Chief Borders was in the running for the 2020 high school Butkus Award, which honors the best high school linebacker in the country. Carlos Del Rio was set to be the starting quarterback for the second-best high school football team in the State of Georgia. And when all was said and done, the tandem of Georgia products would then start their collegiate campaigns at the University of Florida. But the Georgia High School Association (GHSA) had other plans for the pair of Florida commits. Georgia’s high school football season got underway on September 4. Neither Borders nor Del Rio played in week one… or week two. And by the looks of it, they won’t be playing in week three either. Both Borders and Del Rio played with each other at McEachern High School in the 2019-20 season. Together, the pair helped the Indians to a 12-1 overall record -- including a 12-0 regular season. But, according to Borders’ attorney Jason Thompson, Borders and Del Rio were just two of 17 total football players to leave McEachern’s football program after a head coaching change in the offseason. “There’s a reason 17 kids left at once,” Thompson assured GatorBait. Borders had elected to transfer to Carrollton High School, which is 45 miles northeast of McEachern, while Del Rio was set to play for Grayson High School, located 52 miles east of his former school. However, the GHSA has since thrown a massive wrench into the plans. As announced the day before both Borders’ and Del Rio’s first game with their new team, the pair was deemed ineligible by the GHSA. And it’s been a fight ever since. Players like Borders and Del Rio were told that as long as they and their family made a “bona fide move”, that they would be eligible. Per GHSA’s by-law 1.62, to be considered a “bona fide move”, the student must have “moved simultaneously with the entire parental unit or persons he/she resided with at the former school, and the student and parent(s) or persons residing with the student live in the service area of the new school.” According to Thompson, Borders and his family all moved before the start of school. “There’s a huge disparity when talking who can play and who can’t,” Thompson says. “Chief followed all of the rules.” In Del Rio’s case, because his adopted brother didn’t move with the family, he can’t play. Del Rio voiced his concerns on his Twitter page after missing the opening game of Grayson’s season: “So let me get this straight @OfficialGHSA, I can’t play my senior year (because) my adopted brother @javondbaker7, that’s in Alabama playing football didn’t move with me???? That’s crazy smh!! Glad I’m leaving smh!” As Thompson explains, you’d think that since Del Rio has moved with his parental unit, that he should be immediately eligible for competition at Grayson. Both Gators commits have since consulted local attorneys to help them in their battles. Their struggles have also garnered the attention of Georgia’s elected officials -- including its governor and state senate candidate. Borders and Thompson have already lost their initial appeal to the GHSA’s decision. “There’s no real due process for the student,” Thompson explained to GatorBait. “Just the school. And it’s hard to understand GHSA by-laws.” In other words, Carrollton, Borders’ new school, is the one that has to go to bat for the 2021 Gators commit. “He’s the poster child for this,” Thompson says of his client. “He’s basically a 3.9-4.0 A.P. honors student. Chief is a kid that other kids gravitate towards… the type everyone wants their kid to be like.” And now the All American-type student-athlete won’t be able to participate in his senior year of sports because of the politics that come with running a high school athletic association. Or, as some Gators fans have pointed out, because of the politics that come with committing to Dan Mullen rather than Kirby Smart. Of course, that’s all speculation. But that’s all Thompson can go off of, too. Thompson questions whether or not there is “some sort of retaliation” being brought down from the GHSA. Perhaps those at McEachern have connections with the GHSA. “There’s no proof of that,” Thompson admits. “But I don’t know what else it would be.” Thompson isn’t the most complimentary of the GHSA. It’s not his first run-in with the association, and if things don’t change soon, it won’t be his last. “It’s destroying kids' lives,” Thompson told GatorBait. Borders’ attorney is quick to reference some of the families that use everything they have to uproot their families so that their child can play football for a successful program. “Some of these families have no money,” Thompson says. “This is their only ticket out.” Thankfully for Borders and Del Rio, they’ve already done their part in constructing enough game film to get offers. Borders, though committed to Florida since November of 2019, has continued to reel in offers. His most notable one as of recent came from the desk of David Shaw at Stanford. Meanwhile, Del Rio, who committed to Dan Mullen and the Gators in July of 2019, has a long list of offers ranging from Virginia Tech to Auburn. However, to the others who are grappling with the GHSA to regain eligibility, not all of them are as lucky. And Thompson recognizes this. “Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” Thompson told GatorBait. This is affecting these kids. Could be my kids… anyone’s kids.” Right now, it just so happens that it’s two of Dan Mullen’s kids.

Gator Bait columnist and beat reporter Kassidy Hill appeared on the SEC Network's Paul Finebaum Show on Thursday. Our own Hill and the longtime host discussed Florida's precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent uptick in numbers, changes to the defense and the Gators chances to go undefeated in the unusual 2020 college football season. As a subscriber to GatorBait Magazine, we are offering access to the full video below. Eight Gators are Placed on Preseason Coaches All-SEC Football Team (in a release from the University Athletic Association) BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Southeastern Conference announced the 2020 Preseason Coaches All-SEC Football Team on Thursday, as tight end Kyle Pitts and quarterback Kyle Trask were named First Team Preseason All-SEC while defensive back Kaiir Elam, linebacker Ventrell Miller and defensive back Marco Wilson earned second team recognition. Defensive lineman Zachary Carter, kicker Evan McPherson and wide receiver Kadarius Toney were recognized on the third team. Trask is the first Gators quarterback since Tim Tebow in 2009 to be named to the first team in the Preseason Coaches All-SEC Football Team and this is the first time a Dan Mullen-coached signal caller earns the honor since Dak Prescott in 2015. Alabama placed a league-leading 11 representatives on the 2020 Preseason Coaches All-Southeastern Conference Football Team, it was announced on Thursday. Georgia was second with 10 representatives, while Florida, LSU and Texas A&M each had eight. Ten schools had at least one First-Team All-SEC representative, including a conference-best eight from Alabama. Coaches were not permitted to vote for their own players. Pitts appeared in all 13 games throughout the 2019 season for the Gators and is regarded as one of the top tight ends in college football after totaling 54 receptions for 649 yards and five touchdowns. The Philadelphia native led all tight ends in the SEC in receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns and finished third nationally amongst FBS tight ends in receptions. Pitts was named to the AP/Coaches’ All-SEC First Team. Trask started in 10 games last season after stepping in to take over Florida’s offense at the start of the fourth quarter during the Gators’ victory over Kentucky. The following week, Trask made his first career start against Tennessee, throwing for 293 yards with two touchdowns. Trask threw for 2,941 yards with 25 touchdowns across 12 games played in 2019 and was named to the SEC All-Conference Third Team for his performances. Elam appeared in all 13 games and made five starts in his first collegiate season where he totaled 11 tackles, three interceptions and four passes defended (tied for second-most on the team). Elam was named to the Coaches Freshman All-SEC Team and the SEC First-Year Academic Honor Roll. Miller finished second on the team in tackles with 55 and was one of eight Gators to finish with at least three sacks. Miller appeared in 12 games, starting in 11 at linebacker. The Lakeland, Florida native registered career-highs of eight tackles against Florida State and in the Capital One Orange Bowl against Virginia. Wilson played and started in all 13 games, recording 36 total defensive stops (23 solo), 2.5 tackles for loss, three interceptions and two pass break-ups. Wilson recorded an interception against Tennessee, Auburn and Missouri and was one of four Florida defensive backs with at least three interceptions. Carter appeared in all 13 games and made starts against Vanderbilt and Missouri on the defensive line. He helped make Florida the only team in the SEC with more than six players with at least three sacks. Carter tied for second on the squad with career-highs in sacks (4.5) and tackles-for-loss (7). McPherson appeared in all 13 games and went 17-for-19 (89.5 percent) on field goals and finished 10th nationally in field goal percentage while leading the SEC. He nailed a career-long 50-yard field goal against Florida State. McPherson also served as Florida’s primary kickoff specialist, averaging 61.2 yards on 80 kickoffs with a 63.7 percent touchback rate. He was named to the SEC Fall Academic Honor Roll. Toney played in seven games, missing six due to injury, but made an impact with six explosive plays throughout his junior season in 2019. Toney’s 66-yard touchdown pass reception, the longest catch of his career, against Miami helped the Gators defeat the Hurricanes in the season opener. Other notable plays from last season include Toney’s 48-yard reception at Missouri and a 47-yard catch versus Florida State. First Team Preseason All-SEC OFFENSE TE          Kyle Pitts, Florida OL         Alex Leatherwood, Alabama Trey Smith, Tennessee Darian Kinnard, Kentucky Landon Dickerson, Alabama C            Drake Jackson, Kentucky WR        DeVonta Smith, Alabama Jaylen Waddle, Alabama QB         Kyle Trask, Florida RB       Najee Harris, Alabama Kylin Hill, Mississippi State AP          Jaylen Waddle, Alabama DEFENSE DL       Bobby Brown, Texas A&M LaBryan Ray, Alabama Big Kat Bryant, Auburn Jordan Davis, Georgia LB        Dylan Moses, Alabama K.J. Britt, Auburn Nick Bolton, Missouri DB         Patrick Surtain II, Alabama Derek Stingley, LSU Richard LeCounte, Georgia Jacoby Stevens, LSU SPECIAL TEAMS PK          Brent Cimaglia, Tennessee P            Max Duffy, Kentucky RS          Jaylen Waddle, Alabama Second Team Preseason All-SEC OFFENSE TE          Jalen Wydermyer, Texas A&M OL       Sadarius Hutcherson, South Carolina Deonte Brown, Alabama Landon Young, Kentucky Austin Deculus, LSU* Brodarious Hamm, Auburn* Wanya Morris, Tennessee* Ed Ingram, LSU* C            Trey Hill, Georgia WR        George Pickens, Georgia Terrace Marshall, LSU QB         Kellen Mond, Texas A&M RB          Rakeem Boyd, Arkansas Isaiah Spiller, Texas A&M AP          Derek Stingley, LSU DEFENSE DL       Kobie Whiteside, Missouri Malik Herring, Georgia Aaron Sterling, South Carolina Dayo Odeyingbo, Vanderbilt LB        Henry To'o To'o, Tennessee Monty Rice, Georgia Erroll Thompson, Mississippi State* Nakobe Dean, Georgia* Ventrell Miller, Florida* DB       Kaiir Elam, Florida Eric Stokes, Georgia Demani Richardson, Texas A&M Tyree Gillespie, Missouri* Marco Wilson, Florida* Israel Mukuamu, South Carolina* SPECIAL TEAMS PK          Cade York, LSU P          Jake Camarda, Georgia RS        Jerrion Ealy, Ole Miss Third Team Preseason All-SEC OFFENSE TE          Arik Gilbert, LSU OL       Carson Green, Texas A&M Kenyon Green, Texas A&M Evan Neal, Alabama Dan Moore, Texas A&M C            Landon Dickerson, Alabama WR        Seth Williams, Auburn Elijah Moore, Ole Miss QB         Bo Nix, Auburn RB       Jerrion Ealy, Ole Miss Larry Rountree, Missouri AP       Jerrion Ealy, Ole Miss* Kadarius Toney, Florida* Christian Tutt, Auburn* DEFENSE DL       Zachary Carter, Florida Josh Paschal, Kentucky Kobe Jones, Mississippi State Glen Logan, LSU LB       Boogie Watson, Kentucky Dimitri Moore, Vanderbilt Nolan Smith, Georgia* Ernest Jones, South Carolina* Andre Mintze, Vanderbilt* DB       Jaycee Horn, South Carolina Bryce Thompson, Tennessee Yusuf Corker, Kentucky Christian Tutt, Auburn* Josh Jobe, Alabama* SPECIAL TEAMS PK       Evan McPherson, Florida P            Mac Brown, Ole Miss RS        Christian Tutt, Auburn

Florida Gators linebacker coach Christian Robinson spoke with local media on Wednesday. He updated the plight of replacing David Reese at middle linebacker, the addition of Brenton Cox, the growth of Ventrell Miller and the nervousness of playing in COVID-19. As a subscriber of GatorBait Magazine, you receive exclusive access to this full transcript. Walk us through options at middle linebacker, who has played the most? "Really enjoyed the work that everybody's done thus far, dealing with all the adversity that we had, but it's something that everybody's dealing with. Ventrell Miller's been just great. I've talked to anybody and everybody that will listen that he's done everything we've asked him to do and had a great attitude. Him and Ventrell Miller, I said Ventrell Miller, but James Houston and Mohamoud Diabate, Lacedrick Brunson, we've had all those guys in my room and I've really enjoyed the effort and energy that they've had. It's been, I think those guys leading the way and having been here have helped a lot of those young guys in terms of Hopper and Jesiah and Wingo getting used to what it's going to be like playing on Saturdays going forward." Mohamoud Diabate playing some inside too? "Yeah, we've been finding ways to move everybody around just because with everything that we're dealing with this year it's the more you can do the better. And he's a guy that obviously flashed last year on the edge and played for me in the middle at the beginning of the season at times. He's going to be a guy that, I expect him to kind of move around and kind of use me and coach Grantham and be able to be diverse in the ways that he lines up. I think that's his strength, really, is just being able to move. You're really never going to know where he's at, that's kind of the blessing of having him in my room this year." How deep is this linebackers corps? There was issues in previous years with depth. "I do believe we have a lot of depth, and I think that that's just been great to have because it's next guy up in terms of motivating and competition, having guys in your room that have been in the system for going on three seasons now. It really creates depth, and I know that was a problem when we first got here. Everybody was like, 'Who's going to be the guy? and obviously injuries. And David Reese moving on, it was a great leadership loss, but when you have those guys move on, guys like Ventrell Miller step up. And if you talk to anybody on the staff, he's been vocal. He's on the leadership committee. Just the depth that we have because of those guys being here for a while and then you add in young guys like Josiah Pierre and Hopper and Wingo coming in. I feel spoiled just because I have bodies, so it's next guy up mentality. It's allowed us to move guys around and really see guys play different guys. It's a different mixture when you see somebody that's never been on the field together, how they talk, how they communicate. And I've really enjoyed the way that they've meshed together and really the leadership that's had to come through settings like this, being on Zoom. I've had, 'How do you do that?' from afar, it's we're having to talk and communicate and that creates confidence. I've got Derek Wingo talking to guys that have been here for four years. That's where depth comes from and developing that in the room. And then we've got to go play. I'm excited about the room that we have. You look at Lacedrick Brunson who came in at points last year when we had guys banged. He’s a veteran now. A guy that’s been on every special team and we’re going to have a lot of young guys running down there on special teams this year and I’m excited for them to get their, really to experience their first time out there on the field and really help us contribute as the season goes on.” Is Ventrell Miller calling signals? “He’s one of them. But the way we really develop it is everybody is responsible for articulating what we’re doing. If I was say who my leader is, the guy I think captain-type material that’s Ventrell Miller.” What do you say about Ventrell to others? “The guy’s transformed his body. I know Coach Grantham has talked about it at times. Guy’s lost 15 pounds, he’s running and keeping up with Kyle Pitts in practice. That’s what I tell him every day. You’re playing against one of the best tight ends in all of college football. One of the best I’ve been around. You really get to test your ability when you go up against the best. That’s something to me that builds confidence. Like Coach Mullen alludes to all the time when you get to go against some of the best players in the country in practice every day that’s only going to make your team stronger. That’s only going to make you more confident when you play in places like A&M or up at Tennessee when we go on the road - that confidence level to go execute against the best that we’ll see on a day-to-day basis.” Ventrell was reserved, shy, how have you seen him evolve? “I remember when he first got here - and hopefully he doesn’t get mad at me for telling this story - but I remember it was early in the season that first year in 2018, and he comes in my office. You know how somebody comes in and you know somebody’s upset, something’s on their heart, and he goes on to tell me, ‘Coach, I just want an opportunity. I want to be able to play.’ I’m sitting there and thinking back to my days playing. As a coach you have to tell them what they need to hear, but you also want to give them hope. That’s something my dad always told me, don’t take your players’ hope, give them hope. I said, Ventrell, you have the ability to play here. It’s going to be all these other things we got to get you on. The confidence to fit blocks, to cover certain people. It took that next year, and then he’s a starter against Miami - he makes two sacks and has a big play at the end of the game, third-and-long and go make a play on that tight end from Miami. I remember right before that, we had a timeout, and he said, ‘Coach, I don’t know if I can go.’ And I said, ‘This is where you wanted to go. This is where you wanted to be. When the game’s on the line, your belly’s burning. You want to be in these moments.’ To see him grow from a guy, not that you don’t trust him, but he needs the reps to get the confidence to go execute, to a guy that can withstand being in the game when the game is on the line to a guy that is a leader in the locker room, holding the guys accountable. That is exactly what this program is about and guys that do things the right way, that work extremely hard. The day Coach Mullen got here, if hard work sounds good to you this is the place for you. That’s Ventrell Miller in a heartbeat.” Most flexible defense with number of versatile dudes? “That’s a Todd Grantham defense. Every year I’ve been with Coach Grantham it’s about creating depth, to be able to be one of those teams that plays deep into whenever we’re playing, you’ve got to have depth and guys have to have multiple position flexibility. That’s the No. 1 thing that we look for when bringing people in our program, is do you have position flexibility. And Mohamoud has been a guy that’s been, when he first got here I’ve had conversations with him and he spoke to the young guys and said, Guys, when I first got here all I wanted to do is rush the passer. That’s all I did in high school, that’s all I wanted to do. But for him to understand in order to create value for himself on our team, to create opportunities in the future I have to go perform in different places and get outside my comfort zone. When we talk about special teams, when we talk about all those things, about developmental program. Can we get guys prepared to do more. When you look at all those receivers that went to the NFL from Florida, they knew how to do all the drills we do at Florida and they were willing to move around. That’s how you create values. That’s how you have a team-first mentality. He’s one of those guys who’s done that every step of the way. We’ve had a lot of talks on Zoom. We spent a lot of time before we got into camp on preparing your mind and preparing yourself to move around and make plays.” How difficult on opposing offenses? “I think it makes it very difficult, just like offenses move their personnel around we’re looking to move our guys around that way no one gets a beat on what we’re doing. That’s any good defense, that’s any good scheme. Do you create multiple looks? Do you make quarterbacks have to play bad? That’s what we’re trying to do.” Position flexibility at a new level because of COVID? “I wouldn’t say it’s getting too drastic where you’ve got guys learning different levels of the defense. I would say they’re learning the fundamentals of each position or the terms and techniques that have to take place if I’m in this position. If I’m a corner, I know how to play and move if I’m playing this technique and this scheme. It’s more of, ‘I can move around and I’ve learned this and I can apply it to the situation that I’m in.’ I think that is more in the learning and we have more time. I felt like I got to a point talking to guys that they’ve heard the same thing and I was having to find new ways to teach them. I think there’s a lot of positives that can be taken out of how this spring and summer went is that we have more time to talk and to learn. That’s going to allow our players to make more players with the challenges that we’re going to be facing throughout the season.” What did you see from Diabate early on that made you think he could play on the edge and in the middle? "Well, like I kind of hinted at earlier, last year he was in my room at times. And so I knew, obviously he's got great ability. And it's just like we were kind of talking about before is, if I've never been exposed to something, it's difficult to know how to adapt in that situation. And so having him, been in my room, talk to the players that are in my room, and knowing techniques. I mean, basically you know our system, we're a 3-4 multiple system, we got guys moving all over the edge. You look at Jonathan Greenard last year, a guy that played multiple positions for us. I think Mohamoud is taking that same approach as 'I watched a guy that transferred here, played for us and was a dominant player.' Obviously there's going to be things I have to work on, but that's what my job is, is to prepare for those opportunities to put them in the best place to be successful. Even if he's not been there his whole career. And that's something that, in the offseason and in camp and basically the OTAs that we have, that's kind of the approach that we've taken with him to get him prepared." Early impressions of Derek Wingo: "Love having him, his family, just having them here with him, I mean, it's been a blessing to have him. Loved getting to know them in the recruiting process, and he's done everything I've asked him to do. Just his work ethic, his approach, and I've kind of hinted at it before in other places, was that, he's a guy that makes me have to do my job all the time, in the sense that I'm getting calls and texts at night. I'm like 'Who's calling me, texting me?' He's got questions, and that's what we loved about him. And that's been something that I've noticed is he'll have to, obviously he didn't get a full offseason, he didn't get a full spring with us, but I do believe that he's going to find a way to contribute and that he's going to help us. I mean, with everything that's going on, you don't know who's going to be called upon, and we've kind of taken that approach with everyone, even preparations with the scout team and things like that. Everybody's got to be ready, and that's what I see him doing is being a guy who's going to contribute, great athlete, just great leadership skills. I think he'll be a guy one day that I'll end up talking up like Ventrell (Miller)." Is Brenton Cox a guy that can move around? "Oh yeah, He's got a lot of ability. Definitely a guy that's ready to be in a live setting wearing orange and blue. That's something I'm looking forward to, just let him go play this fall." What did Cox do to get the No. 1 jersey? "I don't know about the jersey number, I can tell you what I've noticed since he's been here. He's a guy that came in. Obviously, transferring, it's a new opportunity, a new challenge, but I never saw him complain. He just worked. He was on the scout team last year as a guy that was highly recruited as he was, and to have a change in school and come here and not really act like he deserved anything, he just worked. And that is something that, every day I see him. He's a quiet kid, but he just goes about his business. Being in Coach Grantham's room, I've played with a lot of guys that played for Coach Grantham at that position that were dynamic, guys that could really change the game. And I think he's one of those guys that, if he puts it together in the way I believe he can, people will take notice of him and want to know where he's at on the field all the time." Amari Burney has played three positions. Is he still working with you at all? And what does that say about his talent and versatility? “He’s the guy that’s moved around all over for us. At times, when you’re a young guy and you’ve moved around, in your mind you could be thinking, ‘Oh, why am I doing all these things? I want to be good at one thing.’ We kind of talked about the beginning, the more that you can do, the more that you’re comfortable and the more groups you get to work with, you’re communicating and working things through. A lot of times as coaches, we want to put guys in the best situation to be successful, but sometimes when you’ve got a guy that knows a lot, he can adjust on the fly. That’s something about Ahmari that I’ve noticed. He’s one of those guys that’s not afraid to communicate and he’s always where he needs to be. Spend a lot of time talking to him and working on things you don’t get at every position. When you move in the box, you’ve got to take on blocks differently than you would be out of the box. But he’s a guy that’s accepted the challenge. Anybody that’s me Burney, he’s just a great young man and his versatility has helped our team the past two years and it’s going to help us this fall.” Can he make a switch in the week or even in the middle of a game as good or better than anybody? “I couldn’t agree more. He can do that. He’s a guy that doesn’t get phased by a lot. He’s a quiet kid, ‘Yes, sir, no, sir.’ At the end of the day, he knows the mechanics of our defense, he knows what’s expected at my position, playing star, playing safety, playing anywhere for us. That’s something. We won’t put him on the D-line, but he can definitely play. He knows what’s going on in front of him.” How has Grantham’s system evolved? How much has changed? How much has stayed the same? “It’s funny that there’s a lot of things that carry over, but as offenses have changed, we’ve had to adapt. Even a little bit when I wasn’t with him, when I was a GA, he’s just always just constantly adapting to fit what we needed at the time, whether that’s personnel, whether that’s scheme, I think he’s one of the best at constantly working to adapt and change where people might think it’s the same thing. But it’s not. Just like I said with our personnel, moving pieces around, being multiple and giving different pictures. That’s what makes it hard for other people to really know what’s going on. I think this is year 10 that I’ve known Coach Grantham, just loved every bit of what we’ve been able to do and build. And to be a part of that at a place like this, it’s pretty special.” This question is probably better suited to Dan: you guys are having some active COVID cases now, what’s the degree of nervousness and what do you tell your guys to make sure they're doing everything you can? “The first thing, just kind of talking about the generic things that we’ve told them is just what’s on the line with how we deal with this situation on a day-to-day basis. End of the day, nothing’s promised, but we want to take the steps necessary to be in a position where we have everybody that we need. That’s just doing what you’re told to do. We have a great medical staff that helps us. Just do your part. I think in a team setting it’s easier for our guys to understand that because everything we do is team based. Just knowing at the end of the day that decisions you make when you leave here are going to affect what we do and how we play. Just remember that’s not just about you. I think that’s something that gets reiterated on a day-to-day basis regardless of what we’re dealing with. This just happens to be one of the greatest challenges of our time. Our kids have done an amazing job of doing what we ask them to do. It’s not easy. It’s not easy in any way. It’s not easy for anybody. I haven’t seen my family in a long time. But the dreams and goals we have, and aspirations, are high. Our guys have accepted the challenge. I can’t wait to go see them perform in a little over a week.”

The Florida Gators athletic association shared their weekly updates in relation to COVID-19 positive cases and test across all Gator sports. The numbers are as follows: Since Student-Athletes Returned to Campus on May 26 Total Tests on Campus: 1,564 Total Positives on Campus: 103 Total Tests for September: 528 Total Positives for September: 68 Since Football Student-Athletes Returned to Campus on May 26 Total Tests on Campus: 692 Total Positives on Campus: 28 Total Tests for September: 230 Total Positives for September: 7 Due to an uptick in case numbers, the school has announced a pause on all athletic activity for Lacrosse and Baseball. In a release, the University Athletic Association said: "The University of Florida’s Athletic Association is pausing all athletic activity for the Gators Lacrosse and Baseball programs due to a significant number of student-athletes that tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. As of Monday, lacrosse reported 31 positive cases and baseball reported 15. Those student-athletes who tested positive, along with their respective contacts, will follow quarantine guidelines until they are cleared by health officials. The athletic department released last week that it had just one positive out of 687 tests of student-athletes in August and seven out of 191 this month as of September 7." The Florida Gator soccer team has postponed their 2020 season opener against Missouri—set for September 19—after three positive cases on the team led to widespread quarantine for those three and those who with whom they had been in direct contact. Football Head Coach Dan Mullen spoke with local media on Monday and hinted at an uptick in cases coming, calling it a "minor spike." "I think numbers come out tomorrow [Tuesday], we release the numbers for everybody. We'll have a couple more guys that have tested positive." Mullen alluded that the spike was due to students returning to campus and credited his players with being as smart as possible with the infusion of new bodies and therefore probable cases. "I give a lot of credit to our players. They’ve done an amazing job, I think, obviously anytime you infuse whatever 50,000 students on a campus you’re going to have a spike. Our guys, we have a minor one...but I give our guys a lot of credit for what they’ve been able to do and continue to do moving forward.” The biggest concern, Mullen explained, was the appearance of false positives. According to a paper from the Harvard Medical School on August 10, the rate for false positives is around 5% or lower. The Center for Disease Control explains the likelihood of a false-positive is, "influenced by factors related to the testing scenario and the test being used (e.g., sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic test). Diagnostic tests perform optimally for detecting an infection when the pretest probability is high. Pretest probability is the likelihood that the person being tested actually has the infection. This likelihood is based on both the proportion of people in the test population or group who have the infection at a given time (prevalence) and the clinical presentation (including symptoms and known exposure) of the person being tested. In other words, the pretest probability increases with increasing prevalence in the population and clinical indications of illness in the person being tested. In contrast, tests typically perform best for excluding an infection when the pretest probability is low. Test sensitivity is the ability of a test to correctly identify persons with infection, whereas test specificity is the ability to correctly rule-out infection." For Mullen, it is these false positives that are one of the biggest concerns as Florida and schools work to keep guys safe while also coming up quickly on a football season. "That’s a huge concern, you know, you have these asymptomatic guys with multiple negative tests that, you know, they had one that was a false positive come back, some false positives come back. I don’t think that will be reflected in the numbers you get but we’re working very closely with all our local health officials. Our medical staff here is doing a fabulous job of everything, creating one of the safest environments in Gainesville if not the state of Florida, here within our football program." If an athlete does test positive, they—along with those in close contact, identified through contact tracing—are placed into quarantine. The SEC rules for quarantine state an athlete must remain there for 14 days. Negative test in quarantine does not limit the length of quarantine. The Florida Gators are scheduled to kickoff the 2020 season against Ole Miss 11 days. Testing results are distributed once a week, so it is likely that a player could have tested positive between last Tuesday (the 8th) and Friday the 11th and therefore would be completing their 14-day quarantine before the Ole Miss game. Football players are being tested twice a week.

Florida Gators Head Coach Dan Mullen spoke with the media over the weekend. He addressed the fire at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, the upcoming COVID-19 test results, Justin Shorter receiving his waiver and more. As a subscriber to GatorBait Magazine, we are offering these transcripts in full. Opening statement: “Obviously big day today, coming out with the rankings. I think it’s huge. You look at us being the No. 6th ranked public university in America’s pretty special. Again, continue to be the only school in America that’s a top-10 academic school in the public universities and top 10 in football, which is a pretty special, special deal. So really excited about that. We take a lot of pride here at Florida in being the best of the best, not just on the field but off the field. Quality student-athletes that decide to come here, as well as the success they have in football and the success they have beyond football in the classroom and in life beyond. I think that’s a really special day for us, and it’s great to see us continue that way forward. Besides that, we’re one week away from being into game week. We’re really excited about that. Questions?” You were on fire on Twitter. What was going on there? “We were… I wasn’t here. We did meetings all in the morning, and we had left in the afternoon. Players had kind of a film review in the morning. My understanding is that a maintenance vehicle caught on fire and really did no structural damage to the end zone. You would have that was, like, the new scoreboard we had there that caught on fire while our offense was rolling. It’s good everyone was safe and not much damage was done, facility-wise.” Any help on the GIF? “I don’t know. Someone texted, thought that was pretty cool. I was a big Game of Thrones. Right? Khaleesi?** Are you a Game of Thrones guy?” You had 11K likes on two tweets: “That’s pretty cool, right? I gotta see. I should have advertised something a little bit more on that. Maybe I can get, like, a stipend check for like 30 bucks. I had Cheesecake Factory for lunch. I needed to tweet out my salad right there. Maybe I’ll get like a free slice of cheesecake on my next visit.” What might you be able to apply with your team after watching football over weekend to have them ready? “You do see teams a little bit all over. I think you see a wide array of stuff. I think for us, we’ve got to come in – you see a lot of little mental errors. You go watch some of the games. I get to watch some of the NFL games yesterday. I haven’t watched that much NFL football in a while. You know, it was interesting. You just see some of the mental errors that you don’t usually see. I think guys are flying around, getting after it, and I think that’s the excitement of guys finally being able to go play some football. You see some younger players, or you know, some of the guys who are making these mental mistakes that shouldn’t be made and it’s something that we keep stressing on. Not just are you right with the physical toughness in how we practice, the effort in which we practice, but also the mental strain. I think that continues to be a big factor of the teams, not just handling all the adversity that we have to handle, but the actual mental strain of game day of putting ourselves in position to be game-ready to play. Avoid the penalties, avoid critical errors and mistakes. You’re see that in a lot of the games. That gets from lack of playing football.” Do you sense in your team a week from game week, are you sensing that level of excitement where everyone is getting on edge? “I’m not sure. I want to see today. We have practice this afternoon. We practiced Friday and I thought we were a little bit stale. Hopefully this week, really, we have two practices and then we do like kind of our mock game in the morning, on Thursday morning. So hopefully the intensity picks up. I think our guys, they’ve got to continue to find that balance of right now of making sure we’re getting better, getting everything in that we need to continue to improve and get the reps we need without the ‘holy cow, game week just get here. Can we move onto game week?’ I think there is a balance between that. I think our guys are ready to get into game week. I think our guys are ready to start playing football. We’re still two weeks away and we have some work to do before we get there and we’ve got to make sure we take care of that business, take care of the task at hand this week. But I do think, I’m hoping by next week, I think next Monday we’ll be pretty juiced up ready to get into game week.” How have you guys done on the injury front? “We’re pretty … we’ve done pretty good. I’ll get with you on that next Monday. We get into game week, I usually give the whole injury report game week Monday. I’ll get you all that next Monday. Of where we’re at. It gets relevant more towards playing in the game. Who can and can’t practice today, we’re still 0-0 at the end of practice today. It’s more relevant next week.” Anybody out for the season? “I don’t think so. If we do, I’ll let you know next Monday.” Turning to social justice, NFL players are doing things and guys on campus want to do things. How do you balance trying to get these guys to do something that’s important and make them feel like they’re having a voice here and not getting too distracted from the task at hand? “We’ve talked a lot about that. We’ve had guys come. … even some NFL players come talk to our guys about it. The importance of how to use your voice, when to use your voice, when it’s relative. Make sure you know what you’re saying, be educated on what you’re using your voice for. I think those are all really important things. I do like to see it. I love to see it in the NFL. I saw yesterday there were a lot of different things. It’s guys, ‘Why are you doing what you’re doing?’ I talk to some guys in the NFL. I talked to Dak Prescott. I thought he had a great one. Is the whole team going to kneel, is the whole team going to stand. He said, ‘Why are we talking about the whole team? Everybody has their own individual feelings. And the most important thing is to have your why, why are you doing it? Why is this important to you?’ And make sure that you understand what your why is, but then you also respect other peoples’ whys. And that’s part of the issue. Everything’s not all or nothing or one or this, it’s about respecting each other, becoming educated and respecting the differences between different people. As a team, as we learn to do, as our guys are learning to respect, learn about each other, learn why they would want to do something, why something is important, maybe more important to one person and not as important to another. Whatever it is, have your why, why you do things. We’ve talked about that with our guys. I know they know they have a voice. With a voice comes responsibility. How we focus that the right way with the messages that we put out kind of as a quote. While giving our guys the individual voice to do what’s important to them individually. And most importantly, making sure it doesn’t distract from football, the task at hand, which is they’re separate things. While I’m using my voice, our guys, we’re fortunate. We have a voice that gets heard probably more than others because of the platform of football that we have. Let’s make sure we’re taking care of our platform and things that are important to us and things that we love like the game of football. That allows us to have this voice and then let’s make sure we educate ourselves and use the voice properly, the right way. We’ve spent a lot of time discussing that as a team.” Do you envision guys will be making some sort of like pregame warm up or something making some sort of stance or message or whatever they want? “Yeah, I think we've talked about our team, about having different messages each week. And the appropriate way to voice and get a message across from one week to the next and you know, have it be meaningful without having it become a distraction for the task at hand which is us trying to win a football game.” To follow up on what Edgar was asking about since you've had a couple of weeks now to watch, either what's going on on the field or outbreaks and stuff elsewhere. What are kind of your biggest concerns for where you are a week and a half away from getting started. "I would say biggest concern is us translating into game speed and game mode, you know what I mean. You know your practice, you know, sometimes, like I always say, you  give up—the defense, if you give up a big play, you can kinda bring the ball back, play the next play with whatever it is, whatever the drill is you're working on. You know offense, you know you make a mistake, you don't feel the turnover, you don't feel the penalty, and how it affects the drive or the complete flow of the game within the practice period that you're working on so probably the biggest one is that, is getting into the game flow of things and how you know every little detail affects the big aspect of the game." Justin Shorter cleared, what have you seen from him so far? "I think I mean, he's obviously had a great, he has a great attitude. He works hard, very physical player, talented, has size, has speed. You know, and you know can make explosive plays down the field, but also you know one of the things to me is, I mean great physical blocker the point of attack. Plays, you can see he's a little bit of an older guy, he's not a new guy coming in, he's a veteran guy that's played some football so he understands the importance of the complete game, you know, if you will; block, you know blocking is just as important as catching a 50 yard touchdown pass. And when you understand that you have the opportunity to become an impact player and I think he'll, he'll, he'll play, he'll be, he'll be an impact player for us this year." NO TRUTH TO RUMOR YOU STARTED THE FIRE? "Hey, I was at home. I was actually working, scripting practices. There was like a huge rain going down, and somehow there were a bunch of kids that, like, kids started showing up at our house. Kids were on bike rides around the neighborhood, all the sudden looked at the door, there's like three kids that are under our little door. I remember my wife, like, 'Hey Mrs. Mullen, we got caught out in the rain.' And they're like, 'Hey, do you know the stadium's on fire?' And I'm like, because they're kids... they know, they're on social media, they get all this stuff so fast. So I'm like, 'What?' So I kind of looked at it and tried to make some calls to figure out what was going on. They said, 'Hey, it was just like a maintenance vehicle that got caught on fire next to the stadium.' They said everybody's fine. When I heard that, I said as long as everybody's safe and there wasn't big damage. Once I heard that, as long as everybody’s safe and there wasn’t big damage we can have some fun.” WHAT EXACTLY IS MOCK GAME? "Yeah, so on Thursday morning we come up into a mock game from every aspect. I'm talking we start in the locker room, what the schedule is pregame, how we walk on the field to warm up, to every single situation that you could come across in the game. We try to walk through and review, from substituting this. We have a huge script we always do every year within a mock game, goes all the way from walking into the stadium to singing the fight song after the game." ALTER PRACTICE SCHEDULES FOR NOON GAMES? "No, it's 12 o'clock our time. That's very confusing to a lot of guys sometimes. But no, we'll just have our regular practice routine. Lot of times we'll do it when our first couple games are night games. We'll practice a little bit later. We'll kind of go into our regular practice time and practice schedules. Obviously first game being on the road this year is very different than a road game in every other year. With everything going on, your travel routine is going to be very different than it's been in the past for us, working with all our medical staff to make sure we're doing things properly that way." HOW WILL IT BE DIFFERENT? "I mean just totally different. I mean everything's different. You show up at the stadium, well we're using different locker rooms, we're using different meeting rooms. OK? We're going to have actually a specifically assigned seat on the buses to the airport. Different groups leave at different times. Our seating arrangements on the plane will be different than they've been. The buses when we get off the plane will be very different. How we travel, what we're bringing with us will be different. When you get to the hotel, we're going to have to tweak our routine about that for spacing at the hotel. Roommate will be different, of how you normally would roommate with on the road. The fact that some people won't have roommates and we'll be able to have more single rooms. The bus on the way to the stadium will be different. Pregame locker room setup will be different, so there will be a bunch." POSITIVE TEST RESULT, WHAT'S GUIDELINES OF HOW LONG THEY QUARANTINE, HOW DOES CONTACT TRACING WORK? "Yeah, we're working a lot with all our local health officials right now. The SEC has their rules coming into effect on that. There's so much unknown. We'll have, I think numbers come out tomorrow, we release the numbers for everybody. We'll have a couple more guys that have tested positive. We've also, right now, I think we might have some false positives that we've identified. That’s a huge concern, you know, you have these asymptomatic guys with multiple negative tests that, you know, they had one that was a false positive come back, some false positives come back. I don’t think that will be reflected in the numbers you get but we’re working very closely with all our local health officials. Our medical staff here is doing a fabulous job of everything, creating one of the safest environments in Gainesville if not the state of Florida, here within our football program. And I give a lot of credit to our players. They’ve done an amazing job, I think, obviously anytime you infuse whatever 50,000 students on a campus you’re going to have a spike. Our guys, we have a minor one, but I think, you know, when you look at the numbers, if you take out the false positives - I can’t get into the specifics of all of that, I think there’s legal issues with those. But I give our guys a lot of credit for what they’ve been able to do and continue to do moving forward.” Mock game scenario include a scrimmage? “No. We won’t even have helmets on.” Any more clarification on this being free year of eligibility and how to handle roster management? “Yeah, it is a free year of eligibility, so it doesn’t affect everybody’s eligibility this year. But obviously we’re under different, we’re under bigger, our restriction … so for the overall roster that’s something to figure out long term. For this year, you’re still very limited, right, we still have only 70 guys that can travel to an away game right now, only 80 guys can dress and play in a home game. So that doesn’t have a big effect because the conference rules that are in place the year of eligibility.” For roster balance later, have to worry about scholarship numbers? “My understanding is next year we don’t and we’ll continue to work on things down the road. You know, the NCAA article came out. I can’t tell you. I’m sure we’ll have a bunch of guys who want to leave for the NFL and not take advantage of one more year of eligibility here. But if they did they would come back and it wouldn’t count against your numbers for next year’s team.” Advantage of staff continuity? “I think, one, the experience of having guys who have been together. There’s a benefit of everybody being on the same page, everyone understanding what the direction of our program is, what my expectations within the program are, how we’re going to handle different situations within the program year-round. Whether it’s, hey, did we have this workout today? Everybody’s pretty familiar with how that works. What our practice routine is, what our week in-game season schedule is. You have a lot of guys that are very, very familiar with that, so that makes life pretty easy for us. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on the staff on every little thing because the guys understand it. You have all these guys that have been around each other. They know what my expectations are and what we’re trying to accomplish with each aspects of the program. You have a great group of guys as you brought up not just the staff being around each other a long time but how they interact with each other, how the staff gets along, the camaraderie of the staff I think is a huge deal as well. I think that adds to a great work environment. Guys who want it and enjoy being part of our program, enjoy being on our staff, so it keeps guys around a little longer. I think one thing you always have to defend against, though, is we get so stuck in our ways and everybody kind of knows that this is how we do it and we don’t have always have fresh ideas. So we’re always trying to challenge each other with guys and I challenge the staff to come up with some different ideas and some fresh ideas. Come up with a different way for us to do it. It doesn’t mean we’re going to do it, but let’s come up with some different ideas so we can brainstorm. As soon as we get anybody new on the staff, the first thing we ask is tell us all the things that we do and how you would do it differently and how you’ve done it differently to help us brainstorm with new ideas so we don’t get stagnant in what we’re doing. We’re always trying to better and improve ourselves.” Importance of WR coach Billy Gonzales? “I think when you look at these guys. I think it was a couple of the guys. Freddie (Swain) said it. I think Van Jefferson had something out, and those guys made impacts in games yesterday in the NFL. You look at Billy and how he develops players, you look at where … to go from two years ago when we first got here and everybody’s like, ‘We have the worst receiving corps in the NFL’ and all of a sudden four of them are playing on Sundays. It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, we fixed the problem by just going to recruit.’ We just concerned ourselves with recruiting great players. We want to recruit great players but we’re also going to coach and develop them. That’s probably maybe one of the things that is different and our guys feel really comfortable when they talk about it. Billy’s going to do such an unbelievable job of not just recruiting and getting quality guys here, but the improvement they make in his development with them. Their development in the fundamentals of the receiver position, the style of offense that we run that prepares them to play professional football at the next level in a pro-style offense. Just, you know, those things, his knowledge of what he does with technique, of scheme and understanding the big picture of the game and how he’s able to motivate and get the most out of his players. I think you look at his body of work throughout his career and his success those guys have had going on at the next level is second to none and it’s great to hear those guys that go onto football and say he’s the best football coach in the country and if you want an opportunity to make it in the NFL, go play at Florida.” Justin Shorter, what have you seen in terms of the timing in the passing game? “A lot for him. I think Justin’s got a great work ethic. You take a guy with a great work ethic and you put him with a great coach and you’re going to see big strides. You’ve seen that out of Justin. He’s the guy to ask that, you know, how much do you think you have improved? In the short time that we’ve had him, obviously we didn’t get a spring, really limited what you can do in the summer with the players getting together, so in 17 practices how have you improved? When we get into game week that would be a good question for him and hopefully he says he’s improved an awful lot in these 17 practices in what I’ve learned and in what I’ve been able to develop more so than my previous college career.” How much switching Dante Lang to defense was due to depth vs. ability? “I think it’s a combination of everything, which is the defensive depth, as well as the tight end depth and the ability and number of plays he’s gonna get. Obviously we’re not very deep at tight end at all but we have some excellent players at that position. Our depth is a concern but we have some talent at that spot. He’s a guy even, he always reminds me my first phone call to him when I got hired — I tried to watch all the players that were committed to us, watch them all on film — I said to him, ‘hey, I love watching how you rush the passer, your athleticism, how you get after it and your athleticism getting after the passer.’ He said, Coach, I’m coming in as a tight end. I said, well that’s great but I was just watching film and I loved your athleticism getting after the passer. He reminds me of that. I think it’s something, you look at his body type, his skill-set, and the needs really fit into the defense. I think long term he even understands that’s possibly a better position for him not just here at Florida but even beyond here. I think it became kind of an easy choice for everybody.” Was it always in the back of your mind to switch him? “No. He’s got great hands and is a very solid route runner. We’re doing special situations, like hands team, the other day and he said Coach; make sure I’m still on the hand's team. I’ve got great hands even though I’m playing d-end. He does that. I thought he’d be a really good tight end but you look at, I mean his size. He’s been able to put on some size. I think he’s in the mid-280 range now. A guy that’s like 6-4, 6-5, 280. That’s pretty good size for a defensive end. A really big tight end, and a great size for an athletic defensive end.” Talking about Alex Smith and his comeback from injury “If you watch the show, Project 11 was unbelievably done. If you just look at that as an outsider it’s extremely motivating how he is able to go from a gruesome, life-threatening injury into battling his way back to being on the active roster of an NFL team is pretty special. Obviously, now the show was a lot more difficult to watch, when you have that personal relationship, and you know him, you know the family, you know his wife and his kids. It's, I think the tragic part of it all, the tragedy, the scary part, and the fear and the injury, and the family, when it hits home personally is always a little bit different than the motivational side of it. But, if you know Alex, and you know what a special person he is, the type of person he is, and his wife Elizabeth, and you see the type of people they are, even his whole family and seeing them on the show. His parents, what a great family they all are. You just see, it doesn't surprise you, his ability to come back from that. His drive to come back from that, his drive, I mean he's one of those guys, obviously his unbelievable success in football, unbelievable success in life. He graduated college in two years. You know, people that have that drive are going to be successful, and it just kind of also shows the type of drive he has as a person to overcome the unbelievable obstacles he had to. If you haven't seen the 'Project 11', I encourage you to watch it, on him, on the injury, what he went through, and on his recovery, it's pretty unbelievable." Have you talked to anyone from the NFL or college yet on gameday experience? "Yeah, I have those calls, I've got to make those calls this afternoon. Obviously, they were playing yesterday, so they're probably, you know, the immediate thought wasn't to talk to me. They had their own problems and issues yesterday, but those are calls that we'll make today, today and tomorrow." Jeremy Crawshaw, punter competition? "Yeah, doing really well, getting adjusted to it. I think, obviously again, he missed spring. You know, again, we were limited in the summer so he's only had some practices. Hasn't played, obviously, he's worked punting but he hasn't played in live game situations or live football situations where people are coming, running at you to try to block the kick. But he certainly has a lot of talent in there. And then, so you have him and you have Jacob Finn, whose obviously a fifth-year senior, veteran guy, been around the program a long time, understands what it is. So, both of those two I think have done a really solid job, and it'll be interesting to see who gets it. I mean, I don't make that decision until probably the end of next week, who will be the guy who kicks because you know we get equal reps, both of them have to be ready to play, and we'll see who the one guy will be at the end of next week, probably after Thursday's practice." On Dak Prescott and mental illness… how would your team respond if someone on the team responded like that? “Obviously, I think great. I think it is great. We had Dak talk to the team just about how to use your voice, last week. I think Dak is someone that does understand. He’s the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. In sports… you have one of the biggest roles in all of sports in being the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys and the responsibility that comes with it and the voice that you have that comes with it. In knowing the situation that he dealt with and what happened with his brother last spring. I think it was something that I’m proud of him that he felt that he needs to come out and be a voice for people that do deal with mental health issues and especially right now. I imagine… you don’t have the research, but I think what we’re going to find out a year from now is that dealing with all of quarantine, isolation, and COVID and everything that is going on, mental health issues were skyrocketing. And we’re saying that I’m skyrocketing with health issues and I’m supposed locked away in my house and I can’t even associate with other people. I think I’m proud of him to come out there and sit there and give a voice. Because you know what, I think people that are sitting there are going to say, ‘Hey, I’m dealing with all of these problems that I have and I might be the only one. Here I am and I’m told I have to isolate myself all alone and have to deal with all of these issues’. And now here’s a guy coming out and talking about it and is also that’s the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys, so I’m not alone. I think that is something that takes a lot of courage. A guy like Dak who is such a great person, such a great presence on his team, he has unbelievable charisma and leadership within his organization and Just as a person within the community and really within the whole country. To come out and bring awareness to something and to help people out to realize that maybe you’re not alone in dealing with mental health issues and don’t be afraid to talk about it. Don’t be afraid to try to get help. Everyone feels that. I guarantee you everybody… over the… you’d be hard pressed to find anybody that since April 1, or March whatever until now has dealt with some form of depression or feelings or thoughts they never had before. I mean I have. I’ve dealt… having to go quarantine, having to go isolate, having to change everything you know in your life. You just don’t feel normal at times. You mentally don’t feel normal and that’s not a comfortable feeling. You realize by Dak coming out and talking about it, you realize you’re not alone in that. You think of all the people that have had to deal with it. Everybody reflects on it and thinks about it as probably not something that is dealt with. There is lots of depression in life, but when you start to have those feelings because you’re in quarantine and isolated, in time you start … ‘well, this feels so different than I’ve ever felt’. Imagine people that are dealing with bigger issues and it’s great for him to come out with that voice to let people know that they’re not alone. That they can find ways to seek help, fin people to talk to, find people that are dealing with the same things they are dealing with.” Have you felt the impact of COVID? "We felt the impact of it going all the way back to June. From June until now, you felt the impact of it on different things within the program. But not anything that threw us off. I mean, hey, you have guys having to quarantine, you have guys having to isolate at different times. But the program as a whole has continued to move forward. And it probably hurts a little bit more on individual growth with each person that we've dealt with throughout the whole time." Expectations for Lingard? "Obviously we have some guys that have been in the program. So him picking it up is one thing that he's probably behind those guys in picking it up because this is his first time learning the offense. Again, he didn't have a spring. You have guys that, if you go spring and fall camp, you have guys that this is their sixth and seventh time going through it all that have played in seasons. But I think the one thing that I've been most impressed with him is his attitude and his work ethic. I know he is a guy that was really a highly rated recruit out of high school. Decided to transfer and transferred here. He is a guy that shows up and he works his tail off every day. He shows up on special teams. He plays hard and you see that he loves to play the game. The thing that I have been the most impressed with is really his effort level and his attitude and approach to how hard he works every day. And he has worked on picking it up. He is very conscientious on picking the offense, even though, mentally he is a little behind some of the other guys that have more experience in the system.” Watch golf yesterday? “Listen. football was finally on TV. I watched more NFL football yesterday than I have watched in a couple of years combined. Finally having football. It was so good seeing football and seeing people playing football.”

Florida Gators Offensive Line Coach John Hevesy spoke with local media on Tuesday. He reflected on running the ball, Malik Davis, old faces in new roles and more. As a subscriber of GatorBait Magazine, we are offering this full transcript for your perusal. How much emphasis has been on just creating more of consistent run game and how integral that’s going to be? “I mean, it's been a big focus to me, um, you know, and with the kids is just, we have to be balanced we have to be able to run the ball to be successful. Obviously running the ball, gives us our opportunity to be a great play action team and to be able to throw the ball. But I think running the game, everything for us is always to stay you know ahead of the change, ahead of schedule, which means to run the ball on first down we got to get four yards we got to be efficient, you know, again, the big runs will happen but I think the biggest thing for us in the run game is to be efficient, is to get four yards on every run play. "So it puts us in a second and six, if we're in a second-and-eight, to put us in a third and four, you're going to put us in situations where we have to be able to stay on schedule and be able to utilize our, our own repertoire, not be able to use play action with the run game I think that's the biggest thing. I think we have great play action, we got great obviously skill guys, but to be able to use that play action, with the run game is going to help us with that. Without the run game the play action doesn't really help us too much so I think the biggest thing in the run game is just being consistent. For me to in the run game with our guys is, you know, finishing blocks, taking care of everything which I think—you go back and look at last season, just you're off a little bit on a lot of things, which to me, you major emphasis obviously not in spring but just as we went through the, all the offseason with the zoom meetings and going into camp was, you know, here's the things we're off on that I think we've done a great job of so far in camp. You know now obviously we're going to see starting next week of how it's going to fall.” Malik [Davis] getting back to full strength, Lorenzo [Lingard’s] eligibility. Do you feel like you have a pretty good stable of running backs? "I think we got a great stable of backs. I think, really, you know, starting with obviously [Dameon] Pierce is the first one, he’s sort of returning but I think the biggest one to watch has been Malik, you know watch Malik, who was a guy I think in the injury, he's been injury plagued the first two years we were here but to really go back, when we walked in here a couple years ago was—you saw his film from that year before, and say hey here's this guy and I think you're watching, we're watching him during camp and that guy really that we saw two years ago—running how he runs, his pad level, his feet. His quickness and everything he's done, he's done a great job in camp. And then you know, obviously you've Lorenzo, you've got Nayquon [Wright]. So there is a great stable of backs back there. You just, you get a chance to see them all and you know, to point out one of them—I think that big the thing is the group. It's been nice to watch them run the ball.” Transition for Stewart Reese, where do you have him playing? "He played obviously guard and tackle, he's played guard and tackle. He played tackle whenever it was, three years ago for me there, played guard and tackle there, so I think the one thing, as big as he is he's a very versatile guy. So he's able to do both, and been playing both, so it's a good thing for us to have, it's a good problem. I think the one thing with him is just bringing in his personality, is, there's no ego with Stewart at all. He kinda goes along, which I think obviously any time you bring in an older guy, and you sit there and say 'Hey, they played for me before', that kids have, 'What's this going to bring to us', and I think, I guess within two weeks, I mean, he knows everybody, he's friends with everybody, and everybody likes him, so he's going to go along, he's going to take care of his business and do his work. But again, he's started for three years in this league, so he can give the kids that haven't played behind him even more stories, of how, Stone, Brett and Jean have basically played a year. Stu having three years in this league, to go down and say "Hey, here's more stories, here's different things, different perspective on what it is to play in this league', with having a lot of young guys between Ethan, Kingsley, Michael, Will and all those young guys, is, 'Here's how you prepare'. They can watch him because he doesn't have an ego to say 'I'm here for this, I'm here for that', they can talk to him, and he'll talk, he'll give them everything he's got so they can learn from him, which has been great to have." Stone Forsythe progress at tackle, where has his game evolved? "I think the biggest thing I've seen with Stone is just, very intelligent kid on the football field. Very high in football intelligence. I think the one thing you've seen is just obviously using his hands, and just playing with quicker and harder hands, and a little harder, quicker feet. And that was the big thing we were going into the offseason working on, and obviously it got cut a little bit. Him doing it on his own, which I think he's done a great job of through this camp and through this part of the season so far. Again, like anything, it can also turnover gameday next week, but to me, I think, he's become a great leader with that group. He's another one, there's not an ego involved I don't think in any of my guys, so he can talk to the young guys, the young guys see him as being a guy, so they'll listen to him and talk to him. When they see not only what he does on the field, the way he prepares himself for practice, meetings, everything he does, which is great to have those guys around, especially, you know, with, you add Stone, you add Stew, Brett Heggie's become that guy. Jean's becoming that guy. Really those four upperclassmen have become great leaders for my young guys. Now it's the young guys just obviously check your ego in and make sure you're always listening to the older guys because they have the experience.” MORE TIME TO GO BACK, WHAT WAS BIGGEST ISSUE LAST YEAR? "I think just little things. I mean you saw really as the season went on it got better, but you see really good part of the season was just the gamesmanship of things and things adjusting in the game, things happening in the game that you don't have that experience to -- whether they're moving or pressuring or whatever they're doing -- you just saw, 'OK, we're off here.' Maybe miscommunication of a call, missed steps and what you're doing with those movements, just understanding of the whole offense. Which, again, it's not all big glaring, but you saw it in certain situations, in really key situations you're kind of frustrated because you know what you're doing but (snaps fingers) how fast it happens is, that's where we were off. I think so far in camp, I think it's been really good with all the stuff that's getting thrown at us defensively, is for us to make the adjustments, for the kids to come back and sit and when you watch the film go, 'OK, got it,' and you see that turnover the next day and they bank that from the day before. Or it comes back three days later in camp and you say, 'Hey, remember we saw this?' 'Yeah, hey, we've got it. We understand it.' "From those, the ones and even the twos you're seeing all those things that really they're getting. We talk about learning what to do, how to do it and why you're doing it. To me, they know what to do, they know how to do it. Very few MAs, missed assignments, that we've had in camp. It's more of the why. Do we understand why in outside zone we're pressing these landmarks, doing these things. Inside zone, protections of understanding safeties, understanding movement they're getting. They've got that now. Obviously, they've still got to go out and perform, but you see the mental part of the game is really excelled for them. Maybe it's just sitting on, for six months, on Zoom meetings. They saw enough of it to help them with that, so as you get into this that might be the best benefit of COVID: being on those Zoom meetings. They saw more film and more clips than they ever saw in their life, that you don't really have time for in a regular offseason." WHAT ISSUES HAS YOUR DEFENSIVE LINE GIVEN YOU? "I don't think it's anything; I don't ever look at one issue, one person, one thing. I think it's just a multitude of; it seems like we've been in camp, again, since July. So you're working on two and a half months of practice and seeing it, 'OK, OK,' so they're getting it, which now, for us, the thing I talked to them yesterday about was come Sunday we've got to drop everything our defense has done. You just start seeing a multitude, because you keep installing, you keep installing, you keep installing, so you're putting every defense in that you're going to see. And you won't see half of it throughout the season. So it's hard initially for us because you've got to change everything, you're teaching more exceptions than you are rules. But to me when you go back and look at it and digest it, now you're going OK, it becomes a better understanding of the whole offensive philosophy of what we're trying to do and understanding our schemes that now when you look back, 'OK, now we're going to see this front.' 'Well, coach, that's kind of simple.' Yeah, you're going to see simplicity. But to me it helps, it really helps with the multitude of defense my kids learn the philosophy and the whys of what we're doing offensively." What has been the most difficult part of turning around the OL given the pandemic and weird offseason? “I don’t think we treated it any different other than not getting to work the fundamentals. Really from March to July, you’re giving the kids everything to do and they’re doing it on their own. That was the hardest thing. You worry about when you give kids drills they're doing at home, they're doing it by themselves, or they find someone else to do them with and if they’re not doing it right, now I’ve gotta break six months of them doing something. I was very detailed and very slow process of giving them stuff to do on their own so it wasn’t going  to be (a situation where) they’ve been doing it wrong for six months and I don’t have as much time to fix it when they get back here. To me, keep it very minimal. Send them the video. Send them the teaching tape. Send them all the things and then those Zoom meetings where we would watch, before we left the meeting, we would watch, hey here’s the drills we need to do and here’s all the coaching points. I would give them two or three things a day to do. It wasn’t, ‘hey, do these 18 things’ because I’m not going to get anything out of that. Here’s two things to go work today. Here’s two things to go work tomorrow. Each day was that way so they could really break it down and learn those little things and not put too much on them when they were on their own. The older guys I could probably do more with but the younger guys, all those redshirt freshmen that were here, how much they really got out of me because this was their first real offseason. I’ve gotta make sure I don’t screw this up, that I’m not giving them too much. I don’t want them to come back and then say I’ve got to break all these bad habits that they formed not having me around telling them right from wrong.” Have you dealt with an OL of Ethan White's mass, agility/bend, and how much progress has he made? "Obviously, you guys haven't obviously been here so, you really haven't seen Stewart Reese. Stewart's about six-five, I guess six-five-and-a-half, 360 [pounds]? But, yeah I mean Stewart was one and [former Mississippi State OL] Tyrie Phillips was another. Tyrie came to me - him and Stewart both came to me at about 390-something pounds, and they both ended up playing at about 330 [pounds] within the year. So, it was something that kind of going in taking Ethan [White], even the recruiting process was, 'okay here's where he's at'. You saw the same thing from Tyrie Phillips, from Stewart Reese out of high school that I saw in Ethan. So you say 'here's this large body, we just gotta get it down.' You know and obviously our strength staff does a great job with that to reform those bodies. You see, when Ethan came in here at 400 pounds to get him down and he's roaming about 330-333 [pounds] right now, and it's the same thing Stewart and Tyrie were that way. So, I have had those big bodies that to me is, when you look at them in the process of recruiting and seeing them going 'okay, here's this 390-pound kid that, he can move', you know, he just needs to lose some weight and get him in a program to get that - all the ability you have out of him. So, to me, I hate saying it's an easy thing for us but, I think you look at our strength coach, staff and what they've done and the nutrition to do what they can in teaching those kids how to eat, and once they see that lost weight and they see 'oh it's way easier to run around with less than 60 pounds on my body,' okay, and you start playing faster, you start playing better and the conditioning is much easier to run back-and-forth [on] the field. I did it with Ethan, I did it with all of them, 'here, here's a 60-pound bag, run across the field with it', and they realize this sucks, you know, great, don't put the weight back on. So, I've had plenty of experience with those big guys to drop their weight and get it out." What have you seen out of Josh Bruan and other freshmen OL progress? "Well, I think they've made great progress. I think the one thing Richie [Gouraige] and Josh [Braun] had coming in here was they at least had those five days of bowl practice. So they kind of got a little taste of it. But then obviously it was nothing different for them, they basically got back the same time Gerald [Mincey] did and Mark Pitts came in. But, it wasn't for them, I think, again, the way the Zoom worked was for them to really learn a lot of 'what'. I think in re-evaluating the last 20-something years of coaching is, that offseason for us you didn't have the time, spending the time, 'hey, I gotta teach him fundamentals, teach him fundamentals, teach him how to block,' do these things. Really, you can teach them, and what got taught in the whole thing was watching all the film, going through all the installs was, they learned what to do. You know, I think that's as a team you learn all those plays, so really when we got to camp they knew their assignments and how we installed it and did things with them was - they had a chance - they didn't have to be physical yet, they had a lot of reps at, 'okay, my assignments' and all those things, then we can work on technique, and as they saw the film of what to do, 'okay, I know what to do, coach, how do I do this better?' Well, great we're gonna work on that, we're gonna progress through that. So, you saw the fundamentals, you got to teach it while those first couple of days we had no pads and all this other stuff just to teach those things. But, they learned assignments, and now you can focus more on the technique of stuff which is the 'how'. And then again, through all the Zoom meetings and now they're getting the full dose of teaching it. The first thing is they've all came out and work every day, and that's the biggest thing. They came out to work every day and they've done a great job, all of them, of getting involved and really not missing a beat. You don't see a big glare. I think when you put them all together you see a little bit of glare because they're still often trying to figure everything out, but it's really been nice to have all of them. Yeah, and Josh is another one that's - I think he's roaming at the 350 [pounds] range, 350, [3]48. Guess I shouldn't say 350, they'll be pissed because I told them that, so 347 [pounds]." Where is Braun playing? “I think he can play tackle or guard. He’s been playing more guard right now. I think it’s a little simpler learning. Playing guard is a little simpler and not as much adjustments as playing tackle here. One thing for him to get comfortable and be able to use his body right now is he’s playing guard. To me, I think as we progress, he’ll have the ability, obviously, to do both. Really not much different than Stewart was. Stewart played tackle to start. Stewart redshirted, and then played tackle but can do both. Josh is obviously new this year. The rules and what you have this year, he can really soak in one thing and see what he can do. And then to me as we progress through this year, move him around.” NFL seemed to have a lot of mental errors, per Mullen. What’s your level of concern there? “I don’t think it’s a bunch of mental errors. Obviously the one thing is you haven’t played anyone else. We’re so, like I said earlier, the biggest thing in openers was we’re not playing our defense. We’ve had I don’t know how many practices now against our defense. Our kids kind of know what they’re doing. They can look at safeties. They can look at linebackers and say, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do.’ Now we’re coming into play a team that, it’s a new staff. You go, OK, what are they going to do? You’ve got to prepare for a number of things. To me, again, for us, the biggest thing we’re focusing on is do what we do and stay in our base fundamentals and we should be fine. “That’s what we have to do. We can't overthink and over-evaluated it because we don't know what they're doing. We have an idea, obviously, what they're going to be doing, but, to me, we’ve got to be able to just hang on our fundamental and hang on what we do as an offense to go there and not get caught up in anything more than to play three downs, four downs, we’re getting pressure. With our defense, I don’t think there’s one pressure we have not seen or any line stunt or line front that we haven't seen out of our defense, which, again, is great for us to see. Now, we go into this game and I can actually pull a couple things from one we’ve had in this camp. But again, each week they got to have a little bit of … they got to drop the, ‘Coach, last week they did this.’ Well, this team doesn't do that. So we're kind of going into the ending this week is start forgetting on defense. You’ve got to bank that and we’ve pull it out at one point. Once again, we got to talk so focusing on what we can bring this week coming up.” On Trask’s progress: “I can’t say he's come any farther because he’s doing the same things he did last year. I guess the head coach and Brian can answer more of those things. But I just look at he's done a great job obviously being a leader, the mental part of the game and what I see and what he does for us is just where his IDs, where his scheme, whether it's just being a leader in the huddle, being a leader on the line of scrimmage, wherever we're at, is just being a great leader and being a calm guy. He’s calm, cool, he’s collected, so he's never up and down, which I think is always great now as a group, to come that way with a year of experience. No one's too flustered about anything, and it starts at the quarterback not being flustered, ‘OK, that was my bad, let’s move on,’ whether it’s, ‘Hey, you’ve got to fix this’ or whether it’s a snap that’s off a little bit and it’s, ‘hey, snap here.’ So I think it's just a calming thing always having his back here. The rest of the stuff you can ask Coach Mullen or Brian about. I look at it as he’s gotten better at everything he’s done. But to me the great thing about watching him last year is he was very calm and just did his job. He did a great, great job managing for us.”

A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning: Sometimes the stats fudge things just a bit. In 2018, the Florida Gators averaged 213.5 yards per game rushing and averaged 5.27 yards per carry. In 2019, the Gators averaged 129.77 yards per game and 4.24 yards per carry, a significant drop off. The Gators ranked 27th nationally in 2018, just 107th in 2019. In 2018, quarterback Feleipe Franks ran for 350 positive yards on 110 carries to complement the 1-2 punch of Lamical Perine (826 yards, 6.16 per carry) and Jordan Scarlett (776 yards, 5.92 per carry). Franks went down with a season-ending injury in game three in 2019 after running for 68 yards on 21 carries. In his place, Kyle Trask netted 8 yards on 63 carries. Perine ran for 676 yards (5.12 per carry) and Dameon Pierce ran for 305 (5.65 per carry). Take Trask’s totals out of the equation and the Gators averaged 5.11 yards per carry, which is certainly more respectable. Some of the blame for the downturn in rushing could be placed at the feet of an inexperienced offensive line. Florida had four new starters and the unit came into the season with a collective 24 career starts. Trask certainly wasn’t as mobile as Franks but he was a more productive passer (Franks averaged 7.4 per pass attempt for 2,457 yards in 2018; Trask 8.3 for 2,941 in 2019). Since Trask wasn’t as mobile as Franks, Dan Mullen compensated by throwing more often. The Gators averaged more yards per game (430.5) than they did in 2018 (426.7), but they went about gaining the yardage differently. Fast forward to 2020 when Mullen actually has six returning starters on the O-line if you count Mississippi State grad transfer Stewart Reese, who actually started for Mullen at Mississippi State in 2017. Trask is back having gone 9-2 as a starter and while four receivers graduated, three of whom are active on NFL rosters, there should be no drop off in productivity in the passing game. The running game should be much improved. Perine is gone, but the Florida running back room is as deep as it has been in years. This is Pierce’s chance to take over as the number one guy, but Mullen has four other backs (Malik Davis, Lorenzo Lingard, Nay’Quan Wright and Iverson Clement), that will enable him to keep fresh legs in the game while taking advantage of their different skillsets. The name that intrigues is Lingard, a 6-0, 200-pounder who transferred in from Miami and got an NCAA waiver for immediate eligibility. Lingard might be the best combination of sprinter speed and power the Gators have had in years. He’s endeared himself to Mullen with his work ethic so far. “I think the one thing that I've been most impressed with him is his attitude and his work ethic,” Mullen said Monday. “I know he is a guy that was really a highly rated recruit out of high school, decided to transfer and transferred here. He is a guy that shows up and he works his tail off every day. He shows up on special teams. He plays hard and you see that he loves to play the game.” The quickest way to Mullen’s heart is a consistent level of effort and hard work. Lingard has proven himself already in those departments. “The thing that I have been the most impressed with is really his effort level and his attitude and approach to how hard he works every day,” Mullen said. “And he has worked on picking it up. He is very conscientious on picking the offense, even though, mentally he is a little behind some of the other guys that have more experience in the system.” Pierce may have shortcomings as a receiver but he’s a power runner who can accelerate and break away if he gets to the second level. Pair him with Lingard and Florida should have a 1-2 punch that is at least the rival of Perine and Scarlett in 2018. If Davis is healthy and has regained the lost step from three years of injuries, he adds a make-you-miss dimension. Wright has been impressive so far in camp and while we haven’t heard anything about Clement he looked good in his limited carries last year. It is a deep, impressive group of backs. In their preseason magazine, Lindy’s ranked Florida’s running backs ninth in the SEC while Athlon ranked them 11th. This group might not finish 2020 as the top-ranked unit in the SEC but they will finish much higher than ninth. Count on it. A FEW SEC NOTABLES: Neil Farrell, the LSU defensive lineman who opted out in August, is opting back in again … Alabama D-lineman Christian Barmore suffered a knee injury Saturday that is not considered serious. He should miss some time but will be back …Mike Griffith of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that D’Wan Mathis took most of the first team snaps at quarterback when Georgia scrimmaged Saturday … Still no decision by Will Muschamp on who will be South Carolina’s starting QB for the season opener. Incumbent starter Ryan Hilinski and Colorado State grad transfer Collin Hill are battling for the starting job … Texas A&M quarterback James Foster, who put his name in the NCAA transfer portal only to take it out, has put his name back in the portal. Also senior starter wide receiver and team captain Jhamon Ausbon has opted out for 2020 … Tae Daly, a two-year starter at safety for Vanderbilt, has entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal … It is thought that Auburn transfer QB Joey Gatewood has been given a waiver by the NCAA. Gatewood has to have a waiver from the SEC and that might come down to Kentucky agreeing that Gatewood won’t play against Auburn on September 26. STILL NO DECISION BY THE BIG TEN: “I say we’re all going to move together in the Big Ten. We’re all going to play or not if we possibly can. This isn’t going to be a school-by-school thing.” – University of Wisconsin chancellor Rebecca Blank Of course, for the Big Ten to play football and other fall sports, they actually have to take a vote. They could have done that Sunday. They didn’t. They could have done it Monday. Again, they didn’t. And who knows if they get around to voting anytime this week even though every day they delay makes playing football this fall next to impossible. Not only do coaches have to get their teams practicing and in football shape, but they have to figure out how many on their rosters are opting out or opting in. These are decisions that could have been made much easier back in August if the Big Ten had done the smart thing and set a target date for late September for a football start with the option of cancelling closer to the opening weekend. The decision to opt out is a case of Big Ten arrogance and Pac-12 stupidity. The league and its ignorant rookie commissioner Kevin Warren believed that nobody would play if the mighty Big Ten, supported by the Pac-12 said no go. When the Mountain West and Mid-American Conference also made the decision to cancel the Big Ten thought it was on its way to a mandate but that notion was crushed when the SEC, ACC, Big 12, American, Conference-USA and Sun Belt chose to play. The pressure to play won’t go away and only continues to mount now that we’ve had a couple of football weekends. The league has backed itself into a corner. If they decide to play, they’re admitting they were wrong. If they decide to continue to sit things out, their arrogance shows through. Either way it’s a can’t win situation that the Big Ten never envisioned. The Big Ten’s buddies over in the Pac-12 are thinking of playing but apparently they won’t even think about playing until the middle of November. A mid-November start would likely mean a split season with half played in 2020, the second half in March and April. That sounds like a recipe for total disaster. Since the two conferences are basically joined at the hip, it would only stand to reason the Pac-12’s announcement will have an impact on whatever decision is made by the Big Ten. Prediction: Even with most of the league’s 14 members likely to lose $100 million or more if football isn’t played this fall, the Big Ten will elect to stick with its decision to sit it out. HOW LOW WILL THINGS GO IN TALLAHASSEE?: These aren’t the glory days when it was St. Bob’s Home for Wayward Boys and Convicted Felons. The Seminoles are back to being plain old FSU and they’re looking a lot like the FSU that was before Bobby Bowden busted his butt when he slipped trying to pick up the newspaper on his snow-covered driveway in West Virginia back in 1975. Bobby decided that day to take the FSU job and he transformed the entire program into one that could win national titles. Mike Norvell is a very good football coach, good enough to turn things around but it won’t happen anytime soon and certainly not this year. The Seminoles are off this week before they go down to Miami on September 26. They have a winnable game against D1AA Jacksonville State and then it’s entirely possible they could lose every other game on a schedule that includes (at) Notre Dame, North Carolina, (at) Louisville, Pittsburgh, (at) North Carolina State, Clemson, Virginia and (at) Duke. If the Seminoles are lucky, a whole bunch of ACC teams will come down with the virus and they can opt out. Don’t be surprised with a 2-9 or 3-8 season. COUNTDOWN TO FIRING DAY UPDATE: Jay Hopson, formerly of Southern Miss, remains the only member of the Extinct Species List but it is still rather early and the financial impact of the virus-impeded season might make it difficult to fire coaches and pay their buyouts. Here are three coaches I expect to get a Covid-19 reprieve and hold onto their jobs no matter how badly things go south: (1) Derek Mason, Vanderbilt: The chardonnay and brie tailgate set thinks that because James Franklin went to three bowl games and actually won nine games that Vandy should do that every year. But firing is such a distasteful thing! So Mason can go 0-10 this year and he’ll still have a job. (2) Phil Montgomery, Tulsa: He’s still coaching because they couldn’t afford the buyout last year. He will be coaching next year because they still can’t afford it. (3) Dave Doeren, North Carolina State: Okay, he’s in the same division as Clemson but still, the folks who write the checks have expected more than 47-42 in eight years. AND A PITHY TUESDAY MORNING TO YOU, TOO: I tried to watch College Game Day on ESPN Saturday. They’re into giggles, pushing the BLM agenda and a teensy bit of actual football. Then I switched over to Fox Big Noon Saturday. What I wanted was football and that’s exactly what I got. ESPN doesn’t have anyone who can compete with Urban Meyer or the rest of the Fox guys when it comes to talking serious football. There is only so much giggling I can take … And while on the subject of game day, did you catch Rece Davis proclaiming Iowa State QB Brock Purdy as the best quarterback in the Big 12? He wasn’t even the best QB on the field Saturday when I-State got poleaxed by Louisiana-Lafayette. From what I saw of the Fun Belt Saturday, Purdy might not be top five in that conference. And I guess Rece hasn’t paid attention to Sam Ehlinger at Texas, who is pretty good. Just more reason to watch Big Noon Saturday … I’ve tried. I’ve really tried but no matter how much effort I put into it, there is only so much Todd McShay I can take. About three or four seconds on a good day.

A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning: The single most important week of practice for the 2020 football season beings today for Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators. A week from today, the Gators will go into their game-week preparations mode so contact will be limited and the focus will be on prepping for the next opponent, in this case Ole Miss in Oxford (September 26). If these were normal times, Mullen and his staff would be spending this final week of preseason practice finalizing the starters, the two-deep and rotations but the Covid-19 virus has made it an all hands on deck situation. Any player who’s healthy, upright and breathing has to be ready to go on a moment’s notice. Even before a weekend in which Oklahoma went into game one minus 17 players due to the virus and contact tracing protocols and Georgia Southern played (and won) minus 33 players, Mullen was readying his entire roster. Now, because the Gators will be on the road in game one, the travel roster will be limited, but that situation could be fluid right up to the time they board the plane for Oxford. Another area that Mullen and staff will have to deal with specifically this week is special teams. Iowa State, which was ranked 23rd nationally prior to its game with Louisiana-Lafayette, gave up a kickoff and punt return for touchdowns, turning a close game into a blowout upset win for the Ragin Cajuns. Georgia Tech managed to nudge out Florida State, 16-13, despite having an extra point and two field goals blocked. There were plenty of other special teams mishaps and much of that has to do with the decision to limit teams to 20 hours practice in the preseason. There was no spring practice and a limited number of practices leading up to game one, so in many cases special teams haven’t gotten the attention they normally get. “Special teams, tackling … special teams, just some of the execution, you have to cut back just because of the amount of time that was taken from us,” Mullen said a week ago. “Not just spring ball, but the amount of time in training camp that was taken away from us.” That Iowa State game, you can bet, got his attention but by nature Mullen is a detail guy who sweats every aspect of every game. He might not have the same amount of time that he would have had under normal circumstances, but if history has proven anything about Mullen it is that he will find a way to squeeze more emphasis into special teams this week while the Gators finish up their final week of full scale practice. GATORS MOVE UP TO 5TH IN AP; 6TH IN COACHES POLLS: Although the Gators don’t play for another 12 days, they still moved up in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls. The Gators moved up three spots to 5th in the Associated Press and two spots to 6th in the Coaches poll. These were the first polls taken since the Big Ten and Pac-12 opted out for the 2020 season. Six of the top ten teams in both polls come from the Southeastern Conference and eight SEC teams made the top 25. The ACC put seven teams in the top 25 but only two in the top ten. Thinking out loud about the polls: Are you as mystified as I am how Georgia remains fourth in both polls? Georgia was already overrated with Jamie Newman as the QB but now that he’s opted out, the QB is JT Daniels, who would have spent the year as Newman’s backup. I believe there is every good chance Georgia will already have two losses by the time the Poodles face the Gators in Jacksonville on November 7. The Poodles aren’t the only overrated team, just the one with the highest profile. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS TOP 25 POLL: (1) Clemson; (2) Alabama; (3) Oklahoma; (4) Georgia; (5) FLORIDA; (6) LSU; (7) Notre Dame; (8) Auburn; (9) Texas; (10) Texas A&M; (11) Oklahoma State; (12) North Carolina; (13) Cincinnati; (14) UCF; (15) Tennessee; (16) Memphis; (17) Miami; (18) Louisville; (19) Louisiana-Lafayette; (20) Virginia Tech; (21) BYU; (22) Army; (23) Kentucky; (24) Appalachian State; (25) Pittsburgh THE COACHES TOP 25 POLL: (1) Clemson; (2) Alabama; (3) Oklahoma; (4) Georgia; (5) LSU; (6) FLORIDA; (7) Notre Dame; (8) Texas; (9) Auburn; (10) Texas A&M; (11) North Carolina; (12) Oklahoma State; (13) UCF; (14) Cincinnati; (15) Memphis; (16) Louisville; (17) Tennessee; (18) Miami; (19) Virginia Tech; (20) Kentucky; (21) Louisiana-Lafayette; (22) BYU; (23) Appalachian State; (24) Baylor; (25) Army BIG DAY FOR CJ: Consider CJ Henderson’s NFL debut a resounding success after the former Gator intercepted a pass and broke up a fourth down pass to seal Jacksonville’s 27-24 win over the Indianapolis Colts. Henderson’s pick and 22-yard run back came off of Phillip Rivers and set up the Jaguars first touchdown of the game … It was a nice debut also for Freddie Swain, who recovered a fumble on special teams and caught a 17-yard pass for the Seattle Seahawks. Former Gator Quinton Dunbar also had five tackles in that game … Van Jefferson caught a 31-yard pass in his rookie debut with the Los Angeles Rams … Jon Bostic had eight tackles and a sack for the Washington Football Team … Former Gator Janoris Jenkins had a pick six of Tom Brady and nine tackles in the Saints win over Tampa Bay … Marcus Maye had 10 tackles and two sacks and Brian Poole had nine tackles and a sack although the Jets were taken down by Buffalo. THE TALLAHASSEE RENAISSANCE: The Seminoles played like they had gotten their football lessons via mail order and the mail was late, which is to say there will be no football renaissance at Florida State until (a) five offensive linemen are found that can block, (b) a quarterback is found with a functioning brain and (c) Mike Norvell can replace 75 percent of the roster he inherited with players that he has recruited. In their preseason magazine, Lindy’s picked the Seminoles third in the ACC Atlantic Division behind Clemson and Louisville while Athlon also had them third and Street and Smith had them fourth. Should FSU finish third in the division it will only be because once you get past Clemson, Notre Dame and perhaps Louisville and North Carolina, most of the ACC (Should we call it the All Clemson Conference?) teams will struggle. FSU’s offensive line, which gave up 48 sacks last year, is proof that a year older doesn’t make you a year better. The same can be said about James Blackman. When are they going to figure out in Tallahassee that you need a quarterback who is capable of making quick decisions? What Saturday should have pounded into Norvell’s brain is that he needs to clean house and the sooner the better. Norvell is a good coach, but he’s not a miracle worker. Not with the roster he inherited. NOT SOLD ON MIAMI: For all the talk about Houston grad transfer QB D’Eriq (15-23 for 144 passing yards, 12-83 rushing) in the Himmicanes’ 31-14 win over UAB, two things to remember: (1) He missed too many easy completions with bad throws and too often takes off running when there are throws to be made downfield; and (2) Rhett Lashlee is still the offensive coordinator. There is a reason Gus Malzahn sent Lashlee packing and the best job he could land after leaving was UConn. Let’s see how Miami does the next three weeks at Louisville, home against FSU and then at Clemson. If the Canes are 3-1 after the Clemson game, then they’re for real. If they’re 2-2 or 1-3, then Manny Diaz will be feeling the heat and Lashlee might want to start seeing if he and his wife can get an Amway distributorship going. THE SUN (BELT) IS RISING: The Sun Belt was the Fun Belt Saturday as Louisiana-Lafayette bushwhacked 23rd-ranked Iowa State, Arkansas State rallied past Kansas State and Coastal Carolina put a whomping on Les Miles and Kansas. A 3-0 day against the Big 12 is worth celebrating when you’re considered Division I’s bottom feeder conference. Meanwhile, Appalachian State, which is likely to spend the entire 2020 season ranked in the top 25, racked up 512 yards of offense (308 on the ground) as the Mounties yawned their way to a 35-20 win over Conference USA’s Charlotte. Oh, there will be all sorts of excuses about how none of this would have happened in a non-pandemic season or at midyear once the kinks are worked out, but Louisiana-Lafayette, Arkansas State, Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State were better coached and better prepared. In no way should their Saturday in the sunshine be downplayed. THE NOT SO BIG BIG 12: This is a Power 5 league which means there is absolutely no excuse that works for the Big 12 going 0-3 against the Fun Belt. None whatsoever. A 2-1 record against the Fun Belt would have been tough to explain away, but 0-3? The Big 12 certainly did its part to put a team from the Fun Belt, American Athletic Conference or Conference USA firmly in the thought process when it’s time to start considering who gets that fourth spot in the College Football Playoff. Then there is that matter of 40-point favorite Texas Tech escaping with a 35-33 win over D1AA bottom feeder Houston Baptist only because the Huskies missed a two-point conversion with 3:23 left in the game that might have sent the game into overtime. Big 12 apologists can point to Oklahoma and Texas opening their seasons by hanging a bunch of points on bad teams (Okie 48 on D1AA Mizzou State and Texas 59 on a UTEP team that should have opted out of 2020) but that can’t erase the league shame of doing an oh-fer against the Fun Belt. Baylor, Okie State and TCU all had their games postponed because of covid-19 but even if they had played and won it wouldn’t eliminate the stench of a bad opening weekend for the Not So Big Big 12. THE MONDAY MORNING FEELING PITHY CORNER: We think of Michigan as one of those schools whose athletic department will survive even without football this fall, but the expected budget shortfall for delaying until spring is expected to exceed $100 million. And you wonder why there is widespread panic throughout the Big Ten (Plus Four), enough that there are rumors that a re-vote will be taken with the intent of starting up the season in October. The Big 12 presidents did hold a meeting to talk about football Sunday but they didn’t hold a vote. Probably someone didn’t order enough Chardonnay, brie and green grapes and they were too busy arguing who was to blame ... Peyton Manning’s foundation has endowed six scholarships (four in Louisiana and two in Tennessee) to Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Among the scholarships were one in the name of Doug Williams to Grambling, another in the name of former Jacksonville Raines and Southern University star Harold Carmichael (member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame), and yet another in the name of Wilma Rudolph (Olympic gold medalist sprinter) at Tennessee State. Peyton’s generosity is well known but it makes me wonder why more former NFL, NBA and MLB stars who earned many, many millions don’t invest in their communities? … Sure, it’s only one game and one game does not a season make, but the fact the New England Patriots did just fine with Cam Newton at quarterback and the Tampa Bay Bucs got whacked by the New Orleans Saints with Tom Brady at QB is going to cause a lot of second guessing. Cam was 15-19 passing for 155 yards while running for 75 yards and two touchdowns in the Patriots’ 21-11 win over the Miami Dolphins. Brady was 23-36 passing for 239 yards and two TDPs, but he threw two interceptions including a pick six to former Gator Janoris Jenkins as the Bucs went down for the count, 34-23. Whether deserved or not, people will start asking if Brady can get it done without Bill Belichick, especially if he doesn’t rebound and win the next game in impressive fashion.

“The Dan Mullen rule, right?” The Florida Gators head coach was poised, ready and virtuously upset. He smirked, not knowing that the question had been coming but seemingly satisfied that it had, as if he’d hoped—maybe even prayed—that it would arise so he could justifiably assign ridicule and maybe even some vitriol at a new rule that felt personal. The “Dan Mullen Rule” as the coach has taken to calling it, is a new rule for college football pregame beginning this fall. It’s seemingly insignificant and most likely went unnoticed by the vast majority of coaches and football offices. But Dan Mullen noticed. And Dan Mullen had something to say. “The Dan Mullen rule, that is horrendously ridiculous.” The Pregame Warmup/Officials Jurisdiction rule—which is the official, albeit not as catchy name—was created this past winter, following the conclusion of the 2019 football season and before the coronavirus COVID-19 shut down in person meetings. It reads as follows: “The Rules Committee address issues of Unsportsmanlike behavior in the pregame and took steps to clean this action up. The officials’ jurisdiction will now begin at 90 minutes before kickoff (previously 60 minutes). “Additionally, when any Squad Member enters the playing enclosure prior to the game, the head coach or an assistant coach from that team must be present on the field. Furthermore, when any Squad Member is present within the playing enclosure after the officials’ jurisdiction, they must be wearing their jersey or have their numeral readily visible. Players without their numeral readily visible must leave the playing enclosure.” So what does all this legalese mean? To understand that, we went to Steve Shaw. A former college football official, Shaw became the CFO National Coordinator of Football Officials in March. He previously served the Southeastern Conference and Sun Belt Conference as coordinator of officials. He also serves as the Secretary-Rules Editor of the NCAA Football Rules Committee. "The rules committee reviewed several concerning trends in the pregame warmup period and viewed many video clips of issues that happened nationally before games," Shaw explained to GatorBait. "Many times these incidents took place before the officials took jurisdiction.  The changes to the pregame warmup period for 2020 are all woven together to create a better pregame experience, and are not directed in any way to one program, conference or area of the country." But why does it matter to Mullen? To understand that part of it, we have to go back to 2014. Mullen was head coach at Mississippi State. His players were preparing to head out for pregame warm-ups, and the bottom fell out. Not wanting to have their jersey’s and pads soaked before kick-off, they asked if they could warm-up in their shorts and t-shirts. Mullen didn’t see a problem with that given the situation and told them to go ahead. The players loved it. Warm-ups are glorified walk-throughs. There is stretching and light jogging. Linemen will lightly hit a goal post and receivers and defensive backs run shallow routes without another person in a 5-yard radius. It’s a way to get the heart rate going and put your body into the groove of running on the field. There may be one last run through of a play that has been difficult in practice, but never one that will tip a hand to the opponent and let them know the game plan. There is no reason necessary to have jersey’s, much less pads, on during this time. They can be heavy to wear for an entire game but crucial when on the field. But during warm-ups? They can be a nuisance. So when the Bulldog players asked the following week if they could warm-up in shorts and t-shirts again, Mullen didn’t see a problem. He also saw an advantage. “The weather deal, our kids loved it, so I think we just started doing it. And the administration loves it, we clear the field earlier, used to be more time for the band to go out and play, all that stuff.” Shockingly, clearing the field for the band is not the advantage. It’s holding your cards close before kick-off. Teams flood the field with their entire coaching staff before a game. Quality control assistants, position coaches, graduate assistants, everyone has a pad and pen and are jotting down any information that could possibly be exploited during the game. That includes knowing ahead of time if someone isn’t playing. If someone is injured or suspended or maybe just playing a different role one week, unless opponent coaches know their face, then without numbers, they can’t tell who is out there and who isn’t. Who is returning kicks and who isn’t. Who is running at corner and who is running at nickel. So on and so forth. The rule change said it was addressing “unsportsmanlike behavior in the pregame” which would allude to fights and scuffles. Officials need to know who is taking swings and throwing jabs and having numbers readily visible would seem to help. "I believe that the multiple adjustments to the rules for this year will positively impact the image of the sport," Shaw opines. "Coaches and officials being present will assist in limiting unsporting conduct and separating the teams more definitively will also assist.  The officials being able to identify players in the pregame will also be a part of the changes that are important.  These changes coupled with the changes in Rule 11-1, altering the time the officials take jurisdiction and further separating the teams are all intended to positively impact the pregame warmup period." But Mullen can’t help but think there were some more nefarious motives as well. “These staffs, people have like 75 quality control coaches that get all mad, because they can't, they've got like 30 guys that are trying to take notes.” Who do you think turned you in, Mullen was asked. He gave a pointed look and responded, “Who do you think?” The reporter quickly answered, “Georgia.” Mullen smirked. “You said it, not me. “Our guys…listen, it's not the game, I mean our guys, we know how we warm up, our guys like warming up how we warm up, so, but anyway. It is what it is.” It is what it is, but is it fair? Granted, given the way the rule is worded, the Gators will still be able to don the simple, lighter shorts and t-shirts. “We'll create something, we'll have some sort of T-shirt with numbers on it this year,” Mullen explained. But should they have to? He’s right; it’s not the game. There is something to the argument that officials need to know the players that get into pregame scuffles, although it’s an entirely different topic, arguing whether or not pregame discipline should carry over into the game from anyone other than the coach. Still, the biggest question there would have to be, how often have officials found themselves not knowing who started a fight versus how often opposing coaches have complained about a team not having numbers on during pregame? The answer to that question will decide whether or not this new rule is truly fair. Shaw says they have nothing to do with Mullen. "These rule changes are not directed at any team.  Coach Mullen, while at Mississippi State was an early adopter of players not wearing their full uniform in the pregame warmup period.  He brought this approach with him when he moved back to Florida.  This has now become a big trend in NCAA football, as more and more players are wearing something other than their game jersey for warmups." After sharing a video of Mullen reacting to the new rule, the responses were evenly split. Florida fans loved it, feeling their coach was standing up for himself and his players against what felt like a personal rule. Georgia fans thought it was ridiculous and Mullen was whining about something just to pitch a fit against a team he couldn’t beat. Florida State and Mississippi State fans were 50/50 on which side they agreed with, although a few former Mississippi State players did speak up, adding their agreement that switching to the shorts and t-shirts had made the entire day nicer for them. No matter its origins though, the rule is here to stay. It will heretofore be known as the Dan Mullen Rule, and it’s one Dan Mullen himself will follow…with his own twist. “I will abide by the Dan Mullen rule, I try to be a good soldier in the SEC, so I'll abide by the Dan Mullen rule, and we'll put some number somewhere.”

Florida Gators Safety coach Ron English returns three of his starters from 2019. He also receives a talented veteran who's moving back to an old position. On Thursday, he met with local media (virtually) to give insight into the safety rotation, detail what he wants out of his unit in the future, and brag on the strides made by Trey Dean. As a subscriber to Gator Bait Magazine, we are offering these full transcripts for reading. Looks at Zoom "This is pretty cool. In 30 years, this is a first now." How different is this year for you? "You know how it is, life is about attitude really, you know that. So, if you look at it that way, it's going to be hard for you. If you can kinda understand it's just going to be constant change then it's not as hard. But, the mask takes getting used to, but I've got a big mouth so I can navigate the mask. And then, you know, I just think the players are doing a really good job of handling all the curveballs." How much do you anticipate using the same rotation, how will it look without Jeawon Taylor? "I think it'll be, you know, it's still playing itself out. But, it may be a little bit different simply because we're in a situation where we have some older guys who are ahead of some of the younger guys. So it may not be quite the same, but again we'll try to keep the players as fresh as we can. So, I'm looking forward to see how it plays out. I think we have to be conscious of how guys are playing a little bit more, as opposed to, you know, when guys are kind of playing evenly you can play them that way, but when they're not, you might have to react a little differently." On safety rotation last year and guys returning: “Yeah, there were obviously some things that you guys didn’t know that happened that we haven’t put out there. I think whenever you look back and evaluate yourself you might see some things that you wish you did a little bit differently. You might see other things or you might want to do this a little more or that a little more. But I feel good about going into this season with these players because they’ve played a lot of football and they’re mature, they’re physically mature. You watch them practice, I mean, they’re pretty physical players right now and they’re smart and they’ve been around. I’m excited.” Mullen raving about young safeties, how are they coming along? “Rashad Torrence has been here the longest. He came to us in January. He got a 4.0 his first semester here, but he wasn’t able to go through spring ball, so that was kind of a little bit of a downer. But he’s probably the furthest along in the sense that he’s been around the longest. He just flashes; he makes plays. We certainly didn’t miss on him. He’s a really good football player. He’s mature, he’s smart, he’s conscientious, he’s everything you would want. I think our evaluation was right on there. With Mordecai (McDaniel), he is probably more athletic than I thought he would be. He’s a big guy. He’s going to be a big man, but he’s fast and athletic and explosive – even more so than I thought he would be, even with all the track times and all the things he did in that arena. And he’ll hit you, he’ll hit you. So I’m happy with him. Tre’Vez (Johnson) is coming along. He’s playing the star, so he’s had it the toughest because that position entails a lot of technique and a lot of learning. He’s so gifted in terms of his speed. I know you have heard the stories. We never got him over a 4.45 on any clock, any day that we timed him, not only here but on the road. And he’s got some toughness. So I like the guys and I just feel like we did a nice job of evaluation and we took the right guys.” How do you address social unrest with your guys? “Well I think you have to listen. You can’t assume you know how they feel or what they want to say or any of that. So I ask questions. I ask them questions and I try to listen and keep my mouth shut and let them fully answer. If there’s a debate or a conversation that takes place in that room, I let it play out. And I’m really supportive of the young people, because when you get older you may have different feelings. By that, I mean you might not react the same as they do. It’s like I was talking to of our young assistants today, and you know, when you’re young you kind of react to everything. Everything’s like the end of the world and it’s the biggest problem in the history of mankind and all that stuff. So, I just think I’m very sensitive to that and I want to be as supportive as I can while also trying to lend a little bit of guidance.” Changes seen in Stiner, Davis, how physical you expect them to be? “Well, they just, they just surprised me. They’re really physical. I don’t know, I told them because my background has been I like physicality, I preach it. They’re striking linemen and knocking them around. It’s just, they’re finally getting it - the technique of striking. Once you understand the technique and what leverage really is and what power really is and what force really is and you can apply it, it works for you. So I just think they’re going to be really, really physical. I just talk to them all the time about lowering their targets. I really do because you’re going to get kicked out, so you got to be smart, you got to lower your target, especially when violent and you start knocking guys around and officials respond to that, what they think they see.” Trey Dean’s reps at safety? “He’s getting more comfortable. He had his best scrimmage in the last scrimmage. I was really pleased with it. His tackling has improved, his physicality has improved, his technique has improved, so I’m pleased. He’ll help us this year both those spots. You know what really has improved about Trey Dean is managing his ego. He finally has learned and matured in the sense that he is really not arrogant like he was before. I think we all know when your arrogant you miss stuff and you don’t grow as quickly as you should if you were more humble. That’s one of the biggest thing he’s doing. He’s growing exponentially because he’s listening, which he didn’t always do that. And he’s matured and he’s humble. So I’m really proud of him and I’m really pleased.” Brad Stewart Jr had the least amount of snaps of your safeties last year. What have you seen from him? “Well you know, he missed four games, and so that’s kind of where the disparity of snaps was. All my—those three seniors that have played for me, they act like seniors. They act like guys who have been around, like guys who understand the system. Brad’s still out there, still making plays. I mean, he’s making plays, and we’re gonna move him around a little bit and I think it’s gonna be huge for our defense and I’m pleased with him.” Reports were that Trey Dean was hesitant to move to safety. Is that what you were referring to when talking about his ego? “No, no, that’s not what I’m talking about. But I can’t speak to his hesitancy or anything like that. I mean, these guys pretty much do what we ask them to do in terms of position switches and stuff like that and I think they know that we’ve had a track record of success with cross-training guys. Not only here, but certainly coach Grantham and other places, and in Mississippi State when we were all there together. So, you know, you look at John Abram, Abram played STAR for me, played free and strong all in the same games all the time. So yeah, we’re talking about a first-round draft pick, but we’re also talking about a guy who was looked at more favorably because he played multiple positions. So it’s not a hard sell for our guys. I mean, it’s not, because they see the value. But like I said, Trey’s gonna have a big year. I really think that, I really believe that in my heart and I really like the way he’s coming on.” A guy like Tre’Vez Johnson, not as much publicity but how much confidence in a freshman, what is his football IQ to get reps at that STAR position? "Well, like I was saying I don't think we missed on any of those evaluations, I think we were spot on. I think we got what we thought we were gonna get, I think those guys are gonna be really good players, all three of them. And then what he brings, his explosiveness, he can run. You know, he and he's tough, you know his you know his, his dad is a minor league baseball coach, you know, and is an instructor you know in professional baseball and his mom's a tough lady. So, um, you know, I like not only his speed but I like his toughness and he's gonna be, you know, you kind of recruit stars that, you know, it's kind of like a Chauncey [Garnder-Johnson] type of deal who could cover and do some things physically out there in space and I think he'll be able to do that.” The biggest responsibilities out there for a young player at the STAR position? "Well, let’s put it like this. Way back in Michigan, we always put our best player there so who played there? Well it was [Charles] Woodson, Ty Law and Marlin Jackson and Leon Hall and all all those guys are first round draft picks. So the position is not one to be taken lightly, A. And B, you know, there's multiple techniques to the position. And it's one of those things where you cannot allow yourself to get frustrated as you're learning it, you can't allow yourself to get down. And so, you know, the first couple days, he really struggled, I mean he struggled, because you know the other thing, you know, it's not only knowing what to do but then it’s being able to get your eyes to see the right things. Right. I mean, so the eye progression part of it, the thought process part of it, the disguise part of it, you know where are you supposed to be when you're supposed to be. There's a lot to that position. And that's probably why we call it the STAR. We call it the STAR because A, you're going to have a chance to be a star if you can play it well but B, it's a, it's a tough position.” Images floating around of how much Trey Dean has bulked up; how much will that help him play the safety spot? "Yeah, Trey you know he's cut up now. He's cut up. These guys, I mean these guys—for not having a spring and not being around Savage for very long, I mean they look pretty good, they're pretty stout looking dudes. I'm always on them about you know if you go look at a pro guy, those pro guys don’t, you know they're lean. That was when I first started having a bunch of NFL DB’s, I was all, when they come back from the NFL, they don't look the same. They look skinny man, they look lean. Because there it’s about the ability to run and stuff like that. So I always talk to the guys about make sure you’re lean, body fat wise and stuff like that. But no, Trey, he’s jacked up, he looks pretty good. And Shawn, I was looking at him and I’m like ‘geez.’ He’s got a bit ole back on him, arms and all that stuff. Now DB’s don’t use all that stuff but I guess it’s good.” Who convinced you to get in the car with Hova and your hat game? “Well, first off, let’s start with the hat game. The hat game’s here because of the loss of my hair, which I hate. I hate not having hair, so I got to be clean shaven because I don’t have any hair, so, the next best thing is what? Hats. I don’t even really like the bald head look really but, so I got my hat game going, and secondly I was just driving in my car –– well it’s my wife’s car actually, which is a whole ‘nother story, but it’s a ‘69 Mercury Marquis –– and then our graphic design guy, Kevin (Camps), was like ‘I’m gonna take some pictures, get here so we can take some pictures’ and of course we’re taking pictures, and Hova’s got to jump in and get in the pictures, so he jumps in and there we go. And then people were like ‘I thought that was Photoshop, man!’ and I’m like ‘Nah, man,  this is –– you look at the license plate, this is the ‘69 hooptie she calls it. And if I didn’t drive it, it would probably not start, because she never drives the darn thing. But it’s fun to drive.” Well, you made it go viral “Well, Kevin made it go viral. But I appreciate that. Hey, we got to get one more to fill it up, then it will really go viral.” That Mercury Marquis doesn’t fit in the garage, does it? “It fits, man. Barely. I mean barely. I’ve gotta be careful in the front and in the back.” This game will humble you in a hurry, what do you think humbled Trey Dean? “I think it’s maturity and age and believe it or not, it’s confidence. Some people, they get arrogant or cocky because deep down they’re not confident. You see that in all walks of life all the time. I think it’s maturity. I keep telling him, I’ve been in this game for 30 years and I see when you think you have all the answers, good luck with that. It’s like that (Rudyard) Kipling poem, treat those two imposters just the same. Victory, defeat, or whatever it’s just a perception and an illusion cause it's all short-lived. If you want to play in the NFL you better get better all the time or you’re not going to have a job. Now we see that all the time. That’s why I was saying the other day the players were like, whatever, LeBron James is insane because he’s 35 — I won money on that bet. Everyone was like, ah he’s 31, no, he’s 35. His hand is still at the top of the square and his head is still at the rim. I don’t care what you say, 35 years old man, and plus he’s been playing, what since he’s 18 or something crazy. I just try to always tell these players, look, you gotta always get better if you want to keep your job. That’s my coaching for them.” Challenges of cross-training players? “You know what, they have to really receive it and they have to really see the value in it. I don’t think it’s hard to sell. I think you have to, first off, if you’re doing that with a guy he’s probably pretty bright. He’s probably a guy who can handle it because you’ve made that decision that, ok I can teach this guy at multiple spots, which means you think he can handle it. What I try to do is and a guy, Lloyd Carr gave me the greatest compliment one time; he said Ron can make the complex simple. That’s really what I’m trying to do when I’m teaching a guy. I’m trying to make the complex as simple as I can.”

A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning: Under normal circumstances, Dan Mullen might be looking to bring some of his freshmen along slowly since he has a veteran roster with 18 scholarship seniors and another 4-5 underclassmen who could declare for the NFL. These are anything but normal times, however. The Covid-19 virus has changed the way Mullen does business and he’s going with an all hands on deck policy in practice. “Everybody gets a lot of reps and a lot of that is for these scenarios, to get as many guys ready to play as possible,” Mullen said earlier in the week. “And that could be a huge factor this season. I can’t tell you how many guys are going to have to play this year for us.” All you have to do is look at what happened in Knoxville last Saturday when Tennessee HBC Jeremy Pruitt had to cancel a planned scrimmage because 44 players either had the virus or were held out because of contact tracing. While Florida hasn’t had the huge outbreaks, Mullen knows he has no choice but to get as many players as ready as possible for the Gators’ 10-game schedule that begins in two weeks on the road at Ole Miss. Much of the credit for the lack of positive tests – only one so far in September – has to go to Florida’s outstanding medical staff which has put exceptional precautions into place but to some extent luck is also involved. All that could change in a matter of a day or two and Mullen might be faced with trying to get through practice minus a significant number of players for anywhere from a couple of days to an extended amount of time. Heading into the weekend, the Gators have scrimmaged twice, both times without the kind of crispness Mullen would like to see but that might have something to do with trying to get as many reps as possible for all his scholarship athletes from the most to the least experienced. “I am pleased after two scrimmages to see that you do see some young guys coming along,” Mullen said. “We talk a lot about that. Are we making sure we’re continuing to accelerate these guys because you don’t know when we might have to call on their number to get them into a game? Your travel squad for Week 1 and your travel squad for Week 5 could be a completely different roster, so we have to get as many guys ready as possible.” Adding to the difficulty of getting as many players ready as possible has been the limitations on practice time. "You're looking at training camp where it really goes from unlimited hours, with one day off a week, and that day you're allowed two hours of film to 20 hours a week,” Mullen said. “In a normal training camp you’re probably, you’ve got about half of what you normally would do. You had to really look at where you’re going to cut.” The reduction in practice time, film sessions and strength and conditioning workouts have forced Mullen to change everything in the preseason training schedule. “You’re looking at a normal day, maybe you practice in the morning and you have a recovery lift in the afternoon while you’re watching some film,” Mullen said. “All that time, a bunch of walkthrough times gets eliminated. A lot of little teaching and all that stuff. You went from having a training camp to basically have an in-season schedule. In season we’re 20 hours a week. Training camp you’re not. It essentially eliminated training camp altogether. That’s the easiest way to put it.” SOME SEC FOOTBALL STUFF ALABAMA: Evan O’Neal, who got 13 starts at guard last year as a true freshman is a shell of his former self. The 6-7 O’Neal tips the scales at 355, down 30 from his playing weight of 2019. ARKANSAS: Per WholeHogSports.com, Florida grad transfer QB Feleipe Franks has become more of a vocal leader in the past few practices, much to the pleasure of HBC Sam Pittman. “Expectations of your team have to start with your head coach, but it has to trickle down, and one of those positions has to be your quarterback,” Pittman said. AUBURN: Auburn is so inexperienced on the offensive line that Akron transfer Brandon Council is projected to start. Council is working out at both left guard and left tackle. The Tigers are hoping to get a good idea who their starters will be after Saturday’s scrimmage. GEORGIA: Georgia will allow 23,000 fans into Sanford Stadium plus allow tailgating for ticketed fans. Let’s see how they enforce that rule. KENTUCKY: Commonwealth Stadium will be limited to 12,000 this fall. Skyboxes will be limited to 10 fans. No tailgating will be allowed. LSU: True freshman tight end Arik Gilbert is already turning heads in LSU practices. The 6-5, 260-pounder is called a “freak of nature” by wide receiver Terrance Marshall. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Stanford grad transfer KJ Costello, who is expected to be named the starting QB, was the third ranked pro-style QB in the 2015 recruiting class. Ranked ahead of him were Jacob Eason (signed with Georgia, transferred to Washington) and Shea Patterson (signed with Ole Miss, transferred to Michigan) … Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott, who played QB for Dan Mullen from 2011-14, says when he was a high school senior in Bogalusa, Louisiana that LSU offered him a scholarship as a tight end. You think Prescott might have fared better than Zach Mettenberger (2011-13) or Brandon Harris (2014)? MISSOURI: The 2020 captains will be running back Larry Rountree III, O-lineman Case Cook and linebacker Nick Bolton. OLE MISS: Senior defensive back Jaylon Jones is the winner of the 2020 Chucky Mullins Award. Jones will wear Mullins’ #38 jersey this season. SOUTH CAROLINA: Freshman center Trai Jones will be out for awhile after undergoing ankle surgery. Jones injured his ankle in a scrimmage last Saturday. TENNESSEE: Georgia transfer offensive tackle Cade Mays, whose application for a waiver from the NCAA was denied, has hired an attorney to expedite the appeal process. Mays originally hired well-known attorney Tom Mars to represent him, but this latest appeal was filed by Greg Isaacson. TEXAS A&M: Matt Zenitz of Al.com reports that quarterback James Foster has withdrawn his name from the NCAA transfer portal. Foster is a redshirt sophomore who completed two passes for 25 yards and ran for 17 yards as the third string QB in 2019. VANDERBILT: The combination of a large buyout and the reluctance of Vanderbilt to fire coaches could be the saving grace for HBC Derek Mason. The Commodores, who don’t have a quarterback who has ever taken a Division I snap, could very easily go 0-10. Mason is 27-47 in his six seasons on the job. BRADY SINGER FLIRTS WITH A NO-HITTER: If Kansas City Royals manager Mike Matheny hadn’t put on an infield shift with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning Thursday night, former Gator Brady Singer might have become the 36th rookie pitcher in the big leagues to throw a no-hitter. Right-handed hitting Austin Hedges fisted a 93-mph fastball for a single where the second baseman would normally position himself ending Singer’s bid. That Matheny felt it necessary to put the shift on Hedges might qualify as one of the shortened Major League Baseball season’s biggest brain farts. Hedges is a .148 hitter who had two hits in his last 19 at bats coming into the game. His eighth inning hit off Singer would have been an easy out if the infield had been playing it straight up. In the longest outing of his MLB career, Singer (2-4, 4.66 ERA) struck out eight and walked only one. ALL SORTS OF FRIDAY PITHINESS: Earlier in the week Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated wrote that Jon Duncan, the NCAA Director of Enforcement, has in his possession information that implicates LSU basketball coach Will Wade offering or providing impermissible benefits including cash payments to “at least 11 men's basketball prospective student-athletes, their family members, individuals associated with the prospects and/or non-scholastic coaches in exchange for the prospects' enrollment at LSU.” Translation: A whole lotta cheatin’ going on at LSU. That Wade cheats isn’t anything the whole world doesn’t already know, but what makes this particularly juicy is there is an investigation going on regarding LSU football and a rogue booster. The basketball violations alone are enough to merit the dreaded Lack of Institutional Control but add football violations and LSU could be in a heap of trouble that it won’t get out of anytime soon … Ohio State football coach Ryan Day, who was a Florida grad assistant in Urban Meyer’s first two years on the job in Gainesville, put out a tweet that read: “Our players want to know: Why can’t they play?” Well, I have a theory about that. I believe that when the Big Ten elected to cancel fall sports idiot rookie commissioner Kevin Warren and 11 of the 14 school presidents thought the other four power conferences wouldn’t dare play football without the Big Ten. Memo to the Big Ten: The sun doesn’t rise and set with your conference, which, by the way, has won exactly two (count ‘em) national championships in football since 2000 … Maybe my older eyes are playing tricks on me but the Covid-19 virus-reduced crowd at Hard Rock Stadium last night didn’t look much different than the normal home crowd for the Miami Hurricanes … Skip Bayless, the sports radio talk show host that some call Skip Brainless, is catching plenty of heat for remarks criticizing Dallas Cowboys QB Dak Prescott for talking openly about battling depression after the suicide of his brother. I would call Bayless a certifiable idiot but that would be an insult to every certifiable idiot I’ve ever known … Prior to the NFL opener between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans Thursday night, there were demonstrations during the playing of the National Anthem. The Texans elected to stay in the locker room while the anthem was played. I’m sure there will be similar demonstrations before every NFL game this weekend. I wouldn’t be surprised if record numbers of fans demonstrate against the NFL by turning off their television sets. ONE FINAL THOUGHT: Do you remember where you were and what you were doing 19 years ago today? I'm still almost moved to tears whenever I see the film and photos of those planes crashing into the Twin Towers in New York City that morning. I have friends who lost their lives that day and other friends who had family members who died trying to save lives. I've had two moments in my life when life as I knew it changed dramatically: November 22, 1963 when John Kennedy was assassinated and September 11, 2001 when America was attacked by radical extremists.

Buddy’s Blog: 2020 is not your everyday, average, garden variety, run-of-the mill, grandfather’s football season. The way things are going in 2020, I expect Weird Al Yankovic to be coach of the year, South Alabama to win the national championship over the Florida Gators because Dan Mullen has only 15 players still standing and the title game to be played on the deck of a newly named aircraft carrier in Mayport. And if South Alabama wins, I hope the Jaguars don't have to put an asterisk on their championship. It's just weird, man. Remember, this is a shortened 2020 season that we don’t even know yet will be completed, played only among the SEC family, excluding 75 per cent of the fans, with pumped in fan noise, no tailgating – but maybe cheerleaders and a band – but not mascots like UGA (the bulldog). Some are even contending that no national championship should even be awarded. Wrong! We all get it — the coaches and players of the Big Ten and Pac 12 are getting screwed out of playing the game they love so passionately, through no fault of their own. Sorry about your bad luck Buckeyes and Wolverines and Trojans and Ducks, but no need to deprive those who DO play. Not only should there certainly be a season played and a national championship awarded without an asterisk. There should be 20 of these !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The SEC shouldn’t gloat, but if Commissioner Greg Sankey pulls off a successful 2020 without a major health care travesty, I’m recommending we place his name in nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. The SEC shouldn’t gloat, but if SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey pulls off a successful 2020 without a major health care travesty, I’m also recommending we place his name in nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize. And college football will suddenly have a candidate to become their first czar to overlord the NCAA, Power Five and the CFB Playoff Committee, which would have problems making a decision to yell “Fire!” if their homes were enveloped in flames. No matter, if it lasts only a few weeks, Sankey will be known as the guy who saved the SEC and college football – and maybe they’ll name that new aircraft carrier The Unsinkable USS Greg Sankey. For the Florida Gators and Dan Mullen, this is no small accomplishment. With every Zoom press conference – and the media has recently been besieged with a whole spate of them, thankfully – I am hearing more and more reason to be optimistic that Mullen’s team is ready for whatever comes, in addition to being talented, committed, focused and in good health physically and mentally. Dan has a Plan. Meanwhile, some arrogant, elitist, condescending hierarchy in certain conferences are looking down their noses with haughty disdain at the SEC like it a leave of buffoons and yahoos who are willing to sacrifice young men on the altar of college football. The Big Ten is scrambling, full of acrimony and on the verge of insurrection among parents, players and fans who wonder why their people didn’t get the same memo that Sankey got about showing restraint before pulling they plug. So how is the working so far? And now they’re trying to figure out how all the king’s horses and all the king’s men can find some way to put a Humpty Dumpty season together again. Ryan Day of Ohio State has expressed his disappointment in the Big Ten's lack of leaderhip. And the latest to rip his confernece was James Franklin of Penn State, who went on TV Thursday and said: “We just haven’t gotten great communication from the beginning. We’ve never really been told or understood why the season was shut down in the first place, and there hasn’t been a whole lot of communication since. When I say communication, we’ve had meetings, but I’m talking about really understanding ‘why’ and ‘what’ and ‘how we got here.’” These days you’ve got some of those same people, washed up on the beach, casting aspersions of those who DID get the memo from their leaders, accusing them as uninformed and reckiless. Meanwhile, the SEC is poised to brandish the most powerful display of football supremacy in the history of the game. After which, how will the fans ever let the game go back to creampuffs after a season of filet mignon? We asked Dan Mullen’s newest staff member, tight end coach Tim Brewster, whether there should be a trophy and a title at the end of this season. “People are saying a 10-game season is not a true test of football relative to a national championship. What would you say to that?” “Well, it depends on the company I was in,” said Brewster. “I would say this: We play in the toughest football conference in America, bar none. There’s no question about that. I think everybody would agree to that. We’re going to play a 10-game SEC schedule. We’re going to play an extremely challenging and extremely tough schedule. We’re going to come out of that and hopefully represent the SEC East in the SEC Championship Game. I think of these young guys to take this thing to the house and win ‘em all, they no question should be the national champions and be damn proud about it.” Some people want an asterisk after it, some want 20 exclamation points, saying it’s even harder to win it all: “Now, I agree with that,” Brewster fired back. “A 10-game SEC schedule! We’ve got no preseason games. I mean, we jump out there on Sept. 26 against Ole Miss and … it’s going to be like the National Football League, where each week you’re running the gauntlet. OK? You’re playing a well-coached, tough, great roster on every football team in this conference. So, yeah. I would not agree at all with somebody who tried to dismiss the fact that it maybe is somewhat of a shortened season.” Buttoned up programs with buttoned up coaches like Nick Saban, Dan Mullen, Kirby Smart and maybe Jimbo Fisher and Gus Malzahn will be the ones to watch. Along, of course, those who have extraordinary medical staffs and facilities best able to cope with the vagaries of Mother Nature. Buttoned up programs with buttoned up coaches like Nick Saban, Dan Mullen, Kirby Smart and maybe Jimbo Fisher and Gus Malzahn will be the ones to watch. Along, of course, those who have extraordinary medical staffs and facilities best able to cope with the vagaries of Mother Nature. On the latter, Florida gets an A-plus to date. Only one positive Covid-19 player in the past two months -- player and condition unknown. What it portends is anybody’s guess, but Mullen’s report certainly looks favorable among those others who have upwards of 30-40 players missing for some practices. It’s the wrong time and bad optics to be beating your chest, or even your drums just yet. Most coaches, players and fans are just grateful that football is underway and it looks like even money that we’ll reach the opening weekend when the Gators travel to the quaint village of Oxford, Miss. Grateful for the season, even if Weird Al Jankovic is Coach of the Year.