The dust around Florida Gators coaching staff seemed to have settled. Outside interviews had been conducted, firings had been finished and promotions were complete. Then, the news came. Offensive Coordinator Brian Johnson is moving on to the NFL, where he has taken a job as the quarterbacks coach for the Philadelphia Eagles. Head Coach Dan Mullen had his replacement in place within 24 hours; an in-house promotion of defensive analyst Garrick McGee to OC. Johnson had interviewed for several jobs in the college football ranks earlier in the month and was also rumored to be in consideration for the newly opened head coaching position with the UCF Knights. But after the initial rush of interviews were complete, it seemed safe the Gators would have Johnson for at least one more year. It’s never been a secret that Johnson would move on sooner rather than later. He’s young (33), talented and extremely smart. He’s been with Mullen most of his career. The former Utah quarterback was coached by Mullen as a freshman then came on staff at Mississippi State as a quarterbacks coach. Moving with the staff to Gainesville, Johnson tutored Feleipe Franks and Kyle Trask then was named the first Black coordinator in program history. When Johnson started getting head coaching consideration the last two months, his fellow staff members bragged on the candidate. “He’s a dynamic person,” said Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham of Johnson. “He’s a great staff guy. He’s very knowledgeable about the offense and football in general. The other thing is he has a great relationship with his players and has the ability to communication. Anytime you can communicate with players and get them to believe -- belief is a powerful tool – and it allows you to get the most out of guys. I think those are the things that he does a really good job of.” Running back Nay’Quan Wright echoed Grantham, saying, “Coach Brian – Coach Johnson as we call him – he’s a cool guy, a great coach. He’s very knowledgeable. He’s good with all his players. He’s a player coach. We just feed off his energy. He come out to practice fired up. “He been under Coach Mullen for a while, so I mean, Coach Mullen is a great head coach and I’m pretty sure he is going to take some traits, what Coach Mullen is doing and the programs that he have been in and also he is going to have some of his own little recipes he want to add to the wrinkles that he thinks. But I think Coach Johnson will make a pretty huge head coach. I can see it in the years to come.” The Eagles job isn’t a head coaching position or even coordinator role. But it is in the NFL and for the competitor trait that drives coaches, it’s the ultimate goal. Proving he can make it as a QB coach, then a coordinator and eventually a head coach is what each person in this field dreams of doing. Furthermore, Johnson needs to prove he can do it out from underneath the Mullen umbrella. Although Johnson was the offensive coordinator and play caller, he still had Mullen there as a safety net. Whether or not it was used is of little matter to those conducting interviews. All they see is simply that it existed. And it’s understandable. Mullen has meant everything to Johnson over the years. Brian Johnson would be the first to say so. “I’ve known Coach for a really long time, since I was 16 years old, and I don't know if I could put into words the amount of respect that I have for him, not only as a football coach but as a person,” said Johnson during the 2020 season. “I've learned a tremendous amount from him, not just about football, just about life in general. I'm just really appreciative of everything that he's done for me throughout the course of my time as a player and throughout the course of my career as a coach, and I can't say enough great things about Coach and what he means as a person to me specifically and to our program overall.” Now he’s out to prove he can win without him. And the Gators are going to have to prove (remind) people that Dan Mullen is still one of the best play callers and quarterback developers in the country. On Thursday in Mobile, Alabama at the 2021 Reese’s Senior Bowl, mere hours after news broke of Johnson moving on to the Eagles, his former quarterback—Feleipe Franks—bragged on Johnson. He also made it clear it’s not as simple as “replacing” him. “First of all I’m excited for Coach Johnson going to the Eagles, he deserves it. I had the opportunity to be with him there for a couple of years and he really helped me a lot. I really just proud for him. “I wouldn’t say really to replace him. He’s a great guy, an even better coach and I’m really proud for him for making it that far.” You can’t really replace Brian Johnson. Which is why the Gators promoted McGee. McGee has been an Offensive Coordinator over the years at Northwestern, Arkansas, Louisville and Illinois. He spent two seasons (2012-2013) as the head coach of the UAB Blazers. He was an analyst and then wide receivers coach with the Missouri Tigers before coming to Florida and spending the 2020 season as a defensive analyst. The fact Mullen and the Gators were able to make the move so swiftly and promote from within indicates that was the contingency plan all along if Johnson was hired from any of the number of interviews he took the past month. McGee isn’t a lazy hire, but one could certainly call it safe. The close knit Mullen staff requires time to crack. Promoting from within meant Mullen could bring along someone he was at least comfortable with and give him a job that very well may be in title only. Mullen and wide receivers coach Billy Gonzales are capable of calling plays again, as they had done before Johnson was named OC. That allows McGee time to earn their trust to call the plays. It was always a given Brian Johnson would move on. Now he heads into the next great phase of his already stellar career, ready to prove he’s capable of standing on his own, but always as a proud bragging point for the Florida Gators.

Back in the pre-Internet day when there were still newspapers, my assignments often brought me back home to the sweet smell of orange blossoms wafting through the hills and valleys of Central and even North Central Florida. It was late March. Madness was about to ensue. The Masters was just around the corner. That pleasant, intoxicating fragrance triggered hope for all Florida Gator fans, because help was on the way. “Next Year” was going to be pregnant with possibilities. Spring has always been an important period of transition for Gator football -- a harbinger of things to come. Spring meant everything. I remember that famous quote from late Texas SID Jones Ramsey that in Austin there were just two seasons: “Football and Spring Football.” While that’s not true anymore in Austin, and perhaps never was in Gainesville, I can assure you that spring remains extremely important for the Florida football program. This one, especially. If everything from the last 11 months seems foggy, it’s because it was. There is an old adage, “Hope Springs Eternal,” but after the challenges we have all encountered, we need to reparaphrase it: “Eternal Spring Hope.” We must brandish patience, persistence, prayer and perhaps learn to pause in order to achieve perspective. And wear a mask, continue to stay safe. It has become very hip these days to put things on “pause” during the pandemic. It’s just another way of procrastinating, with a note from your doctor. I get the fact that it’s primarily a medical precaution -- but it’s also a way of dealing with the unpredictable. We’re not going to “pause” today with the intention of skipping this column. This is more of a time out/temperature check to reflect on where things have been, where they are going and what things look like from my GatorBait chair. As Gator fans look back on 2020 football season and then dare to peek around the corner at the promises of spring, they are in dire need of a little emotional, spiritual and mental pick-me-up. To wit: The loss of Offensive Coordinator Brian Johnson didn’t come at a good time and his replacement by Garrick McGee, which may or may not turn out to be more than adequate, didn’t seem to create a positive buzz. On that one, however, they should learn to trust the judgment of Mullen. (More on that in a moment regarding football.) Gator basketball’s late January spurt lifted spirits substantially, providing one of Mike White’s best weeks ever, with impressive wins over Tennessee and Georgia. Almost simultaneously with “Fire Mike White” pejoratives ringing in the background, somehow this Gator team, despite missing three of its best players, found the mustard to paste the No. 6 ranked Vols. When a team can win by 26 over a heavily favored rival while sorely short-handed, it’s downright inspirational. Following up with a dominating win over Georgia, the Gators began to get the attention of the bracketologists. And despite a ragged finish, they eventually also vanquished Vanderbilt. So this won’t be an entirely lackluster spring, devoid of potential competitive achievement. In addition to the promise of White’s team making it to The Dance – provided there IS a Dance – there will be the unveiling a brand, spanking new baseball stadium as the home of Kevin O’Sullivan’s highly regarded, pre-season No. 1 team. And, of course, Scott Stricklin’s whole arsenal of other superb non-revenue teams. So there is, indeed, hope, as many of us await our first or second vaccine shots with an eye toward a better future. By the same token, I can seldom ever recall such a tumultuous off-season for a returning Gator head football coach after a semi-successful year. And to some it felt like a bit of a disconnect with Dan Mullen as his team stumbled through losses in its final three games after enjoying a Top 6 perch almost the entire regular season and another New Year’s Six Bowl appearance. It was abrupt change. One of the stiffest prices of success is the loss of staff members. In Mullen’s case, he was all but showing the door to one or more assistant coaches. What he did not expect, most likely, was the sudden departure of the offensive coordinator that he trained and raised, although he knew it would eventually happen. All of a sudden Johnson shed his Gator orange and blue for Philadelphia green, where he will coach Eagle quarterbacks. When it did, he had Garrick McGee already in place. We all knew Johnson would be getting that call one day. He has come to the fore lately as bright young offensive mind with a special insight for training and coaching quarterbacks. I began to see him as college head coaching material, maybe even as a candidate to replace Josh Heupel at UCF. Who knew Johnson would accelerate to the highest level of football competition so quickly? I do remember another highly regarded offensive coordinator leaving Gainesville after a national championship season and how it impacted the program in a negative manner. However, I don’t think the loss of Johnson to Mullen will be as severe as was the loss of Mullen to Urban Meyer after 2008. Mullen left for Starkville and Steve Addazio took over. It will have to be proven out, but as a close-up observer to that 2008 era, one who was “imbedded” in the program while authoring the book “Urban’s Way,” it seemed to me, and others, that the Florida offense never recovered with Addazio in charge. And please don’t take that as a slam of Addazio. We must guard against going down those rabbit holes as we begin to heal physically, emotionally and spiritually. Check your pride and ego for a moment. We have sorely needed something besides cable news angst and the bald-face lies of Internet jibber-jabber to propel us forward. In normal times of national crisis we’ve always had sports to lean on, but even much of that was taken. Sports fans settled for whatever crumbs they could get. My friend Mark Cummins said in a recent message, in order to navigate through these combative times when tendencies are to criticize and find fault everywhere, we should try his “Hundred And One” idea. Pick somebody with whom you have difficulty communicating and think of just ONE good quality. Then give 100 percent in using that as a positive tool and perhaps even develop a vibe for a connection. And pray for a change in attitude. I can use all the help I can get, so let me start with some general introspection, as we sit here waiting, waiting, waiting for our second vaccine shot. We received a notification that we were scheduled for our shots Saturday and were given a number to call for an appointment. We had dialed it more than 150 times as of Thursday mid-day and received 150 busy signals. So I needed an attitude check. So I took a moment. First of all, gratitude. Thank you to all the health care workers. At our house, we’ve been semi-quarantined since March 13. I am hopeful that Saturday, or soon thereafter, we will receive that second shot and we’re looking forward to possible liberation from the four walls of this confinement. On a second note of gratitude: SEC and Gator football fans were treated to a smorgasbord of games and the fact that they were able to make it through an entire season with SEC representative Alabama winning the national championship is a testimony to resolve, brilliant problem-resolution and a willingness to find a way. So thank you to all those athletes, coaches, administrators and fans who shepherded us through the troubled waters and the oppressive uncertainty of football season -- and, in particular, the last 321 days of our health crisis. We’ve needed that distraction of sports to keep our sanity. Football is going to require a semi-reboot. We will all need to work on our patience, persistence, prayer and perspective. At the same time, even without the orange blossoms anymore, there is a scent of promise, a certain air of appreciation and expectation that will begin to roll our way over the next eight weeks. I’m a Hundred And One on that one. And by the way, just as I was wrapping up this column, I called the Heart of Florida Health Center. Three more rings, three more busy signals. On the fourth ring, a nice young lady named Jessica answered. We are now booked for our second vaccine shot on Monday at 1 p.m. Maybe it just required the extra patience of nearly three days and that 154th call. I’m learning.

MOBILE, AL—Feleipe Franks stepped to the microphone, his Arkansas Razorbacks helmet off to the side, his ever present smirk knowing and expecting what was about to come. And he was right. For the next 10 minutes, the 6-6 NFL prospect took varying questions but the majority of which concerned his time with the Florida Gators. The former Gators quarterback is at the 2021 Reese’s Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, hoping to improve his NFL draft stock and represent the Razorbacks. Before his path can move forward however, he has to reflect on where it’s been. And Feleipe Franks path will always be inexplicably intertwined with the Florida Gators. A redshirt year then two and a half years as a starter for the Gators, Franks was made a scapegoat for the Jim McElwain years then helped usher in the newfound success with Head Coach Dan Mullen and staff. A season ending injury in the early 2019 year meant Franks had to hand the reins over to Kyle Trask. His story from there has been told over and over again, to the point we won’t recap it again here. But feel free to read about it here. The most important takeaway for Franks from his time at Florida is what he can, well, take away. “When I went to Arkansas, I had a little reflection book. So when I was at Florida, all the little things that went on, kinda like [shushing the Gator crowd] and all those type of things, really just growing from it I think was important. Not necessarily like, ‘hey I did this or I did that,’ but growing from it, I think was important. And that’s part of it. “So I had a reflection book that I wrote a bunch of different things down that, ‘how can I get better? How can I improve as a player? As a person, and become the best person and player I can become?” It’s a practice he took with him from his time as a Gator. “After a season I would have like, same sort of thing, a reflection, like ‘how can I improve on this season?’ And those are little things, I try to do that to get better and better and really took it to the next step when I was transferring cause I wanna play in the NFL and I wanna play in the NFL for a long time and so it takes, really just the reflection part and being like ‘hey man like how can you get better from all this, how can you grow from this?’ “And so there really wasn’t I would say necessarily a game [at Florida] but really over the span of four years, in a span of like a season those have been reflections that I have done really just to try to get better man, as a leader, as a person, as player and just as a ultimate quarterback.” The Wakulla, Florida native helped lead Florida to a New Year’s Six Peach Bowl win in 2018 and move the Gators back into perenial Top 10 contention. But he was also a lightning rod during his time in Gainesville. A high-tempered, passionate player, he wasn’t above letting his emotions run his reactions. It made for some interesting moments in an orange and blue uniform. It almost meant that even those who hated him eventually loved him. It also served as a lesson in maturity for Franks, something for which he is eternally grateful. “I would’t change my career for anything. All those things that happened, it’s made me who I am today. It’s made me set myself aside and say ok these are the things you need to work on and be able to recognize them and work on them and grow from it.” The reflection journal contains five to 10 pages about his time at Florida, according to Franks, a fact he jokingly ribbed a reporter for asking about. “What kind of question is that,” he laughed, before humbly answering honestly. That’s the other thing his time at Florida helped teach the forever Florida Gator product. "Humility. Humility man. How to be able to say ‘you know what? I’m wrong.’ But at the same time be able to say, ‘how can I grow from it and how can I get better from it.?’ So I think that was important for me. That was important to me to say ‘OK, you did do this’ and recognize it and now shy away from it but at the same time being ‘ok how can I fix this?’ Cause a problem is only a problem till it gets solved. That’s how I kinda approach things and continue to grow really.”

Since the 2015-16 basketball season, Mike White’s first on the job at the University of Florida, the Gators have a 117-69 record. If you’re still hung up on Billy Donovan did it better (he did) and that maybe he will come back some day (he won’t) then you aren’t all that impressed. But consider this: Among the 14 teams that make up the Southeastern Conference, only Kentucky has a better record than the Gators and Mike White over that same stretch. When the Covid-19 virus brought the 2019-20 season to a screeching halt, the Gators were mortal locks to make their fourth straight NCAA Tournament and for White to post his fifth straight 20-win season. Only Donovan, who belongs in the Basketball Hall of Fame, has posted a better mark than that in Florida basketball history. Because of the ongoing problems of Covid-19 and the games missed following the on-court collapse of preseason SEC Player of the Year Keyontae Johnson, making it to 20 wins this season will be quite a challenge but the Gators are still in good shape to make the tournament, far better, actually, than Kentucky, which sits at 4-10 and in danger of spending March watching the madness on television. If Selection Sunday were held this week, the Gators would once again be mortal locks. As of Thursday night, the Gators were 9-4 with a 6-3 record in SEC play, but more importantly they were ranked 27th in the vital NCAA Net Rankings and 24th at Kenpom.com, the two rankings that matter most to the Selection Committee. The Net Rankings and Kenpom tell us that the Gators are playing at a fairly impressive level right now. That three-game winning streak might seem modest to the naked eye, but the Gators have impressive wins at home over LSU and then 6th-ranked Tennessee plus two SEC road wins (at Vanderbilt and at Georgia). These rankings are not buoyed by sympathy although the Gators get plenty from broadcast crews and the better basketball media in the country for not only forging on after Johnson went down but getting to the halfway point of the 18-game SEC portion of the schedule in second place. Not only have the Gators gotten there without Johnson but they’ve been forced to play three games without Scottie Lewis due to health protocols. They say that necessity is the mother of invention. Perhaps that best explains how it is the Gators are emerging as a top tier team from an SEC that figures to get six teams in the NCAA Tournament. Out of necessity, Mike White has taken stock of all his moving parts and figured out combinations that work quite well. This may irk the Fire Mike White crowd but only Alabama coach Nate Oates has done a better coaching job in the Southeastern Conference and he hasn’t had to deal with anything close to the amount of adversity as White. Necessity has meant shifting Tre Mann from the point to the wing where he can be a score first, pass second combo guard. On the wing, Mann no longer is forced to defend the quickest player on the other team and with Tyree Appleby at the point, Mann has been able to focus on looking for his shot. In the three games since Appleby became the starter at the point, Mann is averaging 17 points per game while hitting 5-11 from the 3-point line and 12-14 on his foul shots. He’s grabbed 14 rebounds, handed out nine assists, blocked two shots and picked up three steals. Appleby, meanwhile, is working on four straight games scoring in double figures but the last three since becoming the starter at the point have been impressive. Appleby is averaging 13 points per game while hitting 13-26 from the field and 5-10 from the 3-point line. He has nine rebounds, 16 assists, two blocked shots and seven steals. The Gators are better both offensively and defensively when he’s running the point. With Mann on one side of the floor and Appleby at the point, Noah Locke at the other wing is able to balance the floor from a purely shooting perspective. Focus on Mann and Locke will burn you from beyond the arc. In the last three games Locke has regained his shooting stroke and is getting 14 points per game while hitting 9-23 from the 3-point line. Without Johnson in the lineup, Colin Castleton has become a go-to guy in the middle who has picked up some of the scoring slack. He scored 26 points total in the four games in which Keyontae played. In Florida’s nine SEC games, all played without Johnson, he’s averaging 14.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game while hitting 63 percent of his shots including 13-17 in his last two outings. He has also blocked 20 shots. Teamed with Omar Payne, who has re-energized his game lately especially on the defensive end, the Gators have one of the better 1-2 combinations at the center position in the SEC. Lewis is healthy again which bodes well for the second half of the SEC schedule. Combine him with Anthony Duruji and Osayi Osifo and the Gators have three very capable defenders who rebound very well. Lewis can score in bursts and can go off from the 3-point line when he’s feeling it. The three of them contributed 19 points and eight rebounds off the bench in the Gators most recent win over Vanderbilt. White needs that kind of production every night from them as we move into the second half of the SEC season. White is also getting good minutes off the bench from Ques Glover at the point and from freshman shooter Samson Rhuzentsev who contributed five points in critical minutes off the bench when UF was saddled with first half foul trouble against Vandy. It is still way too early and there are too many variables such as Covid-19 to predict where the Gators will be in another month, at which time we’ll have a pretty good idea who’s in and who’s out of the NCAA Tournament. But for the moment, Florida is in good enough shape that ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi has them sitting solidly on the seven line. A win against West Virginia, a Lunardi four seed, in Morgantown this weekend in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge could vault Florida even further up the brackets and would certainly improve UF in both the NCAA Net Rankings and Kenpom but all this is speculation. What is important is what we know right now and that is Mike White has the Gators playing a very entertaining and solid brand of basketball that has them tied for second in the Southeastern Conference even without Keyontae Johnson. With Keyontae in the lineup, Florida figured to be one of the best four teams in the SEC this season. Without him, the Gators are clearly one of the four best and they have the entire month of February to prove they belong in the NCAA Tournament. In getting the Gators to this point, Mike White has a team that is quite capable of lighting up the scoreboard and is very, very entertaining to watch. Due to the virus and Keyontae going down, many predicted this would be a mulligan year for Mike White, one in which he would scratch out a win or two here and there while simply getting his players experience for next season. All that has changed in the last month, however. We don’t necessarily have to wait until next year because White is showing what he’s capable of doing as a coach and the Gators are responding with solid wins. By no means is this the team we expected when the season began back in November. The virus has postponed half of South Carolina’s SEC games and eliminated at least two weeks for Michigan up in the Big Ten, so what we see in March from any team in the country might not resemble what we see on the floor right now. The only certainty we have with Florida is that Mike White is showing he will adapt to whatever comes his way. And, if it’s anything like we saw in January, the Gators could be a very pleasant surprise.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: THINGS THAT SHOULD MAKE YOU GO HMMM 1. Dan Mullen didn’t get tossed off the turnip truck: As I read some of the commentary that’s out there regarding (a) Brian Johnson leaving for the Philadelphia Eagles and (b) Dan Mullen’s rapid promotion of Garrick McGee from analyst to quarterbacks coach, you would think that at the very worst Dan was dropped on his head too many times when he was an infant, at best tossed off a turnip truck back in November days before the Gators lost to LSU. He’s actually in full control of his faculties and he actually was steps ahead of the “Dan is clueless” crowd. Start with Brian Johnson. Mullen knew that it was time to kick Brian out of the nest. Brian Johnson wants to be a head coach and that wasn’t going to happen unless he actually had the kind of experience that lands him a coordinator position somewhere that he actually calls the plays. So when BJ took the job as the Eagles QB coach, it didn’t come as a surprise for Mullen. If anything it was encouraged. With the Eagles, he will be working with Carson Wentz and Jalen Hurts. In a year, maybe two, if the Eagles are successful – and they should be – Brian Johnson will either be somebody’s offensive coordinator in the NFL or he will have college teams inviting him to become their OC. Mullen knew that BJ would need to spread his wings and fly on his own a year ago, which is one of the reasons for the hire of Garrick McGee. McGee spent 2020 as an analyst learning the Mullen offense and getting to know personnel and other coaches. When it came time for BJ to make his move, McGee was right there, ready to take over. For those who think this was a “lazy hire,” please use your brain beside something to part your ears with. This was a calculated move all along and in elevating McGee into the QB coaching job, he got an assistant who (a) is an outstanding teacher of fundamentals, (b) is great at breaking down film and explaining the do’s and don’ts to the guys in his room, (c) having played quarterback himself and having coached quarterbacks for the better part of 20 years knows the position quite well and (d) is a rather decent recruiter. Recruit, you say? Ever hear of Lamar Jackson? I’m told by a Louisville booster friend of mine that Bobby Petrino wasn’t exactly sold on Lamar Jackson until Garrick McGee convinced him how he could dynamically change the offense. And, McGee was the hands on QB coach the next two seasons at Louisville before he made a rather monumental mistake and went to work for Lovie Smith at Illinois. No one will ever convince me that Lovie Smith is anything more than The Peter Principle personified. As a defensive coordinator he was at the zenith of his abilities. So here’s a question for you. What kind of QB was Lamar Jackson in college and what kind of QB does he continue to be in the NFL? Your standard drop back guy or a dual threat? Now ask yourself this question: What kind of quarterbacks are Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson? Dan Mullen didn’t take leave of his senses. He knew what was going to happen with Brian Johnson and he had a coach who spent a year learning the system ready to go. It wasn’t a coincidence that within an hour after word leaked out that BJ was leaving that Garrick McGee was promoted. 2. Mike White is doing a great coaching job: The Fire Mike White crowd probably is going to cringe when I say this, but Mike has done a rather impressive coaching job this year, especially when you consider he’s had to do it without Keyontae Johnson. When Keyontae went down, first and foremost, White had to hold his team together. This wasn’t a star player going down with a knee injury or some other typical injury. When Keyontae went down, teammates and fans alike feared for his life. The emotional toll took weeks to overcome. Three cancelled games after Johnson went down, White and the Gators plunged straight into the SEC portion of the schedule and it took a few games to figure out what would work in a post-Keyontae universe. The usual patsy suspects weren’t there to let him experiment with his rotations. All that had to be done on the fly. About three games ago, he found his combination that works with Tyree Appleby taking over the point and moving Tre Mann to the wing where he can focus on scoring. The scoring element for Mann was critical since the Gators are without Keyontae’s point production. On the wing, he can still be a creative passer but he’s looking first to score and most of his assists come when he gets into the lane off the bounce when he’s going head first to the rim. Another advantage of Appleby at the point is that Mann no longer has to deal with the opposing team’s quickest player defensively. That’s Appleby’s job and he’s thrived. In the three games since he took over as the starter, Appleby is scoring (13 per game … he’s in double figures the last four) and he’s distributing (5.3 assists per game) while hitting 50% of his shots. Did anyone see Colin Castleton turning into rock solid in the middle? He’s averaging 12.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.1 blocked shots per game while hitting 63.6% of his shots. Combined with Omar Payne, the Gators are getting 16.9 points, 9.2 rebounds and 3.7 blocked shots per game. You win a lot of games when you get that kind of production from your center. We’ve also seen in the last three games great production off the bench even when White has had to play what seems like some rather unorthodox combinations. The Gators rank fifth in the SEC in scoring (77.8 per game), first in field goal percentage (47.9%), first in 3-point shooting (37.8%), and third in free throw shooting (73.5%). Heading into Saturday’s SEC/Big 12 Challenge game in Morgantown against 11th-ranked West Virginia, the Gators sit solidly on Joe Lunardi’s seven line and they’re 27th in NCAA Net Rankings, 24th in Kenpom. If the Selection Committee were choosing tonight, the Gators would be solidly in the NCAA Tournament. Maybe it’s time for the Mike White skeptics to grudgingly admit that he does know how to coach a lick. 3. Prediction: This spring at least a couple Division I athletic programs will declare insolvency: None of the insolvent schools will be named Auburn, South Carolina or Texas although all three just spent an insane amount of money paying Gus Malzahn, Will Muschamp and Tom Herman not to coach their football teams anymore. At Auburn, South Carolina and Texas a few very well-heeled boosters simply got together and wrote some rather hefty checks to not only buy out their coaches but spend the money for the new guys to come in and take over the football programs. Not everybody has boosters who can write the huge checks, however, and there are more schools than we know about whose bank accounts are running on fumes. It’s easy to blame the pandemic because it cut sharply into everybody’s revenues but ridiculous to place all the blame on Covid-19. Reality is far too many schools have been living way too far beyond their means to the point that it only took a financial downturn to leave them gasping for air. Schools that have the benefit of boosters with deep pockets and large television contracts will figure out a way to survive, but the little guys who have champagne tastes and soda pop budgets are going to be hurting. The current financial model for anyone who doesn’t receive excessive millions in television money is unsustainable. As much as I don’t want to see it happen, I believe more than one school will announce it is dead broke within the coming months. More schools, particularly those in the Group of Five, should look to the Clemson model if they can avoid going under. Back in 1934 IPTAY was begun at Clemson to provide financial support for the athletic department. Back then it meant “I Pay Ten a Year” and in the years since the T has stood for twenty, thirty and thousand. With more than 30,000 members, IPTAY is formidable because it raises large amounts of money without relying on a few sugar daddy boosters. Clemson has a few fat cat boosters, but even without them, IPTAY has provided a rock solid foundation. You don’t need gozillionaires to succeed although it helps when you have them. 4. Speaking of folks with more money than brains …: This week’s hands down winner of The Dumb and Dumber Award goes to the University of Tennessee. Big surprise there, right? Not only has Tennessee set itself up for a gigantic lawsuit involving Jeremy Pruitt but it owes Kevin Steele a $900,000 buyout. Start with Pruitt. Yes he was the man in charge when all the recruiting violations took place but unless there is concrete evidence that he sanctioned the cheating or had knowledge that it was taking place, he may have himself one dandy of a lawsuit on his hands that can recover a substantial portion of the $12.8 million he would have been owed if fired without cause. Now, UT could very well have all the evidence they need, but if Pruitt sues – and he will – it could get messy proving who knew what and when. Tennessee knows that and the school will settle. Pruitt isn’t about to get $12.8 million, but he will have a rather nice golden parachute to ease his pain and suffering. Onto Steele. Phattus Maximus (former athletic director Phil Fulmer) approved the hire of Steele to be Pruitt’s defensive coordinator on a two-year deal worth $450,000 per. When Pruitt was canned Steele became the interim head coach. When Josh Heupel was hired as the replacement head coach, he decided he didn’t need a certifiable backstabber (That’s good ole Kev). So, now Tennessee is on the hook for $900,000 payable in installments over the next two years. And, he’s getting $4.1 million for getting fired along with the rest of the staff at Auburn. It does pay to get fired in the SEC! 5. Jamie Newman says he has no regrets for opting out in 2020: At the Senior Bowl, Jamie Newman who was the Heisman Trophy in Waiting Quarterback who opted out on perpetual National Champion in Waiting Georgia back in August, told folks at the Senior Bowl, “I don’t have any regrets about playing this season.” If that’s true, then I believe it is because Newman knew he was going to bomb as the Georgia QB and quit in an attempt to keep his NFL Draft stock from sinking to unfathomable depths in case he (a) couldn’t beat out Stetson Bennett IV for the starting job or (b) he couldn’t read a defense spelled CAT if you spotted him the C, the A and the T. I think Newman thought his draft stock was high enough – some had him the fourth or fifth draftable QB back in August – that the scouts would fall for his opt out and that he could wow them with his athleticism and ability to heave a football a long, long way at the Combine. Oops. No Combine this year. Now all the scouts have is his 2019 tape which includes, among other things, a deer in the headlights performance against Clemson. Oops.

Between the lasting taste of Florida Gator football’s humiliating loss to the Oklahoma Sooners in late December, plus another year of watching Florida basketball struggle to get over the hump of mediocrity, Florida Gators’ fans have been left reeling for the taste of success. Fortunately, the springtime is slated to bear success-tasting fruits. And they come in the shape of diamonds. The Gators’ two diamond sports, baseball and softball, are widely expected to be two of the best programs in the country. Florida baseball finished its shortened 2020 campaign as the top-ranked team in the nation, boasting a 16-1 record. To date, Kevin O’Sullivan and the Gators have maintained their No. 1 status. Heading into the preseason, four of the six major polls have been released – and each have the Gators crowned as the best team in America. The Gators’ lone sucker punch in 2020 came off the knuckles of the rivaling Florida State Seminoles on March 10. Florida State’s 2-0 upset over the Gators would be the last game ever played in Alfred A. McKethan Stadium. But in 2021, the Gators are onto bigger and better things. And that isn’t only because the Florida ball club waltzes into the 2021 campaign as the best team in America, but it will also boast one of the best college baseball venues in the nation. On February 19-21, the No. 1-ranked Gators will host the No. 11-ranked Miami Hurricanes for the first game ever played at the Florida Ballpark at Alfred A. McKethan Field. The $65 million project was slated to be opened towards the conclusion of the 2020 season, but like many other things, Covid-19 threw a wrench into those plans. But come February 19, the state of the art facility will finally get its grand opening. And if all goes as planned, the Florida Ballpark could house one of the best baseball teams in the program’s history. Following the NCAA’s decision to grant student-athletes an additional year of eligibility, the Gators returned eight of their nine position starters and three weekend pitchers. Six of Florida’s returners are included in Baseball America’s 2021 Major League Baseball Draft Top 200 Prospects. Perhaps the face of the program heading into 2021 is Jud Fabian, an Ocala native who Baseball America ranks as the No. 11 prospect in the 2021 MLB draft. The incoming junior started all 17 games at centerfield in 2020 and served as the Gators’ leadoff hitter. Fabian’s 20 hits (.294) were the second most on the team, while his 19 runs led the way for Florida. Behind Fabian is a trio of right-handed pitchers for Florida. Tommy Mace ranked as the No. 38 prospect, while Ben Specht and Jack Leftwich ranked at 92 and 139, respectively. In the long offseason, O’Sullivan and staff bagged the No. 6-ranked recruiting class, according to D1Baseball. "The Gators already had the most talented roster in the country returning to campus this fall," D1Baseball’s Aaron Fitt says. "And the rich got richer with this class, which gives the Gators another bumper crop of impact position players in the freshman class as well as a premier freshman lefty and a marquee arm from the JUCO ranks." Just across the street from the new ballpark, Florida’s softball program will look to continue its seventh year of dominance. Since 2014, the Gators’ softball team has opened its season in the top-10 in both major preseason polls. This year has proved no different. Though it will have been 340 days since their last game in March of 2020 when the Gators finally get back to the dirt, Tim Walton’s group was named the seventh-best team in the USA Today Preseason Coaches Poll and the sixth-best team by ESPN. In 2020, before the abrupt ending to their season, the Gators had amassed a record of 23-4. Florida was also off to a 3-0 start in SEC play. To get back into the groove in 2021, the Gators will visit Tampa to take on USF for a three-games series on February 13 and 14. And like its baseball counterpart, Florida’s softball program returns a majority of its roster heading into the 2021 season. Six members of Florida’s 2020 lineup will return in 2021. And if last season was any indication, this likely spells trouble for the opponents. The six Gators who will return in 2021 combined for a batting average of .378 in 2020. Florida’s offensive efforts are likely to be led by three-time NFCA All-American Kendyl Lindaman, who batted .410 last year. Charla Echols (.417), Cheyenne Lindsey (.381), Hannah Adams (.375), Jaimie Hoover (.325) and Julia Cottrill (.323) all rejoin Lindaman in the powerful lineup. Lindaman and Echols also recently appeared on the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year watchlist. In the circle, the Gators return four hurlers, with Rylee Trlicek (1.64 ERA) and Natalie Lugo (1.99 ERA) leading the pitching efforts. In recent months, Florida Gators fans have had to navigate through a bit of a rough patch. A show cause order against Dan Mullen, the horrifying incident with Keyontae Johnson and a number of coaching changes within the football program hasn’t helped ease the nerves of Gators fans. But trust me when I say it: The spring will bring forth diamonds in the rough.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: MULLEN WASTES NO TIME REPLACING BRIAN JOHNSON At some point the departure of Florida quarterbacks coach Brian Johnson was inevitable. Johnson is a brilliant young coach with an enormous future, but to remain at Florida was to remain in the shadow of Dan Mullen. Johnson loves Mullen and loves Florida, but he also wants to be a head coach someday so it was time to sprout his wings and move onto the kind of challenge that can get him to his goal. In the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles he will be working with Carson Wentz and former Alabama/Oklahoma QB Jalen Hurts. The news that Johnson was departing was still fresh when word got out that Mullen is elevating Garrick McGee to Johnson’s old spot. As a quarterbacks coach, McGee has had good success in the past, particularly working with Bobby Petrino at Arkansas and at Louisville. At Arkansas, McGee coached Ryan Mallett, who went on to become an NFL first rounder, and at Louisville he coached Lamar Jackson as a freshman and sophomore. McGee also worked under John Robinson at UNLV and Pat Fitzgerald at Northwestern. The only blemishes on his record are turning down the Tulsa job where he could have won, taking the UAB job where he couldn’t have won under the circumstances of 2012-13, and working for Lovie Smith at Illinois. Opinion: This isn’t a sexy hire but Mullen wasn’t exactly looking for sexy. With Emory Jones about to embark on becoming Florida’s starting quarterback and stud-in-waiting Anthony Richardson needing only coaching and experience to harness Dak Prescott-like ability, Mullen needed a quarterbacks coach who is exceptional at teaching fundamentals and reading defenses. He’s got that in McGee. GATORS GET SLOPPY BUT HANG ON TO BEAT VANDY The good news at the O-Dome Wednesday night was the Gators (9-4, 6-3 SEC) hit the midway point of the league schedule with their third straight win. The bad news was there is no excuse why they let Vanderbilt make a close game of it in the closing minutes. The Gators led by as many as 22 (57-35) with 9:52 left in the game, at which point they pretty much went on cruise control, allowing Vandy to close the gap to four with 37 seconds remaining. “I think we regressed today,” said Scottie Lewis, who had 10 points, four assists and two steals in his first action in four games as the Gators took a 78-71 win. Noah Locke, who scored 12, added, “We pretty much gave in, in a way that wasn’t focused enough and was playing as if the game was over. That’s something that we can’t do. We have to continue to play the same way throughout the whole game.” Try that in Morgantown on Saturday in the SEC/Big 12 challenge and 11th-ranked West Virginia will run the Gators out of the gym. Now, if the Gators play the way they did in the first ten minutes of the second half, they can play with anyone but after a 20-6 blitz straight out of the locker room, the ball stopped moving, players stood around too much on the offensive end and they couldn’t keep Scotty Pippen Jr. out of the lane. When the intensity lagged, Vanderbilt started chipping away and had the Gators on the ropes before a late barrage of free throws put the game on ice. Florida led 37-29 in a first half in which Mann only played three minutes and Colin Castleton five due to foul problems. In their absence, Lewis (all 10 of his points) and Locke (eight of his 12) picked up the scoring slack with help off the bench from Anthony Duruji (five) and Samson Rhuzentsev (five). The Gators did shoot well – 51.9% (28-54) overall and 43.5% (10-23) from the 3-point line – and they did a good job of sharing the basketball as five players scored in double figures and nine different Gators broke into the scoring column. Mann led the way for UF with 15 points, four rebounds, two assists and a blocked shot. Castleton scored all 13 of his points in the second half to go with five rebounds and a blocked shot. Tyree Appleby scored nine of his 12 points in the second half and led the Gators with six assists. Wednesday night SEC scores FLORIDA (9-4, 6-3 SEC) 78, Vanderbilt (4-10, 0-6 SEC) 71 South Carolina (4-5, 2-3 SEC) 83, Georgia (9-6, 2-6) 59 Arkansas (13-4, 5-4 SEC) 74, Ole Miss (8-6, 3-5 SEC) 59 Saturday SEC games FLORIDA (9-4) at #11 West Virginia (11-4) #9 Alabama (14-3) at #24 Oklahoma (10-4) Texas A&M (7-7, 2-6 SEC) at Kansas State (5-12) #10 Texas Tech at LSU (11-4) TCU (9-5) at #12 Missouri (10-3) Auburn (10-7) at #2 Baylor (15-0) Arkansas (12-4) at Oklahoma State (10-4) #15 Kansas (10-5) at #18 Tennessee (11-3) Iowa State (2-8) at Mississippi State (9-8) #5 Texas (11-3) at Kentucky (5-10) Ole Miss (8-7, 3-5 SEC) at Georgia (9-6, 2-6 SEC) South Carolina (4-5, 2-3 SEC) at Vanderbilt (4-10, 0-6 SEC) SEC FOOTBALL SCHEDULES FOR 2021 ALABAMA: 9/4 vs. Miami (Atlanta); 9/11 Mercer; 9/18 at Florida; 9/25 Southern Miss; 10/2 Ole Miss; 10/9 at Texas A&M; 10/16 at Mississippi State; 10/23 Tennessee; 11/6 LSU; 11/13 New Mexico State; 11/20 Arkansas; 11/27 at Auburn ARKANSAS: 9/4 Rice; 9/11 Texas; 9/18 Georgia Southern; 9/25 vs. Texas A&M (Arlington, TX); 10/2 Mississippi State; 10/9 at Ole Miss; 10/16 Auburn; 10/23 Arkansas-Pine Bluff; 11/6 Mississippi State; 11/13 at LSU; 11/20 at Alabama; 11/27 Missouri (Little Rock) AUBURN: 9/4 Akron; 9/11 Alabama State; 9/18 at Penn State; 9/25 Georgia State; 10/2 at LSU; 10/9 Georgia; 10/16 at Arkansas; 10/30 Ole Miss; 11/6 at Texas A&M; 11/13 Mississippi State; 11/20 at South Carolina; 11/27 Alabama FLORIDA: 9/4 Florida Atlantic; 9/11 at USF; 9/18 Alabama; 9/25 Tennessee; 10/2 at Kentucky; 10/9 Vanderbilt; 10/16 at LSU; 10/30 vs. Georgia (Jacksonville); 11/6 at South Carolina; 11/13 Samford; 11/20 at Missouri; 11/27 Florida State GEORGIA: 9/4 vs. Clemson (Charlotte); 9/11 UAB; 9/18 South Carolina; 9/25 at Vanderbilt; 10/2 Arkansas; 10/9 at Auburn; 10/16 Kentucky; 10/30 vs. Florida (Jacksonville); 11/6 Missouri; 11/13 at Tennessee; 11/20 Charleston Southern; 11/27 at Georgia Tech KENTUCKY: 9/4 Louisiana-Monroe; 9/11 Missouri; 9/18 Chattanooga; 9/25 at South Carolina; 10/2 Florida; 10/9 LSU; 10/16 at Georgia; LSU: 9/4 at UCLA; 9/11 McNeese State; 9/18 Central Michigan; 9/25 at Mississippi State; 10/2 Auburn; 10/9 at Kentucky; 10/16 Florida; 10/23 at Ole Miss; 11/6 at Alabama; 11/13 Arkansas; 11/20 Louisiana-Monroe; 11/27 vs. Texas A&M MISSISSIPPI STATE: 9/4 Louisiana Tech; 9/11 North Carolina State; 9/18 at Memphis; 9/25 LSU; 10/2 at Texas A&M; 10/16 Alabama; 10/23 at Vanderbilt; 10/30 Kentucky; 11/6 at Arkansas; 11/13 at Auburn; 11/20 Tennessee State; 11/27 Ole Miss MISSOURI: 9/4 Central Michigan; 9/11 at Kentucky; 9/18 SE Missouri; 9/25 at Boston College; 10/2 Tennessee; 10/9 North Texas; 10/16 Texas A&M; 10/30 at Vanderbilt; 11/6 at Georgia; 11/13 South Carolina; 11/20 Florida; 11/27 at Arkansas (Little Rock) OLE MISS: 9/6 vs. Louisville (Atlanta); 9/11 Austin Peay; 9/18 Tulane; 10/2 at Alabama; 10/9 Arkansas; 10/16 at Tennessee; 10/23 LSU; 10/30 Auburn; 11/6 Liberty; 11/13 Texas A&M; 11/20 Vanderbilt; 11/27 at Mississippi State SOUTH CAROLINA: 9/4 Eastern Illinois; 9/11 at East Carolina; 9/18 at Georgia; 9/25 Kentucky; 10/2 Troy; 10/9 at Tennessee; 10/16 Vanderbilt; 10/23 at Texas A&M; 11/6 Florida; 11/13 at Missouri; 11/20 Auburn; 11/27 Clemson TENNESSEE: 9/4 Bowling Green; 9/11 Pittsburgh; 9/18 Tennessee Tech; 9/25 at Florida; 10/2 at Missouri; 10/9 South Carolina; 10/16 Ole Miss; 10/23 at Alabama; 11/6 at Kentucky; 11/13 Georgia; 11/20 South Alabama; 11/27 Vanderbilt TEXAS A&M: 9/4 Kent State; 9/11 vs. Colorado (Denver); 9/18 New Mexico; 9/25 vs. Arkansas (Arlington, TX); 10/2 Mississippi State; 10/9 Alabama; 10/16 at Missouri; 10/23 South Carolina; 11/6 Auburn; 11/13 at Ole Miss; 11/20 Prairie View; 11/27 at LSU VANDERBILT: 9/4 East Tennessee State; 9/11 at Colorado State; 9/18 Stanford; 9/25 Georgia; 10/2 UConn; 10/9 at Florida; 10/16 at South Carolina; 10/23 Mississippi State; 10/30 Missouri; 11/13 Kentucky; 11/20 at Ole Miss; 11/27 at Tennessee VOLS HIRE JOSH HEUPEL Josh Heupel isn’t the home run hire that Tennessee fans envisioned, but in hiring Heupel athletic director Danny White made sure he didn’t strike out and turn the hiring process into a sideshow. What do Lane Kiffin, Derek Dooley, Butch Jones and Jeremy Pruitt have in common? All four were at least the sixth or seventh choice as previous athletic directors made the hiring process the joke of the country. Give White credit for swinging for the fence by going after Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck and Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott. Both of them said no. He also reached out to Luke Fickell at Cincinnati and James Franklin at Penn State but never got around to offering because they also said no. You can’t blame any of them for their lack of interest because there is no telling how badly the NCAA is going to stick it to Tennessee when its men in black suits come calling. Tennessee is admitting “several” Level I and Level II violations so this isn’t going to be pretty. When White couldn’t hit his home run, he went after Heupel, who he hired at UCF three years ago, and promptly gave Heupel a 6-year contract, which is a pretty good indicator just how badly UT expects the NCAA sanctions to be. Heupel isn’t a bad hire under the circumstances. He’s a very good offensive mind who knows how to put points on the scoreboard so he might be able to keep Vol fans entertained while they sweat out the punishment. Heupel has SEC experience as Missouri’s offensive coordinator prior to taking the UCF job. With Heupel calling the plays for Mizzou in 2017, the Tigers averaged 37.5 points per game with QB Drew Lock throwing for 44 touchdowns. So, who does UCF hire? Since there is no athletic director and it’s rather late in the game to be doing a coaching search, the prudent thing might be to keep interim Randy Shannon on the job through the 2021 season then go after a permanent replacement. If they try to move quickly, three names stand out: Ole Miss QB/OC Jeff Lebby; Georgia DC Dan Lanning and North Carolina OLB/special teams coordinator Jovan Dewitt. Lebby was the QB coach when Dillon Gabriel broke in as a true freshman in 2019. Lanning is thought to be a lights out recruiter and UCF desperately needs players on the defensive side of the ball. Dewitt was an integral part of the UCF staff when the Knights ran the table in 2017. If they’re smart, they go get Lebby. OTHER SEC STUFF ALABAMA: It is being reported that former Tennessee assistant Jay Graham is now part of the Alabama staff. AUBURN: Veteran NFL assistant Nick Eason is the new defensive line coach at Auburn. GEORGIA: The replacement for departed Charlton Warren is former West Virginia secondary coach Jahmile Addae. LSU: Austin Thomas, who spent 2020 as the associate athletic director for football at Baylor, has been hired as the general manager for football at LSU. OLE MISS: Defensive back Nigel Knott, who began his career at Alabama, is transferring in from East Carolina. SOUTH CAROLINA: Running backs coach Des Kitchings, a holdover from Will Muschamp’s staff, is expected to leave for the Atlanta Falcons. TENNESSEE: Former head coach Jeremy Pruitt has taken an assistant’s job with the NFL New York Giants. Running back Eric Gray is joining offensive tackle Wanya Morris and defensive back Key Lawrence at Oklahoma ... Last year’s defensive coordinator Derrick Ansley is off to the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers. ONE LAST PITHY COMMENT: When the Atlantic Coast Conference announces its 2021 football schedule either today or tomorrow, all eyes will be on Notre Dame. After breaking with tradition to join the ACC for the 2020 season, Notre Dame has to know that the path to the College Football Playoff will be infinitely easier in the ACC than it is as an independent. As an independent, Notre Dame almost has to go unbeaten to make the playoff and judging by the way they’ve been blown out both ties they’ve made it, the Irish are teetering on the verge or irrelevance. As a one-loss ACC champ, the Irish could still get in so there is a big decision that has to be made.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: KIPER HAS PITTS, TONEY GOING IN THE FIRST ROUND It’s three months before Mel Kiper and his signature pompadour hairstyle dominate our television sets for the three days of the National Football League Draft, but the ESPN draft guru has offered his first tease of things to come with his first mock draft. Featured in the Kiper first round are Florida All-Americans Kyle Pitts and Kadarius Toney going in the first round. Kiper predicts Pitts, who won the Mackey Award as the nation’s best tight end, will go with the 11th pick to the New York Giants while Toney, the fourth wide receiver in the Kiper mock, goes 19th to Washington. That Pitts would drop down to 11th is in contrast to ESPN’s Todd McShay, who has him going to the Carolina Panthers with the 8th pick. Some mock drafts have Pitts going as high as 5th. McShay doesn’t have Toney going in the first round, although most everybody else has him going somewhere between 18th and 30th. Both Kiper and McShay have five quarterbacks in the first round (Trevor Lawrence of Clemson, Zach Wilson of BYU, Justin Fields of Ohio State, Trey Lance of North Dakota State and Mac Jones of Alabama). Both Kiper and McShay rate Trask as the sixth best QB in the draft. Unless Trask lights it up at Florida’s pro day, he will go in the second round. GATORS CAN’T TAKE ANYTHING FOR GRANTED WITH VANDY At some point, Vanderbilt is going to put it all together. It might be for one game only, but Jerry Stackhouse has some talent on his roster and sooner or later the Commodores are going to hit on all cylinders and play like a team that has a purpose. What Mike White and the Florida Gators have to make sure is that one special night isn’t tonight. Tonight’s game at the O-Dome is the halfway point in the SEC schedule. Currently holding the 25th spot in the NCAA Net Rankings and 23rd at KenPom.com, it is imperative for the Gators to get a win so that they go to Morgantown Saturday to face 11th-ranked West Virginia with a measure of momentum. The WVU game is Florida’s only non-conference game of the new year and while it will be a measuring stick and a boost to the Gators’ NCAA situation if they win, first and foremost is finishing among the top four teams in the SEC during the regular season. Currently, the Gators are tied with LSU for third. When the Gators met Vanderbilt in their SEC opener back on December 30, Colin Castleton had his breakout game with 23 points, five rebounds and two blocked shots. He scored only 26 points in Florida’s four previous games. In the seven SEC games in which he has played, Castleton is averaging 16.3 points and 6.0 rebounds. He has become a defensive intimidator with 19 blocked shots. The Commodores have no one capable of handling Castleton. To ensure Vandy doesn’t get anything going in the paint, White may team Castleton on the floor with Omar Payne (19 points, 18 rebounds, seven blocks in the last two games) for long stretches. Because Castleton still has a gimpy ankle, Payne probably starts up front with Anthony Duruji tonight. White seems to have found a guard rotation that works since he inserted Tyree Appleby at the point and moved Tre Mann to the wing to team up with Noah Locke to balance the floor with shooters. Appleby (47 points, 12 assists in his last three games) at the point allows Mann (50 points, 13 assists) to have a score first mentality which has benefitted the Gators offensively. Locke, averaging 10.6 points per game, is hitting 40.3% of his 3-pointers. Scottie Lewis, who has missed the last three games due to health protocols, might be available tonight. Tuesday Night SEC Scores #9 Alabama (14-3, 9-0 SEC) 70, Kentucky (4-10, 4-4 SEC) 59 #18 Tennessee (11-3, 5-3 SEC) 56, Mississippi State (9-8, 4-5 SEC) 53 Auburn (10-7, 4-5 SEC) 88, #12 Missouri (10-3, 4-3 SEC) 82 LSU (11-4, 6-3 SEC) 78, Texas A&M (7-7, 2-6 SEC) 66 Wednesday Night SEC Games Vanderbilt (4-9, 0-5 SEC) at FLORIDA (8-4, 5-3 SEC) Georgia (9-5, 2-5 SEC) at South Carolina (3-5, 1-3 SEC) Ole Miss (8-6, 3-4 SEC) at Arkansas (12-4, 4-4 SEC) Bracketology: The Gators have moved up to the seven line in the latest brackets by ESPN’s Joe Lunardi. Lunardi places the Gators as a No. 7 seed going against 10th-seeded Drake in the first round of Region One in the NCAA Tournament. He continues to have six SEC teams making the tournament with Alabama a No. 2 in Region Two facing Texas State, Missouri No. 3 in Region Three facing Siena, Tennessee No. 4 in Region Two facing UAB, LSU No. 10 in Region Four facing Oklahoma and Arkansas No. 11 in Region One facing Purdue. At CBS, Jerry Palm continues to have the Gators as a No. 8. They’re in what he calls the Bankers Life One Region going against 9th-seeded Rutgers in the first round. Palm has Missouri No. 2 in the Hinkle One Region facing Grand Canyon, Alabama No. 3 in Hinkle Two facing Belmont, Tennessee No. 3 in Bankers Life One facing Siena, LSU No. 10 in Bankers Life One facing UCLA, and Arkansas No. 11 in Bankers Life Two facing Minnesota. GATORS NO. 1 PRESEASON FOR BASEBALL AMERICA The Gators are a perfect 4-4 in the preseason collegiate baseball polls. The latest is Baseball America whose poll featured nine SEC teams. Florida opens its season on February 19 against 11th-ranked Miami at the brand new Florida Ballpark at McKethan Field. Baseball America Top 25: (1) FLORIDA; (2) UCLA; (3) Texas Tech; (4) Ole Miss; (5) Virginia; (6) Vanderbilt; (7) Louisville; (8) Mississippi State; (9) Florida State; (10) LSU; (11) Miami; (12) Texas; (13) TCU; (14) Arkansas; (15) Arizona; (16) Duke; (17) North Carolina State; (18) South Carolina; (19) Tennessee; (20) Michigan; (21) UC-Santa Barbara; (22) Georgia Tech; (23) Oklahoma; (24) UCF; (25) Alabama Three Gators Make Preseason All-America: D1Baseball.com selected Florida center fielder Jud Fabian to its preseason All-America first team. Selected to the second team are pitchers Tommy Mace and Hunter Barco. UF SOFTBALL TOP TEN IN TWO PRESEASON POLLS The Gators open their season February 13 against USF in Tampa. Their first home game is February 17 against Jacksonville. USA Today/NFCA Top 25: (1) UCLA; (2) Washington; (3) Arizona; (4) Oklahoma; (5) LSU; (6) Texas; (7) FLORIDA; (8) Alabama; (9) Louisiana; (10) Oregon; (11) Oklahoma State; (12) Florida State; (13) Kentucky; (14) Georgia; (15) Virginia Tech; (16) Arizona State; (17) Michigan; (18) Arkansas; (19) South Carolina; (20) Mississippi State; (21) UCF; (22) Baylor; (23) Missouri; (24) Minnesota; (25) Duke ESPN/USA Softball Top 25: (1) UCLA; (2) Washington; (3) Arizona; (4) Oklahoma; (5) LSU; (6) FLORIDA; (7) Texas; (8) Alabama; (9) Louisiana; (10) Oklahoma State; (11) Oregon; (12) Florida State; (13) Kentucky; (14) Georgia; (15) Arizona State; (16) Virginia Tech; (17) Michigan; (18) Baylor; (19) South Carolina; (20) Minnesota; (21) Arkansas; (22) Mississippi State; (23) Tennessee; (24) Missouri; (25) UCF UF GYMNASTICS HOLD ONTO N0. 1 RANKING The Gators remain the No. 1 gymnastics team in the country following their win over then 8th-ranked Arkansas. The win produced SEC gymnast of the week Megan Skaggs and SEC Specialist of the Week in Savannah Schoenherr. Road to Nationals Top 25: (1) FLORIDA; (2) LSU; (3) Oklahoma; (4) Utah; (5) Denver; (6) Arkansas; (7) Michigan; (8) Alabama; (9) Iowa; (10) Georgia; (11) UCLA; (12) BYU; (13) Minnesota; (14) Kentucky; (15) Arizona; (16) Arizona State; (17) Southern Utah; (18, TIE) Iowa State and Illinois; (20) Boise State; (21) Utah State; (22) Auburn; (23) North Carolina; (25) Maryland OTHER UF TEAMS IN THE RANKINGS Swimming: The Florida men are ranked fifth while the women are ranked seventh. Golf: UF men are ranked 11th while the women are ranked 12th. Tennis: The UF men are 9th while the women are ranked 21st. Lacrosse: The Gators are ranked 7th in the preseason poll. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC ALABAMA: Former Tennessee assistant Jay Graham is expected to become the special teams coordinator. ARKANSAS: The Razorbacks are expected to hire Southern Miss offensive line coach Cody Kennedy to handle the tight ends. AUBURN: Jeff McDaniels, who was an offensive graduate assistant at Boise State, has joined the Auburn staff as a grad assistant. GEORGIA: UT-Martin D-line coach Ryan Osborn was expected to join the Georgia staff, but instead he will take a job working for Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. KENTUCKY: Wide receiver Kalil Branham has left the team. No word on if he plans to enter the transfer portal … Athletic director Mitch Barnhart has been selected for a three-year term on the College Football Playoff Committee. LSU: The song and dance is over. After days of saying Daronte Jones would be the new defensive coordinator, LSU made it official Tuesday. OLE MISS: Randall Joyner is expected to leave SMU for the D-line job at Ole Miss. SOUTH CAROLINA: Maryland director of recruiting Taylor Edwards is joining the staff … South Carolina picked up a pair of All-Northeast Conference (D1AA) teammates via transfer in quarterback Jason Brown and wide receiver EJ Jenkins. When they last played for Saint Francis, Brown threw for 3,084 yards and 28 touchdowns. Jenkins caught 39 passes for 779 yards and 13 TDs. TENNESSEE: One member of the Vols’ wish list has said he’s not the least bit interested. P.J. Fleck will remain as Minnesota’s head coach ... O-lineman Darnell Wright announced that he will be staying for 2021. Wright is a former 5-star recruit. VANDERBILT: Norval McKenzie, formerly of Louisville, is the new running backs coach. FOOTBALL AND OTHER STUFF Had Clemson beaten Ohio State in the College Football Playoff semifinal, it’s unlikely Dabo Swinney would have been able to coach in the championship game against Alabama because of Covid-19. Former Kentucky head coach and UF assistant Joker Phillips is leaving the Maryland staff to coach wide receivers at North Carolina State. The Detroit Lions are hoping to get a No. 1 draft pick in a trade for veteran QB Matt Stafford. Former FSU player/assistant and UCF head coach/athletic director Gene McDowell passed away. He was 80 years old. The bad boys will be playing in the Super Bowl. Wide receiver Antonio Brown will be active for the Tampa Bay Bucs and running back Le’Veon Bell will be active for the Kansas City Chiefs. Also active for the Chiefs will be wide receiver Sammy Watkins. A federal judge has ordered destroyed the tape of New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft allegedly paying for sex in a Palm Beach County massage parlor. I still haven’t been bored enough to watch an NBA game. We’re a week away from National Signing Day. As of Tuesday night, ESPN had the Gators ranked 7th while Rivals has the Gators with the 10th best class and 247Sports has UF 12th. ONE LAST PITHY THOUGHT: With 16 more votes, Curt Schilling would have been voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on his ninth try. He was the only player to come close to the necessary 75% it takes for election. The second and third place finishers were Barry Bonds (61.8%) and Roger Clemens (61.6%). Schilling, Bonds and Clemens will be on the ballot next year, their last chance to get in unless the Veterans Committee votes them in once they’ve been retired from the game for 15 years. Bonds and Clemens are tied to steroid use which makes even election by the Veterans Committee rather dicey. Next year Alex Rodriguez will be on the ballot for the first time. He probably will face the same fate as Bonds and Clemens. If you go back in baseball history, lots of guys we consider great got an edge that wasn’t necessarily legal. Gaylord Perry comes to mind. And, who’s to say baseball caught all the steroid users, some of whom might very well be in the Hall of Fame. Should guys like Bonds, Clemens, A-Rod, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa be punished just because they got caught?

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: IT’S WAY TOO EARLY TO COUNT OUT UF FOOTBALL IN 2021 Sydney Hunte of Saturday Down South doesn’t think too much of Florida’s chances to repeat as the Southeastern Conference East Division champions in 2021. For all practical purposes, Hunte thinks Florida is a flash-in-the-pan that ran out of gas at the end of 2020 while Georgia was just beginning to peak, particularly once Kirby got smart and named JT Daniels the starting QB. Looking to 2021, Hunte writes, “Maybe the Gators do go toe-to-toe with them in Jacksonville later in the year. But top-to-bottom, this is a Bulldogs team that is much more talented and Playoff-ready than their rivals in Gainesville.” Hunte’s observations are mere parroting of the media dash to see who can be the first to all but declare Georgia the 2021 national champ in waiting. Oh sure, usual suspects Alabama, Climpson and Oklahoma are ranked ahead of Georgia in most all-too-early predictions for the upcoming season but these same people can’t gush enough about Georgia QB JT Daniels. He played very well in the last four games of the season, but it’s not exactly like Daniels lit up a decent team. Cincinnati, you say? What the Bearcats proved in the Peach Bowl was they weren’t nearly as good as cracked up to be and they still were within a last second field goal of beating Georgia in what amounted to a home game in Atlanta. And, if Daniels was actually as good as these pundits say, then why did it take him seven games to beat out Stetson Bennett IV? Things that should make you go hmmmm. Now, I might change my mind about Daniels if he lights up Climpson in the 2021 season opener in Charlotte on September 4, but somehow I doubt it. And I can’t wait to see how a Georgia defense minus six of its eight best defensive backs (five of whom will be drafted), two of its best defensive linemen and its best linebacker and captain will slow down Climpson. If you think the Tigers are going to miss too many beats now that Trevor Lawrence takes his dog and pony show to Team Urban in Jacksonville, then you might want to remember this name: D.J. Uiagalelei, all 6-6 and 250 pounds of him. He throws lasers. Climpson is merely reloading. Meanwhile, in the haste to see whose pool of drool over Georgia is the largest, the media seems to have all but written off the SEC East chances of the Florida Gators. Yes, the Gators finished 2020 with three straight losses and Dan Mullen is going to have to reboot an offense that will be minus Kyle Trask, Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes. Over on the defensive side, coordinator Todd Grantham has to decide whether to hire a voodoo priest or an exorcist to rid the defense of all its demons. Most of the offensive speculation centers around the quarterbacks. With Trask, the Gators threw it from the time they got off the bus. Everybody knows Emory Jones and Anthony Richardson can run like deer, but can they throw well enough to beat SEC defenses? Check out what happened at Mississippi State in 2016 after Dak Prescott graduated to the NFL. Mullen’s quarterback that year was Nick Fitzgerald, whose two best offers other than MSU were Mercer and Samford. Fitzgerald threw for 2,423 yards and 21 touchdowns while running for 1,375 yards and 16 more TDs. People tend to forget Mullen whispers to quarterbacks. Whether it’s Jones or Richardson taking the snaps, the Gators will have far more talent at the skill positions than surrounded Fitzgerald in 2016. The running back room will have Dameon Pierce, Malik Davis, Ny’Quan Wright, Lorenzo Lingard and Climpson transfer Demarkcus Bowman. The receivers will be just fine even though with those running backs the ball shouldn’t be in the air as much. The O-line will be stronger physically and improved. Count on it. Mississippi State’s 2016 problems weren’t on offense, but on defense where the Bulldogs couldn’t stop anyone. A year later, with much the same personnel and Grantham as the new coordinator, Mississippi State sliced 153 yards and nearly 12 points per game from the previous year. Mississippi State went from 110th nationally to 10th in total defense. Can Grantham transform Florida from the nation’s 83rd-ranked defense in 2020 to a top ten unit in 2021? He has quite a few of the same players, but there is more experience, a couple of key transfers and a couple of new coaches to shake things up. If Grantham gets the Gators anywhere close to top ten defensively Florida will have a very good chance to repeat in the SEC East. There are questions, of course, but there are just as many at Georgia although nobody seems to want to talk about potential issues at UGa. Just as it is way too early to consider the Bulldogs national champs in waiting, it’s way too early to count out the Gators as legitimate contenders for the SEC East. Some folks might get a big surprise at the end of November. BEN TROUPE SAID IT … When asked by ESPN’s Christian Goeckel what is the one thing Tom Brady hasn’t done in three separate decades, Troupe replied, “Seen Georgia win a national championship.” KEEP AN EYE ON KENTUCKY AT ALABAMA TONIGHT The Gators (8-4, 5-3 SEC) won’t play until Wednesday night when they host Vanderbilt (4-9, 0-5 SEC) at the O-Dome, but it will be a Tuesday night worth watching in the SEC with the headliner Kentucky (5-9, 4-3 SEC) at 9th-ranked Alabama (13-3, 8-0 SEC). When the two teams met in Lexington a couple of weeks ago, Alabama blew the doors off the Wildcats but there is reason to believe Kentucky could hand Alabama its first loss tonight. Kentucky is coming off a beatdown of LSU in its last outing, a game in which the Wildcats played great on the defensive end of the floor, holding LSU to 4-23 shooting from the 3-point line. It will take that kind of defense to handle an Alabama team that has hit 37 of its last 77 3-point attempts. If Kentucky is to have any chance to make the NCAA Tournament this is a must win. Another game to follow closely is 12th-ranked Missouri (10-2, 4-2 SEC) at Auburn (9-7, 3-5 SEC). Missouri is one of the best defensive teams in the country while Auburn is coming off a 109-point effort against South Carolina. The player to watch is Auburn freshman Sharife Cooper, averaging 21.2 points and 9.0 assists in the five games since he was declared eligible by the NCAA. He is an absolute blur and the most exciting player in the country. SEC Tuesday Night Games Kentucky (5-9, 4-3 SEC) at #9 Alabama (13-3, 8-0 SEC) Mississippi State (9-7, 4-4 SEC) at #18 Tennessee (10-3, 4-3 SEC) #12 Missouri (10-2, 4-2 SEC) at Auburn (9-7, 3-5 SEC) LSU (10-4, 5-3 SEC) at Texas A&M (7-6, 2-5 SEC) SEC Wednesday Night Games Vanderbilt (4-9, 0-5 SEC) at FLORIDA (8-4, 5-3 SEC) Georgia (9-5, 2-5 SEC) at South Carolina (3-5, 1-3 SEC) Ole Miss (8-6, 3-4 SEC) at Arkansas (12-4, 4-4 SEC) BASKETBALL RANKINGS ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 POLL: (1) Gonzaga 15-0; (2) Baylor 14-0; (3) Villanova 10-1; (4) Michigan 13-1; (5) Texas 11-2; (6) Houston 13-1; (7) Iowa 12-3; (8) Virginia 10-2; (9) Alabama 13-3; (10) Texas Tech 11-4; (11) West Virginia 10-4; (12) Missouri 10-2; (13) Ohio State 12-4; (14) Wisconsin 12-4; (15) Kansas 10-5; (16) Florida State 9-2; (17) Creighton 11-4; (18) Tennessee 10-3; (19) Illinois 10-5; (20) Virginia Tech 11-3; (21) Minnesota 11-5; (22) Saint Louis 7-1; (23) UCLA 12-3; (24) Oklahoma 9-4; (25) Louisville 10-3 COACHES TOP 25 POLL: (1) Gonzaga 15-0; (2) Baylor 14-0; (3) Villanova 10-1; (4) Michigan 13-1; (5) Texas 11-2; (6) Houston 13-1; (7) Iowa 12-3; (8, TIE) Alabama 13-3, Virginia 10-2; (10) Texas Tech 10-4; (11) West Virginia 10-4; (12) Missouri 10-2; (13) Wisconsin 12-4; (14) Creighton 11-4; (15) Ohio State 12-4; (16) Florida State 9-2; (17) Tennessee 10-3; (18) Kansas 10-5; (19) Virginia Tech 11-3; (20) Minnesota 11-5; (21) UCLA 12-3; (22) Illinois 10-5; (23) Louisville 10-3; (24) Saint Louis 7-1; (25) Oregon 9-3 OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC ALABAMA: Early enrollee corner Ga’Quincy McKinstry also plays basketball and is working out with Bama’s 9th-ranked team although it’s unlikely that he will see any action this season. AUBURN: Darren Uscher is the new director of recruiting at Auburn. Uscher was Bryan Harsin’s director of recruiting at Boise State ... Bodie Reeder, formerly the offensive coordinator at Utah State, has joined the staff as an analyst. LSU: Finally, someone said yes to Coach O. After striking out at least three times in his search for a new defensive coordinator, Coach O got a yes from Minnesota Vikings secondary coach Daronte Jones. Prior to working in the NFL, Jones worked under former LSU DC and now Baylor head coach Dave Aranda at Wisconsin. MISSOURI: Newly hired defensive coordinator Steve Wilks is the highest paid assistant coach in Missouri history. His base salary for 2021 is $800,000 with a $200,000 retention bonus if he elects to stay beyond the 2021 season. TENNESSEE: The Texit continues. Former 4-star linebacker J.J. Peterson is the latest Vol to put his name in the transfer portal. Counting the guys who have already transferred, declared for the NFL and those who have their names in the portal, Tennessee is down more than 20 players. TEXAS A&M: The Aggies game with Colorado has been shifted from Boulder to Mile High Stadium in Denver on September 11. THEY PLAY FOOTBALL OUTSIDE THE SEC Gary Andersen, who was fired by Utah State three games into the 2020 season, walked away from a $2.7 million buyout. People who know Andersen say he doesn’t think it’s right to be paid not to coach. That’s called integrity. What a concept. Clemson linebacker Mike Jones Jr. has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Jones started for the Tigers and finished with 26 tackles and a couple of interceptions in 2020. Among the potential candidates to replace Larry Scott as commissioner of the Pac-12 are former West Virginia AD Oliver Luck, Stanford athletic director Bernard Muir, Alabama AD Greg Byrne, Ohio State AD Gene Smith and America Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco. Keep an eye on reports coming out of the Senior Bowl this week where Jamie Newman is trying to resuscitate his draft stock after his opt out at Georgia back in August. After transferring to Georgia from Wake Forest Gump, Newman was supposed to be the greatest thing since Moses, but amid reports that he struggled with understanding the offense and reading defenses, he opted out, claiming fears of Covid-19. Better to take your chances with the scouts buying that excuse than trying to explain why you couldn’t beat out Stetson Bennett IV for the starting QB job. Don’t be surprised if there aren’t nice reviews this week for former Gator QB Feleipe Franks. His year at Arkansas did wonders for his career and draft stock by throwing 17 touchdown passes while completing only four passes to the other team. He probably has the strongest arm of any QB at the Senior Bowl and will wow the scouts with his ability to throw a 25-yard out pattern on a rope. ONE LAST PITHY THOUGHT: I think new Tennessee athletic director Danny White has to be very careful to avoid the trap the last zillion or so athletic directors fell into in Knoxville. He’s got this laundry list of potential coaches like Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck, Cincinnati head coach Luke Fickell and SMU head coach Sonny Dykes. Each one of them would be a nice hire, but why would they leave for Tennessee, whose roster has been decimated by transfers, without knowing how long the NCAA probation will be? The UT chancellor said last week that the internal investigation found numerous Level I and Level II recruiting violations. If Tennessee’s own investigators found a bunch of violations, figure you can double it when the NCAA gets through, particularly with the whole world thinking the organization is inept. They need a big score and what better one than Tennessee right about now? The fan base needs to see White looking for a coach with a hot name, but if he strikes out several times as previous athletic directors have done he winds up with another Derek Dooley, Butch Jones or Jeremy Pruitt. If he’s smart he makes one stab at one of the big name hires and if/when he gets rejected goes straight for someone who can get the job done like Lance Leipold at Buffalo or Bill Clark from UAB.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: THE SIGNS SAY THE GATORS ARE MOVING ON UP The Associated Press and Coaches rankings will come out today and you can put the Florida Gators on the highly doubtful list. As in, highly doubtful they’ll get close enough to sniff either one of the two polls, but other than Gonzaga, Baylor and Villanova, the polls aren’t exactly a leading indicator of team strength when the Covid-19 virus is taken into account. Following an impressive offensive showing Saturday in which the final 92-84 score is nowhere close to how badly the Gators beat Georgia, Florida is 8-4 with a 5-3 SEC mark that is good for a third-place tie with LSU. In taking down Georgia, the Gators shot 56.9% from the field as five players scored in double figures. The Gators got 54 points out of the starting backcourt of Tre Mann (24), Noah Locke (16) and Tyree Appleby (14) and 36 points, 23 rebounds and four blocked shots from the front court rotation of Colin Castleton (14 points, three rebounds, one block), Omar Payne (10 points, nine rebounds, two blocks), Anthony Duruji (six points, six rebounds, one block) and Osayi Osifo (six points, five rebounds). The front court guys hit 18-23 from the field. This was Florida’s third win in the last four games and it moved them up in both the NCAA Net Rankings and the Ken Pom, good indicators of where the NCAA Tournament would see the Gators if Selection Sunday were today. The Gators moved up two spots in the NCAA Net Rankings to No. 26. The SEC teams ahead of the Gators are Alabama No. 9, Tennessee No. 12 and Missouri No. 24. In the KenPom ratings, the Gators are No. 23. Ahead of the Gators from the SEC are No. 10 Alabama and No. 19 Tennessee. There are 11 games remaining on the regular season schedule – 10 in the SEC and one non-conference game next Saturday at West Virginia in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge. Based on schedules that are altered regularly because of the virus, the Gators should be in good shape with 15 regular season wins. Bracketology: In Joe Lunardi’s brackets on ESPN, the Gators are a No. 9 seed in Region Four with a first round date with No. 8 Louisville. Win and the Gators would face the winner of No. 1 Villanova and No. 16 Montana State. Also making the tournament from the SEC in Lunardi’s brackets are a pair of No. 3s (Alabama in Region Two; Tennessee in Region Three), Missouri as a No. 5 in Region Two, LSU a No. 8 in Region Two and Arkansas No. 11 in Region One. At CBS, Jerry Palm has the Gators a No. 8 facing No. 9 Oklahoma in the Bankers Life One Region. Win and the Gators would face the winner between No. 1 Villanova and No. 16 UC-Irvine. Also from the SEC, Palm has Tennessee No. 3 in the Hinkle One Region with Missouri No. 3 in Bankers Life Two, Alabama No. 4 in Bankers Life One, LSU No. 8 in Hinkle One and Arkansas playing Utah State in a No. 11 play-in game with the winner advancing to the Bankers Life One Region. SEC Tuesday Night Game Mississippi State (9-7, 4-4 SEC) at #6 Tennessee (10-3, 4-3 SEC) Kentucky (5-9, 4-3 SEC) at #18 Alabama (13-3, 8-0 SEC) #19 Missouri (10-2, 4-2 SEC) at Auburn (9-7, 3-5 SEC) LSU (10-4, 5-3 SEC) at Texas A&M (7-6, 2-5 SEC) SEC Wednesday Night Games Vanderbilt (4-9, 0-5 SEC) at FLORIDA (8-4, 5-3 SEC) Georgia (9-5, 2-5 SEC) at South Carolina (3-5, 1-3 SEC) Ole Miss (8-6, 3-4 SEC) at Arkansas (12-4, 4-4 SEC) GREG MATTISON HANGS UP HIS WHISTLE I have two favorite memories of Greg Mattison, who is retiring from coaching after a career in which he’s served on the staffs of Notre Dame, Florida, Michigan and Ohio State in the college game and the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL. When he was the co-defensive coordinator and D-line coach for the Gators in years 1-3 of the Urban Meyer era at UF, Mattison was loved by players and media alike. Players loved him because he made personal relationships a requirement if you wanted to play for him. Media loved him because he was always approachable, usually rather charming and often quite witty. Of all the assistant coaches at UF that I’ve known over the years, Greg Mattison is definitely on my short list of favorites. Story No. 1: Mattison was the lead recruiter for Tim Tebow. A few days before Tebow committed to the Gators, Mattison, Meyer and at least one other UF assistant were recruiting in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. It was bitter cold when the plane stopped to pick up Meyer. Mattison was already on the plane. The third coach was driving to the airport so Mattison and Meyer were sitting on the plane together waiting. It was quiet because Meyer was very cold. “Ten years,” Mattison said. Meyer asked what? Mattison replied, “If we don’t get him it will set us back ten years.” “Him?” Meyer asked. “Tebow,” Mattison said. “Ten years!” And when Meyer tried to ignore Mattison, he repeated, “Ten years!” A few days later, with ESPN live at Nease High School outside St. Augustine, Tebow announced for the Gators. Tebow’s cell phone battery had died and since there was no call prior to the announcement, Meyer thought the Gators had lost Tebow to Alabama. Rather than watch on TV, Meyer paced outside his Haile Plantation home. It wasn’t until Shelley and the kids erupted from inside the house that he knew the Gators had landed what proved to be a generational talent at QB. Story No. 2: In Scottsdale, Arizona in the days leading up to the Gators national championship game with Ohio State, Mattison wasn’t his usual friendly self. He wasn’t unpleasant, but there was an edge to him and he really didn’t want to stop to talk. That was highly unusual for Mattison, one of the most accessible of the UF assistants back when there were no post-practice restrictions. After Florida’s last full practice before the game, Mattison whispered in my ear on the way to the team bus, “You watch Monday night. You just watch.” I actually wasn’t surprised. I had watched a replay of every single Ohio State game and had been writing the previous ten days that the Buckeyes offensive line was no match for the Gators front four. I thought Ohio State’s tackles couldn’t handle Jarvis Moss or Derrick Harvey coming off the edge and I felt certain that Steve Harris was going to destroy Ohio State’s All-American center. By the time the second quarter had arrived, Ohio State was holding its running back and fullback to help the tackles. Late in the second quarter when Ohio State gambled inside its own 30 on fourth-and-one, Harris knocked the center back so far that Troy Smith almost tripped handing the ball off to Beanie Wells. Wells never got to the line of scrimmage before Ray McDonald was joined by Brandon Siler and Brandon Spikes in the stop that was the 9-inch stiletto to the Buckeyes heart. In the second half, Ohio State was reduced to running two-man routes because they had to hold the tight end in along with the fullback and running back to protect Smith and they still couldn’t do it. Florida might have run four blitzes the entire game, mostly for show to confuse Smith. Florida ran a five-man D-line rotation of Moss, Harvey, Harris, McDonald and Joe Cohen. Smith, the Heisman Trophy winner, was 4-14 passing for 35 yards and the Buckeyes managed 47 on the ground. In the pre-game buildup, many national pundits – particularly those from ESPN and from Big Ten country – predicted the game would go ugly early and that Ohio State would embarrass the Gators, which wasn’t lost on Mattison. When he hugged me with the confetti pouring down from the roof after Florida dominated Ohio State 41-14, Mattison roared, “Did these guys even see my guys play? My guys were so much better than they were! My guys killed them.” OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC ALABAMA: Nick Saban hired former Gator Robert Gillespie from the North Carolina staff to coach running backs. Gillespie replaces Charles Huff, the new head coach at Marshall. AUBURN: Newly hired D-line coach Tracy Rocker may not be with Auburn very long. He’s expected to leave for the Philadelphia Eagles. LSU: Minnesota Vikings defensive backs coach Daronte Jones will interview for the defensive coordinator job. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Former 5-star corner Jalen Green is leaving Texas for Mississippi State where he will be reunited with Jason Washington, who was his recruiter to Texas back in 2018. Green has two years of eligibility remaining. MISSOURI: Jethro Franklin, most recently with the Seattle Seahawks, is the new D-line coach. TENNESSEE: The search firm helping the Vols with their head coaching search has already vetted Clemson offensive coordinator Tony Elliott, Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck and SMU head coach Sonny Dykes. VANDERBILT: The new offensive coordinator is David Raih, the recently fired wide receivers coach of the Arizona Cardinals. Former Colorado State offensive coordinator Joey Lynch has been hired to coach the quarterbacks. BRADY SOLIDIFIES CLAIM TO GREATEST OF ALL TIME For the first time in a greatest of all-time career, Tom Brady is going to a Super Bowl without Bill Belichick. Brady and Belichick went to nine Super Bowls and won six. Now Brady is going with the Tampa Bay Bucs, who are in the Super Bowl for the first time since they won it in 2002. In getting the Bucs to the Super Bowl, Brady didn’t exactly have a vintage Tom Brady performance to beat the Green Bay Packers – he did, after all, complete three passes to the Packers – but he was good enough, especially early on when he took the Bucs to a 28-10 lead that stood up. Late in the game when the Packers needed a stop to get the ball back to try to win the game, Brady gave it his best been there, done that. One reason he’s the greatest of all time is he knows what it takes to win games and it’s rare when the moment has been too big for him. Tampa Bay’s 31-26 win over Green Bay sets up a Super Bowl quarterback matchup between the greatest of all time and Patrick Mahomes, who might surpass Brady as the best ever by the time his career is over. In leading the Kansas City Chiefs past the Buffalo Bills 38-24, Mahomes threw for 325 yards and three touchdowns. If he wins the Super Bowl, Mahomes will have two rings and he’s only 25 years old. I know this is piling on a bit, but when the Bucs walked off the field with a 31-26 win, I thought about Jameis Winston, the QB the Bucs drafted with the number one overall pick in 2015. Winston spent five years with the Bucs, throwing 88 interceptions and fumbling 50 times before he was given walking papers. I mention this because Tom Brady came into the NFL as the 199th overall pick in the 2000 NFL Draft. One final thought when it comes to Jameis Winston. The seven quarterbacks taken in the 2015 NFL Draft were: Winston, Marcus Mariota (Oregon, No. 2 first round); Garrett Grayson (Colorado State, third round); Sean Mannion (Oregon State, third round); Bryce Petty (Baylor, fourth round); Brett Hundley (UCLA, fifth round); and Trevor Siemian (Northwestern, seventh round). ONE LAST PITHY THOUGHT: New Tennessee athletic director Danny White says the Tennessee “brand needs to be polished a little bit.” Polished a little bit? When you’re on you’re the fifth athletic director at a school since 2010, the coach you’re going to hire will be the fifth new hire since 2009, the previous athletic director is a snake in the grass, you had a student revolt against what would have been an outstanding football coach hire in 2017 and your school is about to wear the pink jump suits and rubber sole shoes of a lengthy stay in the NCAA jail house, you don’t need an image polished up, you need two things: (1) a fumigator because your brand stinks and (2) an exorcist to deal with the distorted illusions of greatness within the fan base.

Urban Meyer is the new head football coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars. This is uncharted waters for a generational football coach whose entire successful career has been in the college ranks. Among the reasons he has chosen to come out of retirement is the opportunity to rebuild a franchise in his own image with the cornerstone of this massive effort Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, who has been pegged a generational talent ever since he led the Tigers to an unbeaten 2018 season that concluded with a decisive win over Alabama in the national championship game. A generational coach with a generational quarterback talent. Meyer knows this scenario well. It was in November of 2005, sitting in the cold while waiting for a plane that Greg Mattison discussed recruiting Tim Tebow. Everybody in the country wanted Tebow but it wasn’t exactly a secret that the choice would come down to Mike Shula and Alabama or Meyer and Florida. “Ten years,” Mattison told Meyer. “If we don’t get him, it will set us back ten years.” There was no ten-year setback. Meyer landed Tim Tebow, who was a critical piece of the 2006 national championship puzzle at Florida, the 2007 Heisman Trophy winner and the driving force in Florida’s 2008 run to the national championship. Meyer and Tebow were the perfect storm, a confluence of a generational coach and a generational quarterback. Had Tebow gone to Alabama would it have saved Mike Shula’s job? Would Tebow have gone on to greatness? Would Meyer’s six-year run at Florida taken a completely different path? Perhaps the answer to all three of those questions is yes, but there is no guessing when it comes to Meyer, Tebow and Florida. They were the right time at the right place. And now there is once again the potential for a perfect storm in Jacksonville where two generational talents take on the National Football League which has a history of unkindness to the brightest of stars from the college ranks. If Meyer fails to deliver championships in Jacksonville he will join a long list of college coaches who have failed at the next level. Lawrence is thought to be can’t miss, but every year NFL teams draft their next can’t miss kid because the last one’s star fizzled instead of shining brightly. The football DNA of Meyer (187-32 career record, 65-15 at Florida; two national championships at UF, one at Ohio State) and Lawrence (39-2 as a starting QB with a national championship as a true freshman) say that success is inevitable despite the bleak history of coaches and QBs who have failed at the next level. At Florida, Meyer’s accomplishments are only eclipsed by those of another generational talent in Steve Spurrier, who transformed the Southeastern Conference twice, once as a player (Heisman Trophy QB in 1966) and as a coach (122-27-1 record at UF with six SEC and a national title in 1996). As a player, Spurrier injected a much-needed level of excitement into college football in the years immediately following the elimination of the one-platoon era. He was the gunslinger, the master of the dramatic and the fourth quarter comeback. As a coach, his Fun ‘n’ Gun offense turned the SEC on its ear and ushered in an era of high-octane offenses that started throwing the ball as soon as the bus came to a complete stop outside the stadium. Meyer and Tebow were Florida’s second perfect storm. The first was Spurrier and Danny Wuerffel, who took the Gators to four consecutive Southeastern Conference championships (1993-96) and the 1996 national championship. Wuerffel won the 1996 Heisman while leading the Gators to their first national championship in football. Coming out of high school, Wuerffel was considered the second prize for Spurrier. The first prize was Danny Kannell, who went to Florida State. Kannell got a national championship ring as a backup to 1993 Heisman Trophy winner Charlie Ward and he had a decent senior season as a starter, but if you ask FSU fans, most rank Kannell outside their top ten all-time quarterbacks. Wuerffel developed into one of the greatest quarterbacks in college football history. Would it have happened if he had chosen to play for a coach other than Steve Spurrier? Maybe not, but together they were the right fit, truly a confluence of coaching and playing ability. While Spurrier and Wuerffel were generational talents in college their games didn’t translate to success in the pros but that hardly tarnishes their legends. What they accomplished at the University of Florida goes down in the annals of SEC and college football as one of the great runs in history. Another generational coaching talent is Billy Donovan, whose 19 years at the University of Florida produced six of the Gators’ seven SEC titles and the only two NCAA basketball titles in school history. Donovan’s perfect storm was 2006-07 when he found a core group – Al Horford, Corey Brewer, Joakim Noah, Taurean Green and Lee Humphrey – who personified his coaching philosophy of five guys sharing the basketball and playing great defense with no regard for who had the best stats. When Horford, Brewer, Noah, Green and Humphrey signed with Donovan out of high school, none of them were considered generational talents. Brewer was the only 5-star recruit of the bunch but despite the fact his home was two hours south of Lexington, Kentucky didn’t think he was good enough. An SEC coach told Donovan it would take at least three years for Horford to become good enough to be a backup. Noah was considered a project whose skinny frame and lack of a shot would hamper his development. Green was Florida’s fourth choice point guard in the 2004 signing class. Two years into his UF career people were thinking Humphrey was a wasted scholarship. As individuals none of them could claim the generational label, but collectively the five of them functioned as one and became the ideal fit for a generational coach. So why is all this generational talk important and how does it relate to the University of Florida today? The answer is quite simple. Florida football and basketball fans are openly questioning the coaching abilities of Dan Mullen and Mike White, many of them prayerful that Mullen will leave for the NFL and a larger group demanding athletic director Scott Stricklin fire White. Because he never won an SEC title while coaching in the SEC hinterlands at Mississippi State, quite a number of Florida fans say Mullen lacks the championship qualities necessary to restore the Gators to the elite level. No one seems to consider that during those nine years in Starkville Mullen learned the nuances of being a head football coach or that his time at MSU is the most successful in Mississippi State history. This is a school that is 19 games under .500 for its history yet for four glorious weeks in 2014 with Mullen at the helm was ranked No. 1 nationally for the first time in its long football history. In his three years at Florida, the Gators are 29-9, have played in three consecutive New Years Six bowl games and have an SEC East championship. In Alabama’s unbeaten 13-0 run to the national championship, only Mullen and the Gators played the Crimson Tide to a single possession game. It is understandable that Florida fans want more. They want the glory and the championships that accompanied Spurrier and Meyer but far too many fail to take into consideration three rather large factors that have stood in Mullen’s way of delivering: (1) He’s at Florida at the same time Nick Saban is at Alabama; (2) he’s had to repair and restore relationships with high school coaches that were shredded during the three ill-fated years of the previous coach; and (3) he has yet to land a Tebow or a Wuerffel that can lift the team and the program to new heights. Take a moment to put the Saban Factor into a Florida perspective. What Saban has done in 14 years at Alabama is unprecedented in the history of college football. Not even Bear Bryant won six national championships over a 12-year span (Saban did it from 2009-20). Alabama’s success on the field makes it possible that Alabama never rebuilds but simply reloads. Now move on to point No. 2 and tie that into the Saban Factor. High school relationships were at a disastrous low when Mullen arrived at Florida in December of 2017. With a fourth recruiting class almost complete (the second national signing day is February 3) Mullen can go to battle with a true Southeastern Conference roster. Maybe he lacks the five-star talent Alabama lands, but Alabama recruits at a completely different level than any school in the country. Mullen recruits very good players but has to rely on developing players who aren’t as highly regarded as those recruited by Saban. His track record for player development is very strong. Mullen is winning and winning opens doors for better recruits. What will ultimately open the door for Mullen is to bring in that generational talent. Spurrier had his in Wuerffel. Meyer had his in Tebow. Donovan had his in five guys who could play as one. That brings us to Mike White. Lou Holtz once said something so profound about the coaching profession. During his second or third year on the job at North Carolina State, where he transformed the Wolfpack from losers to an ACC power, Holtz was asked if he would want to be the successor to his mentor, Ohio State legend Woody Hayes. Holtz replied, “I don’t ever want to be the one who follows a legend but I wouldn’t mind following the one who follows the legend.” While Dan Mullen lives in the shadow of generational coaching legends Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, Mike White is the one who followed the generational coaching legend. Now in his sixth season at Florida, he’s had the Gators a couple of missed shots and defensive stops away from a Final Four in 2017. Except for the shutdown of all sports due to the global pandemic in 2020, he would be a perfect five-for-five in delivering 20-win seasons. Only Kentucky has won more basketball games than Mike White and Florida in the SEC over the last six years. Considering the tradition and advantages that Kentucky has, fans should be pleased yet any time the Gators lose a basketball game there is a very loud chorus shouting “Fire Mike White!” Numerous websites claim White is on the hot seat, which is nowhere close to the truth. Why do so many fans think White is a bad fit at Florida? Probably because he has yet to deliver the Gators to the promised land of the Final Four. Perhaps they don’t remember Billy Donovan only made it four times in a 19-year career. Prior to Donovan’s first national championship team in 2006, the Gators hadn’t gotten past the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament five consecutive years. After the Gators flopped against Villanova in the second round in 2005, many Florida fans took to message boards to say Donovan needed to move on, that he had peaked at Florida. Donovan won the two national titles, but it was six years before he made it to another Final Four (2013). He left for the NBA after a losing season in 2015. White hasn’t won an SEC title nor has he gotten to the Final Four. He competes in the same league as Kentucky, which has been winning SEC titles and making Final Fours with a one-and-done approach. Kentucky recruits basketball the way Nick Saban recruits football. One of the reasons Saban has won so many national championships is because of football draft rules, his players stay at least three years. John Calipari gets his guys one year, two at the most. White hasn’t had a single one-and-done but his guys graduate, don’t get into trouble and represent the University of Florida well. When the Gators win, the Mike White critics say they didn’t win big enough. When they lose, they howl it’s time for him to go. Like Donovan before him it probably will take a generational team for White to get in the good graces of Florida fans. But what happens if Mike White never gets that generational team? What happens if Dan Mullen never gets that generational quarterback? Does that mean they have failed at their jobs? Far too many Florida fans would answer that with a resounding yes. Good, they will tell you, is not good enough. This is the University of Florida and the University of Florida demands great. Great is certainly a marvelous idea, but is it realistic? Certainly, Mullen’s job in restoring the Gators to the kind of prominence fans want would be so much easier if Nick Saban weren’t around. Saban is in the process of setting an almost impossible standard. Prior to Saban no one in college football had ever won six national championships in 12 years. You can almost bet the farm that no one will ever do that after Nick hangs up his whistle. Can we compare Dan Mullen to Nick Saban? Because that’s who he’s coaching against. Yes, before him were two generational coaching legends in Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer, but Spurrier’s last game coaching the Gators was the Orange Bowl after the 2001 season and Meyer left Florida after winning the Outback Bowl following the 2010 season. Spurrier and Meyer are long gone. Saban is the one Mullen is coaching against. Is the comparison to Saban fair? Other than Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, who has beaten Saban in two national championship games, it’s not really fair to compare any coach in the college game to Saban. Certainly, it’s not fair to compare Mullen to him, particularly when we consider Saban had an 11-year head start on Mullen, who has only been at Florida three years. And, when you also consider the fact that Alabama was winning national championships in football decades before the Gators ever got their first SEC title that counted under Spurrier in 1991. Can we compare Mike White to Billy Donovan, John Calipari, Mike Kryzyzewski, Roy Williams or any number of basketball coaching legends? Once again the answer to that is no. Donovan left Florida for the NBA where he hasn’t won a championship. Calipari, Coach K and Roy are among those who Mike is coaching against and all of them have built-in advantages that White doesn’t have. Just as Saban has the decades-long traditions of Alabama working in his favor, White doesn’t have the blueblood recruiting advantages of Kentucky, Duke or North Carolina. It is an uphill struggle for both of Florida’s most visible head coaches. Both of them want greatness and both of them are determined to get the Gators there. But what happens if they’re only good and not great? What happens if Mullen’s best is 10-11 wins a year, New Years Six bowls and winning the SEC East? What happens if White’s best is 20-plus wins a year and getting the Gators in the NCAA Tournament with occasional visits to the Sweet 16? Will we think of them as unsuccessful? Will we live in the past like they do at Tennessee, for example? Tennessee’s most recent troubles are a prime example. The Vols were once a national power. In its zeal to bask in the glow of national relevance, it has been a revolving door of football coaches. The next will be the fifth since 2009. Current basketball coach Rick Barnes is Tennessee’s sixth since 2000. Newly hired athletic director Danny White is the sixth since 2010. The amount of money Tennessee has spent on contract buyouts in football and basketball could fund a number of Third World governments for months at a time. There is nothing wrong with wanting championships and excellence, but the enthusiasm for hoisting the big trophies must be tempered with the reality of circumstances. Dan Mullen and Mike White are winning. Their players are graduating. We’re not seeing the mugshots of players on the front page of the Gainesville Sun. Former players sing the praises of both Mullen and White and not just for coaching, but their involvement with them personally to make better men of them. There is something to be said about that. So, while we wait for that generational talent that can be the lightning in a bottle that takes the Gators to the football and basketball promised lands, it’s time to take a realistic look at what is being accomplished in both sports and to be thankful. The Gators are winning in both sports and making inroads toward championships. There is nothing wrong with that. After all, we could be Tennessee.

Why is this man smiling? He's happy to be back in coaching. (Fox photo) Urban Meyer believes in the mantra “Hope & Opportunity” so strongly that he frequently mentions it as the key ingredient to our future for young people. It is the platform he used at Ohio State with recruits, parents and in his media messages. And still does. Then one day he saw that Hope & Opportunity for himself and decided to go for the brass ring – again. Check that – the diamond ring! Hello Jacksonville Jaguars. Get ready to strap it on. The new sheriff in River City is a serious dude and he’s in a hurry. His closest friends once dubbed him “Captain Emergency.” Over the years perhaps that was dialed down to “Captain Urgency.” But he’s on a mission for success -- just like he was at Utah, Florida and Ohio State. He calls it The Plan To Win. And he no doubt started invoking that plan six months ago before he was ever sure he wanted to coach again. If history is any barometer, he’ll have the Jaguars contending by year two. “Urban,” Steve Spurrier once said, “has a plan for everything.” Given the state of his health and happiness, I thought that he would pass on coaching for now, even though he loves Florida and had his eye cast toward the First Coast. Like so many other of his quests, Urban not only wanted to do his homework on the Jacksonville job first, he was researching it like a thesis. He’s not only The Thinker – he’s the Over-Thinker. Having an audience with Urban for more than 23 straight weeks since last summer as I co-hosted his Best Fridays in Football podcast -- usually preceded by some brief personal chat -- one might think I’d have garnered key insights about his future coaching employment. We generically discussed his future in coaching several times, but not in depth, since his name was coming up almost every week as a coveted prospect. Southern Cal. Auburn. Texas. And then the scuttlebutt drifted toward the NFL. Urban Meyer in the NFL? The guy who once created his own mini-version of Bear Bryant’s Junction by running his Bowling Green players through a gauntler in a closed gym until they puked their guts out? THAT Urban Meyer? “A 32-year-old coach out of control,” as he would later describe himself, vowing never to be that way again. Yes, and a guy who learned from his mistakes. Frankly, he said he would never say “never” about coaching. That just sounded like coaching rhetoric to me. At first I thought there was very little chance we were going to see him on the sideline anytime soon, if ever, with the odds of his coaching about 30 percent. I’m supposed to be a reporter, however, and I flunked because I failed to crack the code and didn’t really see it coming. After numerous informal chats about it, I moved the odds up to about 40 percent, or 60 per cent against, although I was starting to hear a buzz from my colleagues that he was seriously considering a return. But to the NFL? Then the heat turned up in December as the beheading of coaches accelerated. On our last podcast January 6 I kept my promise of not asking him about jobs anymore if he would be willing to come on for a final podcast right after his decision one way or another. He agreed. BEST FRIDAY'S IN FOOTBALL PODCAST https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vYmVzdGZyaWRheXNpbmZvb3RiYWxs/episode/ZGYxODNmMWUtNTFjMS0xMWViLTlhODAtMDcwYmIzOTk1OTQ4?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwjpirfl7q_uAhWph-AKHSdDCjwQieUEegQIDhAF&ep=6 But for the next two weeks there was radio silence and after taking the Jaguars job, only a light well-wishing text from me: “Thrilled for you. Welcome home. #HopeAndOpportunity.” To which he responded: “Thanks Buddy.” (Bulletin: Just as I was typing that, Urban texted me that he would be available next week for a final podcast, making good on his promise. Send me any questions by or leave them on our GatorBaitMedia.com message board.) He is a polarizing figure. There will be those who will mock Urban and say he has manipulated the system by feigning poor health and should be considered a mercenary who cuts and runs at the first sight of blood. That is a false narrative, of course, but in this day of twisted facts, conspiracy theories and Write Your Own Truth, haters are inevitable. Comes with. Meyer could care less and has no time for the naysayers. Has he made mistakes? Of course. He admits to being flawed like all of us. Did he harbor a band of criminals at Florida? Of course not! Is he responsible for the Covid-19 Virus, Global Warming and Ozone Layer Pollution? Probably not. Meanwhile, Urban has exploded on the scene like a rock star and tickets for the concert are about to be sold out. But can Hope & Opportunity survive in the abyss of football purgatory? In college football if you lose more than one game you’re probably out of the hunt for a championship. In the NFL, losing three or four games is an outstanding season. But how will those losses weigh on Urban? Ever since Jacksonville decided it wanted to court an NFL team, even way back in 1990 when I worked there in newspaper, TV and radio jobs, it looked and felt like a crucible, full of both dreams and doubts. I was on the doubting side for six months, and then one day I caught the spirit and the vision. Job opportunity called me away as I joined Terry Bradshaw on the NFL Today Show for three years. Then I looked up in 1996 and the Jaguars were born with Wayne Weaver as owner. Since that time they have enjoyed only a season or two in the sun, but hardly qualify as a success with a franchise record of 184-246 and a 7-7 post season mark. The plot of the crucible thickened as Pakistani-born American billionaire Shad Khan, 70, bought them in 2011 and became the second-fastest owner to 100 losses. He currently sits at a pathetic 39-105. Recently fired Doug Marrone after winning only one game in 2020, but Marrone did once beat Pittsburgh to win the AFC for his only winning season. There have been many stories written about Khan potentially moving the Jaguars to London, which would be a pity for the city of Jacksonville. Finally Khan changed his philosophy from hands-off ownership to hands-on. He met Urban Meyer at the Super Bowl and the courtship began. Gradually they forged a deal. He gave Urban the family jewels, $12 million a year in salary, about $100M in cap money and 11 drafts picks, including the No. 1 overall choice that will likely go for Trevor Lawrence. Maybe Urban has spared Jacksonville's NFL franchise from going abroad. I don’t consider myself an expert on Urban Meyer or claim to know his mind, but as his friend, official biographer in 2008 (Urban’s Way, St. Martin’s Press) and colleague on his podcast for 23 straight weeks, I know a bit about him personally and professionally. I know there will be flak. Urban Meyer has several flak jackets. He’s going to be tough to take out. And if he goes, as always, it will be on his terms. I predict he will save the Jaguars franchise for DUUUUU-VAL! I think Khan made a great hire.