 2 TDPs) will be the No. 1 quarterback but he will be pushed by St. Francis (PA) transfer Jason Brown and 4-star recruit Colten Gauthier. Tennessee: No. 4 seed Tennessee (18-8) is a solid 8.5-point favorite to beat Pac-12 Tournament champ Oregon State (17-12) in today’s first round Midwest Region game (4:30 p.m., TNT) at Bankers Life Fieldhouse … The Vols have been forced to shut down the football program due to positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing. Texas A&M: Redshirt freshman wide receiver Demond Demas was arrested for possession of less than two ounces of marijuana. Vanderbilt: No Vandy player had a number on his jersey when the Commodores began spring practice. New HBC Clark Lea is making players earn their number in practice. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Members of Florida State University’s Historical Legacy Subcommittee voted 6-2 to reject a recommendation to keep Doak Campbell’s name on the football stadium. Campbell, who was the president of FSU back when it was an all-women’s school from 1941-45, would not allow nearby FAMU students on campus during his tenure. History professor and committee chair Maxine Jones says Campbell wasn’t a racist but merely following the rules set by the state at the time. If the President’s Task Force on Anti-Racism, Equity and Inclusion elects to remove Campbell’s name it will be interesting to see what the University of Florida does about having the names of former senators Spessard Holland and George Smathers on buildings. Holland and Smathers were considered part of the “Solid South” which fought hard against integration prior to the Civil Rights Act being signed.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: ALMOST ALL HOOPS EDITION ONE AND DONE OR SWEET 16? EITHER IS POSSIBLE FOR UF When everyone is on the same page and playing with focus and purpose, there isn’t a team in the NCAA Tournament with few exceptions that the Florida Gators (14-9) can’t beat. The opposite is also true. When the Gators aren’t on the same page, playing without focus and purpose, there isn’t a team in the NCAA Tournament, or even the NIT that the Gators can’t lose to, which brings us to the big question heading into Friday’s first round of March Madness: Which Florida team is going to show up? The good Gators or the bad ones? We’ve seen the Gators at their best when they beat Tennessee by 26 at the O-Dome and beat West Virginia in Morgantown. Both those teams have the possibility of making a very deep run in the tournament. While neither one is being predicted to make the Final Four, both are capable of making it that far. The Florida team that showed up in those two games can certainly do some property damage in Indianapolis. We’ve also seen the Gators at their very worst, which is what happened in the final minutes against South Carolina and Missouri when they blew two very winnable games. Win those two games and UF is probably a No. 5 or a No. 6 seed instead of a seven that means they likely play No. 2 Ohio State Sunday if they get past Virginia Tech (15-5) Friday afternoon. Since we’ve seen the Gators best, worst and everything in between it leads to this conclusion: No NCAA Tournament team better defines schizophrenia than this edition of the Florida Gators. Far too many people blame Florida’s 14-9 record on Mike White, but is Mike White the one who collapsed on the floor in Tallahassee? Is he the one responsible for an 18-day layoff after that near death tragedy for Keyontae Johnson that not only cost the Gators their best player for the season but the steadying influence who brought everyone back to reality when things weren’t going well both on and off the court? Is Mike White responsible for a 13-day COVID-19 interruption in February? There were approximately four practice days COMBINED for the two layoffs. Do the math. Four practice days out of 31 DURING a basketball season. That doesn’t add up to a team playing with any measure of consistency, now does it? And yet a lot of people want to blame White for the inconsistency. If you’re one of the ones pointing the finger, take a look at your hand. There are three fingers pointing back at you. That’s not to say Mike’s the perfect coach. He isn’t. I think he needs to re-evaluate what he’s doing with the offense much the way Billy Donovan re-evaluated what he was doing with defense after the Gators never made it past the second round of the NCAA Tournament from 2001-05. What did Billy do after the Gators were bushwhacked by Villanova in the second round in 2005? He basically made Shy the defensive coordinator and allowed him to do a makeover. What Shy was teaching combined with the talent on hand turned the Gators from a team that had far too many defensive lapses the previous years into one that played with a scorched earth mentality. Just check out what George Mason and UCLA shot from the 3-point line at the 2006 Final Four (combined 5-28) and what UCLA and Ohio State shot in 2007 (combined 9-46). You win a lot of games when you hold teams to a collective 18.9% from the 3-point line. Mike White knows defense just as Billy Donovan knew offense. Billy turned it over to a defensive coordinator. I believe Mike needs to bring in an offensive coordinator who can re-evaluate a scheme that tends to make it far too easy for opponents to double team the ball in the paint and the corners and force bad shots late in the shot clock. But that’s looking ahead and we’re talking about Friday, so here are five things the Gators have to do to win and advance in the NCAA Tournament. Something close to a 2-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio: In their last four games, three of them losses, the Gators have 39 assists. For the season the Gators are averaging 11.8 assists per game, which is dead last in the Southeastern Conference and ranks 263rd out of the 340 NCAA teams. In the last four games, the Gators have turned the ball over 64 times, which goes a long way toward explaining why they wound up a No. 8 seed. A negative assist-to-turnover ratio in any NCAA Tournament game means getting your ticket punched for a one-way flight home. If the Gators aren’t somewhere around two assists for every turnover Friday, they’ll be on their way back to Gainesville. To no one’s surprise, unbeaten Gonzaga is the No. 1 overall seed for the tournament. The Zags lead the nation in shooting at 55 percent. They are second in the nation in assists per game (18.3). They turn it over only 12 times a game. The moral of the story is good passing and few turnovers wins more ball games. The Gators should investigate. Get Colin Castleton re-engaged in the offense: Colin Castleton’s game hasn’t been the same since the 13-day COVID-19 layoff in February. Student privacy has prevented the Gators from disclosing who had the virus and who didn’t but Castleton only got in one practice during the 13 days off and that was the Monday before the Arkansas game. Counting the Arkansas game, Castleton has scored 79 points in the last eight games. He was averaging 13.2 points prior to the layoff and had four games with 20 or more points, all of them UF wins. The Gators are 4-4 in their last eight. Two things are evident in the last eight games: (1) The Gators aren’t doing a very good job of passing Castleton the basketball when he’s in good scoring position and (2) until his teammates start hitting outside shots with any consistency, defenders will continue to sag and bring the double team. Better passing and making a few shots with some consistency will go a long way toward resolving the Castleton problem. Someone other than Tre Mann has to score some points: In his last four games, Tre Mann has played his way into the NBA Draft lottery discussion. Mann has hit 31-63 from the field overall and 8-17 from the 3-point stripe while scoring 21 or more points (94 overall) in all four games. For the season he leads the Gators in scoring (16.0) and assists (3.4) and is second in rebounding (5.7). He’s hitting 39.8 percent of his 3-pointers and 84.9 percent of his free throws. As good as he has been, he could be even better if the Gators gave him a reasonable amount of help. If Mann has to do it all against Virginia Tech, the Gators will be a one-and-done. Scottie-o, Scottie-o, wherefore art thou Scottie-o?: In Florida’s last three games, Scottie Lewis has as many fouls (7) as points (7). Since he scored 16 points in the win over Auburn, which was his first game in double figures in nearly a month, Lewis has scored a combined 20 points, pulled down 10 rebounds and committed 13 fouls. That works out to 4.0 points, 2.0 rebounds and 2.6 fouls per game. He had a stretch of five straight games in which he hit for double figures and averaged 15.2 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Since 17 points and five rebounds against LSU, his season has gone south. This is a guy with NBA talent who’s playing like he’s a Division I walk-on lately. For the Gators to be anything but one-and-done, Scottie Lewis has to get his mojo working. Shorten the bench: Given the lack of productivity off the bench lately, White needs to find eight guys he can count on and go with them. For whatever reason, NCAA Tournament games typically go at a slower pace than the regular season. A slower pace doesn’t require playing all 12 scholarship guys at White’s disposal. Virginia Tech rarely runs more than an 8-man bench. Ohio State, who the Gators would almost certainly play if they beat the Hokies in round one, plays nine. The Zags go with seven or eight until the game gets out of hand, which is often. The point is, you don’t have to have a deep bench to win in the NCAA Tournament, just eight or so guys who can play hard and contribute. THE SEC IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT Friday No. 3 ARKANSAS (22-6) vs. No. 14 Colgate (14-1), South Regional: Colgate averages 86.3 points per game, which is second nationally to Gonzaga’s 92.1. The Raiders would like this game to be a track meet, which would suit Eric Musselman just fine. The Hogs can run all day long. They can also defend. Opponents score only 70 a game against them and make just 41.5 percent overall from the field and 32.6 from the 3-point line. Arkansas is favored by 8.5, wins by more. No. 5 TENNESSEE (18-8) VS. No. 12 Oregon State (17-12), Midwest Regional: Oregon had to win the Pac-12 Tournament to get in. The Beavers have won six of their last seven, but they haven’t played anyone as good defensively as the Vols, who give up just 39.8 percent from the field and 32.6 from the 3-point line. If John Fulkerson has recovered from his concussion, Tennessee wins big. The Vols are favored by 8.5. Saturday No. 8 LSU (18-9) vs. No. 9 St. Bonaventure (16-4), East Regional: This is a game LSU can lose if it can’t deal with St. Bonnie big guy Osun Osinniyi, who goes for 10.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game while blocking 2.9 shots. If the Tigers can’t get to the rim, they’re going to have trouble. LSU is favored by 1.5 points. If they win, it will be a squeaker. No. 2 Alabama (24-6) vs. No. 15 Iona (12-5), East Regional: Rick Pitino said Wednesday that he is not going to be a candidate for the vacant Indiana job. Good, because Indiana won’t be calling him. Iona shouldn’t plan a lengthy stay in Nap Town because Alabama (17-point favorite) is going to win very big. No. 9 Missouri (16-9) vs. No. 8 Oklahoma (15-10), Midwest Regional: Mizzou’s chances of making it to the second round got better. Oklahoma, which has lost five of its last six games, will be without second leading scorer De’Vion Harmon (12.9 per game), who tested positive for COVID-19. The Sooners have troubles with big guys so Jeremiah Tilmon should have his way in the paint. Oklahoma is a 1-point favorite, but Mizzou should advance. UF SPORTS: The now 2nd-ranked UF men’s tennis team (13-1) won its 10th straight match in blowout fashion, shutting out 6th-ranked TCU, 7-0, Wednesday afternoon. The Gators face FSU at home Sunday … The 5th-ranked Gators (13-5) open the SEC portion of their baseball schedule tonight at the Florida Ballpark against Texas A&M (15-4). The Gators will send Tommy Mace (3-0, 1.96 ERA) against the Aggies tonight. Friday night, Jack Leftwich (3-0, 1.82 ERA) will get the call with Hunter Barco (2-1, 5.95 ERA) going Saturday … The 5th-ranked Florida softball team (18-2) rode the 5-hit pitching of Ryle Trlicek (1-0) and a grand slam homer by Emily Wilkie to a 7-1 win over North Dakota Wednesday evening. The Gators will travel to Mississippi State (15-8, 0-3 SEC) Friday. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The only thing better than Michigan State and UCLA going at it in a play-in game in the NCAA Tournament would be for the Spartans to join Duke and Kentucky watching March Madness on television. We need things like this to happen in sports. It’s like a couple of years ago when Alabama had to finish its football season in the Citrus Bowl. You knew that this was just temporary, nothing to expect on a yearly basis, but it felt good to see Bama having to toil with the mere mortals. I feel the same way with Kentucky and Duke out and Michigan State and UCLA bottom feeding in the tournament. They will be back. All of them. Count on it. But for tonight and one NCAA Tournament, I’m really enjoying this. Now, if only Florida or the Zags win the NCAA, I’ll really be happy.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: ENDING THE DEAD PERIOD, TRANSFERS, ETC. It is being reported that the NCAA Oversight Committee recommend a May 31 end to the year-long recruiting dead period that has prevented in-home and on-campus visits, turning the entire recruiting process into a virtual crapshoot. The end to the dead period threatens to turn the month of June into total chaos at most schools. The Florida Gators might have somewhat of an advantage, however, since Dan Mullen made the decision to start spring football practice in February and end it in mid-March while nearly everyone else will be going full tilt until mid-to-late April. “We did spring practice a little bit earlier,” Mullen said Monday. “Some of the stuff you would be doing in June with your spring cut ups you’re moving that into April. May, the guys aren’t out on the road recruiting so we’re doing a lot more of our offseason stuff at that point. June’s going to be an onslaught of just non-stop kids desperate to go visit because they haven’t had the chance to visit anywhere. So, it’s going to be non-stop recruiting.” There are questions that will have to be answered between now and the re-opening of recruiting, one of which will involve camps. Camp season has always been when coaches get more of an up close and personal look at a kid while he’s competing against other high level kids. Additionally, it’s a chance for interaction with coaches and other players already on the team. A kid who might have all the talent in the world might come to campus and prove he’s not a good fit with the coaching staff and potential teammates. Because there were no camps or on campus visits in 2020 due to COVID-19 a lot of schools are going to be dealing with misfits and unhappy kids in the fall, something that might not have happened if there had been camps last summer. “There’s still just so many questions,” Mullen said. “Is it June 1 and life back to normal? Does it include the summer dead period? Is it official visits, unofficial visits, camps, everything? So, I think the tricky part for us … it’s going to be great to do that and I know kids are dying are excited to get here … the balance of how that works because I think one thing there will be a mad rush as soon as that happens. That’s something we have to be smart and careful about with COVID to avoid a spike, to avoid issues within our team when there’s this mad of kids trying to get to every campus as fast as possible. It will be interesting. Hopefully, they’ll get us the information sooner rather than later so we can have the opportunity to put a strategy in place before it gets thrown to us.” The NCAA Oversight Committee is also going to recommend a one-time transfer waiver that will allow any athlete in any sport a one-time transfer without penalty. It is a rule that would have been implemented last year except for the disruption of all sports last spring due to COVID-19. If you think pulling the plug on the dead period is going to be chaotic, you haven’t seen anything like you will see the moment the transfer rule goes into effect. The new rule will give a measure of free agency which could cause mass migration. Add that to the fact that 2020 won’t count against the eligibility of anyone who was on a Division I roster and that seniors were able to return for a do-over and roster management will be the source of migraines for coaches and their personnel people. GATORS REMAIN TOP 5 IN THREE BASEBALL POLLS Collegiate Baseball Top 25: 1. Arkansas 12-1; 2. Vanderbilt 12-2; 3. FLORIDA 13-4; 4. Texas Tech 13-3; 6. Mississippi State 13-3; 7. Georgia 13-3; 8. East Carolina 13-2; 9. Oklahoma State 11-2-1; 10. LSU 14-3; 11. Louisville 11-4; 12. Arizona State 11-2; 13. Michigan 7-1; 14. Texas 11-5; 15. UCLA 10-5; 16. Miami 8-4; 17. North Carolina 10-4; 18. South Carolina 11-3; 19. Oregon 8-3; 20. Georgia Tech 9-5; 21. Arizona 12-4; 22. Oregon State 11-3; 23. Notre Dame 7-2; 24. Alabama 14-3; 25. Texas A&M 14-4. D1baseball.com Top 25: 1. Arkansas 12-1; 2. Vanderbilt 12-2; 3. Mississippi State 13-3; 4. Ole Miss 13-3; 5. FLORIDA 13-4; 6. Miami 8-4; 7. Texas Tech 13-3; 8. Louisville 11-4; 9. East Carolina 13-2; 10. Texas 11-5; 11. UCLA 10-5; 12. Georgia Tech 9-5; 13. Tennessee 14-3; 14. Oklahoma State 11-2-1; 15. TCU 10-6; 16. South Carolina 11-3; 17. Notre Dame 7-2; 18. Pittsburgh 9-4; 19. LSU 14-3; 20. Oregon 8-3; 21. UC-Santa Barbara 9-5; 22. Michigan 7-1; 23. Oregon State 11-3; 24. Boston College 9-5; 25. Virginia Tech 9-5. USA Today Coaches Top 25: 1. Arkansas 12-1; 2. Vanderbilt 12-2; 3. Mississippi State 13-3; 4. Ole Miss 13-3; 5. FLORIDA 13-4; 6. Miami 8-4; 7. Texas Tech 13-3; 8. Louisville 11-4; 9. East Carolina 13-2; 10. Texas 10-5; 11. UCLA 10-5; 12. Georgia Tech 9-5; 13. Tennessee 14-3; 14. Oklahoma State 11-2-1; 15. TCU 10-6; 16. South Carolina 11-3; 17. Notre Dame 7-2; 18. Pittsburgh 9-4; 19. LSU 14-3; 20. Oregon 8-3; 21. UC-Santa Barbara 9-5; 22. Michigan 7-1; 23. Oregon State 11-3; 24. Boston College 9-5; 25. Virginia Tech 9-5. SIX NCAA ZEBRAS SENT HOME FOR COVID-19 PROTOCOLS Matt Norlander of CBS Sports is reporting that six well known, high profile NCAA basketball officials have been sent home after one tested positive for Covid-19 and subsequent contract tracing. Among the six are Ted Valentine, John Higgins and Roger Ayers, three of the more highly ranked officials according to Kenpom.com. The six officials arrived in Indianapolis Sunday night to check into their hotel, but when their rooms weren’t ready and there was no food, they were given permission to leave the hotel to go to a steakhouse. When they returned to the hotel and took their Covid-19 tests, one tested positive. Valentine, Higgins and Ayers are all exceptionally good officials so losing them is a blow to the NCAA Tournament. With four play-in games on Thursday followed by 16 each on Friday and Saturday, that means the NCAA is starting out with a pool of 144 zebras for the first three days. I wouldn’t have been the least bit disappointed to find out that Jamie Luckie, Tony Greene, Bart Lenox or Ron Groover had been sent home. COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY, HIGH MAJORS BASKETBALL EDITION Extinct Species List Jim Christian, Boston College: The new guy is Earl Grant, who has had a good run at Charleston. Pat Chambers, Penn State: Chambers “resigned” back in October. He will be replaced by Purdue assistant Micah Shrewsberry. Archie Miller, Indiana: Archie will have $10.3 million with which he can drown out his sorrows. Alums want IU to go after former Bob Knight assistant Chris Beard, who is the head ball coach at Texas Tech, or Brad Stevens, formerly of Butler and now of the Boston Celtics. Keep an eye on former Butler and Ohio State head coach Thad Matta or former Michigan coach John Beilein, either of whom would say yes after Beard and Stevens say no. Richard Pitino, Minnesota: Rule No. 1 when hiring coaches. Just because your daddy is famous and can really coach doesn’t mean you can. Richard should have learned how to be a head coach at a mid-major instead of starting at a power conference school with expectations that exceed reality. Minnesota will make a play for Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman, whose dad was once the head ball coach at Many Sodas. When that fails, they probably go after Utah State head coach Craig Smith, who grew up in Minnesota and cut his coaching teeth next door in North Dakota. Paul Weir, New Mexico: Weir was a horrible fit. The UNM athletic director is Eddie Nunez, who played high school ball for Frank Martin at Miami High. Frank and South Carolina are trying to work out an amicable divorce. Ray Tanner is already on the hook for more than $15 million to pay for firing Will Muschamp. He can’t afford another buyout but he wants a new basketball coach. Frank Martin can either hang on another year or take a parachute to New Mexico. Dave Leitao, DePaul: Athletic director DeWayne Peevy, who was at Kentucky for years, wasted no time pink slipping Leitao. Look for former John Calipari assistant Kenny Payne, now with the New York Knicks, to get the first call. Second call will go to Porter Moser at cross-town Loyola. He already knows Chicago very well. On Life Support Sean Miller, Arizona: Zona has a Notice of Allegations from the NCAA and the carnage will be significant. Expect Sean to be coaching at an NBA team near you quite soon. The Arizona job will be attractive even though it might involve a couple of years in the NCAA jailhouse. Former Zona All-American Damon Stoudamire is the head coach at Pacific and just the right guy to take over. Steve Prohm, Iowa State: Everybody at Alabama was disappointed when Avery Johnson was hired in 2015 instead of Prohm, who was at Morehead State. There are times you should rejoice in your disappointment. This is one of them. Iowa State wants him gone but his $5.3 million buyout is a killer. If a rich booster forks up the cash, however, Prohm is a goner. Endangered Species List Will Wade, LSU: He would already be On Life Support except for his buyout. If LSU fires him prior to the NCAA Notice of Allegations, they have to pay him. If they wait for the NOA, they can fire Wade without owing him a dime. Bruce Pearl, Auburn: All indications are that Auburn will stand by their man. They’ve self-imposed sanctions with the hope that will keep the NCAA at bay. Bruce, meanwhile, is doing a very nice impersonation of Sargent Schultz (“I know nothing! I saw nothing!”) when it comes to his former assistant Chuck Person. Greg McDermott, Creighton: It’s bad enough that Creighton is implicated in the college basketball recruiting scandal, but McDermott got suspended for making insensitive remarks about the “plantation” to his players. Mike Brey, Notre Dame: He’s the winningest coach in school history but the last time in the NCAA Tournament was 2017. The natives are restless. Jim Larranaga, Miami: The Hurricanes had a losing record, haven’t been to the NCAA since 2018, haven’t advanced past the first round since 2016, and Larranaga is 71 years old. Other than that things are just ducky down in Coral Gables. Chris Collins, Northwestern: Four straight losing seasons and six losers in the eight years he’s been head coach. It’s only a matter of time before he’s a goner although it may take another year for the folks in Evanston to smell the coffee. Saved by the Buyout Bruce Weber, Kansas State: Everybody loves Bruce, who is one of the nicest guys you’ll ever meet. Who was it that said, “Nice guys finish last”? His buyout will keep him around another year. Larry Krystkowiak, Utah: He hasn’t delivered Pac-12 titles and they really would like to snake Mark Pope away from BYU, but it would take nearly $7 million to buy Krystkowiak out. Jamie Dixon, TCU: He hasn’t had a winning record in two years. They would love for Dixon to go someplace else because they can’t afford they buyout. Mike Hopkins, Washington: He’s 20-38 in his last two seasons, 5-17 this past year. He has two years remaining on his contract. Given the Pac-12’s lack of revenue and UDub’s financial hit they won’t fire Hopkins. This year. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Back in June the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, put three years of sanctions and a one-year ban on postseason play on Oklahoma State for the sins of former assistant Lamont Evans, the same guy who has South Carolina in hot water. So why is Okie State a four seed and playing in the NCAA Tournament starting this weekend? Because the Cowboys appealed the sanctions and by not declaring an emergency to hear the appeal, the NCAA is forced to allow Okie State to play. If you needed one more reason to believe the NCAA has outlived its usefulness, this is it. It is past time for the power schools to leave and form their own organization minus the cumbersome rules, inept bureaucracy and the failed leadership of Mark Emmert.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: GATORS ARE A NO. 7 SEED, WILL FACE VATECH ON FRIDAY Given the schizophrenic nature of this Florida basketball team, perhaps it’s a good thing that the Gators (14-9) won’t have to spend a full day sitting around waiting their turn in an NCAA Tournament like none that we’ve ever seen. The Gators, who are a generous No. 7 seed, will spring into action immediately, tipping off the first full day of tournament action Friday at 12:15 p.m. (CBS, Jim Nantz on the mike) against 10 seed Virginia Tech (15-6) of the Atlantic Coast Conference. This is a very difficult Florida team to figure out. The Gators can be bad. Very bad as they proved in a home blowout loss to Kentucky and an unfathomable defeat at home against South Carolina, which finished the season as easily the worst team in the Southeastern Conference. They lost a winnable game on the road to Mississippi State and literally gave away a win against Missouri that would have assured them of a bye into the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. The Gators can also be very, very good as they proved by blowing out then 6th-ranked Tennessee at home by 26 points with Colin Castleton and Scottie Lewis unable to answer the bell and taking out then 11th-ranked West Virginia in Morgantown in the SEC-Big 12 Challenge. Tennessee is a No. 5 seed in the NCAA Tournament and West Virginia is a No. 3. There are very few teams in the tournament the Gators can’t beat and there isn’t a team in the field the Gators can’t lose to. Some of the blame for Florida’s unpredictable nature can be placed on the 18-day pause after SEC preseason player of the year Keyontae Johnson went down in Tallahassee and the 13-day Covid-19 pause in February. With Johnson healthy and playing to his capability, this Florida team could be a top four seed. Take Johnson out of the equation and the distraction of those two lengthy pauses in which there were no games and only minimal practicing and it’s easier to understand why the Gators have been such an enigma. Obviously, the NCAA Selection Committee believes the Gators are a fairly good basketball team when they are focused and reasonably healthy. They had the Gators ranked as the 28th-best beam in the country and Virginia Tech 37th. That’s somewhat of a surprise since VaTech plays in the Atlantic Coast Conference and had four wins over ranked teams (then No. 3 Villanova, then No. 24 Clemson, then No. 19 Duke and then No. 8 Virginia, three of which (Villanova, Clemson and Virginia) are in the NCAA field. If the good Gators show up Friday, they are more than capable of beating Virginia Tech, which finished the regular season ranked 22nd in the Associated Press poll. The Hokies aren’t particularly tall, but they’re very physical and quite strong. Where they have run into problems is with their defensive consistency. When they keep opponents below 70 points, they tend to win. In five of the six losses, opponents scored at least 73 points. They gave up 81 to North Carolina in their ACC Tournament loss to the Tar Heels. For Florida to win, someone other than Tre Mann has to show up offensively. Mann is averaging 23.5 per game the last four games with a high of 30 in the SEC Tournament quarterfinal loss to Tennessee. In those same four games, second leading scorer Colin Castleton has scored 31. More alarming is the turnover-to-assist ratio the last four. The Gators have 39 assists in the last four games and 64 turnovers. If they have that kind of ratio against Virginia Tech, they’ll be heading home Friday night. Should the Gators win their Friday game, they’ll be facing the winner of No. 2 Ohio State and No. 15 Oral Roberts Sunday. One final NCAA Tournament note: The play-in games will be Thursday with 16 first round games Friday and 16 on Saturday. All games will be played in Indianapolis and the surrounding area. Florida’s first and second round matchups will be played at historic Hinkle Field House on the Butler University campus. THE REST OF THE SEC NCAA TEAMS Alabama (24-6), No. 2, East: Florida in 2006-07 won the national championship in football and the NCAA title in basketball. With the football half of the daily double already in the bank, Alabama has a legitimate shot at duplicating the Florida feat. Nobody in the country plays defense like the Tide and their launch a three or take it to the rack offensive style is going to be very tough for anyone to prepare for. Alabama gets Iona (12-5) in the first round. I like Alabama-Florida State in the regional final with Alabama advancing to the Final Four. Arkansas (22-6), No. 3, South: Before the Hogs were decapitated by LSU in the SEC Tournament semifinals, they had the look of a team that could make the Elite Eight. If they play like they did against LSU, they’ll have a hard time making it past the opening weekend. They get Colgate (14-1) in the first round and the winner of Texas Tech-Utah State in the second. I like a Baylor-Ohio State matchup for the regional final. Tennessee (18-8), No. 5, Midwest: If John Fulkerson has recovered from concussion protocol, the Vols could get to the second weekend. They should handle surprise Pac-12 Tournament champ Oregon State (17-12) in round one, but they likely get a red hot Okie State (20-8) team in the second round. If Fulkerson is healthy they can beat Okie State. Without him? Doubtful. And, if they get to the second weekend, No. 1 seed Illinois would be the likely Sweet 16 opponent. I like Illinois in the top half of the bracket and I like West Virginia to emerge in the bottom half. LSU (18-9), No. 8, East: LSU probably deserved better than a No. 8 seed after teaching the SEC Tournament championship game, particularly after a last-second tip-in defied gravity and popped out to give Bama the title. As a No. 8 the Tigers get a St. Bonaventure (16-4) team that has the best rim protector you’ve never heard of in 6-10 Osun Osunniyi. Survive that one and the Tigers get East No. 1 Michigan in round two. I like Florida State’s chances in the top half of this bracket. I’m not sold on Michigan. Missouri (16-9), No. 9, West: The Tigers got the toughest draw of any of the SEC teams in the tournament. Even though Oklahoma (15-10) has lost six of its last seven, the Sooners can space you and light up the scoreboard. That’s round one. Round two, should Mizzou score the win, is Gonzaga. I’m not sure there’s a team in this bracket capable of staying within 10 points of the Zags. AND IN THE NOBODY’S INTERESTED TOURNAMENT (NIT) In what could be called the Mike White Memorial Game, Ole Miss (16-11), which is better than at least half the teams in the NCAA Tournament, will face Louisiana Tech (21-7) of Conference USA in the first round. Mike White played collegiately at Ole Miss and was an assistant coach there under Andy Kennedy. He was the HBC at Louisiana Tech before coming to Florida. Also from the SEC, Mississippi State (14-13) will face Saint Louis (14-6) in another first round game. GATORS TAKE TWO OF THREE FROM JU BUT THERE ARE PROBLEMS Kevin O’Sullivan has to like what he sees from his hitters and weekend starters but it’s highly doubtful he’s happy right now, even though the 5th-ranked Gators (13-4) took two out of three from Jacksonville over the weekend. The Gators launched nine baseballs out of the new ball yard and the weekend rotation of Tommy Mace, Jack Leftwich and Hunter Barco gave up a combined four runs and 11 hits in 17-1/3 innings but there are issues, particularly in the field and with the relief pitching. The Gators have committed 23 errors in 17 games, a .965 fielding percentage that ranks dead last in the SEC. This has to distress O’Sullivan since the Gators perennially rank among the nation’s best teams with the glove. Although the bullpen held JU to no runs and only one hit in 5-2/3 innings in games two and three, they gave up eight runs and nine hits in innings six through nine Friday night when UF dropped a 10-9 decision to the Dolphins. Another issue that has to be resolved is midweek starters. When Nick Pogue and Tyler Nesbitt were lost for the season due to Tommy John surgery, it put the Gators in somewhat of a bind. Garrett Milchin (1-0, 2.00 ERA) gave O’Sullivan four strong innings against Georgia State last Tuesday night. He’s likely to get the start against FSU Tuesday. Freshman Chase Centala (1-0, 2.79 ERA) has one start in five appearances. O’Sullivan could also go with lefty Jordan Butler (1-1, 4.50 ERA), who has been a midweek starter and weekend reliever throughout his career. Kirby McMullen, who homered in all three games over the weekend, led the assault at the plate. Josh Rivera homered Friday and Saturday. Nathan Hickey, Jud Fabian, Kris Armstrong and Jordan Butler each hit one out of the yard. Fabian leads the team with six homers, while Hickey and McMullen have four each. The Gators will face Florida State (6-6) Tuesday night in Tallahassee and open SEC play Thursday through Saturday with Texas A&M (14-4) at the Florida Ballpark. OTHER UF SPRING SPORTS Softball: The 6th-ranked Gators (16-2) handed 9th-ranked Kentucky (20-2) its first two losses of the season to take the opening SEC series of the season. The Gators won their Friday and Saturday matchups by identical 3-1 scores before falling in the Sunday finale, 4-2, in nine innings. Elizabeth Hightower (8-0) got the win Friday and a save Saturday. Track and Field: The Florida men finished fourth at the NCAA Indoor Championships while the Florida women finished sixth. Men’s Tennis: It was a big weekend for the 7th-ranked Gators (12-1, 8-0 SEC), who went on the road to take out 19th-ranked Ole Miss (5-7, 4-3 SEC), 6-1, Friday and 24th-ranked Mississippi State (11-5, 2-4 SEC), 7-0, to remain the only team in the SEC unbeaten in league matches. The Gators host 5th-ranked TCU in a midweek match on Wednesday and Florida State next Sunday. Women’s Tennis: The 29th-ranked Gators improved to 7-6 overall, 5-3 in SEC play over the weekend by blanking 41st-ranked Missouri (13-9, 1-6 SEC) and 20th-ranked Arkansas (10-3, 4-3 SEC) by identical 4-0 scores. The Gators will return to action March 25 when they travel to Ole Miss. Lacrosse: The 5th-ranked Gators (3-2) were stunned by Jacksonville, 12-11. The Gators will travel to Temple for Friday and Sunday matches as American Athletic Conference play begins. Volleyball: The 7th-ranked Gators (16-2) took out 25th-ranked Missouri (11-7) twice over the weekend, setting up a two-match showdown next weekend with unbeaten and 3rd-ranked Kentucky (16-0) at the O-Dome. If the Gators can beat the Wildcats twice they will win the Southeastern Conference title. Soccer: The Gators (4-8-2) lost to LSU, 2-1, in a Sunday match played in Orange Beach, Alabama. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Drew Brees made it official Sunday, calling quits his storied NFL career, leaving Taysom Hill and Jameis Winston as the immediate quarterback options for the New Orleans Saints. Unless the Saints want to become the Aints again, they better find someone else to play QB. Hill is 31-year-old career backup who is better known as a runner. Winston has shown a propensity for completing passes to the other team. I have no idea what the Saints are thinking, but from my vantage point if they can’t make a trade for an established QB they need to draft either Alabama’s Mac Jones or Florida’s Kyle Trask, both of whom can thrive in Sean Payton’s offensive schemes.

"It was such a comfort to hear the familiar voices of John Ferguson on LSU, or Larry Munson on Georgia or even John Ward on Tennessee over the singing of the radials. I miss that..." My last name should have been Marconi. Maybe I didn’t invent radio, but my family has consumed the airwaves for nearly a century like Sand Hill Cranes swooping into a migratory pattern. I was born with one ear next to my dad’s giant Zenith console where at pre-school age I began listening to the Lone Ranger, Buck Rogers, The Green Hornet and eventually the live WWII news on short-wave from London. As a pre-teen, I discovered that by shimmying up a tall Australian pine out my window with an antenna wire I could connect with KMOX St. Louis from which I pulled in the voices of Harry Caray and Jack Buck out of the air announcing Cardinals baseball. The images in my mind were – still are – spectacularly delicious. Stan Musial was King Kong, because Harry told me so. I’ll never forgive TV for betraying me in later years by revealing, in full disclosure, that Stan The Man was human. And then I was introduced to Otis Boggs’ Gator football broadcast. It was beautiful music to a 12-year-old, who would often don his green moth-eaten sweater stuffed with wash cloths for shoulder pads, stiff-arming chairs and tables for the touchdown. By puberty I was hooked. Otis pronounced the punts of Fred Montsdeoca as “booming sparrels” (even though they were normally end-over-end on purpose). The biggest challenge for Otis was to make Bob Woodruff’s team at least SOUND like it had an offense. It was his voice which started my path down the road of Gator football story-telling and writing. I love radio. My family is three-generations deep in it. My dad was a sometimes announcer at Ocala’s first radio station, WTMC, and he was a huge fan of ham radio – even built receivers in his bedroom. Dad was hooked on radio to a point where later in seniorhood he would sleep with earphones so he could listen to Larry King’s late night show on the Mutual Radio Network. I started a sports radio show in my twenties at Ocala’s WMOP and 30 years later formed a concept for a company startup, flipping the format from Country to Sports talk. My son was a producer at age 21. My younger brother Bill has been the co-host of the popular Morning Cruise on JOY FM for 30 years. Sadly I have almost had to say goodbye to this theatre of the mind. In the digital age, the role of radio has been diminished. I am certainly complicit. Three years ago my son Brenden convinced me to pull the plug on my terrestrial radio show in favor of streaming The Buddy Martin Show live. Looking back, it was a necessary move because its future was so cloudy. But I am still rooting for radio and have a new friend attempting to start a Florida sports radio network. Lawdy, I wish him well. I really do. Not meaning to romanticize what could be a dying medium, but for those us who once climbed into our treehouse with a crystal set to dial in the far away voices of KDKA Pittsburgh, it was heaven. We connected to our world adventures the way kids today do with their cell phones. Finding the sweet spot on the AM dial at night and overcoming static on the car radio was the first version of channel surfing. To hear far away football and baseball games, like my friend Frank would say, “if you ain’t hearing static, you ain’t listening to radio.” Once I became a sportswriter, while driving Saturday nights from a day game in the SEC, it was such a comfort to hear the familiar voices of John Ferguson on LSU, or Larry Munson on Georgia or even John Ward on Tennessee over the singing of the radials. I miss that. That’s not what concerns me today, however. I fear radio has lost its way in broadcasting/telecasting sports events. I’m fed up with the modern play-by-play announcers’ betrayal of their mission. I have listened to and watched sports for a year now when I wasn’t Zooming in an interview and I am near a point of hysteria about announcers mistaking their roles as talk show hosts. And yes I understand the philosophy of entertaining the audience during a boring game and not redundantly telling them what they’re seeing. But neither should it be ignored. When is the last time you yelled at the TV because it never told you the player who committed the foul, or recovered the fumble or gave you proper down and distance? I’m to a point where I have turned down the sound of all Florida games and listened to the radio broadcasts, even if it was 7 seconds ahead of the TV. I used to do it on occasion. Now every game. When it’s not a Florida game I just have to grin and bear it. There are exceptions, like when Karl Ravetch and Jimmy Dykes deliver on story lines spiced with colorful rhetoric. But they never stray too far from the script. For a while I was just so happy to have sports back during the Pandemic that I was willing to overlook this annoyance, but almost every game now my hackles go up again. Even allowing for the fact that the announcers are not onsite and trying to create a narrative while looking at a monitor, I cannot forgive the malfeasance, misfeasance and any other kind of “feasance” of these Announcers Gone Wild. Give me the damn score, down and distance, who made the foul, who got the rebound, who made the key block, the name of the kicker and why the third-string right tackle is on the field. To quote the old TV show Dragnet, “just the facts ma’am!” I want to put in my vote of thanks for Mick Hubert, whose voice has connected us to Gator sports for 30 years. I have never been more appreciative of his mechanics, clarity and responsible broadcasting. As for the others, I don’t care where you had dinner last night, whose charity you’re proud to be a part of or if it’s the birthday of your second grade teacher. Save it for your class reunion, or maybe make a call to the Paul Finebaum Show, which, by the way, I enjoy listening to daily. For seven years I did local radio in my hometown, news mixed with sports. Now I've gone all digital with The Buddy Martin Show weeknights at 9 on Facebook Live. (EDITOR’S NOTE: Senior columnist Franz Beard is under the weather this week. His columns will resume soon. GatorBait would also like to issue our condolences to Associate Editor Chad Ritch on the loss of his mother Betty.)

Florida Gators Defensive Line coach David Turner met with local media to discuss spring practice, the return of Zach Carter, young linemen and what lessons can be learned from the 2020 defense. As a valued GatorBait magazine subscriber, we are happy to offer this transcript in full. REACTION TO GETTING ZACH CARTER BACK ANOTHER YEAR? "Hah, my prayers had been answered. No, Zach, like most guys in his position wanted to see what his evaluation was, and I told Zach I thought he had a chance if he comes back to really establish himself as one of the better D-linemen. He knew, I think deep down, he knew he wasn't quite ready to make the jump. There's some things he wanted to help us accomplish here, some things he wanted to accomplish and some things he needed to get better at. So I think he made a smart decision and the best decision for him." HOW IMPORTANT TO LAND PORTAL GUYS? "Well it was vital for us because we knew we needed hopefully a couple of older guys that fit in. I think when you're looking at guys transferring in the portal there's a whole lot more guys out there than spots. So you want to make sure you do your homework. We were fortunate to get two really good guys, not just players, but really good people. I did my homework. In this business everybody kind of knows everybody and you talk and you make phone calls, and you want to make sure you're getting a guy that's going to be really good in your room and really good for the younger guys. And during the process, it's like recruiting all over again. You talk to those guys. You want to find out, No. 1, why they're leaving. No. 2, what are their goals? And No. 3, would it be a fit for you? Both of those guys checked all three boxes, and I'll be honest, I'm glad to have them. They've been really good for the younger guys and really good, I think they've meshed really good with our group of guys." WHAT DO THEY ADD IN TERMS OF SKILL SET ON THE FIELD? "Well, I mean each one of them is a little different and you sit there and look, you're talking about two guys, one, when you're talking about Daquan Newkirk who has played in this league, in the SEC, and had success, then you talk about Antonio Shelton who has played in the Big Ten and been successful, you're talking about two guys that's played big-time college football that's coming into a situation where they have a chance to contribute and play and step up and be a leader and be a role model for the younger guys. So like I said, they checked all the boxes and they've been pleasant surprises for me." WHAT HAS THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SECOND-YEAR TACKLES BEEN? "Well, you know, They’re never probably what's the word I'm looking for. Get better as quick as you want them to. Right now these guys are working, and I'll tell you probably the last four or five practices I've seen jumps in both of those guys in terms of getting better at the little things, which is what we've been talking to them about. You can't go out there every day and say I'm going to get better at five or six different things. You kind of have to pick one or two different things and concentrate on them and get better at, and that's what those guys have started to do. And it usually happens about this time in spring ball right at the end where you wish you had about five, 10 more practices where you could really accelerate their ability, accelerate their learning. But those guys are working hard, they’re showing up every day. They’re working hard, they’re trying to get better, trying to do the thing that we ask them to do. Really that’s all I ask: show up, work hard every day, get better, if you got questions ask and just grind at it. It’s not a great job. Nobody grows up wanting to be a D-lineman. Everyone wants to be a quarterback or a running back. But those guys have really embraced it and I’m pleased to have them and they’re going to be fine.” A lot of fame and fortune to be made on D-line? “Yeah, yeah, if you’re really good at it a lot of people will pay a lot of good money for you to do it. Yeah, I’ve been fortunate to coach some really good ones. Hopefully we can continue to develop guys and get a little bit better, that’s what it’s all about, helping guys develop to their full potential and hopefully help us wins a bunch of games.” What impresses you most about Todd Grantham defense? “The best thing with Todd is it’s an NFL-style defense and it’s about putting guys in position to take advantage of their talents. It’s really unlike, well other than probably a couple of other defense, but it’s really unlike most of the defense I’ve been in in terms of hey, we create mismatches across the board. That’s what we’ve been good at. We struggled a little bit last year in the run game for a lot of different reasons. But we know what we got to do to get better. I think the guys are a little bit embarrassed about how we finished up and they came out with a different mindset. We know what we have to do better. But Todd he’s probably one of the smartest coaches, defensive, that I’ve ever worked for and the defense is made for guys to make plays. If you’re a playmaker and you can learn the defense, which is not a problem, then you’re going to have a chance to put up great numbers in this defense. His defenses historically have been pretty at sacks, tackles for losses and run defense, so that’s what we got to continue to do and continue to develop the kids in the defense.” Last season an anomaly? “Oh yeah, I think so, for whatever reason. We got to coach better, starts with us and we got to coach better and we got to put the guys in a better positon. There’s no question about that: the responsibility is on to get it fix. That’s what we’re doing.” There was a lot of outside noise about Grantham but an impressive track record. “Yeah, exactly, but it is what it was. We worry about the things we can control and trying to get our guys better and looking at things within the defense to help us and you’re always trying to get better. You’re adding things. You’re taking things out. You’re figuring out what guys can and cannot do and you’re trying to plug them in there and keep working.” Your take on Gervon Dexter “I don’t know if people realize this is only his fourth year playing football. He’s still relatively young to the game. We got some things just fundamentally he was so raw that we’re still working on but the flip side of that is there really aren’t a whole lot of bad habits. We just have to develop him. Playing lower is one thing, playing with more leverage. But I see a change in him now. I think he’s a little more comfortable. I think the speed of the game and the understanding of what we’re trying to do in terms of blocking and hand placement and things like that. He’s a work in progress. Everybody wants him to be great now and I’ve talked to him a little bit about that. I said, ‘hey man, you can’t walk around here with the way everybody looks at him just from a physical standpoint and expect him to just wreck shop every Saturday. That’s really not what he can do yet because he’s still new to the game. Everything is new to him. Sometimes you have to block out the noise. You gotta listen to the people who are closest to you in terms of, hey this is what we gotta do as coaches. Listen and listen to me and hopefully, we can get him going in the right direction in terms of his development, which we have been able to do. He knows what he’s gotta work on. He’s a prideful kid. He doesn’t like not to play well. He’s just got to take it one day at a time and not worry about it. He’s not going to be as great as everybody expects him to be right now. It’s a process. Nobody is. We just gotta keep taking it one day at a time with him and getting better at some of the little things and eventually he’s going to be the player we all know he can be.” As a coach you have to like that, no bad habits, easy to mold a player? “Yeah, and we have to be careful of falling into the same deal. You look at him and you expect him to be great right now and that’s just not the case. The great thing about him is he’s such a great kid. He wants to be coached. He wants to be great. He takes everything you say to him and he tries to do it. That’s all you can ask of a kid as a coach. I’m pleased with where he is. we still have a long way to go but we’re working to get there.” Your take on Princely. “Princely has a lot of tools. He is a gifted young man. He’s still got to understand the college game. It’s not high school, you can’t just run around and kind of freelance at your leisure. You’ve got things and responsibilities within the defense. Princely’s learning. You know, guys, you look at last year, all the things that the guys went through; you know, we had no spring ball—early enrollees—no spring ball, you know we shut down. You practice, you know, you separated, you shut down in the middle of the season. I mean, those guys overcame a lot, and it wasn’t typical—obviously—a typical year. So, the development of the freshmen, really didn't happen. You know, you're talking about practicing in the fall when you getting ready to play, play a game on Saturday, and you really don't have as much time with those guys like you do in spring practice now, where you're really concentrating on the fundamentals. You're not getting ready for game, you're really just concentrating on making your team better. So that's where those guys, that's where they suffered a little bit, you know, just from learning what to do with not getting thrown into the fire. But, but, this spring, those guys have come out—and I say those guys, you're talking about Princley, you're talking about Devon, or those guys are coming out and working at it. Same thing with Jalen Lee, and really working and concentrating on getting better and learning defense, and playing fast. You know it's hard to play fast when you don't know, not real sure what you're doing. And so those guys feel good in the defense now, they've been exposed to it, they've been in it. They've played, and now it's really starting to settle down and play a whole lot faster which allows them and their natural ability to take over.” Given the troubles from last year, what's a positive spin from something that happened last year and then, what's your biggest worry coming into this year? “Positive spin, well. Aside from winning the East, I guess there's probably it. You know, we, at the University of Florida, we expect to win championships. That’s why we're all here. And like I said, you know nobody's pleased with how it ended. All we can do now is learn from it, and continue to move forward so that’s, that's what we're trying to do. And obviously—what was the second part of the question?” As a defensive line coach what's the biggest concern for you right now? "Our biggest concern, I mean I don't know, just getting guys ready, depth. We got some numbers now and we're just still trying to figure out who can do what, who's best at what position. We got a couple of guys learning two positions and just trying to develop some, some consistency within the group across the board so that's about it." Todd talked about Kyree Campbell when he came back, he mentioned a couple times that he kind of changed your guy's defense. His presence made guys a lot more comfortable, could line up in different spots. I'm curious what you think he brings to the next level as well as TJ Slayton? I mean a guy that could do that I'm sure might be a bit of an underrated gem in the upcoming class. "Well, you know, hopefully those guys get an opportunity to get into camp and do what they can do. You know, we're really appreciate Kyree and what he did. I don't know if Kyree really ever felt 100% last year. He was banged up a little bit but, but he continued to go and get out there with his teammates and, and played well in spurts. And TJ, I thought was really starting to come along. And really appreciate what those guys, what those guys brought to the table. You know, both of those guys have played a lot of football and all and obviously getting Kyree back helped us going down, down the stretch when he came back and and being able to get him in and take some snaps off some of them younger guys. But we really appreciate what those guys did and how they approached their work. And obviously wish them the best at the next level.”

It’s been a year, since the world stopped. Since doors were closed, stands were emptied, restaurants were cleared. Since homes became offices and gyms and safe places. Since we saw our entire world pause, stutter and shift. As fall approached, sports powered forward, determined to patch together a season and in doing so, gave us all a modicum of comfort and normality. They saved us, as much as one can be saved during a global pandemic. Now a year later, with vaccination numbers rising while COVID-19 infection numbers drop, hope teases us. Teases us that soon life might return to how it was before. Except…it can never really be how it was before. Too many lives have been touched, lessons have been learned and conventions challenged for it to ever truly be how it was “before.” So here on this one year mark of the world global pandemic in a century, the Florida Gators football team coaches and players stop once again. But this time, to reflect; to recall what it was like the day sports stopped, how they made it through a season and what they’ll remember going forward. And this time, they’re able to actually do so during spring practice—a time they didn’t receive one year ago, this week. The Day It All Stopped COVID-19 began to infiltrate our country in the Pacific Northwest during the early part of the 2020 calendar. At the time, no one could have predicted how rapidly and deadly it would spread. But it was on March 11, 2020 that American truly saw the impact this virus would have, for that’s the day sports were snatched away. A day after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert had mocked the impending virus by touching every mic in a media availability, he tested positive. The NBA began to cancel games, within games. The first domino had fallen. The following day, March 12, the NCAA cancelled March Madness for the first time in it’s over 80-year history. On March 13, we found out the Gators were cancelling their spring practice, in line with SEC decisions. Spring sports at Ivy League schools followed, then baseball, the Masters and before we knew it, we were anxiously watching the fourth Harry Potter movie to catch some decent Quidditch action to quench our sports thirst. Oh, that was just me? This is what the ensuing months were like for the Gator players and coaches. Offensive Lineman Stewart Reese: “For me, we were on spring break. It was the week of my spring break when I was still at Mississippi State. I drove down from Starkville to Fort Pierce. Basically everything broke loose then. First they extended the spring break a week. Next thing, four months later, I’m here.” Offensive Line Coach John Hevesy: “no one knew what to do and how to handle it because no one’s ever been through it. It became a thing as a staff and everybody constantly communicating what we’re doing. I think at one point I said, hey we’re just going to do a little bit of a challenge. I put ‘em on Zoom or put ‘em on the text message and said, ‘Listen, send in a video of you jump roping. Let’s do a jump rope contest. Send your video in.’ I probably got seven text messages back, ‘Coach, I don’t have a jump rope.’ “I think Brett Heggie sent a video in of him with an extension cord as a jump rope. He said, ‘I couldn’t find anything.’ Like in life, find a way to adapt and get done what you got to get done. Again, you had guys with power chords, extension cords, anything they could do to find a chord.” Head Coach Dan Mullen: “When it first started you're stuck in your home, right? I mean, everybody, you know, we didn't know what to do. You sit in your house, okay, well, what, 'Hey, guys, what can you do in your house to keep your body in some sort of good physical condition?' “You have guys on our team that, you know, they're used to go, go, go, they're not, you know, kind of sit quietly in a room and work all day in a room. They're kind of more, you know, physical doers. And so, you know, just constantly trying to create different things to keep everybody in a positive direction mentally and physically.” Linebacker Coach Christian Robinson: “Normally, during a season, I'm trying to get ready for a game and during the spring we're trying to get ready for practice. So when you're not having to go and practice, you know, I just said 'I'm here for you guys.' We just sat around talking, and 'hey what'd you do today', talking about their lifts, talking about their families, everybody OK. “Last year was hard. I tell everybody. I will remember last season for so many things, and the people that you got to spend it with. And a lot of that was in quarantine because we're all in the house and we're all able to try to keep each other sane from afar and encourage each other.” Lessons Learned There were a lot of things COVID-19, quarantine and protocols taught us all. We learned how to pick the perfect Netflix show, how to entertain ourselves at home (so as to keep from killing our family), how to work from home whilst in pajama’s and goodness gracious, how important it is to wash our hands. The Gators learned a lot of lessons as well; not only about football, but about life. Playing a season at all was going to be difficult and require sacrifices. Playing an all-SEC season would also require fortitude unlike anything they’d ever been asked. It wasn’t easy. The Gators ended 8-4, had games rescheduled and was one of the programs forced to pause for three weeks after an outbreak put over 60 people in quarantine. Still, the lessons the Gators will be taking with them as we begin to live again outside of COVID-19 are what they’ll remember the most. Corner Kaiir Elam: “Coach Mullen told us that we’ve got to be resilient. You’ve got to be able to adjust on the fly and stuff like that. It was really different from my freshman year, but it is what it is. You’ve just got to adjust and make the best of your opportunities.” Robinson: “I saw myself, I need to be an encourager, to give them that, 'hey, we're gonna come out of this. We're gonna come out of this at some point and we gotta be prepared for everything that's on the table. Football, life...' and I really think my room - I felt my room improve in those dark times of quarantine.” Hevesy: “It teaches you to adapt to things. The big thing for us and our guys, COVID’s a negative thing. What’s a positive about this? Some guys get family, which you wouldn’t home with your family at this time, you’d be up here. Here’s your family time to use because it’s going to come back and we’re not going to have it. I think if anything, it was getting through to them and communicating to them.” Mullen: “I could sit here for hours, you could write a book on all the sacrifices that have been made by the players to get to do this, but you know, I will say, this is what guys, that's what we love to do. You know, I mean, that is what we love to do. “So I mean to sit here and…I’m not complaining or feeling sorry for us because we're getting to go do what we love to do, which is play football. Now, was it easy? No, it was extremely difficult. But is it worth all of that, those sacrifices you have to make and those challenges? Absolutely it is because we're getting to do what we love to do which is go play football.” Tight End Kemore Gamble: “We learned that if you want something you gotta risk something to get something.”