Once in a while something comes along that clicks because it just makes good sense. It’s gonna be a home run! But why does it feel like people in power are reluctant to step to the plate to take the swing? I’ve got one: Tim Tebow needs to become part of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Let’s start there and reverse engineer. Batter up! Just to be clear, this is not a new idea and it has failed several times before. Usually because Tebow, himself, has shot it down. And I get the reason – he was committed to his TV career, baseball and now his wife and family. Times are different now that baseball is out of the way and his former coach is the new czar of the Jaguars who can pretty much call his own shots. Before I launch the litany of the reasons why this needs to happen, stop right there! Quit telling me it’s a dead horse and that I should cease beating it! Indeed, it’s a Live Horse! And besides, I don’t believe in cruelty animals. Don’t give me reasons that it won’t work, or why you think that Tebow needs to be an assistant coach for Dan Mullen and help him recruit or become team chaplain instead. A lost cause? Maybe. Especially since Tim has never shown a propensity for believing the Thomas Wolfe aphorism, “You Can’t Go Home Again.” We all remember stories like the one from May 2012, how owner Shad Khan tried to make a deal with the Broncos, who had abandoned the Tebow Denver Love Story when John Elway came to town. I remember how so many people like me signed up for the NFL DirecTV package so I could watch every Bronco game. And on a personal note, Woody Paige and myself were making plans for a book: Tebow BD and AD (Before Denver, After Denver). And then we weren’t. The idea to bring the deposed Tebow back home was shopped. However, Khan concluded the deal for a third round pick would have to be made without Tim’s approval. “That would have been the worst thing for Jacksonville and the worse thing for him,” Khan told the Florida Times-Union. The following year, populist attorney John Morgan even ran an ad beckoning President Obama and others to “bring home the native son.” Realizing there is probably one chance in 1,000 of this ever happening, let me explain to you why will not give up on this quest. I am The Patron Saint of Lost Causes. Ask my friends. The other day I heard one of those Washington politicians we so love to hate say something downright inspirational: “I eat ‘NO!’ for breakfast!” Yeah and sometimes I dine on “No Way!” for lunch, followed by “You’ve got to be kidding!” for dinner, followed by “You’re nuts” for a snack. When everybody gives up and tells me I am wasting my time, that’s when I like to dig in even deeper. If and when I ever do enjoy a rare victory, it tastes even sweeter. Why Tebow? Why Jacksonville? Not just because his roots are “DUUUU-Vall” and he’s one of the cities indigenous people, or native sons. His coach needs him. (This is my take and not Urban’s). And, finally, it’s the right thing to do. This should have happened a long time ago when Tim first came on the market in the 2010 draft. Jacksonville had the No. 10 choice and could have traded down for more picks (no second available) and gotten Tebow plus the defensive end it coveted instead of using that for Cal DE Tyson Alualu. Instead, Tim became a Bronco. Full disclosure: Alualu has been a solid player for 11 seasons, his first seven with the Jags and last four for the Steelers. However, he wasn’t a transformative player or a franchise -maker. Could Tebow have done that? We’ll never know. Although I have not discussed Tebow as a Jag with Urban, over the years we have talked about his NFL career many times. Meyer has always been mystified why some NFL coach couldn’t capitalize on Tim’s inspirational leadership skills and secret recipe for winning. You did say, coach Meyer, that you wanted people who respected the Jaguar shield, wanted to be in Jacksonville and believed in rebuilding this thing from the bottom up. OK, Urb, the ball is in your court. I don’t suggest that you put Tim in the quarterback room with Trevor Lawrence, or even that Tebow play quarterback. Now that he’s quit baseball, however, my guess is that he’ll be craving some kind of competition. Why not give it a year as a player, maybe as an H-Back, Tim? Plus, the tight end today is becoming such an integral part of the offense – see Rob Gronkowski in Tampa Bay, Travis Kelce in Kansas City, etc. – and is often featured. Perhaps he could try H-Back in camp and see if it works for a year or two, somewhat in the fashion of Trey Burton, who once was a Gator QB and has enjoyed a successful career with the Eagles and now plays for the Colts. Certainly even at 33, with the body he’s built there are still a couple of years in it. He’d even make an excellent coach or coaching analyst but I doubt Tim is able to commit to the time. However, it leaves me wondering -- given that so much is being remotely these days during the Pandemic – why he couldn’t do the remote thing inseason and be a part of the draft, OTAs, etc. during the off-season. Finally, imagine the unity that could forged in the JaGator Nation? They could even bring the Head Ball Coach in for a spring visit! Hey, I’m a Happy Ending Guy. And the Patron Saint for Lost Causes won’t give up easily.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: WHAT WE’VE GOT HERE IS FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE That is one of the more memorable lines from movies in the 1960s, delivered in the movie “Cool Hand Luke” by The Captain, played brilliantly by Strother Martin. I thought about that line Thursday when the SEC announced it has scheduled seven makeup games on the final weekend of the season (March 6 and 7) with Mike White and the Gators facing Tennessee in the only game scheduled Sunday, March 7. You can bet the farm that if there are no games postponed between now and the final Florida-Tennessee game that the SEC will boast that six teams were able to play a full 18-game schedule of league games with another four playing 17. However true that may be, it’s still spin and it still amounts to bad communication and bad planning. Why didn’t the SEC schedule open dates throughout the season as a better way to handle a Covid-19 season that has seen Texas A&M unable to play a game since January 31 and Florida endure a 13-day layoff? It’s rather surprising that the SEC didn’t have contingency for multiple postponements, particularly since there was such a brilliant plan in place for football. During the football season, SEC commish Greg Sankey made sure every team had open dates in the middle of the season that allowed flexibility to re-arrange schedules and make up for postponed games. If that kind of plan worked so well for football then why wasn’t there a plan in place for basketball? While it’s true that the SEC played makeup games on December 12 and allowed for a couple more to be played December 19, the same day as the SEC Championship Game, that was all about fulfilling television contracts. The SEC managed to play 69 of its scheduled 70 games and every one was on television. So many basketball schedules have already been altered due to the virus and it is entirely possible there will be postponements between now and next weekend as well. Texas A&M’s Saturday game at Missouri has been cancelled. Is anyone confident the Aggies will play their Tuesday game with Mississippi State or their makeup game with Arkansas next Saturday? Bad communication. Bad planning. There is no other way to describe it. * * * The Gators (12-6, 8-5 SEC) can ensure they will finish the SEC regular season with a winning record Saturday at Kentucky (8-13, 7-7 SEC), a rather tall order considering the Wildcats have won three in a row and are playing their best basketball of the season. Earlier in the year, Kentucky came to the O-Dome where they dominated Florida 76-58. The Gators are coming off a 74-57 win over Auburn even though the shooting was rather poor (44.4% overall and 35% from the 3-point line. That will have to improve to beat Kentucky at Rupp. The last time the two teams met, the Wildcats held UF to a dismal 37.5% overall while holding leading scorer Tre Mann to seven points and Colin Castleton to six. The Gators need to win two of their final three games to all but ensure they will be in the NCAA Tournament field even before the SEC Tournament. That means winning at least one of the two road games (Tennessee is the other) while holding serve at the O-Dome, where Missouri visits Tuesday night. NCAA Net Rankings for all 14 SEC Teams: 9. Alabama; 16. Tennessee; 21. Arkansas; 27. FLORIDA; 29. LSU; 46. Missouri; 57. Ole Miss; 65. Kentucky; 78. Auburn; 81. Mississippi State; 83. Georgia; 125. Vanderbilt; 129. South Carolina; 137. Texas A&M KenPom.com rankings for all 14 SEC Teams: 10. Alabama; 17. Arkansas; 21. Tennessee; 27. FLORIDA; 29. LSU; 48. Kentucky; 50. Missouri; 52. Ole Miss; 65. Auburn; 66. Mississippi State; 80. Georgia; 104. South Carolina; 105. Vanderbilt; 130. Texas A&M Joe Lunardi (ESPN) seeding for SEC teams as of 2/23: 2. Alabama; 6. Arkansas; 6. Tennessee; 6. Arkansas; 6. Missouri; 7. LSU; 8. FLORIDA Jerry Palm (CBS) seeding for SEC teams as of 2/22: 2. Alabama; 4. Tennessee; 4. Missouri; 6. Arkansas; 7. Florida; 8. LSU SEC Saturday games FLORIDA (12-6, 8-5 SEC) at Kentucky (8-13, 7-7 SEC) #25 Tennessee (16-6, 9-6 SEC) at Auburn (11-13, 5-10 SEC) South Carolina (5-12, 3-10 SEC) at Georgia (14-9, 7-9 SEC) LSU (14-7, 9-5 SEC) at #20 Arkansas (18-5, 10-4 SEC) Ole Miss (13-9, 8-7 SEC) at Vanderbilt (6-13, 2-11 SEC) #6 Alabama (18-6, 13-2 SEC) at Mississippi State (13-11, 7-8 SEC) Texas A&M (8-7, 2-6 SEC) at #24 Missouri (14-7, 7-7 SEC) SEC Makeup Games March 6-7 Alabama at Georgia LSU at Missouri Mississippi State at Auburn Texas A&M at Arkansas South Carolina at Kentucky Vanderbilt at Ole Miss FLORIDA at Tennessee UF SPORTS WEEKEND Gymnastics: With a win against 18th-ranked Auburn at the O-Dome tonight, the No. 1 ranked Gators can clinch at least a share of their third consecutive Southeastern Conference championship. It will be Senior Night for Alyssa Bauman, Megan Skaggs and Jazmyn Foberg. Baseball: After a pair of midweek wins over North Florida, the 7th-ranked Gators (3-2) play host to Samford of the Southern Conference in a three-game set at the Florida Ballpark. In throttling UNF Wednesday night, the Gators got two homers and five RBI from center fielder Jud Fabian while left fielder Jacob Young extended his hitting streak to 23 games. Fabian’s hitting streak dates all the way back to the final game of the 2019 season and is within six of Tim Olsen’s school record 29-game streak. Tommy Mace (1-0, 1.80 ERA) is the scheduled starter tonight with Jack Leftwich (0-0, 3.60 ERA) set for Saturday and Hunter Barco (0-1, 16.20 ERA) finishing up on Sunday. Softball: The 6th-ranked Gators (9-0) got an 8-0 run-rule win over North Florida Thursday night as Natlie Lugo (2-0) and Rylee Trlicek combined to pitch a 2-hitter. Hannah Adams went 3-4 while Kendyl Lindaman smacked a pair of doubles and drove in two runs. Charla Echols, Julia Cottrill and Cheyenne Lindsey each had two hits. The Gators will play host to Louisville for single games Saturday and Sunday. McNeese State will also face the Gators Sunday. Men’s Swimming: Heading into the final day of the SEC Swimming Championships in Columbia, Missouri, the 5th-ranked Gators hold an 80-point lead over 2nd place Georgia and more than 200 points ahead of 3rdplace Tennessee. The Gators are trying to win their 9th consecutive SEC championship. Lacrosse: The Sunday match with 10th-ranked Loyola in Baltimore has been postponed due to Covid-19 protocols. The 5th-ranked Gators (1-1) will face Kennesaw State on the road Wednesday. Track and Field: The SEC Indoor Championships are under way in Fayetteville, Arkansas with the 7th-ranked Florida women in first place with 16 points and the 8th-ranked men in third place with 10. Volleyball: The 8th-ranked Gators (11-2) scored a straight-set win over Tennessee (6-5) Thursday afternoon in Knoxville. The Gators and Tennessee will square off again today at 1 p.m. Men’s Golf: The 11th-ranked Gators travel to Baton Rouge to participate in the LSU Invitational. Men’s Tennis: The 11th-ranked Gators (6-1, 2-0 SEC) are on the road this weekend. They’ll face LSU (8-2, 1-1 SEC) in Baton Rouge today and 10th-ranked Texas A&M (6-1, 2-0 SEC) Sunday. Women’s Tennis: The Gators (3-4, 1-1 SEC) are home this weekend to face 19th-ranked LSU (7-0, 2-0 SEC) on Friday and 22nd-ranked Texas A&M (8-2, 2-0 SEC) on Sunday. Soccer: It will be Senior Day at Donald Dizney Stadium for the Gators (3-7-1) when South Florida comes to town Saturday evening. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: In Alabama’s 81-66 loss to Arkansas Wednesday night, the Crimson Tide shot eight free throws, made three. Arkansas was 27-43. A 35-free throw deficit? On the road? Things that make me go hmmmm. Arkansas: Defensive coordinator Barry Odom got a contract extension through 2023 complete with a pay raise to $1.75 million, which makes him the highest paid coordinator in Arkansas history. Auburn: Former Auburn running back Mark-Antony Richards, who was a 4-star recruit out of high school, is transferring to UCF to play for Gus Malzahn. Georgia: The triple-double by point guard Sahvir Wheeler (14 points, 11 rebounds, 13 assists) in Georgia’s 91-78 win over LSU was the first in school history. Kentucky: Former Kentucky basketball star Randolph Morris has been indicted for income tax evasion for failing to report more than $13 million earned while playing professionally in China. LSU: The Advocate in Baton Rouge is reporting that former LSU coach Les Miles reached a hush-hush settlement with an intern over sexual harassment allegations. Miles denies he ever made any advances toward an intern and LSU says if it was a private arrangement then it has no knowledge of any such deals. Mississippi State: The Bulldogs (3-1) open the home portion of their baseball season this weekend when Tulane comes to town. Last weekend, MSU beat Big 12 powers Texas Tech and Texas while dropping a game to TCU. Missouri: Offensive tackle J’Marion Gooch, who was released from his Tennessee letter of intent last week, has committed to Missouri. Ole Miss: With wins over Big 12 powers, TCU, Texas Tech and Texas in the first three games of their baseball season, Ole Miss has taken over as the nation’s No. 1 team. The Rebels play host to UCF this weekend. South Carolina: As part of its settlement with the NCAA, South Carolina basketball has been placed on two years probation, fined $5,000 and had numerous restrictions placed on recruiting. Additionally, former assistant coach Lamont Evans, who figured prominently in the national college basketball scandal, was given a 10-year show cause. Head coach Frank Martin escaped any sanctions and the school avoided the dreaded lack of institutional control. Tennessee: In describing the process of hiring football coach Josh Heupel away from UCF on Duke basketball coach Mike Kryzyzewski’s Sirius XM radio show, Tennessee athletic director Danny White admitted he considered several coaches but said, “None of them were as good a fit for what this place needs right now as Josh Heupel.” Texas A&M: Texas A&M athletic director Russ Bjork told a Facebook Live Town Hall meeting that the Aggies are planning on playing football before capacity crowds at Kyle Field in the fall. Vanderbilt: New HBC Clark Lea has to deal with stud running back Keyon Henry-Brooks placing his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Brooks ran for 494 yards and caught passes for 258 in Vanderbilt’s winless 2020 season. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: It’s too late to do anything about it now, but I’m of the opinion that if the NCAA had a clue – it doesn’t, trust me – it would have canceled every conference tournament, doubled the number of teams participating in the Big Dance to 128, and given every team a week off before starting the madness. That makes sense to me since there will be teams making the tournament field that haven’t played much in the way of non-conference schedules and very few teams will win 20 games in the regular season. Double the field and that not only gives more teams a chance but also means another couple days of television exposure even though it only adds one more game to the total number needed to win the national championship. Instead of winning six games, the national champ would have to go 7-0 to be the last team standing. The problem with this theory is that it makes far too much sense and would require the NCAA for using its brain besides something to part its ears.

“Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose." – Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr Translated literally, that means the more things change, the more they continue to be the same. You’ve heard that all your life. So has Dan Mullen, whose success as a football coach has everything to do with change, yet every time Mullen seems to take a fork in the road less traveled, it’s nothing more than a variation of a well-played theme. Mullen is largely associated with the spread option that Urban Meyer brought to Florida from Utah in 2005. At the time it was considered so radical that a majority of critics said it would never work in the SEC. Not only did it work but it spawned the era of spread offenses run from the shotgun with dual threat quarterbacks that is so prevalent in today’s game. The spread option may have seemed brand new back then but it was nothing more than single wing on steroids with a bit of Bill Yeoman and Sid Gillman thrown in for good measure. It was a marriage of the power running game of the single wing in which there are more blockers than defenders, the run-pass option of Yeoman’s Houston Veer that got people into space on the edge and the sophistication of Gillman’s passing game in which the field is divided into sectors and seams that left uncovered receivers in space. These new versions of the spread option, when run properly and with a triggerman whose feet are as nimble as his arm is live, tend to make defensive coordinators often feel they have as much chance as Pharaoh’s armies had when Moses dropped his staff and the parted water walls of the Red Sea collapsed. The critical element in the spread option or any offense that incorporates the option into a sophisticated passing game is the dual threat QB. Tim Tebow was the perfect fit at Florida just as Cam Newton was ideal at Auburn and both led their teams to national championships. Both Tebow and Cam could run the power game, make the right decisions in the option and could make the throws necessary for a dynamic passing game. But how often do you come up with a Tebow or Cam Newton? They make things work that doesn’t work for your average QB so it’s either try to run the same stuff with less success or tweak away and adapt to the personnel on hand, which is what we’ve seen Mullen do throughout his career. Here are a few examples of how adapting on the fly have become part of Dan Mullen’s M.O, first at Florida as Meyer’s offensive coordinator, then at Mississippi State as the head coach and now as the head coach at Florida. 2005: An offense so stagnant in a heart-breaking loss to LSU that it brings Meyer to tears in his post-game press conference, is altered on the plane ride back to Gainesville and into the wee hours of Sunday morning at the Meyer compound at Haile Plantation. “Dan Mullen, Steve Addazio (offensive line coach) and I went to my house and made some changes to the offense the night after the LSU loss,” Meyer recalled. We added a fullback (Billy Latsko) and more physical run game – power and counter.” A season about to go south righted itself for a 9-3 finish that led to one of the great recruiting classes in history. 2006: Tebow arrives to give the Gators the power runner they lacked in 2005 to go with Leak’s ability to make pinpoint passes. Tebow throws just enough that defenses can’t load the box if he’s in the game and it’s more than two yards for a first down. The Odd Couple lead the Gators to the 2006 national championship. 2007: Leak has graduated and it’s Tebow Time in Gainesville. Instead of a midnight meeting between Meyer, Mullen and Addazio, it is as if Bob Neyland (single wing), Bill Yeoman (Houston Veer) and Sid Gillman (attacking the secondary with the passing game) agree to take the best elements of their offenses and spring the concoction on the world. The result is 35-6 record the next three years, a Heisman for Tebow in 2007 and a national championship in 2008. What makes the offense particularly devastating is the Percy Factor. Percy Harvin is the perfect hybrid, able to be the deep threat in the passing game and the home run threat as a runner whether it’s on jet sweeps, handoffs or option pitches. 2013-15: At Mississippi State it’s like Florida 2006 all over again. Mullen has the live-armed passer he needs in Tyler Russell, but he’s immobile. The transition begins to Dak Prescott, who can pick up big chunks of yardage on the option or scrambles and can make all the throws. In 2014, Prescott throws for 27 TDs, runs for 14 and for four weeks the Bulldogs hold down the No. 1 ranking in the country. Prescott throws for 29 and runs for 10 in 2015. 2016-17: Prescott has gone to the Dallas Cowboys, leaving behind Nick Fitzgerald, whose best two offers out of high school other than Mississippi State were Mercer and Samford. Fitzgerald is a power runner who makes good decisions on the option and an adequate thrower. In 2016 he throws for 2,324 yards and 21 touchdowns, runs for 1,375 and 16 TDs. The numbers drop off in 2017 because of an inexperienced offensive line but before he breaks his ankle Fitzgerald throws for 15 TDs and runs for 14 more. 2018: When Feleipe Franks finally figures it all out and starts playing like he’s been coached, he leads Florida to four straight wins including a hammering of Michigan in the Peach Bowl. Franks transitions from a scatter-armed QB who drives coaches crazy with his inconsistency into one who puts up the best quarterback numbers at UF (2,457 passing yards and 24 touchdowns, 350 rushing yards, 7 touchdowns) since Tebow’s final year of 2009. 2019-20: When Franks breaks and dislocates his ankle at the end of the third quarter in game three against Kentucky, Mullen adjusts the offense on the fly during the game. Trask lacks Franks’ mobility but Franks can’t throw like Trask. From that moment forward the offense transitions from one with a dual threat QB into the Gators will start throwing as soon as the bus taking them to the stadium comes to a complete stop. In two years, the QB who hadn’t started a game since 9th grade throws for 7,224 yards and 69 touchdowns and becomes a Heisman finalist after a 4,283-yard season with 43 touchdowns in 2020. The key word in this exercise is adjust and with Mullen the adjustments are always personnel driven. What has earned him the offensive genius label is his ability to assess his personnel and do what they do best, but it all starts with the quarterback. With Trask and his ability to fit a football with astonishing accuracy into the tightest of windows gone to the NFL, the Gators will transmogrify into an offense that will resemble the one Mullen ran in the Tebow years in many respects but may take on more characteristics of Bill Yeoman’s Houston Veer of 1969. In 1969, Houston averaged 196.8 passing yards and 317 rushing yards per game. The numbers would have been better if Yeoman had a better passer to take advantage of dynamic wide receiver Elmo Wright, who invented the touchdown dance at Florida Field that year. The offense was designed to create one-on-one opportunities for receivers because the quarterback was a dynamic runner who could tuck and run or pitch on the option, taking the safeties out of the equation by forcing them to play the run. The same concepts will apply to the 2021 Gators with Emory Jones (92-514 career rushing for 6 TDs; 55-86 passing for 613 yards, 7 TDs and only 1 interception) taking over at QB backed up by second-year freshman Anthony Richardson. They offer fleet feet and elusiveness in the running game that was missing with Trask but they will also have a deep, talented stable of weapons to work with both in the passing and running game. The 2021 season is likely to afford Mullen more possibilities with his play calling since he arrived back in 2017. “You know we have the flexibility to go throw for 400-yards a game like last year,” Mullen said. “We have the flexibility to go back and be 50-50 balanced. We can be a run ball control team and control the clock. We can be up-tempo or slow tempo, whatever is going to fit the program or team as a whole within the framework of our offense and then we just kind of like evaluate this spring, throw a bunch of stuff, there will be some varied, some things that we did last year we won’t do as much this year and some things that we didn’t do last year that will be thrown into the offense for what we think off of the strengths of our players right now.” Jones and Richardson can run, for sure, but we haven’t seen enough in their body of work to indicate that either one can fit the football into small windows when they throw but, like Tebow, they are such threats to make big plays with their legs that they may not have to throw lasers to create big gainers. Tebow completed 66.4 percent of his passes during his Florida career but the numbers hide the fact that he didn’t have to make many throws to well covered receivers. Instead of the three-foot window that Trask showed he can consistently place the football, Tebow had much more wiggle room and that was because he could take off running once he got outside the pocket. The receivers were open and big plays were there to be made since the threat of the run kept safeties occupied so they couldn’t offer over-the-top help. Florida receivers had cushions that Tebow never saw when he tried to make it in the NFL. In the NFL the secondaries are so good that ball has to be delivered on time and with little room for error, unlike the sometimes five and six-foot cushions Florida receivers enjoyed in those days. Mullen has seen enough of Jones and Richardson in practice to say they both have “cannon arms” but Mullen probably isn’t going to call plays for them to make throws against tighter coverage. Instead, he will try to get them outside the pocket where they can have the run-pass option that will create wider windows in which to fit the football if they elect to throw. “I think we saw even a couple glimpses of it in the bowl game, that the field’s spread out and someone loses a rush lane,” Mullen said. “That turns into a 20-30-40-yard play with those guys on the field. With Kyle, it might not have been. They bring a very different skillset to the table. “So ours is to kind of manipulate around the strengths of what those guys are going to do well within quarterback runs, zone reads, the ability for them to scramble and improvise and even have to be more complex in the pass game because you’re multi-dimensional because some of the threats they pose to the defense.” Their skillset combined with those of the deepest stable of running backs the Gators have had since the Tebow years will change the way Mullen calls the offense but it might be every bit as explosive as it was the last two years when the play calls leaned so heavily on the pass. From the moment spring practice began, there has been emphasis on running the option to take advantage of Dameon Pierce (1,232 career rushing yards, 10 touchdowns; 26 catches for 206 yards, 2 TDs); Clemson transfer Demarkcus Bowman, who brings the most explosive element to the running game since the days of Percy; Nay’Quan Wright (54-213 rushing, 2 TDs in 2020; 19-219 receiving); Malik Davis (983 career rushing yards, 3 TDs; 47-509 receiving); and former 5-star recruit Lorenzo Lingard, who battled Covid-19 and a high ankle sprain after transferring from Miami in 2020. What the Gators are running out of a shotgun is being called the Power Veer, but with so many running backs, Mullen is likely to use one in the slot to provide a Percy factor that will create havoc with opposing defensive coordinators. Wright and Davis, for example, are proven pass catchers and both have a make-you-miss element when they are in open space. Lingard has track speed when healthy. All three may see time in the slot as Mullen forces defenses to deal with backs who can catch the ball whether out of the backfield or in the slot, run jet sweeps or shift into the backfield for that true two-back veer look. Another option in the slot may be Jacob Copeland (45-724 receiving, 5 TDs; 5-45 rushing). That would put Xzavier Henderson (9-148, 1 TD receiving in 2020), Justin Shorter (25-268, 3 TDs), Trent Whittemore (10-128, 1 TD) and Rick Wells (12-120) on the outside. Expectations are so high for tight end Arik Gilbert (35-368, 2 TDs at LSU as a true freshman in 2020), who has Kyle Pitts-like ability. Kemore Gamble (10-160, 3 TDs in 2020) and Keon Zipperer (11-145, 2 TDs) will be on the field a lot as will true freshman Nick Elksnis, another long, lanky freaky athlete. There is no lack of weapons for Jones and Richardson to work with. Although the Gators are losing Trask, Pitts and wide receivers Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes to the NFL, the talent drop off is not going to be all that significant thanks to good recruiting, both in the traditional vein of bringing in high school kids or mining the transfer portal. Mullen has the Gators in a strong, next man up mode that bodes well for 2021 as well as the future. The offensive scheme is going to change in 2021 out of necessity. Instead of a wide-open throw first passing game that looks straight out of the Kansas City Chiefs playbook, Mullen is going to go with something that looks like it could have been developed by Bill Yeoman back in the 1960s at the University of Houston. What the 2021 personnel can do is going to determine how game plans are developed and what plays are called. It was, is and will always be about the players as we’ve seen from the time Mullen broke onto the scene as Meyer’s quarterbacks coach at Bowling Green back in 2001-02. It was at Bowling Green that Mullen transformed a 245-pound tailback named Josh Harris into a dual threat quarterback who terrorized defenses in the Mid-America Conference. In the years since, talent comes and talent goes. Consistency is always based on the ability to make changes, sometimes on the spot as in 2019 at Kentucky when Franks went down and Mullen plugged in Trask, who led the Gators to 19 straight fourth quarter points to snatch a win from almost certain defeat. Schemes can change. Schemes can be tweaked and like at Kentucky in 2019, they are adjusted without warning on a moment’s notice. Whatever the circumstance, success always comes down to the ability to adapt to the skills of the available talent. That is exactly what the Gators will be doing in 2021. “We’re going to adapt to the strengths of our players,” Mullen said. “We're going to adapt to our guys and what they do well and put the guys in position to do well.” In the immortal words of Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, the more things change the more they continue to be the same.

Do you know what makes a unicorn special? They are rare. Even in fiction, the only place they truly exist, unicorns are scarce and therefore all the more magical when they do appear. Kyle Pitts was a unicorn. Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen never shied away from declaring him so. “He’s kind of a unicorn, right,” Mullen pondered of Pitts back in September. “So unless you have a unicorn on defense to match the unicorn on offense…” No one had a unicorn on defense to match Pitts. It’s what’s going to make him a NFL first-round selection in April, what won him the 2020 Mackey Award as the nation’s best tight end and what earned him votes as a Top 10 Heisman Trophy finalist. Now Gators tight end coach Tim Brewster has a unit of guys that want to replicate the best tight end play in Florida history. "Everybody took so much excitement in watching the way that Pitts played. Now everybody wants to be like Pitts. It’s not be like Mike. It’s be like Kyle,” remarked Brewster. “It’s just – we had an amazing year together. And he not only rubbed off on the room, but he rubbed off on the team. And I think everybody celebrated his accomplishments. It was a really special year with him.” So how do you replicate something truly unique and special? How do you find another unicorn? Well, you don’t. You teach them how to be a world class horse and go from there. "It’s not fair for anybody to try to be Kyle Pitts. He’s generational. He’s just absolutely different in his skill sets and the things that he can do,” admitted Brewster. “I take Kemore Gamble and I say, ‘Let’s extenuate the things that you do. Let’s not try to be Kyle. Let’s not do the things Kyle did. But let’s be the best version of you that you possibly can be and let’s look at the areas that you need to improve and let’s work on them. That’s what makes spring ball so special. “You’re out there and it’s all about fundamentals and player development and making guys better and when you see guys improving, it’s so exciting. Really from Day 1 to today, Day 4, I’ve seen all these guys making great improvement.” The guys that are here in Pitts wake but now follow in the footsteps of an All-American but with their own unique step. So what are they bringing to the table? Starting with the eldest, Kemore Gamble (10 receptions, 160 yards, three touchdowns): “I think Kemore Gamble has really stepped up. I think he’s gotten stronger. He’s being more competitive. He needed to improve in the run game, but he’s really showing that he can be a complete player, as well.” Then the Lakeland product, Keon Zipperer (11 receptions, 145 yards, two touchdowns): “Keon Zipperer’s really stepping up and showing more athleticism. I challenged him to be more athletic on the field and make plays in the running game. He’s extremely strong in the run game, but I want him to be more athletic. In this offense, we want the tight end to really be dynamic —truly be dynamic. And he’s stepping up.” The young gun, Jonathan Odom: “Really excited about Odom. Odom has done a nice job. He’s gotten bigger, he’s gotten stronger.” And then the Jacksonville freshman, who Brewster can’t say enough about: “Nick Elksnis has come in and today [Wednesday] was the fourth day. I couldn’t be more excited about a young guy than I am. Both him and Odom are going to be outstanding young tight ends as they grow into this program…I really like my guy. I like Nick Elksnis. I think the kid’s 6-foot-6, he’s 235 pounds, he’s a big, strong, physical guy, caught a couple of balls for touchdowns [Wednesday] against the defense. He’s got a maturity about him.” While each guy is going to bring a different aspect to the unit—and likely none matching Pitts deadly combination of speed and strength—there are some things about Kyle Pitts that are applicable to those who learned alongside him. “Kyle Pitts was an amazing teammate, you know? He shared with his – he tried to help others get better, shared his knowledge. It wasn’t about him. It was about the team…I think his development as a run blocker from his second year to his third year, I think was very noticeable.” So how do you replicate something truly unique and special? How do you find another unicorn? Well, you don’t. You teach them how to be a world class horse and go from there. “Everybody’s worried about us losing Kyle Pitts, and we’re certainly going to miss Kyle and everything he brought to it. But I think these other guys are really going to do some great things next season. “Kyle is a once-in-a-lifetime guy. He really is and he’s the prototype. Now, in recruiting, you have to judge everything off of Kyle Pitts. You want to go get the next Kyle Pitts and he may not be out there. But maybe if you can get a similar replica, that’ll work pretty good.”

Tim Walton won his 800th win as the head coach of the Florida Gators softball program last Saturday. In the second day of Florida’s Bubly Invitational, the Gators notched two wins in their doubleheader against Georgia Southern and Charlotte. However, the Gators didn’t win either of the games handedly. No. 6-ranked Florida found itself in a one-run deficit to the Georgia Southern Eagles heading into the final inning. The Gators struggled to find offensive rhythm against Georgia Southern sophomore righty Kyleigh Richardson before finally piecing together a 2-1 walk-off win behind Charla Echols’ two-RBI hit. And though the Gators picked up the pace in Saturday’s second game with a 5-2 win over Charlotte, Florida’s performance fell well short of what the sixth best team in the country is capable of. And Walton took notice. When asked about reaching the 800 milestone, joining Florida volleyball’s Mary Wise in the lofty 800 club, Walton was quick to offer his gratitude and fond reflections of his time at Florida. “Anytime you can be mentioned with coach Mary Wise on any achievement at the University of Florida it just talks about a sustained success,” Walton said. “I give all the credit to all of our players.” But when jokingly asked if win No. 800 aged him, he was just as quick to brush off his 800th win. “The way we played today makes me feel old,” Walton sighed. “We didn’t play very well and I’m not very happy with that. But yeah, overall 800 wins here at the University of Florida is a lot of wins.” And that’s called balance. And most aspects of life require balance – especially softball. And no one understands that more than Tim Walton. Back when Kelly Barnhill and Amanda Lorenz led the Gators’ program, there wasn’t a tandem in college softball more balanced that Barnhill and Lorenz. Barnhill’s defensive execution and Lorenz’s abilities at the plate countered each other perfectly. As did the reserved emotions from Florida’s leader in strikeouts and the intensity that the now-volunteer assistant coach put on display. But that type of balance isn’t found often – simply because those type of players aren’t found often. But balance still exists within Tim Walton’s softball program. Now, it just happens to be the perfect balance of old and new... young and old. When the NCAA canceled the remainder of the 2020 softball season, there were countless hard conversations to be had. But perhaps none harder than telling seniors that their career was over, or telling high school recruits that their roster spot was no longer available. Tim Walton had to have those conversations. And in Tim Walton fashion, it seems he found the right balance. While Jaimie Hoover, Kendyl Lindaman and Katie Chronister returned for their fifth year in the Orange and Blue, seniors Jordan Roberts, Jade Caraway and Sophia Reynoso elected to hang up their cleats. The departure of Roberts, Caraway, Reynoso and a handful of outbound transfers paved the way for five freshmen to join the program in the offseason, four of which appeared in games over the weekend, with two rookie Gators getting starts. The return of southpaw pitcher Katie Chronister was surprising. A native of Gainesville, Chronister has been hidden in the shadows through much of her college career. Albeit, Barnhill was on the roster for the first three years of Chronister’s career. In 2019, the last full season Florida softball had, Chronister had just 14 appearances in relief for the Gators. However, on Sunday afternoon, the hometown pitcher went the distance in a seven-inning complete game for the first time in her career. The lefty’s six strikeouts were also a career high as she and the Gators’ field pitched a 4-0 shutout to the Charlotte 49ers. “Every player has some ups and downs, but I thought the biggest turn with Katie was that her velocity is up, her location is better, her walks are down, which ultimately indicates her level of success that she’s had not only this year but last year as well. Huge strides.” In the second game of Sunday’s slate, junior Elizabeth Hightower was an eyelash away from hurling a perfect game against the Georgia Southern Eagles. The Eagles spoiled Hightower’s perfect game with a one-out walk in the fifth inning, followed by the day’s first hit on the right-handed pitcher. "I think both Katie and Elizabeth made great strides,” Walton said. “For our team to be one of those teams that’s standing in the end, we’re going to have to do a really good job of continually pitching well like we did this week.” Meanwhile, to counter the Gators’ success from their elder members, a number of Florida’s rookies also stood out during the weekend’s action. Despite expressing concerns earlier in the season about the Gators’ youth at shortstop, freshman Kali Reis fielded an impressive game, in addition to sitting down a sacrifice bunt in the seventh inning to move the tying run into scoring position against Georgia Southern and avoid an upset on Saturday. Fellow first-year Emily Wilkie started the first game of her career during Saturday’s action. The Cummings, Georgia native notched her first hit in a Gators uniform during the start and did so in convincing fashion. With a three-run home run in first inning, Wilkie helped bust the game against Charlotte wide open. “I think this team is a good team,” Walton said following the Gators’ 5-0 weekend. “You hope that you build a lineup of players that don’t all have the same strengths, that don’t all have the same weaknesses. I think we have that... For us to go from a good team to a great team, I think we’re going have to learn how to deal with our at-bats a little better.”

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: BLOWOUT OF AUBURN SOLIDIFIES FLORIDA’S POSITION IN SEC With their 74-57 blowout road win over Auburn (11-13, 5-10 SEC) Tuesday night, Florida (12-6, 8-5 SEC) remained in the hunt for a one of the top four seeds at the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Nashville. While Florida was getting its second straight win, LSU was blown out by Georgia in Athens and Missouri suffered its seventh league loss at the hands of Ole Miss. While Alabama winning the SEC championship is a foregone conclusion, the Gators actually have a legitimate chance to finish second if they can win their final regular season games at Kentucky and home against Missouri. Arkansas will face Alabama tonight and if the Razorbacks lose, that will create a three-way logjam with LSU and Florida at five SEC losses. Arkansas has games remaining with LSU at home and a pesky South Carolina team that plays very well at home. LSU plays Arkansas in Fayetteville and closes out with Vanderbilt. The Gators and LSU have a one-game lead in the loss column over Tennessee. In beating Auburn, which was playing without leading scorer Sharife Cooper, the Gators put together one of their best halves of basketball all season when they raced out to a 44-22 lead. The Gators shot 50% overall and from the three-point line plus their press forced 13 Auburn turnovers which were converted into 13 points. The Gators had difficulty with Auburn’s press to start the second half, when the Tigers closed the gap to 48-33 with 13:49 remaining thanks to four UF turnovers and too much reliance on the three-ball. The Gators figured out how to beat the Auburn press, which allowed them to stretch the lead back to 24 (66-42) with 5:43 to go. Then came one of those game-ending funks which saw Auburn finish the game on a 15-8 run. Tre Mann, who scored 16 points in the first half, finished the game with 19 to go with a career-high 13 rebounds plus three assists and two steals. Scottie Lewis, who scored 14 in the half, finished the game with 16 points, one rebound and five steals. The performance from Lewis was an unexpected lift. Coming into the game, Lewis had scored 16 points in his previous four games. “Scottie Lewis, I thought had arguably his best game of the year,” Florida coach Mike White said. “I don’t have all the box scores in front of me, but he was really good. I thought his energy was fantastic, five steals, got some tips, was pretty sound defensively, you know, made some improvements, played with some maturity, made some shots. I thought he was really good.” For the game, the Gators hit 28-63 from the field overall (44%) and 7-20 (35%) on three-pointers. The Gators scored 19 points off Auburn’s 21 turnovers and had a 40-20 margin on points in the paint. The Gators held Auburn to a dismal 7-31 shooting night (22.6%) from the three-point line and 35% (18-51) overall. Tuesday SEC scores FLORIDA (12-6, 8-5 SEC) 74, Auburn (11-13, 5-10 SEC) 57 Georgia (14-9, 7-9 SEC) 91, LSU (14-7, 9-5 SEC) 78 Ole Miss (13-9, 8-7 SEC) 60, #24 Missouri 14-7, 7-7 SEC) 53 Wednesday SEC games #6 Alabama (18-5, 13-1 SEC) at #20 Arkansas (17-5, 9-4 SEC) #25 Tennessee (15-6, 8-6 SEC) at Vanderbilt (6-12, 2-10 SEC) South Carolina (5-11, 3-9 SEC) at Mississippi State (12-11, 6-8 SEC) THE OFFENSE TRANSFORMS TO TEBOW, PART DEUX Kyle Trask was proof positive that Dan Mullen knows how to adjust his offense on the fly. From the moment Feleipe Franks went down with a season-ending injury in game three against Kentucky in 2019, Dan Mullen shifted from a run-pass option attack that took advantage of Franks’ ability to run the ball to a throw it from the time the Gators get off a moving bus attack with Kyle Trask taking the snaps. In 2019, Trask delivered the best passing numbers of any Florida QB since Tim Tebow in 2008 and he followed that up in 2020 by setting a number of UF passing records that might stand for years to come. Now that Trask is gone to the NFL it’s not exactly a state secret that Mullen will need to transform the offense once again, this time to an attack that will most likely resemble the Florida offenses he used to call for Tebow and at Mississippi State for Dak Prescott and Nick Fitzgerald to take advantage of the mobility of quarterbacks Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson. Jones and Richardson both have the quick feet that Trask didn’t have so the QB running threat and option will come back into play. It doesn’t take a rocket surgeon or a brain scientist to figure that with the Gators five deep at running back and a likely 1-2 punch of fourth-year junior Dameon Pierce and Clemson transfer Demarkcus Bowman, there will be far more emphasis on the running game than we’ve seen in the Mullen era. The running back position is so deep that it’s not unthinkable for Mullen to put Nay’Quan Wright, Malik Davis and Lorenzo Lingard in the slot to force the same kind of matchup problems he had back when he had Tebow at QB, either Jeff Demps or Chris Rainey at RB and Percy Harvin as the dual threat runner-receiver in the slot. Tebow didn’t have the kind of pinpoint accuracy that we got used to seeing with Trask, who could fit the ball into tight windows with astonishing consistency. Tebow didn’t have to throw laser beams, however. The threat of him taking off, Percy shifting into the backfield or running jet sweeps, and Demps and Rainey in space on the option created room for receivers to roam free. Tebow only had to get the ball reasonably close. There isn’t enough in their limited bodies of work to indicate that either Jones or Richardson can throw the ball nearly as well as Trask, but if, as expected, Dan Mullen reverts to a Tebow, Part Deux offense, they won’t have to. The Gators won’t lack for downfield threats in the passing game who will get a lot of single coverage due to the threat of a running QB, jet sweeps or option pitches to running backs. There could very well be every bit as much explosion in the passing game even with more emphasis on the run. If you think the offense is going to take a big step backward, think again. UF BASEBALL AND OTHER SPRING SPORTS Bullpen issues had everything to do with the Gators losing the final two games of the Miami series and their drop from No. 1 to 3rd in the College Baseball Poll and 7th in three others. Bullpen issues resurfaced Tuesday night at North Florida but not enough to derail the Gators (2-2), who held on to a 9-6 win over the Ospreys. The Gators were cruising along with a 9-3 lead in the bottom of the ninth when Ben Specht, working his fourth inning in relief, found the going a bit shaky. With one out, Specht gave up a single, a triple and a two-run homer back-to-back-to-back. He got the second out on a fly ball to center field but gave up his fourth hit of the inning before a final out fly ball to center field. It’s early in the season but the bullpen issues are something that has to be resolved well before the Southeastern Conference portion of the schedule kicks in. Offensively Tuesday night, the Gators were led by freshman Colby Halter, who went 3-5 with a triple and four RBI. Jacob Young also had three hits as he extended his hitting streak to 22 games dating all the way back to the final game of the 2019 season. Jud Fabian, who struggled against Miami, had a pair of singles for his first multi-hit game of the young season. The Gators will return to Florida Ballpark tonight (6 p.m.) to face the Ospreys once again. Women’s golf: The 16th-ranked Gators and Ole Miss finished in a tie for the championship of the VyStar Invitational. Gymnastics: The Gators continue to hold down the No. 1 ranking. The Gators will play host to 18th-ranked Auburn Friday night at the O-Dome. Men’s Swimming: After one day at the SEC Championships, the 5th-ranked Gators are in 5th place. UF is going for its 9th straight SEC championship. Softball: The Gators (8-0) remained 5th in the ESPN/USA Softball poll and 6th in the USA Today Coaches poll. Next up for the Gators is a Thursday matchup with North Florida at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Lacrosse: Despite a loss to No. 1 North Carolina last weekend, the Gators (1-1) moved up to 5th in the latest Maverik Division I poll. The Gators will face 10th-ranked Loyola in Baltimore on Sunday. Volleyball: The Gators remain 8th in the AVCA poll. Next up for UF (10-2) is a Thursday encounter in Knoxville with Tennessee (6-4). Women’s Basketball: Jordyn Merritt was selected SEC Freshman of the Week. The Gators (10-11, 3-10 SEC) are idle until Sunday when they host 17th-ranked Georgia. WILL THE ACCIDENT BE A CAREER-ENDER FOR TIGER WOODS? Through all the back surgeries (five) and knee procedures (many), Tiger Woods has put together enough brilliant rounds of golf to lend hope to those who wish to see him close out his career in style. With 15 majors – most recently the 2019 Masters – and 82 career wins on the PGA Tour, Tiger has put together a career only surpassed by Jack Nicklaus. But Jack never had to deal with all the injuries and he never had an auto accident the likes of which Tiger had Tuesday morning when his car rolled over several times on its way to a 700-foot descent down a canyon in Southern California. It took the jaws-of-life to remove him from his SUV and take him to the closest hospital where he underwent surgery to repair multiple leg injuries. He was listed in serious condition Tuesday night. The latest injuries might pose an insurmountable obstacle in Tiger’s determined effort to play golf at the highest levels once again. The accident might very well have undone all the repair work from his recent back surgery and there will certainly be a prolonged rehab from the surgery on his legs. He is 45 years old and his body certainly isn’t going to heal as quickly as it might have 10-15 years ago. Of course, everyone thought Tiger’s career was essentially over in 2019 when he stunned the world with a brilliant win in Augusta. This latest setback, however, seems much worse than any of the previous injuries and surgeries. This might not end his career completely, but it’s hard to imagine that he’s ever going to compete and win again on golf’s biggest stages. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Big 12 announced Tuesday that it will try to play 12 makeup games next week with 2nd-ranked Baylor, 7th-ranked Oklahoma, 10th-ranked West Virginia, 14th-ranked Texas and 18th-ranked Texas Tech all playing three times. I’ve been waiting three weeks for some sort of announcement from SEC commissioner Greg Sankey regarding makeup games but the silence from the league office has been deafening. Perhaps there is a plan in place that hasn’t been announced or that Sankey is willing to let things play out since there is an open Saturday on March 6 that could be used for games that could affect seedings for the SEC Tournament. Still, it’s strange that a commissioner who was so pro-active with football scheduling that the league got in 69 of 70 scheduled games hasn’t seen fit to announce anything regarding basketball.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: QUOTES FROM FLORIDA FOOTBALL SPRING PRACTICE Trey Dean: “If people think Emory Jones cannot throw the ball, they need to second guess it. Emory Jones can throw the ball as well as Kyle Trask. I think he can do everything with his legs also. I think he’ll be a great dual-threat and I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people.” Dameon Pierce: “If you can't protect the ball, can't protect the quarterback, you're not going to play. So, if we're out there we must have those two things down. That's what we're working with these young guys right now, it's their first year in the offense, we're trying to make sure everybody good. We're starting from square one, even me being an older guy, I'm still starting from square one. There's still room to improve and we're just trying to translate to the younger guys. Just make sure that you're ready when your number called because it will be called eventually.” Mohamoud Diabate: "Playing inside linebacker there’s a lot more thinking. It’s a lot more of a mental game. You have to realize a lot of things. You have to look at formations. That’s something that I never had to do at outside linebacker. Just being able to diagnose formations, playing in space, playing outside linebacker you’re just going straight, rushing, rushing. Being able to drop, be patient, flip your hips, stuff like that I feel like was the biggest learning curve and I’ll say that I’m still learning to this day. I feel like I get better and better every day because I have a great linebacker coach, great defensive coordinator, great head coach, so we’re going to get it done." Emory Jones: "The offense, it's not going to change a lot. We still run the same things, it's just different outlets. And right now, just being able to use all our resources and just take advantage of everything the defense gives us. My athletic ability, I feel like I can do a lot of things on the field and it’s just a lot for the defense to deal with.” TO BEAT AUBURN, GATORS MUST NEUTRALIZE SHARIFE COOPER It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what it takes to beat the Auburn Tigers (11-12, 5-9 SEC). If you can neutralize point guard Sharife Cooper (20.2 points, 4.3 rebounds, 8.1 assists) you’ve got a pretty good shot at beating the Tigers. If you can’t contain him, he can do serious damage, particularly to a road team like the Florida Gators (11-6, 7-5 SEC), who desperately need to leave Auburn Arena with a win tonight (7 p.m., ESPN). In the open court, Cooper is an absolute blur who can beat full court pressure all by himself where he either finishes at the rim or gets the ball to a teammate for an easy shot. The teams that have had the most success against the Tigers have taken away Cooper’s driving lanes and forced him to take shots from the outside. He’s hitting only 39.1% overall and just 22.8% from the three-point line. The Gators need to have a better game stopping Cooper than they did stopping Georgia’s ultra-quick point guard Sahvir Wheeler, who went off for 27 Saturday at the O-Dome. Wheeler did most of his damage off the bounce as the Gators seemed to lack the necessary quickness to cut him off. They’ll need a better defensive effort against Cooper. Offensively, Florida needs better productivity from the three-point line. In the last two games, the Gators are a dismal 10-44 (22.7%). Tre Mann and Noah Locke are a combined 6-23 from the three-point line the last two games. When they are hitting their shots, it opens the middle of the floor for Colin Castleton, who is coming off a 14-point, 7-rebound, 3-blocked shots game in the win over Georgia. The Gators are in fourth place in the SEC standings, a game ahead of Tennessee and Missouri in the loss column. A win not only keeps the Gators in line for the first round by in the SEC Tournament but also keeps then solidly in all the NCAA Tournament bracket projections. Winning tonight is a necessity and stopping Cooper is how the Gators can pull it off. Tuesday SEC games FLORIDA (11-6, 7-5 SEC) at Auburn (11-12, 5-9 SEC) LSU (14-6, 9-4 SEC) at Georgia (13-9, 6-9 SEC) Ole Miss (12-9, 7-7 SEC) at #24 Missouri (14-6, 7-6 SEC) Texas A&M (8-7, 2-6 SEC) at Kentucky (8-13, 7-7 SEC), POSTPONED Wednesday SEC games South Carolina (5-11, 3-9 SEC) at Mississippi State (12-11, 6-8 SEC) #6 Alabama (18-5, 13-1 SEC) at #20 Arkansas (17-5, 9-4 SEC) #25 Tennessee (15-6, 8-6 SEC) at Vanderbilt (6-12, 2-10 SEC) WHERE SEC TEAMS STAND WITH THE NCAA TOURNAMENT Alabama (18-5, 13-1 SEC): Not only is Alabama a mortal lock to win the SEC and make the NCAA Tournament but there is a legitimate chance the Crimson Tide elbows its way onto the one line. Right now, Bama is ranked 6th in the AP, 7th in the Coaches, 8th in the NCAA Net Rankings and 8th at KenPom.com. Both Joe Lunardi of ESPN and Jerry Palm of CBS have Alabama on the two line in their brackets. Remaining games: at Arkansas, at Mississippi State, Auburn. Arkansas (17-5, 9-4 SEC): Arkansas is whatever is next after a mortal lock. With wins in the next two games they could move up to the four line in the brackets. Currently, the Hogs are 20th in both the AP and Coaches polls, 26th in the NCAA Net Rankings and 24th at KenPom.com. Joe Lunardi has the Hogs on the seven line while Jerry Palm has them as a six. Remaining games: Alabama, LSU, at South Carolina. Auburn (11-12, 5-9 SEC): The only way Auburn sniffs the NCAA is to win the SEC Tournament. The Tigers are 71st in the NCAA Net Rankings and 64th at KenPom.com. Remaining games: Florida, Tennessee, at Alabama. FLORIDA (11-6, 7-5 SEC): The Gators are your basic head scratcher. If they win two out of their three remaining games, they probably get in without winning any games in Nashville. If they win all three, they are in for sure. Win one out of the three and they may have to win twice at the SEC Tournament. The Gators are 29th in the NCAA Net Rankings and 32nd at KenPom.com. Both Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm have the Gators on the seven line. Remaining games: at Auburn, at Kentucky, Missouri. Georgia (13-9, 6-9 SEC): In an ordinary year, the Bulldogs would be zeroing in on an NIT bid, but since the NIT is only taking 16 teams, the Bulldogs are doubtful. To get in the NCAA Tournament they will have to win the SEC Tournament, which means winning four straight in Nashville. Georgia is 91st in the NCAA Net Rankings, 85th at KenPom.com. Remaining games: LSU, South Carolina. Kentucky (8-13, 7-7 SEC): The Wildcats will have to win the SEC Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament, but they have enough talent to win four straight games. They’ve won their last three and are starting to look like the team that was the preseason favorite to win the SEC. Kentucky is 64th in the NCAA Net Rankings, 49th at KenPom.com. Remaining games: Florida, at Ole Miss. LSU (14-6, 9-4 SEC): Like Florida, LSU should get in, especially if they win two of their last three. Lose all three and they’ll need to win a game or two in Nashville. The Tigers are 27th in both the NCAA Net Rankings and KenPom.com. Both Joe Lunardi and Jerry Palm have LSU on their eight lines. Remaining games: at Georgia, at Arkansas, Vanderbilt. Mississippi State (12-11, 6-8 SEC): The Bulldogs have to win the SEC Tournament to get into the NCAA. The Bulldogs are 84th in the NCAA Net Rankings, 72nd at KenPom.com. Remaining games: South Carolina, Alabama, at Texas A&M. Missouri (14-6, 7-6 SEC): Win one of the three remaining regular season games and the Tigers will get in. Win all three and they could make it to the five or six line. Win the SEC Tournament in Nashville and Mizzou could be a top four seed. That’s a lot of ifs. Missouri is ranked 24th in the AP poll. The Tigers are 39th in the NCAA Net Rankings, 44th at KenPom.com. Joe Lunardi has the Tigers on the six line while Jerry Palm has them on the four, which is a real surprise. Remaining games: Ole Miss, Texas A&M, at Florida. Ole Miss (12-9, 7-7 SEC): Win their last three regular season games and then one or two in Nashville and the Rebels will probably get in. They could make the NIT if they can get to 17 wins. Ole Miss is 62nd in the NCAA Net Rankings, 60th at KenPom.com. Remaining games: at Missouri, at Vanderbilt, Kentucky. South Carolina (5-11, 3-9 SEC): The Gamecocks aren’t going anywhere nor is Frank Martin. Any thoughts that Martin might not be back were bagged back a few weeks ago when Will Muschamp was fired. Will is being paid $15.8 million not to coach the South Carolina football team. They don’t have enough money to pay for a second buyout. South Carolina is 120th in the NCAA Net Rankings, 98th at KenPom.com.Remaining games: at Mississippi State, at Georgia, Arkansas. Tennessee (15-6, 8-6 SEC): There was a time, not all that long ago, that the Vols were talked up as maybe a two or three seed. Well, that was then and this is now. They’re in the tournament. Count on it, but the way they’ve been playing lately they may be lucky to get a six or seven seed without a strong showing in Nashville. Currently, the Vols are 25th in the AP Poll. They are 17th in the NCAA Net Rankings and 25th at KenPom.com. Surprisingly, when you consider the way they’ve played lately, both Jerry Palm and Joe Lunardi have the Vols on the four line. Remaining games: at Vanderbilt, at Auburn. Texas A&M (8-7, 2-6 SEC): The Aggies aren’t going to make the tournament. They might not make the SEC Tournament. They haven’t played a game since January 31 due to Covid-19. Their Tuesday game with Kentucky has been canceled. They may not play another game if they can’t get the virus under control within their basketball program. The Aggies are 136th at the NCAA Net Rankings, 128th at KenPom.com.Remaining games: at Missouri, Mississippi State. Vanderbilt (6-12, 2-10 SEC): When donkeys fly. The Commodores are 123rd in the NCAA Net Rankings, 103rd at KenPom.com. Remaining games: Tennessee, Ole Miss, at LSU. CHRONISTER SEC SOFTBALL PITCHER OF THE WEEK Katie Chronister is the SEC Pitcher of the Week after three of Florida’s five wins in the Bubly Invitational to improve her record to 4-0 on the season. Sunday, she pitched a complete game, 3-hit shutout to beat Charlotte in the best outing of her career. Chronister has a streak of 19-1/3 scoreless innings going this season. COMING AND GOING IN THE SEC West Virginia corner Dreshun Miller, who was thought to be a mortal lock to Georgia, announced he is transferring to Auburn. Former Kentucky offensive coordinator Eddie Gran still hasn’t found a landing spot. There is a lot of speculation that he will become an analyst for Nick Saban at Alabama. Analyst Ishmael Aristide is leaving Texas A&M for an assistant’s job at Miami. Wide receiver Demarcus Gregory is leaving Ole Miss for South Florida. LSU personnel analyst Keith Sanchez is leaving football for law school. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: There has been no official announcement, but all indications are that Drew Brees is going to announce any day now that he will play at least one more year with the New Orleans Saints. Brees coming back would certainly signal that it’s time for Jameis Winston to test the free agent waters rather than hang around another year as the backup. If Brees comes back and Winston bolts, the Saints will be looking to draft a QB sometime after the first round or else sign a veteran backup. If they decide to draft a QB, Kyle Trask might just be the perfect fit. He may not have the physical gifts of Winston, but one thing for certain, he’s smarter than Famous Jameis, there are no character issues and he tends to complete passes to his own team.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: ANOTHER ROCKY FINISH, BUT THE GATORS STILL WIN For the third consecutive game, the Florida Gators were rotten down the stretch only Saturday, they survived and pulled off a 70-63 win over Georgia at the O-Dome. To call the Gators fortunate would be the understatement of the year. This could have easily turned out to be Florida’s third consecutive loss. That it wasn’t had everything to do with making a few free throws down the stretch and Georgia’s inability to make plays when plays were there to be had. With 3:57 to go in the game, the Gators led 64-49 on a pair of free throws by Colin Castleton. In those final minutes, the Gators squeezed off only two shots – made one by Scottie Lewis, missed one by Tyree Appleby – because they turned the ball over four times. Down on the defensive end, the Gators transmorgified from a team that was forcing Georgia into one bad shot or mistake into another into one that couldn’t stop anyone, especially Savhir Wheeler, who was quicker than anyone on the Florida roster. In the end, the Gators avoided losing because Georgia missed just enough makeable shots and UF didn’t miss at the foul line. Take a moment and look at the final minutes in each of the last three games. South Carolina: The Gators led by as many as 15 points in the second half. They were up by six when Omar Payne dunked with 6:37 to go in the game to make it 65-59. UF didn’t make another shot from the field and only one free throw the rest of the way. In the final 6:37 the Gators were 0-7 from the field and they turned the ball over four times. The final score was 72-66. Arkansas: The Gators trailed most of the game but they rallied from 15 down to take the lead 62-61 on a Tyree Appleby floater with 4:40 to go. Arkansas outscored the Gators 14-2 the rest of the way. In the final 4:40 the Gators were 0-5 from the field and they committed five turnovers. Florida also fouled a lot because Arkansas scored nine of its 14 points at the line. The final score was 75-64. We’ve seen what the Gators are capable of doing in wins over Tennessee and West Virginia. In those games, the Gators took good shots down the stretch, protected the basketball and made some defensive plays, things they didn’t do against either South Carolina or Arkansas. Once again, the Gators are fortunate to have beaten Georgia because when you’re sloppy with the basketball – 20 turnovers for the whole game – and the defense goes AWOL down the stretch, you usually lose. Consider what the situation would be for the Gators had they won even two out of the last three. Instead of 11-6 with a 7-5 SEC record, UF would be 12-5 with an 8-4 record. Had they won both the South Carolina and Arkansas games, UF would be sitting 9-3 in league play, in sole possession of second place and still with a chance to win the SEC regular season title. As it stands, with three games to go and none of them easy, Florida is a precarious fourth place in the SEC. Fourth is important because if the Gators can finish in the top four of the regular season, they will not have to play until Friday night of the SEC Tournament in Nashville. If they finish fifth or worse, they will have to play Thursday go get to the Friday quarterfinals. In defense of Mike White and the Gators, they’ve had to endure the trauma of losing Keyontae Johnson, who could have died on the court in Tallahassee if not for exceptional and quick medical attention. That cost the Gators 18 days and the best player in the SEC for the rest of the season. Additionally, they lost 13 straight days and two games due to a Covid-19 pause. Not many teams could still be in the hunt for a top four finish in a very good league and an NCAA Tournament berth under those circumstances, but still, the bad play down the stretch has to come to an end if UF is to finish the season strong. There isn’t an SEC team the Gators can’t beat if they put it all together. There also isn’t a team they can’t lose to if they can’t play better down the stretch. NCAA NET RANKINGS FOR SEC TEAMS (through Saturday night): 8. Alabama; 17. Tennessee; 25. Arkansas; 27. LSU; 30. FLORIDA; 37. Missouri; 60. Ole Miss; 64. Kentucky; 71. Auburn; 83. Mississippi State; 93. Georgia; 120. South Carolina; 123. Vanderbilt; 135. Texas A&M Tuesday SEC games FLORIDA (11-6, 7-5 SEC) at Auburn (11-12, 5-9 SEC) LSU (14-6, 9-4 SEC) at Georgia (13-9, 6-9 SEC) Ole Miss (12-9, 7-7 SEC) at #20 Missouri (14-6, 7-6 SEC) Texas A&M (8-7, 2-6 SEC) at Kentucky (8-13, 7-7 SEC), POSTPONED Wednesday SEC Games South Carolina (5-11, 3-9 SEC) at Mississippi State (12-11, 6-8 SEC) #8 Alabama (18-5, 13-1 SEC) at #24 Arkansas (17-5, 9-4 SEC) #19 Tennessee (15-6, 8-5 SEC) at Vanderbilt (6-12, 2-10 SEC) GATOR SPORTS WEEKEND Gymnastics: No head coach? No problem. No Trinity Thomas, Nya Reed, Sydney Johnson-Scharpf and Savannah Schoenherr? No problem. Due to Covid-19 protocols, head coach Jenny Rowland missed Friday night’s Link to Pink meet with 15th-ranked Kentucky as did Thomas, Reed, Johnson-Scharpf and Schoenherr. It was next woman up for the No. 1 Gators who got a winning all-around performance from Alyssa Bauman and a perfect 10 on the balance beam from Leah Clapper as UF scored a dominating 197.50-196.875 win over the Wildcats. That’s the equivalent of a 20-point win in football or basketball. Baseball: Florida’s hold on the No. 1 position in the country didn’t last very long. The Gators (1-2) opened their season and the new Florida Ballpark with a 7-5 win over Miami on Friday night but the Gators lost in 10-9 in 13 innings to the Hurricanes on Saturday and then couldn’t rally out of an 8-0 hole on Sunday when they fell, 8-6. Nathan Hickey wore out Miami pitching, going 7-13 with a double, two homers and five RBI. There were way too many strikeouts (Gators whiffed 28 times during the three games) and too many men left on base (30). Jacob Young had hits in the Friday and Saturday games, then went 2-4 on Sunday, extending a hitting streak that dates back to the final game of 2019 to 21 games. Tommy Mace gave the Gators an excellent start on Friday night when he held the Canes to three hits and one run over five innings, and Christian Scott pitched three scoreless, hitless shutout innings in relief, but the bullpen surrendered four runs in the ninth. Saturday, the Gators blew an 8-3 lead after six innings when the bullpen couldn’t throw strikes (10 walks after the fifth inning plus two hit batters) combined with three errors. Sunday, the Gators fell behind 8-0 through the first four innings with walks (8), hit batters (2) and errors (3) contributing to the demise. The Gators had two on and one out in the bottom of the eighth but an inning-ending line out double play killed the rally. The Gators are at North Florida Tuesday night before returning home to face the Ospreys Wednesday at the Florida Ballpark. Softball: The 5th-ranked Gators ran their record to 8-0 with five wins at the Bubly Invitational. In beating Charlotte 4-0 and Georgia Southern 11-0 on Sunday, the Gators got complete game pitching performances from Katie Chronister (4-0) and Elizabeth Hightower (3-0). The Gators beat Georgia Southern 8-3 Friday night on a complete game performance by Natalie Lugo (1-0) and a 3-4 night at the plate by Charla Echols, who hit a home run and drove in three. Chronister got the win in relief Saturday when the Gators beat Georgia Southern 2-1 on a two-run seventh inning single by Echols. Hightower got the win with relief help from Lugo Saturday when the Gators knocked off Charlotte, 5-2. A two-run homer by Kendyl Lindaman and a three-run homer by Emily Wilkie accounted for all the scoring. Chronister pitched a three-hitter Sunday against Charlotte when two Jordan Mathews run-scoring doubles gave her all the cushion she needed. In the win over Georgia Southern, Cheyenne Lindsey had three hits and three RBI, while Lindaman and Julia Cottrill each had two hits and two RBI. Echols had a two run-single as well. The Gators face North Florida Thursday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Soccer: In their first match of the spring season, the Gators knocked off Charleston Saturday, 5-1. The Gators are 3-7-1 overall. Their next match is vs. USF next Saturday. Men’s Swimming: The 5th-ranked Gators will be going for their ninth-straight SEC championship when the SEC meet begins Tuesday in Columbia, Missouri. Women’s Swimming: The 4th-ranked Gators finished second to Kentucky at the SEC Championships in Columbia, Missouri. Men’s Golf: The 27th-ranked Gators will be at the LSU Invitational this week. Women’s Golf: The 16th-ranked Gators sit third, four shots behind leader UCF and one behind second place Tennessee after one round of the VyStar Invitational at the UF golf course. Men’s Tennis: The 11th-ranked Gators opened SEC play with a pair of wins over the weekend. The Gators beat Alabama 6-1 on Friday then came back to beat Auburn 6-1 on Sunday, improving their record to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the SEC. The Gators will be at LSU next Friday and at Texas A&M on Sunday. Women’s Tennis: The 22nd-ranked Gators won their Friday match with Alabama, 4-1, but lost Sunday to Auburn, 4-2. The Gators are now 3-4 on the season, 1-1 in SEC play. Next weekend the Gators play host to LSU on Friday and Texas A&M on Sunday. Lacrosse: The 8th-ranked Gators lost Friday to No. 1. North Carolina in Chapel Hill, 11-5. Their Sunday match with Kennesaw State was rescheduled for March 3. Next up for UF (1-1) is a road trip to Loyola (Maryland) next Sunday. Women’s Basketball: The Gators fell to 10-11 overall, 3-10 in the SEC when they dropped a 96-80 decision to Missouri (8-9, 4-8 SEC). The Gators play host to Georgia on Senior Day next Sunday. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: With two wins or with one win combined by one loss each by Arkansas and LSU, Alabama will clinch the SEC basketball championship ... Senior linebacker Ale Kaho has departed the football team. He’s the second Bama linebacker in a week to place his name in the transfer portal. Auburn: Defensive end Dylan Brooks, who was released from his letter of intent by Tennessee last week, has committed to Auburn. Georgia: Baseball trainer Jacob Castleman has been arrested and charged with felonies for providing obscene materials and having illegal contact with a minor child. Castleman was immediately fired. Kentucky: The Wildcats have won three games in a row after their 70-55 thrashing of 19th-ranked Kentucky. Their Tuesday night game with Texas A&M has been postponed due to Covid-19 problems with the Aggies. LSU: Forward Shareef O’Neal, the son of Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, will be sidelined for the foreseeable future with a foot injury. Missouri: Jeremiah Tilmon, who had been out since February 10, returned to the lineup Saturday when he scored 17 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Mizzou past South Carolina. Ole Miss: Marquise Watson has been promoted from graduate assistant to player personnel analyst. South Carolina: South Carolina’s football assistant coaches will make $4.88 million in 2021. That’s a dropoff of $400,000 from 2020. Tennessee: Former 3-star offensive line recruit J’Marion Gooch (6-7, 358) becomes the third UT recruit in the last week to be released from his letter of intent. Texas A&M: The Aggies have not played a basketball game since January 31. They have had six consecutive SEC games postponed. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Watching the Gators strike out in so many key situations in their losses to Miami on Saturday and Sunday I was reminded of Pedro Cerrano in the movie “Major League” who said, “Bats, they are sick. I cannot hit curveball. Straightball I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid. I ask Jobu to come, take fear from bats. I offer him cigar, rum. He will come.”

The Florida Gators are back on the green grass and practicing under the big blue Florida sky—except for every other day when it rains—as they kick off spring practice for the 2021 offseason. The month of 15 practices will be different this year; all are technically closed to the media and fans as precautions are still being taken with the pandemic COVID-19. However, there are still ways to watch, tune in and keep up with the development of the Gators. As you do, here are five things to keep in mind as Florida works their way through spring practice. Find the full and updated Gators football roster here. How To Watch The most important thing to watch for in spring practice this year…is spring practice itself! Usually a quarter of the practices or so are open to the public so fans can see drills in person. As mentioned though, COVID-19 has limited the ability to hold large gatherings in small places. In an effort to mitigate a lack of access, the Gators are streaming portions of practice on Instagram. The official Gators football account (@GatorsFB) and the account for Head Coach Dan Mullen (@CoachDanMullen) will both go live periodically throughout practice. While we dream of the day of being back on the field and close enough to smell the sweat, the inside access isn’t a bad alternative. Watching the Instagram live streams means viewers can feel like they are inside a drill. It allows you to hear the coaches up close and see what practice looks like from a players perspective. Former players, current players and coaches all make appearances on the streams, popping in for 20-30 seconds at a time—and sometimes up to five minutes or so—to say hello and offer their thoughts on the 2021 Florida Gators. Relevant clips are typically shared to Twitter and we will have them here in stories as well. Gators Will Set a Foundation For An Identity, But Not Adapt One Yet Spring Practice is always a great opportunity to learn who your team is and will be as fall approaches. Former running back Lamical Perine use to say he could tell in March what the record would be in November. But with so few on this current roster ever having even gone through a spring practice, Dan Mullen isn’t ready to commit to an identity just yet. He definitely wants to set a foundation though. "I don't think we're going to define the identity after these 15 practices,” Mullen said earlier this week. “I think we're going to do a lot of evaluation on guys in these next 15 practices, but I think if you know us, I've always been that... we're going to adapt to the strengths of our players.” With so much still to learn about this team—both by the coaches and players— Mullen wants to let the guys shape the team, not the other way around. Significant starters and contributors on both offense and defense are off to the NFL, meaning there are holes to fill. Who steps up will determine the attitude of the new team. “We’re going to adapt to our guys and what they do well and put the guys in position to do well. I think everybody looks last year, and when you go back, and you watch our cutups and review our cutups, you say, boy we threw the ball everywhere, we didn’t really run the ball very well. Well, when you look back efficiently we did run the ball fairly well, we just decided not to do that. We just decided to throw it offensively. What we’ll do is evaluate some of the strengths, go find what our guys do well.” Running the ball more is more of an example and metaphor from Mullen than anything…but spring practice this year does remind us of the possibilities Florida will have in that area come fall. Dameon Pierce, Nayquen Wright and Malik Davis all return, and will be joined by former five-stars Lorenzo Lingard and Demarcus Bowman** in the backfield. All being quarterbacked by the mobile Emory Jones. Florida could theoretically run upwards of 35-40 times a game. Will they? That’s to be determined. Says Mullen, “You know we have the flexibility to go throw for 400-yards a game last year. We have the flexibility to go back and be 50-50 balanced. We can be a run ball control team and control the clock. We can be up-tempo or slow tempo, whatever is going to fit the program or team as a whole within the framework of our offense. “And then we just kind of like evaluate this spring, throw a bunch of stuff, there will be some varied, some things that we did last year we won’t do as much this year and some things that we didn’t do last year that will be thrown into the offense for what we think off of the strengths of our players right now. We’ll continue to tweak that through spring, through summer, through training camp and usually, it ends up through the first couple of games you’re still tweaking.” **Mullen on Bowman's eligibility status after transferring from Clemson, still in question by the NCAA: "I think there’s a lot of questions...I haven’t heard anything completely, in writing I don’t think from the NCAA." They Want To Put 2020 Behind Them It’s no secret, the 2020 season left a bitter taste in the mouths of Gator players, coaches and fans. An 8-4 season record—albeit in an all-SEC schedule—was soothed somewhat by a near win in the SEC Championship. But a win that just slipped out of the fingers and turned into a loss at Texas A&M along with head scratching wrecks against LSU and Oklahoma all put a negative spin on a season in which the Gators were fighting for a championship. The team has spent the past month acknowledging what went wrong and more importantly, how to fix their mistakes. Now, with spring practice starting a month early, the Gators are able to move on that much quicker. They’re putting 2020 behind them, with hindsight gleamed and turning their focus forward. “That was last year and this is a completely different year, a completely new year,” said receiver Justin Shorter. “I feel like ever since the offseason started everyone’s just committed themselves 100% and everyone’s been going hard during workouts, like literally everyone is pushing their workouts, all of our tough drills, all of the tough workouts that we do, and even in practices you see everyone’s effort is just there because everyone just wants it so bad. "From that last game [the Cotton Bowl loss versus Oklahoma], obviously, it was a disappointment. Obviously, we never want to play that way or lose that way. But sometimes it happens and you just really have to look at it and learn from it and grow, which I feel like we’re taking steps in the right direction.” It’s little secret one of the biggest issues in 2020 was the defense. An abysmal showing drug down a record breaking offense. One of the few bright spots was the play of defensive end Zachary Carter. He shocked most everyone in Gator Nation by foregoing the NFL for another year and returning for his final year of eligibility. He wants to finish his degree, but more importantly, leave a mark by helping a young front seven most past their mistakes and turn them into a success. “The main thing is trying to find something to improve on every day,” starts Carter. “I’m really excited for this defense. We got a great, we got a great group of guys. I think, I think we're gonna surprise a lot of people, you know. But the biggest thing is just coming to work every day and trying our best, going hard, all the little things, and I think the rest of it'll take care of itself. But we work hard every day to get better and we continue to do so." Watch the Transfers No one has taken better advantage of the transfer portal than Dan Mullen. And no unit has benefitted more than the defensive line. From Jonathan Greenard to Brenton Cox, the edge rushers that have dominated for the Gators the past couple of years have all come through the portal. This fall, the defensive line will see another boost from transfers. Daquan Newkirk (an Auburn guy) and Antonio Shelton (a Penn State transfer) will line up in the trenches this fall for position coach David Turner. The depth they bring means Carter can line up exclusively on the outside again, where he’s best suited. He moved inside at times last season when Kyree Campbell was out. Says Carter of the transfers, “I’m also really excited about those guys. Big Red (Daquan Newkirk) and and Tone (Antonio Shelton), they’re new, it’s different coming as a fifth-year senior coming from a whole different school, transferring in, trying to fit in with the guys. I think they’re both done a really good job. I think they’ll have a pretty promising future here. I think we’re in good hands.” The Monster While the elder transfers have a greater opportunity to make an impact right away, there’s little question freshman Desmond Watson makes an impact wherever he goes. Florida’s roster lists the Tampa native at 6-5 and 432 lbs. Even that might be underselling the lineman. Asked if he’s ever seen a freshman that big, Carter’s eyes rounded in shock at the reminder. “Man Desmond is impressive man, he pretty impressive for his size and I know he'll continue to, you know, he’ll continue to trim up and stuff but he has a lot of potential…he gonna look like a monster. Man I’m telling you.” ” Watson will be put in the care of Nick Savage, the Director of Strength and Conditioning, to trim him up some. But his size is also his strength. Early looks into practice show a lineman that knows how to swing his weight to his advantage, exploding off the block as opposed to stuttering there.

After a season unlike any other, why should spring practice be different? The year 2020 taught the Florida Gators—and for that matter most everyone—how to adapt and find a way through a situation with no road map. With those lessons shaping what continues to feel like a new normal, Head Coach Dan Mullen and the Gators elected to change spring practice as well. Typically, the four week spring practice block begins in mid-March, running through mid-April. The NCAA allows for 15 practices over a course of 30 days. That stretch of 30 days though? Well that’s up to the program. Which is why the Gators took the field this week to begin their preparations for the 2021 season. The decision, according to Mullen, was a result of “a couple of factors.” "We weren’t on the road recruiting in January,” Mullen explained this week. “Not that we weren’t recruiting constantly, but you’re not gone all day on the road. So you have the opportunity to get a jump start on all of our different player film evaluations, recruiting film evaluations, do the recruiting Zoom calls and all the phone calls. But there’s still time in the day when the whole coaching staff is not around traveling so you’re able to get cut-up reviews done, getting everything in wrapping up the season done earlier.” The other factor? Simply being in Florida. While much of the rest of the country is blanketed in snow, the sun has been out and delivering temperatures ranging from the high 50’s to low 80’s all week. “I did click on the weather channel and saw that I’m very happy we live in the state of Florida right now because it looks awful cold in a lot of other places around the country,” joked Mullen. “I hope everybody is safe with where they are in the country. So, we have that opportunity to do it.” The biggest factor though? The need to teach much of the roster simply how to practice. Take Kaiir Elam for example. One could justifiably argue he returns as the most important, valuable and experienced player on the Gators roster; at the very least on the defense. And he’s never been through a spring practice in college. He wasn’t an early enrollee his freshman year, meaning he came in the summer of 2019. He then lost his 2020 spring practice when the world grinded to a halt two days before the Gators were set to take the field last March. On top of that, practices in season last fall were significantly stripped down. As many drills as possible were required to be contactless and the days resembled walk-throughs more than actual physical practices, as teams were required to limit the spread of COVID-19. As such—still using Elam as an example—the star corner has had only one stretch in his college career of what could be called a normal practice time. Combined with the fact that there is clearly improvements that need to be made following the end of the 2020 season (and a three game losing streak that featured an inspiring close championship game, bookended by two embarrassing displays), Mullen and staff elected to take better advantage of the time before the restrictive summer interaction rules began. “We have a lot of guys in our program that haven’t been through a spring ball. So there’s a couple different ways to look at it as you get into the offseason,” explains Mullen. "We’ve had time to accelerate it, but within the spring you have time to review cut-ups, to watch, to teach and then you go practice it and then you review those cut-ups again. One of the things we wanted to do, I think guys learn a lot better when they watch themselves. It takes a lot of maturity for players to grow and learn to watch other people do things to learn how to make yourself better. You do that, spend a lot of time doing that and teaching that. But I’m going to tell you what, the guys are much more attentive when they’re watching themselves do it and you’re correcting them and they’re seeing themselves perform within the offensive or defensive or special teams scheme. “So by having the spring ball earlier, we’ll be able to start watching the spring cut-ups earlier with the players of guys that maybe haven’t played a lot, that have not had that experience and they get to watch themselves running our offense and our defense.” This move also gives coaches more time to watch the cut-ups as well according to Mullen. That will be necessary in preparation for the fall since the coach says they will”make some changes offensively and defensively schematically around this year’s players with some of the things that we talk about. We want to get that stuff on film so they can see that and we can coach and teach off of it.” With the Florida Gators back on the field—and weeks before anyone else—the teaching has officially begun for this young team to be put to the test.

Walking in on Thursday felt different. The air was a little crisper, due to the February date, the sky was darkened with rain clouds and as Emory Jones walked the familiar steps from the Florida Gators locker room, across Gale Lemerand Drive and to the practice fields, the banality of the opening acts of spring practice weighed heavier on the third year quarterback. Walking in on Thursday felt different…and he knew why. “I had a chip on my shoulder.” Emory Jones has waited. He’s bided his time. He’s watched. He’s learned. He’s been patient… Now it’s his turn. “It has been hard but it’s all been for a reason. That’s what I’ve realized over the past years.” The Florida Gators quarterback—and presumed starter—has never shied away from admitting the past three years have been tough. In a world of transfer portals and QB’s who leave for greener pastures after six months on the bench, Emory Jones elected to stay. He could have started at a majority of other Power 5 programs. He could’ve been been playing at least for the past year. But he remained a Florida Gator. A large part of that is thanks to Kyle Trask, who Jones says he still talks with often. While it was presumed Jones would take over as the starter after Feleipe Franks, it was Trask who took the world by storm and wrote a story fit for a fairy tale. Even if it meant Jones had to wait another year, he watched and learned a lesson that is valuable not only for him but for all of college football. "Just how he conducts himself every day, how he walks around the building, how he takes notes in the meeting rooms, and how he translates everything from the classroom on to the field. I just really learned all that from him and then obviously it’s him being patient waiting on his time to come. I definitely learned a lot out of that just watching him,” Jones said of Trask. Watching Trask flourish was the embodiment of everything Head Coach Dan Mullen had been telling Jones since he moved to Gainesville as a freshman. “When I first got here the first thing he always said to me was, 'Development, development, development.'And I always tried to keep that in the back of my head. It was tough going through all the years just playing a couple plays. It definitely was tough, but just going in made me confident. So I've just been working my tail off every year just trying to get better. That's all I'm focused on.” As Jones mentioned, he has been put in for plays here and there, sometimes to the frustration of spectators wondering aloud at the disruption in flow or process. With each play though, Jones’ found greater footing, anchoring his innate athletic ability in an understanding of the college game. “It definitely helps me a lot,” Jones admits. “I played in every big game, so I mean just starting from my freshman year I played in the biggest game that year, the Georgia game ,and made a couple of plays. And it helps me out now because I’ve been on the big stage, so now I’m more comfortable wherever I am.” This culminated in the Cotton Bowl loss to Oklahoma. Jones saw his greatest amount of playing time yet…and saw the best example of the work that needs to be done. “It really was an eye-opening experience to me, just going out there and actually getting a lot of reps. I mean, it really just showed me that me and the guys have a lot of work to do. So, I mean, that's all we're focused on right now. That's all I'm focused on.” The best way to do your best work is to outwork the best. It’s what helped Franks and Trask and now Jones. Because right on his heels is the hometown kid Anthony Richardson; who is reportedly doing back-flips down the field during practice. Emory Jones readily admits he can’t keep up with Richardson in the gymnastic regard. But the competition in every other facet has been fierce. Explains Jones, “it’s always a competition here. Anthony, he's been on my butt every practice. I mean, like we're all out there competing, just trying to get better…he definitely, he gets me better everyday and pushes me and I push him. Thats what we are focusing on, competing.” Over the course of his three years, the redshirt sophomore Jones has averaged a 64% completion rate (55-86) for 613 yards, seven touchdowns and one interception. He’s added 514 yards and six touchdowns on the ground. It’s that ability to be so balanced, while exhibiting a cannon arm, that excites teammates for 2021. The offense under Kyle Trask was special, statistically some of the best in school history, and heady to watch. It will be drastically different this fall, shaped to accommodate and highlight Jones’ skill set, but just as exciting nonetheless if Gator teammates are to believed. “Emory and Anthony and even some of the freshman quarterbacks that came in, they’re so athletic and they’re dual-threat where they can pull it and run for 60 yards and make you fall on you knees, you know,” ponders receiver Justin Shorter. "I feel like that’s going to be like a big part of our offense this year. So I’m pretty sure next year you guys will any of the quarterbacks pull the ball and sprint for 60 yards and then throwing it that next play.” Adds defensive end Zachary Carter, “not to take anything away from Kyle [Trask], you know, he's a great, great player for us. I love Kyle. But Emory is, he brings a different, you know, different flavor to the offense. Athletic guy, he makes you miss. “Basically, he keeps you on your toes, you know, you never know what the offense is going to do so. I'm excited, I'm excited with our offense, with the ball in Emory’s hands.” It’s not just the ball in his hands that excites this staff though. “You look at guys like Anthony and Emory with cannon arms, their ability to improvise and extend plays. All of a sudden the field is spread. I think we saw even a couple glimpse of it in the bowl game, that the field’s spread out and someone loses a rush lane. That turns into a 20-, 30-, 40-yard play with those guys on the field,” says Mullen. “They bring a very different skillset to the table. So ours is to kind of manipulate around the strengths of what those guys are going to do well within quarterback runs, zone reads, the ability for them to scramble and improvise and even have to be more complex in the pass game because you’re multi-dimensional because some of the threats they pose to the defense.” That’s all on the field though. It’s where Jones can shine…but there’s more to being a University of Florida quarterback. Maybe that’s what felt different too. The knowledge this is finally his team. That’s what Emory Jones has been waiting on as well. “I have a lot of responsibility, I mean I've been waiting for this time right here. You know, I'm really just glad to be back out there for the spring and being around the guys.”

The pain of what might have been a year ago when Covid-19 put a halt to the best start in Florida Gators baseball history is tempered by what could be in 2021. Kevin O’Sullivan has nearly all the moving parts returning from a team that was 16-1 when the virus shut the door on all collegiate sports nationwide and he’s added one of the best recruiting classes in school history for a roster so talented the Gators are the unanimous No. 1 in every preseason baseball poll. Put bluntly, Florida’s roster is loaded and expectations have never been higher, particularly when there is the enticing addition of the brand, spanking new Florida Ballpart at McKethan Field, which opens up Friday at 3 p.m. when the Gators host Miami for the first of their annual three-game series. The new ball yard is as good a facility as there is in the country, a serious improvement for fans and a lure for recruits who want to spend their collegiate careers playing in a stadium that will be better than those in the minor league parks they may play in someday. Even with the antiquated and outmoded McKethan Stadium as his home base, O’Sullivan was already the best recruiter in the nation but the new stadium and facilities are a game-changer that will likely usher in an even more dominant era for Florida baseball. More dominant. Take a moment and let that sink in because what O’Sullivan has accomplished in his first 13 years on the job is nothing short of remarkable. The proof is in the numbers: 547-256: With ten wins in 2021 O’Sullivan passes Dave Fuller as Florida’s all-time winningest baseball coach. 2017: That’s the year O’Sullivan piloted the Gators to the first NCAA baseball championship in school history. 5: That’s the number of Southeastern Conference championships (2010-11-14-17-18) O’Sullivan has won. 7: That’s the number of times the Gators have made it to Omaha for the College World Series. Prior to O’Sullivan’s arrival in 2008, the Gators had gone to the College World Series five times in school history. From 2010-19, the Gators became the first team in the country since the 1990s to make it to Omaha seven times in a decade. 4: The Gators made it to Omaha every year during the four-year stretch from 2015-18. 12: Prior to the interruption of the 2020 season when the Gators were a mortal lock to make the NCAA Tournament, the Gators had participated in the tournament a school-record 12 consecutive years. 9: That’s the number of seasons with 40 or more wins since O’Sullivan took over the program in 2008. The Gators posted eight 40-win seasons in the decade from 2010-19, one of only five teams nationwide to accomplish that feat. Prior to O'Sullivan, Florida had 15 seasons with 40 or more wins in school history. 3: From 2015-17 O’Sullivan led the Gators to a 156-53 record with three consecutive 52-win seasons. It marked the first time in school history the Gators had three straight seasons with 50 or more wins. In his Florida career, O'Sullivan has posted four seasons with 50 or more wins. Prior to his arrival, the Gators had two seasons with 50 or more in school history. 63-30: That’s O’Sullivan’s record against Florida State and Miami since 2008, which includes an 11-game winning streak over FSU. 88: That’s the number of Gators taken in the Major League Baseball Draft since 2008. 10: That’s the number of first round draft picks in the MLB Draft in the O'Sullivan era. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Kevin O’Sullivan has awakened the sleeping giant within at the University of Florida. The Gators have gone from a team to be taken seriously every few years or so to one that is a national contender every single year. The Gators are so expected to be in the hunt for a trip to Omaha every year that it's considered an upset any year they don't make it. With the loaded roster that O'Sullivan takes the field with Friday against Miami there are visions of another trip to Omaha and the Gators’ second NCAA championship. Seven position starters return from 2020 as well as the entire weekend pitching rotation and closer. Florida's midweek pitchers, relievers and backups would be a borderline top 25 team. As with any team coached by Kevin O’Sullivan, it starts with the pitching. Florida’s weekend rotation of Tommy Mace, Jack Leftwich and Hunter Barco is considered the strongest in the nation. All three throw consistently in the low-to-mid 90s and have developed a nice second and third pitch. Had it not been for the virus and a scaled down MLB Draft in 2020, Mace and Leftwich would have been playing for pay this year, but instead they return for a fourth year. Mace (16-5 career) was 3-0 with a sparkling 1.67 ERA when the season was halted last year. Leftwich (13-10 career) was 2-0 last year when opponents managed only a .200 batting average against him. Barco, a hard-throwing lefty, gets a second freshman season thanks to the NCAA rules. Last year he was 2-0 with a 1.40 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 19-1/3 innings. The closer once again will be Ben Specht, who was 2-0 in relief last year with three saves and a 0.75 ERA. Battling for midweek and long relief work on weekends will be righties Christian Scott (2-0, 1.20 ERA in 2020), David Leuthje (2-0, 5.19 ERA), Brandon Sproat (0.0, 0.00 ERA), Tyler Nesbitt (1-0, 0.00 ERA), Ryan Cabarcus (0.0, 1.29 ERA, 1 save) and Nick Ficarotta (1-0, 2.70 ERA). Nick Pogue (1-1, 5.17 ERA), who was expected to be a midweek starter, had Tommy John surgery earlier in the week and will miss the season. Garrett Milchin, who was 4-2 with a 3.29 ERA in 2017, has missed the last three seasons with shoulder injuries. He threw well in the fall and so far this spring. He’s going to be looking to pick up innings as is graduate Trey Van Der Weide, who was a three-year starter at USC-Upstate. O’Sullivan’s jack of all trades is lefty Jordan Butler (7-3 career record, 4.72 ERA), experienced as both a midweek starter and long weekend reliever who has some closing experience as well. Butler will also be in the mix at first base. He is a gap hitter with a career .343 average to go with four homers and 25 RBI. And then there is those highly touted freshman pitchers led by lefty Timmy Manning, Blake Purnell, Ryan Slater and Chase Centala. Manning could contend for a midweek starter's job. O'Sullivan has plenty of pitchers and not a lot of innings to share, but it is always best to have more pitching than you need than not nearly enough. Left fielder Austin Langworthy, who signed with the Detroit Tigers last June, is the only position starter from 2020 who won’t be back. His departure moves Jacob Young from right field to left. He hit a sizzling .450 with 16 multi-hit games in 2020. Young will be joined in the outfield by Jud Fabian (2.94, 5 HR, 13 RBI in 2020; 12 HR, 39 RBI career) in center field and Kendrick Calilao (career .274 with 6 HR and 59 RBI) in right. Fabian is considered one of the top five players in the country and likely to be one of the first three players drafted in 2021. Calilao spent most of the previous two seasons alternating between first base, DH and right field. Butler and Kris Armstrong (.290 in 2020) will handle first base with the other likely to handle designated hitter. Whereas Butler sprays the ball all over the park, Armstrong launched several tape measure homers during fall practice. He could supply the most power at first base since Pete Alonso. Veteran Cory Acton (career .239, 7 HR, 34 RBI) is back at second, with Josh Rivera (.298, 2 HR, 9 RBI as a true freshman in 2020) at shortstop and Kirby McMullen (.278, 1 HR, 10 RBI) at third. Handyman Nick Blasucci (career .300) can play three infield positions as well as eat up relief innings if necessary. Nathan Hickey (.311, 4 HR, 7 RBI as a true freshman in 2020) and Cal Greenfield (.233, 1 HR, 7 RBI) are going to split duties behind the plate but freshman Wyatt Langford, who won the Perfect Game Home Run Derby contest in 2019, has a good enough bat to find his way onto the field. Freshman Mac Guscete has a big bat and a strong throwing arm. While freshmen will be looked to provide depth in the infield and outfield, keep an eye on Colby Halter, who might very well hit his way into the starting lineup at third base or muscle his way into the mix at DH. Sterlin Thompson can play the corners in the infield and in the outfield. Jordan Carrion can handle both middle infield positions. O’Sullivan has the benefit of experienced veterans both on the mound and in the field, plus outstanding recruiting has given him the best depth in the country. On paper, at least, this is a team that has it all -- pitching, hitting, defense and speed -- which is why the college baseball media is pencilling the Gators in for an eighth trip to Omaha since 2010. History tells us that in the years when O’Sullivan has an abundance of pitching his teams make it to Omaha. The last time O’Sullivan had this much pitching depth was 2017, the year the Gators won the NCAA championship with a rotation that included Alex Faedo, Brady Singer and Jackson Kowar with Michael Byrne coming in as the closer. That team also featured future first rounder Jonathan India and future pros Dalton Guthrie, JJ Schwarz, Deacon Liput, Nelson Maldonado, Mark Kolozsvary, Tyler Dyson, Nick Horvath and Langworthy. Although it will be hard for Florida’s starters to match the 2017 pitching rotation and Byrne’s success as a closer, O’Sullivan has an abundance of capable arms that can give him quality innings. If he has to go to the bullpen he can go early and often without much in the way of drop off. The Gators have the hitters and defense in both the infield and outfield to match that 2017 team as well. So, expectations are already through the roof, particularly since the bulk of the 2020 roster returns and there is unfinished business to take care of. The way the Gators were playing when the season shut down last year, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to think they would have made it to Omaha with a legitimate chance to win it all. This is a brand new season and no one in the country had the benefit of summer ball to develop the pitching and get at bats for the position players, but the Gators showed up in the fall with the look of a determined team, ready to pick up where they left off last year. A year ago, when the season shut down the Gators were ranked No. 1 nationally. They will start 2021 expected to take up where they left off last year. Considering the way the 2020 season ended with high hopes dashed by the virus, starting fresh in 2021 in a beautiful ball park that will rank among the best anywhere in the country to go with a loaded roster seems appropriate. What better way to christen the new park than have a championship season that produces a banner to hang on the outfield fence. Kevin O'Sullivan has spent the last 13 years building the Gator brand into one of consistency and domination and yet the new season lends itself to the belief that Florida's most dominant era ever still lies ahead.