In some ways, yes, Spencer Rattler rattled the Florida Gators. The Oklahoma Sooners quarterback cherry picked his matches against a shell of a Gator defense, as the No. 6 Sooners routed the No. 7 Gators 55-20 in the 2020 Goodyear Cotton Bowl. After winning the toss and electing to receive, the freshman Rattler (14-23, 247 yards, 3 touchdowns; 40 yards, 1 touchdown on 7 rushes) drove down field like a seasoned veteran leading his troops. He found a matchup versus Donovan Stiner three different times and took advantage, ending with a 27-yard touchdown in the endzone to Marvin Mims. Already up 7-0, a Gators turnover made it 14-0 Sooners before Gators Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham could even get his play sheet turned right side up. Florida was able to cut into a 17-0 Sooners lead, thanks in part to turnovers courtesy of the de facto veterans on a night when so many were missing. Khris Bogle chased the scrambling Rattler through the backfield, refusing to let him slip away, and sacked him from behind, causing a fumble that safety Trey Dean recovered. The Gators followed that up with a Mohamoud Diabate forced fumble in a scrum, that corner Kaiir Elam emerged with victorious. But those became anomalies on an otherwise lackluster night. Rattler took his time in the pocket, something he had ample of, and made easy work of what has been a questionable secondary all season. Where Oklahoma really struck though was on the ground. The Sooners picked up 435 yards rushing, and three of their six offensive touchdowns were on the ground. Florida was without their leading tackler Ventrell Miller due to injury, and defensive lineman Kyree Campbell due to an opt out. But Diabate won’t let either absence excuse the Gators worst rushing defense of the season. It was also the most since Georgia Southern rushed for 429 in 2013. “Obviously, Kyree's a great player and that would be a great help for our defense. But I'm not going to sit here and say we gave up a lot of rushing yards because Kyree wasn't there,” said Diabate. "Because at the end of the day, Kyree was not there the first couple of games, and we played. Kyree's a great player. We need him. He's a big part of the 2020 team. But at the end of the day, just like Trey Dean said, players have to get out on the field and make plays. We're the University of Florida. We can't say we didn't have one guy. This is Florida. So you can't say we didn't have one guy who could make a play.” In the second half alone, the Sooners five drives ended in a punt, a field goal and three touchdowns. While the Gators defense being unable to tread any water as Oklahoma drowned them to the tune 684 total yards of offense was the primary reason Florida lost this game, it did not come purely at the hands of Rattler. The Gators themselves seemed rattled before the ball was even kicked off. Missing seven starters due to a variety of opt outs, COVID test and injuries, Florida stepped on to the field in Arlington Texas missing 65% of its production through the air (Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney, Tre Grimes and Jacob Copeland). “It obviously was a little more challenging,” admitted Trask. “I mean, when you just, you think about it, you've got a whole off-season to get timing down with that group of guys. And we essentially had about two or three days to get the timing down. Since we had so many opt-outs, we only had about two or three days of practice to get the timing down with the next guys up. “That's not making excuses or anything, but that's just the amount of work that goes into this, you don't just flip a switch and everything, you end up in end zone. It takes a lot of work to get there.” “With the number of people that were out for the game, we were under numbers, actually,” admitted Mullen. “To be honest, we could have said I give our guys credit. We had the numbers to not play the game. But our young guys, I was really excited. They wanted to go play in that game. They wanted to get the experience. They wanted to be on that stage.” Still, it took only two plays for Trask (16-28, 158 yards, three interceptions) to miss those who better knew his timing and tendencies. After a quick shot to Justin Shorter to get the chains moving, on the second offensive play of the game, Trask looked left for Rick Wells. The ball didn’t have enough air as it arced towards Wells, but without knowing the play, it’s hard to know if that was due to Trask misreading the route or Wells misreading his depth on the play based on where Trask would put the pass. Regardless, Tre Norwood had the easy pick and nothing but grass in route to his 45-yard pick-six. In the blink of an eye, the Sooners were up 14-0. Trask, who had thrown five interceptions all season, followed that drive up with a ball slightly behind Kemore Gamble, tipping off the tight ends fingers and into the waiting hands of Brian Asamoah. A third interception in the first quarter—the last in the endzone for an Oklahoma touchback—it was clear this wasn’t the night for the Gators legend. An Evan McPherson field goal made it 17-3 and as the Gators began the second quarter, a Sooners punt put Florida back at their own 12-yard line. Trask began the drive, using four plays to move the Gators 24 yards downfield and open up some breathing room. From there, Emory Jones took over for the remainder of the drive, using 11 plays himself to cap the 16-play, 88-yard drive. Letting Jones rush, throw screens as well as roll out and look deep, Jones did a bit of everything, before finally running up the middle 1-yard for the Gators first touchdown of the night, cutting the score to 17-10. Jones wasn’t seen again until the second half, partly because he was seen “losing his lunch” so to speak, on the sidelines. “He has to get in shape or something like that. You know what I mean? You've got to play those long drives right now. He's used to going in for a couple plays here and there and getting a breather and some water,” joked Mullen. “We were going to play a lot of people. [Emory] was in. He had a couple plays. We just let him in to go finish the drive. To be honest with you, I talked to Kyle [Trask] at halftime. I said, I'm going to let you play the first series and make a decision in the second half.” Mohamoud Diabate forced a second fumble on Rattler and another McPherson field goal helped erase what had been a 17 point deficit down to four, 17-13. Then the Sooners and Rattler used textbook, simple movement to pick a part the Gators defense in whichever way they so deemed necessary at any given time. By nights end, all three quarterbacks saw time. “Emory obviously has gotten a lot of experience. I think Emory has learned an awful lot,” said Mullen of his quarterback. “Sitting there with Kyle Trask, he has learned to prepare, to develop, to be ready. And I'm really excited to see what he's going to bring to the table here moving forward within the offense. “And the same with Anthony. Anthony is just a young guy. You know, I'm really excited about us getting going in the spring and seeing a lot of these guys out here on the field, especially at the quarterback position…both Emory and Anthony are very different style quarterbacks than Kyle, which I think, as everybody knows, we always play to the strengths of our players. So we'll run. There will be a lot of similarities and a lot of differences in our offense next year, but we're going to build around the strengths of those guys. “And then you know what? You look at this right now, Anthony Richardson is throwing a touchdown pass in the Cotton Bowl against Oklahoma. Emory Jones has played in a lot of big games and a lot of big moments, so he has the experience and he's really learned how to prepare to get ready to take over that main role…I’m excited.” In a performance that should in no way diminish all Kyle Trask has done to cement his legacy with the Gators, he finished with his first career start without a touchdown. But on a night that Mullen said was a lot about seeing what the future held for the Gators, Emory Jones finished going 8-16 for 86 yards through the air and 60 yards and a touchdown on 10 rushes. Freshman and Gainesville native Anthony Richardson (1-1, 27 yards and 1TD; 42 yards on 3 rushes) threw the only Florida touchdown of the night—albeit in garbage time—a 27-yard rainbow to Texas Longhorns transfer, Jordan Pouncey. In the end, this was a team who had their sights set on the playoffs and showed little interest in what was essentially a consolation prize. And as they trudge back to Gainesville in preparation to turn the calendar over to 2021, they must do so with hard earned lessons from their third New Years Six bowl game under Dan Mullen, but first loss in such a game. The knowledge they brought that upon themselves will be what shapes the coming months. “By playing so many players tonight, guys have experienced their stuff now that they know they can go build off of and learn from,” explained Mullen. “They know now, hey, when I step on the field in a big game against a great football team, there are certain things that you know, when I was recruited when I was playing other high school football, you know, the last time I was really on the field, it wasn't like this, and it's a very different game.” Added Diabate, “I feel like three losses isn't acceptable, but something I will say, I'm proud of the team because every other team did too, but we have to deal with a lot this year. It's a COVID year, no off-season, no spring together, having young players who didn't get to go through a spring. So it's like we're proud that we made it to this point. “Even though we wanted to win and it wasn't our desired result at the end, we're still proud of ourselves because there's a lot of people going through a lot of things in this world, a lot of distractions going on in this world today and during this time, but we were able to come and finish the season. And whether we finished it with a win or a loss, we finished it like men and we finished it -- when that scoreboard said 0:00 with no time left, we finished it. So I'm proud of my guys, every single one of them, from K.T. [Kadarius Toney] to a walk-on. Every one of them. That's how I feel about it.” “In the off-season, just prepare,” noted safety Trey Dean, who was a part of the two previous NY6 wins. “We’ve got to go out there and work on the little things because I believe that this game is 90% mental and the rest of it is physical. So we've got to go out there and work on the little things. Just different things. We're going to go out there and listen to our coaches. And we've got to continue to be the Gator standard. And, at the end of the day or next year, we're holding up that trophy, the Lord's will.”

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: URBAN TO JACKSONVILLE Urban Meyer is the new head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars where he is expected to lift the Jags out of the NFL septic tank and take them to the promised land. They’ve been close to the Super Bowl before but they never got there but that was long ago. In the last three years, the Jags are a combined 12-36 so the former Florida and Ohio State head coach has his work cut out for him. The question is why take a job at a place that consistently rolls snake eyes? To start with, it has nothing to do with money even though reports have it that he will be paid anywhere from $12-15 million per year. When it came time to agree to take the pro football plunge these were the factors that lured him in: (1) Drafting Clemson QB Trevor Lawrence with the overall No. 1 pick in April; (2) Eleven draft picks in the 2021 draft; (3) $100 million in cap space that will allow him to pick and choose veterans that he can plug in for immediate help; (4) An owner that knows nothing at all about football and doesn’t pretend to who will allow Meyer to hire his own personnel guys and coaches; and (5) Location, location, location. The NFL is a quarterback-centric league and Lawrence is considered a franchise altering QB. Good enough that he would have been the top draft pick after his freshman year in 2018, he’s perhaps the most NFL ready quarterback in years. Of the 11 draft picks there are two each in the first, second and fourth rounds. There will be no shortage of trade offers so Meyer will have the option of drafting college players that can play immediately, trading some of the picks for veterans, or even doing a Bill Belichick by selective trading for even more draft picks. One thing he’s almost certain to do with a portion of the cap space is bring in linemen on both sides of the football. The Jags allowed 44 sacks so finding some pass blockers to protect his franchise QB is imperative. Over on the defensive line, the Jags managed only 18 sacks, barely more than one per game. That will also have to change. Something else Meyer will need to do is bring in a veteran quarterback who can mentor Lawrence. That won’t come cheap but it will be well worth the investment. Unlike Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, who thought he knew so much about football that he ran Jimmy Johnson off, Jags owner Sam Khan isn’t a football guy so Meyer is going to bring in his own talent evaluators and assistants he knows and trusts. There is no limit on the number of assistant coaches Meyer can hire. Bill Belichick, for example, has one of the smaller staffs in the business while the Buffalo Bills and Philadelphia Eagles employ more than 20 each. Then there is that matter of location. When it comes to good weather this is one of the two best divisions in pro football. Indianapolis plays in a dome. Houston has a retractable roof. Tennessee and the Jags play in pleasant weather conditions outdoors most of the time. Once the calendar hits November and December there aren’t many games where snow and cold will factor in. I was skeptical that Meyer would take the job. I know how comfortable he was with the Fox gig but also knew he might return to coaching someday if he perceived it to be the perfect situation. Texas would have backed up a Brinks truck to his home in Sarasota to lure him back to the college ranks but he declined. He could have had the Southern Cal job for the asking but I never thought that’s a job he would take. Of course, I didn’t think he’d go to the NFL either but he has what he believes is a perfect situation with both the control he needs and a standoff owner willing to give him whatever he needs to make it all work. Jacksonville was willing to give Meyer what he wanted. If it stays that way, I have no doubt he will win in a big way. MULLEN ADDS VITAL PIECE TO DEFENSIVE FRONT There was good news from the transfer portal Thursday defensive tackle DaQuan Newkirk (6-3, 317) announced he is transferring in from Auburn. Newkirk, who is from Orlando, will have two full years of eligibility remaining. The addition of Newkirk and Penn State grad transfer Antonio Shelton (6-2, 337) should add strength and stability at a position that underperformed dramatically in 2020 when the Gators gave up 170.5 yards per game on the ground, 68 per game more than they allowed in 2019. Now that the American Football Coaches Association convention is over, there should be a good bit of coach movement nationwide this weekend. There is one opening on the Florida defensive staff but will Dan Mullen hire a safeties coach or will there be even more movement? Quite a few NFL assistants are available and where they land could create movement on college staffs. One thing for sure, all eyes will be on former Florida defensive coordinator Charlie Strong, who spent the last season as an analyst for Nick Saban at Alabama. Steve Sarkisian has already hired Bama O-line coach Kyle Flood and special teams coordinator/tight ends Jeff Banks. Associate head coach/safeties Charles Huff could be the DC at Missouri and corners coach Karl Scott is in high demand. With a shuffle of his staff inevitable, Saban might take Strong off the market by adding him to the full-time staff. There are persistent rumors that Strong will join Meyer in Jacksonville but former Gator All-American linebacker Brandon Spikes tweeted that he had talked to Strong and the info is not true. Spikes also said UF would benefit greatly from having Strong come back to Gainesville for a fifth time (He’s worked for Charley Pell, Galen Hall, Steve Spurrier, Ron Zook and Meyer at UF). HAVE THE GATORS FOUND THEIR CATALYST IN CASTLETON? When Colin Castleton gets it going, the Gators (6-3, 3-2 SEC) have a great shot at winning. Castleton has scored more than 20 points in each of Florida’s three SEC victories including his best game ever as a collegian in the comeback win over Ole Miss when he was good for 21 points, 10 rebounds, eight blocked shots and three assists. When Castleton plays well, the Gators play well. They will need him to come up big Saturday in Starkville. The 6-11 Castleton will be going against a pair of big, physical front court defenders at Mississippi State in 6-10, 245-pound Tolu Smith (12.8 points, 8.5 rebounds) and 6-11, 255-pound Abdul Ado (5.5 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.2 blocks). The two are far from invincible as they combined for 12 points and 11 rebounds in State’s 56-55 loss to a much smaller Texas A&M team. The key for Castleton will be to stay out of foul trouble while playing effectively in the paint at both ends of the court. If he’s able to score in the paint, it will open up the outside game for Tre Mann (17 points vs. Ole Miss) and Noah Locke (15 points including 3-6 on 3-pointers). If those three are scoring, the Gators have a good chance to win their second straight SEC game. SEC Saturday Games FLORIDA (6-3, 3-2 SEC) at Mississippi State (8-5, 3-2 SEC) Georgia (7-4, 0-4 SEC at Ole Miss (6-5, 1-3 SEC) #17 Missouri (7-2, 1-2 SEC) at Texas A&M (7-4, 2-3 SEC) Kentucky (4-7, 3-1 SEC) at Auburn (7-6, 1-4 SEC) Arkansas (10-3, 2-3 SEC) at Alabama (10-3, 5-0 SEC) Vanderbilt (4-5, 1-4 SEC) at #10 Tennessee (9-1, 3-1 SEC) South Carolina (3-2, 1-1 SEC) at LSU (9-2, 4-1 SEC) OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC ALABAMA: Underclassmen leaving for the NFL are quarterback Mac Jones, wide receiver Jaylen Waddle, corner Patrick Surtain II and D-lineman Christian Barmore. Also leaving is senior linebacker Dylan Moses, who could have returned for another year. ARKANSAS: Wide receiver Tyson Morris is returning for 2021 … defensive back Michah Smith placed his name in the transfer portal. AUBURN: Tracy Rocker has departed South Carolina to take the Auburn D-line job. He’s the third South Carolina staffer to leave for Auburn (Mike Bobo and Will Friend are the others). GEORGIA: O-lineman Netori Johnson has transferred to Middle Tennessee State of Conference USA. KENTUCKY: Quarterback Nik Scalzo has pulled his name out of the transfer portal and will return to Kentucky in 2021. LSU: Coach O says he’s not locked in on a defensive coordinator who is necessarily a 3-4 guy or a 4-3 guy. That flexibility might come in handy because he’s already run through a few candidates who have said no. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Zach Arnett’s name keeps popping up for every available defensive coordinator job. The latest is Texas, where he reportedly has interviewed ... Wide receiver Kyziah Pruitt has put his name in the transfer portal. MISSOURI: Among the candidates for the vacant defensive coordinator job are Charles Kelly, Alabama’s associate defensive coordinator, and Alabama analyst and former Arizona head coach Mike Stoops. TENNESSEE: Already under investigation for alleged recruiting violations, the Vols have self-reported several minor recruiting violations both for football and for women’s basketball … Wide receiver Brandon Johnson, who caught 79 passes for 969 yards and a TD during his time at Tennessee, will be a grad transfer to UCF. TEXAS A&M: Corner Myles Johnson announced he’s returning to A&M for the 2021 season. MORE FOOTBALL STUFF Red Wilson will always have a place in Steve Spurrier’s heart. Back in 1979 when Georgia Tech hired Bill Currie as its new head coach, Spurrier was out of a job. Currie told Spurrier he didn’t think he had a future in coaching. The story goes that Currie offered to get him a job selling insurance. Wilson, the former head coach at Elon, had just taken the job at Duke. He offered Spurrier the job as offensive coordinator and give him carte blanche with the offense. Wilson loved telling the story that he would ask Spurrier on the sideline, “What play did you call, Steve?” and Spurrier would answer, “Touchdown Coach!” Spurrier’s success with Duke is what got him the head coaching job with the Tampa Bay Bandits of the USFL, which led him back to Duke as the head coach in 1987 and then on to Florida in 1990. Rest in peace Coach! The Gator Nation is eternally grateful. Remember when the New York Jets were supposed to be talking in earnest with Dan Mullen? Well, they never talked to Mullen – at least officially or anything beyond casual conversations – and ended up hiring San Francisco 49ers defensive coordinator Robert Saleh on Thursday. Now, will Saleh decide to keep former No. 1 draft pick Sam Darnold as his QB or will he draft Ohio State’s Justin Fields? Dane Brugler of The Athletic has the Jets taking BYU quarterback Zach Wilson but his mock draft was done before Saleh was hired. Steve Sarkisian lured Kyle Flood from Alabama to be the new O-line coach at Texas. Now he’s hired away Bama special teams coordinator Jeff Banks at a salary of $1 million. ONE LAST PITHY THOUGHT FOR FRIDAY: At some point the bowls are going to either be merged into the fabric of the College Football Playoff or made completely obsolete. Until that happens, the bowls need to find a way to avoid the opt-outs. Here are a couple of thoughts. Let’s not fool ourselves, the opt-outs aren’t doing it to “prepare for the NFL Draft” and they aren’t doing it for fear they will be hurt. They’re opting out because they’re jumping the gun on signing with an agent. So here are a couple of thoughts: (1) Make sure every player who is draft-eligible gets an NFL evaluation. Every college coach has them ready for players who are considering leaving so just move the date up a week or so. (2) If a player projects as a first or second round pick then the bowl buys an insurance policy for say $3 million, $2 million for third or fourth, etc. It’s not going to be that expensive since it’s only a policy good for a week or two, not like one that covers a kid the entire season. (3) Instead of gifts that the players typically sell as soon as they get back home, give them a check for $5,000 or $10,000. These guys are going to be leaving anyway so it’s not that big a deal. Instead of opting out, you might find a high percentage of them delay signing with an agent until AFTER the bowl game.

As the confetti fell on the Alabama Crimson Tide Monday night and Nick Saban won his sixth title with the perennial contending Tide—his seventh overall, passing Paul “Bear” Bryant—one couldn’t help but wonder, how much longer until the Florida Gators are standing in that confetti shower once again? The Gators have won three of their own, including two in a short span (2006, 2008) but it’s now been 12 years since the orange and blue has been able to raise the National Championship trophy. In the world of hungry competitors and fans, that’s a lifetime. Meanwhile no Nick Saban recruiting class has ever left Tuscaloosa without at least one National Championship. Most have multiple. So what will it take for UF to be back in the thick of that race? They seemed to be this season at least, having stayed in the Top 10 in the AP, Coaches and College Football Playoff poll the entire season. Heading into the final week of the regular season, the Gators were 8-1 with their only loss having come to No. 5 Texas A&M. Then of course, came the three game losing streak with the not unexpected loss to the aforementioned Alabama being sandwiched by two inexcusable losses to a 3-5 LSU Tigers team and an embarrassing blowout to the No. 6 Oklahoma Sooners in the Cotton Bowl. A historic offense was weighed down by an anemic defense and questionable decisions at different times of the season peppered what was otherwise considered a championship run. The loss to Alabama in the SEC Championship came down to the final play, with a chance for the win although it did not come. The Gators lost by six points. “We got to the SEC Championship Game and we were six points away,” said Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham while previewing the Cotton Bowl. “Last year we played Georgia and we were seven points away. The comment was, ‘what’s the difference between us and Georgia?’ and we said seven points. Right now what’s the difference between us in the SEC Championship Game, it’s six points. If you look, Alabama is a very talented defense and at the end of the day we gave up six more points in the game. We’ve got to find a way to eliminate that and to get the win.” How does that happen? How does Florida “eliminate” those six points and get the win—and perhaps (likely) subsequently a championships? Based on what we saw from the 13-0 Alabama Crimson Tide this season—and Monday night—here’s what the Gators are missing. Recruiting At one point during the Championship game, ESPN showed the lineup for Alabama’s secondary. All four players are from South Florida. An account on Twitter that follows Miami Hurricanes recruiting shared it with the caption, “This is why we paid up for TRob” referencing new Canes defensive backs coach Travaris Robinson. T-Rob, as he is colloquially known, was a position coach and top recruiter under Will Muschamp at Florida and then followed Muschamp to Auburn then South Carolina. He and Florida attempted to work out a deal for him to join the Gators staff before hitting a wall. That’s not to say missing out on Robinson—a noted excellent recruiter—means all of Florida’s recruiting hopes are shot. But it was a stark reminder that it’s an issue. For as much as Dan Mullen and staff are the best in the game at developing guys, you also just need pure talent. Alabama and Nick Saban get that, year in and year out. Furthermore, as the Canes tweet shows, they come in to Florida and take it. Whether it’s by hiring guys like T-Rob or just putting extra emphasis on the area, the Gators can’t let talent continue to leave the state. Very rarely does Nick Saban let a guy he wants leave the state of Alabama. In fact, only two have recently slipped his grasp: running back La’Mical Perine and offensive weapon Kadarius Toney, both out of Mobile and both who of course attended UF. Mullen and Florida need the same attitude around the Sunshine State. South Florida—from which the Gators have four commits in the 2021 class—is too rich in talent for the premier university in the state to not have their pick. It’s an attitude that Mullen knows he needs to copy from Nick Saban, if not in specifics at least in theory. “[Saban] has done a great job of establishing the program - been there a long time,” said Mullen before the SEC Championship. “I think when you look at what he has been able to build, the program he has been able to establish, through the years the stability of it, the combination of a very well coached team on the field and they do an unbelievable job of getting great players in as well. I think he has kind of built a program that people want to model themselves after. "I don’t know that you copy because everyone’s got to be your own person. You’d never copy anybody else’s program because it wouldn’t fit my personality as to who I am as a person and a coach and all of that stuff. You’ve got to build the program kind off around your own personalities of how you do things. But I do think they’re tough on both ends.” Depth When Alabama had players like Heisman winner DeVonta Smith leave the game injured or Najee Harris need a break, they rolled in the next guy like Brian Robinson Jr., Jahleel Billingsley or Slade Bolden. The adage with Alabama has always been, they don’t rebuild, they reload. A lot of that ties back to recruiting. Once you get players in, the development is crucial which is where Mullen and staff shine. The key of course is combining the two and making it a consistent strength. It’s not about just recruiting one star player at a position at a time of need. It’s about signing players year after year across the board to create depth. Florida started to do this recently at the most important position of all; quarterback. After years of paying penance for the majestic Tim Tebow the Gators suffered at quarterback. Things started to look up with Feleipe Franks who was a major recruiting win over LSU at the time. Then there was the development of Franks and the Cinderella story of Kyle Trask. While Trask wasn’t considered a recruiting win, his path, story and development have become legendary. They are also proof of what coaching and commitment can do. So often in today’s college football world, players—QB’s especially—are apt to hop into the transfer portal as soon as their playing time dips. While Mullen has been able to pluck from the portal, he’s lost very few to it and kept all of his quarterbacks (save Jalon Jones who was shown the door after facing sexual battery charges). Instead, Mullen—like Saban—has been able to convince players to stay. Through that, he has the opportunity to develop them and turn them into Heisman contenders. It’s why Emory Jones is still here and why Jones is telling Anthony Richardson to be patient as well. Said Jones this past November, “Honestly, [transferring] went through my head before, but I mean, I just look, like just seeing like how [Kyle Trask] handles his business like just keeps me motivated because I just, I just see how, how much he's grown over the years. And like I see myself still like growing and getting better every day. So I mean, I'm just, I just wait for my time, being patient." With all of this in mind, Mullen signed two quarterbacks on the early signing day for the 2021 class; Jalen Kitna and Carlos Del-Rio Wilson. “We got we think two guys that are excellent guys. I know they're competitors, love to come in and see how that,” said Mullen at the time. “In today's football, you never know how things shake out and what goes on with it. One guy can play early, one guy can play late. You never know. But we're really excited about both of those two quarterbacks. Going into next year, at this point we're only going to have two quarterbacks on scholarship when we show back up in January. You're a trip getting on the bus and spraining my ankle away from having one quarterback here. So these guys are pretty close to competing for the backup job Day 1 that they get on campus.” Coaching This is where Mullen and Saban are actually pretty close. But there are still moments where we see the chasm more clearly. In the SEC Championship game, after scoring a touchdown and in a clear situation needing to go for a two-point conversion, Mullen called a timeout. That came back to bite the Gators on their final drive when they had no time to drive downfield for a win and no way to stop the clock for help. Mullen admitted after the game he made a mistake. “That was bad clock management on my part. We should have had it ready to go for two. Our thought, though, is we're going for two right there, we're going to try the on-side kick. We're here to win. Would have given us two two-point conversions. If we didn't get the first one, we'd have to get the second one to tie. If we got the first one, all we needed there was an extra point to win the game at the end. That was the thought process to go for two. “That was a bad job by me, we had to use that timeout there. Would have loved to have that timeout and given us an extra 40 seconds of the ball to try to get the and-one touchdown.” You can make those mistakes in regular season games against coaches on your level or just below. You can’t make those mistakes against Nick Saban and you can’t make those mistakes if you want to win a championship. It isn’t difficult to imagine Georgia Bulldogs coach Kirby Smart still second guesses to this day having Justin Fields run a fake punt against Alabama in the 2017 National Championship. But Saban didn’t think twice in that same game about risking an on-side kick early in the game and benching Jalen Hurts for Tua Tagovailoa. Why? Because he had already weighed the risk and reward and knew he’d come out on top. Nick Saban has really only made one big in-game mistake like that in his tenure at Alabama and it was so monumental that it created the best play in college football; the Kick-6 against Auburn. Mullen also has to be willing to do something Saban has no problem with; cutting people loose. The head coach is known for being fiercely loyal and that’s admirable and pays off more often than not. But at times, it doesn’t. He has to weigh those options and make a change on his coaching staff if it’s for the betterment of the program. Dan Mullen is considered one of the best in-game coaches in the game and he’s established himself as a program builder. It combines to make him one of the best head coaches in college. But if he and the Gators want to take the next step to being champions, these are the small tweaks he’ll have to make to his coaching philosophy. Pick Back Up the Rope The pillar of Strength and Conditioning Coach Nick Savage’s program is “holding on to the rope.” It’s meant to remind guys when the going gets tough, when the game gets hard and when your strength feels non-existent, hold on to the rope. Don’t let go. Remember that the person behind you is depending on you to hold on to your section to keep the entire team moving forward. COVID-protocols and interruptions means the Gators didn’t get to participate in offseason workouts and camp, along with in-season workouts even, were greatly cut down. One would hope the lessons had carried over from previous years but as the season progressed, the rope began to slip. Versus LSU, they began to lose their grip. Versus Alabama, they grabbed back on with one final gasp but versus Oklahoma, let it go completely. A 10-game all-SEC season was bound to be difficult. But as we saw in Miami on Monday night, it was possible to make it through and even go undefeated. Now as the Gators prepare for the 2021 season, the most important thing they can do to chase a championship is pick back up the rope.

The early arrivals of Florida football’s 2021 crop have touched down in Gainesville. On the first Saturday without college football since the start of the season, Florida’s coaching staff stayed busy at work as they welcomed 12 of the program’s newest members to campus. Here are the 12 early enrollees with whom Dan Mullen and his staff will have an early swing: Donovan McMillon, safety Hailing from Peters Township in Canonsburg, PA, McMillon was the first of the 2021 recruiting class to get settled into Gainesville as he made his bed on January 6. McMillon bears a four-star rating and is ranked as the 11th-best safety in the 2021 cycle. With such hype, it is no surprise that the 6-foot-2, 192-pound safety hauled in over 50 scholarship offers. Barton Simmons, former scouting director at 247Sports describes McMillon as a “big safety that appears to have the frame to land at linebacker or rover depending on development. “Has a can’t-miss presence on the field.” Chief Borders, outside linebacker I’ve been big on Chief Borders – not just because he has the greatest name I’ve ever heard, but because the 6-foot-5, 242-pound linebacker is a Gator Great in the making. And he’s officially in Gainesville. After battling with the Georgia High School Association for an opportunity to play football in his senior year after transferring schools, the four-star defender recorded a team-high of 54 tackles for Heard County. With aspirations of studying medicine, the surefooted student-athlete briefly weighed his opportunity to attend Stanford, before ultimately backing up his loyalty to the Gators -- turning his nose up at other offers from Alabama, Auburn and others. Jason Marshall, cornerback Jason Marshall touts the honor of being Florida’s highest rated recruit in the 2021 cycle. The five-star defensive back out of Miami Palmetto comes to Gainesville despite strong pushes from Manny Diaz at Miami and Nick Saban at Alabama. According to Andrew Ivins, 247 Sports southeast recruiting analyst, Marshall “has the looks of a new-age cornerback given his length. “Tracks the ball extremely well and doesn’t seem to have a problem flipping his hips while running in coverage. Excels on defense, but also makes an impact on offense and can score via the return game.” Corey Collier Jr., safety Coming to Florida alongside Marshall is Corey Collier Jr. Together, the Palmetto pair make up two of the four highly-touted recruits from Miami Palmetto that Florida was chasing. Two out of four isn’t terrible. Collier Jr. Will continue to add depth to the Gators’ defensive backfield. The four-star safety bagged 35 scholarship offers, but ultimately pledged to Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators. And according to Ivins, Collier Jr., at 6-foot-2 and 170 pounds, is one player strength coach Nick Savage might have some fun with. “A long frame with long limbs that doesn’t appear to be anywhere near close to being fully physically developed as the body is still maturing,” Ivins said of the Florida signee. “Should add muscle mass once in college strength program which will make him more explosive.” Ivins also describes Collier Jr. As “an intelligent defender with good ball skills that knows how to take the right angles.” Jordan Young, cornerback Further beefing up the defensive secondary, Jordan Young is a three-star Tampa native that touched down in Gainesville on Saturday. Young hails from Gaither High School, where he helped the Cowboys to an 11-1 record in 2020. Through the course of the season, Young snatched three interceptions and tallied 21 tackles. Young also made contributions on the Cowboys’ offense. Despite offers from Alabama, Arkansas and 20+ others, Young maintained his commitment to the Gators prior to signing his letter of intent during Early Signing Day on December 16. Carlos Del Rio-Wilson, quarterback The addition of Carlos Del Rio-Wilson will make Florida’s quarterback room that much more interesting in the years to come. Like Chief Borders, the four-star, dual threat quarterback also fell victim to the Gainesville High School Association this year after transferring schools. However, in his junior season with the McEachern Indians, Del Rio-Wilson led his team to a 12-1 record behind 1,792 passing yards and 16 touchdown passes. Del Rio-Wilson also competed in the Elite 11 back in July where he finished fifth in the event. Del Rio-Wilson has been committed to Florida since July of 2019. He signed his letter of intent on Early Signing Day and recently arrived to campus. Jalen Kitna, quarterback Jalen Kitna, son of former NFL quarterback Jon Kitna, will join the quarterback room with Del Rio-Wilson, as well as the remaining quarterbacks Florida has to offer. And as a three-star Texan signal caller and Florida’s recent history with three-star quarterbacks from the Lone Star State, the Gators should be excited about Kitna’s arrival. At 6-foot-4 and 200 pounds, Kitna tallied a total of 13 scholarship offers with Arizona and Boston College topping the list. In his senior season at Burleson High School, Kitna threw for 2,516 yards with 32 touchdowns and just three interceptions. Nick Elksnis, tight end After the year that Kyle Pitts had, Florida must look like a tight end’s dream. At 6-foot-6 and 220 pounds, early enrollee Nick Elksnis boasts the same height as Pitts and is just 20 pounds slimmer. The three-star tight end comes out of Jacksonville and chose Florida over 17 other scholarship offers. In his senior season with Episcopal School of Jacksonville, Elksnis hauled in 21 catches, totaling 425 yards and five touchdowns. Daejon Reynolds, wide receiver Another potential target for the Gators’ quarterback comes in the shape of Daejon Reynolds, a three-star wide receiver out of Grayson High School in Logansville, Georgia. Reynolds, who stretches 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds contributed 88 receptions in the 2019 season, good for 1,534 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns. According to Charles Power, a national writer for 247Sports, Reynolds is “highly productive as a junior as he was among the top wide receivers in Georgia from a statistical standpoint. “Shows the ability to make difficult, contested catches in traffic. Is able to time his leap to out-jump opposing defensive backs” Justus Boone, defensive end Justus Boone, who hails out of South Carolina, is a big-bodied pickup for the Florida Gators’ defense. According to Power, Boone “possesses an above average stature and frame for a strong-side defensive end. Has room to add mass once in a college strength program and could ultimately grow into a defensive tackle, nearing 300 pounds” At 6-foot-5 and 250 pounds, Boone provides the Gators with a lot of size up front. In the 2020 high school season, the four-star defensive end recorded 42 total tackles for Sumter High School, with 10.5 happening behind the line of scrimmage. Christopher Thomas, defensive tackle Todd Grantham and the Florida Gators defense reeled Christopher Thomas, a three-star defensive tackle out of Fort Myers, in from other offers such as Florida State and Georgia. At 6-foot-6 and 290 pounds, Thomas joins the likes of Justus Boone in the fact the Florida has recruited a hefty defensive line this cycle. Thomas, the No. 27-ranked defensive tackle in the country, recorded 97 tackles for the Dunbar Tigers in 2020, with 32 being behind the line of scrimmage. Desmond Watson, defensive tackle Like Thomas, Desmond Watson is another massive in-state target that the Gators hauled in after the early signing period. Coming out of Seffner, Watson played for the Armwood Hawks where he racked up 39 total tackles, with 19 being good for a loss. The three-star defensive tackled is described by Ivins as “A large, wide-hipped body that’s well over 350 pounds, yet surprisingly light on his feet given build and composition. At 6-foot-5 and 380 pounds, Ivins was impressed with Watson being one of the first to “pounce off the snap and initiate contact”.

If there’s one word we’ll remember from 2020, it’s “change.” Now, what’s the key word for college football 2021? More of the same. Should it be different? And how? Plenty, in my opinion. And given the poor TV ratings of the national championship game, those changes need to be immediate and perhaps even substantial. I’ve been working on ideas for those changes almost 30 years, playing to a small audience. Sometimes just one – maybe two when I had a dog. Rather than dusting off that old “Buddy Martin Manifesto on CFB,” however, I’m just going to assemble a short Post-2020 Wish List. Especially as it pertains to the SEC and Florida Gators. Now that college football is becoming a global business and sport, the need for an even more centralized power has developed. What happens in Boise can matter in Baton Rouge, and vice-versa. Given the dire need for uniform policies, streamlining of the playoff system/committee and the implicit void of leadership that needs filling, more things should be governed collectively and internally. So, let’s start right there with ditching of the NCAA in football and establishing a blue-ribbon board of directors to manage and oversee the game and report back to each conference and its school presidents. I already hear your raised voices: “JUST WHAT WE NEED! Another level of bureaucrats!” I feel your pain, so I’m just going to leave this brief list right here and let it gestate. So many of them are tied in together. For the 155th time, EXPAND THE PLAYOFFS NOW. It will solve two or three of the next problems listed here. There needs to be a universal minimal number of games played in order to qualify for the playoffs and the rankings should be weighted heavily by that. Major bowl games should be used for the post-season playoffs and the smaller bowls could become the NIT of football which amounts to extra practice for next season. Find a way to invoke a loyalty clause in order to reduce the so-called “opt-outs.” (The French word for “quit.”) Expanded playoffs would reduce them by making post-season more playoffs an inducement. Close the loop on transfer portal by capping the number of players each school can take and limiting the number of times a player can transfer. At the same time, the players should be free to move if their coach is fired or changes schools. Coaching buyouts have gotten out of hand, primarily because of agents, and need regulating. Nick Saban’s Halfway House/Holding Tank for fired coaches is an unfair advantage. While it was a good idea at first and helpful to the coaching profession, it tilts the playing field in favor of big box brand schools like Ala-Damn-Bama. I could go on, but let’s stop it there. Most college fans turn a blind eye to some of this stuff, but the intelligentsia knows the truth. My colleague and I, Franz Beard, senior columnist for GatorBaitMedia.com, have accumulated a combined century of journalism and broadcasting experience, much of it spent on covering college sports. We like to think of ourselves as enlightened observers with a deep passion for the game. Both of us are concerned about the future of college football. As Franz wrote this week in his eloquent column about the fate of the game: “If ESPN and the people who are in charge of the College Football Playoff can’t accommodate expansion rather quickly, we’re going to see the game go into a downward spiral that it may not recover from. If you don’t believe that’s possible, then look at what is going on with the NFL, once the bell cow for all sports programming. The NFL ratings have been nosediving for five years and the end is not in sight. College football desperately needs to take a long look at what makes basketball successful and adapt unless it wants to go in the tank.” Hard for me to say it better. But having said all that, I don’t want to diminish in any way the mega-effort of the game’s caretakers. And would also like to add my thanks and congratulations to all those players, coaches, administrators and fans who helped preserve the sport by devoting their hearts, souls and sweat to finish the Covid-plagued, abbreviated season. Thank you. But we can do better this fall.

“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” – Forrest Gump Mike White knows the feeling. Five games into the 18-game Southeastern Conference grind that is also the post-Keyontae Johnson portion of the basketball schedule, never knows what he’s going to get from one night to the next with his Florida Gators. White’s one certainty is uncertainty. The most recent win over Ole Miss at the O-Dome is the perfect example. Trailing by nine points (61-52) with 6:28 remaining in the game, the Gators were dead in the water. Other than spectacular defensive play by 6-11 Michigan transfer Colin Castleton and a few nice put backs by the big guy, the Gators had the look of a fish on the verge of going belly up. And then things changed. Just like that. In those final six minutes, the Gators got it done at both ends of the court, turning a nine-point deficit into a nine-point win. That 20-2 burst was highlighted by an end-of-the-game 14-0 run that left you asking yourself just where did that come from? Castleton’s explanation was “We were in a timeout and I think we were, I don’t want to say exactly, but we were down … and I kind of just stopped the guys and was like, ‘We gotta dig in. We have to figure out what we have to do to win this game, like we are not losing this game no matter what shape or form, we are not losing this game.’ We did what we needed to do, got the stops and hit some big shots.” That is exactly what the Gators did. Castleton’s contributions in the 72-63 win were 21 points, 10 rebounds and eight blocked shots. He must have altered another five or six as he completely took Ole Miss out of the paint and forced the Rebels to try to win the game shooting jump shots. They made a bunch of shots to take the lead. They missed a bunch down the stretch when they needed them most, but that’s almost always the story for teams lacking an inside game. In Florida’s three wins, Castleton’s totals are 65 points (more than 20 in each victory), 21 rebounds, four assists and 11 blocked shots. In the two losses, he has 19 points, 11 rebounds, one assist, one blocked shot and one steal. In the four games prior to the SEC schedule kicking in, Castleton had 26 points, 18 rebounds, one assist, five blocked shots and a steal. The easiest thing to say would be that if Colin Castleton is on his game, the Gators do very well. While there may be a measure of truth to that statement, it’s not exactly that simple. Castleton’s game is only good if the people around him are playing with some measure of intensity and consistency. He opens up the floor for the shooters on the outside. When they hit shots, they open the game up for him. In the Ole Miss game, Castleton carried the Gators on his back for much of the game but in the final explosive six minutes, Tre Mann and Noah Locke found their mojo at the offensive end and the rest of the team seemed to feed off Castleton’s defensive intensity. Anthony Duruji and Tyree Appleby seemed to grow an extra set of arms and ballerina feet the way they swarmed to the ball and harassed Ole Miss shooters. The swish of the nets was replaced by the clang of the iron. When the final horn sounded we were left to wonder which Florida team is for real? Was it the one that showed such grit and determination to score the kind of comeback win over Ole Miss? Was it the one that made the clutch free throws down the stretch to take out a very good LSU team? Or was it the one that played the first 33-plus minutes against Ole Miss like it had a bad hangover from the Alabama and Kentucky losses? If Mike White knows the answer to those questions, he should change his first name to Claire and his last name to Voyant. The only thing he knows is if he had a healthy Keyontae Johnson there is every good chance the Gators would be ranked right now. Johnson is a difference-maker whose greatest asset might be his Larry Bird-like ability to turn his focus every game to exactly what the Gators need to win. If it’s scoring he can deliver whether in the paint or from the outside. If it’s defense, he can lock down even when he gives up 3-5 inches. His 42-inch vertical lends itself to spectacular dunks and rebounds but causes us to overlook how use of his wide body for perfect position makes for easy stick backs and rebounds. He isn’t a point guard, but he passes like one when he gets into the paint. But Johnson is gone for the foreseeable future and we won’t know for some time if or when he will be able to resume his basketball playing career. Without him, White and the Gators are going to be that box of chocolates. With a lineup of Mann at the point, Locke and Scottie Lewis on the wings and Castleton and Duruji as the two bigs, the Gators broke out of the SEC gates 2-0, scoring 91 against a Vandy team that will call a break-even year a roaring success and 83 against an LSU team that will easily make the Big Dance unless the NCAA puts the Tigers in its jailhouse for a myriad of recruiting violations. There was an element of maturity missing in the losses to Alabama and Kentucky. Beating Alabama in Tuscaloosa would have been a tall order considering the way Nate Oates has the Crimson Tide playing right now, but the Gators should have and could have played the game much closer than 86-71. The wheels came off might be the best way to describe the 76-58 loss to Kentucky. The Big Blue Nation is convinced the Wildcats are in dire need of an exorcist but on this night they were dialed in and took the Gators out physically, mentally and emotionally. Kentucky played like grown men. The Gators played like a bad team from the YMCA church league. In some respects, the Kentucky game and the Kentucky team are mirror images of the Florida Gators. No, the Gators don’t have a lineup of 5-star guys who expect to be one-and-done, but this is a talented Florida team even without Johnson. Kentucky is off to a 4-7 start that is the worst in more than 90 years and the reason for the bad start has everything to do with a lack of leadership on the floor along with an inability to keep focused enough to play through the rough stretches that are part of every game. Florida has the same, exact problem. When Castleton stepped it up in the huddle and essentially demanded more of himself and his teammates against Ole Miss, it may have been the bold step in leadership the Gators need. Keyontae helps out at practice, assists the coaches with the game plan and he’s there on the bench during games, but someone on the court has to be the guy who keeps everyone accountable and focused. Castleton drew a line in the dirt and said no more in the Ole Miss game but was this a one-shot deal or what we can expect every game in the future? The Gators responded once. Can they do it again? The Gators do have some other issues, one of which has to do with play at the point. Tre Mann is a truly gifted scorer who has performed admirably at the point but with Keyontae’s points gone for the year, the Gators need Mann to focus more on point production. White shuffled the lineup against Ole Miss, starting Appleby at the point and Mann on the wing. Appleby handled the point well and Mann put up 17 points, looking very comfortable in doing so. Mann had 18 combined in the losses to Alabama and Kentucky. White is likely to stick with Appleby at the point because he’s got to have the scoring. Another issue that White will have to deal with moving forward is the other wing. Heading into the Alabama and Kentucky games, Lewis was playing like an All-SEC performer with 16 against Vandy and 17 against LSU. Then came Alabama and Kentucky games when his two game totals were four points and four rebounds. He missed the Ole Miss game due to health protocols and Locke started in his place after coming off the bench against Kentucky. Locke turned in his best game in quite some time, hitting 3-6 of his 3-pointers and all four of his free throws at crunch time as part of a 15-point effort. Moving forward, does Locke continue to start with Lewis coming off the bench or the other way around? Lewis can be ever so explosive around the rim and he has his moments when he heats up from the 3-point line. Lewis is also a better defender but when Locke is feeling it he can light it up from the 3-point line like few others in the country. Locke is hitting 42.2% from the 3-point line this year and is a career 40.5% shooter. His ability to stretch the floor certainly opens things up for Castleton on the inside. White needs more consistency on the offensive end from Duruji. His size and leaping ability have factored well on the defensive end, but he can disappear offensively as he did against Alabama (3-11 shooting, eight points) and Ole Miss (1-7 shooting, three points). The need for point production has everything to do with freshman Samson Ruzhentsev starting to get some minutes. He’s a pure shooter of Locke’s caliber but he’s still learning the game so White has to pick and choose when to put him into the game because he gets lost defensively. He could prove to be a good zone buster in the future. Omar Payne hasn’t broken through on the offensive end as White had hoped but he remains an intimidator on the defensive end. Still, opponents have shown a willingness to guard him loosely on the offensive end and the Gators need some consistency there. Ques Glover was solid off the bench in the win over Ole Miss. If White stays with Appleby at the point, his minutes will pick up as well. He’s very good defensively in a full court game but remains somewhat of a liability defensively in the half court. Freshman Neils Lane has played in seven games and juco transfer Osayi Osifo has played in six. There hasn’t been a Jason Jitoboh sighting in more than a month. Essentially, it’s a nine-man rotation that White has to work with unless Lane and/or Osifo come around enough to demand more minutes. That’s not a lot of depth particularly at a time when Covid-19 can leave teams short-handed for two or three games at a time. The virus is the other piece of the equation that White is working with. Lewis and walk-on Alex Klatsky are the only players who have had to miss a game so far but there is always that uncertainty that goes with the pandemic. The virus has altered schedules around the league and it seems only a matter of time before Florida has a game rescheduled, whether because of an outbreak on the team or with an opponent. There is that word again. Uncertainty. It is the one constant in this season, especially since Keyontae Johnson went down. In their five SEC games, the Gators have shown they can beat a very good team, come from behind to beat one that has its moments, and blow out a young Vandy team that is still feeling its way. They’ve also shown they can get flustered on the road and against a team like Kentucky that can put the hammer on opponents on those evenings when John Calipari doesn’t need a shrink to deal with the mental and emotional issues on his roster. Right now, the key to success seems to be Castleton, who is a real defensive presence and has shown in three SEC games that he can be a force offensively. He also took that bold step in leadership in the Ole Miss win. That will have to continue. If Castleton can be the force in the middle on both ends of the court, that will free Mann up to be the scorer he’s capable of being and will create space for Locke and the other shooters. Consistency from the others can make this team good enough to win a lot of games. But will they win? Can they be consistent? Can they avoid the mental breakdowns that they suffered in the Alabama and Kentucky games? At this point at least, the Gators are that box of chocolates Forrest Gump talked about. You never know what you’re gonna get.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: GATORS WIN AS CASTLETON DOMINATES ON BOTH ENDS OF COURT Colin Castleton came up big when the Gators (6-3, 3-2 SEC) needed him most Tuesday night, dominating in the paint at both ends of the court as the Gators rallied from nine points down in the final 6:28 for a much-needed 72-63 win over Ole Miss (6-5, 1-3 SEC) at the O-Dome. In helping the Gators end a two-game skid in which the two losses were by a combined 33 points, Castleton played his best game in a Florida uniform, leading the Gators with 21 points, 10 rebounds, eight blocked shots and three assists. The eight blocked shots were the second most in a game by any Gator in school history. The Gators looked like a beaten team when Devontae Shuler converted a turnover into a layup that gave the Rebels a 61-52 lead. Instead of going down for the count, the Gators found themselves, playing better at both ends of the court in the last 6:28 than they have all season. Castleton explained the turnaround: “We were in a timeout and I think we were, I don’t want to say exactly, but we were down … and I kind of just stopped the guys and was like, ‘We gotta dig in. We have to figure out what we have to do to win this game, like we are not losing this game no matter what shape or form, we are not losing this game.’ We did what we needed to do, got the stops and hit some big shots.” The Gators held Ole Miss to only two free throws the rest of the way, finishing the game on a 20-2 run that was 14-0 in the final 4:38. With Castleton all but eliminating points in the paint in the second half – Ole Miss managed only eight, just four on second chances – the Gators forced the Rebels to try to win the game from the outside. As long as Shuler and Luis Rodriguez were making shots, Ole Miss had a chance to score a road win, but eventually the shots stopped falling against a defense that kept switching from a 1-3-1 zone trap to tight man-to-man. The Gators helped themselves at the foul line all night, hitting 22-26 that included of their last 15. Tre Mann, who finished the game with 17 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals, went 8-8 from the line. Noah Locke, who hit the 3-pointer that gave the Gators the lead for good with 2:37 to go, finished with 15. Next up for the Gators is a road trip to Starkville to face Mississippi State. Tuesday SEC Scores FLORIDA (6-3, 3-2 SEC) 72, Ole Miss (6-5, 1-3 SEC) 63 Alabama (10-3, 4-0 SEC) 85, Kentucky (4-7, 3-1 SEC) 65 Wednesday’s SEC Games Auburn (6-6, 0-4 SEC) at Georgia (7-3, 0-3 SEC) Arkansas (10-2, 2-2 SEC) at LSU (8-2, 3-1 SEC) Texas A&M (6-4, 1-3) at Mississippi State (8-4, 3-1 SEC) GATORS FINISH OUTSIDE TOP 10 IN BOTH POLLS For the first time in the three years Dan Mullen has been Florida’s HBC, the Gators finished outside the top 10 in both polls. The season-ending three-game losing streak plunged the Gators to 13th in the AP poll, 12thin the Coaches. Most of the early projections for 2021 will have the Gators in the 14-17 range but Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com placed them 12th. FINAL ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 POLL: (1) Alabama 13-0; (2) Ohio State 7-1; (3) Clemson 10-2; (4) Texas A&M 9-1; (5) Notre Dame 10-2; (6) Oklahoma 9-2; (7) Georgia 8-2; (8) Cincinnati 9-1; (9) Iowa State 9-3; (10) Northwestern 7-2; (11) BYU 11-1; (12) Indiana 6-2; (13) FLORIDA 8-4; (14) Coastal Carolina 11-1; (15) Louisiana 10-1; (16) Iowa 6-2; (17) Liberty 10-1; (18) North Carolina 8-4; (19) Texas 7-3; (20) Oklahoma State 8-3; (21) Southern Cal 5-1; (22) Miami 8-3; (23) Ball State 7-1; (24) San Jose State 7-1; (25) Buffalo 6-1 FINAL COACHES TOP 25 POLL: (1) Alabama 13-0; (2) Ohio State 7-1; (3) Clemson 10-2; (4) Texas A&M 9-1; (5) Notre Dame 10-2; (6) Oklahoma 9-2; (7) Georgia 8-2; (8) Cincinnati 9-1; (9) Iowa State 9-3; (10) Northwestern 7-2; (11) BYU 11-1; (12) FLORIDA 8-4; (13) Indiana 6-2; (15) Coastal Carolina 11-1; (15) Iowa 6-2; (16) Louisiana 10-1; (17) North Carolina 8-4; (18) Liberty 10-1; (19) Oklahoma State 8-3; (20) Texas 7-3; (21) Southern Cal 5-1; (22) Miami 8-3; (23) Ball State 7-1; (24) San Jose State 7-1; (25) Buffalo 6-1 MOON AND DEAN RETURNING FOR 2021 The Gators got some good news for the defense when buck Jeremiah Moon elected to forego the Senior Bowl and return to UF for 2021. Moon was expected to have a big year in 2020 but injuries limited him to four games with 14 tackles and a sack. Safety Trey Dean III will also return after a season in which he had 34 tackles, an interception and a sack. Dean has three interceptions in his UF career and he’s been a consistent contributor on special teams. WHO PLAYS QB NEXT YEAR IN THE SEC ALABAMA: Bryce Young, a former 5-star recruit who completed 13-22 passes for 156 yards and a TD in mop-up duty, is the expected starter. No other QB saw even a snap in 2020. Alabama has signed 4-star Jalen Milroe, the 4th-ranked dual threat QB in the country. ARKANSAS: K.J. Jefferson, who got a start when Feleipe Franks was injured, is the heir apparent. He completed 20-41 passes for 295 yards and three TDs while running for 67 yards and two more TDs. No other QB took a snap. The Razorbacks signed two QBs for 2021, 3-star Lucas Cole, the 21st-ranked dual threat in the country, and 3-star Landon Rogers, the 36th-ranked dual threat. AUBURN: Two-year starter Bo Nix (2,415 yards, 12 TDPs; 388 rushing yards, 7 TDs) is the only QB who took a snap in 2020. The Tigers signed Dematrius Davis, the 8th-ranked dual threat QB. FLORIDA: Emory Jones (18-32 passing, 221 yards, 2 TDPs; 217 rushing yards, 2 TDs), who spent the last two years as Kyle Trask’s backup, is the expected starter but he will be challenged in the spring by Anthony Richardson (1-2 passing for 27 yards and a TD; 7-61 rushing). The Gators signed 4-star Carlos Del Rio Wilson, the 11th-ranked pro style QB in the country, and 3-star Jalen Kitna, the 35th ranked pro style QB. GEORGIA: JT Daniels, who started the last four games (1,231 passing yards, 10 TDPs), is the expected starter. There isn’t another QB on the roster who took a snap. Daniels is expected to be pressed in the spring by 5-star signee, Brock Vandagriff, the nation’s 2nd-ranked dual threat QB KENTUCKY: Joey Gatewood is the expected starter. He threw for 109 yards and ran for 62 as a backup in 2020. Beau Allen threw for 40 yards in two games off the bench. The Wildcats signed 3-star Kaiya Sheron, the 33rd-ranked pro style QB in the country. LSU: The Tigers could have a full-fledge quarterback controversy on their hands. Myles Brennan threw for 1,112 yards and 11 touchdowns in three games before he was injured and lost for the season. TJ Finley got five starts, throwing for 941 yards and five touchdowns after Brennan went down. Max Johnson led LSU to wins in the final two games and finished the season with 1,069 passing yards for eight TDs while running for 119 and two more TDs. LSU signed 4-star Garrett Nussmeier, ranked 8th among the nation’s pro style QBs. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Will Rogers started seven games as a true freshman and finished with 1,976 passing yards for 11 touchdowns. The Bulldogs signed 4-star Sawyer Robertson, the 10th-ranked pro style QB and got a transfer from Southern Miss in Jack Abraham, who threw for 7,067 yards and 41 TDs in three years. MISSOURI: Connor Bazelak started eight games as a redshirt freshman, throwing for 2,366 yards and seven TDPs while running for two more. He will be the starter. Shawn Robinson started two games, throwing for 185 yards and a TD and Brady Cook threw for 72 yards and a TD. The Tigers signed 3-star Tyler Macon, the 15th-ranked dual threat nationally. OLE MISS: No returning QB in the SEC put up better numbers than Matt Corral, who threw for 3,337 yards and 29 touchdowns while running for 506 and four more. John Rhys Plumlee, who threw for 65 yards and a TD while running for 94, may switch to slot receiver. The Rebels signed 4-star Luke Altmyer, the 14th-ranked pro style QB in the country. SOUTH CAROLINA: Ryan Hilinski has transferred out and Colin Hill won’t return so next in line is Luke Doty, who threw for 405 yards and two touchdowns while running for another 91. The only QB signed is 3-star Colten Gauthier, the 23rd-ranked pro style QB in the country. TENNESSEE: Virginia Tech transfer Hendon Hooker (2,894 career passing yards, 22 TDPs; 1,033 rushing yards for 15 TDs) didn’t come to Knoxville to sit the bench. Harrison Bailey (578 yards, 4 TDPs) and Brian Mauer (9 passing yards, 41 rushing yards) return. Two other QBs (Jarrett Guarantano and JT Shrout) transferred out. The Vols signed 4-star Kaidon Salter, the 4th-ranked dual threat in the country. TEXAS A&M: Kellen Mond is gone, leaving Haynes King (59 passing yards, 1 TD; 42 rushing yards) as the only QB with any experience. The Aggies signed 4-star Eli Stowers, the 7th-ranked dual threat in the country. VANDERBILT: Ken Seals started all nine games as a true freshman, throwing for 1,928 yards and 12 touchdowns. Mike Wright threw for 51 yards and a TD while running for a TD in backup duty. The Commodores did not sign a QB. OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC ALABAMA: Chris Low of ESPN is reporting that Nick Saban is zeroing in on Bill O’Brien as his next offensive coordinator. O’Brien has worked as the offensive coordinator for Bill Belichick to go with head coaching gigs with Penn State and the Houston Texans of the NFL. ARKANSAS: Linebacker Deon Edwards’ time in the transfer portal was short-lived. He’s pulled his name and has decided to return to Arkansas for the 2021 season. AUBURN: Linebacker Chandler Wooten, who opted out for 2020, is returning to Auburn for 2021 … Defensive back Christian Tutt, who had declared for the NFL Draft, seems to have changed his mind and wants to put his name in the transfer portal. GEORGIA: Punter Jake Camarda, O-lineman Jamaree Sayler and outside linebacker Adam Anderson announced they will return for 2021 KENTUCKY: Pitcher Ben Jordan, who also played a couple of games last season for the UK basketball team, passed away. The 6-9 Jordan was expected to be Kentucky’s closer in 2021. LSU: The Tigers continue to get no answers in their attempt to find a new defensive coordinator. The latest to turn them down is Mississippi State’s Zach Arnett ... Linebacker Ray Thornton placed his name in the transfer portal. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Center James Jackson (6-3, 345) has entered his name in the transfer portal. He started two games in 2020. Zach Arnett is a popular guy these days. In the last week, the MSU defensive coordinator has turned down both LSU and South Carolina. MISSOURI: Former offensive coordinator Derek Dooley has sued the school over the remaining money owed on his contract when head coach Barry Odom and the rest of the Missouri staff was fired after the 2018 season. SOUTH CAROLINA: Obviously, not everyone is happy with the hire of new coach Shane Beamer. Five-star 2022 quarterback Gunner Stockton has pulled his commitment. TENNESSEE: Former Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele has been hired as an assistant. He’ll be paid $450,000 a year … Corner Shawn Shamburger, who had 16 starts in four years, has put his name in the NCAA transfer portal … Running back Ty Chandler, whose career totals at UT were 2,045 rushing yards and 13 touchdowns, has transferred to North Carolina. TEXAS A&M: Connor Blumrick, who played quarterback, tight end and special teams the last four years, is transferring to Virginia Tech for a chance to play quarterback once again. VANDERBILT: Quarterback Danny Clark has entered his name in the transfer portal. Clark began his career at Kentucky before transferring to junior college. He didn’t see action for Vandy in 2020 and has three seasons of eligibility remaining. ONE LAST PITHY THOUGHT: NCAA president Mark Emmert says he “couldn’t disagree more” with the idea that Division I football should break away from the organization. Of course he is going to say that. The NCAA needs the money football brings in to pay for Emmert’s big salary and the salaries of that incredibly bloated bureaucracy. Here’s a hard dose of reality for Emmert, who had an unusual accident the other day when an intelligent thought struck him: It’s not a question of IF the Division I football schools split from the NCAA, but simply a matter of WHEN. The only hope Emmert has is for the Power Five schools to split off and the Group of Five schools elect to stay.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: THE MULLEN WATCH: WEEK TWO Let’s start with that report that came out of an ESPN NFL insider over the weekend claiming “sources” that say Florida head coach Dan Mullen will be interviewing with the New York Jets this week. Could it happen? Sure. The Red Sea could part any moment now and somewhere in Israel up around Galilee there are 5,000 waiting on lunch with only five barley loaves and two fishes available to feed them. So, sure, it could happen but unless you see donkeys flying across the horizon, don’t count on it actually happening. The Jets, it seems, have actually interviewed Buffalo Bills offensive coordinator Brian Daboll and this week they’re interviewing wunderkind Joe Brady, the former LSU passing coordinator who spent 2020 calling the plays for the NFL Carolina Panthers. The Jets are not interviewing Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell. The alleged interest in Campbell, who says he’s not going anywhere and has no interest in the No Fun League, comes another inside who also cites “sources.” Now, there is also a report out there – another “insider” from the same network that said Mullen was going to interview with the Jets – claiming Philadelphia Eagles coach Doug Pederson’s job might be in jeopardy. Just a few days ago, the Eagles were saying Pederson would be back for the 2021 season. This also comes from “sources.” Figure before another 24 hours pass and (a) because Pederson and Eagles owner Jeff Lurie are meeting in the state of Florida, someone with “inside sources” will (b) claim that Dan Mullen will find it convenient to interview with Lurie and (c) is likely to become the new head coach because he (d) played tight end collegiately at Usinis College which is (e) 35 miles from Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia where the Eagles play. How’s that for logic? Here are a few things we do know Dan Mullen is doing this week, none of which involve interviewing for an NFL job. At least yet. Don’t forget the flying donkeys. (1) He’s dealing with at least a dozen early enrollee freshmen, who start school today. (2) He’s welcoming former 5-star running back and Clemson transfer Demarkcus Bowman on campus. (3) He’s getting Penn State grad transfer nose tackle Antonio Coleman situated and will be talking with a few others in the transfer portal who believe the grass might be greener in Florida than their former place of eligibility. Although Mullen would love to have all his transfers in place by the end of the week, a couple may have to wait until May to enroll. (4) He’s already hired former Auburn secondary coach Wesley McGriff to coach the corners and now has to make some decisions about filling at least one more position on his staff. Emphasis on at least one more position because there is a possibility some staff shuffling is taking place. When Jason Higdon says “don’t assume anything” about what Mullen will do next, then understand anything is possible this week so buckle up. Without any insider “sources” to provide information you are dying to hear you’ll just have to wait for that next juicy rumor. Until then, however, you can know Dan Mullen is going about his job as the head coach at the University of Florida. That is all. TRE MANN AND SCOTTIE LEWIS: WHEREFORE ART THOU? In the last two games, losses to Alabama and Kentucky by a combined 33 points, Tre Mann and Scottie Lewis have scored 22 points between them. That’s 18 for Mann, four for Lewis. Prior to the Alabama game (15-point loss) they were averaging 29.2 points between them. I’m not a math major, but that’s a differential of 18 points per game (58.2 points minus 22 equals 36, divide by two). Mann is not a natural point guard and in the last two games that has been exposed. He’s not quick as point guards go, doesn’t have natural instincts as a penetrator and when ultra-quick guards frustrate him his shot goes in the tank. The Gators can’t afford for Mann to have off nights scoring the basketball. In the last two games, Mann is 6-20 from the field, 4-9 from the 3-point line, 12 rebounds, nine assists, one blocked shot and four steals. He needs to spend most of his time on the wing where he can be a serious scorer and Tyree Appleby needs to play the point although with far fewer turnovers. As for Lewis, who knows what’s going on with him? He got two quick fouls against Alabama and never was the same in the second half. The Gators needed a big bounce back game from him against Kentucky, but his 32 minutes produced only two points, three rebounds, no assists, two blocked shots and a steal. His last two game totals 2-10 from the field, 0-1 on 3-pointers, four rebounds, zero assists, four blocked shots and two steals. Mann and Lewis aren’t the only problems for Mike White, but with Keyontae Johnson sidelined probably for the remainder of the season, he can’t afford his leading scorers to have off nights, particularly against good teams. The last two games have provided a blueprint for the next 14 games against SEC opponents. Concentrate on taking Mann and Lewis out of the game and the Gators are likely to go belly up. The Gators are 5-3 overall and 2-2 in the SEC with Ole Miss (6-4, 1-2 SEC) coming to town Tuesday night followed by a roadie to Starkville to face surprisingly strong Mississippi State (8-4, 3-1 SEC). It might seem too early to call this a turning point of the season, but even if the Gators win both games it’s going to be dicey the rest of the way. Lose the next two and UF could be in for a very long season. SEC BASKETBALL SCHEDULE Tuesday night Ole Miss (6-4, 1-2 SEC) at FLORIDA (5-3, 2-2 SEC) #9 Tennessee (9-1, 3-1 SEC) at Vanderbilt (4-5, 0-3 SEC) Alabama (9-3, 4-0 SEC) at Kentucky (4-6, 3-0 SEC) Wednesday night Auburn (6-6, 0-4 SEC) at Georgia (7-3, 0-3 SEC) Arkansas (10-2, 2-2 SEC) at LSU (8-2, 3-1 SEC) Texas A&M (6-4, 1-3 SEC) at Mississippi State (8-4, 3-1 SEC) WILL NICK SABAN SET THE RECORD FOR NATIONAL TITLES TONIGHT? Since going 7-6 in his first year as Alabama’s head coach, Nick Saban is 162-17, the greatest run any coach has had since the leather helmet era. If you add his years as the head coach at Toledo, Michigan State and LSU with Alabama, Saban is 260-65-1 with six national titles. If Alabama beats Ohio State tonight in the national championship game, Saban will tie Bear Bryant for the most national championships at Alabama (six) and set the modern record for most national championships by any head coach. In Alabama-speak, forget that one at LSU. The only national titles they care about in Tuscaloosa are the ones that were won at the University of Alabama. Coaches with national titles at Alabama are Wallace Wade (3), Frank Thomas (2), Bear Bryant (6), Gene Stallings (1) and Saban (5). The championships by Wade were in the pre-Associated Press poll. There are also four unofficial national titles – 1945, 1966, 1975 and 1977 – the last three belonging to Bryant. Following their wins in the College Football Playoff semifinals back on January 1, Alabama was installed as a 7.5-point favorite. Ten days later, Alabama is established as an 8.5-point favorite with an over/under of 75.5 points. The OddsShark computer predicts an Alabama win, 53.1-36.1 (don’t know how you score 1/10thof a point, but I just report it). Having watched every game both Alabama and Ohio State have played this year, I’ll go with an Alabama win. I think Ohio State is quite capable of winning this game and if the Buckeyes pulled it off, I wouldn’t be shocked, but my reason to pick Alabama is based on the fact Bama’s offense rivals that of LSU in 2019 as the best I’ve ever seen. The consistency is there as is the week-to-week improvement. Is there another team in the country that could have lost a player of Jaylen Waddle’s talent without missing a beat? Alabama did and what’s amazing is Waddle might be playing tonight. How are you going to double up on Devonta Smith if Waddle is on the other side of the field? Ohio State’s win over Clemson was eye-opening, but I haven’t seen the consistency with the Buckeyes plus I take into account that Clemson played without its best defensive player (ejected targeting) for nearly three full quarters and without its second best player (targeting in the ACC Championship Game) until the second half. In wins over Indiana and Northwestern, the only ranked teams the Buckeyes played other than Clemson, Justin Fields threw just two touchdowns and five interceptions in the wins over Indiana and Northwestern. That is more interceptions in two games than Alabama’s Mac Jones threw in 12. Fields is a great talent, but to beat Alabama he can’t turn it over and will have to play at least as well as he did against Clemson. I think the team that combines for five punts and turnovers will lose this game. I think that team will be Ohio State. Alabama has way too many weapons and its defense has played well against better teams than the Buckeyes beat. THE SAYER SAYS SOOTH: Move over Bear. Nick gets number seven. Alabama 41, Ohio State 28 SOME FOOTBALL STUFF BOTH COLLEGE AND PRO Arkansas offensive line coach Brad Davis, who spent the 2017 season at Florida working for Chief Yellow Teeth, now of the Mount Pleasant, Michigan band of Chippewas, has been offered the job as Clay Helton’s O-line coach at Southern Cal. Former Tennessee QB Jarrett Guarantano is transferring to Washington State where he will have a legitimate shot to be the starting QB next year. LSU, which whiffed on hiring Cincinnati’s Marcus Freeman (he’s headed to Notre Dame), is still without a defensive coordinator. While Coach O ponders his next move, former DC Bo Pelini will have to squeeze by on a $4 million buyout settlement. NBC’s Dan Patrick says he’s hearing that Georgia “got sloppy in recruiting” and and may have the NCAA taking a long hard look into the way Kirby Smart runs his program. Georgia, of course, is doing a very fine impersonation of Sargent Schultz. Coleman Hutzler, who spent three years working for Will Muschamp at Florida, could be the new special teams coordinator at Ole Miss. Hutzler was the co-defensive coordinator at Texas last year. Next week’s Tampa Bay at New Orleans NFC divisional playoff game will be must see with future Hall of Famers Tom Brady going head-to-head with Drew Brees. Brady (42) has thrown 581 career touchdown passes while Brees (41) has thrown 571. The Saints hold the edge in former Gators with three – Alex Anzalone, Chauncey Gardner-Johnson and Janoris Jenkins. Markaviest Bryant, aka Big Kat, is planning to play somewhere other than Auburn next year. Bryant has 10 sacks in his collegiate career. ONE LAST PITHY THOUGHT ON A MONDAY: Amid all these reports that Tennessee is deepest and darkest with the NCAA over recruiting violations, the school has hired attorney Mike Glazier $500 an hour and Kyle Skillman at $375 per to investigate on behalf of the school. If you’re prone to wager on such things, bet the farm Glazier and Skillman find wrongful doing on the part of head football coach Jeremy Pruitt. To fire Pruitt without cause will cost UT $12.8 million, with cause absolutely nothing which makes Glazier and Pruitt a bargain even if they both invoice for 300 billable hours.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: NATIONAL TITLE GAME RATINGS TANKED … EXPANSION IS SOLUTION Following the first NCAA basketball championship in University of Florida history in April of 2006, Billy Donovan remarked, “I’m not sure we were the best team for the whole season but we were the best team for three weekends.” The 2006 team certainly wasn’t the best in the country for an entire season but for six straight games, the Gators beat every team in their path including a UCLA team that was favored in the final for the title. A year later, when the Gators became one of the few repeat winners in college basketball history and the first since Duke in 1990-91, Donovan had the best team from day one until they played “One Shining Moment.” When the 2006 tournament began, all eyes were on No.1 seeds Duke, Memphis, UConn and Villanova and the 2005 national champ North Carolina. Nobody was paying much attention to the likes of Florida (No. 3 seed in the Minneapolis Regional), LSU (No. 4 in Atlanta) or George Mason (No. 11 in Washington, DC). Yet, Florida poleaxed Villanova to earn its spot in the Final Four, LSU put the whammy on Duke and 2nd seed Texas, and George Mason beat North Carolina and UConn. UCLA beat Memphis in one of the ugliest NCAA Tournament games in history to make it to Indianapolis as the highest seeded team. The 2007 Final Four saw two No. 1 seeds (Florida and Ohio State) and a pair of No. 2s in UCLA and Georgetown. Florida beat Georgetown in the semifinals and Ohio State to win the championship. In both 2006 and 2007 the Gators went 6-0 when it counted. One year they were a legitimate Cinderella story in which Joakim Noah’s personality sucked the air out of every arena. The next year the Gators went 6-0 again, methodically knocking off every team in their path. Florida’s two national championship basketball teams are the perfect example of why the College Football Playoff has to expand, the sooner the better. What makes the NCAA Tournament so compelling is the chance the clock will strike midnight and the team we least expect turns out to be the belle of the ball. In most years the Final Four is loaded up with teams who have been on every championship radar since the season began, but we get those years like 2011 and 2012 when Butler made it to the championship game only to lose to basketball bluebloods Duke (2010) and UConn (2011). How many of you remember holding your breath and praying that Gordon Hayward’s 40-footer at the buzzer would go in to keep Coach K from winning another title? There are no Cinderellas in college football, which is one of the reasons Monday night’s Alabama-Ohio State game drew below average ratings. Some are saying that it’s Alabama overload while others are saying it’s the same old, same old with the College Football Playoff, that it has become an invitational tournament for four blueblood powerhouses. Year after year, it’s the exact same teams who make the Final Four. In the seven years of the playoff, Alabama and Clemson have made the Final Four six times. Ohio State and Oklahoma have made it four times each with Notre Dame getting in twice. The SEC has had eight teams make it with Georgia (2017) and LSU (2019) as party crashers. Florida State made it in 2014 so the ACC has been represented all seven years. Michigan State (2016) is the only Big Ten team other than Ohio State to get in. No Big 12 team except Oklahoma has made it. The Pac-12 has had two get in (Oregon 2014, Washington 2017). At the convention of the American Football Coaches Association Tuesday, there was what is being described as overwhelming support to expand the playoff. ESPN has to know that if it stays with its current four-team format that ratings will continue to decline but with another five years remaining on the original 12-year contract, the network doesn’t seem to be in any hurry to make adjustments. Some suggest a walk before you run proposal that would see the playoff expand to six teams before eventually moving to eight. The Pac-12 would support that plan if it guaranteed all of the Power Five conferences get their champions in but with one spot held out either for a wild card or Notre Dame. Six teams would still make it next to impossible for Group of Five teams to have a chance to play for a national championship. An 8-team playoff could possibly guarantee that at least one Group of Five team gets in. A 16-team playoff could allow for all 10 Division I conferences to get their champion in with six wild card spots available. Some say that kind of expansion would guarantee more blowouts than the two we routinely have in the 4-team format but think basketball for a moment. Wasn’t it just 2018 when 16th-seeded UMBC not only sprung the upset on No. 1 seed Virginia, but blew the doors off the Cavaliers in the process? Now think football and back to September of the 2020 season when Louisiana of the Sun Belt clobbered Iowa State, which played for the Big 12 championship and finished 9th in the final Associated Press Poll. Back in 2017, UCF completed an unbeaten season by whipping Auburn in the Peach Bowl … the same Auburn team that beat Georgia and Alabama when both were ranked No. 1 in the country. One sticking point to expansion will be adding another game to the current 12-game schedule. When you throw in the conference championship games, a champion in an 8-game tournament would be playing 16 games. In a 16-game tournament, there would be 17 and no one is going to agree to that. The conferences are not going to give up their lucrative championship games so the answer is to scale back the regular season. On the surface, the easiest solution would be to eliminate all games with D1AA teams. In 2021, for example, every SEC team plays at least one D1AA opponent. Athletic directors say the cupcake game helps them balance the budget. Coaches claim that game allows them to play the kids who might not otherwise see the field except in mop-up duty. Fans hate the games. Honest network people would tell you that these games kill their advertising revenue. D1AA teams are willing to take a beating for a paycheck that will help them balance their budgets so eliminating these games would result in programs being dropped and kids losing out on scholarship opportunities. I’ve always advocated moving the games with D1AA teams to the spring. I think fans would prefer to see a game in which real football is played rather than the glorified scrimmages that spring games have become. There will be opposition to that from coaches who say that a real game might result in injuries as well as from those who thought college football got along just fine without spring football in 2020. So here are my thoughts: 1. Tell ESPN to either tear up the current contract or else the playoffs will be broadcast by CBS, Fox, NBC or some live streaming service as soon as the contract is up. 2. Expand to eight teams no later than 2022 and to 16 teams no later than 2025. The sooner there is expansion, the fewer players will opt out rather than play in bowl games. Either make the bowls part of the process or eliminate them altogether. 3. Reduce the regular season to 11 games. The 11-game schedule worked just fine for more than 30 years. It will work fine again. 4. Allow a game with a D1AA team in the spring, one that won’t count against the standings for either team. For a Division I team with championship aspirations the D1AA game won’t count against strength of schedule. For the D1AA team, they won’t risk getting massacred and losing players to injury against the Division I team during the regular season. It’s win-win. If ESPN and the people who are in charge of the College Football Playoff can’t accommodate expansion rather quickly, we’re going to see the game go into a downward spiral that it may not recover from. If you don’t believe that’s possible, then look at what is going on with the NFL, once the bell cow for all sports programming. The NFL ratings have been nosediving for five years and the end is not in sight. It’s only a matter of time that the college game starts a decline from which it can’t halt. The NCAA Basketball Tournament rivets the entire country to television sets for those three big weekends starting in March every year. In my lifetime, I’ve seen the tournament expand from 24 teams to 32, then 40, then 48. Now it’s at 64 with play-in games that allow a few bottom feeders earn a chance to become Cinderella. Expansion has been good for the game and even though fans understand that it’s more than likely the same bluebloods will wind up in the Final Four every year, it’s the chance for upsets in the early going and the possibility of a Cinderella actually winning that keeps interest high. College football desperately needs to take a long look at what makes basketball successful and adapt unless it wants to go in the tank. SEC BASKETBALL SEC Wednesday Night Scores LSU (9-2, 4-1 SEC) 92, Arkansas (10-3, 2-3 SEC) 76 Auburn (7-5, 1-4 SEC) 95, Georgia (7-4, 0-4 SEC) 77 Texas A&M (7-4, 2-3 SEC) 56, Mississippi State (8-5, 3-2 SEC) 55 SEC Saturday Games FLORIDA (6-3, 3-2 SEC) at Mississippi State (8-5, 3-2 SEC) Kentucky (4-7, 3-1 SEC) at Auburn (7-6, 1-4 SEC) Arkansas (10-3, 2-3 SEC) at Alabama (10-3, 5-0 SEC) Georgia (7-4, 0-4 SEC) at Ole Miss (6-5, 1-3 SEC) #17 Missouri (7-2, 1-2 SEC) at Texas A&M (7-4, 2-3 SEC) Vanderbilt (4-5, 0-3 SEC) at #10 Tennessee (9-1, 3-1 SEC) South Carolina (3-2, 1-1 SEC) at LSU (9-2, 4-1 SEC) OVER, UNDER, AROUND AND THROUGH THE SEC ALABAMA: It’s not yet a done deal, but it would take an upset of monumental proportions for anyone but former Penn State and Houston Texans coach Bill O’Brien to be Nick Saban’s next offensive coordinator … O-line coach Kyle Flood is leaving the Bama staff to work with Steve Sarkisian at Texas. ARKANSAS: Defensive back Myles Mason is transferring to Louisiana Tech. AUBURN: Linebacker T.D. Moultry will be returning in 2021. He had nine tackles and a sack in 2020. GEORGIA: Running back Zamir White, who had 779 yards and 11 touchdowns in 2020, is returning in 2021. KENTUCKY: Chris Rodriguez, who led the Wildcats with 785 yards and 11 touchdowns is returning. He averaged 6.6 per carry in 2020. LSU: Running back Chris Curry has transferred to Utah. He gained 336 yards in three seasons at LSU. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Brandon Ruiz, who was 10-12 on field goals in 2020, is returning for 2021. MISSOURI: Marcel Yates, the Cal DB coach who worked with HBC Eli Drinkwitz when the two were coordinators at Boise State, seems to have the inside track to become the defensive coordinator at Missouri. SOUTH CAROLINA: Jordan Strachan, who tied for the nation’s lead in sacks with 10.5, is transferring from Georgia State to South Carolina. TENNESSEE: Starting left tackle Wanya Morris, a former 5-star recruit, put his name in the transfer portal. VANDERBILT: Inoke Brecketerfield is leaving Wisconsin after six seasons to join Clark Lea’s staff as the D-line coach ... Aaron Henry, who coached the corners at Vandy last year, is joining Bret Bielema’s Illinois staff. ONE LAST PITHY THOUGHT: Alabama just won its sixth national championship since 2009, largely because a bunch of seniors who could have been playing for yankee dollars on Sundays elected to stay in Tuscaloosa for one more year. Do you think for even a second Devonta Smith regrets coming back for his senior season? He’s got a college degree, a second national championship ring, a Heisman Trophy and has gone from a second rounder last year to a surefire top five pick in April. I’m of the opinion every one of those Alabama kids who came back benefitted from their decisions. I’m hoping more kids at more schools elect to return for one more season in the future. I can dream, can’t I?

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: MULLEN KNOWS EXPANDED PLAYOFF IS INEVITABLE Will Alabama’s 52-24 blowout win over Ohio State Monday night be the last game of the four-team playoff era? That’s up for debate but Florida coach Dan Mullen knows it’s just a matter of time before the bowl system as we know it is replaced by an expanded playoff. Speaking on ESPN Championship Drive Monday afternoon, Mullen said the advent of a four-team playoff was the beginning of the end of bowl games as we know them. “When the playoff started and it went to four games, I think it became a matter of time,” Mullen said. “Now, is that time now or in the future? But what I think we have to do to expand the playoffs is to be willing to let go of the old system.” The bowls are one of college football’s great traditions but the advent of the playoff has diminished their importance and players opting out of non-playoff games only emphasizes how irrelevant they have become. Mullen understands that better than any coach in 2020 after his top three receivers (Kyle Pitts, Kadarius Toney and Trevon Grimes) and other key players from a team that just 11 days before gave Alabama its only serious run of the season opted out rather than play against Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. As long as the current system is in place, more and more top players will opt out rather than play in a bowl game. Fans won’t attend games when the best players stay home nor will they watch on television. The answer is to expand the playoff to at least eight teams and eventually to 16 when it becomes perfectly clear an eight-game playoff doesn’t solve the opt out problem. But, you have to walk before you run. It took years to get a four-game playoff. Expanding to eight won’t take nearly as long, but you can almost count on opposition whether it’s eight or 16 teams since it means more of college football’s have nots will have a shot of the revenue pie that is hoarded by the Power Five teams. Before the playoff expands you can count on plenty of opposition, first from the bowls and then from college coaches who will argue that the season is already too long. What the coaches are really arguing about is bowl games provide the equivalent of a second spring with the extra 15 practice days. The arguments will eventually fall on deaf ears because there will be expansion. “It’s going to change,” Mullen said. “I think you have to be ready to just embrace the change. Let’s kind of start over, maybe, and say moving forward this might be the best way to do it.” It’s no longer a matter of if, just a matter of when and the sooner we get to when the better college football is going to be. IS ALABAMA 2020 ONE OF THE GREATEST TEAMS EVER? Over the next few days, before everyone moves on from Alabama’s 52-24 beatdown of Ohio State, there will be plenty of talk comparing Alabama to some of the greatest teams in college football history. Alabama went 13-0 with 11 wins against Southeastern Conference opponents. The only close game was Alabama’s 52-46 win over Florida in the SEC Championship Game. Every other win was by at least 15 points and nine were by 20 or more. In winning both their games in the College Football Playoff, Alabama outscored two of college football’s iconic programs (Notre Dame and Ohio State) by a combined score of 83-38. Monday night, Heisman Trophy wide receiver Devonta Smith, who caught 12 passes for 215 yards and three touchdowns before he left with an injury to his hand in the third quarter, finished the season with 117 catches for 1,856 yards and 23 touchdowns. Quarterback Mac Jones, the third place finisher in the Heisman race, threw for 464 yards and five touchdowns Monday, finishing the season with 4,500 passing yards for 41 touchdowns with only four picks. Jones set an NCAA record for accuracy (77.4%) and averaged 11.2 yards per attempt. Running back Najee Harris, who finished fifth in the Heisman race, ran for 79 yards and two touchdowns Monday while catching seven passes for 79 and a TD. He finished the season with 1,466 rushing yards for 26 touchdowns with 43 catches for 425 yards and four more. As a team, Alabama scored at least 31 points in all 13 games. The Crimson Tide had a record 10 straight games with 40 or more, which is an NCAA record. For the season, Alabama averaged 48.4 points per game, the same as LSU in 2019 when the Tigers made their 15-0 run to the national championship. That LSU offense averaged 568.4 yards per game. Alabama averaged 543.1 per game. LSU 2019 is being called a generational team that is on the short list of the greatest teams in history. I would have to put Alabama right there with the Tigers, particularly when considering the constant uncertainty of the 2020 season dating all the way back to March when sports shut down. It wasn’t until August that we even knew there would be a season and each week there was always the possibility that games would be canceled or played without key teammates. To go through what these kids went through while maintaining their focus and the discipline it took to avoid crowds and circumstances in which they could have contracted the virus only adds to the greatness. A lot of people think that Nebraska 1995 is the greatest team ever, but I’m not certain that Nebraska team could have stopped either the LSU or Alabama offenses. Of course, I’m not sure either LSU or Alabama could have stopped Nebraska, either. Rather than rate teams 1-10 of the best I’ve ever seen, I’ll just offer this short list: Nebraska 1971, Southern Cal 1972, Alabama 1979, Miami 1987 Nebraska 1994, Nebraska 1995, Miami 2001, Southern Cal 2004, LSU 2019, Alabama 2020. One other note: The national championship was the seventh for Nick Saban, which is the all-time record but it is only the sixth at Alabama, which ties him with Bear Bryant for the school record. Saban is now 163-17 since a 7-6 start at Alabama in 2007. WHICH GATOR TEAM WILL SHOP TONIGHT VS. OLE MISS? The Florida team that beat Vanderbilt on the road and followed that up with a win at home against a very good LSU team can beat most of the teams in the Southeastern Conference. The one that has gotten blown out on the road at Alabama and then at home against Kentucky in the last two games is capable of losing to just about anyone in the league. So the question for tonight when Ole Miss comes to the O-Dome is which team is going to show up? Offensively, the Gators were so solid in the wins over Vandy and LSU, but the offense was way too inconsistent in the two losses. Tre Mann and Scottie Lewis, who were combining for nearly 30 points a game in the two SEC wins have combined for 22 points (18 by Mann, four by Lewis in the last two). To get the offense kick started against Ole Miss, Mike White is moving Mann (13.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.1 assists) from the point to the wing and starting Tyree Appleby (9.0 points, 2.4 rebounds, 2.6 assists) at the point. The hope is that Mann will be able to get into a scoring groove from the wing and that Appleby can get the ball inside to 6-11 Colin Castleton (11.1 points, 5.0 rebounds). Castleton’s offensive output suffered the last two games (19 points combined after scoring 44 in the wins over Vandy and LSU) because he rarely got the ball in any kind of scoring position. Ole Miss doesn’t have much in the way of size so the Rebels will try to press the Gators the entire game to force tempo and turnovers (18.6 per game by opponents). The key to the Gators will be to take care of the ball, hit some shots and do something they haven’t done much of the last two games – play a little defense. The Rebels come into the game hitting just 28.6% from the 3-point line. The Florida team that beat LSU will win tonight. The one that lost to Alabama will lose. We’ll know which team shows up later on. Starting Lineups OLE MISS: Romello White (6-8, 235); KJ Buffen (6-7, 230); Devontae Shuler (6-2, 185); Matthew Murrell (6-4, 200); Luis Rodriguez (6-6, 210) FLORIDA: Anthony Duruji (6-8, 220); Colin Castleton (6-11, 231); Tre Mann (6-5, 190); Tyree Appleby (6-1, 170); Scottie Lewis (6-5, 189) SEC Tuesday Night Games Ole Miss (6-4, 1-2 SEC) at FLORIDA #10 Tennessee (9-1, 3-1 SEC) at Vanderbilt (4-5, 0-3 SEC) Alabama (9-3, 3-0 SEC) at Kentucky (4-6, 3-0 SEC) SEC Wednesday Night Games Auburn (6-6, 0-4 SEC) at Georgia (7-3, 0-3 SEC) Arkansas (10-2, 2-2 SEC) at LSU (8-2, 3-1 SEC) Texas A&M (6-4, 1-3 SEC) at Mississippi State (8-4, 3-1 SEC) SEC FOOTBALL STUFF AUBURN: Defensive back Roger McCreary, who had 45 tackles and three interceptions in 2020, will return to Auburn for the 2021 season. GEORGIA: With the announcement by corner Tyrique Stevenson that he’s entered the NCAA transfer portal, Georgia has now lost six members of its 2020 secondary either to the NFL or transfers. KENTUCKY: The Wildcats anticipate that honorable mention All-Big Ten receiver/running back Wan’Dale Robinson will transfer from Nebraska to UK. Robinson caught 51 passes for 461 yards and ran for 240 in eight games in 2020. LSU: Right tackle Austin Deculus, who was the only starter from the 2019 season who returned in 2020, announced he will return for the 2021 season. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Cal wide receiver Makai Polk, who caught 36 passes for 478 yards and three touchdowns in 2020, has transferred to Mississippi State. SOUTH CAROLINA: Former Florida cornerbacks coach Torrian Gray has been hired as the defensive backs coach for the Gamecocks. TENNESSEE: D-lineman Matthew Butler announced he will return for the 2021 season. TEXAS A&M: Linebacker Aaron Hansford, who had been invited to the Senior Bowl, announced instead he will return to the Aggies for 2020. The Aggies are losing defensive tackle Bobby Brown III and linebacker Buddy Johnson to the NFL Draft. ONE LAST OPINION I’m sure Ohio State fans will be in their best if only mode for the days and weeks ahead, as in if only Trey Sermon hadn’t gotten hurt … but even with a healthy Sermon, the Buckeyes weren’t going to beat Alabama. Oh, sure, they might have scored a couple more touchdowns, but that accounts for only one side of the ball. There is no way Ohio State’s defense could stop Alabama and the only reason the game was as close as it was had to do with Alabama growing bored in the second half. I’m sure Jimbo Fisher will be claiming Texas A&M should have been in the playoff instead of Ohio State, too. Alabama beat the Aggies 52-24, the same score the Tide beat Ohio State Monday night. Ohio State was a very good team. Alabama was so much better.

Abrupt change has become the norm today. A sudden pandemic. Economic peril on the heels of a record-setting stock market. One minute we are about to certify the electoral college count for the president-elect, the next minute our Capitol is crawling with thugs inside of what should be an American fortress. The warp speed of this disgraceful display of treason frightens even the most courageous of Capitol Police. When we don’t consider a potentially wrong and possible damaging impact of our actions, it just shows how quickly things can get out of hand with unintended consequence. That’s why I’m issuing a warning today about something of far less importance than a national security threat, but gives Gator football fans pause for concern. Six or seven weeks ago when his Top 10 team was sailing along smoothly enroute to the SEC title game and his quarterback was maybe the front-runner for winning the Heisman, it was a Hallmark movie – a love story between Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators that was uplifting even in the shadow of a plague. Perhaps the vast majority in Gator Nation still love him. But the confluence of events surrounding Mullen since that time has been confusing and somewhat unsettling – even a little disturbing. Recent events don’t compute. Some were downright Un-Mullen-like. 1. The unintended ugly optics of the Darth Vader costume in the post-game presser following the Florida and Missouri player scuffle. 2. The LSHOE loss to a three-touchdown underdog, at home. The best player on offense held out for what they said were medical reasons, when Kyle Pitts could have been a red-zone distraction on a night that Kyle Trask wasn’t at his best. Dan’s lack of wizardry was superseded by the stupidity of a veteran player drawing an unsportsmanlike conduct for throwing a shoe after a rare key defensive stop. 3. After battling back to within a score vs. Alabama in the final seconds of the SEC Championship game, Mullen uncharacteristically wasted a time out on – wait for it – a two-point conversion, robbing his quarterback of time needed to negotiate the 88 yards for a winning score. 4. And what’s this? An NCAA probation handed out with a “show cause” for Mullen, usually reserved for more egregious violations than an illegal “bump” into a recruit. All of this had been going on for nearly a year, most of it time already served, but somehow UF had been able to keep it quiet. I’m still waiting for somebody to explain the “show cause.” 5. Picked for a New Year’s Six Bowl and significant payday, Mullen mulled over whether he had enough players to compete with high-powered Oklahoma in the Cotton Bowl. This just in: He didn’t. Sooners 55, Gators 20 after eight starters and 17 total players were missing due to opt outs and Covid-19. Mullen said they chose to play game to give young players experience for next year. 6. Three consecutive losses. 7. After all that, word began to dribble out from somewhere that perhaps Mullen was enamored about coaching in the NFL. The peerless Adam Schefter reported last Sunday morning that at least one NFL team had his name on a short list. Keep in mind, much of this with hardly any explanation from Mullen or UF. In fact, Gator fans are still in the dark. That’s when I asked one of Dan’s former bosses and best friends what he’d been hearing about Mullen. I tried to present the scenario to Urban Meyer with the query, “What’s up with Dan Mullen?” on our Best Fridays in Football weekly podcast. Urban, unaware of any situation change for Mullen, asked: “What’s the question? I don’t understand.” “Some Gator fans are afraid of losing their coach,” I said to him. “They want a loyalty oath. I guess I am asking you if you have any idea of where Dan’s head is right now, or if you think it might be in the NFL, or if you think he’d fit in the NFL.” Urban replied that he said he sees no indication that Dan is unhappy: “Dan is like a brother to me and we’ve very close. I’ve not talked to him in detail about that. He was distraught, like all great competitors get distraught over a loss. You feel an obligation to the fan base of the Gators, or Buckeyes, you do! Some people don’t. Dan does. I did. When we lost a game I felt we let people down. It destroyed me! We lost that Alabama game (SEC Championship, 2009) and it was like a punch to the jaw. I had a hard time getting up off the canvas. It wasn’t because of me, but I personally felt I let the Gator Nation down, let my players down. “The commonality of all great coaches is that they care deeply for their players and they care deeply for their university. And Dan has that. Are you kidding me? It’s one of the top five jobs in America. There is a lot of pressure and expectation. But no one points a gun to your head and says ‘You need to be the coach there!’” Meyer admits he didn’t know what to expect when he arrived in Gainesville from Utah and “I wasn’t quite ready for it.” He was young and didn’t grasp the power of the SEC yet and The Gator Nation. “I watched Steve Spurrier,” Urban said the day before he was packing to leave for the College Football national championship game. “That’s how I knew about The Gator Nation and the SEC. Then you get into it and you fall in love with Jeremey Foley and Dr. (Bernie) Machen … the fans … The Swamp … and then you start winning…” The unprecedented two national titles in three seasons placed Florida in elite company. But with that came even more pressure and the fans’ unrealistic expectations of winning championships every season which took its toll on Urban’s health, which eventually drove him out of coaching. “Mack Brown told me one time, ‘the good news is that you won the national championship. And ‘the bad news is that you won the national championship.’ That became my life – Gator Nation’s life – after that day.” While all the chatter on the talk shows and social media suggest a possible rift with Mullen and UF, that’s not the message his good friend and former boss is getting or giving out. “He seems very happy at Florida, loves Florida and I don’t think there is any intent on his behalf of leaving Florida,” said Meyer. But Urban admits he is intentionally out of the loop. “I don’t really read anything – I just go about my business.” If that’s the case, then both parties need to move forward, kiss and make up, or just huddle up and sing Kumbaya. Or better yet, a verse of “We Are The Boys.”

The bromance between the National Football League and Dan Mullen has been like a blind date that both the guy and the girl are both ready to be over even before they’ve finished the appetizers at the swanky restaurant. It sure seemed like a good idea at the moment they agreed to meet, but for any one of a hundred reasons it just didn’t work out, so barring something dramatic in the next few days, Mullen is going to remain as Florida’s football coach for the 2021 season. This really wasn’t a serious affair either on the part of Mullen or the NFL. The flirtation began within a day of that disastrous night at Jerry’s World when the Gators, sans their top four receivers and a few others who either opted out or were injured, crashed and burned like a Yugo with bad brakes and bald tires skidding on slick pavement into one of those trucks with the words inflammable embossed on tanks filled with volatile liquids. There was a certain amount of contact between Mullen – most likely made through the lawyers of agent Jimmy Sexton – and the NFL. As many as four teams that were expecting to pink slip their head coaches made the contact to gauge the interest of Mullen, a quarterback whisperer of some repute. In a quarterback-centric league like the NFL, a coach who can transform a career backup like Kyle Trask and turn him into a possible first rounder piques the interest of owners whose bottom line has something to do with how often their scoreboards light up. Contact was made and Mullen let it be known he would listen. Key word LISTEN because in the days since the Cotton Bowl loss it has become obvious that things haven’t gone beyond the appetizer stage. Once it became public knowledge that Mullen had (a) agreed to hear out any NFL proposals and (b) would be willing to make the jump to the No Fun League if a near perfect situation was in the offering, the internet exploded with speculation that he had one foot out the Florida door and his other foot in the door of some NFL team. This was largely the work of over-zealous beat reporters intent on getting the jump on the next head coach or some keyboard cowboy leaking out his wish list. In the case of Mullen, there WAS some interest from the Chicago Bears, New York Jets and Los Angeles Chargers. Were they kicking tires or making serious overtures? It’s improbable that we’ll ever know the answer to that question. We do know the answer to the reports that surfaced of Mullen interviewing with the Atlanta Falcons. That DID NOT happen. NFL teams were indeed interested in Mullen and Mullen was interested to hear what they had to say but that’s about all it was. Unless something changes dramatically in the next several days, in part because of the Rooney Rule which requires every NFL team to interview at least one minority candidate before any decision can be made regarding the next head coach, there won’t be a bombshell of Spurrier proportions (See January 2002 when Stephen Orr Spurrier resigned with the intention of coaching in the NFL) when it comes to Dan Mullen. Spurrier’s resignation led to a hastily arranged coaching search, rumors that either Mike Shanahan or Bob Stoops would be UF’s next head coach, and the ultimate hiring of Ron Zook. That was the first of five football coaching searches conducted by the University of Florida. Until there comes a time when Mullen decides he would like to scratch an NFL itch – if there even is one that won’t go away – he probably will be coaching at the University of Florida. When considering Mullen and the future, two things should be understood. First and foremost, Dan Mullen is not in any hurry to exit stage left from his gig as head football coach at the University of Florida. He’s made it known to plenty of people that there is no interest in any other college coaching job. He loves Gainesville. His wife and kids love Gainesville. He loves the Gators and loves the challenge of restoring Florida football back to the championship level it was in the days of Spurrier (1990-2001) and Urban Meyer (2005-10). Spurrier won six SEC titles and the 1996 national championship. Meyer won both the SEC and national championships in 2006 and again in 2008. Mullen was part of the two championship runs by Meyer so he knows what the UF program is capable of doing. He also knows what can happen to a championship program when allowed to take steps backward. After Meyer resigned from Florida following the 2010 season, Florida football hit the skids. Meyer’s six-year run that saw a 65-15 record (fourth best mark nationally) turned mediocre from 2011-17. Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain combined to go 52-36 and both endured one losing season. The 52-36 record would be cause for celebration at Division I schools that haven’t scaled the heights of national championship runs, but at Florida that’s a disaster. It wasn’t until Mullen was hired away from Mississippi State following McElwain’s 4-7 swan song that the Good Ship Gator stopped taking on water and listing badly. Only Meyer (31 wins from 2005-07) has won more games in his first three seasons at Florida than Mullen (29), who is tied with Spurrier (29 from 1990-92) for second place. A second reason why Mullen is not in any hurry to leave for the NFL is the amount of work that has been done is dwarfed by what still must be done at Florida to restore the program to the championship level it was when he left after the 2008 national championship to go out on his own at Mississippi State. Just as Mississippi State was a challenge to make that program into a consistent winner, there is a huge challenge to make Florida consistently better than Georgia in the SEC East and to challenge Alabama for ultimate supremacy in the league. When he left for Starkville, Georgia had only beaten Florida three times since 1990 and Nick Saban was trying to get “the process” going at Alabama. Now Alabama is the gold standard for the entire country and Georgia has consistently outperformed the Gators. In those nine seasons at Mississippi State Mullen knew fully well that it would take a miracle of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace proportions to bring an SEC championship to Starkville. The fan base was content when Mullen took the Bulldogs to a school-record eight consecutive bowl games. They thought they had died and gone to heaven during that four-week interval when Mullen had the Bulldogs ranked No. 1 in the nation. Getting there for four weeks thrilled the masses, who understood how difficult it would be to maintain that level of winning for an entire season. Dreaming it is one thing. Doing it is something else altogether different. That’s why when Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin called in December of 2017 to ask if Mullen had an interest in becoming the Gators’ head coach the answer was yes and without the slightest hesitation. Championships are dreams at Mississippi State. They are very real possibilities at the University of Florida. If Mullen needed a selling point to take the Florida job, that was it. At a speaking engagement in Ocala prior to the start of the 2018 season, Megan Mullen recalled the night Stricklin called. The Mullen clan was in Starkville watching a football game on television when the phone rang. Seeing on caller ID that it was Stricklin on the other end, Megan Mullen told Dan, “If he’s offering the Florida job, we’re taking it!” This was Mullen’s dream job therefore very little negotiation was necessary to make coming to Florida a done deal. It was simply a matter of agent Jimmy Sexton’s lawyers and Stricklin agreeing on the details to make it official. In three years on the job in Gainesville, Mullen has done a solid job of taking a program that spent 2011-17 letting the Florida brand slip. Florida’s streak of 33 non-losing seasons as well as a streak of 22 straight years going to a bowl game ended with a 4-7 record in 2013. In 2017, the Gators suffered the indignity of a second losing season within five years. A 10-win season in 2018 was followed by an 11-win season in 2019, both seasons ending with victories in New Years Six bowl games. In 2020, the Gators were within a single possession in two regular season season losses and a loss to mighty Alabama in the Southeastern Conference Championship Game of an undefeated record. It was the 52-46 loss to Alabama that probably did the most for Mullen’s NFL stock. Prior to that game, Alabama had allowed only 53 points in its last 22 quarters. In torching a Nick Saban defense loaded with future pros, Mullen’s play calling drew comparisons to that of Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, considered the best in the NFL. Mullen was already a person of interest to the pros, but that performance took things to another level. Even though it’s unlikely Mullen leaves for the NFL this year, the interest in luring him to the league isn’t going away anytime soon. The NFL was interested in Spurrier every year for one basic reason – his teams put points on the scoreboard and points put fannies in the seats of NFL stadiums. Mullen’s offenses put points on the scoreboard. Always have and always will, which is why we can expect Mullen will be on somebody’s short list every single year. Now, go back to that key word – LISTEN. Some Florida fans might consider it a sign of disrespect that the head football coach will listen whenever there is an offer to leave but understand something once attributed to Bear Bryant. The story goes that Bryant was asked if it’s a sign of disrespect when he listened to offers to coach somewhere else. His reply went something like this: If no one is interested in talking to your coach, then he’s not winning enough football games. If you’re not attracting the interest of other teams either college or pro, then it’s entirely possible the people who pay your salary will grow complacent. There is nothing like listening to incoming offers to remind the powers that be exactly what you’re capable of doing. Scoring points puts fans in the seats. Winning football games, especially when accompanied by points on the scoreboard, keeps them coming back week after week, season after season. Mullen scores points and he wins games. In the coming years, he will win more games with potent offenses and if the defense comes around, championships will follow. Now some might think the moment Mullen has won that first big championship that he will bolt for the pros but there is an addiction to winning titles. If you don’t believe that then ask yourself why Nick Saban remains at Alabama even though he knows he can name his price to go coach in the pros. Mullen might find that first big championship won at Florida will have the same effect and keep him in Gainesville. Professional coaches are hired to be fired. A college coach who sets his program on a consistent championship course can have a long, happy run and winning cures a lot of ills. We won’t know what course Dan Mullen’s career will take in the future but for now, he's in the process of conducting exit interviews for players and re-tooling his coaching staff. So, for this year, at least, it seems the NFL will be like the blind date at the swanky restaurant, something that seemed like a good idea if only for a minute.