It was one of those weird late November Florida days; the kind that oscillates between hot and cold, intense sunshine interspersed with spotty deluged. On the field, the No. 6 Florida Gators (7-1) mimicked the moody Florida sky. To begin, in the first half when nothing else worked, special teams did. In a half when the defense couldn’t get off the field and the offense couldn’t stay on the field, special teams picked up the rope. The oft most overlooked part of the game saved the No. 6 Florida Gators (7-1) as they defeated the Kentucky Wildcats (3-6) early Saturday afternoon in Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, providing a buffer at halftime from which the Gators launched themselves to a 34-10 win. “Overall I thought it was a really good special teams day,” demurs Head Coach Dan Mullen. “One of the things we talked with those guys: 'Be ready for that moment and execute.' So you practice the fake punts, you practice them, you practice them. You get into a situation where we want to call it and then you've got to execute. I thought our guys came out, executed that very well. You practice the pooch punts all the time, we practice that a bunch. We come out there, we execute it extremely well. You go through the punt return scheme, we executed that well. I thought our kickoff coverage, kicking them deep, our kicking game was really good all day. There was one knock: We missed the field goal. We get used to Evan being automatic but he missed a field goal today.” Even with McPherson’s missed field goal (and he should’ve been awarded it, considering officials robbed him of a field goal against Kentucky in 2018) special teams won the first half. The first three drives (two on defense and one on offense) looked primed to set up Florida’s best all-around game of the season. The defense, as per usual, gave up two plays of 10 or more yards through the first four snaps. Then Mohamoud Diabate (six tackles, 0.5 sack, one interception, two quarterback hurries) met Cats running back Kavosiey Smoke for no gain. Kentucky picked up another chunk yardage on fourth down, then Brenton Cox (three tackles, 1.5 for loss, one sack, two quarterback hurries) dropped UK quarterback Terry Wilson (10-18, 62 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions) for a loss of 10 yards. On 3rd and 30, Diabate and Zach Carter (two tackles, one for loss, 0.5 sack, one pass break-up) dropped him for another 10 yard loss. The second drive, the Cats moved downfield yet again and converted a fourth down to keep the ball. But on 3rd and 1 from their own 46-yard line, Wilson handed off to Rose and TJ Slaton—along with Cox—seemed to swallow the 5-9 back whole. The defensive drives sandwiched a scoring drive for the offense. From his own 44-yard line, quarterback Kyle Trask (21-27, 256 yards, three touchdowns, no interceptions) went 18 yards on a left side post route to tight end Kyle Pitts. The nation’s leading statistical end—even despite missing the last two weeks with injury—took it the remaining 38 yards for the 56-yard touchdown and early score. Beating out former five-star corner Kelvin Joseph, Pitts could think of only one thing. “I knew I had him by myself. It was man, and when Kyle threw it, I just, I said ‘don’t trip, don’t fall, just run as fast as you can’ so that was something where I just had to break away.” The Gators—and the UF tight ends specifically—did more than admirably with Pitts out. Still, it’s a different animal with the future first round pick back in the game. “I mean he’s a great weapon,” says Mullen, stating the obvious. “I think he’s just such a dynamic playmaker that he can turn some smaller gains into pretty explosive, big plays. I think he does an amazing job of doing that and he creates matchup problems for you. He’s hard to deal with one-on-one. If you get him one-on-one we can take advantage of it. If you’re going to take him away I think everyone’s seen that we have a lot of weapons on the offensive side of the ball that can attack you.” Adds Trask, “It's great. You know, Kyle is a phenomenal athlete and tight end. He causes a lot of mismatches for the defense, you know, causes a lot of chaos in the backend when they try to figure out how to guard him. So, it's great for us as an offense, as a whole.” Trask threw three touchdowns on the day—all of them to Pitts—and is now tied for third with Rex Grossman for most touchdowns in a single season. Danny Wuerffel owns the top two numbers (35 in 1995; 39 in 1996) and with two regular season games left and a postseason, Trask will likely set a new record. But that first touchdown—indicative of the topsy-turvy day in the sky and on the ground—was only possible thanks to a special teams play. On 4th and 2 from their own 25-yard line, the offense stayed on the field as if to go for the conversion. At the last second, they ran off and the punt team ran on with Jacob Finn lining up to punt it away. A direct snap instead went to running back Dameon Pierce (STATS) and he found the left edge for a 15 yard gain. On the opening play of the second quarter, a fumble gave Kentucky the ball in Florida territory and they turned it into a touchdown. A field goal midway through the quarter gave the Cats the 10-7 lead and Florida was at risk of trailing at halftime for the first time all season. With the offense sputtering, Mullen was forced to punt from mid-field. Punter Jacob Finn sent a beauty high, rainbow-ing it to the 1-yard line. Receiver Tre Grimes was there to down it if needed…but it wasn’t needed. The ball rolled out and Kentucky was backed up into their own endzone. The Cats having little room to work with and a reaming from Dan Mullen to the Gators defense on the sideline, Florida never let UK past its own 10-yard line. Florida had studied Kentucky punter Max Duffy and knew he liked to run one way then sent it another. So they put two returners at midfield with instructions for one to fake the side. In other words, if the ball went left, the person on that side would stand still while the other acted as if the ball was coming to him. Since the punt coverage unit would have their back to their punter, they wouldn’t know till it was too late. With an acting job that would make Meryl Streep weep in appreciation, Xzavier Henderson pulled a gaggle of Kentucky defenders his way with a fair catch wave. Opposite him, Kadarius Toney pulled in the ball. With a 10-yard radius of open grass, the speedster made them pay. His 50-yard return was the first punt return for a touchdown since Freddie Swain did it September 15, 2018; an 85-yard score vs Colorado State. Explains Mullen, “I think a lot of people use two returners to figure out where he is going to punt. We wanted to use two returners to take advantage of that situation that they were in and see if he made a mistake. If he was supposed to punt it left and punted it right, you know, we thought, ‘OK, KT [Toney] is going to be all by himself.’ Or if he is supposed to punt it right, then Xzavier is going to be by himself. “Our guys up front did a great job of holding it up to get the return going, and then you saw KT, once he got in the open field, he is a dangerous guy in the open field with the ball in his hand.” Once special teams saved the day in the first half, everybody woke up in the third quarter. The first drive of the 3rd quarter looked like the Florida offense we’ve come to expect, with a five play, 75-yard drive that saw Trask hit three different receivers and a dose of Pierce. It ended with a shot to Pitts in the back of the endzone. As he rocked the “baby“ to sleep in celebration—and a shot at the trash talking Kentucky’s defensive backs had taken at him during the week—the Gators went up 21-10 and wouldn’t look back. “When I ran, I think it was a slant. It was man, and I said ‘oh, it’s time to work’ so I had him one-on-one” laughs Pitts. This Gators offense is potent and even if opponents manage to keep the force at bay for the first half, Florida has proven too strong, too forceful to be held for long. It was just a matter of staying the course until the dam broke. To help with that, the defense had to make adjustments. Dan Mullen was seen yelling at Todd Grantham during the first half like a parent reaming a teenager for leaving the door open and letting the dog escape for the 17th time. Mullen swore after the game he was only yelling at his longtime coordinator for committing what is now a well known Mullen household violation and putting up his Christmas lights before Thanksgiving. Whatever came after that conversation though proved to flip the switch. “The game is so much about adjustments,” says Mullen. “People are going to come in and have some different wrinkles and different changes and do different things each week. I think our guys came in, made a great adjustment and our guys came out really motivated in the second half. I think they were probably a little disappointed with how they played in that first half. And that was Gator defense, really, from the last two minutes, from that last drive of the first half on, that was what we expect Gator defense to look like.” In the first half, Grantham’s defense gave up 175 yards, 13 first downs, (2-8 on 3rd and 2-2 on 4th) as well as 41 total plays which took up 23:23 on the game clock. In the second half, the defense—with the same lineup—gave up 46 total yards (25 of which were in garbage time against mostly freshmen), no third downs, no fourth downs and two total first downs. Kentucky ran 21 plays and held the ball for 9:56 of game time. In total, the adjustments from the offense and defense allowed the Gators to score 27 unanswered points after the Toney punt return for a touchdown. “We made a couple adjustments in the D-line and in the back end, just to kind of stop those runs, the longer runs that they had, nip that in the bud. I think we did a pretty good job,” remarks linebacker James Houston (eight tackles, 2.5 for loss). “We definitely started off the game kinda slow. Second half, we made our adjustments. We did what we had to do. The defense came together as a unit. We basically said we’ve got to get three and outs. We’ve got to get off the field and get our offense the ball so we can start winning this game and start turning the corner.” Of the seven drives Kentucky ran in the second half, four of them ended in three-and-outs and three in interceptions. The first was by linebacker Mohamoud Diabate, who hopped for the easy pick over the middle and put the offense in the redzone. It became the third #Kyle2Kyle touchdown of the day. The second saw safety Shawn Davis (seven tackles, one for loss, one interception) center field a deep pass in a way that he has made his speciality. That became an Evan McPherson field goal for what would be the final score of 34-10. And the final one was by freshman Tre’Vez Johnson, in late with freshmen and second string. He fought for a deep 50/50 ball and pulled the Joey Gatewood pass out for the final interception. “It was great,” reflects Johnson. “I mean, that was the first of many. But, like, it was good to get the win, I'm glad we came out with the win. But, it was exciting.” At different times, each phase carried the other. It’s the sign of a team strong in all phases and complimentary football. But the difference between complimentary football and championship football is the ability to bring all three aspects of the team together into one game—ideally at one time. That’s something the Gators haven’t been able to do yet. It’s a glaring omission and one Mullen wants fixed…but is also not too upset about it being an issue. In a way that a football coach’s mind works, Mullen sees the lack of consistency as a promise for it still to come. “I don't think we've played a complete game yet,” admits Mullen. “I think complete games are hard to get but I mean we were, our goal you know, we're not looking to peak as a team in the midpoint of the season, or you know, in the kind of the middle part of the season. We've got to continue to improve, continue to get better, and our job as coaches is to make sure we're coaching, teaching and motivating our guys to get better. Our guys job is to show up every day and work as hard as they can, have a great positive attitude and push themselves to try to improve. They can't get bored with repetition; they got to try to get better every single day. “And that's really the ultimate goal of every team, is to do that and continue to push and continue to improve so you know, every week you can see things we do better and, you know, and see things that we've took a really good stride here or maybe we just were, you know, didn't do much didn’t, didn't improve much in certain areas and improved greatly in other areas. We want to keep doing that and keep getting better, so that you know season goes on, you get that late part of the season is when you want to peak and you're playing your absolute best, and you're playing great in three phases of the game.”

GAINESVILLE, FL– GatorBait Magazine is on site and live from Ben Hill Griffin Stadium as the No. 6 Florida Gators (6-1) prepare to take on the Kentucky Wildcats (3-5). Trent Whittemore was on the sidelines but still in street clothes as the wide receiver continues to heal from a fractured rib and punctured lung suffered during the Arkansas win two weeks ago. This is the smallest crowd at a home game I've seen yet. With the early kick, the holiday weekend and COVID-19 cases on the rise, it's not too surprising. Would venter to guess there are around 8,000 fans in the stands. The Wildcats are dealing with double digit roster losses due to injuries and COVID-19 issues. Head Coach Mark Stoops had said earlier in the week it could be 18 players. Although ESPN reporter Quint Kessenich said on Saturday it would be 16-17. However that number includes four starters; two offensive lineman, a running back and a tight end. Matt Jones of Kentucky Sports Radio tweeted the running back out is Chris Rodriguez. He was the Cats leading rusher on the year with 88 rushes for 562 yards and six touchdowns. The Gators will return tight end Kyle Pitts. The nation's best tight end missed the Arkansas and Vanderbilt wins after being knocked out of the Georgia win with a concussion and broken nose. His return is huge as he leads the nation in touchdowns (8) for tight ends and is still third for his position in yards per game (82.8). Florida's unavailable list for today: 4 David Reese 7 Jeremiah Moon 17 Kahleil Jackson 21 Ethan Pouncey 54 Lamar Goods 55 Hayden Knighton 66 Jaelin Humphries 80 Trent Whittemore 95 Lucas Alonso Coincidentally, this would normally be the weekend Florida plays FSU. Instead the Seminoles have had their second game in as many weeks cancelled/postponed. Today's matchup against Virginia was postponed after a positive test and contact tracing along with injuries and opt-outs put the Noles roster number in the 40's. First Quarter: The Gators offense was perfectly fine without Kyle Pitts. It was competent enough to spread the ball around to 10 or more receivers and stay at the top of the nation’s list as the best passing offense in college football. But man what a difference the best tight end in the nation can make. On the Gators first offensive drive of the day, after three straight bumbling plays, UF faced a 4th and 2 from their own 25-yard line. Everything we know about Dan Mullen told us he'd fake that punt, but Gators still pulled it off with relative ease thanks to a Dameon Pierce run of 15 yards. Two plays later, Trask hit Kyle Pitts on a post route that picked up 38 yards after the catch for a 56 yard touchdown. The defense gave up 2-2 on fourth downs but also held the Wildcats to 0-4 on third downs, eventually forcing a punt on both drives. Thanks in large part to two huge sacks, one by Brenton Cox and one by Zach Carter. Second Quarter: A screen from Trask to Shorter ended up being a fumble after the hit. Kentucky took over at the UF 38-yard line. Since the pass was complete, Trask remains at only three turnovers for the year.

“Can his offense score a lot of points?' “Can he beat Georgia?” “Can he recruit?” “What about defense?” “Can — and will — he win championships?" When the Football Forensics and Archeologists dig up the 2020 season and begin analyzing the DNA of its national champion, as weird as this year has been, these constants will likely be present despite the weirdness: 1. Gifted Quarterback. 2. Head Coach with creative offensive mind. 3. Solid Defense. It’s pretty much the same as always, but the order of importance has changed. It is no longer singularly true that “Defense Wins Championships.” Even Nick Saban has come to realize that is true and has adjusted his priorities. One thing even Mullen’s critics must give him — he keeps overcoming major obstacles, real or perceived. Which brings us to this: Does Florida have 1 and 2 but not 3? Let’s pause here while the message board brawlers duke it out. When Mullen arrived nigh three years ago, they were like … 1. “Can his offense score a lot of points?' 2. “Can he beat Georgia?” 3. “Can he recruit?” 4. “What about defense?” 5. “Can — and will — he win championships?” I think he has answered 1, 2 and 3. He’s working on 4 and 5. I added a few for giggles as throw-ins 6. “Does his wife hate Gainesville” (no) 7. “Does her husband have a sense of humor?” (yes) Megan Mullen can help me confirm that Dan does, indeed, have a sense of humor. Let me go ahead and answer 8. “Can the Gators run the ball?” And I’ll answer it: “Sometimes, when they have to.” Here’s the skinny: Dan Mullen has put Florida back on the map. And now he’s coming for Alabama, the way he came for Georgia, because he’s out to fulfill The Prophecy. And given the audacity of that statement, some will flinch, but it’s the kind of audacity Mullen’s fan base wants to hear. For over two years, we have tried to convince readers and listeners that the Gator running game/offensive line was a work in progress, just like the 2020 receiving corps was going to be. I wish I could lay claim to having seen the future brilliance of Kyle Trask, but I wasn’t the only person -- or coach — who missed on him. Clearly, as they say, now it’s all right in front of the quarterback, the head coach AND the defense. Meanwhile, there’s a rather incredible number bouncing around that’s indicative just how successful Mullen has been in chasing the legendary ghosts at Florida: With a victory over Kentucky Saturday, he can become the UF’s all-time winningest coach through 34 games. Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer and Mullen were even at 27-6 through their first 33 games. Both Spurrier and Meyer lost their 34th. That’s also why you’ve got to watch statistics. Spurrier had the best record in the SEC his first year but couldn’t claim it due to NCAA probation inflicted on the previous regime. And he won the SEC his second season, 1991. Urban Meyer had his SEC and a national title in year two. Mullen is sans title so far, but easily passes the litmus test, with the table set for no less than an SEC East trophy. Dan appears on schedule and has the attributes. His former boss, Urban Meyer, was asked the similarities between successful coaches who have landed their first big-time job, such as Mullen at Florida, the younger Ryan Day at Ohio State and Kirby Smart at Georgia. He shot back this text: 1. Care for players 2. Competitive 3. Tuffness 4. Football acumen As coaches like to say, Mullen “checks all the boxes.” And maybe checks the last one twice. The acumen of Mullen on play calling and development of players is clearly manifest in Kyle Trask, whose story is compelling, his performance remarkable and his future brilliant. The scary part is that he’s still young in experienced years and, despite his torrid pace with 31 touchdown passes in seven games, he’s capable of better. This is without regard to the absurd comments made by Mike Griffith of Dawg Nation on the Paul Finebaum Show Wednesday when, under duress, he tried to pass off Trask as a mediocre player who ranks “somewhere around fourth or fifth” in the Heisman race – to which Finebaum reacted with semi-outrage. (Paul ranks the Gator quarterback No. 1). Normally speaking I don’t feel the need to react to attacks on Gator players, coaches, or fans, but Griffith spoke with forked tongue. So I responded with this Tweet, which Finebaum personally read on his show and, at last look. It drew 25, 000 impressions in its first day. Most experts agree that Trask’s growing knowledge about the finer points of the position indicates he is still learning. He easily could have broken that seven-game touchdown pass record of 31 with one more if Mullen would have wanted to “engineer” the stats. However, Mullen has grilled the “team first” mentality in his players and Trask watched from the sideline as backup Emory Jones threw for one. I asked Dan about balancing “team first” with trying to help win his quarterback a big honor “Usually you’re seeing players that are winning awards are on really good football teams as well and so it's pretty easy to just keep the focus on the team winning,” Mullen replied. “If we keep winning and we're successful, Kyle's gonna be putting up pretty good numbers. And he'll have the opportunity to get some individual awards. He won't be the only one. Hopefully there's other guys on the team that certainly have the opportunity with individual awards as well. But then, you increase your chances of that as long as the team does good.” So while it appears to be “Show Time” for winning all the bling, it’s also “Show Up Time” for teams. No. 6 is about right for Florida’s first ranking. Starting with my age-old, cliched theory, let me point out that this time of year, football teams are going North or South, getting better or worse. And it’s usually the small things that matter. And it did in the 38-17 Gator win over the Commodores. So it may have looked that way, but Mike Griffith is correct about one thing – the win over Vandy didn’t come easy. Trask had dodged a bullet when Commodore DB Allan George got his hands on a pass that he should have intercepted but dropped it. Meanwhile, Florida’s best defender, MLB Ventrell Miller, had been injured for the second time in the game and Todd Grantham’s defense was sleepwalking to line up in response to Vandy’s hurry-up offense. When the ball went up, only one of three men was going to catch it — the one in white with the name “Grimes” on the back. It wasn’t a lollipop toss, but the timing of the catch between Trevon and his quarterback was precisely at the apex. There was a slight bobble by Trevon coming down — enough to elicit the help of replay and a comment by the ESPN announcer, “that looks like it may have hit the ground” — before it was finally ruled legit. It took a moment of deliberation. It was not a promising look by a team that had won this matchup 28 times out of the last 29. As he is wont to do, however, Trask came up with the play needed — with major assistance of his receiver — in order to take the lead for the first time, 17-10. This was just another example of how many times the senior quarterback has needed a clutch play and made it — with a little help from his receiver corps. This speaks volumes about Trask’s clutch play. His small victories are sometimes so razor-thin that they are borderline invisible. But these razor thin edges, these nuances of quarterbacking, are where he lives. Now about this defense. Smart football people I talk to all agree that the defense will be “just fine,” but others have nightmares seeing Alabama’s Devonte Smith roaming free in the Swiss cheese secondary with a gazillion receptions from Mac Jones. I have a message to you from Todd Grantham: “I just want to find a way to win the game.” That sounds good, but you’ve got to take the slings and arrows when it doesn’t work. Optics are hard to overcome. Meanwhile, on the final point of this discussion about Mullen. He does, indeed, have a sense of humor, even during a Pandemic. In the opening remark of the Zoom post-game presser after Vanderbilt, he looked at the square of Kassidy Hill from her home, where the GatorBait Chief Correspondent was framed by a string of white lights and blurted out: “Holiday violation on Kassidy. Christmas lights are not allowed until the day after Thanksgiving.” You gotta like a football coach who can put aside his post-game X’s and O’s to call a good holiday violation on a reporter. And by the way, the spunky Kassidy fired back at Mullen "don't tell me how to live my life Dan.” All done in good fun, which proves that it is possible to have.

It seems it wasn’t long ago that Florida maintained a 31-game win streak over the Kentucky Wildcats. It also wasn’t long ago that Kyle Trask was an unheard of three-star backup quarterback from the Lone Star State. But Lexington’s own Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch would change all of that in 2018 and 2019. In Dan Mullen’s inaugural season as Florida’s head coach, his first SEC East matchup would come with some pressure. But nothing that all of his predecessors didn’t face in the years before him. Galen Hall, Gary Darnell, Steve Spurrier, Ron Zook, Urban Meyer, Will Muschamp and Jim McElwain all helped build a 31-year legacy of beating up on the Wildcats, which made for one of the longest head-to-head winning streaks in college football. When the Wildcats came into The Swamp in 2018, there was still a lot of excitement in Gainesville surrounding Florida football’s new hire. But on the back of quarterback Terry Wilson and running back Benny Snell Jr. the Wildcats stunned the Gators at home, giving Mullen his first loss back in Gainesville. But, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I’d say Gators fans should look back at that loss and be thankful that it unfolded the way that it did. “We come out and we have a tough loss to Kentucky early,” Mullen told the “Herbstreit and Fitzsimmons” podcast following the loss. “I don’t know if they knew how to react to that or they thought, ‘OK, we lost to Kentucky. What’s going on?’.” That “what’s going on?” question was a sentiment that was shared across the fanbase. But according to Mullen, the shocking loss to the ‘Cats sent waves through the football building. “All of a sudden, then they start realizing, ‘I understand now why you’re on us about every day, every detail of practice and the strain and the effort in which we have to play with.’,” Mullen attested. “All of a sudden they start practicing better, harder, the effort increases. And our performance increases. “These guys, when you can show them the gains they’re making, the improvements they’re making… it helps them buy into what we’re doing in the future.” Florida would go on to win five straight following the loss to Kentucky in 2018 – including Mullen’s first signature win back in Gainesville when the No. 7-ranked Gators knocked off the No. 6-ranked LSU Tigers on Florida Field. Seems like there was some truth to Mullen’s offered assurance following the Kentucky loss in 2018. But when the Gators found themselves reeling at Kentucky again in 2019, it seemed as though Mark Stoops would be the face of father-figure internet memes depicting Dan Mullen as a diaper-clad infant. Of course the entire world knows what happened next. Down 21-10 in the third quarter, Florida quarterback Feleipe Franks, who had completed 12 of his 17 passes for 174 yards with a touchdown and interception, was rolled up on in the bottom of a dogpile. The last time the world saw Franks in dressed in Orange and Blue was as he disappeared into the tunnel at Kroger Field on the back of an injury cart, clutching a towel to his face. It also made for the first time the world saw Kyle Trask – well, saw Kyle Trask and paid attention, anyways. Though no one, especially myself, who always rooted for Franks, wanted to see the Florida quarterback to go down in the way that he did, if not for his season-ending ankle injury, the world would have never been graced with the story of Kyle Trask. Everyone has their own way of telling the story of the high school backup who never started a game in high school, accepted an offer to play SEC football at Florida as a three-star and who now is leading the 2020 Heisman race. And now that story has an opportunity to come full circle. The Gators have already successfully cleared the hurdle of beating the Georgia Bulldogs in Jacksonville to sit in the drivers’ seat of the SEC East. It was the key to Pandora’s Box, if you will. And with a divisional title, Florida’s road to Atlanta to square off against the Crimson Tide for the SEC Championship seems to be paving itself. From here on out, it’s one step in front of the other for the Gators. And a visit from the Wildcats is the next step for Mullen, Trask and the No. 6-ranked Florida football program. And if the last two years are any indication, the Gators know it won’t come easy. “I think they had a tough game last week, but that was out of the norm of how that game played out for them,” Mullen said of Kentucky. “Even if you look at it, in the second quarter, they were driving in for a field goal to make it 7-6 in the middle of the second quarter. Then they snap the ball – some weird things started happening for them, and the game got away from them. But you look at them, very good defensive team, stout up front. One of the best pass defenses in the conference. Then they complement playing ball control football. Their physicality and how they’re able to run to the ball. For us, always, you know you’re always going to get their best when they come play the Gators.” Referring to Kentucky as “Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch” isn’t that far-fetched when looking at how odd the last two Florida-Kentucky matchups have been. And Saturday is bound to bring a lot of the same as Stoops admitted on Wednesday that the Wildcats could be missing as many as 18 roster members due to Covid-19 and other injuries. But if one thing is for certain, no matter what happens on Saturday, Mullen and the Gators tend to find the silver lining when playing Kentucky.

When Chief Borders spoke with GatorBait in June of this year, he mentioned his aspirations beyond the football field. “My goal is to be the best pediatrician in the world,” Borders told GatorBait. For the four-star outside linebacker, this meant studying pre-med at the University of Florida before heading to med school – with football squeezing in between, of course. Back in June, Borders also admitted that his “dream offers” consisted of Oregon and Stanford – both schools of which extended an offer to the Windy-City-native-turned-Georgia-resident. Borders took to Twitter on August 1 to announce that he had been officially offered a full scholarship to Stanford. And though it was contingent on how he finished his high school career academically, Borders isn’t someone you have to worry about qualifying… even at a prestigious institution like Stanford. And when Borders, who had been committed to Florida since Nov. 2019, announced on Monday that despite his commitment, he was still looking at his field of options and would make a final, recruitment-closing decision on Thanksgiving Day, many started sniffing out a possible flip. Borders’ goal of being “the best pediatrician in the world” could be accomplished at the University of Florida, but all signs pointed towards the outside linebacker chasing his PhD as a member of the Cardinal. As the fanbases of the Gators, Cardinal, Michigan State Spartans and Florida State Seminoles tuned into Twitter at 3 p.m. over a plate of turkey and mashed potatoes, Borders announced his final decision in a video that featured a virtual appearance from Dan Mullen: Florida’s linebacker coach Christian Robinson, defensive coordinator Todd Grantham and head coach Dan Mullen all had their hands in securing Borders’ commitment to Florida. And though this recruiting cycle has been like no other thanks to Covid-19-induced restrictions, the work of Florida’s recruiters has paid off once again.

Emory Jones could have gone somewhere else. He could have looked at the depth chart, looked at the calendar and realizing he’d be a redshirt-junior before getting a real shot to start, decided it best to transfer. He could have accessed how easily passers receive waivers to play instantly as a transfer, the need in the market for former Top 5 duel threat quarterbacks and the opportunity to pick the best place to make an immediate impact as the next hot-shot transfer quarterback. He even thought about it all. "I mean yeah, obviously,” Jones admitted. “Well not—I mean honestly, those things went through my head before.” But Emory Jones also has a front row seat and exclusive access to the best story in college football. The story in hard work and patience and stoicism; the story of Kyle Trask. “I just look, just seeing like how he handles his business just keeps me motivated because I just, I just see how much he's grown over the years. And I see myself still growing and getting better every day. “I definitely look at him and the path that he’s taken, had to go through, and he’s done nothing but like just help me because it kept me confident, just seeing the things that he does and how he hands his business week in and week out. It just keeps me motivated. It keeps me looking forward and I can’t wait until it’s my turn.” Since Jones arrived on campus, the prototypical Dan Mullen running quarterback, Emory’s “turn” has always been just on the precipice, being rolled in to games at various times and drives, always ready to take over for injuries or to keep the defense on their toes. Mullen purposely never tells Jones ahead of time when he’s going in, even if his drives are scripted by the coaches. The purpose—according to Jones—is to make sure he’s always ready.…well almost always ready. “It’s crazy because like these three years I never know when I’m going to go into a game. I’ve just always got to be ready. Like that one time last year against LSU, I didn’t have my helmet with me when [Mullen] called me into the game. From that time on, I always have my helmet with me, my feet ready to go because I never know when he is going to call me in…I mean, I'm kind of used to it now. It doesn't really faze me. I'm always ready on the sideline to go.” It’s the same philosophy the staff used with Trask. When Feleipe Franks was injured versus Kentucky in 2019, however, Jones already knew Trask would go in; coaches had talked to all three passers at the beginning of the season to let them know the depth chart and make sure there was no confusion during the season. But the plan has always been to keep Jones involved until it’s his time. Still, by making sure every quarterback on the roster was/is always ready, none have to “get” ready. It’s proven invaluable with Kyle Trask, who came in and didn’t miss a beat. Now, even with Trask on a Heisman run, Mullen and Offensive Coordinator Brian Johnson have kept opponents defenses on a consistent diet of Emory Jones with 11 passes for 89 yards and two touchdowns, along with 17 rushes for 123 yards and another touchdown on the ground. Last Saturday versus Vanderbilt, Jones threw the final touchdown to tight end Kemore Gamble. It gave the No. 6 Florida Gators a 21-point going away win…and ended Kyle Trask’s streak of games this season with four-plus touchdowns. Camera’s on the sideline showed Trask celebrating more than anyone. “I mean it’s never about any stats or anything like that with Coach Mullen or Kyle. I mean Kyle was happy as ever when I went in there and threw that touchdown so it’s never any like … like I don’t think he ever thought about that honestly. He was all happy for me to go in the game and do my thing.” That relationship—just as much as the example Trask has set by biding his time in route leading the Power 5 in passing, quarterbacking Florida to a nation’s best in passing offense and becoming ESPN’s leader in the Heisman watch—has kept Jones grounded, providing a wealth of information and sounding board on how to become one of the country’s most accurate and dependable quarterbacks. “When we talk about things it’s just like things that are going on in the game and stuff like that and things that he sees and stuff like that. And he just helps me out with things he sees on the field since I’m not like actually out there most of the time getting all those reps. So those are most of the conversations that we have just so he keeps me like elevated and everything so to make sure if I do have to go in and finish something off, I’m ready.” Now Jones is passing on these lessons to freshman Anthony Richardson as well, the example for Richardson that Trask has been for Jones. “Me and [Anthony] have a lot of talks about stuff like that and just, like he's been doing a really good job learning the offense and stuff like that and handling his business, and I mean, we done had conversations about all that and he understands like everything and he just, he playing his role with the team right now.” Emory Jones has the tools and talent to be the next game changing quarterback under Dan Mullen. Now, in year three of the offense and following along the same path Kyle Trask has taken to where he is now, Jones is marrying that talent with development, knowledge and a tinge of patience that has proven worth staying for. “I just wait for my time, being patient.”

No eye test is necessary. No favors needed whatsoever. Florida’s path to the College Football Playoff is uncomplicated. Win and you’re in. Lose and it’s a third straight New Years Six bowl game. Seems simple doesn’t it? Actually, it’s going to take stars and planets aligning and for SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to pull some rabbits out of his hat to make some scheduling magic. None of this really changes the fact that Florida just has to win out to make the playoff, but the pathway could evoke memories of the old Beatles tune “The Long and Winding Road.” For Florida to get to the playoff, the Gators have to get past three speed bumps along the road that takes them to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game – Kentucky in Gainesville on November 28, Tennessee in Knoxville on December 5 and LSU in Gainesville on December 12. It’s the LSU game that complicates matters. Go back to October 17 when Florida’s game with LSU was postponed due to an outbreak of Covid-19 that forced football operations to shut down at UF for two weeks. Already in place was Sankey’s built-in makeup date on December 12. Since there were also virus issues at Vanderbilt, Sankey did an impromptu rearrangement of schedules, among the changes Missouri at Florida on October 31, eliminating the scheduled bye week ahead of the Georgia game. To even things up so that Georgia, then ranked fifth nationally, didn’t have a decisive advantage over the Gators, Sankey eliminated Georgia’s October 31 bye week by rescheduling the Bulldogs game at Kentucky for that date. Then came November 14. An outbreak of the virus forced postponement of Alabama at LSU, creating a dilemma for Sankey since his built-in makeup date of December 12 was already occupied by LSU-Florida. This is where things get complicated. Presumably, Sankey has a plan in place although he hasn’t announced it yet. Maybe that will come this weekend after the Kentucky-Florida and Auburn-Alabama games but right now there is no announcement. One option that is available to Sankey is to cancel the LSU game for both the Gators and Alabama, giving both teams a bye week prior to the SEC Championship Game on December 19. As much sense as that might make it would still require more schedule shuffling to accommodate LSU. It’s one thing to give Florida and Alabama a week of rest prior to the championship game. It’s something altogether different to lop off two games for last year’s national champ LSU without offering some way to compensate. In the past week Sankey has made it perfectly clear he wants everyone in the league to play ten games but that can’t be done unless there are more scheduling accommodations. On Wednesday, WJOX in Birmingham, which quite often comes up with scoops from the SEC offices, reported that Sankey has a plan for a schedule shuffling that would work like this: December 5: Alabama at LSU December 12: LSU at Florida December 12: Alabama at Arkansas On the surface that seems like a simple solution, but it’s problematic because it doesn’t account for Texas A&M and Ole Miss. The Aggies, ranked fifth in the first College Football Playoff Poll, have a head-to-head win over the Gators and a blowout loss to Alabama. They are thought to be a wild card possibility for the playoff so they will need to play ten games. Texas A&M’s November 14 road trip to Tennessee was postponed due to the virus as was a home game with Ole Miss one week later. When the roadie to Knoxville was postponed, it was immediately rescheduled for December 12, but then came the postponement of the Ole Miss game. Since Sankey indicated that non-championship games could be played on December 19 it was automatically assumed Ole Miss-Texas A&M would move to that date. There’s just one problem and again it involves LSU. If the WJOX report is true and Alabama at LSU is played on December 5, when will Ole Miss at LSU be played since Ole Miss-Texas A&M seems tentatively scheduled for December 19? Sankey has his work cut out for him to figure out how all this is going to work out, ensure all 14 teams in the SEC play ten games and keep everyone happy. No matter how he shuffles the deck, however, it doesn’t change one basic fact: Although the Gators currently rank sixth in the College Football Playoff – one spot behind Texas A&M – they are in complete control of their own destiny and require no help to get into the playoff. That’s not the case for Texas A&M. The Aggies need Alabama to lose twice to make the SEC Championship Game and donkeys are likely to fly first before that happens. To make it as a wild card, the Aggies would need Alabama to win the SEC Championship Game, for Notre Dame or Clemson to win the ACC title game decisively, and for the playoff committee to consider a wild card A&M more worthy of a conference champion from the Big 12 or Pac-12. Florida actually has two paths to the playoff, one that guarantees the playoff, the other that has potential stumbling blocks. In the first, the Gators win their final three regular season games and then whack Alabama in Atlanta. As SEC champs, they’re in. In the second scenario, Florida loses one of its three regular season games but beats Alabama. In that scenario it’s likely the Gators would make the playoff since the SEC has been such a dominant force with 10 national championships and four runners-up since 2006. It’s hard to imagine the SEC champ would be left out but there is a precedent that could see two-loss Florida left out while one-loss Alabama got in as a wild card. Go back to 2016 when Penn State won the head-to-head matchup with Ohio State and then the Big Ten Championship Game. When the final four teams for the playoff were announced, Ohio State got in as a wild card and Penn State was on the outside looking in. We like to think the playoff committee wouldn’t say no to the SEC champ, even one with two losses, but history says it could happen. If it happened in the Big Ten and a blueblood like Penn State could be overlooked for a bluer blood Ohio State, then it could happen in the SEC where Alabama is the all-time standard of championship excellence. So the simple solution for Dan Mullen and the Gators is to go 4-0. That makes it a no-brainer for the selection committee and it probably ensures that Florida quarterback Kyle Trask wins the Heisman Trophy. First, there is the matter of going 4-0. The Gators are 25-point favorites this weekend against Kentucky. They will be favored by at least two touchdowns to knock off Tennessee and LSU. Florida should finish the regular season on a 3-0 run to get to Atlanta. Although it’s hard to imagine Florida being favored in an SEC Championship Game matchup with Alabama, the Gators might be the one team in all of college football capable of matching the Crimson Tide touchdown for touchdown as these are the two most explosive offenses in the nation. When you can do what Alabama and Florida have done in schedules solely SEC, then you have the makings of a league championship game like none we’ve ever seen. Alabama averages 49.4 points and 548.6 yards per game behind a dynamic offense led by quarterback Mac Jones (2,426 passing yards; 12.1 per attempt; 18 TDPs), running back Najee Harris (797 rushing yards, 16 touchdowns) and wide receiver Devonta Smith (65-903, 10 touchdowns). Florida can counter with an offense that averages 44.7 points and 522.3 yards per game behind Trask (2,554 passing yards; 10.4 per attempt; national leading 31 TDPs), tight end Kyle Pitts (24-414, 7 TDs) and wide receiver Kadarius Toney (42-503 receiving, 7 TDs; 13-83 rushing, 1 TD). The certainty of this expected shootout is the winner makes the playoff with the very distinct possibility the winning quarterback – Trask or Jones – wins the Heisman Trophy. Almost every straw poll of potential Heisman voters has Trask the top candidate with Jones following closely on his heels. If he were to win, Trask would be the fourth Florida quarterback to win the big trophy. If Jones won he would be Alabama’s third Heisman winner since 2009. Earning a Heisman Trophy for the game-winning quarterback would be frosting on a rather delicious cake and a statement about just how good these teams have been. While Trask and Jones would be deserving and would revel in their selection as the Heisman winner, both would forfeit personal glory for a chance to win the national championship. There is added incentive for Dan Mullen to close out the regular season and knock off Alabama, too. In his final season as Florida’s offensive coordinator in 2008, Mullen was the play caller for a two-touchdown fourth quarter as the Gators knocked off unbeaten Alabama and Nick Saban, 31-20, in one of the truly classic SEC Championship Games of all time. As the head coach at Mississippi State, Mullen never made it to Atlanta and was 0-9 against Saban. He never could lure the kind of talent to Mississippi State that Saban does annually to Alabama. At Florida, he’s recruited far better talent to build a 2020 roster that offers Mullen the best shot he’s had at besting Saban since that 2008 team that went on to win the national championship. This is the year that Mullen circled on his calendar when he took the Florida job in 2017 after the most successful run of any head coach in Mississippi State history. It has taken this long for him to build a true SEC roster, one that can compete with and beat anyone in the league and that includes Alabama. He’s 27-6 since returning to Gainesville as Florida’s head coach and has two New Years Six bowl wins under his belt. Very few predicted the kind of success this early in Mullen’s Florida tenure, therefore most pundits would say that simply making it to Atlanta is the next progression in the Mullen plan to restore Florida to the glory years of the Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer eras. After long years (2010-17) in what seems to be a desert, Florida is beginning to look like a football oasis once again. All along it was Mullen’s goal to make it to Atlanta in year three but just getting there won’t satisfy him. Neither will hoisting the SEC Championship Trophy above his head on December 19 even if that will go down as quite the accomplishment. Just winning the SEC won’t be enough. Mullen is here to win a national championship and put the Florida Gators on solid footing to be in the national championship picture every single year. While the future looks extremely bright, if you know Mullen then you know that he’s got his eye on the here and now. In Mullen-think why not now? Why not the Florida Gators in 2020? Win four games and Mullen takes the Gators to the playoff. Win two more and the Gators are national champs for the first time since 2008 and for the fourth time in school history. It is not a preposterous idea. It can be done. The answer is in the immortal words of the late, great Al Davis. “Just win, Baby.” Winning solves everything.

A few thoughts to jump start your Thanksgiving morning: HAPPY THANKSGIVING I feel so fortunate to have grown up with parents and grandparents who constantly reminded me that every day – not just the last Thursday of November – is a real Thanksgiving Day since I have been blessed to live in the United States. The older I get the more I realize just how special it is to live in a country where you can turn your dreams into reality. As someone who has spent a huge chunk of my existence in press boxes or in front of a keyboard knocking out another story about a ball game or an athlete, I’ve come to realize the importance of sports in our society. If you think that sports are merely a diversion or just entertainment, then you have truly missed the mark. I would call you clueless but that would insult all the clueless people I’ve met in 69-plus years. Sports is the one place where political, religious and racial differences can be set aside even if just for three hours on a Saturday afternoon at a football stadium or at a basketball arena or a baseball diamond. We leave our differences at home when we go to the venue to cheer for our team. That person sitting next to us wearing the same colors we wear is our brother and sister even if it’s only for a few hours. And so often something magical happens. Friendships are forged. Relationships are built. Year after year we come to the same place and we hug on that friend next to us when our team scores or wins. We’re sad when our team loses. We do it together because we love our team. I would also argue that college sports have done far more than anything political to heal racial divisions in our society. Think about the millions of men and women for whom sports have been a springboard to an education. Only a small percentage of them go on to play their sport and make millions at the professional level, but a significant number of those who have earned a college degree go on to do so many extraordinary things, not the least of which is return to their communities to give back doing things like starting a business or offering a hand up to someone who needs it. Wednesday afternoon I thought about Dallas Baker, the former Florida wide receiver and now assistant coach for Doc Holliday at Marshall. He was on the verge of flunking out of Florida when Urban Meyer had a come to Jesus talk with him and convinced him that he was capable of being so much more than the team clown. We remember Mick Hubert calling him “Dallas Baker, Touchdown Maker” but what I remember is Dallas telling me how he and his mom enjoyed a good cry when he called her up to tell her he had made a 97 on an economics exam. He went on to become a good student who earned his diploma. Now he’s a coach who helps young men – many of them from underprivileged backgrounds – to parlay their football skills into an education. Dallas has never forgotten what an education did for him and he uses his platform as a coach to let kids know that an education is a key that unlocks so many doors in life. I think about things like that on Thanksgiving. I think about how fortunate I’ve been to write about great athletes and dramatic moments in sports, but I also think about the not so great athletes who got their education and who use it to enhance the lives of others. Sports does what nothing else in society can do. Thanksgiving also reminds me to tell the people who are important to me that I love them, to call up a friend to simply say thanks for being there for me and to mend fences even if I’m not the one that caused the rift. Today, on this day when we say thanks, I hope you will be reminded that you live in the greatest country on earth and that you will take time to love, heal and forgive. FLORIDA-KENTUCKY IS STILL ON … SORT OF A little after 6 p.m. on Wednesday on his weekly radio show, Kentucky coach Mark Stoops noted the Wildcats are currently down 18 players and 10 staffers, some due to injury and some due to Covid-19, ahead of Saturday afternoon’s game with 6th-ranked Florida at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Kentucky was down a number of players last week when the Wildcats were blasted by Alabama 63-3. Some of those are expected back this week but just how many players Kentucky will have available is still unknown. As of Wednesday night, Jason Higdon reported the Wildcats were above the 53-man SEC imposed minimum to play but the next 48 hours will tell us everything we need to know. Right now, the game is on … sort of. EXPECT MORE SHUFFLING OF SEC SCHEDULES Wednesday, WJOX in Birmingham, which has a rather strong record for accuracy when it comes to reporting the goings on in the Southeastern Conference, reported that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey is expected to further tweak schedules to avoid a logjam of makeup games on December 12. Per the report, Alabama will travel to Baton Rouge to play LSU on December 5, which allows the original makeup date of LSU-Florida in Gainesville to take place on December 12. Alabama will finish its regular season on the road at Arkansas on December 12. The postponed Texas A&M at Tennessee game will be made up on December 12. LSU at Ole Miss, scheduled for December 5, reportedly will be played on December 19 as will last week’s postponed Tennessee at Vanderbilt game. No word in the WJOX report on who Arkansas will play on December 19. By showing flexibility and willingness to change on the fly, Sankey has continued to show why he’s easily the best commissioner in all of college sports. NO NICK FOR THE IRON BOWL We’ve all heard that old question “If a tree falls in the forest and there is nobody around to hear it, does it make a sound?” In some respects, that’s like Saturday’s Iron Bowl game when 22nd-ranked Auburn (5-2) travels to Tuscaloosa to face #1 Alabama (7-0). Nick Saban won’t be there because he’s got Covid-19, so if Auburn and Gus Malzahn win the game will there be an asterisk beside the Auburn win column? Alabama people might think an asterisk will be deserved but Auburn folks will take a win over Alabama in any sport, anytime and anywhere. With or without Saban, Alabama has the personnel advantage and should win this game, but stranger things have happened. Alabama had superior personnel last year and that didn’t stop Auburn from winning the game. I’m of the opinion that Alabama is a good two or three touchdowns better than Auburn this year with or without Nick Saban on the sideline. I’m also of the opinion that Auburn knows fully well that a win over Alabama quiets the fire Gus Malzahn crowd at least until next season. Last year Auburn had better personnel than this year plus the Tigers played with a sense of desperation. It will take desperation to beat Alabama this year plus Auburn is going to have to play like a team with its hair on fire to overcome Alabama’s advantages. I also believe that nobody on the Alabama team wants to face the wrath of Nick if they lose in Tuscaloosa with Nick unable to be there. 2020 MAKES IT CLEAR THE GROUP OF 5 NEED THEIR OWN PLAYOFF Whether or not this is the final year the Power Five remains in the NCAA is debatable. What isn’t up for debate is that they will secede from the NCAA and abide by their own set of rules. It is entirely possible there will be some expansion of the Power Five. The Big 12, for example, might add two or four teams. The Pac-12 may elect to expand to 14 teams like the SEC, ACC and Big Ten (Plus Four). You can bet the farm schools like UCF, Cincinnati, Houston, USF and San Diego State will lobby long and hard to be included in this money grab. Yes, money grab. That’s what it is and in reality, can you blame them? All you have to do is look at things like budgets, the number of sponsored sports and the size of stadiums and arenas to see the gulf between the Power Five and the Group of Five. Take a look at the budgets of Florida and UCF for example. In the 2018-19 fiscal year, USA Today reports that the University of Florida had an athletic budget of $159 million and change. That’s ninth nationally and fourth in the SEC. UCF had an athletic budget of $69.1 or so million. That’s the third highest of any Group of Five school. It is also $37 million less than Missouri, which has the lowest budget of any SEC school that is required to report revenues and expenditures (Vanderbilt is private and does not, but Vandy has a budget reportedly close to $100 million if not a little more). Florida plays in 88,000-seat Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, one of college football’s iconic venues. UCF plays in the Bounce House, a recently constructed 46,000-seat that resembles an erector set. It more than meets UCF’s needs and is a better stadium than Vanderbilt, but neither Vandy nor UCF meet SEC standards when it comes to stadiums. At least UCF typically packs its stadium, something Vanderbilt only does when it plays a team that brings 10,000 or more fans. It’s possible UCF, Cincinnati (budget $68 million), Houston ($75 million), USF ($55 million) and San Diego State ($54 million) could be part of expansion plans if the Big 12 and Pac-12 expand. It’s possible that BYU (budget unknown but very large) could be invited to the Power Five since every time the Cougars play football or any sport the BYU Network broadcasts the game to 20 million Mormons in the US and around the world. But why join when there is a golden opportunity to follow the lead of the Power Five, break away from the NCAA to form their own association and abide by their own rules? Instead of begging to be a part of the College Football Playoff, the Group of Five could stage their own playoff and crown their own national champ. Absurd to call a Group of Five champ a “national champion” you say? Do we not call the champs of D1AA, Division II and Division III national champs? It is too late for a Group of Five playoff this year, which is too bad. Look at the number of quality teams. Cincinnati, BYU, Coastal Carolina, Marshall, Nevada and San Jose State are all unbeaten. Liberty’s only loss is to North Carolina State in Raleigh and the Flames have ACC wins over Syracuse and Virginia Tech. Louisiana-Lafayette is ranked with a single loss to Coastal. Tulsa has only one loss. The Power Five have increased their bargaining power with the networks by banding together. The Group of Five will never have the same bargaining power but they could do far better financially if they formed their own organization and set up their own playoff. They would also be wise to set their own recruiting rules just as the Power Five will do once they break away. It’s not a question of if but a matter of when the Power Five secede from the NCAA. It would be a good time for the Group of Five to follow that lead. INTERVIEWS AT SOUTH CAROLINA Oklahoma assistant Shane Beamer will interview for the vacant South Carolina job today. Beamer, the son of former Virginia Tech coach Frank Beamer, is a former Steve Spurrier assistant (at South Carolina), who has also worked in the past for Phil Fulmer, his dad, Mark Richt and Kirby Smart. He coaches tight ends at Oklahoma and is Lincoln Riley’s assistant head coach. Already interviewed for the job are Louisiana-Lafayette coach Billy Napier and Coastal Carolina coach Jamey Chadwell. South Carolina let it be known immediately after Will Muschamp was fired that it had an interest in Hugh Freeze, but if Freeze is interested in leaving Liberty it doesn’t seem as if he’s all that interested in South Carolina. Of those already interviewed, Napier is the one that makes more sense. He’s a former Furman quarterback who knows what it’s like to work in a big time program from his days as a Clemson and Alabama assistant. At Louisiana-Lafayette, he’s 25-11 in three years. South Carolina fans seem incensed that school prez Robert Caslen, a retired Lt. General in the Army and the former superintendent at West Point, might hire Jeff Monken. Back in 2014, Caslen brought then Georgia Southern coach Monken to West Point where he is 47-38 as the head coach. Some South Carolina fans believe the fix has been in for Caslen even before Muschamp was fired.

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: Do you remember the feeling in the pit of your stomach a year ago in Lexington when Feleipe Franks suffered a dislocated/fractured ankle near the end of the third quarter with the Gators trailing Kentucky, 21-10? Did you write off the game as a loss when Kyle Trask came into the game cold off the bench? Kentucky fans, although polite in their applause for Franks as he was wheeled off the field on a stretcher, went into a celebratory mood. They just knew a second straight win over Florida was about to take place. You have to go back to 1975-76 to find the last time that happened. How shocked were you when Trask drove the Gators 62 yards in six plays for a touchdown on his first series in the fourth quarter? He was 4-5 on that drive for 54 yards. The Gators scored when Trask executed an option play on the left side to perfection, drawing the defenders to him before pitching to Lamical Perine who skipped in for the TD. On his third possession, Trask had a 30-yard completion to Kyle Pitts (sound familiar?) to set up the go-ahead touchdown. That was a straight QB keeper from four yards out that caught the Wildcats flatfooted. Trask running near the goal line was the last thing they expected. Florida’s final touchdown came on a 76-yard run by Josh Hammond on a jet sweep Trask executed so perfectly that Hammond was 20 yards downfield before most of the folks at Commonwealth Stadium realized he had the football. That’s what you call carrying out a fake to perfection. From down 11 to 19 straight points and a come-from-behind road win. Did you think that was possible? You probably didn’t. Nor did anyone in the media. With Franks gone folks were predicting the Birmingham Bowl for the Gators. Instead, with Trask going 8-2 as the starter, the Gators made it to their second straight New Years Six Bowl and a final record of 11-2. Here we are more than a year later and Trask is still amazing people. He’s 14-3 as Florida’s starting QB, has the Gators (6-1) ranked sixth nationally and is considered by most reputable pundits – Mike Griffith, who covers Georgia for the AJC not being one of them – as the Heisman Trophy front runner. Saturday he gets a start against Kentucky. This time it’s doubtful he’ll need to bring the Gators back from 19 down. The Sayer Says Sooth: Barring a bunch of unexpected Covid positives when Kentucky (3-5) boards the plane in Lexington Friday morning, football will be played at The Swamp Saturday. And, barring something totally unforeseen, Kyle Trask will continue his Heisman Trophy hunt with another brilliant day. He’ll have Kyle Pitts back so the Kyle Squared duo will need to put a couple of scores on the board, part of what could be another four TDP day. FLORIDA 49, Kentucky 17 THE SEC SOOTHSAYER #22 AUBURN (5-2) at #1 ALABAMA (7-0): It’s called the Iron Bowl but it could be renamed the Will Gus Malzahn Keep His Job Bowl. Every year Gus comes into this game with his job seemingly hanging by a thread. Three times in seven games he’s defied the odds and walked away with a win. To even his record at 4-4 against Alabama might be his biggest challenge yet even with Nick Saban on the sidelines due to Covid-19. Alabama’s offense looks unstoppable and the defense seems to be catching up. In the last three games, opponents have averaged only 227 yards and 6.7 points. You win a lot of games when your offense is pouring on 49.4 a game and your defense is giving up less than a touchdown. Auburn has gone from a team on the brink after a stunning road loss to South Carolina to a team that has won three straight. To beat Alabama, Bo Nix will have to play a near perfect game and Auburn’s defense will have to play substantially better than it did last week when it gave up 222 rushing yards and 242 through the air in a win over Tennessee. The Sayer Says Sooth: Two things have to happen for Auburn to win this game: (1) Bo Nix has to have the game of his life with zero turnovers and (2) Alabama has to play like it’s working off a three-day bender. Alabama 47, Auburn 24 LSU (3-3) at #5 TEXAS A&M (5-1): If you go back a few years you’ll discover that it’s about time for the 5th-ranked Aggies to start their annual cliff dive. Every year since Johnny Manziel departed it seems the Aggies start fast and finish slow. They’ve won four in a row now so it wouldn’t be surprising if this is the week the Aggies elect to go in the tank, especially since they’ll take the field for the first time in three weeks against LSU. LSU has already had two games postponed due to the virus but the Tigers did get in a win last week over Arkansas even if it did require a teensy bit of help from the zebras. The Tigers will be starting true freshman QB TJ Finley who can be effective when he’s got a running game going. The Aggies gave up only 50 rushing yards to South Carolina last week. The Sayer Says Sooth: LSU can score points but can they score enough against an A&M defense that ranks best in the SEC? And do they have answers for QB Kellen Mond and RB Isaiah Spiller? Texas A&M has an outside shot at making the College Football Playoff as a wild card team but to do that there can be no letdowns. There won’t be one this week. Texas A&M 35, LSU 24 #9 GEORGIA (5-2) at SOUTH CAROLINA (2-6): The most delusional fan base in all of college football is in full blame mode, saying that by not playing JT Daniels Kirby Smart cost Georgia an SEC and national championship. Daniels has the Poodles on a 1-game winning streak after throwing for 401 yards and four touchdowns in his first start against a Mississippi State team that dressed out the chittlin’ slingers from the school’s hog farm last week. Daniels will face a similar situation in Columbia Saturday. South Carolina’s starting corners, who happen to be the team’s best two defensive players, have opted out to get ready for the NFL so the secondary will be in a full prevent breaking up any passes mode. South Carolina has lost four in a row and barring a miracle of burning bush proportions will end the season 2-8. The Sayer Says Sooth: Count on the Georgia media to start the Daniels for Heisman in 2021 hype after this one. South Carolina is bad. Really bad. Georgia 31, South Carolina 14 MISSISSIPPI STATE (2-5) at OLE MISS (3-4): It has been an interesting year in the SEC for Mike Leach and Lane Kiffin. Leach and Mississippi State have underperformed while Kiffin and Ole Miss have exceeded expectations particularly on the offensive side of the ball. This is going to be a redemption game for Ole Miss wide receiver Elijah Moore. He’s the guy who scored a TD in last year’s Egg Bowl then hiked his leg like a dog taking a pee. The result was a 15-yard penalty, a missed extra point that cost Ole Miss a chance to send the game into overtime and ultimately, Matt Luke’s job. Moore never got a chance to do the things with Luke that he has done with Kiffin calling the plays. The Sayer Says Sooth: There isn’t anyone in the Mississippi State secondary capable of sticking with Moore (74-1,054 and 8 TDs). Mississippi State’s only hope is to dink and dunk up and down the field to keep the Ole Miss offense off the field. The Bulldogs will score some points but not enough to derail the Lane Train. Ole Miss 44, Mississippi State 33 VANDERBILT (0-7) at MISSOURI (3-3): Vanderbilt, which is making a serious run at a reverse perfect season, actually has a chance to win this one. Mizzou’s offense has gone south (54 points in the last three games) since its 45-point explosion against LSU. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, has found some offense with four consecutive games of more than 400 yards. In all of 2019 Vandy had only two games of 400+ yards. Vandy is doing it this year with true freshman Ken Seals, who has thrown for 1,610 yards and 10 TDs. Meanwhile, Missouri’s offensive woes can be traced to a running game that has produced only 138 yards in the last two outings against Florida and South Carolina. For Connor Bazelac to have a chance throwing the ball, he’s got to have some sort of running threat and that hasn’t been happening lately. The Sayer Says Sooth: Mizzou comes into this game a 14.5-point favorite which seems a teensy bit on the high side since the Tigers haven’t really played well in weeks and Vandy seems to be getting better. If this game were in Nashville the pick would be Vandy but it’s in Columbia. Missouri 24, Vanderbilt 21 TACKLE FOOTBALL AROUND THE US OF A You don’t have to be a UCF fan to cheer for McKenzie Milton this weekend. Two years ago Milton suffered such a horrendous knee injury that his leg almost had to be amputated. Several surgeries later he’s able to play again and should get into Saturday’s game with USF in Tampa on the same field where he suffered his knee injury. When he got hurt two years ago, Milton was one of college football’s most dynamic playmaking quarterbacks and UCF was working on a second straight unbeaten season. The Knights aren’t nearly as good as they were back then although they have a star QB in Dillon Gabriel, who happens to be Milton’s best friend and from the same high school in Hawaii. The offense is still dynamic so the Knights will likely put up a bunch of touchdowns against a bad USF defense. A big lead means Milton will get in the game. Whether he completes a single pass or runs for even one yard is irrelevant. The only thing important is that McKenzie Milton not only is walking, something doctors said he would be lucky to do again, but he’s playing football. That’s worth celebrating. The Big 12 (Minus Two) heats up this weekend even with the postponement of 11th-ranked Oklahoma (6-2, 5-2 Big 12) at West Virginia (5-3, 4-3 Big 12). The game that will draw the most attention is 11th-ranked Iowa State (6-2, 6-1 Big 12) at #17 Texas (5-2, 4-2 Big 12). A Texas loss will all but eliminate the Longhorns from the race and would definitely make HBC Tom Herman’s seat immensely hotter. If Texas whacks Iowa State and 23rd-ranked Oklahoma State (5-2, 4-2 Big 12) wins at Texas Tech (3-5, 2-5 Big 12) we could have a four-way tie at the top on Sunday morning. When the national preseason football magazines hit the racks, Penn State was considered a legitimate national championship contender. Street and Smith had the Nittany Lions ranked fourth while Athlon had them fifth and Lindy’s had them sixth. Here we are more than halfway through the abbreviated Big Ten (Plus Four) season and Penn State is winless. Although injuries and opt outs have changed Penn State from contender to pretender, fans are starting to get a bit restless about HBC James Franklin. This is his seventh season on the job and he has yet to make the College Football Playoff. Franklin can ease the heat somewhat this week if the Lions can get their first win against a bad Michigan (2-3) team. Don’t worry about heat on Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh if he loses. He’s already negotiated his way out. A PITHY THOUGHT ON FRIDAY: The Dallas Cowboys got their doors blown off, 41-16, by the Washington Football Team Thursday afternoon in a battle of NFL teams owned by the two worst owners in all of professional sports. Washington owner Dan Snyder has absolutely nothing to show for 21 years of ownership except a lot of losing records and fired coaches. Jerry Jones once had a good thing going when he had Jimmy Johnson running the football operations but then he (Jones) decided he was just as smart as Johnson. It’s all been downhill since then. As far as sports owners go, the one redeeming quality Snyder and Jones have is they are rich and they pay well.

A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning: GATORS DEBUT AT #6 IN PLAYOFF RANKINGS Before considering throwing something like a beer mug at that expensive 70-foot QLED TV after watching the College Football Playoff Rankings Show, take into consideration this fact: Not once in the history of the College Football Playoff Poll have the top four teams from the first week’s rankings made the playoff. So, consider the Florida Gators in very good shape as the 6th-ranked team even if they lost the head-to-head with Texas A&M, which is ranked fifth. The Gators have a clear path to the playoff. The Aggies do not. Should the Gators win their final three regular season games and then beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game, they will be in the playoff. It’s as simple as that. They can lose one of their three remaining regular season games, beat Alabama in the SEC Championship Game and make the playoff. Even with two losses, the SEC champ is going to be in the playoff. Once-beaten Alabama would also be in as a wild card. You can bet the farm on that. For Florida, everything depends on beating Alabama in Atlanta. That’s a tall order, but it’s do-able. As for the Aggies, getting into the playoff is complicated since there is no clear path to get in. For Texas A&M to make the playoff there are two paths, both of which require the Aggies to win their final four regular season games and get a little help. Since Alabama owns the head-to-head, it would take two Alabama losses for the Aggies to make it to Atlanta where they would have to beat Florida. To make the playoff as a once-beaten wild card, the Aggies would need Alabama to beat Florida in the SEC championship game, Clemson with a healthy Trevor Lawrence to thrash Notre Dame soundly in the ACC title game and for the playoff committee to take only one team from the Big Ten (Plus Four) if Ohio State or Northwestern come to the league title game unbeaten and play each other to a near standstill. It would also require the committee to keep a potentially unbeaten Pac-12 champ or even Group of Five Cincinnati out of the final four teams in the rankings. The Bearcats almost certainly have to go unbeaten in the regular season, convincingly win the American Athletic Conference championship game and then pray that the committee feels guilty for keeping unbeaten UCF out in 2018 when the Knights had won 27 consecutive games. Florida controls its own destiny but it involves winning the SEC championship. There will be no wild card for the Gators with two losses. Week One College Football Playoff Rankings: (1) Alabama 7-0; (2) Notre Dame 8-0; (3) Clemson 7-1; (4) Ohio State 4-0; (5) Texas A&M 5-1; (6) FLORIDA 6-1; (7) Cincinnati 8-0; (8) Northwestern 5-0; (9) Georgia 5-2; (10) Miami 7-1; (11) Oklahoma 6-2; (12) Indiana 4-1; (13) Iowa State 6-2; (14) BYU 9-0; (15) Oregon 3-0; (16) Wisconsin 2-1; (17) Texas 5-2; (18) Southern Cal 3-0; (19) North Carolina 6-2; (20) Coastal Carolina 8-0; (21) Marshall 7-0; (22) Auburn 5-2; (23) Oklahoma State 5-2; (24) Iowa 3-2; (25) Tulsa 5-1 GEORGIA AT #9? THOUGHTS FROM THE TWITTERVERSE Life in the Twitterverse can be so cruel and so unkind if you’re one of those near national title types at Georgia. Here is a small sampling from Tuesday night: From Matt Hayes: Indiana nearly wins at Ohio State and is No. 12. Georgia gets its ass kicked twice and is No. 9. From Barrett Salee of CBSSports.com: If Georgia is the No. 9 team in the country then I’m not losing my hair. From Danny Kannell of ESPN Radio: Georgia at #9??? You have got to be kidding me From Jeff or Jeffrey Fain of Talkin ACC Sports: Georgia gets stomped twice … Beats a Miss State team by single digits with less than 50 scholarship players but yeah #9 STRAIGHT OUTTA RODNEY DANGERFIELD These guys got absolutely no respect: #12 Indiana: As Matt Hayes tweeted, how are these guys #12 and Georgia is #9? #14 BYU: The Cougars have been destroying people and they have a QB in Marc Wilson who might go in the first seven picks in the NFL Draft. Too bad their signature win is over a Boise State team that is pretty average by Boise standards. #20 Coastal Carolina: They are undefeated with a road win over a Big 12 team – okay it was Kansas but KU is in the Big 12 after all – and a win over a ranked Louisiana-Lafayette team plus a nice win over perennial Fun Belt Sun Belt power Appalachian State. #21 Marshall: The Thundering Herd is unbeaten, ranks first nationally in scoring defense (10.1 points per game) and #2 in total defense (259.7 yards per game. Doc Holliday’s team could beat a whole lot of Power Five teams by double digits. THE NEXT STEP IN FLORIDA’S PLAYOFF BID Florida’s next step on the road to Atlanta for the SEC Championship Game is its Saturday date with Kentucky (3-5). On paper it would seem that the Wildcats are a potential speed bump for the 6th-ranked Gators (6-1) since they average 178.4 yards per game on the ground and the Florida defense gives up 141.7. Fortunately, games are played on the field. On the field, Kentucky runs the ball awfully well against teams that have difficulty stuffing the run. Kentucky ran for 408 yards against the phantom defense of Ole Miss and still lost the game, 42-41. The Wildcats barely beat Vanderbilt (38-35) even though they ran for 308. In their other six games, Kentucky has gained 708 yards total, an average of 118 per game. In the Ole Miss and Vanderbilt games, Kentucky averaged 7.86 yards per carry. In the other six games Kentucky is averaging 3.35 per carry. The Wildcats are coming off a 59-yard game (on 32 carries) against Alabama. The overall rushing stats obscure just how pathetic Kentucky’s offense has been this season. In eight games Kentucky has totaled 2,405 yards, which is fewer yards rushing and passing COMBINED than Florida QB Kyle Trask has thrown for (2,554) in seven. Kentucky’s pass offense ranks 121st nationally (out of 127 Division I teams that are playing football this fall), averaging 122.6 yards per game and a rather weak 5.5 yards per pass attempt. The Wildcats have thrown six touchdown passes. Trask, on the other hand, averages 10.4 yards per attempt and leads the nation with 31touchdown passes, which is an SEC record for a QB through the first seven games of the season. Kentucky’s defense has had some good games against bad quarterbacks. They picked off K.J. Costello of Mississippi State six times, Jarrett Guarantano of Kentucky three times and Stetson Bennett IV of Georgia twice. In the other five games, Kentucky has picked off one pass. In their last five games, Kentucky has allowed 1,016 yards (203.2 per game) on the ground. The Gators certainly can’t take Kentucky or any SEC team lightly but a focused Florida team should blow the Wildcats out of The Swamp. FLORIDA BY THE NUMBERS IN THE SEC The Gators rank second in scoring (44.7 points per game), third in total offense (522.3 yards per game), ninth in rushing (144.7), first in passing (377.6), and second in sacks allowed (7 in 7 games). The Gators rank seventh in scoring defense (28.1 points per game), ninth in total defense (410.6 yards per game), seventh in rushing defense (141.7 per game), ninth in pass defense (268.9 per game) and first in sacks (21). DABO DOUBLES DOWN ON FSU If you thought Dabo Swinney was going to go away quietly when Florida State coach Mike Norvell said FSU wanted to play last Saturday and was simply going on sound medical advice when it cancelled its probable beatdown by Clemson then think again. Monday, in response to Swinney’s scathing comments about FSU, Norvell said FSU wanted to play but added this smirky comment: “Football coaches are not doctors – some of us think we are.” Tuesday, Swinney fired back, “I’m not really worried much about what they say down there in Tallahassee, that’s for sure. I’ve been in this league for 18 years and have been a coach here 12. They’ve had three head coaches in four years, so the decisions they make ... I’m not going to worry about advice from Tallahassee.” Swinney later added, “We met the standard to play and we even offered to play Saturday, Sunday, Monday. In my opinion we did everything we could.” RUMBLING, STUMBLING, BUMBLING IN THE SEC LSU made history Tuesday night. For the first time since the College Football Playoff Poll began, the defending national champion didn’t make the top 25 in the first poll of the season. The Tigers (3-3) probably have to win their four remaining games (if they play four) to make the final top 25. Ole Miss sophomore running back Jerion Ealy said Tuesday that when he was in the ninth grade and probably through his junior year in high school he was close to committing to Mississippi State. When he was a high school senior, however, he went with Ole Miss, stating that it was the only school in state that he would go to. About Mississippi State he said, “I didn’t like their football program.” It should be noted that when he was a ninth grader and through his junior year, Dan Mullen was the coach at Mississippi State. Joe Moorhead was the MSU coach when Ealy was a high school senior. Since South Carolina fired Will Muschamp, the Gamecocks’ 2021 recruiting class is falling apart. Four players have decommitted South Carolina in the last week. COLLEGE MEN IN SHORTS ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi has Florida as a six seed facing 11-seed Northern Iowa in Region 2 in his newest prediction for the NCAA Basketball Tournament, which will be played exclusively in Indianapolis if the current plan is adapted. His top seed for Region 2 is Gonzaga. Lunardi has five SEC teams making the tournament -- #3 Kentucky in Region 4, #4 Tennessee in Region 1, #7 LSU in Region 1 and #8 Alabama in Region 4. Eamon Brennan of The Athletic, who is supposed to be some sort of college basketball expert, picked his top 20 guards, top 20 wings and top 20 big men for 2020-21. Nowhere on the list is Keyontae Johnson of Florida although he does have UF’s Scottie Lewis listed as the #3 wing. Brennan also named his preseason first and second team All-Americans along with honorable mention. Again, no Keyontae Johnson. ESPN’s John Gasaway listed his top 25 players for the upcoming season. He has Johnson listed as the #11 player overall. Dick Vitale of ESPN has Johnson as a third-team All-America. CBSSports.com ranks Johnson the #18 player in the nation and Lewis #59. Former Gator point guard Andrew Nembhard has received a waiver that will make him immediately eligible at Gonzaga. Matt Norlander of CBSSports.com has ranked every division I team in each state. For the state of Florida, here are the rankings: (1) FLORIDA; (2) FSU; (3) Miami; (4) UCF; (5) South Florida; (6) Florida International; (7) Florida Atlantic; (8) North Florida; (9) Stetson; (10) Florida Gulf Coast; (11) Jacksonville; (12) Florida A&M; (13) Bethune-Cookman A PITHY COMMENT FOR WEDNESDAY: Fred Taylor is one of 25 semifinalists for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Fred is certainly deserving even if he had to play for a lot of very bad Jacksonville Jaguars teams. I’m still waiting for the Hall of Fame to put Wilber Marshall on its ballot.

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: WE HOLD THESE TRUTHS TO BE SELF-EVIDENT (1) Dan Mullen had to know the question was coming. You know the one, about how disappointed was he that the Gators only beat Vanderbilt by 21 points last Saturday in Nashville. Sure enough, Mullen was asked and he answered as diplomatically as possible, letting it be known that he was happy with the win although there were certain aspects of the game he wish had been better. “I don’t think we played our best game of the year,” Mullen said. “However, you have a 21-point victory. It’s hard to sit there and say everything’s gone wrong. You had a 21-point win on the road at an 11 a.m. kick. I go back to the 2006 game, we had to recover an onside kick. In our 2006 game up there at Vanderbilt, we had to recover an onside kick at the end of the game to win it. We had a pretty good football team that year (national champions), so when you look at those things, you look at some of the positives of, you know what, we really started slow but then we came out. We did all the things you needed to do to win a football game. We get a big score before half. We open the second half with a drive to create a big point swing. We get defensive stops when we needed to. We put a 99-yard drive together to clinch the game in the fourth quarter. All the things you need to do as a team to win, we were able to do. Now as a whole, is that our overall best performance? No. But you can still look at all the positive things that we did as a team you need to do throughout the course of a long season.” Certainly, it wasn’t Florida’s best game of the season, but this is the Southeastern Conference. Even if Vanderbilt is the perpetual doormat that everyone loves to bring in for Homecoming, the Commodores are still an SEC team and in this league strange things do happen when you strap on your helmet against another team from the league. So don’t expect Mullen to be the least bit apologetic about beating Vandy by 21 in Nashville. No matter how many points you win by it still counts the same in the won-loss column. Right now the Gators are 6th-ranked, 6-1 and fast tracking toward their first SEC East title since 2016. If you’re the coach, you don’t complain about things like that. (2) Since a rather impressive defensive performance in a 14-3 loss to Georgia in Athens, Kentucky has struggled to get stops. The Wildcats gave up 407 yards and 35 points in a win over Vanderbilt then 509 yards in a 63-3 loss to Alabama. The Wildcats have 12 interceptions, which is tied for fourth nationally, but nine of those picks came in two games against bottom feeders (6 vs. Mississippi State, 3 vs. Tennessee) and two came against Stetson Bennett IV. It’s the rushing defense that has to be concerning to UK head coach Mark Stoops. Kentucky has allowed 841 yards and 11 rushing touchdowns in the last four games. (3) Ohio State fans used to call Earle Bruce “Old 9-3 Earle” because he had six straight seasons when he piloted the Buckeyes to a 9-3 record. People tend to forget he went 11-1 in his first season and would have won the national championship except for a loss to 3rd-ranked Southern Cal in the Rose Bowl. That was with the players left behind by Woody Hayes. Bruce recruited very well after that and Ohio State was always loaded with talent, but they just weren’t good enough to win national championships. I see a lot of Earl Bruce in Kirby Smart. I see a lot of Mark Richt in him, too. Georgia will always be good with Kirby in charge, but I don’t think he’s ever going to get the Poodles over the hump. I think that 2017 season (mostly with Richt holdovers) will be as good as it ever gets for him. (4) The question isn’t if Jim Harbaugh and Michigan aren’t opting out when there remains a year on his contract. That part is a done deal barring a miracle of Samson slaying 1,000 Philistines with a donkey’s jawbone proportions. The question is who takes over? Hugh Freeze will be the hot name for every opening between now and January but he says he intends to stay loyal to Liberty for resuscitating his coaching career. Still, if Michigan offered something like $6 million or so could Hugh just say no? Some folks think Luke Fickell of Cincinnati would be the right guy but there is this one teensy problem. He is Ohio State through and through and was an Urban Meyer assistant prior to Cincy. Matt Campbell of Iowa State works on a shoestring budget in a place that makes the state of Michigan seem like a resort. He’s Midwest all the way having played at Mount Union and coached at Holy Toledo prior to Iowa State. The off the radar name that probably makes the most sense to me is Mario Cristobal at Oregon. He’s way underpaid at $2.7 million and from his work at Alabama knows the Nick Saban blueprint for success which is building a roster that is bigger, faster and stronger than everybody else. (5) There were two major screwups by the zebras that helped LSU beat Arkansas 27-24 last Saturday. If you recall, Auburn beat Arkansas earlier in the year thanks to a lousy call by the zebras on an attempted clocking of the ball by Auburn QB Bo Nix. Arkansas fans know fully well they should be 5-3 this season and not 3-5. If those were isolated cases you might say those are the breaks and you live with them, but it’s not isolated and it’s happened in more than one place in the SEC this year plus it’s happening everywhere else in college football. Did you happen to see the phantom offensive pass interference call that cost Purdue a win over Minnesota? That was egregious. So was the blown non-targeting call in Columbus when an Indiana defender clearly did a helmet-to-helmet hit on Justin Fields. Fields could have been out for weeks after that one. And those are just a few of the bad calls. I don’t know the answer to the problem. I’m not sure adding one more official to the crews will make that much of a difference and we already have too many reviews that last way too long. Something does have to give, however. Bad zebras should not be determining the outcome of football games. (6) Alabama (7-0) will be a 24-point favorite over 22nd-ranked Auburn (5-2) when the Iron Bowl is played Saturday in Tuscaloosa. It should be noted that Gus Malzahn has a 3-4 record against Nick Saban and has a 1-game winning streak over the Crimson Tide (48-45 win at Jordan-Hare Stadium last year). That’s pretty impressive considering Saban has only lost 23 games in 13-plus seasons at Alabama. The only other current SEC coach with a win over Saban is LSU’s Ed Orgeron. (7) Thanksgiving weekend approaches and it just feels weird the Gators are not playing Florida State like they always do. I do understand that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey’s first obligation is to all 14 schools in the league which is why he made sure he had open dates for every team in the middle of the season and a makeup date on December 12. He’s even doing some further jiggling of the schedule to make sure every team in the league gets to play 10 games. Sankey gets it when it comes to doing what’s best for the SEC. Still, I still wish he had found a way for inter-conference rivalry games like Florida-FSU, Georgia-Georgia Tech, South Carolina-Clemson and Kentucky-Louisville to be played. Because of this virus we don’t have tailgating, full stadiums and the electricity that is generated in the Southeastern Conference and other leagues around the country. Losing these rivalry games is just one more tradition lost in a season where traditions have been set aside in the interest of survival. (8) While on the subject of Sankey, he showed Monday why he’s the best commissioner in college sports when he did some more juggling of SEC schedules. Because Arkansas has Covid-19 issues, its game with Missouri was postponed, but Sankey stepped in immediately and rescheduled the Vanderbilt at Missouri game that was postponed back on October 17. The Tennessee at Vandy game for this weekend was obviously postponed, likely to be rescheduled on December 19. Tennessee will play host to Texas A&M on December 12, a game that was postponed a couple of weeks ago because of the virus. Missouri’s game with Georgia, originally scheduled for November 14, is expected to be rescheduled for December 12. There is still a dilemma about LSU. Florida is scheduled to play the Tigers on December 12, but LSU’s game with Alabama was postponed as well. Since Florida and Alabama are likely to play in the SEC Championship Game on December 19, odds are that Sankey will give both teams an open date on December 12 and he’ll re-arrange schedules so that LSU has games on December 12 and 19. (9) Since the Gators won’t have the chance to grind the lowly Seminoles to a pulp this weekend, here are nine of my favorite Florida-FSU moments. 1. Steve Spurrier waves Charlie Casey into the end zone for the game-winning TD in 1965; 2. Wilber Marshall standing at midfield calling the Seminoles all sorts of unmentionable names prior to the 1983 game won by Florida 53-14; 3. Florida beats FSU 14-9 in 1991 at The Swamp, maybe the best defensive game ever for a Florida team; 4. Ike Hilliard’s ankle-breaking stop on a dime touchdown after catching a pass from Danny Wuerffel in the Gators’ 52-20 Sugar Bowl win for the national championship; 5. Doug Johnson to Jacquez Green for 63 yards to set up the game-winning touchdown by Fred Taylor in Florida’s 32-29 upset of 2nd-ranked and previously unbeaten FSU, preventing the Seminoles from playing Nebraska for the national championship; 6. It’s still called “The Swindle in the Swamp” when Jack Childress and his crew of ACC zebras made five calls that replay (didn’t have it then) would have reversed in the Seminoles, 38-34, win over the Gators; 7.Ron Zook beating the Seminoles 20-13 on his final game as Florida’s head coach in 2004, the same night they christened it Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium; 8. Marcus Thomas blocked an FSU field goal attempt and Reggie Lewis ran it back for a TD as the Gators beat FSU, 34-7, in 2005; 9. FSU linebacker Geno Hayes vowed the Seminoles would shatter Tim Tebow’s Heisman dreams but Tebow ran for two touchdowns and threw for three in a 45-12 rout that included Tebow decleating Hayes in the second quarter; 10. Florida’s 45-15 win over the Seminoles in 2008 is known fondly by Gator fans as the “Braveheart” after end zone paint at Doak Campbell Stadium painted Tebow’s face when he dived head first into the end zone for a TD, but it’s also the game when Tebow ran over James Robinson at the end of a 24-yard run … Robinson still hears the footsteps.

Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media on Monday to recap the win over Vanderbilt, preview the upcoming Kentucky game and the challenge of the Wildcats defense. Mullen also updated the return status of tight end Kyle Pitts and discussed the different possible changes around the scheduled LSU game on December 12 in relation to the SEC Championship Game. As a valued subscriber we are offering this transcript in full. Opening Statement: “Injury stuff. Kyle Pitts will be back this week for us, which is great to get him back. We’re excited about that. James Houston, we also expect to have back this week. Anybody I’m missing? Nobody really new on the injury front from the game. Trent Whittemore – how extensive is his injury? “He’ll be a couple more weeks. It’s pretty much a rib injury, and the ribs and the lungs. That’s just when we get the X-rays, when the ribs heal. Should be another week or possibly two, for Trent Whittemore.” Shouldn’t be hard to get your team’s attention for Kentucky because of the last two years…. “Absolutely. They’re a really good football team. I think they had a tough game last week, but that was out of the norm of how that game played out for them. Even if you look at it, in the second quarter, they were driving in for a field goal to make it 7-6 in the middle of the second quarter. Then they snap the ball – some weird things started happening for them, and the game got away from them. But you look at them, very good defensive team, stout up front. One of the best pass defenses in the conference. Then they complement playing ball control football. Their physicality and how they’re able to run to the ball. For us, always, you know you’re always going to get their best when they come play the Gators. We’ve got to continue to take strides moving forward, have a great week of practice and come out and perform at a high level again on Saturday.” Disappointing you didn’t really take a step forward vs. Vandy? “There’s things that you can look at that we did pretty well. I think as a whole, I don’t think we had our best week of practice. I don’t think we played our best game of the years. However, you have a 21-point victory, it’s hard to sit there and say everything’s gone wrong. You had a 21-point win on the road at an 11 a.m. kick. I go back to the 2006 game, we had to recover an onside kick. In our 2006 game up there at Vanderbilt, we had to recover an onside kick at the end of the game to win it. We had a pretty good football team that year. So when you look at those things, you look at some of the positives of, you know what, we really started slow but then we came out. We did all the things you needed to do to win a football game. We get a big score before half. We open the second half with a drive to create a big point swing. We get defensive stops when we needed to. We put a 99-yard drive together to clinch the game in the fourth quarter. All the things you need to do as a team to win, we were able to do. Now as a whole, is that our overall best performance? No. But you can still look at all the positive things that we did as a team you need to do throughout the course of a long season.” What mean to get back Pitts? “Well, you know, he’s another weapon that we’re adding into the game, the rotation. He’s got to go battle for some playing time right now; those other guys are playing pretty good. I think he’s such a playmaker, he’s such a leader and bring such great personality, as well, to the team I think just having him back on the field is going to be great for everybody. And then for us, and then I think the matchup problem that he causes defenses." Worried at any time Pitts might opt out? “I wasn’t. I mean, that’d probably be a question for him, to see where he was. He was always, you know, he was trying to play this past game. He wanted to go play this past weekend. I don’t think that was ever something that popped up. I think if you just look at his competitive spirit, who he is, he’s played with a competitive chip all year. He wants to continue to do that. I mean, you can ask him and the family, but everything we heard, we were in close contact with the family, and he thought he should have been cleared to play this past week. Obviously, wasn’t and even if it was on the edge we would have been extremely conservative putting him back out there on the field.” This would rivalry week, FSU, miss it, SEC miss it? “God, I don’t know, I’ll be honest with you, yes, it’s such a weird deal right now, it certainly doesn’t feel like Thanksgiving week because we’re in the middle of the season. I think that it just makes it have such a different feel for it all this week. Hey, that’s always such a big game, for our state such a big game. Usually when you see those games on this weekend, families are getting and celebrating the holidays. This year, you’re not really supposed to get with your family and you’re missing out on your big football games to watch. So it’s just such a different year, but I’m sure it’ll be, it’s going to be a big game here. So hopefully everybody eats a lot on Thanksgiving Day and wants to burn some calories off in the Swamp cheering some Gators.” Handle Thanksgiving with the team? “We’ve tweaked it. I’ve always been somebody that tries to give everybody the opportunity to get home and do more with their family. So we’ve bumped back our Thursday practice just a little bit and we’re having a team Thanksgiving dinner here. But we have a home game this weekend. Parents are going to be coming in to be with their sons, I’m sure they’re going to have some Thanksgiving plans and some of that stuff, as well. We just kind of remind our guys you got to continue to be safe and continue to be smart with how they’re doing things.” Are ready for schedule changes? How adjustable and malleable are you guys? “I’ll be perfectly honest, I think you’ve seen we’ve become very adjustable during the course of this year. You even look how we handled Saturday of making things that are kind of very out there adjustments that you normally wouldn’t see in a year with getting dressed at the hotel tell, the locker room, that type of stuff. Even post game, how we handled it, trying to space guys out. Sometimes when you go on the road, I’m sure when people come here, I’ve been in our visiting locker room here on one occasion as a coach and it’s not real big. Limit that stuff. We’ve been very adjusted. As far as I know right now, I know we are supposed to play Kentucky on Saturday. If not I gotta get back to work and get my gameplan changed a little bit but we were working on them all day yesterday, all day today. I think that’s just kind of how its going and how the year is playing out. I think the conference and all the coaches understand that. They’re trying to do the best that they can under the circumstance that we have and just asking us that we’re flexible to be able to do that as well and everybody’s gotta understand, I can’t speak for other people but we’ve had to do it. We had to be involved in changing our schedule around because of, for safety reasons. That’s 2020. I thought you were gonna ask, am I ready for 2020 to be over, which I’m enjoying the football season but the rest of 2020…” Well could this week change with Kentucky/schedule? “The league has told us that there are those options. Not just this week, a couple of weeks ago, hey we could, you could get a call and a curveball and get a call and say ‘we’re gonna switch who you’re playing.’” Are you willing to not play a game? You don’t want to give up a game but could cancel LSU game if you have East wrapped up? “Yeah. We’re ready to go play. We’ll just keep playing and our guys want to play, they want to go compete and do those things. To me, I don’t know. Like I said it is what it is. I know what our schedule is currently. The best you can do is, we’re going to prepare for Kentucky this week. We play on Saturday. Sunday morning I get in early on Sunday morning and kind of see. We’re just going to roll on and get ready for that one until someone tells you different.” What makes this offense special compared to others you’ve had? “I think there’s some maturity on this team that allows us — and the guys understand what we’re doing — and it allows us to make a bunch of in game adjustments. You look at, they came out and kind of played us differently than they’ve played us all year on Saturday. So, the maturity of the team kind of allows you to get into the game, go make those adjustments in how they’re playing us. Maybe not differently but maybe not how you expect them to play, something they really haven’t shown a lot of. Now you have a plan for it, then you get everybody on the sidelines, get everybody together and say, ‘hey, here’s an adjustment.’ We have the make and maturity as a team not just to be able to handle those adjustments but to be able to execute those adjustments on the field.” Seven games in and you’re still having defensive communication issues. What’s the deal? “Yeah, just a lot of up-tempo teams, you know what I mean? They’re trying to snap the ball as fast as they can so the ball gets placed and we’re getting the defensive play in from the sideline and we get that call and you get the call in, you make the call, you see the formation and we’re getting lined up fast, but if teams run the ball, swap the ball fast and try to snap as fast as humanly possible, you’ve got to adjust and get lined up as fast as well.” Common theme? “Yeah, teams snapping the ball as fast as they possibly can on you. You don’t see it when they throw a pass out of bounds. Here’s how it works: if they run a play inside, the umpire’s going to get the ball and spot the ball and they’re going to get it ready to play faster than if the ball gets thrown to the outside or out of bounds or an incomplete pass further down the field. So there’s different times of how fast the official signals ready for play with the ball in there. So you can go really fast if you wanted to we could super fast and some teams would have a tough time getting lined up on certain plays and following certain plays. But as teams do that, that’s an offensive strategy. There are pluses and minuses to it. You’ll see a lot of explosive plays, where all of a sudden we do get lined up and they’re running a play and they’re not really ready. They had one and they snapped the ball and their receiver was still 5 yards down the field and it really hurt them. It kind of ended their drive. So there’s pluses and minuses to it and when you want to do it.” Hopper and Pierre played well. Could we see more of them? “Yeah, sure, absolutely. We’ll see how it goes, see how the week of practice goes. You could see anybody. It’s Monday. I don’t know who we’re going to see. I get the call usually on Thursday night about midnight of who’s available.” Impressed with those guys? “They’ve prepared. Prepared for their moment. There were a lot of things they could do better. I mean a lot. I don’t think either of them graded out as a champion, but they’re gaining experience, you know, and have mistakes that are made that they can go learn through.” How do you feel like your defensive changes have gone so far? “I think it’s gone pretty well. You look there on Saturday, defensively, we gave up a couple of explosive plays. A couple of them were really good offense, not bad defense, just really good offense. There were a couple plays I didn’t think we executed very well. But their final eight drives of the game they had seven points, so I thought overall we played pretty good defensively. Like I said, some of the big play. You get upset at the big plays that we play bad defense. I don’t get upset at big plays when the other defense plays great offense. You know? We see great offense, you know what I mean? You can sit there and say, ‘Oh schematics.’ Our first game of the season, it is the game of football. Kyle Pitts made a catch and Lane Kiffin said, ‘I don’t know, we called the defense to have two guys cover him and he jumped over both guys and caught the ball. We’re certainly not going to sit there and say we played bad defense on the play. That was just really good offense.’ I think on Saturday, a couple of their explosives was really good offense and their guys made plays, and that’s going to happen. You’ve just got to get up and go play the next play. But overall, what you want to eliminate are the bad defensive plays and there were a couple of we gave up on bad explosive plays that we didn’t, that, you know, that wasn’t great defense. And that’s the stuff you have to eliminate. But you know, the majority of the game, I thought we were pretty solid.” If you were to win the East and Alabama win the West before you guys ever get to LSU [Dec. 12], would it make sense to cancel that game? “That’s above my pay grade right there. I’m good with whatever. I’m just hoping to play Kentucky on Saturday. That’s about as far as I can take it right now. We’ll get ready to go play that game and we’ll see what happens.” What has not having Kyle Pitts the past two games revealed about Kyle Trask? “I just think it shows that he – what I’ve said all along – is that he does such a great job of taking advantage of what the defense is going to give. It’s not like, ‘hey, I’m just going to throw the ball to a Kyle Pitts. I’m going to look at the matchups that I have and go take advantage of those matchups out there on the field.’ I think as the season goes on, I tell guys a lot, especially younger players, all the receivers, nobody ever has enough catches or enough touches or enough carries or anything. Everybody wants the ball more. But tell guys, ‘don’t get frustrated. Everybody’s going to play us a little bit different. One week, you’re a guy that they might try to take that out of the game plan. Well, if they are going to take you out of the game plan, somebody else is going to step up.’ So, I think you’ve seen that. As you see, the number of guys who have multiple touchdown catches, the number of guys that have 10-plus catches on the season, the number of different position groups. Our tight ends have 38 catches on the year and 13 touchdowns. Our receivers have 108 catches and 19 touchdowns. And it’s spread out to a bunch of different guys. But Kyle is just going to kind of take, and we’re going to coach him to take what they give us. And if they are going to try and bracket or double-team you or eliminate you from the game plan, another guy might have a big day. But eventually, they are going to go bracket the other guy or double-team the other guy. Now, you’re going to have a good day. You look even at our running backs, if I take our running backs and put their numbers together, we average well over 100 yards a game. But we roll those guys through. Now, you can say, those guys gotta buy in and then all them want to play more, and all of them want to get more carries and more touches, but in the course of playing a 10-game SEC schedule, we have also pretty fresh running backs right now. So I think the guys kind of understand that and buy into that part of the process.” By setting two SEC records the past two weeks ago, has he dispelled the notion that he's only put up numbers because of Pitts? "Yeah, I would guess. What has he set the last two weeks? Like, oh that touchdown pass thing?” Yeah, yeah. "I know, well, I heard somebody say something like 'Boy, you know he had his worst performance of the year.' When the worst performance the year is like 370 yards passing, three touchdowns, no interceptions. It's, you know, things are going pretty well. You know, I didn’t, I didn't put it that way—worst performance of the year—but I thought he played pretty well.” Along the lines of Trask and numbers, what have you, Heisman's and whatever, I know it's always team first. But, how much does it cross your mind, when you change quarterbacks and Emory got that touchdown pass, people say it could've been Kyle, how conscious are you of those kinds of things. And does that factor in your decisions in terms of, he's got a personal goal and you've got a team goal and sometimes they conflict, how do you manage that thought? “You know what, no, it doesn't cross my mind because, you know, I've done this long enough to have a great understanding of individual awards are going to come with a team success. Just kind of seems that's how, that’s how it works in college football these days. So, you know, if we keep winning—um, I don't know there, I think there are probably, if you look for like national awards list, they're probably some guys this week that are on like that your Heisman list or whatever; maybe didn't put up big numbers, but their teams still won right and they're so, hey we're still—they're still rolling along. So uh you know and I think that that kind of goes for a lot of the awards. Usually, you know, you’re seeing players that are winning awards are on really good football teams as well and so it's pretty easy to just keep the focus on the team, the team winning. If we keep winning and we're successful, Kyle's gonna be putting up pretty good numbers. And he'll have the opportunity to get some individual awards. He won't be the only one. Hopefully there's other guys on the team that certainly have the opportunity with individual awards as well. But the, you increase your chances of that as long as the team does good.” You mentioned the tight ends and Coach Brewster tweeted out that they were best in the nation, 13 touchdowns six-seven games etc etc. Why is that working so well. You have talented tight ends, but why, because rarely have I seen a team with three tight ends who could catch the ball as well as these three. Well you know I mean one, I mean, they’re, they're a big part of our offense. We use them to create mismatches. And, you know, I think a lot, Kyle Pitts got so much attention but we know those other guys are there. You know you can't sit there and say hey, 'Well, he went out, we have to scrap our entire offense because you know we don't have another tight end that can do that stuff.’ And so you know we have a lot of faith and confidence in those guys. Those guys you know they get as many reps in practice as Kyle does, and, you know, so they've just prepared to be ready for their moments and you know they're pretty talented guys and you know I mean we just, you know, we run the office, and you know if that's, if they're gonna, I think, possibly you know they, they probably benefit from the fact that as people are looking and said, 'Hey, Kyle Pitts is not in, we're gonna focus on the other guys and not focus on the tight ends as much' and they get advantageous matchups and they’ve taken advantage of it.” Kentucky is second in the SEC in interceptions, Trask has thrown the second-least. Something's got to give? Do you ever get worried about tight window throws? "Yeah, one I think we have a lot of confidence in him. You know, the majority of them I'm not that worried about because I know what he's doing. It might look high-risk, but he knows what he's doing. It's not like I'm taking the chance. You know, that's where the ball is going to go and it's a tight window, I've got to have great timing and I've got to put it in that window. Especially if they're going to drop all kinds of people into coverage like we've been seeing. You know, the benefit of them dropping a lot of people into coverage is he has a lot, he really doesn't get much rush in. So, he can kind of sit back there, take his time, find the window and deliver the ball. And, there's a couple every once in a while that, 'Wow, that was a *whistle*, that was a heck of a throw,' you know? I don't want to make livings making, you know, doing that all the time, making that throw, but I don't see him make poor decisions that way. So, that is the most important one to me. It's like, 'Boy, the read told you not to throw to this guy and you still tried to force it into a tight window.' You know, he goes where the read takes him and he makes the throw and tries to do it on time, and then their coverage dictates how that window is going to open." When Trask went in against Kentucky last year, could you have imagined that this is where he would be a year later? "I was just trying to get through the fourth quarter of that game, to be honest with you. Find a way to win, and then figure out what we were going to do from that point forward and make sure we were really shifting to completely build around his strengths. You had to tweak the offense and you always got to tweak around players, so. I know I had confidence in him, and so, and what he was going to bring to the table and what he was going to be able to do. I think the whole, everybody realized we had confidence in him, he just hadn't had the opportunity to go out on the field and show it in a game situation. I mean, he's just shown that if you're willing to work hard, if you're willing to make sacrifices, and you're committed long-term, you don't quit, you don't give up, you don't stop on your dream, you can see what you can accomplish. And I mean, he's a great example." How do you temper egos with all the talent on offense? "Players or coaches?" (laughs) "No, I think this: I think it's a big thing of getting guys to buy in and believe in what we do. And I think you can go watch on Sunday and see the number of offensive players having success at the next level. Not just an individual or one star player, but the number of receivers and running backs. Those guys get to see how that plays out for them and how it lets them grow and how all those guys bought in and what it did for them and it makes it a little bit easier. And then as the season goes on, I think you see early on it's a little bit trickier sometimes. Early on it's, 'Hey, this guy had all the catches. I didn't have any catches.' But as the year goes on and now you start seeing the balance of numbers of guys with touchdown catches during the course of the game, I think it makes it a little bit easier. They're like, 'OK, you know what, I got it. I understand it. I saw it, I understood it, but I want the ball.' And as the year goes on they realize, 'Hey, I'm gonna get the ball. I just gotta be patient and keep working.'" Did you address young guys rolling through on defense and do you foresee that improving? "Yeah, absolutely. I've always been a big believer in, we like to play a lot of players. The reasons you do it is one, it keeps everybody fresh during all four quarters of a game so that people aren't exhausted come fourth quarter. So early in the game, right, we roll guys through. So if I'm a starter and I've only played 27 plays and it's the fourth quarter, I'm still fresh and ready to go make plays. The second one is it gets everybody into the game. All of a sudden, I don't want a guy that has to sit there and say, 'Hey, this guy now got hurt. I need you to go make the game-winning play.' And you've been standing on the sidelines for three hours and never even touched the field. So it gets guys in and keeps them into the flow of the game. Then it also creates depth and experience. So, you know, young guys, 'I might only get 8-10 plays, but I know I'm going to get those 8-10 plays. And I gotta prepare and be ready for that. If I do really well, I might get 12 plays next week.' It helps develop depth amongst the team and experience. You look at the receiver position, is a big example of it, when we have four guys that leave for the NFL last year. Well Jacob Copeland and Tre Grimes and Kadarius Toney had all played a bunch of football, even though maybe they weren't the returning starters. Tre was, the other guys weren't. But they had played a bunch of football because we roll them in and they have experience. This isn't their first time on the field. I think that just helps build depth throughout the entire team and the entire program, and it helps keep you fresh for an entire season." Given your playing days and coaching career, we’re going back almost 30 years now, have you ever seen someone come out of just nowhere like Kyle and perform at this kind of a level? Do you have an example of an injury paving the way for someone to have this kind of ascension? “Lou Gehrig?” You were too young for that. “Yeah, I don’t know. I’ve seen it, to be honest with you, at the University of Utah. That kid name Brett Elliott was our starting quarterback. He got hurt on the final play of the game against Texas A&M and four days later Alex Smith got the start for us at Utah. He was ready for his moment. He went 21-1 as a starter and won again yesterday. That was a long time ago. I think it’s happened. I don’t think it’s something you see very often. I think Kyle’s story is very, very unique. Because I think his, you trace back to a guy that even his high school (can’t make it out) to get to where he is is unique. I’ve got to go to the Alex Smith stuff. We knew Alex eventually was going to be the future in everything that we were doing. At some point, he was going to be ready and it just got accelerated because of an injury. But I think for a guy like Kyle, it’s just such a unique story of continuing to stick with your goal and continuing to believe in yourself to get to where you are. I think that’s what makes his such a special story. There’s a lot of things that come up with reasons why he’s not here. In today’s world, it’s hard to find a lot of people that would put themselves in the position he’s in, and yet it shows you the success you can have if you’re willing to stick with your goals and your dreams.”