THINKING OUT LOUD ON WEDNESDAY 1. Bill Bender, the college football writer for Sporting News, says only five teams have a realistic shot at winning the 2020 national championship: Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama, Georgia and LSU. I think everyone can agree with the first three on that list. Clemson has won or played for the national championship four times in the last five years and has all-interplanetary QB Trevor Lawrence returning. Ohio State lost 10 players to the draft but returns QB Justin Fields. Alabama may have lost Tua and nine players to the draft, but Nick Saban never rebuilds. He merely reloads. The two I can’t agree with are Georgia and LSU. Let’s start with Georgia. Sure, the Bulldogs will have a stout defense and this will be year four of the national media’s love affair with Kirby Smart so there will be plenty of hype, but let’s douse the hype with an ice-cold bucket of reality water. There was no spring practice for a team that lost four starting offensive linemen and a three-year starter at QB. The new offensive coordinator (Todd Monken) didn’t have spring practice to implement a revamped offense or the opportunity to work with Wake Forest Gump grad transfer QB Jamie Newman, who will have a chance to become the most overhyped quarterback we’ve seen in college football since Ron Powlus became the poster child for mediocrity from 1994-97. All of this adds up to a team that not only isn’t going to contend for the national championship but may not even contend for the SEC East. I can see three losses in Georgia’s future. As for LSU, I have to wonder out loud did Bill Bender not watch the NFL Draft? Fourteen Tigers heard their names called, five of them in the first round and the top draft pick of all was QB Joe Burrow. I think Myles Brennan has a great arm, but he is not Joe Burrow, plus he will be learning his third offensive system in three years. LSU is going to lose a couple of games this year and will be back in contention in 2021. This year? Not going to happen. So who do I think will contend along with Clemson, Ohio State and Alabama? For one, I believe this is the year Dan Mullen was pointing to when he took the Florida job. He’s rebuilt the roster so there is talent and depth at every position and he has the SEC’s leading passer back in Kyle Trask. The O-line returns four starters and will be much improved. Tight end Kyle Pitts and wide receiver Trevon Grimes are going to have monster years. As for the defense? I’ve got one word for you. Nasty. Brenton Cox Jr. on one side and Mohamoud Diabate on the other are going to make life miserable for opposing QBs. Florida’s secondary will be as good as there is in college football. The Gators are going to win the SEC East and they’ve got a great shot to beat whoever emerges out of the West. My fifth contender is Texas A&M. If there is a team capable of beating both Alabama and LSU in the West, it’s the Aggies. Just as Mullen targeted 2020 as the year of the Gators, Jimbo Fisher has targeted 2020 as an Aggie kind of year. Kellen Mond will be a fourth-year starter at QB, his third under Jimbo, and the defense no longer will be the youngest in the conference. As for teams on the outside looking in, my three would be Penn State, Southern Cal and Oklahoma. 2. I remain convinced college football will be played in the fall, almost certainly with a 10-game schedule. I think camps will open August 1 and the season will open on September 19, giving everybody six weeks to prepare. Since players have missed their spring and summer conditioning, I think the NCAA will mandate 10-14 days of conditioning and another 10-14 days before full contact is allowed. I do not believe there will be any attempt to expand the playoffs this year or even next. This will be the seventh year of a 4-team College Football Playoff on ESPN so there is no hurry by the network to add another weekend of games. The only way I can see a move to expand the playoff in the next couple of years will be if congress gets involved and demands better access for the Group of Five to the playoffs. What I would really like to see is for the Group of Five to have its own playoff. That would give teams at the bottom feeder conferences a chance to have a national championship of their own, earned on the field and not just something declared by the UCF athletic director. 3. Since I am convinced we will have college football in the fall it’s never too early to come out with a ranking for each SEC division as well as contenders for players of the year on both sides of the football. SEC East: (1) FLORIDA; (2) Georgia; (3) Kentucky; (4) South Carolina; (5) Tennessee; (6) Missouri; (7) Vanderbilt. SEC West: (1) Alabama; (2) Texas A&M; (3) LSU; (4) Auburn; (5) Ole Miss; (6) Mississippi State; (7) Arkansas. Never-too-early SEC Offensive Player of the Year contenders: (1) Kyle Trask, Florida; (2) Najee Harris, Alabama; (3) Kellen Mond, Texas A&M; (4) Ja’Marr Chase, LSU; (5) Terry Wilson, Kentucky. Never-too-early SEC Defensive Player of the Year contenders: (1) Dylan Moses, Alabama; (2) Darryl Stingley Jr., LSU; (3) Brenton Cox Jr., Florida; (4) Nolan Smith, Georgia; (5) K.J. Britt, Auburn 4. Joe Burrow is reportedly about to sign a four-year deal with the Cincinnati Bengals (fifth year option) for $36 million with $24 million up front as a signing bonus. Not bad for a guy who Mel Kiper Jr. admitted was thought to be a sixth or seventh rounder prior to the start of the 2019 season. I didn’t see a Heisman Trophy or national championship season coming for Burrow, but I did think he got a bum rap among the media for his 2018 season. He arrived at LSU In August, learned the offense on the fly and accounted for 23 touchdowns (16 passing and 7 rushing) while leading the Tigers to a 10-3 record. I thought he would be much better in 2019, but who could have guessed he would account for 6.039 yards of offense and 65 touchdowns (60 passing, 5 rushing)? What Burrow did in 2019 is the perfect example of what happens when a coach tailors the offense to the personnel. Give Coach O a lot of credit for essentially reinventing himself by making a radical change in offensive philosophy to fit what his personnel could do best. 5. On May 24, the NCAA will allegedly vote on and approve a rule that will give a one-time waiver to first-time transfers in any NCAA sport. Although some are calling this an unmitigated disaster waiting to happen, I’m in favor of the rule. I am of the opinion that if a coach has the right to leave a team for a new job without having to sit out a year, then players should have the same right as well. One of the reasons I’m all for the new rule is to put an end to the waiver process that’s been in place the last three or four years when kids (like Justin Fields to Ohio State or Shea Patterson to Michigan for example) who could afford good legal representation got their waivers simply by threatening to sue the NCAA while deserving kids (like former Georgia tight end Luke Ford) were denied. Level the playing field for everyone is the only way to handle it. If there is a flaw to the rule it is that kids who are standouts at a smaller school in a Group of Five conference might shop his talents to a Power Five school where he can play immediately. Group of Five schools might see themselves as farm clubs for the big boys, but by the same token, those Group of Fives could get talented kids from the power conferences who just need a change of scenery. My expectation is that we’ll see three or four Florida football players announce they are transferring as soon as the new rule goes in place. We may also see some very talented kids at schools that have no hope of competing for a championship elect to transfer to UF. I will be eager to see how the SEC reacts to the new rule. Currently, a player transferring within the conference has to get a waiver both from the NCAA and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey for immediate eligibility, but with the new rule will the SEC still require the commish to sign off on any transfer from one SEC school to another? Last, will we see basketball players at schools like LSU, Kansas, Arizona, Creighton, Oregon, Southern Cal and Louisville, which face serious NCAA sanctions, do their rats from a sinking ship routine and leave for say, Kentucky, which has five open scholarships?

IT’S THE SEC AND THEN EVERYBODY ELSE: ANY QUESTIONS? There is nothing like an NFL Draft to put to rest any of those jealousy inspired rumors that other leagues are starting to close ground on the Southeastern Conference. Although the SEC didn’t beat the 2019 record of 64 selections, the 63 players chosen over the weekend is a full 15 more than the second place Big Ten and 31 more than the third place Pac-12. To put in better perspective, the Atlantic Coast Conference, which does indeed feature Clemson, which has won two national championships and finished second twice in the last five years, had only 27 taken, 20 if you minus out the seven from Clemson who were taken. Florida State had one player taken, which is one less than such traditional powerhouses as Florida International, Tulsa, Wyoming and Georgia Southern. Yes, that’s right. Georgia Southern had more players drafted (2) than FSU. If you add just LSU (14), Alabama (9), Florida (7) and Georgia (7) together you have more players taken than the Pac-12 (31) and ACC (27). LSU and Alabama combined for more draft picks than the entire Big 12 (21). Florida’s draftees were: C.J. Henderson, CB: Round 1, pick 9, Jacksonville Van Jefferson, WR: Round 2, pick 25, Los Angeles Rams Jabari Zuniga, EDGE: Round 3, pick 15, New York Jets Jonathan Greenard, EDGE: Round 3, pick 26, Houston Lamical Perine, RB: Round 4, pick 14, New York Jets Freddie Swain, WR: Round 6, pick 35, Seattle Tyrie Cleveland, WR: Round 7, pick 38, Denver Signing free agent contracts from UF were punter Tommy Townsend (Kansas City), wide receiver Josh Hammond (Jacksonville), defensive tackle Adam Shuler (Arizona) and linebacker David Reese (Carolina). Former Gator Kylan Johnson, who transferred to Pitt, signed a free agent deal with Miami and former Gator Chris Williamson, who transferred to Minnesota, signed a free agent deal with the New York Giants. ALL QUIET ON THE UF HOOPS FRONT? ARE YOU KIDDING? Just when it seemed that everything was quiet and manageable on the Florida basketball front, life got seriously complicated for UF coach Mike White. Sunday it was announced rising junior Andrew Nembhard would be testing the NBA draft waters. He did it last year so it’s not exactly a shocker that he elected to do it again this spring although there is far more likelihood that he will be leaving now than there was in 2019. The Nembhard announcement was just a sign of things to come, however. Later Sunday, rising sophomore Tre Mann announced that he will put his name in the draft. That was unexpected but since he’s not retaining an agent, it is essentially a request from the NBA to tell him what he needs to be draftable after the 2020-21 season. Whereas you can etch it in stone that Tre Mann will return for his sophomore year, it’s 50-50 – and that might be a stretch – whether Nembhard returns. Unless a whole lot changes between now and whenever the NBA elects to draft, Nembhard isn’t going to go in either the first or second rounds but by declaring he can also gauge the interest of teams in the European leagues and that is where he may very well wind up next year. Nembhard’s game in so many ways is similar to that of former Gator Nick Calathes, who pulls in excess of $3 million a year as the superstar point guard of Greek League powerhouse Panathinaikos. Mann isn’t going anywhere. He’ll get evaluations from the NBA and if things open up on the COVID-19 front, he might get a chance to do some workouts for the NBA scouts. They’ll tell him he needs to get physically stronger and learn to play through contact among other things, but at the end of the summer, Mann will be back in Gainesville and safely in the UF fold. Then came the announcement that Michigan big man Colin Castleton (6-11, 235) is transferring to the University of Florida. He played just under eight minutes a game for the Wolverines in 2019-20, averaging 3.1 points and 2.4 rebounds per game. With the NCAA expected to vote on and approve a one-time no holds barred waiver for first time transfers, Castleton should be eligible immediately. Castleton signed with John Beilein out of Father Lopez in Dayton Beach in 2018. He seemed a very good fit for the Beilein system but that changed when Beilein left for the Cleveland Cavaliers job (he was fired early in the season). Castleton was not a good fit for Juwan Howard and needed a new place to start over. Florida, because of its proximity to Daytona Beach, was the logical choice but that also creates a problem. Unless Nembhard elects to go pro somewhere, the Gators are one over the NCAA limit of 13 on scholarship. The fact that the Gators are accepting a transfer should tell you that the Florida staff expects Nembhard or someone else to leave. As if that wasn’t enough basketball news, Ernest Ross (6-10, 210, Alachua, FL Santa Fe) announced that he’s committed to North Carolina State. Basically, there is no room in the Florida inn for Ross with the Castleton transfer but White expects to lose two or perhaps three off next season’s roster (Scottie Lewis and Keyontae Johnson almost certainly) so there will be incoming freshmen or transfers. With Ross off the board, Florida’s big man target is expected to be Warren Lynn Kidd (6-10, 220, Gainesville, FL/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy). Kidd is a Gainesville native who began his high school career playing locally at The Rock. He’s a 4-star prospect who was considered a fast riser before COVID-19 shut down the camp and AAU circuits. Kidd is rated the #17 center nationally by 247Sports. The Gators are also considered the leader for Kowacie Reeves (6-6, 180, Macon, GA Westside), ranked by 247Sports as a 4-star prospect and the #5 combo guard in the country. Florida’s point guard target is expected to be Ryan Nembhard (6-1, 160, Aurora, Ontario/Montverde, FL Montverde Academy), Andrew’s younger brother. The UF roster as of April 27, 2020 Redshirt juniors (2): Anthony Dujuri (6-8, 220); Tyree Appleby (6-1, 165) Juniors (5): Keyontae Johnson (6-5, 235); Andrew Nembhard (6-5, 193); Noah Locke (6-3, 202); Osayi Osifo (6-8, 210, Juco TR); Colin Castleton (6-11, 235, TR) Sophomores (5): Scottie Lewis (6-5, 180); Tre Mann (6-4, 180); Omar Payne (6-10, 225); Jason Jitoboh (6-11, 280); Jacques Glover (5-11, 170) Freshmen (2): Samson Ruzhenstsev (6-8, 205); Niels Lane (6-5, 195) RODNEY DANGERFIELD AWARD: JAKE FROMM STATE FARM Heading into the NFL Draft, it was thought Georgia QB Jake Fromm had an NFL mind and a college arm. Obviously, that’s what the scouts thought as Fromm plummeted from a pre-combine grade of late first to second round down to a fifth round choice for the Buffalo Bills in the draft. Fromm had a rather average to poor combine in which his arm strength issues were exacerbated by having to throw in between Jacob Eason and Justin Herbert. It was like having Phil Niekro throw in between Sandy Koufax and Roger Clemons. If ever a QB needed a pro day to rectify his situation, it was Fromm but no matter how impressed the scouts were with his intellect and grasp of the game, it kept coming back to how he threw at the combine. Having a pro day might not have helped him all that much, but at least it would have given him a chance to perhaps show he just had a bad day in Indianapolis. Without a chance for redemption, Fromm nosedived. He got no respect whatsoever and with free agents with big arms like Cam Newton and Jameis Winston available, no one felt the need to draft Fromm any earlier than the fifth. At Buffalo he’ll be backing up a QB (Josh Allen) who was a first round pick two years ago, one who is nowhere near reaching his potential. Of course, Fromm is an injury away from having a chance to prove he can play at the NFL level but he could become Captain Clipboard. There’s nothing wrong with making a million a year while wearing a baseball cap and carrying a clipboard around but starters get the big bucks. And just for the record, Fromm was taken with the 167th pick overall in the draft, four spots below what Aaron Murray was chosen back in 2014. TO CALL KANNELL A MORON WOULD BE AN INSULT TO MORONS When I think Danny Kannell I am reminded by something the piano player at Shakey’s Pizza Parlor in Gainesville told me more than 50 years ago when discussing a certain Florida football player who frequented his establishment: “Intelligent thoughts die quickly in his brain because they can’t stand solitary confinement.” At some point it stands to reason that Kannell would come up with something intelligent to say that would break his years long streak of stupid comments. Reason will have to wait awhile because the NFL Draft and Kannell’s brain collided this weekend. On Twitter, Kannell said, “It’s no surprise the SEC is dominating the draft and have for the past decade. They buy the best players. CFB is an arms race. When you can outspend everyone else it creates the imbalance. Big prob for the ACC, Big 12 and Pac-12. Only Big 10 can come close.” That led Mark Packer, who is one of the hosts on the ACC Network to tweet out, “Danny, Danny, Danny … The SEC is a fanastic football league … the upper tier teams are incredible. It’s ok to admit it. Why do you keep fighting this topic? The league’s success should be a catalyst for other teams and conferences to get better. It’s that simple.” Kannell tried to cover his tush by claiming he was talking about recruiting budgets, but his long time bias toward the SEC and his inability to come to grips with the SEC’s success (10 national championships since 2006; ACC 3, Big Ten 1) are continuous cause for him to open his mouth and when he does that you can always count on something stupid. The SEC does spend money because it makes money. Lots of it. It makes money because it (a) hires excellent football coaches and (b) that lures top talent to the league since kids want to play against the best competition which leads to more television and booster money. One last comment. Do some SEC schools have boosters that might bend the rules? You’re as big a moron as Danny Kannell if you don’t think so but think again if you don’t believe the boosters at ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 schools aren’t equally adept or even better at getting money to top football players in creative ways. RANDOM THOUGHTS:How starved were we for something other than binge watching on Netflix and Amazon Prime? The NFL Draft drew 55 million viewers … Wake Forest Gump fired Danny Manning a year later than it should have. Manning is a guy who probably fits well at a place like Tulsa, which is where he was before he took the job at WFG. So, who replaces him? I’d put my money on Wes Miller, the HBC at UNC-Greensboro. The WFG practice court is named after his father, a great baseball player at the school and a serious booster. Miller can flat out coach as his 104-34 record in the last four years will attest … Baylor’s leading scorer Jared Butler declared for the NBA draft but won’t hire an agent, so he can come back. Bet the farm he’ll be back. He needs another year …Former Georgia basketball player Teshaun Hightower has been booked into the Henry County (GA) jail, charged with murder. Hightower signed with Georgia in 2017, played two seasons and then transferred to Tulane … The New England Patriots had plenty of chances to draft a quarterback and yet they didn’t. That tells me Bill Belichick is either going to make a deal with Indianapolis for Jacoby Brissett or else he’s going to sign Cam Newton. I’d put my money on Newton.

“Today’s lunch is w/ one of the best corners in the draft,” ESPN’s Maria Taylor wrote on her Instagram on Tuesday. Taylor’s social media tease didn’t go without notice. In fact, the interviewee was one of the first to respond. “The best,” CJ Henderson quickly corrected in the post’s comments. Once Henderson met with Taylor on her virtual show with SEC Network, she seeked clarification -- which Henderson was eager to offer. “I’m the best because I go against the best week in and week out,” Henderson explained. And now the battle-tested former Gator will be calling Jacksonville home after being selected by the Jacksonville Jaguars as the No. 9 overall pick in the draft. By drafting Henderson, the Jaguars have now selected six former Gators in the first round. Henderson was one of 58 draft prospects invited to the NFL Draft’s virtual green room on Thursday. In lieu of the traditional draft process, for the first time in history, the 2020 NFL Draft was fully virtual -- all thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. Tallying the fifth-most first-round draft picks among NCAA schools with 51, Florida has now seen 18 former Gators go in the first round since 2007. Henderson joins an elite group of defensive backs to come out of the University of Florida and be drafted in the first round. Both Vernon Hargreaves III and Keanu Neal were taken in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft. The buzz around Henderson comes after three successful years in Gainesville. As Florida’s Dan Mullen has said, “You’ve got to be a baller to be No. 1.” And Henderson donned that coveted jersey number in 2019, after sporting No. 5 in the 2017 and 2018 seasons. According to Pro Football Focus, when in single coverage, Henderson played 172 snaps in his career at Florida. Of those, Henderson was only targeted 49 times and allowed just a single touchdown. And now, after running the 40-yard dash in 4.39 seconds at the NFL Combine and repping 225 pounds 20 times on the bench, Henderson earned himself a prospect grade of 6.72. In layman's terms, prospects are graded on an eight-point scale. In Henderson’s case, a 6.72 indicates that he is a “Year 1 quality starter”. While Henderson is the only former Gator who will be in the virtual green room, there are others who will likely hear their name called through the three-day stretch of the draft. Van Jefferson As a transfer from Ole Miss, Jefferson is another guy Gators fans wish they got to see more of. As a polished receiver, Jefferson led Florida in receptions. After hauling in 49 catches for 657 yards and six touchdowns in 2019, Jefferson earned an invite to the NFL Combine. However, before putting his skills on display, Jefferson suffered a broken foot. Nonetheless, the Los Angeles Rams saw all they needed to on Jefferson’s tape. On Friday night, Jefferson heard his name called. With the 57th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Rams snatched up Jefferson in the second round — giving Jared Goff a proven target. Jabari Zuniga Serving as Greenard’s counterpart, Jabari Zuniga was just another force to be reckoned with on Florida’s defensive line. Despite being hindered by injury in 2019, Zuniga still managed to net 14 tackles (seven for a loss) in just six appearances. However, after a 4.64-second sprint in the 40-yard dash and 29 reps from the bench, Zuniga managed a 6.29 prospect grade. Zuniga, who was expected to find his new home in the second round, ended up sliding to the early third round. With the 79th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the New York Jets selected Jabari Zuniga. Jonathan Greenard A one-hit wonder for Florida in 2019, the Gators were only able to reap the benefits that Greenard brought from Louisville for one year. Greenard’s 52 total tackles in 2019, 15.5 of which were for losses, earned Florida’s edge rusher an invite to the combine. There, Greenard sprinted the 40 in 4.87 seconds and repped 225 pounds 22 times on the bench. With a 6.21 prospect grade, Greenard was expected to hear his name called in the second or third round of the NFL Draft, though he ultimately slid to the third round. Stealing him away in the third round, the Houston Texans selected Greenard with the 90th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Other Gators Florida’s bell-cow running back from 2019, Lamical Perine, was expected to slide to the sixth round by many mock drafts. However, the former Gator learned his fate much sooner after being taken by the New York Jets in the fourth round with the 120th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Freddie Swain, a productive receiver in Dan Mullen’s offense, heard his name called in the sixth round -- earlier than expected. With the 214th overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks selected Swain. Tyrie Cleveland, the Gator receiver known for his successes against Tennessee, snuck into the draft after the Denver Broncos stole Cleveland with the 252nd pick in the 2020 NFL Draft. Florida’s gutsy punter, Tommy Townsend, is likely to join his brother in the big leagues. Though Townsend didn't hear his name called in the draft, he signed with the Kansas City Chiefs as a free agent on Saturday evening. Josh Hammond, who displayed some of the best hands within Florida’s deep receiving corps, as expected, signed as an undrafted free agent. Hammond will join Henderson in Jacksonville. Defensive leader David Reese served as the quarterback of the Gators’ defense. He will likely sign as an undrafted free agent. Adam Shuler, another piece of Florida's stout defensive line, signed with the Arizona Cardinals as an undrafted free agent.

GOOD NEWS AND BAD NEWS FOR C.J. HENDERSON The good news for Florida cornerback C.J. Henderson is he was selected with the ninth pick in the first round of Thursday night’s NFL Draft. That means C.J. is going to get a really nice signing bonus and contract that, if his money is handled right, will go a long way toward giving him a financial foundation for life. Any time you get that kind of head start in life it’s a very good thing. The bad news is that he was taken by the Jacksonville Jaguars. Yes, it means he stays in the state of Florida and will start his pro career about 90 minutes from where he played college football. But, it also means he will be playing for the Jaguars, who have this habit of turning first round draft choices – and everyone else they draft – to (a) underperformers who fade off into the sunset or (b) guys with talent who can’t wait to go someplace where they can re-start their careers with an organization that has both coaching and a decent front office. It could be safely said that Jacksonville is a place where NFL careers go to die, all too many barely before they get off the ground. Just take a look at every number one draft pick the Jaguars have made since 2010. 2010: The Jags made defensive tackle Tyson Alualu of California their choice with the 10th pick in the first round. Alualu spent seven years with the Jags and has spent the last two with the Pittsburgh Steelers. He made the Pro Football Writers Association All-Rookie team in 2010 and that was the highlight of his career. The Jags could have selected Jason Pierre-Paul out of South Florida, who went to the Giants with the 15th pick in the first round. All he’s done is make the Pro Bowl twice and sacked the QB 79.5 times in his career. Alualu has 21.5 sacks. 2011: In 2011, the Jags selected quarterback Blaine Gabbert out of Missouri with the 10th pick in the first round. It was a rotten year for quarterbacks. Cam Newton was the first pick in the first round and after that there was a serious drop in talent at the position. With the 11th pick in that year’s draft, the Houston Texans selected perennial all-pro J.J. Watt. In an unremarkable career that ended in 2018, Gabbert threw 48 touchdown passes and completed 47 passes to the guys wearing different colored uniforms than the one he was wearing. 2012: The Jags had the fifth pick in the 2012 draft and with it they selected wide receiver Justin Blackmon out of Texas Tech. Blackmon caught 64 passes in 2012 but in 2013 he was suspended four games for violating the NFL substance abuse policies and had groin surgery. He’s had continuous issues with alcohol and other banned substances since and hasn’t played in a game since 2012. Among the players the Jags could have had in the first round were Luke Kuechly, Stephon Gilmore, Fletcher Cox and Dre Kirkpatrick. If they were dead set on a wide receiver, Alshon Jeffery and T.Y. Hilton were available. 2013: With the second pick in 2013, the Jags went with Texas A&M left tackle Luke Joeckel and gave him a $13.8 million signing bonus and a rookie contract worth $21.5 million. He played 50 games in an NFL career that was over by 2017. The Jags chose Joeckel over Oklahoma’s Lane Johnson (picked fourth), who has made the Pro Bowl three times and has started 92 games. Johnson is one of the NFL’s highest paid offensive linemen. 2014: The Jags picked UCF quarterback Blake Bortles with the third pick in the 2014 first round. This looked like a great pick when Bortles had a breakout second season in which he threw for 4,428 yards and 35 touchdowns while leading the Jags to the AFC championship game where they lost to the New England Patriots. He signed a three-year contract worth $54 million after that season and that’s when his career crashed and burned. He was benched after the 12th game in 2018 and spent 2019 as Jared Goff’s backup with the Los Angeles Rams. Among the quarterbacks the Jags passed on were Derek Carr, Teddy Bridgewater and Jimmy Garoppolo. 2015: Florida edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr. was taken with the third pick in the 2015 draft. He blew out a knee first day of mini-camp. He played well, but not great in 2016-17. Midway through 2018 he was traded to the Los Angeles Rams, who he helped make it to the Super Bowl. He had an 11.5-sack season in 2019 and was rewarded with a three-year deal worth $48 million to sign with the Atlanta Falcons. 2016: With the fifth pick in 2016, the Jags selected Florida State corner Jalen Ramsey who made three straight Pro Bowls (2017-19) and was a first team All-Pro in 2017. By 2018, Ramsey was demanding a trade and the Jags obliged him by sending him to the Los Angeles Rams during the 2019 season. 2017: Leonard Fournette was taken with the fourth pick in the 2017 draft. He went over 1,000 yards as a rookie in 2017, but played only half the Jags’ games in 2018 because of a serious hamstring injury. He bounced back in 2019 to run for 1,152 yards and catch 76 passes. The Jags have been trying to trade him 2018: Florida defensive tackle Taven Bryan went to the Jags with the 29th pick in the first round in 2018. He got a four-year deal worth $10.2 million. In his two seasons, almost exclusively coming off the bench, Bryan has 53 tackles and three sacks. 2019: Jag fans are holding their breath about 2019 first round pick Josh Allen, taken seventh out of Kentucky where he had 17 sacks as a senior in 2018. Allen lived up to the hype as a rookie with 10.5 sacks and selection as a Pro Bowl Alternate. History says his career will either go south or else he’ll tire of the Jags front office and demand a trade. OTHER FIRST ROUND STUFF The Detroit Lions spent Thursday entertaining trade offers from the Miami Dolphins, Los Angeles Chargers and others but elected to hold on to the third draft pick where they selected Ohio State corner Jeff Okudah. Picking Okudah wasn’t a dumb move, but they could have gotten another high draft pick and still landed Okudah if they had pulled the trigger on a trade. Okudah would have still been there at #5 or #6 if the Lions had traded with either the Dolphins or the Chargers. Miami wound up getting the QB it wanted in Tua Tagovailoa at #5 and the Chargers got the QB they wanted in Justin Herbert of Oregon at #6. My choice, if I had been in charge for the Lions, would have been Auburn defensive tackle Derrick Brown, who went 7th to the Carolina Panthers. Maybe the biggest surprise of the first round was the Las Vegas Raiders picking wide receiver Henry Ruggs II of Alabama over Jerry Jeudy (also Alabama) and CeeDee Lamb (Oklahoma). Ruggs might be the fastest guy in the NFL but will he catch the football against better DBs? I love the choice of Clyde Edwards-Helaire by the Kansas City Chiefs with the final pick in the first round. In that Andy Reid offense, he should be extraordinarily productive both as a runner and receiver. It’s just a guess on my part, but I think we will see a higher premium on backs who can get tough yards, catch the ball out of the backfield on something more than a dumpoff and protect quarterbacks from edge rushers. Those are things Edwards-Helaire excelled at. They are also things that Florida running back Lamical Perine excels at which is why I believe he will go late third or fourth round and not sixth like so many of the latest mocks had him going. I think Georgia’s D’Andre Swift will be among the first five picks in today’s second round. Pete Prisco gave the Green Bay Packers a D- for their selection of Utah State quarterback Jordan Love in the first round. Pay close attention today to the second round picks by the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Jake Fromm and Jacob Eason go early second. Fromm has a Brady-like intellect that will appeal to Bill Bellichick at New England. Eason is the big arm pocket passer that would be the ideal understudy to long-in-the-tooth Phillip Rivers at Indianapolis. Any question about what is without question the best college football league in the conference were answered Thursday night when the SEC set an NFL Draft record with 14 first round picks. Six of the top 10 players selected were from the SEC. The Big Ten and Big 12 came in second, each with five players picked in the first round. LSU alone had five first rounders. FROM ANDY STAPLES OF THE ATHLETIC ON RECRUITING In answering a question about recruiting strategy at Clemson, Staples noted: “In the class of 2020, 106 players reported scholarship offers from Clemson according to an analysis by HeroSports. Among Power 5 schools, only Washington (79), Stanford (74) and Northwestern (70) offered fewer. Only a few schools swim in the same kind of talent pool as Clemson, but those schools have a different philosophy about scholarship offers. For the class of 2020, Georgia (267), Alabama (252) and Ohio State (106) had at least 100 more players reporting offers. “This recruiting cycle isn’t much different. According to 247Sports, 68 class of 2021 players have reported Clemson offers. Meanwhile, 241 players have reported Alabama offers.”

Tim Tebow, Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators made the jump pass famous in the 2010's. But it was around far before that and evolved. It was 2006. The Florida Gators were facing LSU. They were in the redzone with freshman quarterback Tim Tebow lined up in an empty backfield, a fullback in front of him to the left and a receiver split out to the sideline. Tight end Tate Casey was on the line at the right tackle’s hip as a blocker. Everything indicated run. Casey had to break through and ended up falling backwards as he pulled in the lofted pass. It was 2008. The Gators were facing Oklahoma in the National Championship and needed to score in the redzone to ice the game. Heisman winner Tim Tebow had Riley Cooper and David Nelson to his left with Nelson in the slot. There were six offensive linemen to block along with defensive tackle Javier Estopinan in a jumbo package. Again everything read run. But even in a well-defended play, Nelson was able to grab the pass for a touchdown that put the Gators up by 10 on their way to win the title game. Both plays have become synonymous with Tim Tebow, Dan Mullen and the Florida Gators. It’s the jump pass, the beloved play that thrust Tebow onto the national scene and defined an era. And when former offensive coordinator Dan Mullen returned to Gainesville as head coach in 2018, he brought it along in his playbook. In his first game, as an ode to fans, he had Feleipe Franks toss a jump pass to Tyrie Cleveland. Casey is now a sideline reporter for the Gators IMG radio network and was standing just outside the corner of the endzone, watching Cleveland in ’18 as he hauled in the pass in nearly the exact same spot as Casey himself did 12 years ago. He jokingly interrupted Mullen during his post game press conference to say his looked better. You can watch the film if you’d like to determine that for yourself. But the play isn’t unique just to Gainesville. It’s more of a Mullen play than anything, and it’s had a long history to get to this point. Following that 2018 game and Feleipe Franks admitting he had not seen the original Tebow video of the pass before, Mullen revealed there were countless other times he’s ran it and it’s been overlooked. “You guys just haven't watched me enough over the last nine years. We've called it a bunch of times in games and it didn't always work.” Before Florida or Mississippi State or Florida again, there was Utah, where Mullen first began tinkering with a pass that was more of a throwback to days of old when the gridiron better resembled a playground. And originally, as Mullen revealed to reporters a year and a half ago, it wasn’t meant to be delivered by a quarterback. Instead it was more of a wildcat play, meant to take some pressure off a quarterback that wasn’t a runner. “When we were at the University of Utah, Alex Smith was not a running quarterback. I mean he was really good at some read-option stuff and he could pull it, even today, he can pull it and he's fast enough to run around the edge, but he's not kind of a between-the-tackles power runner, so we did a bunch of direct snap stuff. We put our tailback back there and snapped it to him, Ben Moa was the tight end, we'd snap it to him. “So we had a play at the goal line where we would direct snap to, it was Ben Moa, and he'd power away. And then said as soon as you snap it to him everybody is going to just not think he's going to throw it and we had a jump pass off of it.” Just as many Gator fans remember every part of the Tebow passes to Casey and Nelson, Mullen can vividly recall the details that went into the first jump pass he called. “We called it for the two-point conversion to win the game in double-overtime at Air Force. We pounded it in like three times in a row with Ben. Every time we'd run it just off tackle, and he'd just scored the tying touchdown. It was the overtime you had to, I think it was the third, we had to go for two [point conversion]. We stopped; they scored, we stopped their two-point conversion and we scored. Pounded it in with Ben doing it, then we did the jump pass and we hit it.” When he arrived in Gainesville and found Tebow—a quarterback that had the body of a tight end—Mullen tweaked the idea and utilized a passer that had to be defended as a runner; because for all intents and purposes, explains Mullen, the jump pass is simply a RPO (run pass option). “They've got to defend it. It's like any run-pass option in place. We'll run some quarterback run. When we run quarterback run they've still got to be ready to defend the pass with the play-action aspect of it.” There’s also the matter of when you call it, something that’s more important than the scheme of the offensive plan according to Mullen. Because as much as it seems like a broken down play and improvisation, it's actually a planned pass and one Tate Casey revealed he, Tebow and Mullen worked on for weeks after practice. So in 2018, when quarterback coach Brian Johnson suggested it back during that Charleston Southern game, Mullen agreed, saying he knew it would be fun for fans, but also that it was the perfect example of when you could set up that type of play since it depends on forcing the defense to defend the quarterback run, allowing the formation to change each and every time. “It’s kind of when you call it. You’ve got to set it up a little bit to get them not expecting it. So that helps… A lot of times with plays, you’re going to trick plays or like deceptive-type play, it’s not really the scheme as much as when you call it is more important than what you’re doing. I’m setting them up for this reverse pass. I’m setting them up for the jump pass. I’m setting them up for the fumblerooski or whatever it is. It’s more of when you call it and is it the right situation.” The fumblerooski, by the way, is something Mullen says is in his playbook and like the jump pass; it’s all about when you call it in order to make it work. "I've probably done it with [Chris] Rainey [at Florida]. I did it at Mississippi State I know that. It's all about when you call the plays…we did it and it didn't work. Called that at the wrong time.” But for now he’s going to focus on the jump pass, keeping it in the playbook and fine-tuning it with this new generation of players. It’s supposed to be more of a finger roll, Mullen jokingly explained back then, more closely resembling the wounded duck of Tebow’s first pass to Casey then the shot that came from Franks to Cleveland. “There’s a timing aspect to it for the quarterback. And how they jump. We traveled a couple of times during the week. The first time there you run it, they literally jumped. It was kind of funny. I’m like, just jump and throw the ball. It’s nothing complicated. I think all of those have stuff to do with it and how you set it up.”

Will Muschamp was the hottest coaching hire at the time and given a roster full of talent. So what went wrong? BY FRANZ BEARD GATORBAIT COLUMNIST STAY SAFE! The proverbial cupboard was anything but bare. What Will Muschamp inherited from Urban Meyer was a roster that included 34 players who would eventually spend at least one year in the NFL plus a quarterback (John Brantley) who had understudied three years behind a Heisman Trophy winner (Tim Tebow) and started 11 games in 2010. Muschamp supplemented that group with a freshman class that included two quarterbacks (Jeff Driskel and Jacoby Brissett) who are still in the National Football League although neither one finished his career as a Florida Gator. Muschamp’s first recruiting class at UF was his worst – ranked 11th in the national rankings – but the subsequent three classes were all top 10. The Gators turned in back-to-back classes ranked third and a 2014 class (Muschamp’s last) that was ranked ninth. If you aspire to the it "isn’t about the Xs and Os, but all about the Jesses and Joes" theory of winning football, then Will Muschamp should have been wildly successful at Florida and should still be the football coach. Muschamp had plenty of Jesses and Joes but there was a strong need for better Xs and Os on the offensive side of the ball all four years. The best the Gators ever did offensively in the Muschamp era from 2011-14 was 2014 when the Gators averaged 30.3 points and 367.6 yards per game for a team that finished 7-5. It’s easy to point a finger at the offense and say that’s where it all blew up for Muschamp, whose career record at Florida was 28-21, hardly what was expected after Meyer’s six year run of 65-15 that included national championships in 2006 and 2008. The first three years of Muschamp the offense was bad a lot of the time, mediocre most of the time. In year four there were signs of life under offensive coordinator Kurt Roper, but the Gators lost five games and patience wore thin in the fan base which had a lot to do with athletic director Jeremy Foley pulling the plug. So what went wrong? Muschamp was engaging and funny. Kids loved him. There were very few incidents off the field, a welcome change after the last two Meyer years in which what happened off the field tainted the on-the-field success. He recruited well. Thirty-seven of the players he signed went on to spend at least one year in the National Football League. If not for the offense, which, was inconsistent at best, dreadful at its worst, Muschamp seemed to have everything going for him. Lots of coaches succeed who are focused more on one side of the ball than the other, so there has to be another reason why it didn’t work for Will Muschamp. Maybe the place to look – the real cause of Muschamp’s demise – was head coaching experience, or, as in his case, none before he came to Florida. Muschamp was viewed as a can’t miss future head coach as he was making his way up the ranks as an assistant to Nick Saban at LSU and the Miami Dolphins, Tommy Tuberville at Auburn and Mack Brown at Texas. He was so valued at Texas that Mack Brown named him the head coach in waiting but there is a huge difference in being the guy ready to succeed the HBC and the one who actually has to deal with all the day-to-day responsibilities when you’re the guy sitting in the hot seat. Florida’s two most successful head coaches in the modern era are Steve Spurrier and Meyer. Spurrier was the head coach at Duke prior to returning to his Florida roots in 1990 where he won the 1996 national championship, six SEC titles and went 122-27-1. Meyer had two-year pit stops at Bowling Green and Utah before he became Florida’s head ball coach in 2005. At UF, Meyer won the 2006 and 2008 national championships and was 57-10 before his 8-5 swan song in 2010. Ron Zook, who succeeded Spurrier, had no head coaching experience when his three-year stint began in 2002. Zook went 23-14 (he didn’t coach the Peach Bowl game against Miami, which the Gators lost to finish 7-5 in 2004). He was a great recruiter. The kids loved him. But he didn’t win. Would Zook and Muschamp have had greater success at Florida had they spent a few seasons at lower profile programs where the expectations aren’t nearly as high? Almost certainly. “It’s almost impossible to take a premium job with no head coaching experience,” Meyer reflected. “(Bob) Stoops, (Lincoln) Riley and (Ryan) Day seem to be the only ones in my lifetime. Riley and Day took over programs that were performing at high level and infrastructure was in great shape.” Jimbo Fisher, who won a national championship at Florida State (2013), had no head coaching experience prior to FSU but he spent three years running the program (2007-09) with Bobby Bowden more or less the figurehead before taking over. The Gators were performing at a high level and infrastructure was in great shape for both Zook and Muschamp, but dig a little deeper and the key to understanding why they didn’t succeed becomes evident. It has very little to do with coaching. Back in the 1970s when Lou Holtz was making a name for himself as the head coach at North Carolina State, he remarked one day that football practice was his sanctuary. Those two or three hours at practice were all about football and his escape from all the non-football things he had to deal with on a daily basis. Things like dealing with disgruntled parents. Things like players who have a problem going to class or making good enough grades to stay eligible. Things like players ready to quit and go home because they broke up with a girlfriend. Things like taking time to field a call from a high dollar booster. And on and on and on. Stuff is what Meyer calls it. “As a head coach you have to deal with ‘stuff’ all the time,” he said. “If it is serious ‘stuff’ it takes you away from the day-to-day preparing for a game then obviously it will impact the game. Our best teams [at Florida and Ohio State and at Bowling Green and Utah before that] had very little ‘stuff.’” Even when it’s just the routine stuff it still occupies a great deal of time and that is where it gets tricky. The head coach has to learn to compartmentalize all the stuff and not allow it to interfere with football. This is where the experience of a job like Duke for Spurrier or Bowling Green and Utah for Meyer paid off. By the time they got to Florida, they already knew how to manage their time and attention. The Florida job wasn’t on-the-job training and they were incredibly successful. You could also file filling out a coaching and support staff as stuff, too. As head coaches prior to coming to Florida, Spurrier and Meyer already had coaches they had worked with and knew exactly what they were looking for when it came to bringing in the kind of staffs that could transition easily to the culture of a high profile SEC program. This was Muschamp’s first head coaching job and it showed that he had spent his entire career fully engaged in defense. His coaching staffs were always loaded with defensive assistants who went on to be head coaches elsewhere such as Dan Quinn (defensive coordinator 2011-12; now head coach Atlanta Falcons) and D.J. Durkin (defensive coordinator 2013-14; went on to be head coach at Maryland). Over on the offensive side it was a different story completely. Muschamp’s first offensive coordinator was Charlie Weis and that was a disaster, both from a productivity and personality standpoint. Rumors of clashes between Weis and Muschamp were not unfounded. Weis brought with him as his O-line coach, Frank Verducci, who lasted one disastrous season. Next came Brent Pease and O-line coach Tim Davis. They lasted two years of ultra-conservative play calling and minimal results. Muschamp had four wide receivers coaches in four years. The combination of Kurt Roper (OC) and Mike Summers (OL) got good but not overwhelming results in 2014, but theirs might be a case of too little too late. Perhaps if Muschamp had those two from the beginning this story might have had a different ending but they never got a chance to implement their ideas for a second year. Time ran out, however. Could it have been different if Muschamp had been given another year? Perhaps Jeff Driskel would have stayed and performed at the level at UF that he did when he transferred to Louisiana Tech. Driskel is about to begin his sixth year in the NFL. Future NFL QB Will Grier would have been a redshirt freshman. Future NFL running backs Matt Jones and Kelvin Taylor would have been back along with future NFL receivers Demarcus Robinson, Brandon Powell and Tevin Westbrook. The defense, Muschamp left behind was NFL caliber. Jim McElwain inherited 18 players who make their living playing defense for money on Sundays. The what if question will always remain for Will Muschamp, just as it will for Ron Zook. Zook left behind 21 kids who were starters on the Florida team that Urban Meyer won a national championship with in 2006. Muschamp left behind a lot of NFL talent for Jim McElwain. Neither Zook nor Muschamp got the chance to see the talent they assembled win at the high level that would have allowed them to remain on the job. That’s the cruel aspect of being a head football coach, especially in a league like the Southeastern Conference that has produced 10 national champions since 2006. The only plausible answer to why it didn’t work, particularly for Muschamp since his four-year reign was part of a seven-year stretch in which a formerly championship-level program struggled to find its bearings, goes back to experience. Florida is not and never will be a place for on-the-job training. If you want to know where to begin when figuring out what went wrong for Will Muschamp, that is not only the place to start, but the place to dwell.

“It felt like a mistake on many fronts, not the least of which was the impossible task the likeable Zooker had of following a legend. Which was too bad, because Zook became a whipping boy and was treated shabbily by many. Whoever followed the HBC was doomed to failure, however, and destined for blame.” The ‘Greatest Coach’ in school history walked out unexpectedly, so what could Jeremy Foley do? Norm Carlson will never forget that fateful January 2002 day when Steve Spurrier showed up at his condo in Crescent Beach to tell him the bad news. They had just gotten back from the 2002 Orange Bowl victory over Maryland, 56-23. When Steve and his wife Jerri arrived at the Carlson’s condo, they suggested to Norm: “Sit down. You’re probably going to need a glass of wine.” Could it be that the greatest coach in Florida football history was leaving his alma mater to coach in the NFL? "I thought he was kidding," Carlson later said. “He told me to sit down. He probably thought I would faint." Steve then told his longtime friend and chief sports information aide that after 12 years he was resigning at Florida and wanted to call Athletic Director Jeremy Foley to tell him. “Why don’t you sleep on it and let’s call him tomorrow,” Carlson remembered suggesting. And they did. But tomorrow came and nothing changed. “Once he makes his mind up there’s no talking Steve out of it,” said Carlson, as he was reminded of the incident recently. Yes, the most famous Gator in history was gone. Spurrier shocked everybody by stepping down to try the NFL, signing with the Washington Redskins as the highest paid coach in all of football, walking away from an annual $2.1 million contract at Florida. Turned out that was mere chump change. It sucked the breath out of some people. “At one point when he was talking to me he asked me if I was still there because I was gasping,” Foley told the Gainesville Sun. “I really thought he was kidding. He's made the decision. It's his time. Certainly, there was surprise. There is sadness. This is a new day. More than being our coach, he was our friend.” It felt a like a nightmare. The gutting of the Fun’NGun. The end of the all-time best era in Florida football. The winningest coach in school history who had guided the Gators to their first national championship and first SEC title (six times) was leaving for the nation’s capital to sign a 5-year, $25 million contract. Years later he would admit that taking a job for the money was probably a mistake, but he also wanted a whack at the NFL. But would the transition to the NFL work? Spurrier had chances to leave for the NFL before when he was offered the head coaching job by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Back when I was covering the Denver Broncos and dealing with some high-strung personalities, I visited Spurrier in Gainesville one day and remarked how lucky it was for him that he didn’t have to deal with prima donna pro athletes. “Why, you don’t think I can coach in the NFL?” he said feistily, somewhat rhetorically. I assured him that was not the case. Meanwhile, how was Jeremy Foley going to replace a legend? Foley knew the priorities were to hire a proven winner, preferably with a previous tie to Florida, who could also recruit well. So he hopped the school plane and headed to see Mike Shanahan (former quarterbacks coach for Charlie Pell) in Denver and Bob Stoops (former defensive coordinator for Spurrier) at Oklahoma – with a media contingent in hot pursuit. After striking out in both places, he flew to New Orleans, where Ron Zook was an assistant coach for the Saints. In a matter of days Zook became the 20th head coach in Florida history. It felt like a mistake on many fronts, not the least of which was the impossible task the likeable Zooker had of following a legend. Which was too bad, because Zook became a whipping boy and was treated shabbily by many. Whoever followed the HBC was doomed to failure, however, and destined for blame. Zook was a piñata. Two days after he was hired, he was introduced to the Mean Streets of the Internet when fireronzook.com was born. Zook may not have been Vince Lombardi, or Steve Spurrier, but he was a decent man (still is), a pretty good coach and helluva recruiter. And we all know that Urban Meyer benefitted greatly from the talent he left behind. But it was never going to work for him at Florida. Furthermore, Zook had walked right into a double ambush, bookended by a steel vice not of his own doing. New university president Bernie Machen, hired in January of 2004 from Utah, already had his eye on the Utes’ coach. In the fall of 2003, Urban Meyer’s team had gone 12-0, one of three unbeaten teams in the country. Definitely he was the bright shiny thing. With four games to play at Florida in the fall of ’04, following a loss to Mississippi State that dropped the Gators’ record to 4-3—previously posting back-to-back 8-5 seasons—Zook was fired. But he would stay to coach the last three regular season games, and win them all, even renaming FSU’s stadium to Ron Zook field. Unquestionably Meyer was targeted as Foley set out on another coach-hiring mission. This time, Foley would land the prize catch, even though at first Meyer had decided to take the Notre Dame job. Draw your own conclusions about whether Zook was treated fairly. More on that later. But first we pause for this commercial on Steve Spurrier’s 75th birthday. Raise your hand if you were blessed with the opportunity of watching the evolution of “Orr”—as he is called by his closest friends—help transform a sleeping college football giant into a national power. Today, in the week of his 75th trip around the sun, I feel especially blessed to have witnessed both Steve Spurrier Heisman Trophy winner and Steve Spurrier Genius Football Coach. And all that was in between. It has been a privilege for over a half a decade to chronicle hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of words spoken and written about maybe the single most interesting, colorful, flamboyant, honest, smart … well, you know. I think I have finally run out of words to describe Stephen Orr Spurrier. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming. Foley was in a quandary Foley’s actual journey to hiring Spurrier’s replacement was rife with uncertainty and plane rides. Spurrier leaving all happened so fast that the relatively new AD didn’t have a contingency plan. Remember that Spurrier was hired in 1990 by the contingent of Interim President Bob Bryan. Foley, not named AD until two years later, didn’t have a playbook yet when Spurrier exited. “That was the first football coach research search I'd ever gone through,” Foley recently told me, “and I had zero experience.” So he fired up the UF plane and traveled semi-incognito to Denver where he met with Shanahan amidst much speculation and trepidation by the Bronco media and fan base. The undercover aspect made it even more intriguing. But there were no puffs of white smoke, indicating an anointment of the new Gator coach. Next came the stop at Norman, OK. No puffs of white smoke. And then on to New Orleans. “I had three candidates,” Foley said, recounting his plight. “Mike Shanahan was one of them. Bobby Stoops was one of them. And Ron Zook, over here, was our good friend.” However, there was some baggage because Zook had been demoted by Spurrier as defensive coordinator to become special teams coordinator, before being wooed by Michigan State and finally being resurrected and re-promoted as Spurrier’s Associate Head Coach. Would that work against him as the new Gator head coach? Foley pointed out that some people defended Zook’s defensive scheme, which featured a go-to element of “prevent” that later would become highly unpopular with fans. Said Foley: “You could find people on both sides of the coin whether he did a good job as a defensive coordinator. I think he did. I think he did a very fine job.” Foley liked Zook’s “incredible” work ethic – “he worked his tail off and was very respected in the building” – so he talked himself into Zook as his choice after being turned down by his No. 1 and No. 2 candidates. Besides, Zook was a recruiting machine and Foley was getting pressured by people who felt that was an area of concern. Although Zook had asked for a chance to coach in the bowl game his last season, having won three straight as a lame duck after a loss to Georgia, Zook says he wasn’t allowed. By then, anyway, he had already been hired by Illinois. Florida went on to lose to Miami in the Peach Bowl under interim Charlie Strong, 27-10, to go 7-5 on the season. Zook’s overall record at Florida was 20-13. “In the final analysis, it was apparent to me that something's not working here,” Foley told the media. "I know that's kind of nebulous, but it's the truth. It's hard to put a finger on it exactly, but it certainly just didn't appear to be working as we all envisioned.” When I spoke with Zook recently he was not bitter about what happened at Florida but still a little bit mystified. He stopped short of saying or admitting it, but Ron Zook really had no chance of success. “It just became apparent that this wasn't going to work out,” explained Foley. “Which is unfortunate because there was an incredible amount of effort going into trying to get this thing to work out—especially on Ron's part.” I asked Foley about how he handled having to succumb to the pressure. About that time the Mean Streets of the Internet began taking their toll. “You know, you sit in the chair … you kind of get a sense of is this all about,” Foley told me. “And that's what happened here. You kind of get a sense that this thing is not going to turn. You know, we've got to clean up the incredible amount of division within the Gator Nation and the ugliness. There were unexplained consequences which Zook talked about off the record: How and why he ended up at fraternity house to break up a potential brawl involving some of his players – something he says was “blown out of proportion” – is not clear. He said he was called and asked to step in, although there was a verbal confrontation with Zook and a fraternity member. Some speculated that it may have been a “set up” to make him look bad at a time when the program was struggling and Zook was already venerable, but that has never been proven. In the end, Ron Zook packed his bags and left for Illinois, where in just his second season, he took the Fighting Illini to the Rose Bowl. They lost to Southern Cal 49-17. “Worst thing that happened to us was going to the Rose Bowl that soon,” said Zook. “Expectations got too high. We had a lot of players drafted by the NFL after that season and we never did catch up with the loss of underclassmen.” He was fired after seven years with a record of 34-51. As for Urban Meyer, who Zook handed off the reins to, he says he has great respect for Zook and denies there was ever a rift with him. Meyer says Zook did “a really good job recruiting. And he's a good coach. He became a friend. People tried to make something out of it. We've always had great respect for the previous coach we followed.” He gives Zook credit for leaving something special in the cupboard, especially on defense. With players like this: Quarterback Chris Leak, Safety Reggie Nelson, DT Joe Cohen, LB Earl Everett, TE Tate Casey, DE Jarvis Moss, DE Ray McDonald. Just to name a few. Yes, Ron Zook left a little something, indeed. A few others who weighed in on Zook Last week when somebody posted a fake Sports Illustrated cover on Facebook with Zook’s picture on it as “Worst Coach in The Swamp,” it raised the ire of some who came to his defense: Mic Huber, former Sarasota Herald-Tribune Columnist: “Ron Zook was a fantastic recruiter and he was not a bad coach. It would have been hard for anyone to follow Spurrier. The Zooker is a good guy and deserves better.” — Mark Whicker, former Orange County Register columnist: “I saw Illinois play in a Rose Bowl. Coached by Ron Zook.” — Steve Young, Gator Fan: “Ron Zook deserved more time in my opinion! 8-5 for three (two) years wasn't terrible, we were just spoiled rotten by Spurrier and how in the world were we going to replace him? You can't, period! With the players he was recruiting and getting I believe we would have improved record wise . I am glad we ended up with Meyer and 2 Nattys but I will always wonder given more time would Coach Ron Zook have won a Natty here? I will always appreciate Zook’s class, love and loyalty to the Gator program!” — Gerry Odom, former Gator player and coach: “This is Awful. Coach Zook was a good man and a darn fine coach. This kind of stuff ticks me off. Ridiculous!”

GREENARD IN THE SECOND ROUND? IT COULD HAPPEN When the NFL conducts its nearly silent draft beginning tonight in Las Vegas, don’t expect many first round surprises. Since pro days were at a minimum due to the shutdown due to COVID-19, teams will largely play it safe and go with what they saw at the combine and they’ll rely heavily on relationships they have with current college head coaches and assistants. For example, if South Carolina defensive lineman Javon Kinlaw is still around when the Atlanta Falcons make their first round selection with pick number 16, don’t be shocked if he hears his name called. Quinn worked with South Carolina head ball coach Will Muschamp at LSU and then was Muschamp’s defensive coordinator at Florida in 2011-12. Kinlaw can collapse a pocket from the inside and since there is an abundance of edge rushers in this year’s draft and not as many high quality interior guys, Quinn might go with a guy who played for someone he knows and trusts. At the combine in Indianapolis back in February, Greenard wowed the scouts with his poise and presence during the interview sessions. He did just fine in the physical part of the combine but even though he’s not as quick or as athletic as some of the edge rushers, Greenard’s high character and potential as solid locker room presence, could very well move him into the second round. Dane Brugler, who writes about the NFL and draft-related matters for The Athletic, has Greenard going to Miami in the second round. Brugler has Florida wide receiver Van Jefferson going mid-third round, which is entirely possible. Although Jefferson didn’t get to run at the combine due to a broken bone in his foot that required surgery, he’s the son of New York Jets wide receivers coach Shawn Jefferson. Van has been at NFL camps since he was a kid and he had a very productive week at the Senior Bowl, where every NFL team got a chance to see how fluid he is with his route-running, how unafraid he is to block people and how he uses his smarts more than his speed to set up DBs so he can be an open target. C.J. Henderson, of course, will be Florida’s only first round selection. At least one mock draft has him going higher than Ohio State corner Jeff Okudah. That might be a surprise. What won’t be a surprise is if Henderson hears his name called among the first 10 picks. Jacksonville at pick number nine seems a likely landing spot. Two non-Gators could be real surprises. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if LSU’s Clyde Edwards-Helaire is the first running back to go off the board. If I had a choice of Edwards-Helaire and Georgia’s D’Andre Swift, I would take Edwards-Helaire because he (a) consistently played his best football against the best teams and (b) he’s the physically toughest running back in the draft. Swift may have more game-breaking ability, but he’s had injuries in his career. My second non-Gator surprise will be Georgia quarterback Jake Fromm. There are a lot of quarterbacks with stronger arms who are better runners, but Joe Burrow might be the only QB in the draft with a higher football IQ. It says a lot that Fromm beat out both Jacob Eason and Justin Fields for the starting job and both transferred out rather than watch Fromm go about his business doing whatever it took to win games. Brugler has him going to the Atlanta Falcons midway through the third round but I could see a team like New England or even Tampa Bay picking him earlier. New England needs a smart QB who can sit a year. Tampa Bay knows Tom Brady won’t play forever, so getting a smart QB to learn from the best there ever was would make a lot of sense. Burrow will be the first player taken followed by Chase Young of Ohio State. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Detroit trade its third pick to the Dolphins with the Dolphins moving up from five to three to take Alabama QB Tua Tagovailoa. Detroit has its eyes on Okudah but they could trade down two spots and Okudah will still be there. I wouldn’t take him in the first round, but if I needed a QB and he was on the board in the mid-to-late second, I would think seriously about taking Jalen Hurts. I think he’s a better passer than people give him credit for and though he’s not as electrifying a runner as Lamar Jackson, he’s smarter in that he knows when to go into a feet first slide. My over/under for SEC players taken in the first three rounds of the draft is 38. PAY CUTS, FURLOUGHS AND OTHER VIRUS-RELATED STUFF Back in November, long before we knew anything about COVID-19 much less saw the entire world grinding to a halt with no end in sight, Florida State University made the choice to fire head football coach Willie Taggart, even though the buyout cost was a cool $18 million. FSU also had to spend somewhere between $2-3 million to buyout assistant coach contracts, then spent a bundle to hire Mike Norvell and a whole bunch of new assistant coaches and support staffers. FSU also paid Memphis $500,000 to buy out Norvell’s contract. Is it any wonder that FSU athletic director James Coburn recently said, “God help us” when he was asked what happens at the school 150 miles to the west of Gainesville if football isn’t played this fall? Do you think if Coburn had a do-over that he would keep Taggart another year? The cost of virus induced salary reductions or furloughs would certainly be easier on an FSU athletic budget that feels the strain of keeping up with the Joneses in Gainesville than the cost of all these buyouts with so much uncertainty in the months ahead. At Syracuse they’re reducing the salaries of football coach Dino Babers and Hall of Fame basketball coach Jim Boeheim. Iowa State was the first to cut salaries and that was followed by Washington State. At Boise State, they’ve put every coaching staff in every sport on furlough. Louisville furloughed 45 of its athletic staff for a minimum of 60 days and eliminated 40 support staffers throughout the department. Every assistant coach earning at least $100,000, regardless the sport, will endure a 4% salary cut while every head coach has already taken a 10% hit. Expect almost daily announcements that athletic departments throughout the country will be lopping off salaries to save money because revenues are likely to fall far short whenever football cranks up again. So far nobody in the Southeastern Conference has announced cutbacks but even in a league that distributed in excess of $45 million last year, budget tightening is likely, especially since it is becoming more and more likely that it will be a 10-game football schedule whether it’s fall or spring football. The decision-making process about which games get cut and which games stay on the schedule will be easier in the SEC and ACC where they play eight-game league schedules. In the Big Ten, Big 12 and Pac-12, they play nine-game league schedules. Meanwhile, MIT professor Alex Pentland, who heads the school’s human dynamic lab, told ESPN that schools (and pro teams) can take steps that will make arenas “as safe as public parks.” Of course, this means reducing stadium capacities by half to enable social distancing, checking fans temperatures at the gate, fans wearing masks (makes eating hot dogs difficult and mandatory straws for drinks) and one-way aisles to reduce contact when entering and exiting the stadium. SEC BASKETBALL STUFF Alabama: Kira Lewis Jr. won’t be coming back to Alabama. He’s going to hire an agent and stay in the NBA Draft where he is projected as a first round pick. Still no word on whether John Petty Jr. intends to stay in the draft or return to Alabama for his junior year. Raymond Hawkins (6-9, 240) lasted one year at Alabama. He’s transferring to Long Beach State. Jaylen Forbes (6-4, 180), who was a 4-star recruit out of high school in 2019, is transferring to Tulane. Arkansas: Vance Jackson (6-9, 220) has signed with Arkansas as a graduate transfer from New Mexico where he averaged11.1 points and 5.3 rebounds per game last year. Also signing with Arkansas as a grad transfer was Northern Kentucky transfer Jalen Tate (6-6, 170), who averaged 13.9 points and 5.4 rebounds last year. Kentucky: Needing a big man after Nick Richards and E.J. Montgomery bolted for the NBA, Kentucky has hotly pursued Purdue grad transfer Matt Haarms (7-3, 250), but Evan Daniels of 247Sports predicts that Haarms will sign with Brigham Young ... Kentucky also struck out with Virginia Tech transfer Landers Nolley (6-7, 230), who averaged 15.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game last year. Nolley is transferring to Memphis. Vanderbilt: Akeem Odusipe (6-9, 220, Knoxville, TN Catholic), a 3-star class of 2020 center, has verbally committed to the Commodores. RANDOM THOUGHTS: Former Gator Trey Burton signed with the Indianapolis Colts. Released by the Chicago Bears after an injury-filled 2019 in which he played in only eight games and suffered a season-ending calf injury, Burton will probably be the Colts motion and flex tight end … University of Buffalo basketball assistant Hunter Jenkins was slapped by the NCAA with a three-year show cause after he created a fake email account to submit supporting documentation to get a waiver to allow Texas Tech transfer Josh Mballa to play immediately (averaged 10.8 points and 9.8 rebounds per game). Buffalo got a one-year probation but will not face a postseason ban since it was determined HBC Jim Whitesell was unaware what Jenkins had done ... Notre Dame women’s basketball coach Muffett McGraw, who won 936 games in a 33-year coaching career that included 842 wins at ND and NCAA championships in 2001 and 2018 … The Tom Brady to Rob Gronkowski combination will live again in Tampa now that the Bucs traded with New England for the tight end, reuniting him with Brady. Gronkowski sat out the 2019 season. Would the Patriots have been able to make a return to the Super Bowl if Gronkowski had been in the lineup? And, does he still have the ability to be a big-time playmaker? … Major League Baseball gave the Boston Red Sox a slap on the wrist for their sign stealing in 2018 … Alex Rodriguez and fiancée Jennifer Lopez plan to make a bid to buy the New York Mets. They’ve retained the J.P. Morgan Bank to represent them.

A SILENT NFL DRAFT AWAITS THURSDAY The NFL will hold the oddest draft in probably 60 years this week when it’s done by teleconference. Instead of cheering crowds in Las Vegas there to roar every time their new home team Raiders make a selection; instead of the obligatory boos every time Roger Goodell shows his face; instead of the green room drama as potential first rounders wait to hear their names called, it will be done in silence. There will still be some drama because someone projected to go early in the draft is going to fall, perhaps out of the first round completely, and someone off the radar is going to move up quickly. The Gators will be well represented. C.J. Henderson will go in the first round. A lot of scouts think he may very well be the most NFL-ready corners in the draft, but it’s a sure bet Ohio State’s Jeffrey Okudah will be the first corner to go. I don’t mean to sound like a homer, but if I had the choice between a stud corner who locked down receivers in the SEC and one who did it in the Big Ten, I’d take the SEC guy every time. Kevin Hanson of Sports Illustrated rated prospects from 1-255 over the weekend. Here is where he had five Gators ranked: 13. C.J. Henderson, CB 69. Jonathan Greenard, EDGE 86. Jabari Zuniga, EDGE 98. Van Jefferson, WR 145. Lamican Perine, RB Unranked but with a chance to be drafted is wide receiver Tyrie Cleveland. With a shot but unlikely is wide receiver Freddie Swain. Punter Tommy Townsend, linebacker David Reese II and wide receiver Joshua Hammond will almost certainly be offered free agent contracts. Some other interesting rankings from Hanson’t top 100: 2. Joe Burrow, QB, LSU 5. Tua Tagovailoa, QB, Alabama 6. Jedrick Wills, OT, Alabama 7. Derrick Brown, DT, Auburn 8. Jerry Jeudy, WR, Alabama 10. Javon Kinlaw, DT, South Carolina 12. Henry Ruggs, WR, Alabama 14. Andrew Thomas, OT, Georgia 16. Justin Jefferson, WR, LSU 17. K’Lavon Chaisson, EDGE, LSU 18. Patrick Queen, LB, LSU 19. Kristian Fulton, CB, LSU 22. Trevon Diggs, CB, Alabama 23. D’Andre Swift, RB, Georgia 25. Grant Delpit, S, LSU 26. Xavier McKinney, S, Alabama 44. Clyde Edwards-Helaire, RB, LSU 45. Terrell Lewis, EDGE, Alabama 48. Marlon Davidson, DT, Auburn 55. Noah Igbinoghene, CB, Auburn 58. Justin Madubuike, DT, Texas A&M 60. Jordan Elliott, DT, Missouri 65. Lloyd Cushenberry III, C/G, LSU 80. Willie Gay Jr., LB, Mississippi State 81. Prince Tega Wanogho, OT, Auburn 85. Jake Fromm, QB, Georgia 89. Bryan Edwards, WR, South Carolina 94. Raekwon Davis, DT, Alabama 96. Darrell Taylor, EDGE, Tennessee 97. Damien Lewis, OG, LSU SOME SEC HOOPS NEWS While the Gators await a decision by point guard Andrew Nembhard whether to return to UF or go pro (perhaps today or Tuesday), the SEC was very busy over the weekend: Alabama: Signed Darius Miles (6-5, 190), Joshua Primo (6-4, 170) and juco Keon Ellis (6-6, 165. Arkansas: Signed Moses Moody (6-6, 185) LSU: Signed Eric Gaines (6-2, 160), Mwani Wilkinson (6-6, 190), Josh LeBlanc (6-7, 215) and UCLA transfer Shareef O’Neal (6-9, 215). Josh Gray (7-0, 220) committed to LSU. Mississippi State: Devin Butts (6-5, 180) is transferring to Louisiana-Lafayette. South Carolina: Jair Bolden (6-3, 215) is transferring to Butler. WATCHING “THE LAST DANCE” … It was at the Atlantic Coast Conference Basketball Tournament in 1975 that I met Jerry Krause, then scouting – if I recall correctly – with the Phoenix Suns. He was overweight, badly dressed and had an ego that could have applied for its own zip code. At the time, I was the sports editor of the Rocky Mount Telegram. Rocky Mount was the hometown of North Carolina’s freshman sensation Phil Ford, who that afternoon led the Tar Heels to an upset win over Clemson and its 7-2 freshman Tree Rollins and 6-4 freshman guard Skipper Wise. Krause had previously scouted for the Baltimore Bullets and knew Wise from his high school days at Baltimore Dunbar. He swore up and down that Skipper Wise was so much better than Phil Ford and would have a better collegiate and pro career just to prove it. He also spent a lot of time telling me about scouting Earl “The Pearl” Monroe, who played his college basketball about 20 minutes or so west of the Greensboro Coliseum for legendary coach Clarence “Big House” Gaines at Winston-Salem State. Skipper Wise, he told me, was going to be as good or better than Earl Monroe. I don’t remember how the topic came up but during the game something triggered me to mention that A.J. Carr of the Raleigh News and Observer had quoted him [Krause] as praising Thomas Blue, a 6-7, 240-pound freshman who played at Elizabeth City State in the CIAA. I saw Thomas Blue play a lot of high school basketball at Wilson Fike, which was about 30 miles south of Rocky Mount. I thought he was really good but I wondered if he had a position in the NBA since he was short, didn’t have a jump shot and couldn’t use his right hand. Before I could get around to mentioning what I had seen of Blue, Krause turned beet red, raised his voice and called A.J. “a f#$%ing liar.” That came as a surprise to me. A.J. Carr to this day remains one of the most honest people I ever met. He was a meticulous writer with such an incredible vocabulary that you felt you needed a dictionary because at some point in any story he wrote there would be a word you’d never seen before in print. I also knew A.J. as someone who would double and triple check his sources before he ever putting it in print. I was totally caught by surprise by Krause’s outburst and how sour he became the rest of the game. I have to admit that I was pleasantly amused when Phil scored the winning points in overtime and finished the game with a far better performance than Skipper Wise. Clemson was eliminated that afternoon. North Carolina went on to win the ACC championship and Phil Ford was the MVP. Skipper Wise left school a few weeks later, ended up signing with the Baltimore Claws of the ABA and had a rather large hand in Clemson going into the NCAA jailhouse for recruiting violations. The Claws lasted three exhibition games. Wise signed with the Golden State Warriors and was cut when his coach caught him using heroin in the locker room before a game. He played two games later that season with the San Antonio Spurs, the full extent of his pro basketball career. As for Phil Ford, he went on to make All-America three times and was the national player of the year twice, then was the NBA rookie-of-the-year with the Kansas City Kings. His career was cut short by injuries but he lasted seven seasons. I mention Jerry Krause because I watched parts one and two of “The Last Dance” on ESPN Sunday night, chronicling the final season for Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls dynasty. Krause was the Bulls’ general manager for the six NBA championships won with Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen forming maybe the greatest dynamic duo in the history of the NBA. Watching the clips of Krause and then reliving how Krause broke up the Bulls’ dynasty, I thought back to that day in Greensboro and how his personality went from bombastic to caustic in a matter of seconds. It made me once again realize that while Krause did some great things assembling the Bulls and bringing in the supporting cast for Jordan and Pippen, it was only a matter of time before he would self-destruct. People talked about the great Michael Jordan. They talked about how Scottie Pippen was the second best player in the game. They talked about Phil Jackson and what a great coach he was. Nobody talked about Jerry Krause and Krause resented it. Krause wouldn’t renew Jackson’s contract for 1999. MJ retired. Scottie was traded to the Houston Rockets for someone named Roy Rogers, whose NBA high point was averaging 6.6 points per game for the Vancouver Grizzlies in 1997, and a second round draft pick. That was the infamous Jake Voskuhl whose sterling NBA career was 4.0 points per game. The Bulls haven’t won a championship since. Krause, his ego and the personality that made Jordan, Pippen and Jackson despise him retired after 2003. “The Last Dance” also reminded me of when Jerry Jones sent Jimmy Johnson packing after the 1993 season because he thought he didn’t get enough credit for assembling the Dallas Cowboys team that JJ coached to two Super Bowls. Jerry Jones wanted to prove that he could hire anyone to coach the Cowboys and as long as he was putting the team together the dynasty would continue. The Cowboys won a Super Bowl with Barry Switzer in 1995 but they haven’t come close to another Super Bowl since. The moral of the story: Great players plus great coaches win championships. They get help from general managers lots of teams have won championships without great GMs. Not too many have won without great players and coaches.

GET READY FOR THE NCAA VERSION OF THE WILD, WILD WEST Brace yourself. Maybe you think that the corona virus has let all the air out of the college sports balloon, not hard to do since we haven’t had any college sports in more than a month, but things are about to change on two fronts. First off, a week from tomorrow the NCAA council is going to open up discussions about granting a one-time waiver for all first-time transfers across the board in all NCAA sponsored sports. A vote expected on May 20 is thought to be a slam dunk. Second, there is that matter of scheduling as athletic directors have to start their planning now for who to lop off the schedule and who to keep if and when the NCAA decides to contract from 12 to 10 games whether in the fall or spring. For Dan Mullen at Florida, May 20 can’t get here soon enough because once the vote is confirmed, he will have immediate eligibility for running back Lorenzo Lingard (transferred in from Miami) and wide receiver Justin Shorter (transferred in from Penn State). Both are former 5-star recruits who could provide instant impact to the Florida offense. In that the O-line was a weak spot last year, it’s not difficult to imagine a successful tackle or center that would like a chance to play immediately for a team that has College Football Playoff potential to have Mullen and John Hevesy on speed dial. The flip side to immediate eligibility of Lingard and Shorter could be a handful of Gators who see themselves buried on the depth chart might elect to find greener pastures somewhere else. That won’t just happen at Florida, but it will happen everywhere in the SEC and every other Power Five league. Transfers from schools like Florida, Georgia, Alabama and Clemson will be prized additions at places where wins have been hard to come by or somewhere there is a glaring need at a position. And, programs that win big in the SEC will be viewed as an ideal place to transfer for kids at smaller schools who need to prove they can get it done at a place where the competition level is several notches higher. LSU, for example, got a stud linebacker transfer from North Dakota State in Jabril Cox. Cox is a grad transfer but LSU lost enough players from last year’s national championship team that Coach O might find his phone ringing off the hook with interested players. For example, Thursday quarterback JT Daniels announced he will be transferring out of Southern Cal. Daniels began the 2019 season as Southern Cal’s starting quarterback but when he went down with a knee injury that opened the door for true freshman Kedon Slovis, who threw for 3,502 yards and 30 touchdowns. After watching Slovis’ success and considering making a comeback from a knee injury, Daniels elected to bolt. There are plenty of schools needing a quarterback and lest we forget, Daniels was considered the #3 pro style QB prospect in the country in 2018. He will have his pick of prime landing spots. Kentucky basketball lost five starters to the NBA Draft. John Calipari has brought in his usual outstanding freshman class plus grad transfer Davion Mintz from Creighton. Calipari already has the inside track on 7-3 Purdue grad transfer center Matt Haarms but the lure of immediate eligibility could be what seals the deal for Virginia Tech transfer Landers Nolley. Figure it will be crazy in the next month, but no crazier than life in the athletic director’s office at every SEC school. Eliminating two games isn’t going to be easy and it’s going to be devastating for D1AA teams that rely on paycheck games to fund their non-revenue sports. Scott Stricklin probably has it easier than most athletic directors when it comes to contracting his schedule. He axes D1AA Eastern Washington on September 5 and South Alabama on September 19, then moves Kentucky from September 12 to September 19. Kentucky would lop off Eastern Michigan on September 5 and Kent State on September 19 and open its season in Gainesville on September 19. Florida’s non-conference games would be New Mexico State (November 21) and FSU (November 28). Kentucky would probably try to land a Division I opponent to replace Eastern Illinois on October 10 with the other non-conference game the end-of-season matchup with Louisville. Imagine the difficulty it will be for Alabama and Southern Cal, slated to open the season in Atlanta on September 5. Southern Cal plays nine Pac-12 games plus Notre Dame. That’s the 10-game schedule right there and while painful for prestige to lose a game with Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide, Southern Cal would drop Alabama in a heartbeat rather than lose the annual rivalry game with Notre Dame. For Alabama, dropping Georgia State on September 12 is an easy call, but how do the boosters feel about a non-conference schedule of Kent State (September 26) and D1AA Tennessee-Martin? Georgia has a non-conference opener with Virginia on September 5 and the only week that game could be replaced would be October 24. Virginia would have to replace Old Dominion. Georgia has an open date prior to facing Georgia. Would the Bulldogs be willing to play a tough Virginia team the week before taking on the Gators in what might be a winner take all for the SEC East? Those are just a few of the headaches that athletic directors will face. With transfers leaving and arriving in droves in every sport and schedules that have to be filled, the next five weeks are going to be the NCAA version of the wild, wild west. Brace yourself. It’s going to get very interesting. FLASHBACK QUOTE OF THE DAY ESPN’s Mark Schlabach remembering when former Florida State football coach Bobby Bowden told Paul Finebaum on why FSU chose the ACC over an offer to join the Southeastern Conference in 1991: “I felt that it was too difficult to win through the SECC to win a national championship. I felt like our best route would be to go through the ACC and that did prove out to be correct. I don’t know if we could have made it through the SEC.” BASKETBALL COMINGS AND GOINGS IN THE SEC ALABAMA: Sam Okauru (6-5, 210, RFR) and Jaylen Forbes (6-4, 176, RFR) are transferring out. ARKANSAS: Jaylen Tate (6-6, 170, GR/TR) transferred in from Northern Kentucky where he averaged 13.9 points, 5.4 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game and was the Horizon League’s Defensive Player of the Year. Vance Jackson (6-9, 220, GR/TR) transferred in from New Mexico where he averaged 13 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. Jaylin Williams (6-10, 215, Fort Smith, AR Northside) signed an Arkansas LOI. AUBURN: Power forward JT Thor (6-9, 200, Anchorage, AK Norcross) has verbally committed to Auburn. FLORIDA: First team All-SEC Keyontae Johnson (6-5, 235, SO) announced he will return for his junior year after averaging 14.0 points and 7.1 rebounds last season. KENTUCKY: Joining Ashton Hagans and Tyrese Maxey as NBA bound were Nick Richards (6-11, 247, JR), Immanuel Quickley (6-3, 188, SO) and EJ Montgomery (6-10, 228, SO). Transferring in from Creighton is Davion Mintz (6-3, 185, GR/TR), where he averaged 9.7 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game in 2019-20. Jacob Toppin (6-8, 180, FR), the younger brother of Dayton’s national player of the year Obi Toppin, is transferring to UK from Rhode Island where he averaged 5.1 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. LSU: Caleb Starks (6-4, 195, RJR), who transferred to LSU last year from a junior college, has put his name in the transfer portal. Starks took a redshirt last season. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Andersson Garcia (6-7, 200, Santiago, Dominican Republic/Chattanooga, TN Hamilton Heights) signed a letter of intent. Garcia was a high school teammate of Florida signee Samson Ruzhentsev (6-8, 205, Moscow, Russia/Chattanooga, TN Hamilton Heights). Prince Oduro (6-8, 250, RSO) will transfer to South Florida. Elias King (6-8, 205, FR) will transfer to Middle Tennessee. OLE MISS: Power forward Robert Allen (6-8, 200) is transferring to Ole Miss from Samford, where he averaged 14.1 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Dimencio Vaughn (6-5, 220) is transferring to Ole Miss from Rider, where he averaged 14.8 points and 6.6 rebounds per game. TENNESSEE: Jalen Johnson (6-6, 196) is transferring to East Tennessee State. He averaged 3.5 points and 2.0 rebounds per game last year. TEXAS A&M: Yavuz Gultekin (6-7, 201) is transferring to San Diego. VANDERBILT: Oton Jankovic (6-10, 212, RFR) is transferring to Tulane.

“Youth is wasted on the young.” – George Bernard Shaw For years that quote has been laughed at and in many cases agreed to by the millions of thousands of people who have read it. Keyontae Johnson, obviously, forgot to read it because Tuesday he made the very smart, mature decision to return for his junior year at the University of Florida. He did his fact gathering about his chances to play in the NBA before deciding his better decision was to listen to his heart which was telling him to spend one more year in a Florida basketball uniform. There is no question the NBA was like Bali Hai, calling Johnson to turn in a classwork and dorm rooms for a shot at the good life the pros offer. Had he declared for the NBA Draft, he would have likely been drafted in the last half of the second round, giving him a legitimate shot at either making a team or getting a contract to the G-League. The temptation to bolt was there, but instead of paddling off to that island of dreams, he decided the island and the dreams will still be there next year. Announcing his decision on Instagram, Johnson said, “Dear Gator Nation, I want to thank everyone for being with me doing this decision, and I can’t wait to get back and play with my brothers again next season! We’ve got unfinished business & the Gators will be ready to go. I’m excited to keep growing on and off the court with Coach White and our coaching staff here & keep playing in front of the Rowdy Reptiles & Gator Nation! Everybody stay safe & Go Gators!” A first team All-SEC selection as a sophomore (averaged a team-high 14 points and 7.1 rebounds per game) Johnson had eight double-doubles, six 20-point games and was the MVP of the Charleston Classic when he put the Gators on his broad shoulders for three straight games to lead UF to the tournament championship. Along the way, he shot 54.4 percent from the field and a respectable 38 percent from the three-point line. The numbers were there. The effort was there. Rim-rattling dunks were there. Yet, there was room to improve and Johnson knew it, which is why he will return. If he improves as much next year as he did from freshman to sophomore, then he could play himself into a first round draft pick. Making it to the pros is the dream and goal of every kid who comes to a high profile Division I basketball program but in a league as strong top-to-bottom as the Southeastern Conference, it can be a cold, hard reality slap in the face. It’s Darwinism on display every night because only the strong survive. Johnson is very strong, both from a physical (he’s 6-5 and 235 extremely chiseled pounds) and he’s got game standpoint. Each Florida basketball game during the 2020-21 season was like watching a lion grow from a cub into a lethal beast. And now the beast will be back along with a Florida roster that will be the best from top-to-bottom of any Mike White has had in his previous five seasons at the Florida helm. Certainly, Johnson will be the centerpiece of a roster that seems best suited to a pressing, up-and-down the floor style of play. There is enough talent and depth for the Gators to live up to their potential instead of going on a shake your head and ask why roller coaster ride like they had last season. Johnson’s return along with the return of Scottie Lewis, who announced several days before Johnson that he will return for his sophomore season, means two of the three players giving careful thought to departing for a shot at professional basketball will be back. Point guard Andrew Nembhard has not announced his intentions, but if he elects to return, the Gators will have 13 scholarship players and depth at every position. The additions of transfers Anthony Duruji (6-8, 220) from Louisiana Tech and Tyree Appleby (6-1, 165) from Cleveland State will add two proven scorers (Duruji averaged 12.2 points and 6.2 rebounds as a sophomore and Louisiana Tech; Appleby 17.2 points, 5.6 assists at Cleveland State as a sophomore) giving White more scoring options than he’s ever had plus the ability to play practically any style from a walk it up the floor halfcourt game to a helter skelter breakneck game that threatens to blow the transmission in the scoreboards. But it will all center around Keyontae Johnson. His decision to come back for one more year had plenty do with the eye on the future, but also because he wants to be a part of a team that oozes potential greatness.

BY KASSIDY HILL AND AINSLEE LEE GATORBAIT COLUMNISTS STAY SAFE! While assembling our list of the best Florida Flashback memories from the past decade, there were a few that we kept asking, "what would that have been like from the stands?" We have a good view from the press box, yes, but there's nothing like experiencing a once in a lifetime moment with thousands of your closest friends. So for this play, we asked to hear from you, the fans. Here are your memories of the Austin Langworthy walk-off home run against Auburn to go to the College World Series. ...but first, a bit of background, as told by GatorBait’s own Ainslee Lee who was there for the hit. I had just been accepted to UF when Auburn baseball came to Gainesville for the 2018 Super Regional. I don’t claim to be much of a baseball person, but it was a Monday afternoon in the middle of summer and I knew a ticket to Omaha was hinged on the game that evening. Not wanting to go alone, of course, I dialed up a few of my girlfriends and asked if they wanted to tag along. My hopes weren’t high considering these group of girls knew as much about sports as I know about nuclear physics. Nonetheless, they couldn’t resist a night out watching college baseball players. Truth be told, I don’t remember much about the game leading up to “the hit”. Most of my night consisted of explaining the game of baseball to my posse – including why people were hanging Ks on the first baseline netting and why some of them were backwards. The seventh-inning stretch was a big hit for them, and for the longest time, I thought that that would be the most enjoyable takeaway for them. Considering the game began at 8 p.m. and extra innings were required, our time in the bleachers eclipsed three hours. It was also just a few strikes away from midnight. In addition to the stress of the game, I was also stressed I would have to have the stern conversation with my friends that we wouldn’t be leaving early. Thankfully it never got to that point. When it became clear that a walk-off could be possible, each batter that came to the plate brought me to the edge of my seat. Yet, I don’t remember thinking much of Austin Langworthy’s at-bat in the bottom of the 11th. A sophomore then, Langworthy was having a rough night and was 0-3 from the plate prior to his last at-bat. But then, I heard it. Even my friends heard it and quickly looked up from their phones. It was a “crack” that screamed solid contact. I’m not even a baseball person, but I recognized the sound instantly – and I knew it had promise. I remember rising in unison with the rest of the fans in the third baseline bleachers. And if the sky wasn't black, I would’ve never seen the ball fall from orbit. Better yet, if the trees behind the right-field wall weren’t darkened by the night, I would have thought that Steven Williams made the grab. But instead, I remember watching the ball ricochet up and over the wall. It was instantaneous. The second the ball cleared the wall, anything that anyone had in their hands was tossed. Popcorn, soda, peanuts, hats, water bottles… you name it, I went home wearing it. Meanwhile, my friends (who still didn’t have a full understanding of what had just happened), looked at me with a face of shock, and maybe disgust as they pulled popcorn out of each other’s hair. Eventually smiles crept across their face. “Can we do this again?” They were hooked. And admittedly, so was I. Video courtesy of @DSteinfeldt David Steinfeldt I am a season ticket holder; have been for several years. I remember how tense and intense of an atmosphere it was. Literally was sitting on the edge of my seat on every pitch. You just knew at any moment, the big moment could occur for either team. When Lang hit the ball you could tell us had a chance. Just remember everyone around us and in our group just erupting when it bounced off the Auburn outfielder’s globe and went over the fence. Pure euphoria!! @CJBinFLA I am going to try and describe the feeling of being in McKethan Stadium when Austin Langworthy hit the walk-off homer against Auburn in 2018. The moment passed in slow motion for me. I heard the hit off the bat and watched as it sailed to right field. I saw the Auburn defender back towards the fence, raise his gloved hand in the air and catch the ball. But wait, no, the ball bounced out of his glove and fell over the fence for a home run. The stadium exploded. My head was spinning. Did that really just happen- true Gator sports joy! @BetnoGreg I was a student for the Langworthy Walk Off HR vs Auburn. Went to the game with some friends even though I’m not that big a fan of baseball. As the game went into extra innings I started to consider leaving to get home for work the next day. I stuck it through the 10th inning but once it got to 11 I figured I would just check the ending tomorrow. I walked down to the aisle/section entrance but stood there to catch one last pitch. (Turned our to be a lot better view than the nosebleeds of the student section). I heard the crack of Langworthy’s bat and saw it sail way out to right field. Everyone around me was in slow motion as we all watched it approach the wall. Then there was that split second of disappointment I felt once it hit the Auburn players glove as I thought our chance was taken away. But once it bounced off the whole stadium exploded and it felt like a wave of energy unleashed from the stadium. I celebrated with other fans who had also crowded the section ramp waiting to get out of the stadium once the game finished. Afterwards, my friend @Clintau24 texted me (this was his first time in Gainesville, to catch this game) saying he was scared to come back given his luck. A little over a year later he returned for the Auburn football game and left disappointed again hahaha. One of my favorite unexpected memories in college, especially cause I don’t like baseball that much. @BrockBrames This was one of my first games in the Mac and I remember thinking how cool it was that our baseball team could have such hype and draw such a crowd. I was getting frustrated because the game was going on so long but when Langworthy made contact, the place erupted, then fell silent as the RF tried to catch it, then mayhem again. @DSteinfeldt