“The Triangle just got richer with the arrival of Urban Meyer to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Gus Malzahn at UCF to go with Bruce Arians of the Bucs in Tampa and the Dan Mullen/Steve Spurrier tandem in Gainesville.” OK, so I’m not making this up…but I’m making it up. The Triangle of Winners: From Jacksonville to Orlando to Tampa and in between, with coaches who have won 747 games, four national championships, one Super Bowl title and a whole bunch of conference trophies. Imaginary playground? College football gerrymandering? Insignificant geographical designation? Perhaps all of that. But this bastion of braintrusts has emerged on the Florida football landscape intentionally and not by accident, which bodes well for the future of college and pro football around here. Impressed? Why wouldn’t you be? Aside from any well-defined circle or cube or triangle around Tuscaloosa, Ala., I would say the square footage of our “Triangle of Winners” is just about as talent-rich in coaches as any other patch in America. Remember the Cradle of Coaches? (see below). Well, maybe the Florida Triangle of Winners is the next level elevation of that kind of group in Miami of Ohio. Cradle of Coaches, Miami, Ohio Earl (Red) Blaik Army 1946 Paul Brown, Cleveland Browns 1951, 1969 Woody Hayes, Ohio State 1957 Paul Dietzel, LSU 1958 Ara Parseghian, Notre Dame 1964 John Pont, Indiana 1967 Jim Root *, New Hampshire 1967 Weeb Ewbank, New York Jets 1968 Bo Schembechler, Michigan 1969 Bill Narduzzi , Youngstown State 1978 Rick Carter, Dayton 1980 John Harbaugh, Baltimore Ravens, 2013 The Triangle just got richer with the arrival of Urban Meyer of the Jaguars in Jacksonville and Gus Malzahn at UCF to go with Bruce Arians of the Bucs in Tampa and the Dan Mullen/Steve Spurrier tandem in Gainesville. You can manipulate numbers, but there’s no denying that the current occupants of the Florida Triangle of Winners has upped the ante. Eight of their 747 wins have been over the GOAT, Nick Saban. Who else can claim such a crop? If you subscribe to the wise old axiom, “A Rising Tide Raises All Ships,” that could mean a fortuitous uptick of fortunes for schools like the University of Florida, University of Central Florida and University of South Florida. We’ll withhold any comments judgment about USF for the moment. On that basis, UCF’s hiring of Gus Malzahn might have been college football’s most brilliant off-season move, unless you buy the theory that honor should already be awarded to Texas for getting Steve Sarkisian. (I don’t.) USA Today named the Malzahn as the best choice for several reasons, with this comment: “Availability and increased financial flexibility on both sides allowed UCF and Malzahn to connect on a five-year deal worth $2.3 million annually. It's a bargain-basement deal relative to Malzahn's ample SEC experience and the program's goals of reaching the College Football Playoff and aligning itself for the next round of conference expansion.” Malzahn seems poised to take the Knights to heights never imagined. Gus had that sparkle in his eye as he told the media UCF was getting “the best version” of him because he was so refreshed after an eight-week layoff. And he flatly stated he was going to craft the Knight squad into a national contender and get them to “The Final Four.” Smart football pundits look at UCF as a door-knocker which has been threatening a breakthrough and see in Malzahn that guy who might break the door down. There is little doubt that if – and when – the playoffs expand, UCF is the kind of program that could quickly qualify for one of eight spots. Especially with Malzahn’s offensive acumen and the fact that he’s won everywhere else. Gus won 68 games at Auburn before getting fired. Working in the shadow of the GOAT isn’t something you’d wish on any coach. Three of those wins were over Nick Saban. (By the way, Malzahn is also a Spurrier “Visor Coach.”) The Triangle of winners includes Spurrier’s 228 college football wins, national championship, six SEC Championships and one ACC title. His 54 wins at various pro teams – Tampa Bay Bandits, The Washington Football Club and Orlando Apollos – is also accounted for the 747 wins. His record vs. Saban was a lofty 3-1 at South Carolina and Florida. Why Spurrier? I realize Steve’s not coaching, but the UF field is named after him and he’s drawing a check from Florida as ambassador/consultant. Spurrier was the architect and originator of “The Swamp” and those who came after him built on his legacy. Meyer has confirmed to me a half-dozen times that the HBC’s footprints spurred him on, with comments like: “You just CANNOT lose to Georgia because of Steve Spurrier.” On Spurrier’s last gig, his Orlando Apollos were declared regular-season Association of American Football Champions, so you’d have to admit his influence is still being felt. Clearly winning the Super Bowl has vaulted Arians to the top of the heap for at least a season, with an assist from General Manager Jason Licht. Arians told the media when he was asked what he would have thought two years ago had someone told him he'd be in Super Bowl LV against the Kansas City Chiefs with Tom Brady as his quarterback, he said, "What are you smoking or drinking? And get me some." The North Star is Meyer. Some doubt his ability to translate his coaching vernacular from fuzzy-faced collegians to the hard-scrabble language of veteran pros. Can he? Others wonder how losing — a guaranteed pain point forward NFL coaches — can be tolerated by him. However, they cannot question his veracity as a three-time national champion, and hugely successful record -- two of his wins coming over Saban at the highest level, offset by two losses to Nick. His 187 victories over Power Five teams, a 12-3 bowl record and complete dominance over all of his biggest rivals is tough not to notice. Plus he gets the No. 1 overall pick in Jax and has a treasure trove of picks and free agency money. If Urban Meyer is going to get Clemson’s quarterback – and there is every reason to believe he’ll take Trevor Lawrence with the first overall pick – then at least USF got his coach. South Florida announced in December it had hired 38-year-old Jeff Scott, offensive coordinator for Dabo Swinney in charge of The Franchise. What role Scott played in the development Lawrence at Clemson remains to be seen, however, and more important is how he’s going to build an offense around one of five quarterbacks, including newcomer Timmy McClain, a three-star lefty from Sanford Seminole and a 4.6 blazer in the 40. Clearly, the rising tide in the Florida Winners Triangle adds to challenge for Scott, where USF and UCF side-by-side comparisons are inevitable. Up the road, to the heart of the Triangle, Mullen has his work cut out. He has masterfully scoured the transfer portal, but is not recruiting at a high enough level to satisfy a significant segment of critics, even though he has picked up some slightly used 5-stars in positions he wanted to fortify. At his first presser of 2021, Mullen seemed pleased with his roster. Competition for signing the Florida athletes, however, just got stiffer. Among other things, any recruits with enhanced offensive skills who want to play earlier than what Mullen can offer have another option at UCF. Maybe not the four-stars, but certainly the others. And before you sneer, remember: Heisman Trophy finalist Kyle Trask was a two-star. Don’t read too much into this, but Mullen hit some speed bumps, or potholes, in late 2020 which are going to require some repairing. After two almost honeymoon-like seasons, he’s taking on a little friendly fire, some of it self-induced. And no doubt somebody will point out that while all of the other coaches are 8-8 combined vs. Saban, Mullen is 0-10. (Remembering almost all of those were while at Mississippi State). Gator fans want to be assured that he’s committed to remaining as Florida’s coach. Some of them took umbrage at Dan’s flirtation with the NFL. Although Mullen says he “never interviewed” with an NFL team, that’s poppycock, because we all know that any testing of the water is done by agents and not the coaches. I think it best that Mullen and the fan base hug it out and move on with appreciation for each other. Mullen couldn’t get a better job unless he jumps to the NFL. Gator fans couldn’t have a better coach, who by the way, except for winning the SEC, has been on pace with Steve Spurrier’s and Urban Meyer’s track record. Put it all in the rearview mirror with the rest of 2020. But don’t ignore what’s in your windshield: The Florida Winners Triangle.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: EMORY JONES CAN PUT HIS STAMP ON THE QB POSITION Emory Jones probably has a pretty good idea what it was like to be Kyle Trask during those three years when he was waiting for his chance to show what he could do on the football field. Jones, who was signed by Florida in Dan Mullen’s first UF recruiting class of 2018, took a redshirt in 2018, then watched when Trask took over for the injured Feleipe Franks in 2019 and never looked back. What Trask proved was good coaching plus patience has a way of paying off as he led the Gators to a New Years Six bowl win over Virginia in 2019 and then set several single-season Florida passing records in 2020. Jones has to be hoping his patience and Mullen’s coaching will pay off in similar fashion in 2021. "I'll just say I have a lot of responsibility,” Jones said Thursday after the Gators completed their first practice of the spring. “I mean I've been waiting for this time right here. It has been hard but it’s all been for a reason. That’s what I’ve realized over the past years. I have been playing a little bit, so that keeps me going. I’ve just been watching the guys in front of me do their best and watching how they move and how they operate and it’s definitely just helping me, it definitely helped me out throughout the way." While waiting his chance to become the starting QB, Jones, who was a one-time Ohio State commitment, ran for 514 yards (5.58 per carry) and six touchdowns while completing 55-86 passes (63.9%) for 613 yards (7.12 per attempt) and seven touchdowns. The quarterback job is Jones’ to lose this spring as the Gators transition from an all-out passing game that took advantage of Trask’s skills into one that will allow Jones to show off his running abilities while still heaving it down the field on a fairly regular basis. The competition will come mainly from Anthony Richardson, a second year freshman, although true freshmen Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and Jalen Kitna both enrolled early so they can participate in spring practice. “Anthony, he’s been on my butt every practice,” Jones said. Zachary Carter on why he came back for one more year: Defensive end Zachary Carter, who led the Gators with 5.0 sacks and scored a touchdown on a fumble return in 2020, didn’t want to leave UF without completing his degree. On the football field, Carter says, “I really wanted to leave my mark and leave my legacy at this program.” Moon out for the spring: Linebacker Jeremiah Moon, who played in only four games in 2020 due to injuries, will miss the entire spring while recovering from surgery on his foot. NO. 1 GATORS FACE MIAMI IN FIRST GAME AT NEW BALL YARD The Gators will put their No. 1 national ranking on the line this weekend when they open the baseball season with 21st-ranked Miami (3 p.m., SEC Network). Tommy Mace (3-0, 1.67 ERA in 2020) will get the first start for Florida as the Gators christen the brand new Florida Ballpark at McKethan Field against the Hurricanes, who will be sending junior Daniel Federman (0-1, 2.08 ERA) to face a Florida team that has won the last five outings in this bitter in-state rivalry. Saturday’s 1 p.m. game will send Jack Leftwich (2-0, 4.15 ERA) against Miami freshman Alejandro Rosario. Sunday’s game, also slated for a 1 p.m. start, will feature Hunter Barco (2-0, 1.40 ERA) against Miami freshman Victor Menderos. Due to Covid-19 protocols, only 1,700 fans will be allowed in the ball yard each game. GATORS CAN’T AFFORD A LOSS TO GEORGIA SATURDAY Unless the SEC does some reshuffling of the schedules, the Gators (10-6, 6-5 SEC) have only four more SEC games remaining in the regular season. That puts a premium on Saturday’s 3:30 p.m. matchup (SEC Network) with a Georgia team that knocked off 20th-ranked Missouri Tuesday night. In this season of abbreviated schedules due to Covid-19, the Gators need to go 4-0 down this final stretch of games to have a legitimate shot at locking down an NCAA Tournament bid even before the SEC Tournament is played. Currently, the Gators hold down the 30th position in the all-important NCAA Net Rankings. That’s a fairly good indicator that the Gators would make the NCAA field if the tournament brackets were announced today, but a lot can change between now and Selection Sunday on March 14. Bracketologist Joe Lunardi of ESPN has the Gators still sitting on the 7-seed line while Jerry Palm of CBS has the Gators on the 6-seed line. To avoid dropping both in the Net Rankings and the brackets, the Gators will have to play well to beat a Georgia team that tends to play as well as point guard Sahvir Wheeler, who averages 13.5 points and 7.0 assists per game. When Wheeler is getting out in transition the Bulldogs are a very difficult team to beat. The Gators are coming off a 75-64 loss to 24th-ranked Arkansas in Fayetteville Tuesday night, a game in which UF showed the rust of no games for 13 days and very few practices. To beat Georgia, Florida has to get better production from Tre Mann and Noah Locke, who combined to score just 14 points while hitting just 2-11 from the 3-point line. When the two teams met in Athens earlier, Florida got 24 points from Mann, 16 from Locke and 14 each from Tyree Appleby and Colin Castleton. Saturday SEC games Georgia (13-8, 6-8 SEC) at FLORIDA (10-6, 6-5 SEC) Vanderbilt (6-11, 2-9 SEC) at #8 Alabama (17-5, 12-1 SEC) Kentucky (7-13, 6-7 SEC) at #19 Tennessee (15-5, 8-5 SEC) #20 Missouri (13-6, 6-6 SEC) at South Carolina (5-8, 3-8 SEC) Auburn (11-11, 5-8 SEC) at LSU (13-6, 8-4 SEC) Mississippi State (11-11, 5-8 SEC) at Ole Miss (12-8, 7-6 SEC) Arkansas (17-5, 9-4 SEC) at Texas A&M (8-7, 2-6 SEC) OTHER UF SPORTS THIS WEEKEND Gymnastics: Coming off last week’s win over 2nd-ranked LSU, the No. 1 Gators will play host to 15th-ranked Kentucky at the O-Dome in the 15th Annual Link to Pink tonight. The 6:45 p.m. meet will be broadcast on the SEC Network. Softball: The 5th-ranked Gators (2-0) will play five games over three days in the Bubly Invitational which begins today (6 p.m. start) against Georgia Southern. The Gators will face Georgia Southern at 1 p.m. Saturday and Charlotte at 4 p.m. Sunday the Gators will face Charlotte at 12 noon and Georgia Southern at 3 p.m. Lacrosse: The 8th-ranked Gators travel to Chapel Hill today to face No. 1 North Carolina in what figures to be the best weekend matchup in the country. Volleyball: Covid-19 protocols within the Florida program have postponed this weekend’s matches in Starkville between the 7th-ranked Gators and Mississippi State. Men’s tennis: The 11th-ranked Gators (4-1) will open SEC play this afternoon against 23rd-ranked Alabama (8-2) at the Ring Tennis complex. Sunday the Gators will host to Auburn (3-4). Women’s tennis: The 22nd-ranked Gators (2-3) will open SEC play at Alabama (9-1) today and at Auburn (5-1) on Saturday. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Basketball coach Nate Oates, who has the Crimson Tide on a runaway path to the SEC championship and the No. 8 national ranking, has signed a contract extension through 2027 that raises his pay to $3.25 million ... Remember when Trent Richardson left Alabama to become “the next great thing” as an NFL running back? He proved to be too slow to make it big in the NFL and since his last season in the league in 2016, he’s played in the Alliance of American Football and the CFL without much impact. His latest attempt will be with the Caudillos de Chihuhua of the Futbol Americano de Mexico. Raise your hand if you knew they had a pro football league in Mexico. Auburn: Former Auburn backup quarterback Cord Sandberg is transferring to D1AA Eastern Kentucky. Georgia: Tickets for the spring game will go for $10 with the money going to charity. Kentucky: With a 7-13 record, Kentucky is going to have to win the SEC Basketball Tournament to make the NCAA field. Missouri: Secondary coach David Gibbs is leaving to become the co-defensive coordinator for Gus Malzahn at UCF. Tennessee: A bad month continues to get worse for the Vols. This week two signees in the 2021 class announced they have entered their names in the transfer portal even before they arrive on campus. Cody Brown, a 4-star running back recruit, has already been released from his letter of intent. Also placing his name in the portal is Dylan Brooks, a 4-star defensive end recruit. Vanderbilt: Vanderbilt’s 1-2 pitching punch is righty Kumar Rocker, the son of former Auburn All-American and Philadelphia Eagles D-line coach Tracy Rocker, and Jack Leiter, son of former Major League pitcher Al Leiter. FOOTBALL STUFF The NCAA extended its recruiting dead period through May 31, another reason why Dan Mullen elected to forego what amounts to a boring spring exhibition game in favor of a real scrimmage that can be productive. The Philadelphia Eagles traded quarterback Carson Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts for a third round draft pick in 2021 and a conditional second round pick in 2022. The trade means the Eagles will take a $33.8 million dead cap hit while the Colts will assume the remaining two years of Wentz’s contract and pay him a $10 million roster retention bonus. With Wentz gone, Jalen Hurts projects to be the starter in 2021. Will the Eagles take a quarterback with the sixth pick in the April draft? Michigan quarterback Joe Milton has entered the NCAA transfer portal. He will have three remaining years of eligibility. The American Football Coaches Association is asking the NCAA to make rules that will eliminate the common practice of faking injuries to slow down fast tempo teams. There is a report out of Tampa that former NFL wide receiver Vincent Jackson might have been dead for as many as three days before he was discovered in a hotel room Monday morning. PAT FORDE OF SPORTS ILLUSTRATED SAID IT … Writing about UCF’s decision to hire former Auburn coach Gus Malzahn, Forde says: “UCF and Malzahn could be beautiful together, a marriage of proven winners who just need the right opportunity to do even more than they already have. UCF has gone undefeated and won a New Year's Six bowl within the last five years; Malzahn has played for a national championship within the last 10. There has been some backsliding since then, but joining forces might bring out the best in both. “If that happens, the powers that be at Auburn and Tennessee might want to purchase ear plugs and delete the social media apps from their phones. One of them kicked Malzahn to the curb and the other didn’t make a push to hire him after he became available. Both chose Group of Five coaches they believed would do a better job—Brian Harsin (from Boise State) at Auburn, Josh Heupel (from UCF) at Tennessee. Both could work out, but neither are sure things.” ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Right now, Duke University is 9-8 overall, 7-6 in ACC play. Ordinarily, a team this mediocre with five games remaining in the regular season would need to go no worse than 4-1 down the stretch with a couple of wins in the ACC Tournament to make the NCAA field. But this is Duke we’re talking about and because the Blue Devils are coached by Mike Kryzyzewski, you can bet the farm that the NCAA will do everything in its power to put Duke in the field. If Duke gets past the opening round of the ACC Tournament and is two games above .500 it’s my guess they will make the NCAA. Now, if that was a team from the SEC you could forget about it, even though the SEC plays better basketball this year than the ACC.

When Florida Gators softball coach Tim Walton says that he and the Gators play a third of their schedule in the opening two to three weeks of the season, he isn’t joking. One of the longest weekends in Florida sports kicks off on Friday at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium as Florida softball hosts its annual Bubly Invitational. The dirt of Katie Seashole Pressley Stadium will host seven match-ups this weekend and the hometown Gators will appear in five of them. Come Sunday evening, the Gators will have played six games in a week’s time. Coming off a 1-0 walk-off win over Jacksonville on Wednesday night, the Gators will look to find offensive rhythm as they face the Georgia Southern Eagles and Charlotte 49ers through the course of the weekend. Looking back on Wednesday’s home opener, the Gators found themselves knotted up with the Jacksonville Dolphins heading into the seventh inning. A pitching duel between Jacksonville ace Alyssa Bilodeau and Florida’s Elizabeth Hightower and Katie Chronister kept the scoreboard dim. The Gators’ bats kept busy last weekend in Tampa against the USF Bulls, where Florida jumped out to a 2-0 start on the season. And on Wednesday, Florida’s success at the plate continued. While the Gators sent nine hits into play, they neglected to plate any runs until senior second baseman Hannah Adams lifted a walk-off double to the left center field wall to score her speedy centerfielder Cheyenne Lindsey in the bottom of the seventh inning. Lindsey reached first base on a bunt before blazing around second and third following Adams’ heroic pop. “When you’ve got Cheyenne Lindsey in the nine-hole, it’s like another leadoff,” Walton said following the win. Looking back at last season, Florida reidentified itself as an offensive-driven team following the departures of Kelly Barnhill and Amanda Lorenz. The addition of Charla Echols, who went 6-for-6 in Florida’s opening series against the Bulls last weekend and was awarded SEC Player of the Week honors, helped bolster the Gators’ lineup after years of inconsistency. As a roster, the Gators were swinging with an average of .317 in the shortened 2020 season. But the top end of Florida’s lineup was performing greater than what the team’s batting average suggested. Adams, who led off for the Gators in 2020, produced an average of .375, while Echols and fifth-year first baseman Kendyl Lindaman were hitting above the .400 mark. Thus far in the 2021 campaign, the Gators’ lineup yielded .379 and .464 averages against the Bulls, before dipping down to the .333 mark against the Dolphins on Wednesday. And with five games coming at Florida this weekend, one could imagine that Tim Walton wants to see the batting average trend upwards and become more consistent. The Gators will open the Bubly Invitational on Friday evening with a 6 p.m. first pitch against Georgia Southern. Florida will be the first squad the Eagles have faced this season after their opening weekend series in Statesboro, Georgia was scrapped due to inclement weather. The same batch of rain cut the Gators’ opening weekend series from a tripleheader to a doubleheader. Prior to the season’s cancelation in 2020, the Eagles were finding momentum midway through their campaign. Georgia Southern had posted a 14-10 record in 2020, but played the SEC’s then No. 16-ranked South Carolina Gamecocks and the Auburn Tigers in close games. The Eagles fell short in both. “I think we understand what was taken from us, so there’s a different motivation behind finishing strong that includes last year,” Georgia Southern coach Kim Dean said ahead of the season. “Some of the goals and things of that nature that we had last year.” Dean’s sentiments are similar to those shared by Walton ahead of the season. “I think this is an opportunity for our team to go out and have fun,” Walton said in the preseason. “They’ve had something taken away from them in a way that they’ve never had it taken away from them before. “And I think the true meaning of, you know, play for something bigger than yourself and play like it’s your last... Because you never know when it is going to be your last. I think those are all proven topics now that we, as coaches, can hopefully use for our athletes or our athletes can use for their own motivation, you know, day in and day out.” Considering that they had to wait longer than most of the programs around the country, paired with the opportunity to play against the No. 6 team in the country, those on Georgia Southern’s roster are likely reeling to get to the dirt. The Eagles’ fifth year centerfielder Mekhia Freeman led the team’s hitting efforts last season. A member of the Sun Belt’s 2021 Pre-Season All-Conference team, Freeman was averaging .403 last season and had lifted five home runs out of the park, while also batting in 11 runs. Freeman is a product of Newnan, Georgia – the same town in which Charla Echols, Florida’s hitting leader, hails from. There must be something in the water. From the circle, senior righty Rylee Waldrep will likely be the weekend ace for the Eagles. Waldrep posted a 2.52 ERA behind 58.33 innings of action in 2020. Florida will battle the Eagles a total of three times through the course of the busy weekend. The other pair of games will come against the Charlotte 49ers, who enter Gainesville with three games under their belt. The Niners kicked of their 2021 campaign with a three-game series against Appalachian State last weekend where they picked up the series advantage behind two wins. Though it’s still early in the season and Charlotte has faced just one opponent, very little has silenced the 49ers bats through the opening trio of games. As a roster, Charlotte posts a .333 batting average. However, that same roster possesses three hitters averaging .400 or better, with sophomore Cori Henderson fielding hits over 50 percent of the time behind a .556 average. Fortunately for the Gators, the 49ers don’t appear to be a heavy hitting team. Of the team’s 29 hits through three games, just seven have gone for extra bags and no one has sent one over the fence to date. Meanwhile, junior bellcow pitcher Lindsey Walljasper has been a force in the circle for Charlotte. The right-handed ace has two wins under her belt this year and has dished out 15 innings of action. However, Walljasper’s mere four strikeouts indicates that the 49ers likely pitch for contact and rely heavily on the field. However, Walljasper probably hasn’t faced a lineup as talented as Florida’s. Keeping pitches low in the zone will be the key for Walljasper if she wants to keep the Gators’ bats at bay. And all eyes will be on Florida’s lineup following its shaky outing against the Dolphins on Wednesday night. All five of the No. 6-ranked Gators’ matchups can be listened to live on FloridaGators.com this weekend.

Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media this week to recap the 2020 season and preview spring practice for the 2021 offseason. Spring practice began on Thursday February 18. As a valued GatorBait Magazine subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. And don't forget to check back this weekend for a special All Spring Practice edition of GatorBait Magazine. Opening statement: “We’re getting excited to start up spring practice here on Thursday, in a couple days. Our guys to get back on the field, we’re going to have a lot of young players. One of the interesting things coming into it is how few guys that we have that have gone through spring practice. That’s a pretty big deal. We missed it last year. A lot of the ’19, ’20 and ’21 recruiting classes that have not really had a spring practice - that’s one of the most important developmental times, if I got that right. The ’19 class came in ... they had the ’19 season and then ’20 spring ball was canceled. So they didn’t get that. The ’20 class a lot of them showed up on campus early, they had no spring ball. And then we have all of this year’s class is showing up early, so quite a big chunk of guys. So this is going to be a critical couple of weeks for us with spring practice and development for these guys to get prepared for the future. We’re excited to kick it off. We’re excited to get going.” How serious was NFL interest? “You know what, I didn’t speak, I didn’t interview with any NFL teams this year. So, you know, most of my focus was on getting us back to Atlanta to get back to the SEC Championship game. “A lot of rumors out there, but I didn’t speak to anybody.” You’re not really answering the question … do you have any interest in leaving for college and heading to NFL down the road? “I’ll address it this way: I think one thing that’s really interesting, I think a lot of people are trying to figure out what the future of college football is going to hold and what that’s going to look like going forward. I love being here at the University of Florida. I think we have a great program. We have a great fan base, great history, the opportunity to be a championship program every single year. I think there are concerns with coaches is what the future of college football is going to look like. I think there’s a lot of uncertainties to it right now, of how that’s going to shape. That might not be completely answering your question. But I think that’s probably the fairest way as people look at things and look at the future is what is college football going to look like in three or four years. I think there’s a lot of uncertainty that we’re trying to figure out right now to see what our futures are going to hold.” New hires, faces on D, what will be focus to improve unit? “I think one of things, having spring ball we have to do a great job evaluating our players. The one thing you got to miss a lot of the spring, we met as a staff this morning … player evaluation, finding out exactly what our guys do well and don’t do well and making sure that our scheme fits the strength of our players. That we’re putting guys in the best position to be successful on the field, and we’re putting our best players out on the field. But a lot of that gets into an evaluation process that we’re going to get to go through this spring to evaluate a lot of young players out there and making sure that we’re putting them in the best position to be successful on Saturdays next fall.” Demarkus Bowman eligibility? A lot of numbers at RB? “We haven’t had a practice yet, so I don’t know. I have heard anything (eligibility). Again, I think there’s a lot of questions, I’ve heard, I haven’t heard anything completely, in writing I don’t think from the NCAA . You’ll hear of how they’re doing to decide all the different things, everything we’re still dealing with with COVID right now. So we’ll see that down the road. But again, like I said on a lot of things, we’re going to see what guys do well and build around the strengths of what we do. We might run some two running back sets, we might have multiple guys on the field ... “Last year we would have been hard-pressed to want to take Kyle Pitts off the field a whole lot, or Kardarius Toney off the field a whole lot. And I mean for us, when you get into 'do we have our best guys on the field?' Are we putting them in positions to be successful? If you have depth at running back you can probably play some more running backs, so that's what we're going to continue to evaluate through spring and getting into fall camp." WHAT WERE BIG ISSUES YOU SAW ON DEFENSE LAST YEAR? "Well, I think one of the things we struggled with and we talked about a lot is alignment, of making sure the sense of urgency in playing up-tempo offenses, of getting our calls in. Do we get the calls in in time? Do we get the calls made to the defense on the field in time? If the guys make the call, then make the formational adjustment in time when you're seeing no huddle. Part of it there is a little sense of urgency issue. I think we've got to be better on the field, if that makes sense. Because I'm on the call in, but then how fast are guys getting lined up? I think we were a little casual at times getting lined up, and all the sudden we're not getting lined up fast enough. The strength declarations aren't being made fast enough, and so guys are looking around and by the time they're looking around the ball's being snapped. So I think that's some stuff that we talked about in how we need to address that, how we need to fix that and how we need to make sure we have the right guys making all the right calls so that it happens much faster on the field." NO SPRING GAME, WHAT DO YOU LOSE FROM THAT? "I think the biggest benefit of a spring game, I think a couple, well, the benefits to the spring game. One, I think it's like a celebration for the players to see all the fans that come out and see new faces and get excited, one, about next year's team. Get excited about young players. Spring game's a great day in Gainesville, to have the fans get really excited about the next season. The thing you probably lose is some of the pressure. It will be the first time some of these guys take snaps in front of a big crowd. I mean usually the spring game crowd is bigger than any crowd we would have played against last season. So to go play on that stage I think is a big plus. But beyond that, there's, I've always had discussions that said sometimes we can get a lot more done in scrimmages than we would in the spring game. So there's going to be trade-off either way, so there's a big benefit in just having another, adding another scrimmage at the end of spring. That there's going to be a big plus to that of getting some more things accomplished in that scrimmage than you normally would in a spring game, which is kind of a little bit more of an exhibition showcase." WHAT WAS MOOD LIKE COMING BACK FROM WINTER BREAK AND COTTON BOWL? "I think guys really excited to get back, excited to get... hopefully looking forward to more normalcy moving forward into next season. I know excited to be able to have spring practice. When you look, we were kind of like on stage normal, normal. You go back to a year, which I mean it seems like it's less than a year, but probably for everybody in the world, seems like we're headed in this direction. We're meeting, we're about to head out to our first practice, boom, whole world changes. So I think now, having a little bit more of a schedule that now, I know socially we're a long way from where we need to be, but I think there's a little bit more familiarity with what's going on and we're going to get back to a little bit more of a regular routine. You know, get out to practice hopefully this week. So I think guys are kind of excited about that aspect of things." HOW EXCITED TO GET OUT THERE, ADD NEW PIECES, HOW WILL IDENTITY BE DEVELOPED? "I think it will be. I don't think we're going to define the identity after these 15 practices. 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. 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. I’ve always been a big believer offensively, you know our offensive playbook is probably like that and we use about that much of it in any given season. It might be taken from different parts but you use a much smaller part than the whole to fit the strengths. that’s one of the reasons within our scheme that I like our scheme. 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.” Brian Johnson moving on, will you call the majority of plays or by committee? “I don’t think much changes in what you do. We’ve kind of done it the same way for a long time. I’m really happy for Brian, the opportunity. I know Brian’s a great up-and-coming coach. You saw that with some of the opportunities he had this past season in college football and now the opportunity in the NFL. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him as a head coach in the near future either in college or the NFL. Obviously, you hate losing him and the relationship he has in the room but we have a core group of guys, a lot of our guys have been (with us). Brian wasn’t always the quarterback coach for us. A lot of years he wasn’t. Kind of how we do things doesn’t really change. We’re getting ready for practice. Garrick is picking up, the nice thing about Garrick McGee is you have a very veteran coach. He’s been a head coach, he’s been a coordinator, a long-time quarterback coach at the highest of levels coached great players. Last season, I think by being here as a senior analyst for us, even though he spent the majority of the time on defense in practice but he’s familiar with how we run the program and how it all works. I think that makes it a very easy adjustment moving forward.” How do you envision the offense changing with the different skillset of Emory Jones/Anthony Richardson then? “Yeah, well, that’s just what we do. We go back to some different schemes to utilize those guy's strengths. I think people look at us, we have a decent quarterback run package that we were kind of very conservative with Kyle Trask, you know? We wouldn’t do it with him in the four-minute offense because by the time he ran around the edge it probably took up the last four minutes of the game, right? Kyle would always do a great job, check us into the right plays, make run/pass checks. He was extremely athletic with maneuverability within the pocket, extremely accurate. 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. 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.” Is Kyle going to go use roller blades at pro day for his 40? “You know what, the one thing for him that I think people overlook when you go to evaluate is I don’t know how many guys, you know, Tom Brady’s not running for big yardage every single game. The one thing about Kyle that I think people miss is how athletic he was within the pocket in small movement. You weren’t going to mistake him for Jamelle Holieway running down the field on an option play for 70 yards and a touchdown. I just dated myself, probably, right? Lamar Jackson taking off for 70 yards for a touchdown down the field. But his athleticism within the pocket translates, I think, really well to the next level with his ability to slide, maneuver and just that quick, little short-area athleticism I think is going to translate really well for him to the next level.” Pro day date? March 31. Are there 31 days in March? I think it is. Is that what it is? It might even be in my calendar. Let me check for you real quick. I don’t think it’s written there. I know it’s at the very end of March. It’s March 31st. We went through a call in an SEC meeting with some of the new things that are happening. Had the NFL come on and how they’re going to do it. It will be very different than it’s been in the past. But I do feel comfortable. I don’t have all the specifics in front of me. There’s been a very thought-out plan by the league, by the schools and by the NFL of how we’re going to approach everybody, not just want to get the exposure and the right workouts for our guys, but also getting the NFL what they need for our guys for the future, so that’s going to be something that we’ll have done and we’re going to work with. But we’re hoping to have a really good pro day when it comes.” Replaying LSU/Bama in your head? What’s that been like? “I look at each game individually, why stuff happened. The different results of games, you know. You go back and evaluate, what could we do better? What should we have done different? How would it have changed? And you look at each of the games. There’s ways to look at it. You can sit there and look at it emotionally. You get upset. Oh, boy. You wanna win every single game you play. But you look at the different opportunities you had throughout the season, you know? And the games that we won, why did we win those games? What were things that we did that allowed us to be successful? What were game-changing moments? What are things that happened in the course of the game to be successful? And what are the things that happened in the games we didn’t win, and how do we prevent those from happening in the future? How do we improve at those areas? Each one… As a coach sometimes, the losses stick with you a lot more than the wins, so I probably am more versed in the losses than in the wins. Unfortunately those sit with you a little bit more. But you get through it, and you know. There are a lot of different scenarios you didn’t expect to happen. You look at the LSU game. There were a lot of different, random things that happened during the course of that game. With all of the randomness, you know, like tipped balls on the sidelines that go from out of bounds to inbounds to get intercepted. The turnovers in the red zone that we don’t usually have. With all that being said, all of a sudden we fall behind on a really long field goal at the end of the game, left with 19 seconds, and we still find a way to get our I think really one of the best kickers in college football the opportunity to go tie the game. You’re right there. “You look at Alabama, who ended up being the best team in the country last year. Lot of positives you take out of that. I think the confidence our guys played with and their belief and their expectations to win that game. I’ve played Alabama through the years. There’s a lot of times – there’s a lot of teams that will go and play Alabama, and you’ve lost before the game even started. They’ve had some great football teams over there, and Nick’s done an amazing job with some great teams. Guys will come in sometimes. You look at your team and you motivate, but they’re looking and they’re saying ‘Oh, boy. We’re going to need them to make mistakes for us to win the game.’ I don’t know. You go break down that game, I don’t think they made many mistakes, Alabama did that night. And we’re one possession away. We’re six points away from winning that game. And, you know, so our guys played with a confidence and the expectation to go win that game up until we just ran out of time. And so, you know, I think we look at those things of what we do and where we’re at as a program and how we need to build off of that moving forward, how we continue to grow and learn as players, as coaches, as a program, to continue to constantly get better and build – always be building for the future and trying to improve.” Why have you done better than most in the portal? "I don't know. I think if I go back to when I became a head coach 14 years ago and looking at junior college players and looking at other players throughout the years, we try to address needs with transfers more than just take transfers. And so what ends up happening is maybe you look successful because instead of just saying, ‘This guy’s a great player and it doesn’t matter, just take him out of the transfer portal.’ We’ve probably had some opportunities to get some guys that ended up being great players that we didn’t get, but maybe at that moment we didn’t feel the need. We had depth, we had experience at that position. We don’t go to the transfer portal always just to create depth or to go get backups. We go get guys that we expect and we need to be impact players and play for us. And then when they get on the field and play for us, it appears you have more success that way. Usually we’re hitting the transfer portal a lot for need base, for guys that are going to come in and make impacts because of any number of reasons, whether it’s guys that have transferred out of here or guys that have left early for the NFL Draft or injuries or whatever it is where you have this little gap in your roster and we need to fill it with a player who’s going to make an impact. If you get that transfer to come in -- now it’s transfer portal more than junior colleges -- but if you get that player to come in and then fill that need, we get a great player and they get that opportunity to get on the field right away and have success.” Early start for spring ball? “Spring ball starting early, a couple factors for us. One, we weren’t on the road recruiting in January. 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. I think as most of the country has experienced, we’re in Florida so we have the option to start spring ball a little bit earlier. 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. I hope everybody is safe with where they are in the country. So, we have that opportunity to do it. And the other one, as I said, 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. 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. And we’re going to 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. So that’s some of the reasons why we’re doing it.” So spring practice will still go out to April? "No, we're done March 20th. There's rules. There's, unless COVID, something happens for us right now, but there's, you get 15 practices. I think it's, I don't want to get in trouble with the NCAA, I think it's a 32 or 33 day window, with 15 practices within a 32 or 33 day window. And I might be off on that. I don't just randomly do it, I do check the rule book before I map out the practices." What were the most important things you learned from Urban Meyer about building a program? "You know, I think one of the biggest things with Urban, and I was really fortunate because we went to three very different locations with him, okay, is when you take your plan as a head coach, you take 'Hey, this is our plan to win. This is our program,' you take this guidebook of 'This is how I'm going to run the program.' You use it very much more as an outline than a specific. That's one of the biggest things I've learned. Now, the outline, and the general principles behind building the program and how we did it works, but it was different at Bowling Green than it was at Utah, and different at Utah than at Florida, and different at Florida than Mississippi State, and different back at Florida than it was at Mississippi State and Mississippi State than it was at Florida. So what you want to use is, you use this outline, this structure of core values, of what the core values are. What the program believes, what the philosophy of the program is, what your identity of a program is. How you become successful within the program and your plan to win within the program is. But you take that outline and you apply it to the team, the organization, the program that you have and it works, the plan works, but there are specifics within the plan that are going to be very different and that play out differently at different schools. So instead of trying to sit there are say 'Okay, we have this rigid plan that we use and it will work, no matter where you are, you do it exactly this way,' that's not the case. The outline works. The rules, general principles of the plan of what you need to build a program works, and then you adapt it to the university, the program, or for him now the organization, the Jaguars, that you're at." What are some of those core principles? "You know, I mean it changes. Ours, our program is built on accountability and trust. Those are some foundations within the players within our program, right? What's the identity of our program is a team, if you watch us play, your identity is a team that's going to play with relentless effort, have a passion for the game and reach their potential every day. So, there's a, I mean I could give you the corporate speech which would be quite a long time right now that I do for different corporations of building. Then you really want to find the identity of the players, right? Where's the leadership within your program, that's a big part of it. Is the leadership within, or is it coming from top-down? How is that coming? And then you're going to build and expand off it in that way. So, you know, when, when you look at those and have those, those different identities—those different values, those different leadership principles—and look at where your programs at, you know the type of the, I mean, the type of program you have, you know, I mean who you're recruiting, what's your, what's your recruiting base and recruiting philosophy as it comes to, you know, to us. I haven't spent a lot of time with him, I imagine he's going to get into, 'what's our draft compared to free agent philosophy’ moving forward and very much like our recruiting and how does that fit our organization. And it changes, you know, of the type of players and then how you how you relate to the players. Young people are awesome, but you know what? They, they're kind of, they're different. You know, I mean kids in the Midwest are kind of, a little different sometimes than kids in Florida. You know and the northeast are different than kids on the west coast. So, you, you kind of adapt around the different personalities and the different kids that you have that best fits that program.” Depth chart? "Yeah, we'll get you on game week right? We, I think we got one coming out on September the fifth.” You talked kind of generally about the transfer market but can you talk about those two defensive tackles that you brought in and kind of the need they needed to fill? "Yeah, you know what, because if you look at one of those, we kind of have that gap. I think we have some really good young talent, interior defensive linemen, and we had a bunch of guys over the last two years, you know that leave and walk out the door. And so there is kind of this little gap in the middle between the two. You know, and you look at Quany [Daquan Newkirk], look at Toney [Antonio Shelton] coming in and those guys, they have experience. They have, you know, one of the things that was huge for me that I'm very pleased with—because you talk to them, you research them, you try to find out but until until they're with you don't know—is their leadership, you know. They’re very, both older experienced players with great, with maturity. And they understood coming in, that they are some of the older players in that group and that meeting room now. And in that unit position unit. And so they are expected to have leadership qualities. They’re not expected to come in and just act like the new guy. They got to learn the program and what it is fast, but we have very high expectations for them and they've really shown that. I mean one thing, we haven't been out on the field to see anything yet, to see them that way. But one thing I've really been pleased with is their attitude, their work ethic and the leadership that they're bringing. That maturity that they're bringing in within the work ethic and preparation that we need to help show those young guys, continue to help those young guys grow and develop and see the right way to do things. And, you know, so I mean, we expect both of those guys to be huge contributors for us this year and, you know, a lot of their contributing contributions not just on the field that everyone else will see, but I think they have opportunities to make huge contributions off the field that nobody that really is going to get to see a whole lot except people within the program.” Wes McGriff and Jules Montinar, have you've been able to put positions on them in terms of what they'll be coaching. "Yeah. So, Jules will be working with the corners. I think we had that out there. And [McGriff] Crime Dog's gonna be safeties, nickels, and doing that and working together and just kind of making sure all of those guys—I think it's critical for us to have that whole communication within the secondary so they're going to be working together, you know, not just individual position but also together quite a bit.” What stood out about Wesley McGriff and Jules Montinar during the interview process and what is the expectation for the secondary to improve this year? "Well, it's always huge. You know me, I have extremely high expectations for everybody. But, you know, one of the things, you look at Wesley coming in and he's a guy I've known for a long time - actually, I tried to hire him before and wasn't able to -, but if you look at his background, as a secondary coach both in the Southeastern Conference and in the NFL, coordinator experience within the conference. You know, his personality, his energy, what he brings, the relationships he has with kids. Is somebody (you're?) really, really excited ... as soon as I made the change really I think first call I made was to him, so great to get him. "The second one, I like to go out, did a lot of research on different guys. And, you know, research once you got Wesley in place kind of I really took, kinda went in a different direction after we knew we had Crimedog (McGriff) in place of getting a guy of his experience that fit. I wanted to do, and I researched a lot of different directions of which we could go with the position after that. And meeting with Todd and going through and reviewing things, and going to do and dig a lot of research, going to find Jules was a guy that was a recruit of the year, has a great pedigree, he's learned, he's worked his way up within the coaching profession. And, I mean, had to kinda start battling, be at different levels and learn how to coach at different levels, learn under some great secondary coaches as well early in his career and then had success both in recruiting and with his players on the field and then you know you talk to a lot of guys ... as you do this you talk to guys, not just looking at their resume, but talk to guys they've worked with, in his personality and how he fits within the staff. You know, one thing to me about putting a staff together, it's not just 'hey let's just go crazy and go just, hey you have this... all-star roster', what you want to do is create a staff where everybody is going to work together and understand how it best fits together. I think that is a huge part of success, and everyone I'm talking to, what a great team guy he is, what a great high-energy guy he is, what a great young up-and-coming coach he is. A guy being from Florida and the opportunity to come coach at Florida, just all of that made him the guy that in the end was really a no-brainer for me." With some of the PR snafus you had last year, did you take any steps to make sure your message comes across more of what you want it to be? Dan: "Is that like the political correctness question or...?" Mark: "PR.. maybe, I don't know" Dan: "You know what, as I told the guys, there are probably some times I said things that, you know, maybe regrettable, maybe didn't come off the right way, maybe got interpreted a different way and probably in the time and the light maybe, got legs of its own in what happened. So, you know what? You're always trying to improve, always trying to get better and look at that. I think one of the things to do is as you look back and reflect and say 'hey, at that moment is that the right way to approach something?' You know what I mean? And we're in very unique times right now, you know of what goes on and sometimes a message, what your message that you're trying to get out might come across to somebody differently and then all of a sudden it kinda gets legs of its own and go in a different direction out there. So, I don't know I'm still trying to be pretty friendly with everybody and all of you guys. I'm still pretty open, I haven't gone to the one-word answers yet to kinda change that aspect of it and maybe not put my foot in my mouth or anything like that. But, we'll see, I'm gonna try to keep a positive message I guess and keep us on path for where we need to be as a team." Depth chart before week 1 opener? “I could go on, I’m just going to put ‘ors’, right, you get the ‘or’ on it. I’m going to put the whole roster by position, ‘or’, ‘or’, ‘or, ‘or’. I will say this, the hardest one for you guys with depth charts is, that’s one of those ones that sometimes grabs legs of its own, and I have to, you know, and then everyone. ‘Hey, well coach, I thought I was this, or I thought I was that’. And within the program they know, and we haven’t made any decisions yet on who’s going to be where, everybody’s still competing, but I do think a lot of times you put something out sometimes everyone runs and says ‘OK, this must be how it is’ when in reality that’s not quite there yet.” Name, image and likeness is what you were referencing earlier? How much time do you prepare for that? “Well, I think there’s a bunch. I think, you know, you look at how it affects a lot of different things, how it affects recruiting, how it affects your roster, your program. You look at the transfer rules, all of that. There’s so many changes that could be coming upon us that is unique. The name, image and likeness, I’m not against it. I’m for helping the athletes get what they deserve, and I think if you know, if you talk to our players, I’m always trying, whatever we legally can get you, we want to get you what we can get you and help you out in any way possible. And so you’re for it, but I think a lot of times when these things happen, when you’re a coach and you sit there and a new proposal and different things come out, on the outside looking in you think this is ‘OK this is what it’s going to be’. On the inside you think ‘Alright this is maybe the reality of how this could turn and the direction this is going to go into’, and so I think that is, there’s so much uncertainty about it, you know. I see so many – we have our law that’s passed now in the state of Florida that goes into effect July 1, how we have to prepare for that you know, and then is something going to change before that goes into effect and what that will be and how we address it. And it’s not always just the positive consequences of it, it are what are the side consequences that maybe no one’s expecting that we’re thinking about and that I have notes on and I’m not going get into, as you said I’m going to be careful of some of the things that I don’t need to open Pandora’s box with, with all the different scenarios of things that could happen but we spend a lot of time being aware and preparing for that moving forward and then trying to figure out what are the other side issues it’s going to create.” Concerned with other coaches flagging 3 years left on your deal to negative recruit? “Yeah, I don’t control that part of it, so I’ve got to worry about what I control, you know, which is getting the team ready to go for practice on Thursday. That can be in somebody else’s press conference, that’d be a good question for them.” NFL has been difficult for the best coaches, what about Urban that will help him connect with players at professional level? “I don’t know, I guess we’re going to have to see. I think Urban’s a great football coach. Obviously a really, really good head coach and he surrounds himself with great people. I know some of the guys as friends and some I don’t. Let’s see how that works. I think you can look at a lot of different coaches in a lot of different areas. There’s a lot that have gone from college to the NFL and been extremely successful and some that haven’t. It might not just be that coach. Whether it’s NFL to NFL, college to the NFL, NFL back to college, I think there’s a lot of different circumstances that go on within organizations sometimes. The easiest thing to do is say this coach was successful here but not here of why that didn’t work. I don’t know if everybody’s jumping up and down about Bill Belichick at the Browns when you look at it but Bill Belichick at the Patriots is pretty good or that aspect of things. Or you know Pete Carol not good in the pro start, really successful in college, and then really successful transition to the pros. I think there are so many different things to go in and say hey, this guy is good here and not here and how that works. But I do think Urban’s a guy that’s a great head coach, great leader, great motivator of players obviously, and his staff and people that work for him does a great job of developing them. He always surrounds himself with great people. He sets a very high standard and sets the bar extremely high within the organization and has been successful everywhere he’s been. So you’d think he’d be successful with the Jags and them being one of our local teams. Our other local teams had a pretty good year. You know Bruce Arians did an amazing job with those guys coming together and it was great to see the Bucs win the Super Bowl. That was pretty awesome.” What about Gus Malzahn at UCF and what about the two-for-one? “Is that going to happen? I’m really happy for Gus. I’m good friends with Gus. I’ve known him for a long time. I remember going out to visit him in Arkansas as a high school coach and him coming to spend days here and us talking a lot of football together. Him and his wife Christy, I mean great people. I’ve always had a lot of respect. He’s always done a great job and been really successful. Been an innovator. I think he’ll do a great job. I think everybody at UCF should be really excited to have him come in. I didn’t ask him. I think he’s been off for two months. When I talked to him one time I thought he might catch his breath for maybe a year just to catch your breath a little bit. But I know he’ll be ready to go and I’m really happy for him to get that opportunity at a great program like UCF. I think he’ll do a great job there.”

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: FIVE TEBOW MOMENTS TO REMEMBER Rather than give it one last shot at fulfilling the dreams he had as a kid of playing Major League Baseball, Tim Tebow walked away Wednesday, bringing down the curtain on an athletic career that will be remembered most for his four brilliant years at the University of Florida. Tebow critics – they are numerous and can’t help themselves when it comes to taking their shots – no doubt will say Tebow’s baseball career ended in failure just as his NFL career crashed and burned. The one thing the critics can’t handle, however, is the truth and the truth is other than Herschel Walker, Tim Tebow is probably the greatest college football player of all time. At Florida, he played in 55 games – 48 won by the Gators – and won two national championship rings, the first as a valuable contributor and Chris Leak’s backup QB in 2006, the second in 2008 when he almost willed UF to the national championship. He was 35-6 as the starting quarterback. He won the 2007 Heisman Trophy as a sophomore, should have won it in 2008 when he finished third behind Sam Bradford and Graham Harrell, and fifth in 2009. Not too many players ever win a single Heisman much less finish as a finalist three straight years. Tebow’s career numbers are staggering: 661-995 passing (66.4%) for 9,285 yards (9.3 per attempt) and 88 touchdowns with only 16 interceptions. He ran for 2,947 yards (4.3 per carry) and 57 touchdowns. Looking back on Tebow’s Florida football career, here are five minutes to savor: 1.THE ANNOUNCEMENT; DECEMBER 13, 2005: At the stroke of midnight, Tim Tebow was conflicted. Mike Shula and his Alabama coaching staff had spent Monday at the Tebow household in West Jacksonville and they presented compelling reasons why he should spend his college football career in Tuscaloosa. In a bedroom adorned with Florida posters and all sorts of Gator gear, Tebow dialed the offensive coordinator at Oklahoma State. It was late, but Larry Fedora answered the call. Back when he was Ron Zook’s offensive coordinator at Florida, Fedora had been the lead recruiter Tebow, the best dual threat quarterback in the country. Had he been bitter over the way things ended at Florida – Zook was fired, Fedora wasn’t retained by Urban Meyer – Fedora might have extolled the virtues of Alabama, but instead he urged Tebow to think back to the little kid who cried when the Gators lost to Nebraska in 1995 and who celebrated when UF walloped Florida State for the national championship in 1996. What Fedora did was to tap the brakes on the Alabama momentum. Tebow spent the day on the family farm contemplating his future and doing what he always did when he had a difficult decision to make – prayed earnestly. Throughout the day, there was all sorts of speculation that Tebow was going to turn his back on the team he grew up loving to head to Alabama. In the afternoon a packed Nease High School auditorium waited Tebow’s arrival. ESPN had had its crew there to broadcast the announcement live to a national audience. On the Paul Finebaum radio show out of Birmingham, the entire state of Alabama held its collective breath. Five minutes before Tebow was to take the podium and announce, Bob Redman and I waited for a call from a Tebow insider with the decision. We were about to head into the auditorium minus any indication when the phone rang to tell us it would be Florida. Bob called Finebaum’s producer. “Florida … it will be Florida,” Bob told him. “Are you sure?” came the reply. “100 percent,” Bob said. While Bob was on the phone with Finebaum, Tim Tebow was making the call to Mike Shula to tell him he was going to be a Gator. The call was polite and quite emotional. Next, Tebow tried to call Urban Meyer but his battery died. In Gainesville, Meyer got a ring from Tebow but then Tebow’s phone died before a word could be spoken. Because there was no call back, Meyer thought Tebow was going to announce for Bama. There at the Meyer compound in Haile Plantation, Urban walked out the pool area into the back yard. He was remembering the words of Greg Mattison, who had only a few days before while sitting in a plane on a Pennsylvania airport tarmac that failure to sign Tebow would set the Florida program back 10 years. While Urban paced in the yard, Shelley and the kids watched on ESPN as Tebow stood at the podium and announced he was going to be a Gator. The shouts from the living room carried out to the back yard. Only then did Meyer know he got his quarterback. Tebow changed the course of football at both Florida and Alabama forever. Tebow helped Meyer lead Florida to national championships in 2006 and 2008. Shula was fired after the 2006 season. In his place Alabama hired Nick Saban. If Tebow had gone to Alabama, Shula might still be the coach and Saban might not have become the greatest college football coach in history. 2. FOURTH AND ONE AT TENNESSEE; SEPTEMBER 16, 2006: That night in Neyland it seemed like old times as the 7th-ranked Gators (2-0) and 11th-ranked Vols (2-0) squared off with the winner expected to take home the SEC East championship. Florida trailed, 17-7, in the fourth quarter but following a UF touchdown, the Vols stretched their lead back to 20-14 with 10:49 to go on a 51-yard field goal by James Wilhoit that gave the entire Gator Nation a sense of impending doom. After all, it was Wilhoit, who two years before kicked a 50-yard field goal with six seconds to go that lifted Tennessee to a 30-28 win over the Gators, a win that seemed to set in motion the end of the Ron Zook era at UF. Starting at their own 35, the Gators moved quickly into Tennessee territory when DeShawn Wynn ripped off a 26-yard run on second and eight. A two-yard run by Wynn was followed by a three-yarder by Tebow. On third and five from the Tennessee 32, Chris Leak was forced to scramble for four yards to the Tennessee 28. Meyer called time out to decide what to do on fourth and one. There was still plenty of time on the clock but 45 yards stretched the limit of placekicker Chris Hetland’s field goal range. In the sideline huddle, Tebow all but demanded a chance to run the ball for the first down. Meyer admitted after the game it was a gamble to trust a freshman in that situation, but the look in Tebow’s eye told him to give the kid a chance. Tebow ran over the left side and pushed the pile for two yards for the first down. One play later, Leak found Dallas Baker for a 21-yard touchdown pass with 6:30 to go in the game. Hetland’s extra point gave the Gators a 21-20 lead. The Florida defense still had to do its part. Ray McDonald hurried Erik Ainge into a bad throw. Brandon Siler sacked Ainge, who was flagged on the play for intentional grounding, for a 14-yard loss. One play later, Reggie Nelson intercepted Ainge at the Florida 24 to seal the win. In his post-game remarks, Meyer shook his head, almost in disbelief that he had trusted the game to a freshman but Tebow wasn’t your every day freshman. 3. THE HEISMAN MOMENT; NOVEMBER 10, 2007: When he came into the media room to talk about the Gamecocks’ 51-31 loss to Florida at Williams-Brice Stadium, South Carolina coach Steve Spurrier asked the crowd of familiar faces he saw from both the South Carolina and Florida writers, “How many touchdowns did he get?” When told Tim Tebow had lit up the Gamecocks for seven touchdowns, Spurrier grinned a bit sheepishly. Having kicked that 40-yard field goal to beat Auburn back in 1966, Spurrier knew a Heisman Moment when he saw one and this was a Heisman Moment. The final numbers were 22-32 passing for 304 yards and two touchdowns, 26-121 rushing and five more touchdowns. Tebow produced touchdown passes of 22 yards to Jarred Fayson and 21 yards to Bubba Caldwell and touchdown runs of five, one, three, two and five yards. En route to the final touchdown, Tebow ran over now UF photographer Tim Casey on the sideline. Casey declined suggestions he have Tebow sign his bruise so it could be converted into a tattoo. In becoming the first sophomore to win the Heisman, Tebow completed 234-350 passes (66.9%) for 3,286 yards (9.4 per attempt) and 32 touchdowns. He also ran for 895 yards (4.3 per carry) and 23 more touchdowns. 4. THE FOURTH QUARTER VS. ALABAMA; DECEMBER 6, 2008: Alabama came into the SEC Championship Game unbeaten and ranked No. 1 nationally while the Gators were 11-1, having lost earlier in the season to Ole Miss. Following the loss to Ole Miss, Tebow made “The Promise” and led the Gators to eight straight wins and the SEC East title. When Alabama scored on the last play from scrimmage of the third quarter to take a 20-17 lead, it seemed the Crimson Tide had all the momentum. They had, after all, outscored UF 10-0 in the third quarter and completely dominated play on both sides of the football. The fourth quarter belonged to Tebow, however. Florida took a 24-17 lead with an 11-play, 62-yard scoring drive on which Tebow contributed a laser beam 13-yard completion down the middle to David Nelson and a 6-yard shovel pass to tight end Aaron Hernandez for a critical first down to the Alabama three on third and five. On first and goal, Tebow moved the pile two yards. On second down, with everyone expecting Tebow to plow it up the middle again, Tebow ran the option to perfection, pitching to Jeff Demps for the TD with 9:21 to go. When the Gator defense came up with a three and out, Tebow got the back at the UF 35 where he engineered an eight-play, 65-yard scoring drive that ate up 4:37 of the clock. On the drive, Tebow completed a 33-yard pass to Louis Murphy, a 15-yarder to Hernandez and a five-yard touchdown throw to Riley Cooper to provide the final margin of 31-20. For the game, Tebow was 14-22 passing for 216 yards and three touchdowns with 17-57 rushing. The win vaulted Florida into a national championship game matchup with Oklahoma. 5. BRADFORD WON THE HEISMAN, BUT TEBOW GOT THE BIG TROPHY; JANUARY 8, 2007: Twenty-five days prior to Florida’s national game matchup with Oklahoma, Oklahoma’s Sam Bradford won the Heisman Trophy thanks to a season in which he put up Star Wars numbers against Big 12 defenses. Tebow finished third in the voting. Star Wars was something you saw at a movie theater on January 8, however. Bradford, who had led Oklahoma to 702 regular season points and an NCAA record five straight games with at least 60 points, found the sledding a bit tougher against an SEC defense. He managed 256 passing yards and threw for a pair of critical interceptions against the Gators. Meanwhile, Tebow was easily the best quarterback on the field and in the nation. He threw for 231 yards and a pair of touchdowns while running for 110 on 22 carries to lead the Gators to a 24-14 win and the national championship. Like the SEC Championship Game, the fourth quarter belonged to Tebow. The Sooners tied the game at 14-14 with 12:13 to go in the game on a Bradford touchdown pass but the Gators answered with a 27-yard field goal by Jonathan Phillips on a drive sparked by Percy Harvin’s 52-yard run. After Ahmad Black picked off Bradford at the UF 24, Tebow marched the Gators 76 yards down the field for the touchdown that sealed the win. On the drive, Tebow went 6-6 passing, completing passes of 13 yards to Hernandez, 17 to Cooper, 29 to Nelson, four to Harvin and nine to Hernandez before a signature jump pass to Nelson for the TD from four yards out with 3:07 to go. Florida iced the win by running out the final 2:26 of the game. Everybody in the stadium in Miami knew Tebow was going to run the football but nobody was going to stop him. He ran five times for 30 yards as Bradford and Oklahoma’s high-powered offense could only stand on the sidelines and watch. ONE FINAL NOTE: Everybody has their favorite Tebow moments. I could write for the next two days about what Tim did in his four years at Florida. I was there for every single snap of all 55 games in which he played, but these five stand out on a night when contemplating his UF football career. He’s done with sports now, but not with life. Sports have provided Tebow a great platform that has given us so many memories, but sports will never define him. His greatest years are still to come answering to a higher calling.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: NO SPRING GAME? NO BIG DEAL For the second straight year, there won’t be an Orange and Blue Game. Last year’s game was canceled when all sports shut down because of the Covid-19 virus. Although the Gators could hold a spring game before a smaller than usual crowd this year, Dan Mullen decided he could better utilize the time in a real scrimmage rather than having his players go through the motions for the fans. There was a time when spring games had a real measure of importance for players trying to work their way up the depth chart with one last push in a game-like setting. That was then. This is now. The fear of injuries is most often given as the excuse for turning the spring game into Football Lite, but the evolution of the internet and television coverage has made coaches paranoid about showing off who’s made real progress for the whole world – and opposing head coaches and coordinators – to see. The other reason why the spring game evolved was recruiting. When you can draw 40,000 or so fans and maybe as many as 150 recruits to the stadium on a warm spring day it’s a great atmosphere and a chance for the coaching staff to gauge who’s really interested in being a Gator or who’s just here because it’s a chance to have the ego stroked. Get the game over in a hurry so the coaches can spend the time with recruits who made their way to the campus. The NCAA extended its dead period for recruiting until April 15 and is likely to bump it until June, so a stadium that’s maybe 25 percent filled and no contact with recruits eliminated the effect of the spring game for Mullen and the Florida staff. Since the spring game counts as an official scrimmage in the infinitely wise eyes of the NCAA, Mullen decided two hours on the practice field in which there is real hitting would be better served than four 12-minute quarters in the stadium with a running clock for the fans. Given the way the 2020 season ended and some of the holes that have to be filled, a scrimmage makes far more sense. At his Tuesday press conference, Mullen said, “There's a big benefit in just having another, adding another scrimmage at the end of spring. That there's going to be a big plus to that of getting some more things accomplished in that scrimmage than you normally would in a spring game, which is kind of a little bit more of an exhibition showcase.” Starting spring football a month earlier than usual probably will have an added benefit for roster management and helping kids who feel the need to find greener pastures. Typically, in the two or three weeks following the Orange and Blue Game anywhere from three to five kids elect to transfer out. A player at another school who feels the need to leave, will have a better idea of who’s staying and who’s leaving at Florida. The kids who are contemplating leaving Florida will have more than a month to explore landing options before they have to prep for final exams. For this year, at least, the benefits of no spring game far outweigh playing one in front of a crowd that is less than half of what it normally is. The sour taste of three straight losses to finish 2020 probably helped Mullen and his staff decide there are too many important decisions for 2021 that have to be made to waste an afternoon on an exhibition. FIVE WHO NEED TO HAVE A GREAT SPRING 1. Jacob Copeland: This is his contract year. A big spring could lead to the kind of fall that could vault him way up on NFL wide receiver prospect lists. 2. Stewart Reese: The lack of spring football and an offseason conditioning program caused him to put on 20 or more pounds which limited his mobility and made him undraftable. He needs a great spring and needs to get to less than 350 pounds. 3. Khris Bogle: He’s not the skinny kid who can’t win battles with offensive tackles anymore. He played at 240 last year. He needs to play at 250 or more in 2021. He needs a consistent spring in which he can prove he can be a terror off the edge. 4. Kemore Gamble: Mullen will use Arik Gilbert all over the field as a mismatch tight end. Gamble needs to prove he can be the hand on the ground guy who can be effective as a blocker while staying focused enough to remember to run good routes and catch the football. 5. Trey Dean III: It seemed he spent a good portion of 2020 like everyone else in the secondary – dazed and confused. He is the experienced guy on the back end. It’s time to put up or shut up. GATORS HIT THE WALL, FALL TO ARKANSAS For 13 minutes in the second half, the Gators (10-6, 6-5 SEC) played like a team on a mission from God as they erased a 14-point deficit to take a 62-61 lead over 24th-ranked Arkansas with 4:40 to go in the game. Maybe the Gators used up all their energy fighting back and maybe they just gave out of gas because they hadn’t played in two weeks and had only one practice with the entire team present during that time. Whatever the reason, the Gators hit the wall once they took the lead and reverted back to the way they played in the first half, when Arkansas was in complete control for a 40-30 lead at the intermission. The last 4:40 was ugly and that’s probably being kind as Arkansas outscored Florida 14-2 down the stretch to notch a seventh straight SEC win, 75-64. “I was very displeased with our overall physical effort in the first half,” Florida coach Mike White said. “We didn’t match Arkansas’ intensity and competitiveness level. I thought we did in the second half, but again down the stretch, didn’t make the plays needed but the first 15 minutes of the second half, we were very competitive.” In the final 4:40 it was one bad, unproductive possession after another for the Gators. Florida went 0-6 from the field, scoring its only two points at the foul line while committing four costly turnovers that Arkansas converted into seven points. When the Gators got a shot off, they couldn’t come up with a single offensive rebound to extend a possession. “I thought we lost a little bit of poise,” said Florida coach Mike White. “They’re a really good defensive team and we fought back. It’s a shame, we gave ourselves a chance there late and we just didn’t execute as well down the stretch as we needed to.” It was a bad shooting night for the Gators, particularly in the first half when they hit only 30.6% of their shots (11-36) overall and 21.4% (3-14) from the 3-point line. Things improved in the second half when the Gators made their run to take their only lead of the night on a driving layup by Tyree Appleby. Until the final 4:40, the Gators were 12-19 from the field but they couldn’t make an outside jumper when they needed it. For the game, the Gators were 23-61 from the field overall (37.7%) and 4-21 (19%) from the 3-point line. Appleby (16 points) and Colin Castleton (13) were the only two Gators in double figures. Castleton played 23 minutes despite the fact his only practice day while the Gators were sidelined with the Covid-19 issues was Monday. Next up for the Gators is Georgia (13-8, 6-8 SEC) at the O-Dome Saturday afternoon. Tuesday SEC games #24 Arkansas (17-5, 9-4 SEC) 75, FLORIDA (10-6, 6-5 SEC) 64 Georgia (13-8, 6-8 SEC) 80, #20 Missouri (13-6, 6-6 SEC) 70 Wednesday SEC games Kentucky (6-13, 5-7 SEC) at Vanderbilt (6-10, 2-8 SEC) South Carolina (5-9, 3-7 SEC) at #19 Tennessee (14-5, 7-5 SEC) Thursday SEC games #8 Alabama (17-5, 12-1 SEC) at Texas A&M (8-7, 2-6 SEC) LSU (13-6, 7-4 SEC) at Ole Miss (12-8, 7-6 SEC) Mississippi State (11-11, 5-8 SEC) at Auburn (11-11, 5-8 SEC) UF SPRING SPORTS Softball: The Gators (2-0) moved up to 5th in the ESPN/USA Today Top 25 poll. The Gators play their home opener against Jacksonville tonight (6 p.m.) at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium. Gymnastics: Trinity Thomas, who scored a perfect 10 with her floor routine in Florida’s win over LSU in Baton Rouge last Friday night, was named SEC Gymnast of the Week. Thomas won the All-Around with a 39.90, the highest score of any gymnast in the country this season and the fifth highest in NCAA history … Nya Reed, who won the vault at LSU with a 9.925, was named the SEC Co-Specialist of the Week ... The Gators continue as the No. 1 team in the nation. Baseball: The Gators are the unanimous No. 1 team in the nation in every baseball poll. The season begins Friday night against 21st-ranked Miami at the brand new Florida Ballpark. Tommy Mace is scheduled to be the Friday night starter with Jack Leftwich going Saturday and lefty Hunter Barco on Sunday. Volleyball: The Gators (10-2) are ranked 9th in the latest AVCA Coaches poll. The Gators will travel to Mississippi State Friday. Lacrosse: The Gators (1-0) remained 7th in the Inside Lacrosse poll. The Gators will face No. 1 North Carolina in Chapel Hill Saturday. Golf: The Florida women are ranked 13th while the UF men are ranked 29th in the latest poll from Golfweek. Track and Field (Indoor): The Florida women are ranked 6th nationally while the Florida men are ranked 8th. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC Alabama: Lorenzo Washington, a starting defensive lineman on Alabama’s 2009 national championship team, passed away Monday. No cause of death was listed. Arkansas: The season opening baseball game between 3rd-ranked Texas Tech and 8th-ranked Arkansas has been moved back to Saturday. The Razorbacks will play 9th-ranked Texas on Sunday and 10th-ranked TCU on Monday. All games will be played at Globe Life Field, home of the Texas Rangers. Auburn: Travis Williams, who coached the linebackers at Auburn from 2014-20 and who recently joined the Miami staff, is on the move to UCF where he will be Gus Malzahn’s defensive coordinator. Georgia: Georgia is planning to play a spring football game with attendance limited to what it was during the fall. Kentucky: Kentucky’s season opening baseball series at North Carolina has been postponed due to Covid-19 protocols. LSU: LSU has made it official that Clemson transfer linebacker Mike Jones has signed scholarship papers. Mississippi State: It will be a busy weekend for Mississippi State’s 7th-ranked baseball team. Saturday, the Bulldogs take on 9th-ranked Texas with 10th-ranked TCU on Sunday and 3rd-ranked Texas Tech on Monday. Missouri: Offensive lineman Jack Buford, who was a 4-star recruit in 2019, has placed his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Ole Miss: The 6th-ranked Rebels open their baseball season in the same tournament with Arkansas and Mississippi State. They will face TCU on Saturday, Texas Tech on Sunday and Texas on Monday. South Carolina: Division II Assumption college defensive back Carlins Platel will decide between Coastal Carolina, Mississippi State and South Carolina today. Platel will be a graduate transfer wherever he goes. Tennessee: Tim Banks, who was the safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator at Penn State, is the new defensive coordinator at Tennessee where he will make $1.3 million in 2021 … New offensive coordinator Alex Golesh will be paid $750,000. Vanderbilt: Last year’s Vanderbilt offensive coordinator Todd Fitch has taken a position as an analyst at Ohio State. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Jalen Johnson, who is Duke’s most talented basketball player, quit on his teammates. He says it’s to prep for the NBA Draft but I’m not buying that excuse, just as I don’t buy the prepping for the NFL Draft excuse used by college football players. Oh, there are kids who are legitimately concerned with injuries, but it’s my guess 90% or more of the kids who skip out on their teammates are doing it because they’re getting money from an agent. Until someone comes up with a practical solution and perhaps some stiff penalties for agents tampering with kids the problem is only going to get worse.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: THE OFFENSE WILL BE JUST FINE When Dak Prescott finished up his brilliant Mississippi State career in 2015, all expectations were for a significant drop off in the offense with Nick Fitzgerald taking over at quarterback. Prescott passed for 70 touchdowns and ran for 41 as the center piece of Dan Mullen’s offense from 2013-15. Fitzgerald’s best two offers other than Mississippi State were D1AA Mercer and Samford. All Fitzgerald did as a sophomore starter in 2016 was throw for 2,423 yards and 21 touchdowns while rushing for 1,375 yards and 16 TDs. The offense was fine although it went from more pass heavy to run oriented with Fitzgerald taking the snaps. It was the Mississippi State defense that backslid, giving up eight more points per game than it did in 2015. The situation for Mullen as spring practice begins Thursday at the University of Florida probably reminds him a lot of spring in Starkville back in 2016 when he began anew with Fitzgerald. Kyle Trask is gone, taking with him numerous school passing records. Taking his place will be Emory Jones, who finally get his chance to be a starter in his fourth spring on campus, and Anthony Richardson, who spent his freshman year of 2020 understudying both Trask and Jones. Neither Jones nor Richardson have been able to demonstrate in games that they can throw anywhere near as well as Trask, whose accuracy was astonishing at times. Trask was a pure pocket passer who surprised everyone when he ran. Jones and Richardson won’t surprise when they take off running but they may surprise if they can make good, accurate passes to a still talented group of receivers even without the presence of Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes. So the offense is going to evolve. It will definitely favor the run more and why not? In addition to having a pair of quarterbacks who can pick up big yardage whether on scrambles or designed runs, Mullen has the best group of running backs he’s ever had, enough that he’s going to have to creatively come up with ways to get more than one at a time on the field without making UF too predictable. It will not be ground and pound although the Gators might be more efficient at keeping the chains moving and the clock running in the fourth quarter, but the ability to run should create the ability for big plays in the passing game. With an offensive line that could be beastly and should be much improved, Florida’s offense is going to be just fine in 2021. Even with the new faces taking the snaps, the Gators are going to be able to score points, no doubt about it. That shouldn’t be a concern as spring football beings. The defense? Ask me what I think when spring practice concludes in a month. CAN THE GATORS SCORE A MUCH-NEEDED WIN OVER ARKANSAS TONIGHT? As evidenced in road wins last week over Kentucky and Missouri, defense isn’t exactly the calling card for 24th-ranked Arkansas (16-5, 8-4 SEC). The Razorbacks are going to give up their share of points – Kentucky scored 80, Missouri scored 81 – but they are also one of the most efficient offensive teams in the country. With five double figures scorers among the 10 players who factor in Eric Musselman’s rotations, you can’t focus on stopping one single player and that’s the dilemma for Mike White and Florida (10-5, 6-4 SEC) tonight at Bud Walton Arena. The way the Razorbacks run up and down the floor (82.8 points per game), it’s next to impossible to slow them down by simply taking out best scorer Moses Moody (16.3 points, 5.3 rebounds). If Moody isn’t making shots, then someone like Indiana transfer Justin Smith (11.6 points, 6-5 rebounds) or Jacksonville transfer JD Notae (13.0 points, 3.0 rebounds) will pick up the slack. The Razorbacks play at such a tempo they figure someone is going to have a hot hand every night. This will be a fast tempo game that lends itself to lots of points but the Gators are still going to have to get their share of stops if they intend to come out of this game with a win. The Gators lead the SEC both in overall shooting percentage (47.4) and 3-point shooting (37.5%) so points shouldn’t be a problem, particularly if Tyree Appleby focuses on being a distributor who gets the ball to Tre Mann (14.5 points, 40.9% on 3-pointers) and Noah Locke (11.5 points, 42% on 3-pointers) on the wings. If they can make some shots and 6-11 Colin Castleton (13.2 points, 5.6 rebounds) can avoid foul trouble in the middle, UF should have a chance to score a win over a ranked team which will help their NCAA Net Ranking considerably. SEC Basketball Update: The combination of bad weather and a positive test within the Tennessee program caused the SEC to split up its schedule. Instead of the normal Tuesday-Wednesday weekday schedule, there will be two games on Tuesday, two on Wednesday and three on Thursday. Still no word, however, on how Florida and Vanderbilt are going to make up three games lost to Covid-19, Missouri two or how Texas A&M is going to make up five. Tuesday SEC games FLORIDA (10-5, 6-4 SEC) at #24 Arkansas (16-5, 8-4 SEC) #20 Missouri (13-5, 6-5 SEC) at Georgia (12-8, 5-8 SEC) Wednesday SEC games Kentucky (6-13, 5-7 SEC) at Vanderbilt (6-10, 2-8 SEC) South Carolina (5-9, 3-7 SEC) at #19 Tennessee (14-5, 7-5 SEC) Thursday SEC games #9 Alabama (17-5, 12-1 SEC) at Texas A&M (8-7, 2-6 SEC) Mississippi State (11-11, 5-8 SEC) at Auburn (11-11, 5-8 SEC) LSU (13-6, 7-5 SEC) at Ole Miss (12-8, 7-6 SEC) WEEKLY HONORS FOR GATORS Lacrosse: Cara Trombetta was named American Athletic Conference (SEC doesn’t sponsor lacrosse) Defender of the Week and Sara Reznick was the AAC Freshman of the Week. Softball: Third baseman Charla Echols was the SEC Player of the Week. Volleyball: T’ara Ceasar was the SEC Offensive Player of the Week and Elli McKissock was the SEC Defensive Player of the Week. JUST HOP ON THE BUS GUS … AND OTHER COACHING THOUGHTS “Just hop on the bus, Gus, you don’t need to discuss much” – From Paul Simon’s “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” The love affair between Gus Malzahn and Auburn was tempestuous at best. They loved him those three times he beat Alabama, openly talked about getting rid of him when he didn’t beat Nick Saban or lost to Georgia. When he lost to Kirby Smart and Nick in 2020, there wasn’t a whole lot of discussion other than how many folks it would take to raise the $21.45 million of go away money need to finalize a well-publicized divorce. It wasn’t that Gus was a bad coach because he wasn’t, just that he had the misfortune of trying to share a state with arguably the greatest college football coach of all time who has Alabama on an unprecedented run of 163-17 with six national championships since the 2008 season. The Gus Bus has resurfaced in Orlando where UCF has given him a 5-year deal worth $2.25 million per. It’s not that he needs the money. He gets to keep the entire $21.45 million that it cost Auburn to send him packing. In many ways, UCF is a better job than the one from which Gus was just pink-slipped. He doesn’t have to share the state with Nick Saban, doesn’t have to play Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Texas A&M every year, and there are enough good football players in the state of Florida that he can win championships in the American Athletic Conference. Given that the College Football Playoff is on the verge of expanding to at least eight teams and quite possibly 16, Gus might just have UCF in the national championship hunt. As long as Nick Saban is the coach at Alabama, you can bet the farm Gus Malzahn will have a better chance to make the playoff at UCF than Auburn will with Bryan Harsin as its head coach. Gus Malzahn and Bryan Harsin are both former head coaches at Arkansas State who worked under UCF’s brand new athletic director Terry Mohajir. Mohajir took over at UCF a week ago, tasked immediately with finding a new head football coach to replace the departed Josh Heupel. Since Harsin was already gainfully employed at Auburn – hired by those zany folks who seem to think he will beat Nick more than Gus did – Mohajir found Gus on his speed dial, gave him a call and offered him the chance to keep UCF relevant. This is where this story gets really juicy. Back in 2017, Scott Frost led UCF to a 13-0 season that had athletic director Danny White proclaiming the Knights as the national champions. Never mind that Alabama, which Gus Malzahn beat in the regular season, beat Georgia to win the official national championship. In winning that 13th game to seal the perfect season, UCF beat Auburn and Gus Malzahn, of all people. So when White got hired at Tennessee to clean up the dysfunctional mess created by Phil Fulmer, he hired Heupel, who was Frost’s replacement at UCF. Heupel went 12-1 in 2018, a loss to LSU in the Fiesta Bowl preventing a second straight unbeaten season. Heupel went 16-7 in 2019-20, losing games he should have won because his defensive coordinator (Randy Shannon) kept figuring out ways to give up two or three fourth quarter touchdowns. It’s not an understatement to say that UCF fans weren’t exactly donning sack cloth and ashes to repent for whatever sins brought on the decline of the last two seasons under Heupel. Like Harsin, who has to deal with fans who can’t understand why Auburn can’t beat Nick, Heupel will have to deal with fans who think Tennessee should be better than 7-41. That is the Vols’ collective 16-year record against Florida, Alabama and Tennessee, the three teams UT fans demand their head coach beat. Like Auburn, Tennessee fans truly believe they are a whisker away from relevance and championships on a yearly basis. Barring a miracle of the walls of Jericho tumbling down proportions, Harsin and Auburn will be negotiating a divorce settlement in three or four years. Heupel’s offenses will put points on the board but that won’t stop the Vols from doing a yearly oh-fer against Florida, Alabama and Georgia. Meanwhile, Gus Malzahn is a better football coach than the one he replaced and a better coach than the one who replaced him at Auburn. Not only that, he doesn’t have to beat Alabama every year, something Bryan Harsin and Josh Heupel better do if they intend to stay on the good side of the lunatic fringe that makes up their fan bases. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Philadelphia Eagles are going to trade Carson Wentz sometime in the next few days. Although he had an inconsistent 2020 when he threw for 16 touchdowns while completing 15 passes to the other team in what was a very bad year for the Eagles, Wentz has had a very productive career. He was paid $39.4 million in 2020, the second year of a four-year deal that is worth $128 million. If he’s in Philadelphia much longer, the Eagles will owe him $10 million just because he’s still on the roster. I keep thinking that at some point owner will figure out that it’s absurd to keep throwing money around like this. But then I’m reminded that Jerry Jones and Dan Snyder are multi-gozillionaires who prove my late grandmother’s theory that some people have more money than brains.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: JUST IN CASE THE GATORS CAN PLAY BASKETBALL AGAIN … The Florida Gators (10-5, 6-4 SEC) are scheduled to play Arkansas (16-5, 8-4 SEC) in Fayette Nam Tuesday night. Emphasis on scheduled. Due to Covid-19 issues first with UF and then with Texas A&M, the Gators haven’t played a game since they lost to South Carolina at the O-Dome back on February 3. While the Gators had their season put on hold, the Arkansas Razorbacks have begun to sizzle, winning their last three games including roadies at Kentucky and 10th-ranked Missouri. Due to the inactivity, the Gators are three full games behind SEC leader Alabama not only in the standings but in the games-played category. Alabama will win the SEC but who finishes second, third and fourth for first round byes at the SEC Tournament remains to be decided. Without a clearcut directive from the SEC on how games will be made up – or even if they will be made up – the Gators cannot afford another loss or postponement to earn one of the remaining three first round byes. Currently, UF, Arkansas and LSU (13-6, 8-4 SEC) all have four losses in league play but the Gators have played two fewer games than the other two. Since the regular season ends on March 2, it’s likely the SEC will use March 6 for a makeup game to break ties for SEC Tournament (starts March 10) seeding, but what happens if are more than three teams tied in the loss column and the Gators are still a couple games behind in the games-played category? Meanwhile, Florida will be facing a very hot team that has vaulted into 23rd in the NCAA Net Rankings and 25th at Kenpom.com. Arkansas head coach Eric Musselman goes 10 deep and is not oblivious to surrounding 6-7 Justin Smith with four guards but even when they go small, they hit the boards very hard. If there is a real Achilles heel for the Gators it is consistency with their rebounding. The Gators were outrebounded by eight by South Carolina and that included 13 offensive rebounds. That’s about how many offensive rebounds the Razorbacks get every game. The Gators lead the SEC both in shooting (47.4%) and in 3-point percentage (37.5%). The last time UF came off an extended break it was December 30 against Vanderbilt in Nashville, a game the Gators hit 61.8% overall and 41.2% from the 3-point line. It will take that kind of shooting from Tre Mann, Noah Locke and Tyree Appleby plus help in the middle by Colin Castleton for UF to stay with the Razorbacks, who push the ball up the court every chance they get. Florida should be able to score but will they come off this break with a measure of defensive intensity? That will go a long way toward determining the outcome Tuesday night. Tuesday SEC games FLORIDA (10-5, 6-4 SEC) at Arkansas (16-5, 8-4 SEC) #10 Missouri (13-5, 6-5 SEC) at Georgia (12-8, 5-8 SEC) South Carolina (5-9, 3-7 SEC) at #16 Tennessee (14-5, 7-5 SEC) Mississippi State (11-11, 5-8 SEC) at Auburn (11-11, 5-8 SEC) Wednesday SEC games Kentucky (6-13, 5-7 SEC) at Vanderbilt (6-10, 2-8 SEC) #11 Alabama (17-5, 12-1 SEC) at Texas A&M (8-7, 2-6 SEC) LSU (13-6, 8-4 SEC) at Ole Miss (12-8, 7-6 SEC) NCAA NET RANKINGS FOR SEC TEAMS: 9. Alabama; 12. Tennessee; 23. Arkansas; 27. LSU; 28. FLORIDA; 36. Missouri; 55. Ole Miss; 65. Auburn; 76. Kentucky; 93. Mississippi State; 99. Georgia; 111. South Carolina; 125. Vanderbilt; 138. Texas A&M KENPOM.COM NATIONAL RANKINGS FOR SEC TEAMS: 8. Alabama; 16. Tennessee; 25. Arkansas; 27. LSU; 28. FLORIDA; 42. Missouri; 51. Ole Miss; 61. Auburn; 62. Kentucky; 78. Mississippi State; 83. South Carolina; 94. Georgia; 113. Vanderbilt; 131. Texas A&M THREE SEC TEAMS IN NCAA BRACKET REVEAL: In sort of a takeaway from the College Football Playoff weekly show, the NCAA did its first basketball bracket reveal Sunday. Here are the top 16 seeded teams: 1. Gonzaga; 2. Baylor; 3. Michigan; 4. Ohio State; 5. Illinois; 6. Villanova; 7. Alabama; 8. Houston; 9. Virginia; 10. West Virginia; 11. Tennessee; 12. Oklahoma; 13. Iowa; 14. Texas Tech; 15. Texas; 16. Missouri. BIG WEEKEND FOR UF SPORTS Gymnastics: Thanks to a brilliant 49.65 finish on the balance beam, the No. 1 Gators edged No. 2 LSU in Baton Rouge, 198.15-198.05. Trinity Thomas had a night to remember, scoring a perfect 10 on the floor as part of a 39.90 all-around score that is the fifth best in NCAA history. Next up for the Gators is 15th-ranked Kentucky at the O-Dome Friday night. Softball: The Gators opened their season with a doubleheader win over South Florida in Tampa, taking the first game 6-3 and a run-rule second game, 15-0. Charla Echols was the hitting star, going 6-6 in the two games with three singles, a double, a triple, a home run and six RBI. Katie Chronister got the game one win in relief with 3-1/3 innings of hitless relief. In game two, Elizabeth Hightower gave up one hit and struck out seven in four innings with Rylee Trlicek pitching a spotless fifth. The Gators make their home debut Wednesday night against Jacksonville. Lacrosse: The 8th-ranked Gators opened their season with a 14-7 win over Louisville. The Gators will face No. 1 North Carolina in Chapel Hill on Saturday. Men’s Golf: Ricky Castillo’s 6-under par final round led the Gators to the championship in the VyStar Invitational. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC (FOOTBALL) Alabama: Speaking on the Rich Eisen Show, Nick Saban questioned what will happen when the playoff expands from four to eight or more teams: “Way back when we decided to have two teams, pick the best two teams and let the play in a championship game, and everybody wanted to expand to four teams, it was my comment then that if we expand to four teams and have a playoff, everything is going to be about the playoff. All the media interest, everything is going to be about the Playoff. The shows they do all year, the shows like who gets into the NCAA Basketball Tournament, that’s what it’s going to be. All the other bowl games and teams that had good seasons, but didn’t quite get there, the interest in what they do in the offseason is going to be diminished. And that is exactly what’s happened.” Arkansas: Spring football practice begins March 16. Auburn: Spring football practice will begin on March 16 with the spring game slated for April 10. Georgia: Wide receiver Demitris Robinson faces felony charges for stealing a parking boot on an East Campus Parking Deck ... Defensive tackle Julian Rochster will return for 2021, his sixth season with the football program. Kentucky: Jemal Singleton, who was slated to be the running backs coach after leaving the Cincinnati Bengals, has departed for the Philadelphia Eagles where he will coach running backs and serve as assistant head coach. LSU: A quarterback controversy is looming when spring football practice begins. Myles Brennan, who missed the last seven games due to an injury, is healthy and ready to go. He threw for 11 touchdown passes in three games. He will compete in the spring with T.J. Finley, who threw for 941 yards and five touchdowns in five starts, and Max Johnson, who got two starts and finished the year with 1,069 passing yards and eight touchdowns. Mississippi State: Director of football recruiting Mike Villagrana is leaving to be the general manager on Charles Huff’s new staff at Marshall. Missouri: Steven Benson, a cornerback from NAIA Culver-Stockton, has transferred to Mizzou. Ole Miss: Former Ole Miss quarterback Jim Weatherly, who went on to fame and fortune as a song writer, passed away last week. Weatherly wrote such hit songs as Midnight Train to Georgia; Love Never Broke Anyone’s Heart; You’re the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me; Neither One of Us Wants to Be the First to Say Good-Bye; and I Still Love You. South Carolina: Running back MarShawn Lloyd, who missed his freshman year in 2020 with an injury, might be able to participate in spring practice. Tennessee: Former UT kicker Brett Cimaglia is transferring to Georgia Tech. At Tennessee, Cimaglia was 88-89 on extra points and 46-62 on field goals ... Former Auburn wide receivers coach Kodi Burns has joined the Tennessee staff. Texas A&M: Defensive lineman Jeremiah Martin, a 4-star recruit in 2018, is transferring to Washington. Vanderbilt: Placekicker Joseph Bulovas, who was 22-29 on field goals and 134-142 on extra points in 2018-19 at Alabama, is transferring to Vandy ... Jeff LePak, who was an offensive analyst at Syracuse, has joined the staff as a special teams analyst. GYPSIES IN THE PALACE: The ultimate football gypsy was Jim Niblack, who traipsed the globe coaching football, most of the time with his buddy Perry Moss. Among his whistlestops were Santa Fe High School, Gainesville High School, Jacksonville Sharks (WFL), Jacksonville Express (WFL), Kentucky, University of Florida, Buffalo Bills, Detroit (Arena), Sacramento (Canadian Football League), Orlando Renegades (USFL), Orlando Thunder (World League of American Football), Amsterdam Admirals (NFL Europe), Rhein Fire (NFL Europe), Orlando Predators (Arena) and perhaps two or three places I can no longer recall. In honor of Niblack, here is today’s football gypsy and runner-up. Gypsy King: Ron Zook is no longer helping out his former assistant and old buddy Mike Locksley as an analyst. Now Zooker is the full-time special teams coordinator at Maryland. Zooker has been the head coach at Florida (2002-04) and Illinois (2005-11), but he has also been an assistant at Murray State, Cincinnati, Kansas, Tennessee, Virginia Tech, Ohio State, Florida, Pittsburgh Steelers, Kansas City Chiefs, New Orleans Saints, Green Bay Packers, Salt Lake Stallions (Alliance of American Football) and now Maryland. Runner-up: Jay Valai may have set a record for most coaching jobs in a one-month period. It started out with Texas, where he coached corners, but when Tom Herman was fired along with the whole staff following the bowl game, Valai became the corners coach for Dana Holgorsen at Houston. Before he could even get new curtains for his office in Houston, the Philadelphia Eagles came calling and he departed for the NFL. Over the weekend he became the new corners coach for Nick Saban at Alabama. His first coaching assignment was quality control for Kirby Smart at Georgia for 2016-17 followed by a year with Andy Reid and the Kansas City Chiefs in 2018. He worked for Chris Ash at Rutgers in 2019 coaching corners before heading to Texas. Honorable mention: Drew Hughes isn’t a football coach, but he has worked in recruiting and personnel at the collegiate level with plenty of stops along the way. He got hired this weekend as a personnel guy by Urban Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars. He worked for Nick Saban at Alabama (2007-11), UCF (2012), North Carolina State (2013), Florida for Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain (2014-17), Tennessee (2018-19), South Carolina for Muschamp again (2020), Texas (2021) and now Jacksonville almost before he had a new set of keys cut for the executive toilet in Austin. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: When Mike and Maurkice Pouncey announced their retirement from the NFL last week – appropriate that identical twins so close in mannerisms, speech and size that you can’t tell them apart unless you know that Mike has this scar on his face – it brought back memories of the day they committed to Urban Meyer and the Gators back in 2006. I’ll go into all the details another time, but the deciding factor was what happened in Tallahassee earlier in the day. The twins were seriously considering committing to the Gators, but they had been considered mortal locks for FSU for almost two years. In Tallahassee, they hoped to have their doubts erased but when they were ushered into Bobby Bowden’s office, he couldn’t remember their names. Now, you might expect that Bowden couldn’t tell them apart. Very few people could, but their names? On their way back home to Lakeland, they decided to make an impromptu stop in Gainesville to visit Urban. Urban stopped what he was doing, made the time for them, and after a couple of hours, they committed to UF, a move they’ve never once regretted but one that set FSU back five years.

The Florida Gators, in conjunction with the Southeastern Conference, have officially announced the dates and full schedule for the Gators 2021 football season. After a year with 10 All-SEC games, tune-up’s and cupcakes will be a little bit of a disappointment. However, seeing them back on the schedule also means things are getting back to normal after a year in which nothing was. The Gators will play every SEC East team and LSU, as normal. The cross-over SEC West opponent this year is the Alabama Crimson Tide. Florida will get to stay at home or close there to, playing the first four games in the Sunshine State. The full schedule is as follows: September 4 vs. Florida Atlantic—Gainesville Sept. 11 at South Florida—Tampa Sept. 18 vs. Alabama—Gainesville Sept. 25 vs. Tennessee—Gainesville October 2 at Kentucky—Lexington, Kentucky Oct. 9 vs. Vanderbilt—Gainesville (Homecoming) Oct. 16 at LSU—Baton Rouge, Louisiana Oct. 23 BYE Oct. 30 vs. Georgia—Jacksonville, Florida November 6 at South Carolina—Columbia, South Carolina Nov. 13 vs Samford—Gainesville Nov. 20 at Missouri—Columbia, Missouri Nov. 27 vs. Florida State—Gainesville Where are the wins? Where are the losses? Where are the question marks? And what do we make of the Alabama game? Let’s break down the entire schedule. Week 1 and 2—FAU and South Florida The Gators should open 2-0 fairly easily. While you never want to overlook an opponent, the FAU Owls aren’t being coached by Lane Kiffin any longer and the USF Bulls outran their shot at glory a couple of years ago. Yes, the Gators will have to travel to face the Bulls, but it’s only a short trip to Tampa in which case pure strength and speed should outrun the green and gold. Of course, that is dependent on the Florida defense being even a modicum stronger than they were in 2020. That should be the case however, after a full offseason of workouts—something that wasn’t the case in 2020. Week 3—Alabama Perhaps the biggest break the Gators received on their schedule was Alabama being placed early. The rotation of the schedule meant they knew this one would be at home, but the Crimson Tide in late November on their way to another inevitable College Football Playoff run is much different than the Crimson Tide in early September. Nick Saban’s squad will always get strong, they’ll always become a rolling freight train and make a run, they’ll always find their footing and break some record or another despite how they start. But at that point in the schedule, new Offensive Coordinator Bill O’Brien (back in college after six years in the NFL) and second year quarterback Bryce Young will presumably still be in the young stages, figuring out each other and the college game. The past few years have also shown a trend of Alabama defense’s starting the first quarter of the season slow, before greasing the wheels enough to run over everyone. While Florida will be starting a lot of new offensive players as well, Emory Jones has significant experience at quarterback, Billy Gonzales has proved there’s no drop-off at receiver and the running back unit returns three massive contributors while adding two former five-stars. On defense, the front seven looks largely the same. Dan Mullen has also made sure to turn this games into a focal point, whipping fans and players into a frenzy that can’t be stopped. See: 2018 LSU and 2019 Auburn. Of course, this is Alabama. Bryce Young was a five-star and the No. 1 duel-threat QB in the nation. No Saban defense can ever be counted out. But if you’re going to draw the Tide, you want them in Week 3. Week 4—Tennessee The Volunteers are DOA until they prove they’re not. This game is at home, and back in mid-September where it belongs. Should be a win for Florida. Week 5—Kentucky The Wildcats have become a relatively tough draw the past few years. And notoriously, the last time the Gators played in Lexington, the Kyle Trask legend was born—partly because Florida was down by 19 points and needed a comeback after Feleipe Franks was hurt. While Kentucky is replacing a large portion of their offensive side of the ball, the new offensive coordinator is a branch off the Sean McVay coaching tree and the quarterback competition between Joey Gatewood and Beau Allen will be intriguing. The Wildcats will have to replace starting corners who helped Kentucky become a turnover machine in 2020. Florida should win this game on talent alone, looking to start another streak over the Wildcats. But Mark Stoops has made sure this is a tough game no matter what and that will be the case again in 2021. Week 6—Vanderbilt (Homecoming) The Commodores are replacing an entire staff and pinning most of their hopes on an admittedly talented young quarterback. It won’t be enough. Week 7—LSU The Tigers weren’t and aren’t the same team that won a National Championship after the 2019 season. They proved that last year. They also embarrassed the Gators last year. That’s something one doesn’t forget and something that has proven to fuel this rivalry. Myles Brennan will have another year of growth under his belt, and no LSU team should ever be counted out in Death Valley. But as mentioned, the embarrassment from last season and the shoe toss heard round the world will play a factor in this game. Week 8—Bye Florida should be ok this week. But you never know. Week 9—Georgia Ey, ey, ey. Once again, the season will swing on the Georgia game. What do the Bulldogs look like with J.T. Daniels (presumably) firmly at the helm? Can Kirby Smart make it a full offseason without losing a wave of 5-star talent to the transfer portal? The Bulldogs rank 92nd in returning production according to Bill Connelly of ESPN. A large reason is because Daniels isn’t counted as returning production since he wasn't a full-time starter last year. But the drop-off for Smart's squad is on defense. A litany of starters have left for the NFL, meaning the red and black will replace a large portion of their secondary. It’s too early to make a prediction on this game, because there’s so much unknown about Georgia…except for they’re continually going to be flirting with the Top 10 and even Top 5. The same could be said for the Gators right now, meaning yet again, this game will determine the SEC East. Week 10—South Carolina Again, another team replacing a large portion of the coaching staff and star playmakers. Letting Will Muschamp go was inevitable…but replacing Shi Smith at receiver and Jaycee Horn at corner will be harder than most Gamecock fans want to admit. South Carolina hired up with Shane Beamer. The former Oklahoma Sooners assistant could have had his pick of schools, but he wanted to return to a place where he'd made great memories, coaching under Steve Spurrier in Columbia from 2007-2010. Beamer will have the Gamecocks contending...the question is just how soon. It likely won't be in his first year, but they’ll be a team to watch as the game draws closer. Week 11—Samford This is the return of the cupcake game in Week 11. They're famous in the SEC. Samford is a small Baptist college in Birmingham. This isn't a slight to Samford. Both of my parents and several aunts and uncles are all graduates of their fine institution. But expect a lot of freshman in this game by second half. Week 12—Missouri The Tigers showed marked improvement under Eli Drinkwitz in his first season at the helm. Mizzou went 5-5 in an all conference schedule, with impressive wins over LSU, South Carolina and Vanderbilt. Yes, those were three down teams in 2020. But Missouri was supposed to be a down team as well. They weren’t. This is a late November game in what will most assuredly be a chilly Missouri. It’s one to keep an eye on as the Gators close out the SEC East schedule. Week 13—Florida State Last season was the first in decades that Florida and FSU didn’t play. That was probably good for the Seminoles who experienced one of their worst seasons ever, even with a win over then No. 5 North Carolina. The Noles went 3-6 with three games effectively cancelled. Even with the skid the Gators took at the end of the season, what would that game have looked like? It wouldn’t have been pretty for FSU. The schedule won’t change either, even with the Noles losing the 2020 game due to COVID-19 schedule changes. This one will be back in Gainesville, to the Gators favor. Much like Tennessee, until the Noles prove otherwise, this rivalry is currently in the Gators favor. All in all, the Gators will have another tough schedule, as any year in the SEC is, but one that does favor them more often than not. Their schedule swing on two games: Alabama and Georgia. They’ll most likely split them and then drop another against a team that will inevitably get hot and catch them by surprise. Vegas puts the Gators win total at 9.5 and if I were a betting woman, I’d take the over.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: FIVE THINGS THAT HAVE ME THINKING ON FRIDAY 1. YA GOT TROUBLE, RIGHT HERE IN RIVER CITY: If you ever saw “The Music Man,” whether as a Broadway production or on the big screen, then you’re familiar with that line in which Meredith Wilson discusses the moral demise of a small town in Indiana due to the opening of a pool hall. In the case of University of Florida basketball the trouble in River City is in the form of Covid-19, which has postponed a third straight game for the Gators (10-5, 6-4 SEC), but the trouble extends well beyond UF. A league that missed only one of 70 football games from late September until December 19 has seen basketball games postponed left and right without a plan to make up the games. I think the Gators have a team that is capable of winning at least a couple of games in the NCAA Tournament if all things are equal, but there is nothing equal about the schedule moving forward. And, no one in the SEC office seems to have come up with any kind of plan to make up all the lost games prior to the SEC Tournament beginning March 10 in Nashville. For the Gators to make up for lost games they would have to play three games per week for the next three weeks. If they have to make up all of the lost games – who’s to say there won’t be more before the regular season ends on March 3 – they will be at such a distinct disadvantage that it could cost them making the NCAA field. This should highlight the problem for Florida. Alabama leads the league with an 11-1 record and with Georgia on the Saturday marquee, the Crimson Tide will have a three-game lead in the games played column over the Gators. Barring something totally unforeseen such as Alabama going in the tank, the Crimson Tide is going to win the SEC regular season championship by a wide margin. The problem isn’t who’s going to win the SEC title but seeding for the league tournament. The five teams that trail Alabama in the SEC standings all have four losses in league play. Unless their games this weekend are postponed, Tennessee, Arkansas and LSU will play their 12th SEC game. Missouri, which has a 6-4 league record just like Florida, will be playing its 11th game. Tennessee, Arkansas, LSU, Missouri and Florida are all trying to earn one of the three remaining first round SEC Tournament byes. Finish among the top four in the regular season standings and you don’t play in the SEC Tournament until Friday. If the Gators were to finish fifth in the regular season, they would be playing on Thursday and it would take winning three straight games to make the tournament championship game as opposed to two straight by finishing second through fourth, quite a disadvantage if the Gators need a couple of wins in Nashville to make it to the NCAA. If the SEC reboots the schedule so that every team plays its 18 league games, while the Gators are playing three games per week for the next three weeks Tennessee, Arkansas and LSU will have only one week that requires a third game and Missouri two. The SEC prides itself on fairness, but what’s fair about that kind of arrangement? Does SEC commissioner Greg Sankey lop a couple of games off everyone’s schedule and make it 16 games for everyone? That might actually work, providing, of course, no other games are postponed but even that has some fairness problems. So this Florida team that can be so good when Tre Mann, Colin Castleton, Noah Locke and Tyree Appleby are all on the same page can only sit and wait for someone in the SEC office to come up with some sort of schedule that invokes a measure of fairness. With Arkansas (15-5, 7-4 SEC) on the schedule for Tuesday night in Fayette Nam, can the Gators even hope to play with any sense of timing and togetherness after missing three straight games and however many practice days since they last played? Ya got trouble, Gators, right here in River City. 2. FLORIDA GYMNASTICS, SOFTBALL, VOLLEYBALL, LACROSSE: It will be college gymnastics at its best when the No.1 Gators take on No. 2 LSU in Baton Rouge tonight, the marquee matchup of the entire season that could go a long way toward deciding the SEC championship. The Gators head into tonight’s meet (SEC Network, 7:30 p.m.) leading the conference on balance beam, vault and uneven bars with LSU leading in floor exercise. The Gators hold the nation’s top score of 197.85 against Missouri a couple of weeks ago. The Gators are led by junior Trinity Thomas, whose 39.75 all-around score (achieved twice this season) is the top score in the nation. Softball: We will never know just how good Florida’s softball team could have been last season when the Covid-19 virus shut down all collegiate sports. At the time, the Gators were 23-4 and had wins over five ranked teams. Nearly all the moving parts return from that crew for Tim Walton (750-156 at Florida; 862-219 overall), who heads into Saturday’s doubleheader against South Florida in Tampa with the nation’s 7th-ranked team in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Seven of last year’s starters return including slugging first baseman Kendyl Lindamin (62 homers, 207 RBI in her career which includes two years at Minnesota), gap-hitting Charla Echols (.417 batting average last year with eight homers) and second baseman Hannah Adams (.375 last year). They will be joined by Alabama transfer shortstop Skylar Wallace (.387 last year in Tuscaloosa). Florida also has one of the top 1-2 pitching duos in the country in Natalie Lugo (career 17-5, 1.92 ERA, 235 strikeouts in 189-2/3 innings) and Rylee Trlicek (9-2 as a freshman in 2020, 1.99 ERA). The Gators have more than enough talent to win the SEC. Do they have enough talent to make it back to the Women’s College World Series for the 11th time since 2008 and win Florida’s third NCAA title in school history? Volleyball: The spring portion of the schedule has begun with the Gators ranked 9th nationally. Thursday they completed a two-game sweep of LSU to move to 10-2 overall, 5-1 SEC. The Gators will travel to Mississippi State next weekend. Lacrosse: The Gators were 6-2 last year with wins over No. 1 Maryland and No. 3 Stony Brook when the virus halted the season. The Gators open the 2021 season at Louisville Saturday with a preseason No. 8 national ranking. Since the SEC doesn’t sponsor lacrosse, the Gators play in the American Athletic Conference. UF coach Amanda O’Leary is 168-45 in her 11 previous seasons. 3. NCAA WILL REVEAL ITS EARLY TOP 16 SEEDS SATURDAY: In what seems like a knockoff of the College Football Playoff’s weekly show when its top 25 teams are revealed starting a few weeks before the final four teams are chosen, the NCAA will stage its “March Madness Bracket Preview” Saturday at 12:30. If we go by the NCAA Net Rankings here is what the top 16 will look like: No. 1 seeds: Baylor, Gonzaga, Michigan, Illinois No. 2 seeds: Houston, Virginia, Ohio State, Iowa No. 3 seeds: Villanova, Alabama, Tennessee, Loyola of Chicago No. 4 seeds: Colgate, Texas Tech, Colorado, West Virginia Comments: There is absolutely no way Colgate from the non-scholarship Patriot League is going to be seeded anywhere close to the top four. Joe Lunardi doesn’t even have the Raiders in his 68-team bracket. He has Navy making it from the Patiot League. Jerry Palm of CBS has Colgate making it as a 14 seed … Despite two No. 1 and two No. 2 seeded teams, the Big Ten will extend its national championship drought. The last Big Ten team to win a national title was Michigan State in 2000 and before that Michigan in 1989. If the rankings are similar to those at KenPom.com the top 16 will look like: No. 1 seeds: Gonzaga, Baylor, Michigan, Illinois No. 2 seeds: Iowa, Houston, Ohio State, Villanova No. 3 seeds: Virginia, Alabama, Colorado, Wisconsin No. 4 seeds: Southern Cal, Tennessee; Loyola of Chicago, Florida State Comments: Five from the Big Ten? Oh please. There isn’t a team in the Big Ten that can hang with either Gonzaga or Baylor. Joe Lunardi lists the following as his top 16 teams: No. 1 seeds: Gonzaga, Baylor, Ohio State, Michigan No. 2 seeds: Alabama, Illinois, Houston, Villanova No. 3 seeds: Texas, Missouri, Virginia, Texas Tech No. 4 seeds: Iowa, Southern Cal, Oklahoma, Tennessee Comments: Too many from the Big Ten and only one each from the Big East and ACC? Am I the only one who doesn’t see Kentucky, Duke, Kansas or North Carolina among anyone’s top 16 teams? Some might call that righteous. Jerry Palm lists the following as his top 16 teams: No. 1 seeds: Gonzaga, Baylor, Villanova, Michigan No. 2 seeds: Alabama, Illinois, Ohio State, Missouri No. 3 seeds: Texas Tech, Houston, Tennessee, Texas No. 4 seeds: Iowa, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Oklahoma Comments: This makes a lot more sense than the NCAA Net rankings and doesn’t give nearly as much love to the Big Ten with just three teams … Note Palm has three SEC teams and only one from the ACC. How often does that happen? 4. WHEN IN DOUBT, TRADE YOUR QB: This should be a week to remember in the NFL, which has already seen one blockbuster quarterback trade that sent Matt Stafford from Detroit to the Los Angeles Rams in exchange for Jared Goff. The Philadelphia Eagles are edging closer to sending Carson Wentz to the Indianapolis Colts; the New York Jets are shopping Sam Darnold with the hope of landing either Zach Wilson or Justin Fields in the draft; Deshaun Watson wants out of Houston and will get his way before all is said and done but the price will be very high; Teddy Bridgewater is likely to be traded back to the New Orleans Saints, from whence he came so the Carolina Panthers can have a shot at either Trey Lance or Mac Jones; Russell Wilson is being dangled by the Seattle Seahawks to whoever comes up with plenty in return; and Dak Prescott is likely to be traded by the Dallas Cowboys since he’s not planning on signing a contract extension. Some are also predicting that the New England Patriots will make a trade with the San Francisco 49ers for Jimmy Garoppolo. All this is happening in a year in which as many as five quarterbacks should be taken in the first round of the NFL Draft with possibly two more going on day two. 5. ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Wherever Rodney Garner has coached in the Southeastern Conference there have been all sorts of whispers that if he doesn’t cheat then he is one of the all-time masters at bending the rules when it comes to recruiting. That has been the case for Garner ever since he broke into the SEC on the Tennessee staff back in 1996-97 and raised eyebrows have followed him to Georgia and Auburn. Garner is leaving Auburn now, heading to Tennessee, which has all sorts of NCAA trouble pending from alleged wrongdoing by former coach Jeremy Pruitt. Perhaps the best way to describe it is Garner is leaving one dysfunctional program for another, where, of course, folks will assume he’s cheating once again. Rodney Garner reminds me of that great line by the late great Robin Williams: “Cats are like Baptists. They raise hell, you just can’t catch them at it.” When it comes to recruiting, Rodney Garner is a cat.

Football season is like an old girlfriend or boyfriend – you can’t wait for them to get here, but on the other hand, after a long spell, here’s your keys, here’s the door, and don’t let it hit you in the kneecaps or solar plexus on the way out. Especially when things aren’t going your way and there is no foreseeable possibility of you ever winning an argument or being right again. Then you opt out. Time to turn the page. And if you’ll pardon my channeling Dan Jenkins: This last season, 2020, was more perplexing than a double-mother-in-law visit during plague of locusts and 10-day dust storm from Arabia via West Texas. That’s how Billy Clyde Puckett would describe it in a passage from "The Reunion at Herb’s Café", Jenkins’ last book. And Billy Clyde loved him some football, until he didn’t. So let’s say goodbye to the Florida Gators’ last season with a touch of remorse about what might have been, but with an industrial-size dose of gratitude for improvisation through a medical tsunami. It may have been an 8-4 season, but after the autopsy, it looked and felt more like a 10-2. The circumstances made it seem so. All was not lost; we will always have Georgia, and almost Alabama. We will always have Kyle Trask and Kyle Pitts and them. At times, Dan Mullen’s team made beautiful music, sometimes enough to distract us from the sad reality of the pestilence that engulfed us. At times, it felt like beautiful music. As Sally Jenkins inferred, invoking her father’s words on the final pages of The Reunion at Herb’s Café: “The sound was born on a summer night at the old Crystal Springs Pavilion in Fort Worth, Texas, when Bob Wills and his string band were entertaining the cowboys and their ladies from 9 until Fist Fight.” – Baja Oklahoma. That’s the Afterword. And now for the Foreword: Don’t panic Gator fans, because it doesn’t look too bad from up here in the Way Too Early Prediction Booth, as Shake Tiller might say. Upon further examination of the newly built Gator roster and the forthcoming, imposing schedule – yes, I know, there’s Alabama, Georgia and LSU – all hope is not lost for 2021, barring another tsunami. Let’s tell each other the truth: This season has got more humps than a semi-truckload of camels (Billy Clyde again). Let me count the ways, or humps, with possible solutions. 1. We have yet to see Emory Jones as a starter. Better, or worse, yet, we’ve never seen him take a snap under the supervision of his new position coach, Garrick McGee—let alone command "The Quarterback Room.” His cameo roles behind Trask were productive and, at times, impressive. Jones has the arm, but if anything needs more of a variety in his pitches and ought to consider taking something off his fastball in favor of a more catchable changeup. There is reason to believe, however, Jones is more than ready to assume his rightful place in Mullen’s string of quarterback successes. Emory Jones’ loyalty has been admirable. And his time has come. 2. This will not be the Air Trask Show. Mullen knows how to develop an offense around the style of his quarterback (see Chris Leak, see Tim Tebow – and all his Mississippi State QBs). He knows how to coach quarterbacks and has been known to have two Heisman winners in his QB Room (See photo above). It’s difficult to say until we see something of it in spring practice beginning March 16, but hard money says about a 50/50 split in run-pass ratio will prevail, with Jones toting the rock at least several of those times. The Run/Pass Option will become staple. And a bevy of solid running backs — Malik Davis, Nay’Quan Wright, Dameon Pierce, Lorenzo Lingard and new transfer Demarkus Bowman -- will be getting their touches. As far as receivers go, Billy Gonzalez will no doubt do his magic again. I am seeing considerable talent and strong potential in Jacob Copeland, Justin Shorter, Trent Whittemore, Xzavier Henderson, plus Tim Brewster’s tight ends, LSU transfer Arik Gilbert and returnees Keon Zipperer and Kemore Gamble. 3. What about the offensive line you ask? Good question. It transitions from a bunch of dancing bears going backwards as competent pass blockers to being retrained to go forward as run blockers. The question is, will they hire Fred Astaire or Derek Hough? John Hevesy is striving for another notch of gradual improvement and would no doubt like to pluck a starter out of the transfer portal, but it’s not likely. What he does have going is the depth of experience afforded by the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA. That proffers six-year veterans like Stewart Reese and Jean Delance (yes, I hear you boo birds) to blend with five-year vet T.J. Moore and four-year vets Richard Gouraige, Griffin McDowell – and a host of promising three-year returnees. The offensive line is not devoid of talent. 4. Defense: My biggest concern is the secondary, which broke down last year. There is talent with Trey Dean and Kaiir Elam. I withhold judgment until we can see the work of new coaches Wesley McGriff and Jules Montinar. Their fate might be dictated somewhat by the pass rush of the front seven. There was some help from The Transfer Portal with the arrival of D-linemen Antonio Shelton and DaQuan Newkirk, plus the return of Zach Carter, Dante Lang and Gervon Dexter and maybe new incoming CB Jason Marshall. Linebacker play has been sporadic, but the depth at the position could be an asset, especially the first nine – Jeremiah Moon, Ventrell Miller, Amari Burney, Brenton Cox, David Reese, Andrew Chatfield, Khris Bogle, Mohamoud Diabate and Diwun Black. We could spend half this story on the defense alone and the controversy of Todd Grantham, but I actually look for that to change with the new assistants joining him this spring. 5. Talent acquisition: Despite an average (No. 10) recruiting class and some of the whining that goes on with recruitniks, Mullen is doing fine cherry picking the transfer portal. In fact, as one message board jockey stated: “Never mind National SIGNING Day. Let’s have National TRANSFER PORTAL Day.” We get the point, and it’s a valid one. There is one more item to be considered: The future of Mullen. There were several speed bumps this year that had very little to do with his coaching. Aside from the season-ending tailspin that deprived Gator fans of an opportunity to finish off the season with warm, fuzzy thoughts, there were the matters of the NCAA probation penalty and show-cause for Mullen in which the University of Florida was anything BUT transparent; the unfortunate incidents of post-game comments after the loss at Texas A&M; plus his halftime dustup with Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz and several players exchanging punches after which suspensions took place. Then there was the unfortunate player behavior in the LSU “Shoe Game” which was a room-service victory for Ed Orgeron after Mullen already had it on his tray. Some of Mullen’s questionable antics might be chalked off to mental stress by a coach who, himself, had been dealing with Covid-19 and was trying desperately to hold things together for a strong closing act. But then, unfortunately came the whispers about Mullen flirting with the NFL which didn’t set well with the most loyal members of the Gator Nation, who can’t tell the difference between flirting and true romance. Maybe Mullen didn’t orchestrate it, but apparently he allowed it. Whether that can be blamed on his agent window-shopping him isn’t as important as the bad optics. Job-whispering might have been more damaging than all the other things together and could be a tough memory to erase. Having said that, Dan Mullen is absolutely, 100 percent the right man for the job at Florida, UF is fortunate to have him and Scott Stricklin knows that. There’s only one thing that will eradicate the misfortune of some of those not-so timely hiccups: Winning 10 games, including over either Georgia or Alabama, and getting back to Atlanta. Possible? Maybe.

Kyle Trask was considered a project who would eventually transfer to a D1AA school when he came to the University of Florida in 2015. By the time he finished his Florida career, Trask was a towering presence who was a Heisman Trophy finalist and the ultimate example of what happens when there is a confluence of work ethic, patience, development and coaching. Although the next chapter of the Trask story will be told in the National Football League, it is still relevant to the Florida Gators. When Feleipe Franks went down with an horrendous ankle injury in game three of the 2019 season, Trask stepped in unknown to anyone who hadn’t been watching practice the previous three years. From that fourth quarter comeback against Kentucky until his amazing performance when he torched mighty Alabama for 408 yards and three touchdown passes, Trask was the poster child for Dan Mullen’s offense and his ability to turn unknown talents into quarterbacking stars. Trask is only one key Gator gone from the 2020 team that spent almost the entire year ranked among the top six or seven teams in the country, yet it is his departure in particular that has all the people who do these way-too-early polls to predict the Gators will fall back to chasing Georgia in the SEC East. What most of these prognosticators fail to take into account is the way Mullen has rebuilt the roster since he took over at Florida in December of 2017. Mullen inherited a roster with far too many holes but through three years he’s won 29 games. Only Urban Meyer (31 from 2005-07) won more in his first three seasons in Gainesville. In addition to winning, Mullen has plugged all the holes to the point that from top to bottom this is the kind of roster it takes to contend in the SEC. With the benefit of a spring practice and an offseason strength and conditioning program that were both cancelled last year because of the nationwide Covid-19 shutdown, this should be a good enough team to not only challenge Georgia but win a second consecutive SEC East championship. With spring practice a month away, here is a look at the 2021 roster as it stands today complete with a position-by-position breakdown. (Anyone on a Division I roster in 2020 got an extra year of eligibility per an NCAA ruling) * Denotes walk-on OFFENSE QUARTERBACKS (4): Emory Jones (6-2, 210, 4th-year SO); Anthony Richardson (6-4, 235, 2nd-year FR); Carlos Del-Rio Wilson (6-3, 215, FR); Jalen Kitna (6-4, 200, FR) Springing forward: We know that Emory Jones can run the ball. He has the speed and elusiveness to find open space and turn a loss into a big gain. The question is can he throw the ball well enough to make opposing safeties back off the line? We’ve seen Jones make some very good throws in the past, but can he do it on a consistent basis? It would be a shock if he isn’t the opening day starter in 2021. That doesn’t mean Anthony Richardson won’t be a factor. He will get his share of reps both in practice and in games. Future star: Anthony Richardson has the size, the speed and a cannon for an arm. He will start the 2021 season apprenticing under Emory Jones, but make no mistake about it, he’s the future of the program. Mullen will make sure that Richardson gets snaps in every game in non-mop up situations to get him ready for the day when he takes over as THE guy. One to watch: Jalen Kitna is the son of former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna. He’s still filling out and will need a couple of years to develop his body. He was highly underrated coming out of high school, but people who have seen him play say he can make every throw. RUNNING BACKS (5): Malik Davis (5-10, 205, 5th-year JR); Dameon Pierce (5-10, 215, 4th-year JR); Lorenzo Lingard (6-0, 203, 4th-year SO); Nay’Quan Wright (5-9, 195, 3rd-year FR); Demarkcus Bowman (5-11, 195, 2nd-year SO) Springing forward: This will be Dameon Pierce’s fourth year in the system and finally he will get 10-15 carries per game. He can move the pile and he has a surprising burst of speed once he finds open space. Demarkcus Bowman didn’t transfer from Clemson to sit. He’s going to play from day one and at least share the carries with Pierce. Bowman is electric and has the ability to go the distance every time he touches the ball. The running backs room will be crowded but Mullen is a creative coach who will find ways to get all five of his backs on the field in some productive manner. Malik Davis may have found his niche as the third down back. Future star: Nay’Quan Wright has a similar shake-and-bake of the now departed Kadarius Toney. He proved last season that he can catch the ball. Given Mullen’s penchant for offensive creativity, look for Mullen to put Wright in the slot and use him both in the running and passing game the way he used Percy back when. One to watch: Lorenzo Lingard had virus issues and then a high ankle sprain to deal with so his playing time was quite limited in 2020. He has way too much speed and ability to waste away on the bench. If he’s healthy he will be a factor, whether at running back or in the slot. WIDE RECEIVERS (10): Rick Wells (6-1, 202, 6th-year SR); Jordan Pouncey (6-1, 212, 5th-year JR); Jacob Copeland (6-0, 203; 4th-year SO); Justin Shorter (6-5, 225, 4th-year SO); Trent Whittemore (6-4, 208, 3rd-year FR); Ja’Markis Weston (6-3, 215, 3rd-year FR); Xzavier Henderson (6-4, 191, 2nd-year FR); Ja’Quavion Fraziars (6-3, 211, 2nd-year FR); Daejon Reynolds (6-2, 210; FR); Markus Burke (6-3, 180, FR) Springing forward: The two names that jump off the page at you are Jacob Copeland and Justin Shorter. Both of them have all the physical attributes to be stars in the SEC but they both have to solve problems with the dropsies. If they can catch the ball, they’ll both have huge years because they are physical and fast enough to stretch a defense. Trent Whittemore and Xzavier Henderson are going to be on the field and they’re both going to see the football. Rick Wells surprised at the end of last season. Will it carry over? Ja’Markis Weston and Ja’Quavion Fraziers have too much talent to sit. They need to come to spring practice ready to contribute. Future star: We saw glimpses of what Xzavier Henderson could do as a true freshman last year. He spent the year learning how to run disciplined routes and how to be an effective downfield blocker. You don’t get on the field a lot if you can’t do those two things to the satisfaction of Billy Gonzales. Henderson has the size to go with the speed to be a consistent deep threat that will scare the bejabbers out of every defensive coordinator in the SEC. One to watch: Before he was injured last year, Trent Whittemore was becoming a vital part of the offense. He’s got size, great hands and is deceptively fast. He’s not afraid to go across the middle and he’s a willing, effective blocker. He reminds a lot of people of Chris Doering. TIGHT ENDS (6): Kemore Gamble (6-4, 248, 5th-year JR); Keon Zipperer (6-2, 240, 3rd-year SO); Jonathan Odom (6-5, 238; 2nd-year FR); Arik Gilbert (6-5, 253, 2nd-year SO); Nick Elksnis (6-6, 230, FR); Gage Wilcox (6-4, 228, FR) Springing forward: When Kyle Pitts was injured on a vicious targeting hit against Georgia, Kemore Gamble and Keon Zipperer stepped up and played well. Both of them have ability but consistency has eluded them so far. Gamble is a very good blocker who sometimes drops the football. Zipperer has sure hands but he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire as a blocker. Jonathan Odom was buried on the depth chart last year so this spring is critical for him. Nick Elksnis is an intriguing prospect with star potential. Future star: After a rather productive freshman year at LSU, Arik Gilbert surprisingly entered the transfer portal where he chose Florida with the express intent of becoming the next Kyle Pitts. He has the combination of size, speed and athletic ability to pick up where Pitts left off but we won’t see it until the fall. Gilbert doesn’t arrive on campus until May. One to watch: Nick Elksnis was coached in high school by former NFL QB Marc Brunell so he arrives with a keen understanding of route discipline. He’s not going to be a traditional tight end but one who flexes out, plays the slot and is used as a motion guy. Once he learns how to block he could be a big star. LINEMEN (16): Stewart Reese (6-6, 350, 6th-year SR); Jean Delance (6-3, 316, 6th-year SR); T.J. Moore (6-5, 300, 5th-year JR); Richard Gouraige (6-5, 316; 4th-year SO); Griffin McDowell (6-5, 300, 4th-year SO); Ethan White (6-5, 335, 3rd-year SO); Riley Simonds (6-3, 303, 3rd-year FR); Kingsley Eguakun (6-3, 322, 3rd-year FR); Michael Tarquin (6-5, 312, 3rd-year FR); Will Harrod (6-5, 330, 3rd-year FR); Josh Braun (6-6, 340, 2nd-year FR); Gerald Mincey (6-6, 337, 2nd-year FR); Richie Leonard (6-2, 347, 2nd-year FR); Yousef Mubharbil (6-5, 330, FR); Austin Barber (6-7, 300, FR); Jake Slaughter (6-4, 300, FR) Springing forward: Stone Forsythe and Brett Heggie have graduated leaving John Hevesy with three starters from last season in Stewart Reese, John Delance and Richard Gouraige. Gouraige will move from left guard to left tackle. If Reese has a good spring and summer conditioning so that his weight is less than 350 he could start at right tackle. Delance has had two inconsistent seasons at right tackle. Could he move inside where he’s a better run blocker with Reese moving outside? Josh Braun can play either guard positions as can Ethan White. White was being groomed to play center before he was injured last year. He could take over at center or could play guard. White to guard would likely mean Kingsley Eguakan takes over at center. Here is how we probably start the spring – Gouraige LT, Braun LG, White C, Reese RG, Delance RT. By the time spring is over, the line could look like this: Gouraige LT, White LG, Eguakan C, Braun RG and Reese RT. Future star: Josh Braun played in all 12 games as a true freshman and got one start, showing plenty of potential along the way. He’s probably going to stay inside at guard although he’s mobile enough to play right tackle. He’s big, strong and has a mean streak, which is a real plus for an interior lineman. One to watch: Ethan White spent 2019 dropping some serious tonnage (came to UF at 400). The leaner, meaner (335 pounds) version was set to have a huge 2020 whether at center or guard when he suffered a knee injury that curtailed his development. If he’s healthy, he will be on the field and could play center, both guard positions or right tackle. DEFENSE LINEMEN (14): Antonio Shelton (6-2, 327, 6th-year SR); DaQuan Newkirk (6-3, 317, 5th-year SR); Dylan Meeks (6-2, 250, 5th-year SR); Zachary Carter (6-4, 290, 5th-year JR); Dante Lang (6-5, 287, 4th-year SO); Jaelin Humphries (6-3, 325, 3rd-year SO); Gervon Dexter (6-6, 307, 2nd-year FR); Princely Umanmielen (6-4, 255, 2nd-year FR); Lamar Goods (6-2, 335, 2nd-year FR); Jalen Lee (6-2, 315, 2nd-year FR); Desmond Watson (6-5, 380, FR); Justus Boone (6-5, 250, FR); Tyreak Sapp (6-3, 255, FR); Christopher Thomas (6-6, 300, FR) Springing forward: After a disappointing 2020 in which the Gators had all sorts of problems stopping the run, the D-line will be retooled with transfers Antonio Shelton (Penn State) and DaQuan Newkirk (Auburn) providing experienced anchors with size and mobility at the tackles. Shelton will play the nose where he’s shown the ability to collapse the pocket. Newkirk is stout against the run. Zachary Carter’s decision to return for a fifth year was huge. He has 9.5 sacks the last two years and he can play both inside and outside. Gervon Dexter will play both inside and outside and he could be a dominator if he has a good spring and offseason. Dante Lang will be given a chance to be an edge rusher as will Princely Umanmielen and freshman Tyreak Sapp. The Gators picked up a monster of an inside guy when they signed Desmond Watson. If they get him down to a biscuit or two short of 350, he could plug two gaps in the middle of the line. Future star: Gervon Dexter had a typical year for a true freshman. He could make a brilliant play then disappear the next snap. He is that freakish combination of size and quickness that should enable him to become a terror whether it’s on the inside or the outside. His rise to stardom will be quick once he harnesses all that ability and becomes consistent. One to watch: Dante Lang came to Florida as a tight end, but he outgrew the position and moved over to defensive end. As a high school junior, he registered 20 sacks. After moving over from tight end last year, he played in 11 games, showing plenty of potential. Can he become that big, mobile defensive end that commands and consistently splits double teams? LINEBACKERS (16): Jeremiah Moon (6-5, 250, 6th-year SR); Ventrell Miller (6-1, 230, 5th-year JR); Amari Burney (6-2, 230, 4th-year JR); Brenton Cox Jr. (6-3, 250, 4th-year SO; David Reese (6-2, 241, 4th-year SO); Andrew Chatfield Jr. (6-2, 248, 4th-year SO); Khris Bogle (6-4, 240, 3rd-year SO); Mohamoud Diabate (6-3, 221, 3rd-year SO); Diwun Black (6-4, 225, 3rd-year SO); * Noah Keeter (6-6, 240, 3rd-year SO); Ty’Ron Hopper (6-2, 225, 3rd-year FR); Lloyd Summerall III (6-6, 236, 3rd-year FR); Derek Wingo (6-1, 233, 2nd-year FR); Antwaun Powell (6-3, 260, 2nd-year FR); Chief Borders (6-5, 242, FR); Jeremiah Williams (6-3, 230, FR) Springing forward: There is so much talent and athleticism for this group that you wonder why they didn’t have a better 2020? Twelve of the 16 linebackers on the projected 2021 roster will be in their third year in the system, so there won’t be any excuses if they aren’t measurably more productive and able to put people on the ground instead of giving up three, four and five extra yards. Jeremiah Moon is returning after an injury-plagued 2020. He was expected to be an All-SEC caliber performer last year but injuries limited him to four games. His maturity and that of Ventrell Miller and Amari Burney should make this unit better. There is plenty of speed to get to the quarterback with Moon, Brenton Cox Jr., Khris Bogle and Andrew Chatfield but can they cover anyone out of the backfield? On the inside, Miller and Mohamoud Diabate have to get better at hitting people and putting them on the ground. Can Diwun Black be the answer? Lloyd Summerall III, Antwaun Powell and true freshman Chief Borders could grow into D-linemen. Future star: Brenton Cox Jr. spent 2020 fighting through double and triple teams on every snap yet he still had 4.0 sacks and 18 quarterback hurries. If the Gators can get any consistent pass rush from the other side of the line, then Cox could have an All-SEC or even an All-America type of season. If he learned anything in 2020 it was to get physically stronger to win the hand fighting because opponents are going to use everything they can to slow him down off the edge. One to watch: Diwun Black won’t be here in the spring as he finishes up his academic work in junior college but he has the athletic ability and football instincts to have an immediate impact. He will be behind since he won’t have spring to learn the system and get the kind of conditioning and strength program that he didn’t have in juco. Can he make up for lost time in the summer months? If he’s game ready in August he can become Florida’s best middle linebacker since Brandon Spikes. SECONDARY (16): Trey Dean III (6-3, 200, 4th-year JR); Kaiir Elam (6-2, 193, 3rd-year SO); Jaydon Hill (6-0, 185, 2nd-year SO); Tre’Vez Johnson (5-11, 196, 2nd-year FR); Ethan Pouncey (6-1, 170, 2nd-year FR); Rashad Torrence II (6-0, 205, 2nd-year FR); Avery Helm (6-1, 170, 2nd-year SO); Kamar Wilcoxson (6-1, 183, 2nd-year FR); Jahari Rogers (5-11, 185, 2nd-year FR); Mordecai McDaniel (6-1, 207, 2nd-year FR); Fenley Graham (5-9, 174, 2nd-year FR); Jason Marshall (6-2, 180, FR); Corey Collier (6-2, 175, FR); Donovan McMillon (6-2, 193, FR); Jordan Young (6-0, 185, FR); Dakota Mitchell (6-0, 185, FR) Springing forward: Have you ever watched a clip of those old movies featuring the Keystone Cops? Total chaos. That’s what Florida’s secondary resembled last year. Blown coverages. Bad tackling. Confusion. That was the norm. How many of the problems were caused by a lack of spring practice and how much should be on the shoulders of the coaches? Mullen and defensive coordinator Todd Grantham addressed the coaching by dismissing last year’s secondary coaches, replacing them with Wesley McGriff (corners, formerly Auburn) and Jules Montinar (safeties, formerly USF). Will improved coaching turn this unit around? Safety Tre Dean III, Kaiir Elam and Jaydon Hill are the only players with multi-year experience so the Gators are going to be quite young, but there is no lack of speed and athleticism. Can they cover? Will they be able to tackle? Those are questions that will have to be answered. Fortunately, only two of the 16 corners and safeties will miss the spring. Heading into spring practice, the unit could look like this: Elam and freshman Jason Marshall at the corners, Dean and freshman Corey Collier at safety, Hill as the nickel corner and Rashad Torrence as the extra safety. If he’s healthy, Fenley Graham has the potential to be Florida’s most lethal returner since the days of Brandon James. Future star: Kaiir Elam emerged as the star in Florida’s secondary last year when he picked off two passes and had 11 pass breakups. His size and speed should make him an early rounder for the NFL Draft if he can put together a more consistent 2021. He has the ball skills but has to become a surer tackler and can’t have communication lapses when no one knows who’s covering who. If he can get past those problems he will be All-SEC and could make All-America. One to watch: Jason Marshall enrolled early with the intention of starting as a true freshman. Rated five stars, Marshall was the No. 2 corner in the country at Miami Palmetto. He has track speed and a nose for the football. He and Elamn would make for a serious tandem at the corners. SPECIAL TEAMS PUNTER (1): Jeremy Crashaw (6-4, 190, 2nd-year FR) PLACEKICKER (1): * Jace Christmann (6-0, 195, 5th-year SR) LONG SNAPPER (1): Rocco Underwood (6-4, 225, FR) Springing forward: The Gators were exceptional on special teams last year but placekicker Evan McPherson surprised by declaring early for the NFL and punter Jacob Finn entered the transfer portal. The replacement kicker is Jace Christmann, who hit 12-14 field goals for Mullen at Mississippi State in 2017 and 32-42 for his time in Starkville. The new punter will be Australian Jeremy Crashaw, whose booming punts in practice and two cannon shots in the Cotton Bowl were enough to convince Finn to transfer out. Rocco Underwood was generally considered the top long snapper in the country in high school, which is why he’s on scholarship at UF. Future star: By the time he’s finished at UF, Crashaw could have a career that rivals Ray Guy Award winner Chas Henry, who would hear Urban Meyer say, “Make it wet!” when he would take the field. One to watch: Christmann was injured and played in only three games at Mississippi State in 2020. If he’s healthy, then he gives the Gators an experienced kicker although he lacks McPherson’s overall range. If he’s good from 50 yards on in, Mullen can live with that.