A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning: The bad news is the scheduled game between 10th-ranked Florida (2-1) and LSU (1-2) has been postponed due to the Gators being hit by an outbreak of Covid-19. The good news is it will be rescheduled for December 12 thanks to the foresight of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey. Back when he was making football possible for 2020 in the Southeastern Conference, Sankey set aside three weeks around midseason so that all 14 teams would have one open date (either October 24, October 31 and November 7). The 10-game, conference-only schedule also includes an open date between the last game of the regular season (December 5) and the SEC Championship Game in Atlanta on December 19. So far only the LSU at Florida and Vanderbilt (0-3) at Missouri (1-2) games have been postponed but Thursday should be interesting. Ole Miss (1-2) is reporting the first outbreaks since August, which potentially puts the Rebels’ game at Arkansas (1-2) in jeopardy. The blockbuster of the day was the report that Nick Saban has tested positive. If he is positive, then how many of 2nd-ranked Alabama (3-0) football players will also test positive? Is it possible Saturday night’s showdown game with 3rd-ranked Georgia (3-0) will also be postponed? Also, what happens if we see a wave of outbreaks in the next couple of weeks that force multiple postponements? Will all the postponed games be re-scheduled for December 12 or will Sankey use the three open date weekends to do what would amount to a re-start? That would involve re-arranging the schedules of every single team in the league, but it’s not like changing up on the fly is an impossibility. For one thing, the massive stadiums in the SEC are working at 25 percent capacity (at least they say there were only 20,524 at Georgia and 24,709 at Texas A&M) with limited availability for visiting fans so there are far fewer travel concerns for visiting teams. Re-arranging can be done if necessary. It’s been a weird season already, one that has required tremendous flexibility since nothing is remotely close to normal. Thanks to Sankey, at least the SEC has a decent chance for all 14 teams to play the entire 10-game schedule. Now imagine the Big Ten, which is going to try to play eight straight weeks or the Pac-12 which will try to go seven. Neither of those leagues will have the benefit of an open date nor will they have a makeup date prior to their conference championship games on December 19. Of course, neither of those two leagues have a commissioner as good as Greg Sankey. THE END OF THE NCAA AS WE KNOW IT? The Knight Commission did a survey in which 61 percent of the Power Five schools are in favor of establishing their own division within the NCAA. That same survey polled all 351 NCAA Division I members (both those that play football and those that don’t) and less than 44 percent favor the Division I football schools from separating from the NCAA. It sounds good if you’re a non-football playing Division I school or one that doesn’t issue scholarships. After all, they benefit from the TV money brought in by the Power Five schools and all of them receive a fat check from the profits of the NCAA Basketball Tournament whether they march to the madness or not. Does it sound good for the Power Five? Not really. Despite what the Knight Commission is reporting there is a movement under way to break away from the NCAA altogether, at least for football. Remaining in the NCAA would probably mean abiding by NCAA rules regarding recruiting, scheduling and even academics. Leaving the NCAA will allow the Power Five schools to write their own rules. In regards to recruiting it means eliminating volumes of ridiculous statutes that require armies of compliance people at every school in favor of something very simple. Now, the Power Five schools may elect to remain under the NCAA umbrella with five football divisions – Power Five, Group of Five, D1AA, DII and DIII – but the only way that will happen is if the NCAA allows complete autonomy to write their own rules. For some reason, that doesn’t seem like something the NCAA would agree to. As for the new commissioner of the Power Five, a couple of people who are extremely well connected at the highest levels to all things college football are saying Greg Sankey will be the guy who runs things when – not if but when – the decision is made to break away. RUMBLING, STUMBLING, BUMBLING IN THE SEC #2 ALABAMA (3-0): With Nick Saban out Saturday, the head coaching responsibilities will fall on the shoulders of offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian. It’s not like it will be the first rodeo for Sarkisian, who has been the head coach at both Washington and Southern Cal in the past. ARKANSAS (1-2): The Razorbacks, who would be 2-1 if not for a blown call by the zebras at Auburn last week, are as improved as any team in the SEC largely because the defense has improved and they have a QB who isn’t completing passes to the defense. Best evidence of the defensive improvement is in yards per pass attempt. The 2020 Razorbacks are allowing only 5.6 yards per attempt compared to 8.1 last year, which is huge. A year ago, Arkansas QB’s threw more INTs (15) than TDPs (14). Feleipe Franks has gone two straight games without a pick and has only two in three games. #14 AUBURN (2-1): On Wednesday’s SEC coaches teleconference, Auburn coach Gus Malzahn reported zero positive Covid-19 cases. Auburn had 10 players test positive the second week of September but hasn’t had any positive tests since then. #3 GEORGIA (3-0): Will Georgia be able to put the pressure on Alabama quarterback Mac Jones Saturday night? The Bulldogs have gotten to opposing QBs 10 times in three games including five last week against Tennessee. When given time to throw Jones is lethal, completing 79.5% of his passes and averaging 13.3 yards per pass attempt. Georgia is allowing opponents only 5.2 yards per attempt and just 55.7% completions. KENTUCKY (1-2): How long will HBC Mark Stoops go with QB Terry Wilson if he’s no more effective against Tennessee Saturday than he was in the Wildcats’ win over Mississippi State last week? While Wilson has shown himself to be a very good runner (221 yards, 4.6 per carry, 3 TDs) but a poor passer (463 yards and a well below average 6.2 per attempt). Auburn transfer Joey Gatewood waits in the wings. He’s an exceptional runner and has a much stronger arm. LSU (1-2): Having the Florida game postponed actually worked out well for LSU, which was probably going to play a true freshman at quarterback. Starter Myles Brennan took a big hit in the Missouri game and was considered doubtful for the trip to UF. The freshman backups are Max Johnson and T.J. Finley. MISSISSIPPI STATE (1-2): This is going to be a critical week for the Air Raid offense. We know Mike Leach’s offense works just fine in the Big 12 and Pac-12 where defense is rarely played, but the last two games (both losses) have produced 588 yards but only 4.52 yards per attempt. The running game has produced only 116 yards in three games, an average of 2.15 per carry. MISSOURI (1-2): Senior linebacker Nick Bolton, who had 11 tackles and three pass breakups in Mizzou’s win over LSU last week, was named Bronko Nagurski National Defensive Player of the Week. One of the pass breakups occurred on the 1-yard line in the final minute of the game. OLE MISS (1-2): Could Saturday’s road trip to Arkansas be in doubt for the Rebels? Apparently Ole Miss has had to deal with its first Covid-19 cases since training camp began. SOUTH CAROLINA (1-2): The Gamecocks lead the SEC and rank third nationally in third down defense, having allowed just six conversions in 31 third down attempts. The Gamecocks also rank fourth in the SEC and 18th nationally in total defense (330.3 yards per game). #18 TENNESSEE (2-1): As erratic as he is against most of the decent teams in the SEC, Jarrett Guarantano has been money against Kentucky, whom the Vols play Saturday in Knoxville. He’s 2-0 as a starter (2017-18) and 1-0 coming off the bench in relief (last year). In the three previous games, Guarantano is 37-51 passing (72.5%) for 554 yards (10.3 per attempt) with four touchdowns and zero interceptions. #11 TEXAS A&M (2-1): The Aggies have allowed only one sack in three games so far this season, the best mark in the SEC and in a four-way tie for third nationally. VANDERBILT (0-3): The combination of injuries and Covid-19 forced Vanderbilt to cancel its road trip to Missouri. The Commodores are back on the practice field this week and hope to return some injured players in the next several days. SHOW ME THE MONEY (IN THE SEC) As a group, SEC football coaches are the highest paid in the nation. Per USA Today, six of the top ten salaries in the country belong to SEC coaches. Alabama’s Nick Saban is the highest paid coach in the league and in the country. Sam Pittman of Arkansas is the lowest paid SEC coach but his salary ranks 53rd nationally, which means 77 Division I coaches make less. (1, national rank 1) Nick Saban, Alabama $9,300,00; buyout $36,800,000 (2, national rank 2) Ed Orgeron, LSU $8,918,500; buyout $23,850,000 (3, national rank 5) Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M $7,500,000; buyout $53,125,000 (4, national rank 6) Kirby Smart, Georgia $6,933,000; buyout $19,835,834 (5, national rank 7) Gus Malzahn, Auburn $6,927,589; buyout $21,450,000 (6, national rank 10) DAN MULLEN, FLORIDA $6,070,000; buyout $12,000,000 (7, national rank 15) Mark Stoops, Kentucky $5,013,600; buyout $23,750,000 (8, national rank 16) Mike Leach, Mississippi State $5,000,000; buyout NA (9, national rank 22) Will Muschamp, South Carolina $4,370,000; buyout $15,378,500 (10, national rank 29) Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri $3,925,000; buyout $14,350,000 (11, national rank 30) Jeremy Pruitt, Tennessee $3,846,000; buyout $12,880,000 (12, national rank 34) Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss $3,764,250; buyout NA (13, national rank 38) Derek Mason, Vanderbilt $3,534,497; buyout NA (14, national rank 53) Sam Pittman, Arkansas $2,900,000; buyout NA A VERY PITHY THURSDAY MORNING: The Indianapolis Dolts spent $25 million to land 38-year-old Philip Rivers, expecting him to turn the Dolts into winners? Don’t the people who run these NFL teams ever check the stats? Rivers is 5-6 in the playoffs in his career and he only got his previous team to the playoffs twice in the last 10 years. Through five games, Rivers has thrown four TDPs and five INTs. For this he makes $1,562,500 a game …Per Nielsen, only 5.6 million Americans watched the Los Angeles Lakers beat the Miami Heat in game six for the NBA championship Sunday night, the least watched NBA finals in more than 40 years. I didn’t even know they were playing … Regarding the NBA’s historic ratings collapse, Bob Costa of NBC said, “It doesn’t matter where you fall on the political spectrum, it’s just a fact that there is alienation over having this [social justice messaging] thrust in everyone’s face every time you just want to watch a game. I’m not saying that to take a stand; that’s just the reality. This is also a business.’’ … The wife of New England Patriots corner Stephone Gilmore has taken umbrage with ESPN’s Adam Schefter who reported Gilmore caught Covid-19 after having dinner with Cam Newton. Gilmore’s wife tweeted out, “There was no dinner out, I’m going to help you out so you guys stop reporting false news. I’ve seen it circulating a couple times and now I’m annoyed.”

Florida Gators Athletic Director Scott Stricklin met with local media on Tuesday to announce the postponement of the planned Florida -LSU game (originally scheduled for Saturday) and give an update on the current COVID situation within the Florida football program. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. Opening statement "Due to a significant number of COVID cases, we are unfortunately announcing a postponement of the Florida/LSU game that was scheduled for Saturday, and have worked with Scott Woodward the athletic director of LSU along with the SEC office, Charlie Hussey, Mark Womack and, of course, Mr. Sankey to tentatively have rescheduled again for December 12, which as you know was a date put in the late schedule for circumstances like this because we anticipated there might be issues as we went through the season. Just to give you guys some some some details. Among our scholarship players, we have 18 current positives. We have another three walk-ons, who are positive. So, total of 21 current team members. And when you add in those who are quarantined through contact tracing, as a result of those positives, in addition to a handful of players who are on the non-covid injury list. It gives the Gators less than 50 scholarship players available currently. Certainly understand the importance of you know, trying to have a team prepared, available if possible during this, this, this odd season that we're all in. Certainly, that was our intention, but we've, we've reached a point where we don't think it's appropriate that we try to play the game this weekend. I will think it's important always point out because I get asked this question, I get calls from, ever since we've been through all this the last several months, any time a trainer calls telling me we have an athlete or someone our staff who has tested positive, first question is 'How are they feeling?’ "Fortunately all those who are positive, in this instance, including some coaches and some football staff they seem to be either asymptomatic or only experiencing mild symptoms. That’s obviously a positive right now. Hopefully they will continue to not have more severe symptoms. I’ll also point this out, from when football team mandatory activities began in July, until the first of October, that was 11 weeks. In those 11 weeks we had a total of 10 positive cases within our football program. That’s less than one per week. Protocols have not changed since the calendar rolled over into October but obviously we’re in a different situation. There’s a sense of frustration but we understand this virus can sneak up on you and you can have it spread in an eyelash, really, the bat of an eyelash. That’s what we’re seeing right now. Really have no obvious answers about the origin of the spread, but there’s suspicion that the trip this past weekend to College Station probably was at the root of it. Again, a lot of this is anecdotal but from talking to our sports health staff, a couple of our athletes who have tested positive since coming back from that trip subsequently reported that late last week they had what they thought were allergy type symptoms. One of them was congested, one of them had a headache and they did not report those symptoms as we have an expectation they do so because they didn’t think it was anything other than seasonal type cold that we experience through allergies or whatever. There’s a suspicion that maybe that is what helped make this an event that had this kind of spread. "Also, I want to point out just again that we’re so fortunate to have the great help from UF Health. This is a state of 21 million people and the best hospital in the state of Florida is about a mile from where I’m standing, UF Health. They have just been an incredible asset and resource for us. Dr. David Nelson, who’s head of UF Health; Dr. Mike Lazardo, who is a infectious disease specialist who has been just invaluable; Dr. Jay Clugston, who is one of team doctors that works for UF Health and services our athletic program; and so many others just have just, we could not have gotten through this at all without them helping us with protocols and testing and all those things that have allowed us to have up to this point safe competition. But obviously we have something going on in our football program. So we are going to pause activities indefinitely until we get a handle on that. Those athletes and staff who are not in quarantine will continue with the regular testing program so we can kind make sure we have a handle on this before we decide next steps.” Coaches sent home until Monday, clearing out the offices? “We’re pausing all activities as I said. We don’t have a timeline on that as I said. For the time being, we’re going to kind of hit pause on everything.” You mentioned UF health’s advantage many times now, including today. Does this outbreak reflect the struggle in college athletics in general? “I think it's societal. I referenced Dr. Lazardo. I’ve had numerous conversations with him. He’s repeatedly said going back to the spring that we’re going to have a period of spikes here and there and we’re also going to have times when things are seemingly settled we’re going to have many waves. It’s really important. What’s happened here the past few days highlights it. It’s really important that everyone remains diligent. You can’t take your foot off the gas, so to speak, as far as doing all the things that we’re being asked to do, from social distancing, to masking and good hygiene. All those kind of things. It can sneak up on you on a hurry, as I said. The key thing is you’ve got to have the ability to push the brake when things start to occur like we’re seeing right now. That’s another thing Dr. Lazardo said. You’ve just got to be willing to hit pause occasionally. And again, I go back to the SEC schedule was set up with something with an event like this in mind. As much as we want to give our kids the opportunity to compete, we understand this isn’t a normal year and we’re going to have to have the ability to adapt to unusual circumstances such as this.” Anything you can see here moving forward that would help with the protocols?  “The travel situation, I think, is going to get a really close review. There’s been some NFL teams that have also had issues with that very thing. There’s no secret that’s the one part of playing sports that is a little more complicated. You’ve heard Coach Mullen talk about all the steps we’ve taken within our own facility to put the weight room, the weight equipment over in the indoor where they have the open air environment and have the meeting spaces up in the stadium where again they have an open-air environment. Doing a lot of things on a day-to-day basis to not put yourself in position where you have something like this occur. It’s hard to create that when you’re traveling. We’ve got to continue to be really open to ideas of how we can make those situations a little healthier if you have a situation where you have a potential spreader involved.” This something you feared going into this season, where you could have players not want to miss a game, even though they had the sniffles or congestion? “I don’t want to speculate as to what the mind-set was. I really think it could be as simple as not understanding symptoms. I know people personally who have had the sniffles and a friend of theirs was COVID positive, so they went and got tested and found out they had it. They thought they just had something pretty common. Understanding your own body and being on the lookout to be suspicious when you do have any kind of abnormality, whether it’s a headache or sniffles or fatigue, whatever it may be. As a college student, you have those things, and it’s not uncommon. But in a COVID environment, it’s so important that we are hypersensitive to being diligent on that front. I don’t know that this was a situation where someone goes, ‘I don’t feel well, but I’m going to power through it.’ I think this is a situation where someone felt like, ‘I’ve got a sniffle. I need a Kleenex, and I’m ready to play a game.’” Timeline for deciding Missouri game?  “Well, it’s hard to speculate right now. Obviously we’ll be in communication with the Southeastern Conference and probably get Missouri, obviously as our next opponent, to kind of keep them abreast of what we’re seeing, and we’ll continue as I said our regular testing protocol for those who aren’t in quarantine, and hopefully we don’t have any more positives and we’re able to get on the other side of this and then we can get everyone back in a situation where you can go compete again.” Travel issues specifically what are they? Plane, hotel? “I don’t know. I don’t have an answer for that. But, again this is just a suspicion, we went 11 weeks with almost single-digit total cases in a home environment, and we go on the road environment. And it’s not the first time we’ve been on a road environment, so obviously you can do it safely, we did it, we went to Ole Miss, but something’s happened in the last 3 or 4 days and that’s the thing that you would point to as the biggest adjustment to our normal schedule. So it just leads you to be a little suspicious that something would happen on that trip.” Did you guys have any team meetings or times the team was together that the virus could have been spread? Or the damage already done?  "I think it was probably… I think the dye was cast. So I will give you a timeline as I understand it. We do a round of testing Sunday morning as part of the SEC surveillance program. I got a call early Monday morning from Paul Silvestri, our trainer, to let me know that we have a number of players call him Sunday night reporting symptoms: headache, fatigue, scratchy throat, that kind of thing. And so he said, ‘I haven’t gotten tests back, but I am a little concerned that we may have something going on here.’ They were supposed to have a team meeting at 8 o’clock Friday morning (I think he meant Monday morning here) and they called that off and told the players to standby that there may be an afternoon meeting. We started to get the tests back and it started being positives. We decided to test again Monday morning – I thin Mullen has touched on that, that we tested every day this week in an attempt to get our arms around any potential spread."  The players that were feeling allergy symptoms is that related to the travel? They were unwell on the travel?  "We had a couple of players told us after the trip they had..somebody had a runny nose and somebody had a headache. Those players subsequently tested positive, they said Friday I had a runny nose and Friday I had a headache, then ‘why didn’t you report that.’ ‘Well I thought it was allergies.’ That was the timeline there.”  How long will UF continue to do daily testing? "You know, we'll do that until we feel like we have a handle on [the] spread, so I don’t, I'm sorry I don't have an answer for that. But, we'll test again tomorrow as part of the SEC's normal protocol which will be our fifth straight day, and we probably see how those test results go before we decide—"[SOMEONE’S AUDIO TAKES OVER AND HE STOPS TALKING.  How fluid does the rest of the schedule has to be from now until SEC championship and what are the quarantine rules? "Yeah, the scheduling question is probably best directed towards the conference office. We're gonna do whatever we can obviously to be supportive and be flexible and, you know, we have an open date on October 31st, and now we're putting a game on December 12th and we'll use every available weekend when we're - assuming we get on the other side of this - we're able to be willing to play. I think the league has had pretty good camaraderie as far as understanding this is not going to be normal and everyone is gonna have to be flexible if we want to try to get a season in for everybody." "As I understand it, from just being involved in all this for several months, a positive case is - I believe it's 10 days, is CDC guidance, from the day the symptoms first start exhibiting, as far as isolation, and then, those in close-contact, who are quarantined through tracing, is 14 days from their last exposure. Somebody who has a CDC site up can fact check me there." Going to an all-SEC schedule, could you potentially play a non-Saturday game? “It’s 2020. You never say never. I don’t think we’re in a position to say something can’t happen right now.” What type of test does football use, and if they are PCR tests, do you have access to cycle threshold values for those tests? “They are PCR tests. I don’t know the answer to your second question there, but they are PCR.” Any regrets about the team practicing on Monday? “I can’t answer that question. I really don’t have enough information. At the time, our medical staff was making a decision based on what they knew, and they had quarantined a tremendous amount of individuals. The other thing I’ll say is we’re – I don’t know if there’s very many, if any, examples of transmission in an outdoor athletic setting. I had somebody in the pro leagues, a medical professional tell me recently that they don’t know that there’s a single instance or a single example of that occurring. Now, there may be, but it’s incredibly rare. So, we’re not using our locker room. We’re not using our team meeting rooms. We’re not putting our players in an indoor space. Really, the only indoor space we’ve been in is when we’ve had our two road trips. So again, that goes back to what I said earlier, that’s where the suspicion goes to because we’ve done a really good job of limiting spread even when we’ve had a few positives here and there in our current environment, which we’re blessed to be in Florida where we get to do a lot of things outside.” There’s no way that it could’ve happened from fans spreading it to players, right? “I don’t know, Mike. There were a lot of fans, but I doubt that’s the case.” Are you comfortable that all of the schools in the SEC are doing their due diligence with their fans? “One of the things my predecessor, Jeremy Foley, told me is if we always pay attention to the Gators, we’re probably going to be OK. Our focus, 100 percent, is on making sure when we host games here that we’re creating the right environment, and we’re doing things the right way. So really, that’s been my focus, and I thought the one home game we’ve had, our fans were tremendous, not just from a social distancing standpoint but from a masking standpoint. And it’s not easy, and you have to coach and encourage and set expectations. I can’t speak to how well other schools are doing that, but I feel like we – In fact, in a lot of ways, I think what we did here at Florida that first game is kind of the standard for how to do it, and our staff deserves a lot of credit for putting that in place.” YOU GUYS TOOK LOT OF CARE TO MAKE SURE FANS WERE WELL DISPERSED THROUGHOUT STADIUM, THAT EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID? "Yeah, and a big part of that was we spent a little money to put those chairback seats around where reserved tickets were. So not only did the fans know exactly where their seat was visually, but the ushers knew. So if someone was sitting on a metal bleacher, the usher instantly knew that person's not where they need to be because we didn't sell a seat in that area, so they were able to help people get in the right location. And several other schools have done that as well. I believe Georgia and Alabama and others have taken that approach, and that works really well, but you've got to be willing to make an investment financially to -- and it's not a ton of money -- but you've got to be willing to make that investment. And this year where resources are a bit of a mess, not everybody wants to make that investment.” DO YOU HAVE NUMBER IN QUARANTINE? "I do not have that, Payton. And I want to, by the way, congratulate you on your scoop, because when you reported your scoop that was the accurate number. It has changed since then, but you had the accurate number, so kudos to you. But I do not have the contact-tracing information as far as the numbers.” Mullen's comments about 90K in stands? "I think based on his comments today that he respects the importance of listening to the medical professionals. Coaches sometimes say things that are outside their area of expertise, and they're really good at what they do. Dan is really good at calling ball plays. I'll share a story with you. I mentioned Dr. Mike Lauzardo and had a conversation with him yesterday and he said, 'Hey, since Coach Mullen is now getting into public health policy, I want to know, can I call some plays?' So, I told him I'd make a deal that going forward, Dan will focus on calling plays and we'll let Dr. Lauzardo focus on the public health policy." What have the past few days been like for you? "I mentioned Paul Silvestri, who's our football trainer, Paul's worked incredibly hard. He's the guy I don't think has slept much. The numbers have just kept increasing. It went from a few cases to a few more to a situation yesterday where we decided to not have practice and then where we are today. So it's obviously a dominated our week, not just because of football. Because this is something that is on top of everything we're doing in this school year. A few weeks ago we had some Olympic sports have similar issues and there's a lot of focus and energy within the department on getting those programs through that and they were able to get through that safely. And you look around at other football programs around the country who've had similar situations and they've come through it on the other side. I really believe we will come through it on the other side. Obviously we want to make sure our players are safe and healthy. And as I mentioned at the beginning fortunately we don't have anybody who's really sick from a symptom standpoint. But we want to make sure we take care of those individuals, we take care of those who are currently testing negative and make sure that they continue to stay safe." "You guys have heard me say this before, we have an unbelievable staff. Duke Werner, Stacey Higgins work with Paul Silvestri and so many others throughout our department. They put a lot of time and effort and energy into giving our athletes an opportunity to have a championship experience with integrity, and this has disrupted the opportunity piece a little bit right now.  How are you juggling all of this and holding up? "This is a year that is unlike any we've had before, and it's one that we never want to have again, but it's one that's in front of us. And so, our financial sheet at the UAA right now is a mess. But you know, the worst day of 2020, as bad as today is, and today is no fun, this week has not been a lot of fun. But as bad as this is, the worst day by far of 2020 was that day back in March when we had to tell our basketball teams and our gymnastics team and our track-and-field team that, even though their postseason was about to start, they were not going to be able to go and compete in it. and we had to then turn around and tell all of our spring sports—several of them highly ranked and, you know, felt like they were gonna go have a chance to go win championships—we had to tell them, you need to go home, because your season's over. What we do, and all of us who work up here to support the college athletics, our job is to give young people the opportunity to have competition and support them both athletically and academically. When that's taken away, which it was in the spring, that's brutal. Right now, you know, we've had tennis teams compete, we've had golf teams compete. Our soccer team's competed, our football team has had competition. Volleyball is getting started here in a few days. You know, this is, this is not fun, but it is in such a better place than where we were several months ago and we continue to learn and adapt and COVID is not going away. We've got to learn to manage and deal with it. But we don't have to be scared of it, you know, we can we can continue to to do things but we got to respect it. And we've got to make smart choices, and we've got to protect ourselves and protect one another. So that's probably a lot more than what you bargained for there but I do think it's, you know, this isn't the first sporting event that we've had canceled this fall. Our soccer team, their first match got postponed because of a quarantine issue. So, you know, this probably won't be the last sporting event for the University of Florida that gets postponed this school year, unfortunately. So we’ve gotta learn to manage it. It’s not the end of the world. You know, we want to keep people safe. You know, based on what I know right now, medically speaking, all these individuals are gonna come back and they're going to be okay, and test to make sure we're going to do them all...point is, we're gonna have other, we're gonna have other, this is not the first postponement. Our soccer team had a postponement. But I'm sure we'll have other postponements, and, you know, we'll manage it and we'll move on and the important thing is, you know, can we can we continue to engage our athletes on campus and give them an opportunity to compete.”  With game being moved to December, that you could have more than 17,000 in stands?  "We will continue to follow the guidance of UF Health and our campus as far as whatever those protocols are. Right now those protocols call for strict social distancing when, when people are gathered together outside. So unless that changes in some way, this is the number we're going to be at. Or let me put it this way; that number will change one day. I don't know when they'll change. But until that changes, this is where we're going to be."

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: In the season opener against Ole Miss, the Gators held a 41-21 lead at the end of the third quarter and they stretched it to 44-21 just under three minutes into the fourth. Florida won the game 51-35. Against South Carolina, the Gators held a 38-14 lead with 4:44 remaining in the third quarter. Florida won the game 38-24. Last Saturday, the Gators held a 28-17 lead over Texas A&M with 9:38 left in the third quarter. They were outscored 24-10 the rest of the way and lost the game 41-38 on a last second field goal. In all three games, Kyle Trask has lit up the opponents for the first three quarters. Trask has thrown 12 of his nation-leading 14 touchdown passes in quarters one through three. So why the lack of productivity in the fourth quarter? Most fingers point to the defense, which is the most likely place to look since the Gators have been in a constant struggle to get stops. Against Texas A&M, the Gators forced only one punt and through three games, UF has only forced opponents to punt the football eight times. On the Aggies final drive to the game-winning field goal, they ate up the last 3:40 on the clock and the Gators seemed almost helpless to stop them. A lack of hitting and contact in practice are among the culprits as to why the UF defense can’t get off the field. Injuries, suspensions and Covid-19 have kept a few players off the field and their absences have been felt. It has been suggested that defensive coordinator Todd Grantham has become far too predictable and that it’s easy pickings for opponents who seem to know ahead of time where every hole and flaw is in Grantham’s schemes. All those things certainly add up, but is there something more causing the late game collapses? Maybe a lack of leadership, there are no players like Jon Greenard and David Reese II, who were like coaches on the field? Perhaps a lack of conditioning, the result of several months in which Nick Savage wasn’t able to push the team in the weight room? A lack of a killer instinct to put opponents away? Whatever the reason for the late game collapses, it is a disturbing trend. Some suggest Dan Mullen needs to run the football more to take time off the clock and give his defense rest. The Gators have snapped the ball for 183 offensive plays, throwing 57.9% of the time. Leading rusher Dameon Pierce (130 yards) has only 25 carries. Running the ball more and grinding out first downs would keep the defense off the field, but as logical as that seems why handicap Trask, Kyle Pitts and the rest of that Florida receiving corps? Still, Mullen might be forced to rein in his high-powered passing game in favor of pounding the ball a bit more if he can’t find an answer for the late game collapses. Something has to give and give soon because one more loss and the Gators can all but kiss their championship hopes good-bye. They aren’t out of the championship race now, but they are hanging by a thread that will snap if they can’t find a cure for the fourth quarter woes. RUMBLING, STUMBLING, BUMBLING IN THE SEC #2 ALABAMA (3-0): Alabama ranks third in the country in total offense (560.3 yards per game), second in passing (385.0 per game) and first in scoring (51.0 points per game). The Crimson Tide have the nation’s leader in pass efficiency in Mac Jones, the leader in scoring in Najee Harris (10 rushing touchdowns) and the third leading receiver in Jaylen Waddle (132 yards per game). Saturday they will be going against Georgia, which ranks first in rushing defense (38.33 yards per game), second in total defense (236.7 per game) and fifth in scoring defense (12.3 points per game). ARKANSAS (1-2): If the first three games are any indicator, then Feleipe Franks made the right decision when he transferred (graduate) to Arkansas. Franks is 61-94 passing for 730 yards (7.8 per attempt, which is more than he averaged at UF) with seven touchdown passes. He threw two picks against Georgia in game one but hasn’t thrown an interception since. Given the Ole Miss defense is the worst in the country, Feleipe could set a few Arkansas passing records Saturday. #14 AUBURN (2-1): Former SMU and Arkansas head coach Chad Morris was supposed to be the guy who unleashed the potential in the Auburn offense. Through three games, the Tigers are averaging only 328.7 yards, just 6.2 yards per pass attempt and 4.18 per rush. The Tigers are 13th in the SEC in total offense. Only Kentucky and Vanderbilt average fewer yards per pass attempt. #3 GEORGIA (3-0): Tom Fornelli of CBSSports.com thinks Georgia’s defense is easily one of the best in the country. As for the offense, Fornelli says, “There’s no way Georgia can win a national title this season playing offense the way it is.” One key statistic that says plenty about the Georgia offense is yards per carry – 3.77 – which ranks eighth in the SEC (Florida is actually fourth at 4.8 per carry). Georgia ranks tenth in the league in yards per offensive play at 5.3. KENTUCKY (1-2): The big question for the Wildcats is can they play a great defensive game for the second straight week? While holding Mississippi State to 295 total yards, the Wildcats picked off six passes including a pick six by linebacker Jordan Wright. The Wildcats rank fourth in the SEC in total defense, allowing 359.3 yards per game. LSU (1-2): As bad as LSU’s defense has been (32 points per game, 494.7 yards allowed), the running game is even worse. In their 45-41 loss to Missouri, LSU had only one rushing yard at the half and finished the game with 49 yards on 20 attempts, an average of 2.45 yards per carry. For the season, LSU is averaging 3.22 yards per carry. MISSISSIPPI STATE (1-2): Apparently, Mike Leach has been meeting with resistance from holdovers of previous coach Joe Moorhead. After losing to Kentucky, 24-2, Saturday night, Leach mentioned it might be time for a purge of some of the resistance. Monday, Leach said, “I think we do have some fence riders that are trying to decide if they’re going to commit to what everybody is doing here. Any time there’s a transition there are a certain number of guys who are going to do the wait and see thing.” MISSOURI (1-2): Missouri’s shot at a two-game winning streak will have to wait as Saturday’s game with Vanderbilt has been postponed and tentatively rescheduled for December 12 due to quarantining of people in the Vanderbilt football program. Missouri’s next game is October 24 against Florida in Gainesville. OLE MISS (1-2): Temple graduate transfer tight end Kenny Yeboah continues to make a huge impact with 15 catches for 355 yards (23.3 per catch) and four touchdowns. Against Alabama, Yeboah caught seven passes for 181 yards and two touchdowns. He has a touchdown catch in all three games. SOUTH CAROLINA (1-2): The Gamecocks, who beat Vanderbilt, 41-7, in Nashville last Saturday are taking extra precautions now that 15 people associated with the Vandy football program have tested positive for Covid-19, forcing the postponement of the Commodores Saturday game at Missouri. A number of South Carolina players didn’t make the trip to Nashville although details for their absence haven’t been released. #18 TENNESSEE (2-1): It will be interesting to see who Jeremy Pruitt rolls out at quarterback Saturday when the Vols play host to Kentucky. Jarrett Guarantano was terribly ineffective in the second half of last Saturday’s loss to Georgia (interception, two lost fumbles) and was sacked five times for 46 yards in losses but Pruitt says he gives the Vols the best chance to win. However, at a Sunday evening scrimmage, true freshman Harrison Bailey took every snap. #11 TEXAS A&M (2-1): Caleb Chapman, who caught nine passes for 151 yards and two touchdowns against the Gators, is out for the season. Chapman injured his knee on his second touchdown catch, a 51-yarder from Kellen Mond. VANDERBILT (0-3): Vanderbilt’s game with Missouri has been tentatively re-scheduled for December 12 due to Covid-19. Vandy has an open date on October 24 so the next game for the Commodores is October 31at home against Ole Miss. THEY PLAY FOOTBALL OTHER PLACES BESIDE THE SEC With all the uncertainty of the 2020 season and the financial impact being felt everywhere, there probably won’t be many coaching changes, but one coach who should be on everybody’s radar is UAB’s Bill Clark. The Blazers are 3-1 this season and a threat to win their division in Conference USA. Clark is 31-14 since UAB took a two-year sabbatical from the sport in 2015-16. He is in the final year of his contract that pays him $1.5 million so he’s a bargain and he’s a winner. Texas fans are clamoring for Tom Herman’s head on a pike after a 2-2 start that essentially has the Longhorns out of the running for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Herman’s buyout is in the $20 million range and with Texas facing a serious budget shortfall (coaches salaries cut by 15%, staff layoffs) he will most likely be gainfully employed in Austin next season. Chip Kelly is another coach whose job will be saved by the pandemic. Kelly, who is 7-17 in two seasons, makes $6 million a year with a $9 million buyout that UCLA can’t afford. Kelly said Monday the Bruins are switching to a 4-2-5 defense for the 7-game Pac-12 schedule. A year ago UCLA gave up 34.8 points per game. The SEC isn’t the only league with officiating problems. The Big 12 admitted Monday that its officials gave Texas 39 extra seconds in the fourth quarter of the Longhorns 53-45 four overtime loss to Oklahoma. Although Texas didn’t score on the drive when the clock error happened, the Longhorns scored the TD that sent the game into overtime with just 14 seconds left in regulation. Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated on the poor overall play of defenses throughout college football so far this season: “FBS teams are averaging 30.5 points per game, on pace to set the all-time record. Total offense is at 412 yards, which would be second highest in history. Passing yards per game (244.6) and yards per attempt (7.55) and completion percentage (.615) all are on record pace. Same for punts per game (4.4), which are on track for the fewest ever as coaches increasingly favor aggressive strategies.” JOE MORGAN IS DEAD AND I DON’T FEEL SO GOOD MYSELF Joe Morgan died Monday at the age of 77. I’ve been watching Major League Baseball avidly since the 1950s and Little Joe (5-7, 160 pounds) is the greatest second baseman I’ve ever seen. When Joe joined the Cincinnati Reds after a trade with the Houston Astros they became The Big Red Machine. He was the missing link that turned a really good team into a great one. Joe won the NL MVP in 1975-76, won five gold gloves, made the All-Star game 10 times and was a first ballot Hall of Famer. The Big Red Machine featured three Hall of Famers – Morgan, Johnny Bench and Tony Perez – plus the all-time hit king in Pete Rose and two of the greatest defensive players ever in Davey Concepcion and Cesar Geronimo. IF IT’S TUESDAY, THEN I FEEL PITHY: With Dan Quinn fired, the smart move for the Atlanta Falcons for 2021 would be to hire Kansas City Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy. The Falcons have weapons and Bienemy could rev up their offense. It is important to remember, however, this is the Atlanta Falcons we are talking about. Smart moves and the Falcons are like distant cousins … Martin Laird won a three-way playoff with Matthew Wolfe and Austin Cook to win the Shiners Hospital for Children Open in Las Vegas. All three finished 72 holes at 23-under part. I find golf more interesting when the course wins most of the time as in the US Open last month. Maybe that’s because the course always kneecaps me ... Former Gator Mike Zunino, hero of the Tampa Bay Rays Sunday win over the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series, hit a seventh inning homer Sunday as the Rays took a 2-0 lead. The Rays-Astros series is being played in San Diego rather than the Plastic Palace in St. Petersburg, hands down the worst stadium in the majors.

Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen met with local media on Monday. He recapped the Texas A&M loss, the upcoming LSU game, his comments on wanting 90,000 in the Swamp, the Gators defensive performance thus far and what could cause three quarterbacks to be on the field at once this year. He also addressed the day of his former quarterbacks, Alex Smith and Dak Prescott. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we offer this transcript in full. What have you seen on defense after watching the film? "You know what, defensively at times I think - one, you got to give (Texas) A&M some credit, they made some great plays, especially some of the shots down the field - 50-50 balls, one-on-one shots. The quarterback I thought played really, really well, played like a veteran, experienced guy, hanging in the pocket, delivered some balls, made some great throws. You know, a lot of times things that we do too. I mean, he threw guys open, we have guys in tight, tight coverage all over him and he threw him open and they were able to make plays, so that hurt some explosives. I thought we needed to be a little bit more physical within the run game. I thought that was one thing when they started kinda grinding out the run game we weren't as physical as we needed to be in the run-game aspect of things, so we need to be a little bit more physical within the run game. Especially, you know, I mean you got LSU coming in so that's gonna be another physical battle so we gotta get ready for that." Have you had discussions with Stricklin about 'packing the Swamp'? "No, I've been worried about trying to beat LSU" Do you have any regrets about post-game comments regarding packing The Swamp and have you spoke with Gators President Fuchs or anything like that? "Yeah, I've been preparing for LSU. But, I mean I'll be honest, I think if you look at what we've been able to do, the safety precautions we have that our players have followed, our coaches follow, our staff follows, you know, I think we're a model of safety of what we've been doing during this time period. So, I'm really proud of how we've handled everything and how safe we've been with everything we're doing and all the precautions we've had in place during this time." Do you understand that 90k people with/without masks breathing on top of each other, how it would be a bad thing? "I think Texas A&M actually, they created a great atmosphere at the game, created an exciting atmosphere, you know? I thought they did a great job of doing that. You know, and, so, like I said, I haven't talked to people because I've been really focused on trying to beat LSU. But, you know, whatever our government officials all say and what everybody does for the game, what we do need to do is however many people they allow into the stadium, we need to try to work as hard as we can - all the Gator fans and all of us - to create the best game-day atmosphere we can." Those comments generated a lot of national backlash. Are you aware of this? "No, I've been on LSU." It seems there's a lot to re-evaluate by week four. Is that atypical? Is that a tough situation being so into the season? "Yes and no, but I think you've got to, you see this every year. And I don't know that you expect it, expects not the right word, I'm trying to think of what the word is. I think you learn a lot about your team, right, as the season goes on, and you've got to learn about what guys are doing well, what they're not doing well. Obviously, this year is even more unique than regular, you know. Boy, after couple weeks last year, we ended up turning into this big, pass-happy offense, you know, and I didn't expect that, to be honest with you. So, I think every year you kind of get into it, you kind of see how your team comes together, how they gel, and then as coaches, really you're spending the time, 'Are we putting guys in position to make plays?' Right? You know, you've watched, and it's, you've got to learn your guys as you go. I think, if I go into our playbook, I think we have a great quarterback run package in our playbook. We're not really executing that much this year to be perfectly honest with you, and if I was calling a lot of quarterback runs, no matter how good the play's drawn up, you would probably be looking at me like, you know, 'You know your quarterback is like 6-5, 240, and couldn't run out of sight in a day?' You know, but we draw it up and it looks good on paper, when we draw it up. From one year to the next, and I make jokes about that one cause coming into the season, we had a good understanding that Kyle Trask doing a lot of quarterback run, was not gonna, I already had that part figured out. But a lot of the other things that you do, you're trying to find out all the different strengths and weaknesses of what works within the team for a given year, and I think we, you know, you're into that. Obviously, when you're playing right now, just a shortened, ten-game, SEC-only season, you've got to try to figure it out faster and it possibly gets exposed quicker with more consequences than maybe if we were playing the schedule we were supposed to play." Change a bunch in 2005. Can you do that now with the D? “Yeah, absolutely. We went from a team in 2005 that … we never really played much with a fullback. We had a couple fullbacks here. They were good players and we ended up tweaking the offense around doing some things with those guys on the field and helping out in areas that we were struggling. I think the same thing defensively. You’re looking and saying, ‘Are we asking guys to do things?” I think one thing you look defensively that we spend our time on is now ‘are we sound or not?’ I know what we’re doing sound. We’ve got a great coaching staff and I know our scheme is sound. But now, as guys are performing here on a live basis within a game, there’s a lot of new faces out there for us as well. Are we putting them in a position to make plays.Even though this is sound, right, this guy, we’re putting him … he’s not going to be as good at doing this; we need to put him in a position to be something that he’s going to do really well. If we struggle doing something make sure we’re not putting those guys in that position, right? The easiest explanation is to not put Kyle Trask in a quarterback-run-based offense. You know? That one kind of process is, I think, really easy to everything and you don’t have to get into all the intricacies of the defense of what we are doing. But generally the answer to that question is yes, what we’ve got to do is make sure we’re moving the guys into the right sports to be able to make plays.” Do you get a sense the defense is thinking the offense will bail us out? “Well, I think there’s a really positive to that as well, which is called team football, you know. I’ve talked to our guys all the time. There are three phases: offense, defense, special teams in the course of the game that goes on. I think when you trust the team, right, you gotta be able to expect the offense if going to trust the defense is going to make a stop when we need to, or if they make a mistake the defense will help bail out the offense and the defense believes in the offense the same way. Hey, the offense is going to get this one back for us. I think one of the things we gotta continue to do when you’re on the team, and I think you can create negativity on the team of hey this group is doing great, this group is struggling. We’re all a team. The goal is we gotta score one more point than the opponent. Whether that makes it 45-44 or 3-2, doesn’t really matter. We all celebrate when we win because everybody had a role in what we needed to do to win the game. I think as a team and the message to the team for us is, right now, hey, it’s fun to play defense with an explosive offense. You’re going to get the opportunity to play with leads. If you make a mistake the offense is going to go score. As our defense gets better the offense has some veteran players to say, hey, we gotta take pressure off them. If you look at that game, how that game was being played out last week you figure it was going to come down to a one-possession game and with four minutes left in the game we had the ball. Going in the direction, we played the win, obviously, you have to kick-off to start the second half, they got the extra possession, they scored on the final play of the first half and got the ball to start the second half. They were gonna get the extra possession. So I go spend time with Evan (McPherson) and say, you’re going to have to kick the game-winning field goal to win this game, which direction do you want to go? That’s the direction we were going in the fourth quarter, he hit a 50-some yarder already. We had the ball, driving down the field, we get the ball close to midfield, second and 10, not a great call by me. We end up missing a block. We end up turning the ball over in that situation and now they got the final possession. They had nine possessions and we had eight. One of the things I think you’re going to see this year in the SEC and a lot more of our games probably than in a normal year that are played out that way, where it is always going to come down to a one-possession game and are we doing what we need to do to win? I think to be disappointed, I was certainly hoping that how the game was set up there at the end that in a tie game, we had the ball with four minutes to go we put ourselves in a position to have that final possession and win the game and we didn’t finish it out offensively. Through three games what do you think your defense is the best at? What are strengths? “Well, you know, I think we have some guys that are pretty good. We’ve gotten better with our effort and our coverage in the secondary. You get into it, of looking at that game and some of their explosive plays, heck they made plays. We made plays offensively. I remember after game one Lane got up and was like, hey we had two guys on Kyle Pitts on that play and they threw it and he caught it where we couldn’t defend it. So I think ‘we’re getting ourselves in that position. So you can’t mistake great offense for bad defense. So I think that’s one of the things that we’re doing well, that. I think the other thing we’ve done pretty well is understand game situations of when we need to get stops. For example, you look at this last game and as we continue to grow, as we do it is understanding the team part of football is making sure we have the ball with four minutes to go in a tie game, with an opportunity for the offense to go win it. If you look the last two weeks, we had a big lead. Now I want a three-and-out and get off the field, everybody does. But I also don’t want to give up an explosive play to make it a one-possession game with four or five minutes to go when we can make it 30 seconds to go by the time that possession ends. So I think our guys understand the game concept, the team concept and having the play maybe a different style of football this year with how the schedule is going to be than you might normally play within the year.” Does versatility of defense make it challenging to put guys in right spots to prevent confidence loss? “I think that’s part of it, making sure, and we’ve been playing short-handed defensively. We’re hoping to get some guys back this week. But, I mean, who knows. As you know this is going to be a really, really unique year that you’re juggling a bunch of different things. So hopefully we have some guys back this week that will play. I don’t know. One of the things is you put all these gameplans together, and like you were saying, we put guys in the right position. I find out about Thursday night at 11:30 p.m. who is probably going to be playing in the game. That can always change on Friday, someone gets the sniffle, so .. not to make light of it but like all the sudden someone has, especially this time of year you got allergies, you have colds coming and now we’re rushing to get test done on Friday and Saturday morning. So that makes it different. It helps we do have guys that can play different positions, but it also is challenging to make sure we get the exact people where they need to be at all times, you know, to make us as stout and as good a defense we can be.” COLLEGE DEFENSES ACROSS THE BOARD SEEM TO BE STRUGGLING, CAN YOU SPEAK TO ISSUE NOT BEING SPECIFIC JUST TO Y'ALL? "Well I mean, you know it could be interesting, like you said, you don't know, it's still early in the season. Maybe we've played three unbelievable offenses already, too. I don't know. We'll see. You're looking on paper, there's an unbelievable offense rolling into the Swamp this week with talented players all over the field. So part of it can be. All of the sudden I think sometimes you get to the end of the season and you look back and you say, 'OK, well we thought this but in reality it was really something else.' But I do think, I see very different things from one game (to the next). Game 1, I didn't love our effort in Game 1. Part of that, obviously you're seeing they're a very explosive offense, explosive players, the tempo, getting adjusted into a game. I thought we played much better in Game 2 defensively and then last week, again, you look at some of their explosive plays... now did we make some mistakes? Absolutely. Do we need to be stouter at times? Absolutely. Did they make some great plays where we had a guy in great coverage and the quarterback throws a dime and they make a one-handed catch? Yes. We have a guy draped all over him and they make a leaping catch. That's great offense, too, that's not bad defense." SECOND HALF THEY RAN IT DOWN YOUR THROAT, IS THAT GUYS PLAYING OUT OF POSITION? "It was interesting that they were able to do that on that drive. Because you know what I mean? You look, it wasn't that case really the rest of the day. That drive, they did a good job of it. You know, and we've got to fit better. Some of it is good offense. Some of it is getting guys in the right position. Some of it's them creating some really good matchups out there on the field, of us, they have some players on the field you've got to be ready to defend. And them taking what they give us, you know what I mean? Or them taking what we gave them, and they were able to do that. But I think hopefully we're going to be a lot stouter in the run game this week." Nay’Quan Wright. What kind of player is he? “He’s a guy since he’s been here, that takes care of his business every day. Very quiet, not the loudest guy out there. Extremely, extremely intelligent football player, and I think you can see that not just with his talent but the plays that he makes – his reads, his patience running the ball, understanding this system, how to run routes. He’s got great hands coming out of the backfield. And I think, you know, part of it gets – I think everybody, as you are starting to see what we see more of every day in practice. Why are we rotating the backs? Why isn’t one back getting all the touches or all the carries? Because I think we have several guys that can contribute and do different things and run different styles in the game, that work hard and deserve those touches. I also think when you put different people in, plays hit a little different. I always say that. Plays hit a little different depending on what backs are in the game. We’re not running different plays, but they kind of fit differently and the same with guys running routes and how defenses want to match up with those people are different. The ability that we have multiple backs that can come in and do slightly different things and all of them play at a high level puts pressure on the defense. And Nay’Quan, I know not just with his talent but with his intelligence really puts pressure on defenses.” Will you be more involved on Defense now? “One, it’s my responsibility. I’m the head coach. I’m responsible for how we play and the performance of every phase of this team. Don’t expect me to be calling defensive plays out there. But we do. I went down and met with the defensive staff yesterday. We went through personnel. We went through each guy. We went through, are we asking guys to do things they can do well? Where are we being mismatched? Where is, right at this moment, where is their strength? Where is their weakness? And are we highlighting their strengths and protecting their weaknesses? We certainly look at that. I probably spent more time during a normal day with the defense but certainly not going to see – you know, just making sure we were going through every detail with them. But I wouldn’t expect me to be calling defensive plays or anything.” Postgame changes, without giving your whole gameplan away what will they be? “Tune in on Saturday to find out.” Emory Jones unavailable vs. TAMU, what challenge does that present for you when he’s unavailable? “I think one thing Emory does in coming up, like changing the running back that he brings a little different perspective to the position, and even running some of the plays he’s going to be a little bit different. Obviously the quarterback run that I alluded to earlier, when he is in there it does draw up very, very nicely, and the personnel fits him nicely as well, so that’s just another thing for the defense to have to defend and have to prepare for of finding where the guys are out on the field. I haven’t even gotten to a two quarterbacks on the field package yet, or we did have one in training camp where we had three quarterbacks on the field in one deal, but haven’t got to that yet, not that I want to give away all our secrets, but no I think when you’re utilizing personnel in different ways, it certainly puts and adds pressure to the defense of how they’re going to match up against those different people, and like I said schematically, there’s things Emory can do better than Kyle, so all of a sudden those things come into play schematically they have to prepare for, because you’re putting somebody in a position where they can do well.” 3QBs, Anthony Richardson at TE? “I’m not going to tell you where they’re all going to be, but it is interesting to figure out who’s out there. I mean obviously one of them will take the snap, but you don’t know where everybody else might be, so.” Dak Prescott’s injury? “Yeah I was going to start with that today but went right into the question, but it was a very...First I had a lot going on, so I really didn’t get to see it, with everything going on, you know and all of a sudden I’m in meetings and my phone’s blowing up. And finally I pick up my phone after meetings and look that Alex Smith’s back on the field, which, you know, a very emotional deal I know to see him back out there, knowing everything that he’s been through, knowing the fight, the battle that he’s been through. A special moment for him, his family, for everybody. Probably one of the great comeback stories in NFL history, in sports history, coming back from an injury like that. So I thought that was so special, you know, and then within an hour or two of that happening you know you get the call that Dak’s out with a dislocated ankle. You see it right away you know what it is unfortunately, very unfortunately I’ve seen a couple of those before, and you know what it is as soon as it happens, you know, so I know we sent him messages and stuff and our prayers are with him out there. Despite everything else we had going on, the emotional day of seeing the roller coaster of both of those two guys, guys who are former players that you care about, you love so much, who you for them and their families and everybody to have to go through that, it was a pretty crazy day.”

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: The sky is not falling. The world is not coming to an end, at least it hadn’t at 12:01 a.m. Monday morning. It only seems that way and not just because the Florida Gators seem completely incapable of making a defensive play to get off the field on third down. Did you see what happened to LSU (Florida’s next foe) against Missouri? Did you see how Ole Miss lit up Alabama and the national pundits have been raving about the Alabama defense? Traditionally, you can count on Florida, LSU and Alabama right at the top of the SEC defensive stats and typically they’re in the top 20 nationally. Right now, Alabama is 65th nationally (473 yards per game), LSU 71st (494.7) and Florida 72nd (495.0). In scoring defense, Alabama ranks 44th (30.6 points per game), LSU 51st (32.0) and Florida 58th (33.3). A year ago, when the Gators had the 9th-ranked defense nationally (2nd in the SEC), there were nine SEC defenses ranked among the nation’s top 31. Alabama ranked 21st and LSU 31st. So what happened? Did the coaches at Florida, Alabama and LSU forget how to coach? Not really. Did they lose key personnel from last year? All three of them did. Are some of the replacements not as good as the departed players? You could say that, too. Maybe there is a better question such as are the offenses way ahead of the defenses in part because of the pandemic? The answer to that is absolutely. Defense is about hitting and tackling. Due to the pandemic very few teams are hitting and tackling in practice with the same frequency of a year ago. Even worse, there was very little hitting and tackling in the preseason. For example, let’s say you run a 4-3 and you have 12 scholarship D-linemen, eight of whom are veterans and four are freshmen. Due to the pandemic you can’t take the chance of an injury in practice because next week you might be without three or four due to the virus. A good example was Virginia Tech, which played and lost to North Carolina 56-45 down 15 players due to the virus. An already depleted secondary (down two starting safeties) lost its starting nickel to a targeting call in the first quarter. UNC scored eight touchdowns and rolled up 656 yards. Offense is about patterns. You run to a certain place. You throw to a certain place. Blockers know who they’re supposed to block. Defense is more about reacting and making a play and that requires hitting and tackling practice. Maybe that’s too simple an explanation for what has happened with the Florida Gators, who gave up 543 yards and 41 points in losing to Texas A&M Saturday, but LSU gave up 45 points and 586 yards in a loss to Missouri and Alabama gave up 643 yards and 48 points to Ole Miss. Florida fans want the head of defensive coordinator Todd Grantham on a pike outside Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. They have similar thoughts at LSU about Bo Pelini and at Alabama about Pete Golding. If there is hope in the Florida situation it is that the bulk of the defensive players are in either their second or third year in Grantham’s scheme. They should – emphasis should – get better as the season progresses. If the Gators were to show significant improvement starting Saturday against LSU, the collective sigh of relief exhaled by UF fans would make Hurricane Delta seem like a light, early autumn breeze by comparison. ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 POLL (1) Clemson 4-0; (2) Alabama 2-0; (3) Georgia 3-0; (4) Notre Dame 3-0; (5) North Carolina 3-0; (6) Ohio State 0-0; (7) Oklahoma State 3-0; (8) Cincinnati 3-0; (9) Penn State 0-0; (10) FLORIDA 2-1; (11) Texas A&M 2-1; (12) Oregon 0-0; (13) Miami 3-1; (14) Auburn 2-1; (15) BYU 4-0; (16) Wisconsin 0-0; (17) SMU 4-0; (18) Tennessee 2-1; (19) Michigan 0-0; (20) Iowa State 3-1; (21) Louisiana 3-0; (22) Kansas State 3-1; (23) Virginia Tech 3-1; (24) Minnesota 0-0; (25) Southern Cal 0-0 COACHES TOP 25 POLL (1) Clemson 4-0; (2) Alabama 3-0; (3) Georgia 3-0; (4) Notre Dame 3-0; (5) Ohio State 0-0; (6) North Carolina 3-0; (7) Oklahoma State 3-0; (8) Penn State 0-0; (9) FLORIDA 2-1; (10) Cincinnati 3-0; (11) Texas A&M 2-1; (12) Miami 3-1; (13) BYU 4-0; (14) Auburn 2-1; (15) Wisconsin 0-0; (16) Oregon 0-0; (17) Tennessee 2-1; (18) SMU 4-0; (19) Michigan 0-0; (20) Iowa State 3-1; (21) Louisiana 3-0; (22) Kansas State 3-1; (23) Virginia Tech 2-1; (24) Southern Cal 0-0; (25) Minnesota 0-0 RUMBLING, STUMBLING, BUMBLING IN THE SEC #2 ALABAMA (2-0): You have to go all the way back to 1936 to find the last time Alabama gave up 48 points in a football game. It’s highly doubtful there has ever been an Alabama team that has given up a combined 72 points and 1,097 offensive yards over a two-week stretch. Yet, that’s what Alabama has done the last two weeks. It helps, of course, that Alabama has scored 115 points and 1,277 yards in those two games. Alabama ranks third nationally in total offense (560.3 yards per game) and 65th nationally in total defense (473 yards per game). Next week: vs. #3 Georgia (3-0) ARKANSAS (1-2): The SEC issued some absolutely non-sensical ruling to defend the zebras who absolutely blew it with 30 seconds remaining by calling an attempt by Auburn’s Bo Nix intentional grounding rather than a fumble. Nix was backing up after fumbling the snap, then clocked the ball behind him so it should have been a backwards pass (lateral) and a free ball which Arkansas recovered. Instead, the zebras called it intentional grounding and Anders Carlson was able to come into the game and kick the game winning field goal. Feleipe Franks (22-30, 318 yards, 4 TDPs, no picks) thoroughly outplayed Nix and deserved the win. Next week: vs. Ole Miss (1-2) #14 AUBURN (2-1): If he wasn’t already seriously concerned about Bo Nix prior to the Tigers’ 30-28 win over Arkansas, Gus Malzahn should be now. Nix has totally regressed from last season and isn’t nearly as efficient as he was as a true freshman. Auburn does have a real freshman bright spot in running back Tank Bigsby, who ran for 146 yards, caught four passes for 16 yards and ran back four kickoffs for 104 yards. Next week: at South Carolina (1-2) #3 GEORGIA (3-0): This is a very good defense but are they really that good or is it a case of playing three mediocre offenses? Neither South Carolina, Missouri or Tennessee are all that good, but Georgia is playing at a very high level at a time when there are only a handful of defenses anywhere in the country playing well. This week the Poodles will find out just how good they are when they take on Alabama. It’s one thing to stop a Tennessee team quarterbacked by Jarrett Guarantano cold in its tracks but Alabama, Mac Jones, Najee Harris and those receivers? If the Poodles can do that, then they are very, very real. Next week: at #2 Alabama (3-0) KENTUCKY (1-2): The Wildcats used the Arkansas blueprint against Mississippi State, dropped eight on nearly every play and finished the game with six interceptions while allowing MSU to average only 3.9 yards per pass attempt. Lucky for the Wildcats that the defense was playing well. They managed only 157 yards (73 passing, 84 rushing) of offense. At some point Mark Stoops is going to have to give Joey Gatewood a chance to get the offense going. Next week: at #18 Tennessee (2-1) LSU (1-2): At their current pace, the Tigers are going to be the worst defensive team in LSU history. They’re giving up 32 points and 494.7 yards per game. As bad as those numbers sound, things would be much, much worse if not for Vandy (7 points, 266 total yards) sandwiched between losses to Mississippi State and Missouri. LSU is giving up 380.7 passing yards per game which ranks 75th out of the 76 teams playing tackle football so far this fall. Next week: at #10 FLORIDA (2-1) MISSISSIPPI STATE (1-2): Wasn’t it just a week ago when K.J. Costello was being proclaimed as the perfect fit in Mike Leach’s Air Raid offense? No longer after the last two weeks when 114 launched passes have netted only 545 yards, a disastrous 4.78 yards per attempt. He’s thrown one TDP the last two games while completing seven passes (four Saturday) to the bad guys. Next week: vs. #11 Texas A&M (2-1) MISSOURI (1-2): Excitement runneth over in ColMo where the Tigers are poised for a two-game winning streak when Vandy comes to town Saturday. Who would have ever thought that? The trigger man for such excitement is QB Conner Bazelac, who lit up LSU (29-46, 406 yards, 4 TDs, 0 picks). If Eli Drinkwitz can get the Tigers to three wins this season he might be SEC Coach of the Year. Next week: vs. Vanderbilt (0-3) OLE MISS (1-2): Maybe the only way Ole Miss is going to win games is in a shootout. The defense is the worst in the country (641.3 yards and 51.7 points per game) but the offense is ridiculously good, ranking second in yards per game (573.0), fourth in passing yards (380.7), 24th in rushing yards (192.33) and 11th in scoring (41.7 points). If Lane Kiffin ever gets a defense, the Rebels are going to be scary good. Next week: at Arkansas (1-2) SOUTH CAROLINA (1-2): Will Muschamp has found himself a running back in sophomore Kevin Harris, who has 326 yards through three games including 171 yards and two TDs against Vanderbilt. He has also caught nine passes for 65 yards and a TD. Next week: vs. #14 Auburn (2-1) #18 TENNESSEE (2-1): The Vols are not ready for prime time as they showed in the second half against Georgia. They will never be ready for prime time as long as Jarrett Guarantano is the quarterback. Next week: vs. Kentucky (1-2) #11 TEXAS A&M (2-1): Kellen Mond threw for 338 yards and three TDPs against the Gators but the big story was running back Isaiah Spiller, who ran for 174 yards and two touchdowns. Spiller carried 20 times for 137 yards in the second half. Now you know why Jashaun Corbin transferred to Florida State. Next week: at Mississippi State (1-2) VANDERBILT (0-3): The Commodores can’t score and can’t stop anyone from scoring. Sounds like it’s business as usual at Vanderbilt even with a pandemic screwing up college football in every way possible. The Commodores have their one chance to win a game this week against Mizzou. Lose and oh-fer is inevitable. Next week: at Missouri (1-2) HEISMAN HUNTING IN OCTOBER Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence (1,140 passing yards, 9.8 per attempt, 10 TDPs and 0 INTs) is the front-runner and will continue to be, at least until Justin Fields (Ohio State) plays a game. A new name that is going to figure prominently in the Heisman race is Alabama QB Mac Jones, who has lit up three opponents for 1,101 yards while hitting 79.5% of his passes at an astonishing 13.3 yards per attempt. If anyone can break the quarterback stranglehold on the trophy it is Alabama running back Najee Harris, who has run for 347 yards (6.67 per attempt) and 10 touchdowns in three games while catching seven passes for 76 yards. Florida’s Kyle Trask leads the nation in touchdown passes (14) and he’s hitting 71.8% of his throws for 9.7 yards per attempt but he needs a couple of big games to stay firmly in the running. THE (NOT SO) BIG 12 (MINUS TWO) Now that Texas and Oklahoma each have two losses, the standard bearer for the Big 12 (Minus Two) is Oklahoma State, whose three wins are over Tulsa, West Virginia and Kansas. Not exactly overwhelming opposition which might explain why the Cowboys are ranked ninth in the nation in total defense. Iowa State and Kansas State each have just one loss, but it’s hard to take seriously teams that started their seasons with losses to a Sun Belt team (Iowa State lost to Louisiana while K-State lost to Arkansas State). Unless Oklahoma State runs the table you can all but bet the farm that no one from the Big 12 (Minus Two) makes the College Football Playoff. PITHY THOUGHTS ON A MONDAY: The U is not back after that blowout loss to Climpson and you can scratch D’Eriq King as a Heisman candidate. The Himmicanes managed just 210 yards of offense … Florida State is going to be fortunate to win two games. Next blowout loss for the Seminoles will be Saturday against UNC … Hugh Freeze is 4-0 with Liberty. My guess is that he will be the next head coach at Southern Miss. Imagine this: a state with Lane Kiffin, Mike Leach, Deion Sanders and Hugh Freeze all as head coaches.

Tweet #1: “FIRE GRANTHAM!” Tweet #2: “Dude... one mistake versus 5000 not apples to apples you old worthless radio host.” Tweet #3: “Buddy, hang it up. The game has passed you by.” (Now I remember why I don’t often hang out on the Mean Streets of Twitter for post-game comments.) I’m not going to apologize today, but I will offer this mea culpa about my tweet Saturday night regarding the outcome of Florida’s 41-38 loss to Texas A&M. My Saturday Night Tweet: First, I agree that Florida’s defense is broken and needs fixing immediately, but I am not a fan of vigilante firings of coaches during the season unless there is ethical or moral reason. Many of you wanted to haul Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham to the gallows. You are angry and disgusted with the performance of his unit. Let’s pump the brakes on that for the moment. But I can feel your anger and see that the defense has deteriorated so badly that I can give you half dozen reasons for why I agree: The numbers are appalling, including the 100 points and another 500-plus yards yielded on a three-game stretch over more than 1,500 yards. Sometimes the defense appeared to be so lost that players didn’t know where to line up. Kellen Mond could have worn a white dinner jacket and not gotten it dirty. Exactly what does DBU stand for – and why? If the right guys are not on the field, no matter experience, then it’s time to make changes. Let’s don’t beat around the bush about poor play of Marco Wilson. Is he hurt? He has been an excellent defensive back and leader for Grantham’s unit, but clearly he needs to be benched. Yet despite all that, the Gators still had a shot to win it, until… I didn’t mean to imply that it was the fault of Malik Davis that the Gators lost to Texas A&M, or that Defensive Coordinator Todd Grantham should NOT be held accountable—although that is apparently how most of you 7,000 on Twitter felt and responded. Perhaps I should have said it differently, changing one word: “All the talk about their atrocious defense — and make no mistake, it was every bit of that — but it was a fumble that cost the Gators the COMEBACK.” I think it’s pretty obvious that giving up 12-15 conversions by the Aggies looms as the problem here and the naked eye tells about the team’s major deficiencies. The word “atrocious” should have signaled my disdain for it. However, before Grantham is hauled to the gallows I just wanted to point out that Florida still had a chance to win it. The game was still winnable and on the line when the solid and reliable junior running back fumbled after carrying four times and catching three passes earlier. The score was tied when he coughed up the ball at mid-field, leading to A&M’s winning field goal. It was the last-chance play that could turn the game around, but certainly not the main reason, or only. When it happened, the chronology -- and irony -- struck me. Incidentally, I have been a fan of Grantham’s attacking style defense and written about it. It’s more complicated than most realized, but clearly there is something missing. Maybe it is HEART. And part of that reason might be the pandemic, but we can’t start cutting people slack for that reason. I’m not really sure how to fix it, or what should be done. Except there must be change, especially in the lineup. Otherwise any run at a championship is out of the question. My gut tells me that that there will be changes made, but not until the season ends — and most likely not Grantham, unless it’s by his decision. Grantham and Mullen have weathered too many storms together. As for you Mean Street Twitterers who ripped me – fine, bring it. @buddyshow Since almost none of you got much exposure because of your small number of followers – I saw maybe one or two people with almost 1,000 – I thought it would be only fair to send you my first “Dear Twitterers” response and maybe get you some more pub (I avoided using names to protect guilty): Your Tweets: 1. Buddy get off the sauce...... 2. Buddy, horrible take! Did Grantham hack your Twitter account? That is like saying our special teams lost the game by allowing that last second field goal. 3. I hope this is Dan Mullen’s Nebraska game. It took that game for Spurrier to realize he needed a competent D coordinator to win a championship. Mullen needs to show loyalty to the team and fire Grantham on plane trip home. 4. C’mon man. Utterly ridiculous. Grantham D will NEVER EVER EVER win the SEC. 5. Wow...really? A single play cost the Gators the game? You’re going to put that on Davis’ back when Marco Wilson didn’t make a play all damn day?! 6. You’re so wrong. 7. With all do respect Mr Martin, the fumble, while costly, did not cost the Gators the game. 2 or 3 third down stops and the Gators win easily. 8. The fumble sucks. But the defense has sucked through 3 games. Gave up 543 yards, 71 plays, 41 points and 80% on third down. They LOST the game. If you’re looking to put blame on one player, don’t look at 20. You know who played way worse. We all do. 8. Buddy, I think the luster comes of Dan this year. No way we can beat UGA! He has to recruit better. Our defense is atrocious! 10. Most ridiculous thing I’ve seen on Twitter today. You should always expect and INT or fumble to happen. This is on the Defense. Not the fumble. You sound like Mullen ... making excuses like crowd noise. Own it. Buddy, hang it up. The game has passed you by. Brian Where did you go? Brian Brian: Took your advice. Buddy

For my grandmother it was always, “Sugar Bear!” or “Jesus Peter!” For my grandfather, well, he’d say the real words before being scolded by my grandmother. Point is: People say crazy things when they’re frustrated or upset. It doesn’t matter who’s listening or how much trouble those words might get you in. Dan Mullen is people. Or at least he was after Florida’s dismal loss at Texas A&M on Saturday. “It was a great day of football, great atmosphere out there,” Mullen gushed of the nearly 25,000 fans in attendance at Kyle Field. “Crowd was certainly a factor in the game, I will certainly say that.” Even at quarter-capacity of the 102,000 seats at Kyle Field, it sounds like Mullen and the Gators felt the effects of the Aggies 12th man. (Or the effects of a defense more porous than a sponge, but I digress.) Mullen was talking crazy talk. The crowd at College Station should have been the least of Mullen’s concerns. But the press conference got worse. “I know our governor passed that rule, so certainly, hopefully, the university administration decides to let us pack The Swamp for LSU next week," Mullen pled behind a mask. “One hundred percent,” a Mike Bianchi of the "Orlando Sentinel" asked. "One hundred percent," responded Mullen, "because that crowd was a major factor in the game. So I certainly hope our university administration follows the governor." Announced Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lifted capacity restrictions in sports stadiums. Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was included in the decision. However, UF’s athletic administration was quick to put any rumors to bed and set the record straight well before LSU made its visit to Gainesville. “We will continue to follow the guidance provided by our experts at UF Health as well as campus officials,” UAA spokesperson Skip Powers said to GatorBait in response to Wednesday’s announcement. And according to the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi, UF athletic director Scott Stricklin assured him that the university hadn’t changed its stance on stadium capacities. Thank goodness. Dan Mullen has proven himself as a football coach. But a health or campus official, he is not. On Friday, Alachua County reported 79 new Covid-19 cases and two fatalities, bringing the county’s 14-day positivity rate to 4.6% and fatality numbers to 68. Since returning to campus on May 26, 113 UF student athletes have tested positive — 13 of which belonged to the football program. As a whole, the State of Florida is continuing to grapple with the virus. According to the health department’s Covid-19 dashboard, there were 3,700 new cases reported on Saturday, making for the largest single-day jump in a month. Friday’s positivity rate was a jarring 7.88%, which was over two percentage points higher than any other day in the last month. And like Mullen, I, too, am no health expert. Who’s to say these numbers have anything to do with college football? Perhaps they don’t. However, I do know that there haven’t been any gatherings of 90,000+ people in the state in months. But clearly that hasn’t stopped the virus from finding new hosts. I’ve been to The Swamp when it’s packed to the brim when the LSU Tigers are in town. There’s nothing like it. But the novel coronavirus? Yeah, there’s nothing like that, either. So to pay homage to my grandmother: Jesus Peter, Daniel! Have you lost your mind?

Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen spoke with local media following the No. 4 Gators 41-38 loss to the Texas A&M Aggies. He spoke on the defensive woes and what he hopes will change with Gators attendance next week. As a valued GatorBait subscriber, we are offering this transcript in full. What decided this game? “You’re going to play these games. This year is going to be an interesting year, you’re playing 10 SEC game. This is a game that was added on. You’re playing a top-10 team on the road in conference, always going to be a tough challenge. You expect that. It came down to a one-possession game. We were expecting it to come right down to the end, that’s why we were able to pick the direction - we didn’t get the ball in the second half, we picked the direction. So we felt comfortable kicking that field goal right there. We got the ball with four minutes to go, we were probably 10 yards away from being in the field-goal range range, to run out the clock and kick the field goal. Unfortunately we turn it over. They had to go a lot farther to get into that range and we weren’t able to make that stop and they were able to kick that field goal at the end. It’s going to be a unique year for us. It’s going to be really interesting. Really good team, give them a lot of credit, really good football team. They made a lot of plays today, they got a lot of experience, a lot of explosive players on our team. They made a lot of play they needed to, made one more than we did. It was a great day of football, great atmosphere here. Crowd was certainly a factor in the game, I will certainly say that. I know our governor passed that rule, so certainly, hopefully the university administration decides to let us pack the Swamp against LSU … 100 percent, because that crowd was a major factor in the game. So I certainly hope our university administration follows the governor. The governor has passed a rule that we’re allowed to pack the Swamp and have 90,000 in the Swamp to give us the home-field advantage Texas A&M had today.” Defense Assessment? “We’re going to reevaluate a lot of things defensively, where we’re at right now. We’re going to evaluate some things with our personnel, where we’re at. Our ability to make plays, make sure we have all the right guys at the right position to put us in position to be able to make the plays we need to to get off the field. We can’t give up 13 of 15 conversions in a day and expect to win any game.” A&M 32 first downs, not many reinforcements are there? “Yeah, we’ll look at it. We’ll look it. Hopefully we get some depth back. Hopefully Khris Bogle and Kyree will be available next week. That would be two guys in the rotation on the defensive front for us that could help. But we’ll evaluate where we’re at and what we need to do moving forward.” You’ve given up like 85 first downs in three games. Coming into the season, I don’t think you thought this was the kind of defense you had. “But you never know. Coming into a season you never know. You only go against each other. Now, we have an idea what direction we’re headed. We know where possible issues are, areas we’ve got to get better. We’ve got to go and improve those areas.” It was hard to tell on TV, but how was the crowd a factor and are you saying you want to see 90,000 next week? “Absolutely want to see 90,000 in The Swamp. There were. … I don’t think the section behind our bench, I didn’t see an empty seat. It was packed. The student section, there just have been 50,000 behind our bench going crazy. Hopefully, that creates a home-field advantage for us next week because  now we passed a law in our state that we can do that. We want our students out there cheering us on to give us that home-field advantage.” You said this was going to be a unique year, with the pandemic but also with the scheduling. Is that what you’re talking about? “Yeah, you’re playing 10 SEC games in a row. I told our guys, it’s going to be a very different game, you’ve got to get over this one quick. We’re more like an NFL schedule this year. You’ve got to get over this one quick and get ready to go again next week. We’ll get over this one. We’ll get that corrected on the flight home tonight, get a lot of things done tonight, get on to LSU and move forward to that game now.” They were 12 of 15 on third down and you had trouble on third down last week.. Any kind of commonality on problems on third down?  “Yeah, you’ve got to make plays and get off the field. Last week, they were six of 15 on third down. So, they weren’t very similar.” I’m curious, do you have any idea what’s going on in the secondary with coverage issues? “Yeah, we’ve got to be better there.” You mentioned making some personnel changes. Do you anticipate that happening right away?  “We’re going to evaluate things. So, I”m going to make sure we’re putting everybody in the right position to make plays.”

COLLEGE STATION, TX–The No. 4 Florida Gators lead 21-17 versus the Texas A&M Aggies. It’s a high powered offensive day in College Station, with little defense on either side. The Gators defense has given up 7-7 on 3rd down and 240 yards to Kellen Mond and the Aggies. The Gators offense—who got the ball first—has been efficient as well however. Opening with a 17-play, seven-and-a half minute drive, Kyle Trask found, who else, Kyle Pitts in the endzone for the opening score. Mond answered to a wide open Chase Lane to tie the score at 7-all. Trask drove the Gators right back down the field on a five play drive that concluded with a lofted pass to Kadarius Toney. After the catch, Toney was hit late out of bounds, leading to a defensive unnecessary roughness penalty against the Aggies. Toney came up ready to defend himself, but an official kept him calm while Trask defended his teammate and told Leon O’Neal (who made the hit) to keep away from Toney. After a great tackle by freshman Tre’Vez Johnson on the kickoff, Texas A&M started the drive at their own 6-yard line. Which just made it all the more impressive when they easily drove 94-yards for the score. Florida answered with a drive that heavily featured freshman running back Nay’Quan Wright. It was Wright who hit pay dirt to go up 21-14. Texas A&M got the ball back with 4:14 to go and held it until halftime with a 14-play drive. Arguably the best defensive play of the day was a penalty against the Gators. On 2nd and goal from the 4, Kellen Mond was looking for his tight end Jalen Wydermyer in the endzone. Shawn Davis broke it up and was hit with a (very questionable) defensive pass interference call. By rule the ball had to be placed at the 2-yard line but with only four seconds remaining in the half, the Aggies settled for a field goal. STAT LEADERS AT HALF: FLORIDA’S UNAVALIABLE LIST VERSUS TAMU: Lucas Alonso Khris Bogle Kyree Campbell Lamar Goods Kevin Johnson Emory Jones Patrick Moorer Austin Perry Ethan Pouncey Issac Ricks Jahari Rogers Riley Simonds Ethan White Kamar Wilcoxson Derek Wingo NOTES: For the first time all season, safety Brad Stewart is available and has played. Quarterback Emory Jones did not travel for and undisclosed reason. Freshman Anthony Richardson was in College Station however. Kyle Field is hosting limited capacity but still has a good number of fans in the stands. This is Kassidy’s first trip to Aggie land and while I’d love to come back and see it at full capacity, it has been a cool experience thus far. The fans have socially distanced upheld the Aggie War Hymn, which sees them lock arms and sway. The military precision to the cheers, abided by from the entire stadium and not just the cadets in the stands, is chill-inducing. This is definitely a one of a kind college football tradition.

Look for No. 84 to find his way into the end zone -- again. The 'other' Kyle. UAA Photo ‘Those Gator fans complained and complained about their lack of offense. And now that they’ve got an offense, they’re complaining about the defense.’ --Talk Show Caller Ever since Steve Spurrier first won Florida’s inaugural national championship and set the fans’ hair on fire with his offense, all Gator coaches have labored in his formidable shadow – even the guy who won two national championships. “Coach Spurrier created a monster,” Urban Meyer told me this week on @TheBestFridaysInFootball podcast. “Let me know if the expectation level has changed at Florida, where all of a sudden second place in the SEC East is acceptable.” Until the HBC showed up in Gainesville, Gator fans were content to win most of their games by slightly over the spread, or a touchdown, be in the hunt for an SEC Championship and go to the Sugar or Orange Bowl every few years and wind up ranked in the Top 20. So then, Gator Nation will never really be happy until its team wins every game by at least three touchdowns, averages over 50 points a game, wins the Heisman every four years, builds three more statues out front of Ben Hill Griffin and, about every couple of years, refurbishes the Heavener Football Complex to accommodate all the SEC and national championship trophies. And by the way, NEVER lose to Georgia. While they’re at it, go ahead and scoop up every 5-star recruit east of West Texas. Welcome to the world of Florida Gator Expectations – aka the Disney World of College football. (Oops, let me double check to make sure UCF doesn’t already have the trademark on that.) Dan Mullen has the baton and has started to deliver on those expectations -- winning 23 out of 27 – but he can’t afford to fall behind the pace. Every fork in the road is fraught with possibilities, or problems. The next fork in the road for this 2020 team comes this weekend on the way to the town that was a postal stop. Until 1876 College Station, Tex. became incorporated -- it’s actually known now as the Bryan–College Station metropolitan area -- is a community quite familiar to Florida quarterback Kyle Trask because the name was borrowed and bestowed on him by his Aggie parents. Suddenly, after two weeks, people have heard of Kyle Trask and Kyle Pitts and they are both being mentioned as serious contenders for the Heisman Trophy. No wonder. Trask has thrown 10 touchdown passes -- six of them to Pitts. Mullen’s offense ranks 13th nationally in offense, still one spot behind Miami, with Mississippi and Mississippi State from the SEC in the Top 7 and onetime self-proclaimed national champion UCF No. 2. It's a happy homecoming of sorts for Michael & Kyle Trask. Trask Family Photo Back in the summer I was leaning toward A&M because of what feels like Kellen Mond’s 10th season in College Station, Jimbo’s ability to coach quarterbacks and the possible shifting of the balance of power in the Saban Division. All bets are off, because Auburn’s offense stinks. (BTW, did Chad Morris ever actually report to The Loveliest Village on the Plains?). Alabama is dominant. And A&M is just coming off the bruises of a ‘Bama Butt Whippin’ from which it might not soon recover. Then there is that $75M salary albatross hanging around Jimbo’s neck like a gaudy Gucci Miami Turnover Chain that came out of a Cracker Jack box. Made in China. The Aggies are 6½-point underdogs to a team whose quarterback is named after their field – which makes me wonder if someday a Gator quarterback might show up with the first name “Spurrier” because his parents named him after the UF Field. I haven’t been able to get a handle on this game. The Aggies are still not a prime-time team and it’s doubtful they’ll put the skids on that Mullen offense. At the same time, the Gator defense is leaking oil. Which got me to thinking about how a coach manages the division or units, offense vs. defense. First off, Todd Grantham’s critics are chirping again this week. The inability of Florida to make key third and fourth down stops last Saturday kept the outcome at risk and the Gators couldn’t put the game away against South Carolina. Grantham knows this, but isn’t panicking and prefers to think of it as “teachable moments.” “The issue was they went for it on fourth downs, so that’s where I tell my guys, ‘you gotta have a mindset kind of like we’re in the NBA season right now and it’s game 7, you’ve gotta finish people off,’” said the Gator D-Coordinator. “We’ve gotta develop that attitude to understand the situation at hand and we need to be able to finish. I thought we did a better job of finishing plays last week, so now we’ve gotta work on finishing drives and finishing the game the way we want to. I think we were 8 of 10 on third down in the second half, but the issue was, it’s fourth down and you’ve got to get off the field because, it’s like a Game 7 mentality. If you go back and look, they averaged four yards a play. If we could go the rest of the year averaging four yards per play in a game, I’d be pretty happy.” Mullen’s job is to make sure everybody’s singing from the same hymnal. “On the practice field I spend as much time with the defense as I do the offense,” Mullen said. “In the meetings times, I spend more with the offensive staff than the defensive staff, just because that's kinda where my specialty is and where I've always been. But I do think as a coaching staff, we come together every week to know what the plan is and make sure everybody's on the same page, right? “Our goal is to win the game, and if we win three to nothing, that's a celebration. And if we win 42-41, that's a celebration … We're collaborating … guys some rest between series, and that'll affect how we do thin offensively. ‘Hey, this team is a big-time defense, so defense we need this.’ Or, ‘hey, we have got to create three-and-outs to flip field position for the offense.’’’ We’ve all got our list of suggestions as to what Mullen and Grantham should do with personnel and scheme. They are already on it, shuffling some things like moving Trey Dean to a starting corner, Marco Wilson to STAR and getting back some players who have been missing. Mine is easy. There doesn’t appear to be much bulk in the front seven. Kyree Campbell is needed, whenever he can get there. Mullen has noted that all 11 need to rush to the ball more intensively. They’re not getting pressure on opposing quarterbacks, so Grantham’s blitzes need to get home. Receivers get open with relative ease. Tackling improved some last week but isn’t proficient yet. And above all, stop letting the opponent convert so many third and fourth down. Meanwhile, Trask’s touch and his distribution of the ball to this young receiving corps is fun to watch. Mullen has been known to spring surprises and I suspect he’s got one in his pocket for Jimbo. What if Lorenzo Lingard suddenly showed up and rushed for 100 yards? Once gain the critics are chirping about Todd Grantham but he's ready. Gator Bait Photo

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: Does it get any better than this for Kyle Trask? The kid from Nowheresville is the starting quarterback for the fourth-ranked team in the nation after waiting six-plus years to start a football game. He’s on every Heisman watch list now, making a mockery of recruiting rankings (he was about the bazillionth-ranked high school player in the nation back in 2015) and he’s even got NFL scouts intrigued because he’s so smart and throws so accurately. And now, thanks to the pandemic which has caused the Southeastern Conference to toss out the old schedule and replace it with a 10-game, SEC-only slate for all 14 teams in the league, Trask will get a homecoming game of sorts when the Gators (2-0) face off with Texas A&M at Kyle Field Saturday (12 noon, ESPN). Kyle Field is just 116 miles from Trask’s home town in Manvel, Texas, which is just south of Houston and a stone’s throw from Alvin, where Nolan Ryan and his 100 mph fast ball grew up. If not for the virus, the only way Trask would have gotten to play the Aggies would have been in Atlanta in the SEC Championship Game. This won’t be like a normal Texas A&M game when the marching band entertains with all those funky military maneuvers and fans sing a fight song called the Aggie War Hymn that starts out “Hulabaloo caneck caneck” and includes words like chigaroogarem which only an Aggie has a clue what it means. No marching on the field and only 25,000 or so fans in the 102,000-seat stadium that was paid for in cash ($480 million) raised in a matter of a month or so. There is a certain amount of truth to the saying in the Lone Star State that only God and the Longhorns have more money than the Aggies. So maybe it won’t be quite as thrilling for Trask as it would be if Kyle Field was stacked to the rafters, but it will be quiet enough that he can hear it when Dan Mullen screams to him from the sideline to check out of a certain play and into something that will work. A quiet stadium will work to Trask’s advantage and to the advantage of the Gators, who come into the game 6.5-point favorites to hand the Aggies their second straight loss. Whether it’s a full stadium or one that’s three-quarters empty, this will be a homecoming Kyle Trask won’t ever forget. The Sayer Says Sooth: A week ago the Aggies played their safeties in another area code and the Alabama receivers still got behind them. If the Aggies elect to drop seven or eight into coverage, the Gators will pound them between the tackles and Dameon Pierce will have a punishing fourth quarter. If they play the Gators straight up, Kyle to Kyle (Pitts) will have another one of those games that will keep both of them on the Heisman Trophy Watch List and the Florida defense will wake up from its long winter nap to play its first respectable game of the season. FLORIDA 38, Texas A&M 17 SOOTHSAYING IN THE SEC #2 ALABAMA (2-0) at OLE MISS (1-1): When he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama, you know darn well that Lane Kiffin thought about putting a whoopee cushion in Nick Saban’s chair before a staff meeting on more than one occasion. How fun would that have been? Lane is the Prince of Imps and Nick is … well Nick. Nick allows himself to laugh maybe three times a year. This isn’t one of those times. Saban knows darn good and well that Kiffin is one of the most gifted offensive minds in all of college football and he has the QB and personnel capable of hanging a bunch of points on any team in the country. Nick also knows the Ole Miss defense has a better chance of getting invited to North Korea to conduct a football clinic than they have of stopping the Alabama passing game. The Sayer Says Sooth: Don’t be surprised if Kiffin and the Rebels score somewhere between 35 and 40 points on Alabama. Also don’t be surprised if Alabama hangs nine or ten touchdowns on Ole Miss. Mac Jones might throw six or more touchdown passes. Alabama 59, Ole Miss 38 #14 TENNESSEE (2-0) at #3 GEORGIA (2-0): The Vols are the Rodney Dangerfield of college football. They don’t get any respect which is what happens when your quarterback is Jarrett Guarantano. Nobody needs a win over Georgia more than the Vols. Nobody needs a win over a decent team more than Guarantano, whose one win over a ranked team in his career is Kentucky. Try going into a bar and impressing a woman who has any kind of knowledge about football that you were the QB who knocked off Kentucky in 2018. Of course, Georgia’s QB is former walk-on Stetson Bennett IV who threw a couple of deep balls against Auburn so high into the sky they came down wet. Georgia doesn’t ask Bennett to do anything special, which is a good idea since he doesn’t do anything special. He’s only asked to throw the ball to the guys in red shirts and avoid fumbling the ball away. The Sayer Says Sooth: For the Vols to win this game, Guarantano has to have the game of his life and the charmed life Bennett has been living has to come to a screeching halt. The Vols truly believe they can win this game, in part because they have a massive offensive line that matches up well with Georgia but also because of offensive coordinator Jim Chaney. Chaney was Kirby Smart’s OC for three years and he knows the Georgia defense inside out. Will that be an edge for the UT offense? Georgia probably can’t smash mouth its way to a win here so Bennett is going to have to complete some passes. Georgia is a shaky pick here but the Vols will cover the 12.5-point spread. Georgia 23, Tennessee 20 ARKANSAS (1-1) at #13 AUBURN (1-1): Feleipe Franks could run for mayor of Fayette Nam and get elected. If he makes it two wins in a row for the Hogs, he could be the next lieutenant governor of Arkansas. Meanwhile, Auburn fans wish Gus Malzahn would take up an exciting career as a professional Guts Yahtzee player and while he’s about it, they’d be quite happy if he took offensive coordinator Chad Morris with him. Arkansas goes into this game believing it can win. Auburn goes into this game praying it doesn’t lose. If the game comes down to quarterback play, Franks is brimming with confidence right now. Bo Nix, meanwhile, is trying to remember you’re not supposed to throw off your back foot every time and that it’s not illegal to scramble to your left (90% of his scrambles are to the right, which makes him a lot easier to defend). The Sayer Says Sooth: Auburn is a 13-point favorite but if the Tigers do the unthinkable expect Go Fund Me pages to spring up by the hundreds calling for the AU faithful to donate the $14 million it will take to buy out Gus. Arkansas is a much better team than the one Chad Morris coached last year before he was fired. Good enough to beat Auburn on the road? Maybe not, but good enough to create plenty of tight sphincters among the Auburn faithful in the fourth quarter. Auburn 27, Arkansas 20 #17 LSU (1-1) at MISSOURI (0-2): This battle of two of the three SEC Tigers was supposed to be played in Baton Rouge but instead it’s in Columbia due to Hurricane Delta. Mizzou folks will be calling this the Hurricane Bowl but it could be better named The Haves (LSU) vs. The Have Nots (Mizzou). After the ostrich-sized egg they laid in week one, The Haves get a second straight game against the equivalent of a college football JV in which to get the kinks worked out before a most important roadie to Gainesville to face the Gators. Myles Brennan, who was sacked seven times by Mississippi State, remained upright and breathing the entire game against Vandy last week, which had everything to do with him throwing for four easy TDPs. This is the third straight game against a ranked team for the Have Nots, who can take heart because next week they face Vandy in The Have Not Bowl. The Sayer Says Sooth: Mizzou might get caught looking ahead to Vandy next week and allow LSU to hang 50 or more on the scoreboard. Wins are going to be really hard to come by this year for Mizzou which may just decide to grab for all the gusto it can get. LSU is going to win this game. The only question is by how much and even if the Tigers win it by seven or more touchdowns, we still won’t know if they’re any good. The Mississippi State loss looks even worse after that debacle against Arkansas last week. Vandy looks and plays like a Division III team. Nothing will be proven against Mizzou unless LSU goes completely in the tank and loses. But that won’t happen. LSU 44, Missouri 14 MISSISSIPPI STATE (1-1) at KENTUCKY (0-2): Kentucky must be feeling snakebit in a lot of ways. They lost to Auburn thanks to a goal line fumble at a point when they had the game in control. They lost by a point to Ole Miss in overtime because of a missed extra point. Earlier in the game A.J. Rose started celebrating what he thought was a 75-yard touchdown run 25 yards before he got to the goal line. He was caught three yards shy of a TD then fumbled the ball away two plays later. From a defensive standpoint the Wildcats lost the Auburn game because none of their guys in the secondary could hang with Seth Williams. They lost the Ole Miss game because none of their guys in the secondary had a clue how to hang with any of the Ole Miss receivers. Now they face K.J. Costello and the Mississippi State passing game. They might think Ole Miss was a walk in the park by the time they get a full dose of the Air Raid. The Sayer Says Sooth: For Kentucky to win this game, the Wildcats have to shorten it by pounding the ball between the tackles to keep the clock running and the chains moving. Of course, they tried that against Ole Miss, gained 408 yards and still lost. They are going to lose again. Mike Leach will make certain Costello doesn’t make the same mistakes he made last week against Arkansas and with Hill back in the lineup, the Bulldogs will be able to run the football. Mississippi State 31, Kentucky 28 SOUTH CAROLINA (0-2) at VANDERBILT (0-2): One team’s attempt to do a reverse run of the table will end Saturday afternoon. Vanderbilt is coming off a blowout loss to LSU while South Carolina dinked and dunked its way to an 18-play, clock-eating drive that came up empty in the fourth quarter of a 14-point loss to Florida. Of the two, South Carolina’s loss to Florida was far more impressive than Vandy’s (no) showing against LSU. In any other season, this game might be the one that the losing coach punches his buyout ticket but since both athletic departments are bleeding millions of dollars of red ink, Derek Mason and Will Muschamp will both be gainfully employed in 2021. Vandy’s offense stinks. South Carolina’s offense looks like the second coming of the Kansas City Chiefs comparatively speaking. The Sayer Says Sooth: South Carolina’s defense isn’t exactly a world beater but it will look like the second coming of the Steel Curtain against Vandy’s inept offense. The only way the Gamecocks lose this one is if they give it away. Wait! Didn’t they do that week one against Tennessee? Well, they can’t even give this one away. South Carolina 28, Vanderbilt 7 FEELING PITHY ON A FRIDAY:The fourth time was a charm for Houston. The Cougars finally got to play a game after three Covid-outs. Tulane’s defense did a lot of social distancing in the game which has everything to do with the Green Wave taking a 49-31 powder … Tom Brady lost track of the downs in Tampa Bay Bucs 20-19 loss to the Chicago Bears Thursday night. Brady thought it was third down so he took a deep downfield shot that was incomplete instead of making sure he got a six-yard completion that would have moved the chains. After the incompletion Brady looked dazed and confused when he held up four fingers as if to ask the zebras, “Don’t we have another down?” … NFL TV ratings are down in many cases more than 35%. Roger Goodell is trying to spin the nosedive as the result of an election year but nobody is buying what he’s selling. Fans have had it with the political activism and until the NFL and NBA (also tanking) figure that out, fans will continue to find something else to do rather than watch

Dan Mullen knows it wasn’t necessarily fun to watch. It was frustrating, and maddening and to use his word, annoying. For two weeks in a row, the No. 4 Florida Gators have fielded their defense for final drives of long stretches (4:19 versus Ole Miss and 7:23 versus South Carolina). “It was like, annoying,” described Mullen. “We want to get a stop and get the offense on the field. It got kind of annoying.” Annoying is a good word. The scoreboard showed each win to be by two plus scores, but when watching the opponent hold the ball for half a quarter and methodically march down the field, one could practically hear Todd Grantham’s name being hissed in contempt across Gator Nation. Todd Grantham is fine with that, because on the sidelines both weeks, he was thinking ahead to the end of the game and saw the outcome. He was able to do that by looking back. “I remember one year that I was in Cleveland, we were up by nine and Brett Favre had the ball with, like, five minutes and 14 seconds left. I’m like, you’ve got to take the clock. I think they scored with one second left.” The former Cleveland Browns defensive coordinator, now with the Gators in his third season, was in an identical timing situation in Week 1 against Ole Miss. The Rebels received the ball, down three scores with five minutes and 14 seconds to play. They put together a 16 play, 75 yard drive that ended in a touchdown. Obviously the first choice would be to stop them completely and give the offense the ball back, but what happened instead was Grantham’s second choice. Football is often referred to as a game of chess vs. checkers. Who is making simple one space moves and who is thinking six moves ahead? Todd Grantham, as admittedly “annoying” as it can be, was thinking ahead. “You’ve got to play each game relative to the score and to win the game. As much as sometimes you may not like that, you’ve just got to take the clock in that situation.” Ole Miss had scored on their previous drive on a five play sequence. The second play of that drive featured a 2nd and 16 from the Rebs own 13-yard line. The Gators exposed the middle of the field, covering deep to protect the shot. Ole Miss quarterback Matt Corral took the middle shot, and Kenny Yeboah picked up 33-yards. Three plays later, Yeboah was in the endzone. In total, Kiffin’s squad had 14 explosive plays (pass of 15 plus yards, runs for 10 plus yards) for a total of 423 yards. By covering the downfield shot, the underneath throw was often open, allowing the Rebels to pick up a few yards at a time and keep the chains moving. But with Ole Miss down three scores and needing at least two touchdowns, two successful attempts at a two-point conversion and a field goal, Todd Grantham was happy to give up a first down here and there and keep the clock rolling. "So we were up by three scores, and there’s like [5:14] to go. The end of the day, the most important thing is you win the game. The way you lose the game is you give up an explosive play right off the bat and you force an onside kick. Now you’re down to a two-possession game, then you’ve got to play with them with time on the clock. There was a 3rd-and-1 there where actually going against [Ole Miss Head Coach] Lane [Kiffin] before in that situation, you’ve gotta be ready for a shot. There’s two and a half minutes in the game, and it’s 3rd-and-1. You give the first, keep the clock running at that point. You understand what I’m saying? “Because at the end of the day, if they score on third and —if they take a shot on third and 1 and don’t get it, they’re going to run for it on fourth down. You have to understand the clock is a factor in what you do, and you’ve got to keep it moving to allow you to get it down to where they can’t win the game.” After scoring a touchdown, Ole Miss did recover an onside kick, but the defensive strategy remained the same for the Gators on the six play, 42-yard drive that the defense held off before it found the endzone. “Even if they go get the onside kick (which they did), I think they had it down to 17 seconds. They don’t score on this play, the game’s over. Because you can’t run a play with 7 or 8 seconds left, then get the ball back and win. My point is in that situation, as much as sometimes it can be frustrating, you’ve gotta take the clock and win the ball game and worry about next week next week.” The next week, the Gators defense faced the same situation with much the same result. Up 38-24 with 8:11 left on the clock, Will Muschamp’s Gamecocks took over at their own 22-yard line. Muschamp’s clock management skills are infamous. It’s what caused many a Florida fan to take up drinking during his tenure in Gainesville and it could easily be argued it’s what cost his team the win against the Tennessee Volunteers in Week 1. But last Saturday, back in the Swamp and in a closer score situation than Kiffin’s squad was, Grantham again played with the clock when calling plays against Muschamp and the Gamecocks. Asked if he was allowing a team to “take the clock” once again, Grantham responded right away, “absolutely.” If Grantham is game planning against opponents in this way, surely others are well. So how does a team overcome the strategy? With Mullen one of the best offensive minds in the game, we asked him just that. “I’ve always believed this as an offensive coach. When you’re down two scores, you have to get the first before you can get the second. Sometimes you get into such a rush to get the first that you never give yourself an opportunity to get the second. You’ve got to manage the clock, you’ve got to look at your timeout situation, the score of the game, how much time do you need for the second score. And make sure you put yourself in a position to get the second score. But not in a panic to not get the first, if that makes sense. “After you get the first, now you’re in, depending on the clock, you’re going to kind of instead of going hurry-up, two-minute offense, you’re going to run your offense to get the first score. When it gets to the point where you need to pick up the tempo and go, but you want to run your offense to get that first score, and then it’s a one-score game. “Do you onside kick? What’s your timeout situation? Do you kick deep and pin them deep and try to get the ball back how much time do we need to get it back down the field? Do we try the onside kick with the amount of time left, or how is that going to affect field position when we get it back another time? So, I think all of these things come into consideration. How you’re trying to manage the game in the fourth quarter.” Mullen spent a lot of time this week talking about the lack of “killer instinct” in the Gators against South Carolina and something he wants addressed immediately. But at the end of the day—as is one of his favorite sayings—sometimes you win 42-41 and sometimes you win 3-0. The important thing is to win. “In the end, our goal is to win football games however we need to do it. Now, trust me, I’d rather us get off the field, get the offense the ball back, go score again. Finish the game out that way and not even have the opportunity for it to get close at the end after being up by 24 in the third quarter, to not even let it get close. But you’re also going to play, everything you’re doing is to win the game, not to make mistakes. It’d be a terrible thing to sit there and say, hey, our, our … I don’t know what it would be, just our decisions cost us the game. I never want to sit there and say our decisions to play maybe for fun or excitement or whatever the word might be cost us the game instead of doing what we needed to do to win. “You look at the last two games, trust me, I know Todd, all of us, we want to get off the field. Get the defense off the field, get the offense back on the field. Multiple scores in the fourth quarter. But not to the point where we want to give up an explosive play and give them an easy score. We want to make them earn it. It’s that fine line back and forth in each of the the last two weeks, basically, the defense has kind of finished the game on the field. Basically, the defense eating up the clock for us instead of the offense have to go out there and grind out first downs. The defense forced them to go on a long drive, keep it all in front of them, don’t give them anything easy, and basically end the game.”