By: BUDDY MARTIN Steve Spurrier had something on his heart and mind that he wanted to get off. When that happens it generally means he’s going to find the right time and place so speak his mind. And that’s what he did recently while visiting in Columbia, S.C. Spurrier needed to set the record straight with South Carolina fans. Thus a lengthy article appeared in The Athletic based on a two-hour interview with former Columbia State sportswriter Josh Kendall, entitled “Five Years Later Steve Spurrier wants to clear up a few things.” Some things had been concerning Spurrier since he resigned as South Carolina Head Ball on Sept. 13, 2015. Steve had tipped me off about the upcoming interview with a weekend phone call, saying I was mentioned in the interview as one of those who influenced his decision to stay on as Gamecock Coach. (Although I doubt I really had much of an impact on him.) When I caught up with the HBC he had just driven from Columbia to Johnson City, Tenn. for the funeral of his high school basketball coach, Elvin Little. Why this story, this confession? Was Spurrier not the coach who brought South Carolina its greatest era in history just a few years ago? Why now? “What I wanted to get out was I didn’t leave because our record was 2-4,” Spurrier told me. Among the reasons he left USC so abruptly, he said, was that he had lost control of the team and realized his players were no longer listening to him. He stayed a year too long, buoyed by a bowl win over Miami which evened out his lifetime record against the Hurricanes at 1-1, encouraged by the enthusiasm and zest of wife Jerri who loved her life as a coach’s wife in Columbia. And nudged by a friend (me) to be aware that he still had a shot at becoming the only college coach in history to win 100 games at two schools. All of this came on the heels of the best three seasons in school history just two years prior. As Kendall noted: “From 2010-13, the Gamecocks won 40 games and an SEC East title. It was the most wins in a four-year period in school history, and it was the high-water mark of South Carolina football. The Gamecocks finished the 2013 season ranked No. 4.” Two years later it began to fall apart. The losing was his Kryptonite. And the aftershock was painful. “I don’t mind telling you: I hated those camera guys. When the game’s over and I got my butt kicked and they all want to get right in my face with that camera? Like, ‘Here’s Spurrier after we beat them.’ But still, it wasn’t that so much. I had done a poor job with the coaching and the team, a lot of mistakes. I want the fans to know I made a bunch of mistakes that year, and the only way for me to correct them was for me to leave. I couldn’t clean house and start over at age 70.” The handwriting was on the wall for Steve. Kendall’s story went on to say: “Spurrier called (A.D. Ray) Tanner that week and said, ‘I think it’s time. Let’s call the press conference.’ But Tanner urged Spurrier to reconsider, which gave other external forces time to go to work on him. ‘Of course, Jerri didn’t want that,’ Steve said. ‘She loved living here. She loved hugging the players. She loved everything about it. Of course, I had two sons on the staff (assistant coach Steve Spurrier Jr. and analyst Scottie Spurrier). They didn’t want to go for that. Then (Florida radio host and longtime friend) Buddy Martin, he called up and he says, ‘Steve, do you realize you have a chance to do something that has never been done in the history of college football, win 100 games at two schools?’ He said, ‘You’ve got 84, all you need is 16.’” While I would like to claim that I had that much influence, the truth is that Jerri’s wishes had a much bigger impact and the fact that his sons were coaching on his staff was also a much bigger factor. Guess I can be charged with “poor advice.” And why did the players stop listening? I asked him. “It wasn’t their fault,” he said of the players. “The head coach has got to demand respect and for some, whatever, reason, they didn’t have much respect. So it was time for me to get out of there. When you’re finished, you’re finished.” Little things like players not being forthright about performing their personal drills … a freshman disrespecting Spurrier by referring to him as “bro” …or him feeling the stress harshly enough that it began to affect his memory on remembering things like the number to his office door in the lockroom. So why did he quit? “Everybody wants to say, ‘Never quit,’” he told Kendall. “Quitting sometimes is good. You quit drinking too much, quit smoking, quit doing drugs, quit arguing and fighting with your spouse or friends, quit eating French fries every meal. There are a lot of things where quitting is the best.” To this day he’s not sure why, but attendance to team chapel service began to fall off drastically. Whereas attendance was once about 90 percent – without it being mandatory – only about 10 players began showing up for it. The chaplain asked if was doing something wrong and Spurrier said, “no, let me see if I can say something.” The HBC reminded players that it was important to take 20-25 minutes a week to attend and hear the word preached, along with Steve and Jerri. But attendance did not increase. That’s when Spurrier began to take it personally. He was beginning to lose his own self-respect, one day looking in the mirror and saying, “’you have become a sorry ball coach.’” It was time to hang it up. “In my situation, I thought it was like that. In ‘Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun,’ it says, ‘When defeat is inevitable and there’s no way you can win, it’s better to retreat and come back and fight another day.’ Quitting to me has always meant in the middle of a game you have a chance to win and your players or coaches quit on it. That’s quitting. I felt like I was defeated. I needed to retreat, to get out, and maybe somebody (else) could provide a spark that I could not provide for that team. Maybe it was just such that nobody could have helped it much.” So what did happen? “I had Urban Meyer’s disease,” he said, meaning no disrespect to his friend’s health issue but admitting that the stress had begun to affect him both physically and mentally. It was time to go, whether he had an expiration date or not. Apparently he did not, because “after some good rest and clear thinking,” he came back, taking over the head coaching job of the Orlando Apollos of the Alliance of American Football and coaching them to a pseudo title in an incomplete season. They finished 7-1, two games better than any other team. “I was blessed to go out a winner,” he said. “I felt like I got some redemption for doing a sorry job here. I did a sorry job, and I was determined I wasn’t going to do a sorry job again. I am so thankful and appreciative. I could look in the mirror and say, ‘You turned out to be a pretty good ball coach.’ My daughter Amy said, ‘I think God created the Alliance so my dad would have a chance to go out a winner,’ and that might be a good way to look at it.” And so as he likes to say, once again God smiled on him. TB is back for ‘An Evening With Terry Bradshaw’ Terry Bradshaw wanted to know where his key to the city was and if Scot Brantley had anymore footballs that he intercepted and wanted him to sign. Otherwise, yes, he said he’d be back for “An Evening With Terry Bradshaw” April 8 at the Reilly Arts Center. I asked him if he would practice diligently in his post-Super Bowl interview with MVP Patrick Mahomes so he be on top of his game when he got to Ocala. “Yes, I will,” said Bradshaw, “but do me a favor tell that Mayor (Kent Guinn) that I want my key to the city. I understand he’s (Guinn) running for Congress. If he can’t deliver tell him I’m going to his opposition and get my key from him.” Terry was referring to the 2019 incident in which Mayor Guinn was scheduled to present the Steelers’ four-time Super Bowl winning Hall of Fame quarterback with a key to his city, but the key didn’t get done in time. “But I’m ready for Terry this time!” said the mayor. We all got a kick out of Scot Brantley showing up with a football last year – the same ball he picked off as a Bucs linebacker as his first NFL interception – and insisting that Terry autograph it, which he did. “And another thing!” said Bradshaw, feigning anger. “I don’t want any more people showing up there with footballs they say they intercepted from me and asking me to sign them. Otherwise we might have a line with 100 people!” (Bradshaw was picked off 210 times as a pro.) The Ocala Quarterback Club is sponsoring the event with the help of Campus USA Credit Union and GatorBaitMedia.com. Tickets will go on sale next week and can be purchased then at reillyartscenter.com when they do. Sorry Jim, we had the wrong #44 (with photos of Brown and Davis) Yes, we know the difference between Jim Brown, perhaps the greatest NFL player of all time, and Ernie Davis, also a great running back at Syracuse. When we reached down for a photo of Brown – recently voted No. 1 by the NFL – there were numerous # 44s in the batch. inadvertently we picked out the wrong one. So just to set the record straight (after a few friends gladly pointed out our gaffe), Jim Brown is on the left, Ernie Davis on the right. Oddly enough Davis won the Heisman Trophy, but Brown did not.

BREWSTER IS A HOME RUN HIRE FOR DAN MULLEN On December 31, 2013, Dalvin Cook backed out of his commitment to Will Muschamp and the Florida Gators. It was a stunning blow to the Gators, who started the 2013 season ranked #10 nationally only to crash and burn after a game two loss to Miami. A game later, quarterback Jeff Driskel broke his leg and was lost for the season. Even after the Miami loss, the Gators won their next three and were ranked #20 when the bottom fell out. Rock bottom was a stunning, 28-20, loss to Georgia Southern, then a D1AA team. Cook’s commitment gave the Gators hope that 2013 was an aberration but when he backed out it left Muschamp without that game-changing running back he so desperately needed to run a ground and pound attack. Cook’s decision almost foretold that Muschamp’s remaining time in Gainesville would be short. On National Signing Day, Cook made the call for Florida State. Had he stuck with Florida, it’s entirely possible that Will Muschamp would still be the UF coach. Muschamp was a tremendous defensive recruiter, but he never landed an electric runner like Cook, who would go on to run for 4,464 yards and 46 touchdowns in three seasons at FSU. Pointing out what happened with Cook is important since the guy who did the grunt work to flip him was Tim Brewster, then Jimbo Fisher’s tight ends coach and ace recruiter. This is the same Tim Brewster that elected to leave Mack Brown’s North Carolina staff Thursday to join Dan Mullen’s Florida staff where he will coach tight ends and most likely become the Gators’ ace recruiter in South Florida. At Florida, Brewster will be coaching Kyle Pitts, who has to rank as one of the favorites to win the 2020 Mackey Award as the nation's top tight end. Mullen and Brewer worked together at Mississippi State in 2012 when Brewster coached wide receivers. Brewster left for FSU the next year and spend 2013-18 working with Fisher at FSU and then Texas A&M (2018). Brewster worked for Mack Brown at UNC last year and was instrumental in flipping QB Sam Howell from FSU. Brewster was the lead recruiter at UNC for Seffner Armwood DT Clyde Pinder Jr., who picked the Tar Heels over the Gators. Florida currently has eight 2021 commitments, six of which have a 4-star rating. This is a home run hire for Mullen, who is already in the process of assembling a powerhouse 2021 recruiting class. In landing Brewster, Mullen gets an elite level recruiter that can help the Gators land such top South Florida talent as safety James Williams (6-5, 215, Opa Locka, FL Western), outside linebacker Terrence Lewis (6-1, 200, Hollywood, FL Chaminade-Madonna) and defensive tackle Leonard Taylor (6-4, 250, Miami, FL Palmetto). In the 247Sports rankings for 2021, the Gators rank fourth nationally and first in the SEC. BASKETBALL GUT CHECK GAME AT OLE MISS The time for patting each other on the back for that Wednesday night comeback from a 22-point deficit to beat Georgia ended Thursday morning. The Georgia win was one for the ages, but that’s in the past and now the Gators (14-8, 6-3 SEC) have a gut check game at Ole Miss (11-11, 2-7 SEC) Saturday afternoon (2 p.m., ESPN2). The Gators beat Ole Miss earlier in the season 71-57 in Gainesville, but the Rebels were without leading scorer Brein Tyree (18.9 per game), who is coming off a 38-point outburst in their win at South Carolina Tuesday night. The Gators dealt with a volume scorer Wednesday night when Georgia’s Anthony Edwards went off for 32 points, but Edwards scored only six points (four from the foul line) in the final 16 minutes. Tyree isn’t as big and strong as Edwards, but his game is similar. He’s a tremendous straight-line driver who can go into a shooter’s coma when everything he throws up goes in. When the Gators beat Ole Miss previously, the Gators played one of their best defensive games of the year, holding the Rebels to just 18.8% shooting from the three-point line while forcing 18 turnovers. The Rebels aren’t a great three-point shooting team but they can go on streaks when it seems they can’t miss. That means the Gators need a defensive replay of the first outing. This is a gut check game for the Gators since it’s against an SEC bottom feeder and the first game of the second half of the SEC schedule. Win it and the Gators are at the seven-win mark in league play. Figure they will need a minimum of 10 to make the NCAA field. SEC BASKETBALL Saturday’s games FLORIDA (14-8, 6-3, SEC) AT OLE MISS (11-11, 2-7 SEC), ESPN2 #18 LSU (17-5, 8-1 SEC) AT #11 Auburn (20-2, 7-2 SEC), ESPN #15 Kentucky (17-5, 7-2 SEC) at Tennessee (13-9, 5-4 SEC), CBS Texas A&M (11-10, 5-4 SEC) at South Carolina (13-9, 5-4 SEC), SEC Network Arkansas (16-6, 4-5 SEC) at Missouri (10-12, 2-7 SEC), SEC Network Alabama (12-10, 4-5 SEC) at Georgia (12-10, 2-7 SEC), SEC Network Vanderbilt (9-13, 1-8 SEC) at Mississippi State (14-8, 5-4 SEC), SEC Network A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO BASTE: FRIDAY EDITION (1) These are the five best college basketball teams that I’ve seen this season: (1) Baylor; (2) Gonzaga; (3) Dayton; (4) San Diego State; (5) Kansas. Honorable mention: Florida State. The five best players I’ve seen this season: (1) Obi Toppin, Dayton; (2) Anthony Edwards, Georgia; (3) Markus Howard, Marquette; (4) Filip Petrusev, Gonzaga; (5) Devon Dotson, Kansas. Honorable mention: Jared Butler, Baylor. Best defensive team: Baylor. Best offensive team: Gonzaga. Best defensive player shorter than 6-7: Mark Vital, Baylor. Best defensive player taller than 6-7: Udoka Azubuike, Kansas. Best Scorer: Anthony Edwards, Georgia. Best Shooter: Jake Toolson, BYU. Best 3-Point Shooter: Ryan McMahon, Louisville. (2) It will be interesting to see how Lane Kiffin spins this. Wednesday at a signing ceremony at Northwood High School in Shreveport, Louisiana, wide receiver Detraveon Brown announced he was signing with Ole Miss. There’s only one slight problem. Ole Miss pulled the offer several days prior to signing day. (3) All of Vanderbilt’s quarterbacks from 2019 either graduated or transferred out. Now they have four signed quarterbacks, the latest of which is former Kentucky backup Danny Clark, who spent 2019 at Copiah-Lincoln Community College in Mississippi. Of course, none of these guys are currently enrolled so it’s anybody’s guess how – or even if – Vandy can hold a spring football game. This does not bode well for HBC Derek Mason, who lost his protector when AD Malcolm Turner resigned earlier in the week. (4) The Athletic listed the five most disappointing classes as (1) Southern Cal (#55 nationally, #10 Pac-12); (2) Virginia Tech (#71 nationally, #14 ACC); (3) Michigan State (#43 nationally, #10 Big Ten); (4) Illinois (#88 nationally, #14 Big Ten) and (5) UCF (#70 nationally, #4 American Athletic). Consider Clay Helton (USC), Justin Fuente (VaTech) and Lovie Smith (Illinois) on seriously hot seats. (5) Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com points out that the 2019 College Football Playoff was the first time that all four semifinalists (LSU, Oklahoma, Ohio State and Clemson) placed among the top six teams nationally in scoring. LSU led the country in scoring (48.4 points per game) and total offense (568.4 yards) yet finished 31st in yards allowed (344.2) and 32nd in points allowed (21.9). (6) Marty Blazer, the Pittsburgh financial adviser who became the government’s star witness in the college basketball corruption trial, was sentenced to a year of probation Thursday for defrauding athlete clients. He has to pay $1.56 million in restitution but avoids jail time. Blazer next becomes the NCAA’s star witness in dropping the hammer on schools that have already received their Notices of Allegations and those awaiting. Blazer also is said to have detailed information on how college football programs paid athletes. At the sentencing hearing Thursday, the NCAA submitted a letter of support for Blazer, detailing how he has cooperated in their investigations. Coaches like Sean Miller (Arizona), Will Wade (LSU) and Bill Self (Kansas) are sitting on tight sphincters about now. (7) The Jordan Burch saga has come to an end … finally. Burch, who committed but didn’t sign with South Carolina at the Early National Signing Day, didn’t sign his letter of intent Wednesday, either, creating speculation that maybe he was going to jilt the Gamecocks in favor of LSU. Burch submitted his signed LOI Thursday evening. He’s South Carolina’s highest rated recruit since Jadeveon Clowney signed in 2011. GOOD QUOTES FOR FRIDAY From Dennis Dodd of CBSSports, former Auburn head coach Gene Chizik on the biggest trend in all of college football: “You’re going to get fired in Power 5 football if you don’t have a quarterback.” From 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh, former Steelers wide receiver and all-around NFL bad guy Antonio Brown issued an apology: “I apologize to those guys for the indiscretions for the unwanted attention that probably caused those guys certain things, the organization, so obviously you want to clear out any baggage or any disrespect, or unintended attention that ws brought on to the organization. These guys gave me an opportunity when I was 21-years old and I’m forever grateful to those guys.” Tom Verducci of Sports Illustrated on why the Boston Red Sox trade of outfielder Mookie Betts and pitcher David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers is actually a good economic move: “What the Red Sox are doing in trading Betts to the Dodgers and scotch-taping the three years left on the contract of David Price along with him, makes economic sense. As three-time ‘offenders,’ Boston was looking at a progressive tax rate of 50% tax on the overage, up from 20% in the first phase. The Yankees and Dodgers in recent years have hit the reset tax button themselves, paving the way for the coastal titans to snag the two best players to change teams this winter: Gerit Cole is in New York and Mookie Betts is in Los Angeles.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: When Duke beat Boston College 63-55 earlier in the week, the two teams combined to miss their first 27 three-pointers. For the game they were a combined 3-33 (1-15 for Duke, 2-18 for BC) … Former Texas Tech quarterback Jett Duffey was denied admission to Central Michigan due to a second Title IX complaint against him while at Texas Tech … Alabama D-line coach Brian Baker left for the NFL, a move that was expected ever since Freddie Roach was poached from the Ole Miss staff a couple of weeks ago … Roach was officially announced as the new D-line coach Thursday … Tom Brady is a free agent. Despite all the predictions that Brady can get a go-zillion dollar contract somewhere else, I doubt seriously he’s going to sign anywhere but with the New England Patriots. Maybe he could make a lot more money somewhere else, but when you have made as much money as Brady has, money probably isn’t the single motivating factor in his decision. I just have to believe that since Brady started his career in New England with Bill Belichick and owner Robert Kraft he will end his career there.

MAYBE IT’S NOT A SEXY CLASS, BUT IT’S EXACTLY WHAT UF NEEDED Okay, so you wanted a sexier recruiting class at the University of Florida. You wanted a better class than the one Kirby Smart hauled in at Georgia. You wanted the Gators better than the Poodles and at least eye-to-eye with Alabama and LSU. Well, you didn’t get it. What you did get was an exceptional class that fills the holes in the roster, particularly along the offensive and defensive lines and in the secondary. This is, after all, a line of scrimmage league and now the Gators have depth they haven’t had in Dan Mullen’s first two years on the job. In the secondary, yes, they missed out on DeLand safety Avantae Williams, but they did sign Texas defensive tackle Princely Umanmielen, who projects to be a beast when lined up next to Gervon Dexter, maybe the best defensive tackle in the entire country. Here’s my take on that. While Williams is no doubt an outstanding talent, the state of Florida churns out great corners and safeties every single year. Defensive tackles that are 6-4, 285 and still growing are much harder to come by. If you had told me the Gators could get only one of the two, my choice would have been Unanmielen 10 times out of 10. Now, here’s my other take on National Signing Day. Mullen and his coaching staff have gone 21-5 in their two seasons in Gainesville, winning New Year’s Six bowl games at the tail end of both. In many cases, they’ve had to do it with smoke and mirrors because there wasn’t enough depth or experience at key positions left behind by the previous occupant of the head ball coach’s office. We’ve seen a staff that knows and understands how to develop talent and deliver a winning product on the field. And, how many coaches can you think of who could have gone 11-2 after the starting QB went down in game three and the replacement hadn’t started a game since the ninth grade and had all of 27 pass attempts in his UF career? I’m not sure another coach could have done it. I know Mullen did. And that’s why I look at this recruiting class that gives Mullen what can only be described as an SEC roster from top to bottom for the first time since he’s been here and I’m convinced the Florida Gators are on the verge of becoming the beast of the SEC East. For a parting shot: I trust Mullen to get the Gators to the next level and win championships. He’s a better coach than Kirby Smart and has a staff that is much better at developing talent. All the 5-star recruits won't change the fact that Kirby isn't the brightest bulb on the coaching tree. FORGET THE FIRST 24 MINUTES, THE LAST 16 WERE INCREDIBLE With a little more than 16 minutes to go in the game Wednesday night, Georgia led the Gators (14-8, 6-3 SEC) 52-30. A blowout loss of Missouri proportions was on the verge of happening in front of an O-Dome crowd that groaned with every missed shot or turnover. The Gators couldn’t throw it in the ocean from the end of the pier while Georgia – particularly Anthony Edwards – didn’t seem capable of missing. Edwards scored 18 points in the first half. It only seemed like he had 30. When the Poodles increased their 15-point halftime lead to 22 in the first four minutes of the second half, Mike White sent in three freshmen – Jason Jitoboh, Ques Glover and Tre Mann – to go with Noah Locke and Keyontae Johnson. That unorthodox lineup got the rally going. From that point on, the Gators outscored Georgia 51-23 as they tied the school record for the greatest comeback in UF history. The offense was borderline sensational but the defense was even better in those last 16 minutes. When White shifted to a 3-2 that would match up and then occasionally morph into a man-to-man, Georgia completely lost its offensive edge. Edwards, who had 26 points at the 14:41 mark, didn’t score again until there was 5:31 left in the game. His final four points came from the foul line. Georgia had a chance to make it a one-possession game with 39 seconds left, but Scottie Lewis came out of nowhere for an emphatic rejection. That, per Georgia coach Tom Crean, was the dagger that sealed the loss. What those final 16 minutes tell us is that if White can get the Gators to play like that for 40 minutes, this team could indeed live up to the preseason hype. SEC BASKETBALL Wednesday’s scores FLORIDA (14-8, 6-3 SEC) 81, Georgia (12-10, 2-7 SEC) 75 Vanderbilt (9-13, 1-8 SEC) 99, #18 LSU (17-5, 8-1 SEC) 90 Ole Miss (11-11, 2-7 SEC) 84, South Carolina (13-9, 5-4 SEC) 70 Saturday’s games FLORIDA (14-8, 6-3 SEC) at Ole Miss (11-11, 2-7 SEC), ESPN2 #18 LSU (17-5, 8-1 SEC) at #11 Auburn (20-2, 7-2 SEC), ESPN #15 Kentucky (17-5, 7-2 SEC) at Tennessee (13-9, 5-4 SEC), CBS Texas A&M (11-10, 5-4 SEC) at South Carolina (13-9, 5-4 SEC), SEC Network Arkansas (16-5, 4-5 SEC) at Missouri (10-12, 2-7 SEC), SEC Network Alabama (12-10, 4-5 SEC) at Georgia (12-10, 2-7 SEC), SEC Network Vanderbilt (9-13, 1-8 SEC) at Mississippi State (14-8, 5-4 SEC), SEC Network SOME RECRUITING STUFF FROM AROUND THE SEC ALABAMA: Alabama had a signing day setback when 4-star D-lineman Jayson Jones flipped to Oregon. More than half of Alabama’s 25 signees (13) enrolled in January and will be there for spring practice. ARKANSAS: Malik Henry, who was the highest rated unsigned QB in the nation prior to Wednesday, signed with Arkansas, a coup for new coach Sam Pittman and offensive coordinator Kendal Briles. He had offers from Texas A&M and Alabama. Arkansas has four freshmen and a juco early enrolled. AUBURN: Probably the biggest National Signing Day news for Auburn had nothing to do with a signee but a departure. Running Back Boobie Whitlow, who ran for 763 yards and 10 touchdowns in an injury-marred season, entered his name in the NCAA transfer portal. Perhaps his departure had something to do with Auburn bringing in running back Tank Bigsby or maybe new offensive coordinator Chad Morris likes to fling the football all over the yard. Auburn has nine freshmen and a juco early enrolled GEORGIA: The big news on National Signing Day for the Poodles was holding on to 5-star offensive lineman Broderick Jones and 4-star O-lineman Sedric Van Pran. Alabama made a late run at Jones and both Florida and Alabama tried to flip Van Pran, but Georgia held onto both. Georgia has six freshmen early enrolled. KENTUCKY: Running back Michael Drennen II pulled off a signing day shocker when he committed to Kentucky over Southern Cal. He still hasn’t signed his LOI, however. Kentucky has 10 freshmen and a juco early enrolled. LSU: At his signing day press conference, Coach O said he’s looking mostly at the NFL for Joe Brady’s replacement. The guy to watch is New Orleans Saints wide receivers coach Ronald Curry, a former college QB who played 11 seasons as a wide receiver in the NFL. LSU has six freshmen and a juco early enrolled. MISSISSIPPI STATE: Mike Leach’s first recruiting class at MSU is highlighted by Stanford grad transfer QB KJ Costello, one of four transfers. Leach has nine early enrollees, three of whom are jucos. MISSOURI: Defensive back Ennis Rakestraw, who took official visits to Texas and Alabama, signed with Missouri, the highlight of the day for first year coach Eli Drinkwitz. The QB in the class is 3-star Brady Cook. There are no early enrollees. OLE MISS: Lane Kiffin’s first Ole Miss recruiting class includes three transfers including former Georgia DB Otis Reese. Kiffin landed Demon Clowney, younger brother of NFL star Jadeveon Clowney, and running back Henry Parrish out of Miami. There are no early enrollees. SOUTH CAROLINA: Five-star defensive tackle Jordan Burch took part in a signing day ceremony where he said he had signed with South Carolina. Late Wednesday night, Will Muschamp still hadn’t received a signed LOI from Burch. Muschamp has 10 early enrolled, nine freshmen and a juco. TENNESSEE: The Vols signed tight end Damarcus Beckwith, who was thought to be heading to Florida. There are three transfers in Tennessee’s signing class including former Georgia O-lineman Cade Mays and former Southern Cal wide receiver Velus Jones. Vols have four early enrolled freshmen. TEXAS A&M: Running back Darvon Hubbard, a one-time Ohio State commitment, signed with the Aggies. Defensive tackle McKinnley Jackson chose the Aggies over Alabama. The Aggies have 12 early enrolled, all freshmen including QB of the future Haynes King. VANDERBILT: The highlight of another last-place (in the SEC) recruiting class for the Commodores is Ohio State transfer defensive end Alex Williams. Vandy did sign three quarterbacks, a good thing since all the other scholarship QBs transferred out. GOOD QUOTES FOR THURSDAY Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic on the trade of outfielder Mookie Betts and lefthander David Price to the Los Angeles Dodgers for some guys you’ve probably never heard of: “The Red Sox had perhaps only an outside chance to overcome the Yankees and Rays this season if they had kept Betts, and now that chance becomes almost miniscule. This time, management cannot simply play the gree card with the expectation that fans will accept Betts as the villain. For Betts, the 2018 American League MVP, and left-hander David Price, the 2018 AL Comeback Player of the Year (though somewhat of a disappointment in Boston overall), the Red Sox will receive outfielder Alex Verdugo from the Dodgers and right-handed pitcher Brusdar Graterol from the Twins, who will acquire starter Kenta Maeda from LA to round out the deal.” Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated on what’s next for Michigan State after Mark Dantonio resigned as head football coach on the eve of National Signing Day: “Luke Fickell would be the best (hirable) man for the job. He’s gone 22-5 the last two years at Cincinnati, he knows the Big Ten from his time at Ohio State and he knows the recruiting terrain. But he’s also got a potential top 15 or 20 team coming back at Cincy, which won’t be easy to leave. If he wants the job, the situation give Fickell all the leverage. Leave a good gig to take over a program that could lose its recruiting class? Convince your staff to uproot now. That could turn a five-year contract into six or seven years, or add another million dollars a year to the salary … If not Fickell, Pat Narduzzi would be a comfortable hire and probably a good one. The Pittsburgh coach was Dantonio’s right-hand man and defensive soulmate at Michigan State for several years. There would e no surprises on either side of the equation – State would know what it’s getting in Narduzzi, and Narduzzi would know what he getting in State. But he’s also never one more than eight games in the easier division of the Atlantic Coast Conference, which is a much easier league than the Big Ten.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: Vanderbilt’s 25-game SEC basketball losing streak came to an end Wednesday night when the Commodores took out 18th-ranked LSU, which was 8-0 in SEC play coming into the game … Phil Mickelson has won five majors but never the US Open. He says he won’t accept an exemption to play in this year’s event … The NFL and the players association will meet today in Los Angeles to try to make some progress on a new collective bargaining agreement. It is being reported players want more health and safety improvements, particularly if the NFL wishes to expand the schedule to 17 games.

WILL MULLEN HAVE A SIGNING DAY SURPRISE? If Dan Mullen gets signatures on Letters of Intent from wide receivers Xzavier Henderson (6-4, 180, Miami, FL Columbus) and Penn State transfer Justin Shorter (6-4, 230), safety Avantae Williams (5-11, 175, DeLand, FL) and tight end Damarcus Beckwith (6-4, 215, Florence, AL), he will probably walk away from National Signing Day knowing he’s filled the holes in the Florida roster, enough so that he’ll have a real SEC roster top to bottom to work with next year. This, no matter what happens with safety/wide receiver Marc Britt (6-2, 190, Miami, FL Miami Christian) and wide receiver Leonard Manuel (6-4, 210, Fort Lauderdale, FL Stranahan), both of whom have academic work to do. Surprises really aren’t expected. Stud running back Jahmyr Gibbs (5-10, 190, Dalton, GA) let it be known he will stick with his Georgia Tech commitment Tuesday. Defensive end Princely Umanmielen (6-4, 260, Manor, TX) is a possibility for UF but Auburn seems a more likely destination. The longest of long shots is running back Zach Evans (6-0, 200, Houston, TX North Shore), who can’t sign another LOI (signed one with Georgia but was released) and will just have to enroll in school somewhere. The wildest possible surprise scenario would be for a double flipper – center/guard Sedric Van Pran (6-4, 310, New Orleans, LA Warren Easton/Georgia commitment) and running back Ashaad Clayton (6-0, 200, New Orleans, LA Warren Easton/Colorado commitment). If Mullen pulled that off, there would be back flips in the hallways of the football complex. It seems far-fetched, but don’t forget these guys were high school teammates of current Gator Chester Kimbrough. One last question: Does Mullen hold a scholarship or two for May after some players graduate and can transfer without having to sit out? CAN THE GATORS TURN IN ANOTHER STRONG DEFENSIVE EFFORT? After three straight sup-par defensive efforts, Mike White is hoping the Gators (13-8, 5-3 SEC) have regained their defensive edge. Their 61-56 win over Vanderbilt in Nashville Saturday night was Florida’s best defensive effort since they held 11th-ranked Auburn to 47 points. The big question for White is can he get a repeat performance tonight when Georgia (12-9, 2-6 SEC) comes to the O-Dome (7 p.m., ESPNU)? Much of the attention – deservedly so – will be focused on Georgia’s Anthony Edwards (19.3 points, 5.2 rebounds per game), arguably the nation’s top freshman and quite possibly the #1 choice in the June NBA Draft. White says Edwards is a tremendous straight line driver who can also “make a contested 22-footer look like a HORSE shot for other guys.” As good as Edwards is, White knows the Gators can’t let the other guys have their way. “They’ve got other good players,” White said Tuesday afternoon. “Rayshaun Hammonds (6-9, 235; 12.5 points, 7.6 rebounds per game) is terrific, one of the more talented guys in our league, in my opinion. (Tyree) Crump has been really good against us at times in his career, as has Jordan Harris. They play a lot of guys and I think they get good contributions off the bench as well.” In the Vanderbilt game, the Gators played hard on the defensive end for 40 full minutes with few lapses in effort. Vanderbilt did come back from an 18-point second half deficit to make a game of it at the end, but much of that had to do with fatigue at the end of the game. Florida’s formula for winning is quite simple: Force Georgia into a tough shooting night on one end of the court and hit a few shots at the other. If the Gators can make some shots, this game is entirely winnable. SEC BASKETBALL Tuesday’s scores #11 Auburn (20-2, 7-2 SEC) 79, Arkansas (16-6, 4-5 SEC) 76, OT Tennessee (13-9, 5-4 SEC) 69, Alabama (12-10, 4-5 SEC) 68 #15 Kentucky (17-5, 7-2 SEC) 80, Mississippi State (13-9, 5-4 SEC) 72 Texas A&M (11-10, 5-4 SEC) 68, Missouri (10-12, 2-7 SEC) 56 Tonight’s games Georgia (12-9, 2-6 SEC) at FLORIDA (13-8, 5-3 SEC), ESPNU South Carolina (13-8, 5-3 SEC) at Ole Miss (10-11, 1-7 SEC), SEC Network #18 LSU (17-4, 8-0 SEC) at Vanderbilt (8-13, 0-8 SEC), SEC Network A WANDERING WEDNESDAY MIND (1) Just a couple of weeks after receiving a $4.3 million retention bonus, Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio stepped down. Dantonio led Michigan State to three consecutive top six finishes (2013-2015) only to hit tougher times the last four years (27-24 record). With Dantonio leaving, there will be a ripple effect as Michigan State is expected to turn first to Pat Narduzzi (Pitt HBC) or Luke Fickell (Cincinnati HBC). Narduzzi was Dantonio’s defensive coordinator back when Michigan State was on a roll. A couple of other candidates, per Adam Rittenberg of ESPN, are Central Michigan HBC Jim McElwain and Alabama analyst and former Tennessee head coach Butch Jones. Bill Bender of Sporting News lists these five as likely candidates at MSU: Fickell, Narduzzi, Matt Campbell (Iowa State), Lance Leipold (Buffalo) and Robert Saleh (San Francisco 49ers DC). (2) Vanderbilt athletic director Malcolm Turner has resigned. The interim AD is Candice Storey Lee, who becomes the first African-American female in charge of an SEC athletic department. The Turner resignation was quite a surprise since he had stood up for football coach Derek Mason, who so many in the fan base wanted gone after last year’s 3-9 record. (3) Sean Tuohy Jr. has been named athletic director-football operations at Liberty University. His dad is the all-time assist leader for Ole Miss basketball. He’s also known as SJ, and Michael Oher’s brother. You might remember him as the little brother in the movie “The Blind Side.” SJ played college basketball at Loyola (MD). (4) Golf is at a crossroads. Either it starts lengthening courses to deal with increased distance due to high tech equipment and golf balls or else do something about equipment, specifically golf balls. The USGA and R & A announced Tuesday they have completed a joint study into the equipment and will consider the possibility of limiting distance through changes to equipment and golf balls. Applauding the study was Jack Nicklaus, who said, “The simplest solution is change the frigging golf ball.” GOOD QUOTES FOR WEDNESDAY Dana O’Neill of The Athletic on why Bruce Pearl has proven to be the perfect fit for Auburn basketball, which he took to the Final Four last year and has the Tigers ranked 11thnationally this year: “Before Pearl, Auburn’s history began and ended in the early 1980s with Charles Barkley, the basketball season little more than a placeholder between football season and spring football season. The Tigers went seven years without a winning record, 19 without an SEC title and 15 without an NCAA Tournament bid. Pearl took the job because nobody else wanted it, and Auburn took Pearl because nobody else wanted him, a perfect marriage of the misplaced.” Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated on the decline in three-point shooting this year, which coincides with the line being moved back 17 inches: “When the rules committee moved the three-point arc back nearly 17 inches to the international distance of 22 feet, 1-3/4 inches, a decrease in long-range accuracy was to be expected this season. That is exactly what has happened. Through games played Jan. 26, Division I players were making an all-time-low 33.59% of their three-pointers. That’s a drop of 0.95% from 2018-19, the largest the sport has seen year over year in at least 26 years … The most recent significant drop in three-point accuracy was 12 years ago when it fell from 35.23 to 34.4%. That’s the last time the line was moved back (by a foot then) and it resulted in a significant reduction in threes attempted (from 19.1 per game to 18.3) … Although three-point accuracy is down this season, volume three-point shooting remains in vogue – teams are hoisting 21.89 threes per game, second highest in history to last year’s 22.43. Do the match: We’re seeing more missed jump shots than ever before.” Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports on the abrupt resignation of Michigan State coach Mark Dantonio and why there was so much wrong with the way Dantonio chose to depart: “If he wanted to set the program up for the future, he should have announced last October or November he was stepping down at season’s end. Then State would have had plenty of time and a fair shot to attract the very best replacement possible. The new guy could have salvaged the recruiting class and started trying to re-establish momentum that doesn’t come easily in East Lansing … Instead, Dantonio remained defiant that much of anything was wrong. He bristled at suggestions he should retire or that he couldn’t rebuild. He extended the malaise that hung over everything. In the process, he stuck around long enough to pick up a $4.3 million retention bonus by being employed by the school on Jan. 15.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: Isaiah Joe, the best player and scorer (16 points per game) at Arkansas (16-6, 4-5 SEC), is out indefinitely after arthroscopic surgery on his knee. His loss is going to make it difficult for the Razorbacks to get off the NCAA Tournament bubble … For those of you in need of a football fix, the XFL season kicks off Saturday. The league will play a 10-game schedule with four of the eight teams making the playoffs. The Tampa Bay Vipers will open their season Sunday on the road against the New York Guardians. Former Georgia QB Aaron Murray is the Tampa Bay QB. Bobby Stoops is coaching the Dallas Renegades … The New York Knicks fired team president Steve Mills. Ownership wants to hire the president of the Toronto Ruptures Masai Ujiri. Let’s see, the Ruptures won the NBA championship last year and they have the third best record in the league this year even without Kawhi Leonard and they are a well-run organization. So why would Ujiri choose to leave an organization committed to winning championships for a train wreck like the Knicks? … The Jacksonville Jaguars will play two home games in London’s Wembley Stadium in 2020. Games in London generate twice as much money as a home game in Jacksonville … UNLV running back Darran Williams, age 22, suffered a heart attack during an offseason conditioning workout. Doctors discovered Williams had an enlarged heart and placed him in a medically induced coma. Williams obviously will retire from football but UNLV will honor his scholarship.

MIAMI GARDENS, FL—As Florida Gators players tore into victory oranges and donned their championships hats, the clock clicked past midnight, turning the calendar to December 31. New Years Eve in South Florida is hot and muggy, swampy one might say, making it a fitting setting for the Gators to write the final chapter of their story this year. It was a storybook ending for the No. 9 Florida Gators and senior running back Lamical Perine as they defeated No. 24 Virginia Cavaliers 36-28 for the 2019 Capital One Orange Bowl. It wasn’t anywhere near perfect, as no real story is, and began with an epic statement, then experienced the requisite trails before ending with a well earned tribute for the victors and the hero. “I really want to congratulate our team,” said an emotional head coach Dan Mullen after the win. “I'm really proud of our players. Just under a year ago, this team was born, and we talked about going from four wins to 10 wins was special, but to go from 10 wins to 11 is going to be a lot harder, and those guys bought into it. They started working last January, and they worked, they grinded all season long in everything that they did.” Leading in to the Capital One Orange Bowl, the Cavaliers talked of wanting to shut down the Gators run game; wanting to make quarterback Kyle Trask (24-39, 305 yds, 1TD, 1INT; 8-37, 1TD rushing) and the depth of wideouts beat them through the air. This seemed counterproductive when considering Florida is the statistically best passing offense the Cavs have faced this season. *Clemson was ranked higher in this category when facing the Wahoo’s in the ACC Championship but fell below Florida after the Fiesta Bowl. Yet as Hoos linebacker Charles Snowden told reporters over the weekend, “Their running back [Lamical Perine] is one of the best we’ve seen so we know he’s a great running back so we’re not going in and thinking just stop the pass, stop the pass. You still have to stop the run.” So it was ironic that it was Perine who delivered the first dagger. On the third play of the game from Florida’s own 39-yard line, quarterback Kyle Trask handed off to the senior back who found a lane through the b-gap and turned on what has become legendary speed for the 61-yard house call. After a Virginia three and out, the Gators next offensive possession ended when Kyle Trask was hit as he threw and picked off by Nick Grant. The Hoo’s struck immediately from the 34-yard line with a rainbow toss from Bryce Perkins to Terrell Jana that knotted everything at seven. The Gators responded with a methodical 13 play drive that included a 19-yard punishing run from Lamical Perine and 17-yard keeper from Emory Jones (4 rushes-32 yards). It was capped with another Perine moment, this time a toss from Trask to the running back. Perine—who has eyes on him from NFL scouts—stepped out of a tackle, turned up field and showed another burst of speed for the 16-yard receiving touchdown. Perine being there to answer is part and parcel with what he’s done all season according to Mullen. “Lamical comes back for his senior year and everyone is like, ‘OK, he's one of the top running backs in the SEC.’ He is. I think you saw that tonight. Everyone gets caught—'well, his stats say this' or just what the stats say. But you know what, you look at every time we needed a big run during the season, he came up with a lot of big runs during the season. “He also showed he's probably one of the top receiving backs in the country coming out of the backfield….instead of worrying about, ‘hey, where are my rushing stats,’ he worried about ‘am I doing what I need to do to help the team win and to be the great player on the team when the game is on the line that they can go to me, run or throw or protect the quarterback, and I'm going to be ready to make a play?’” A Ventrell Miller sack on Bryce Perkins on 3rd down gave the Gators the ball back with just over seven minutes to play in the first half. Florida—who won the time of possession—then highlighted their seniors starting with a 37-yard gain courtesy of Van Jefferson. When Trask released the ball, Jefferson wasn’t even in the area of the throw. But the expert route running senior seamlessly jogged in for the catch before turning upwards and flipping the field. As the drive stalled, Dan Mullen elected to go for it on 4th and eight. Trask found senior Freddie Swain over the middle for an 11-yard gain that kept things moving. On the 10-yard line, a handoff to Perine sent the back on an easy breeze into pay dirt. By that point, Lamical Perine had 21 points to himself. Perine would finish with 181 all purpose yards—138 rushing, 43 receiving—and three touchdowns. He looked to have a fourth for an Orange Bowl record, before replay determined he stepped out at the 1-yard line. Kyle Trask finished that one off with a 1-yard rushing touchdown. But it was Perine’s night and that was solidified as the senior lifted his offensive MVP trophy. It was loaded down with oranges and Perine jokingly griped it was much heavier than he was prepared for; but it was well earned as quarterback Feleipe Franks bragged for his teammate after the win. “Lamical deserves everything that he’s gotten, you know and to see, he’s such a selfless player. I told him before the game, he’s such a selfless player and to see him come out here and see him do the performance that he does, he deserves every bit of it. He deserves every bit of praise, that trophy and everybody congratulating him cause he sat back and he’s been selfless all year long and he deserves every bit of praise that he gets.” Perine joined Percy Harvin as the only Gator to have a rushing and receiving touchdown in a bowl game. Although now, Perine has bypassed Harvin as he’s done it in two—this 2019 Orange Bowl and last season’s Peach Bowl win over Michigan. By nights end, Florida had found a groove with their running game. Putting up 305 yards passing has become par for the course on the back half of the Gators season so it was the 244 yards on the ground that really stood out. “They played really soft all night long, almost forcing us to run the ball the whole time,” commented Mullen. “I think a lot of times this year, the teams have focused on stopping our run and we haven't been great running the ball. But we've been really good passing it and you get into games, and I'm like, OK, they are going to stop the pass, and we'd try to be balanced, and I'm like, no, they want to stop the run, we'll just keep throwing it. And tonight to be honest with you, they finally—we faced a team that decided they were going to try to stop the pass and drop a lot of guys into coverage. “We were still able to throw when we needed to. But to put ourselves in position to be able to run the ball and take what they were giving us, and I think Kyle—we have a bunch of four senior wideouts at halftime. They're looking at me, and they're like, ‘man, Coach, like this is it. This is our final game, and we're running the ball...we've just got to keep blocking.’ But it just shows the selfless manner of our team. They're there, and guys want to win the football game and do whatever it takes to win the game, and we're going to take what the defense gives us." “That’s a testimony to the linemen and the running backs,” compliments wide receiver Tre Grimes (1-7yds). “Everyone has their moment, everyone has their time. It was just Perine’s and the running backs time tonight. They went out there, they did their thing, they balled, they had a phenomenal game. Perine won MVP, I couldn’t be more happy for him. He’s a blessed dude and he’s gonna do a phenomenal job in the NFL.” The Gators defense found themselves immediately with their hands full thanks to the elusive Bryce Perkins. UVA’s quarterback came into the game personally responsible for 78% of his team’s offense through the regular season and ACC Championship game. He continued that Monday night throwing for 323 yards and serving as the team’s leading rusher, albeit the latter with a mere 24 yards. It was through the air as he went 28-40 though that gave Todd Grantham’s group fits. On Sunday before the game, Gators coach Dan Mullen said of Perkins, “the scariest one is the plays that he makes after the play has broken down. You know, to sit there and say, okay, we stop the run or we stop the pass and all of a sudden he made somebody miss, he scrambled around, he got out of the pocket, he broke contain, and now you have a guy that is a great athlete in the open field making plays happen.” Fast forward to Monday night, in front of 65,157 fans, that is precisely what Perkins did, time and time again. He broke away from the pocket more often than not, creating organic bootlegs that gave his receivers time to break from their coverage. “He's slippery. He’s like playing a running back, back there,” explained Gators BUCK Jon Greenard. “We kind of knew going into the game we just had to make a couple adjustments in the beginning, basically learning how to rush against him and what he wants to do. Hats off to him. He made our jobs a lot harder, so hats off to him, but hey, we got a W, so ain't got to worry about him no more.” Yet when it mattered most, the defense stepped up to keep the score differential wide enough. UVA was within the redzone, within a feasible striking distance of the lead and more than five minutes left in the game. David Reese II (five tackles, 1.5 for loss, one quarterback hurry) and T.J. Slaton (one tackle, 0.5 for loss) tackled Wayne Taulapapa for a loss of four yards, forcing a 3rd and seven from the UF 17. As Perkins looked for a receiver near the endzone, freshman Kaiir Elam turned and made the interception he had baited Perkins into. The Hoos were able to add another touchdown late, courtesy of Hasise Dubois (10-83, 2TD) but Gators receiver Freddie Swain recovered UVA’s onside kick attempt, snuffing out any last minute hope. Meaning Elam’s touchdown saving interception ended up being the back breaker. With corner CJ Henderson foregoing the bowl game as he prepares for the NFL Draft, it was a perfect night for Elam to further cement himself as the future at the position, something that seems a given when considering how he broke down his interception. “I knew 8 was their bigger, big body guy so I just knew that if I got my head around I would be able to just play the ball cause I knew, he’s not really, he wasn’t really used to do any routes and stuff expect for like fly, so I just used my head and just made the play.” Now, the Florida Gators return home. They wait to see which draft eligible juniors decide to join Henderson in the NFL and finish out the 2020 recruiting class in February. They will do all of this building on their first 11 win season since 2012. It was a storybook ending for the 2019 Florida Gators. Far from a fairy tale but an epic quest on the search for greatness and living out a dream. As Lamical Perine walked off the field for the final time as a Florida Gator, he summed it up best. “This has been a great journey…this is all I every lived for, being a Gator.”

The No. 9 Florida Gators have made it to their second New Year’s Six bowl in as many years. They are heavily favored over No. 24 Virginia and have an opportunity to cement their place as a Top 10 team while showcasing younger talent. But when the game is over, the confetti has been kicked away and players are finally resting in their lockers, there will be one topic that quickly rises to the top. Who’s staying and who’s going? The Gators have, by our count, 12 guys who are draft eligible as juniors and redshirt juniors along with a redshirt sophomore who is technically eligible and the most likely of that classification to explore the idea. Two of those 12 have already removed their name from the roster to seek transfers and/or the NFL—tight end Lucas Krull and quarterback Feleipe Franks respectively. Of the remaining nine, head coach Dan Mullen has said he expects eight to seriously consider the NFL Draft with five putting in for their grade, which is the allowed limit. This simply means they are allowed to send paperwork into the NFL to request a grade on where they would likely be drafted, which comes into play when making the choice. Draft eligible players have until January 20 to declare their intentions. “You can turn five in and you petition for more with specific reasons," explained Mullen in early December. "I talked to the guys and tried to limit it to five. So, I think it was five but we’ll see. We did it the day after the Florida State game, like the first day possible to turn stuff in so we could get it back a soon as possible.” From those nine, the number can be whittled down more. Quarterback Kyle Trask has told GatorBait Magazine he intends to return for his final season of eligibility. He seemed shocked when asked, as if the possibility of leaving had not even arisen. “I mean, I still have a whole 'nother year here, so I don't plan on leaving,” he said back in November. Defensive lineman Kyree Campbell also told GatorBait Magazine during Orange Bowl media opportunities that he would return for his final season, saying he needed to grow personally but he also knows what this team can be next season and he “wants to be a part of it.” Corner CJ Henderson has already announced his decision to forego his final season and will sit out the bowl game as well in preparation. He has been a projected first rounder—second rounder at most—in many mock drafts. That leaves around six players who will be question marks until they decide their future. Once of those is corner Marco Wilson who says he will talk with his family after the bowl game. “I'm not really waiting on anything right now, I'm just trying to focus on preparing for this game,” he told reporters on Saturday. Wilson is a redshirt sophomore after missing much of last season with a torn ACL injury. He has returned this season and hauled in three interceptions, laid 34 tackles from the defensive back position (four for loss), and tallied a pass breakup with a quarterback hurry. But a freshman season that included four interceptions with two returned for touchdowns was followed by a missed year with injury. This created a vacuum of needed buzz around his name, according to Wilson. "Considering I started my freshman year and I got a lot of tape, I don’t think it messes with the tape but it definitely just messes with the amount of hype around my name cause I had hype going into my sophomore year after my freshman year and since I got hurt, all that hype just went out the door so I didn’t really have much being said about me coming into this season so I maybe get overlooked sometimes.” Fretting about being overlooked can seem like a personal concern that isn't validated by a scouting report. But consider the sheer amount of prospects that enter the NFL Draft every year. There are 224 selected from the near thousand hopefuls. The hype, as Wilson explains, is necessary. “It definitely does cause if you get a lot of people taking about you then you get more attention to your name and then a lot of more people might look into your tape and see that you’re a really good player.” So how does one determine that the hype, the tape and the possibilities are all aligned? Mullen and his staff have long preached that draft eligible players should be extra careful when weighing their options. Outside opinions can sway a player to declare before their game is ready, or during a year when their particular position may be loaded, pushing them further down the board than if they entered in a year when their position was at a premium. After a decade of head coaching, Mullen has examples to point to when asking for players to listen to him and the staff. But it’s the Old Spice commercial that really helps make the point. There’s Montez Sweat, on screen as the deodorant brand’s spokesperson with a graphic boasting Mississippi State, the defensive lineman’s alma mater. Following the 2017 season, Sweat had respectable statistics with a feasible shot at a good draft spot. His coaches talked him through his draft grade and felt it would be in his best interest to return for his senior season. He did and those same coaches had to face him the following year when Dan Mullen took Florida to face Mississippi State in Starkville. But Sweat used his extra season to increase the number in three of his four major statistical categories. He went from being “possible fourth round to staring in Old Spice commercials” jokes Mullen. The spokesperson gig came courtesy of Sweat’s first round draft status; a status that arguably came thanks to the tape from his final season in college. During the bye week before the regular season finale against FSU, Mullen and coaches met with eligible players to talk about their options. "Coach Mullen just wanted to bring all of those eligible guys into the team room, and just inform them on how the process works, whether you want to leave or not,” explains Trask. “Just so you can let everyone know how it works, and the consequences of doing one route vs. the other, to really inform us and let us know.” What each player decides is ultimately his prerogative. Mullen says the key is making sure it’s in his best interest long term. “All we want is guys to make good decisions and have success with that. You know, so guys that are going to get drafted in the first or second round, that they know that, they feel good about it, this is what you need to do to maintain that draft status. “Make sure you’re doing these things, get drafted and know you made a great decision to leave. And educating guys that maybe shouldn’t, say, ‘Hey, these are reasons you should stay. Here’s how it affects you. This is why this is what we see happening in the future for you.’ It’s just that they and their families are very educated to make the best decisions for their future.” It would be understandable to assume a coaches motives here wouldn’t be entirely altruistic. So let’s contemplate the cold hard numbers. There are currently 44 former Florida Gators on NFL rosters. Of that group, 19 were early entrees. Nine of those 19 began as undrafted free agents who worked their way onto roster spots. In the past decade (since the 2010 draft following the 2009 season) there have been 31 Florida Gators declare early for the NFL. For the sake of this article, we are considering draft eligible to be any player that has remaining NCAA eligibility—i.e. redshirt sophomores, juniors or redshirt juniors. There have only been two of the latter and none of the redshirt sophomore variety. Of those 31 players, five declared early between the years of 2010-2012. Of those five, three remain in the league (Joe Haden, Carlos Dunlap and Maurkice Pouncey). The fourth is Major Wright, who played in the league for seven seasons. The fifth is Aaron Hernandez. It’s been more recent years that the trend to leave early has gained steam. From 2013-2019, there have been 26 Gators declare early. Of those, 16 are still in the NFL on 53-man rosters. As for the remaining 10, two are currently on practice squads for NFL teams (Jachai Polite-Los Angeles Rams; Teez Tabor-San Francisco 49er's). One is playing in the Canadian football League (Alex McCalister), two are in the XFL (Matt Jones and Matt Elam), one had to retire due to injury (Sharrif Floyd) and four are out of football as of now (Antonio Callaway, Kelvin Taylor, Dominque Easley and Ronald Powell). It’s a chilling reminder of the uncertainty that is the shaky foundation for so many’s dreams. Simply making it on a team isn’t the only goal of someone leaving school early though. That can just as likely be achieved after a senior season. When departing ahead of schedule, it’s typically because one believes they have a great shot at a high draft pick. It’s what was weighed in the case of Montez Sweat, for example, when it was determined he could become a higher draft pick at his position if he waited a year. This is where the grades become a factor as most coaches, agents and experts advise to not leave early unless you are a near guaranteed pick in the first or second round. In the 2019 NFL Draft, first round overall pick Kyler Murray signed a $35.2 million contract. Pick No. 32 in the first round for the New England Patriots, N’Keal Harry, signed a contract worth $10.1 million, a $25.1 million difference. The second round contracts started at $7.7 million and went to 4.6; the third round went from $4.3 million to 3.4; the fourth round stayed around $3.3 to $3 million. The fifth round began at $2.9 million and trickled down from there through the seventh round. Related: Read a complete breakdown of the entire 2019 NFL Draft contract salaries Of the 26 early departures since 2013, half were selected in the first or second round. Those now staring down their own futures have an eye on those in the past who have had to make similar decisions and might not have seen it pan out as planned. There’s one factor though that Marco Wilson is confident can make a difference. “I definitely consider that but I feel like the ones that it didn’t work out for really was just a mental part, not really their game play. Like I know all those guys that left can really play. If you’re not ready mentally, it’s not gonna work out and I feel like that’s not a challenge for me at all, mentally. I know I’m mature, I don’t have problems off the field. So really, I feel like the mental aspect’s really the most important part.” In the past three seasons alone, three of the early departures—all of whom were projected high with enormous expectations—have found themselves much farther from where they planned to be still at this point, lending some credence to Wilson’s argument. Two of the three are on practice squads which means they have a shot of being activated to the 53-man roster. It also means they can be the first to go. The other was cut from his team before this season concluded after multiple disciplinary issues. “Just [make] sure you’re doing the right things off the field, hanging around the right people,” continues Wilson. “Understanding like the maturity level that they’re gonna have at the next level. It’s grown men out there and coaches who are expecting a lot out of you or else they’ll replace you like it’s nothing. Cause some dudes, they get in the NFL and they think just cause they’ve made it in the NFL they’ve made it already and that’s it. But it's really not. So I’m glad I have my brother [Quincy Wilson] in the NFL [with the Indianapolis Colts] so I can understand what it really means and what it takes and what they expect out of you so when I do get to that next level I’m not gonna be surprised by it.” Quincy was an early departure for the league and was chosen in the second round. So who’s staying and who’s going? As of right now, no one knows for sure, and that includes the players themselves who are still contemplating. It will become the primary focus though as the Florida Gators put the last touches on the 2019 season and turn towards the future.

Trey Dean is well aware of how his season unfolded, in both perception and reality. He understands what the expectations were as the 2019 season kicked off, and he knows the result was skewed. “I’d rather have adversity now than have it later. But what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” The sophomore defensive back was placed in a vaulted position for Todd Grantham’s defense this year when he took over the STAR (nickel) position. It was a spot left vacated by Chauncey Gardner-Johnson after being drafted to the New Orleans Saints, where he made a significant contribution to their postseason run. When Dean took over, the assumption was that it would seamless. The reasoning was that Dean had performed admirably his true freshman year when filling in at corner for the injured Marco Wilson. And the presumption arose following Gardner-Johnson’s stand out junior season that arguably the most difficult position on the defense would be simplistic. After all, it was played with relative ease just a year ago. Trey Dean knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. “You gotta know everything. It’s little tweaks to it. Dude motions from other side to other side to other side of the field, it changes the whole defense. If you’re blitzing, they want you to blitz hard but if the back jumps to the other side and he motions out, you gotta peel the back…it’s a different read. Pre-snap play, read, might be a different read then when it starts.” Decisions are made on the fly, he explains, often in the space of time between the ball being snapped and it landing in the quarterback’s hands. “Like that,” he snaps his fingers. The STAR is technically a fifth defensive back—thus the nickel definition—used primarily in passing situations to cover multiple wide-out formations. It’s been around for the majority of professional football and has trickled down into the college ranks, typically courtesy of those coaches who are coming from the league; i.e. Nick Saban and Todd Grantham. Over the years it has evolved into a hybrid position, meant to cover the options most often seen in the RPO and spread offenses much like the BUCK position also employed by the Gators. While the latter is a flex of a defensive lineman and linebacker, handling duties in the front seven, the STAR can play as a defensive back and linebacker—which is why linebacker Amari Burney has often served as the back-up/rotational guy—covering the pass and run. Making the decision which to cover has become more complex with option plays. The position requires a marrow understanding of the entire defense. Defensive coordinator Todd Grantham feels the learning curve isn’t steep; it’s merely accelerated. “It’s shorter zones, things happen quicker sometimes because you’re closer to the ball, it’s like any sport the closer you get to the ball the quicker things happen. But from a learning position, it’s not really, I mean, if you’re the flat player you have first to the flat, if you’re the hook player you’re going to stay inside of two, so there’s concepts there that you can break it down to about three or four things and you put all your techniques into that, and then you just kind of react and play relative to what you see.” For Dean, moving from corner to STAR required him to relearn a game he thought he’d had a handle on already. “Nickel wasn’t a bad move. Just like a lot of things you gotta learn. You gotta be able to grasp a lot of things. Especially it being my first year. I remember at corner, I ain’t had to do nothing but just like little things. Cause know what I’m saying, I was at corner, it ain’t that much to do. "At nickel, you gotta play the run, you gotta play the pass, you gotta blitz. To blitz, you gotta peel the backend and things. Lotta little tweaks to it that can cause a lot of error in a defense. Our defense is built around the STAR. “From last year, the defense, [Grantham] couldn’t really open it up cause everybody was learning, everybody. But this year, he could build upon what we did last year. But you know I was at corner last year so I’m still—I had to start over,” he laughs. “So he building on what we did last year. I’m still trying to catch up. You know, it’s all love around here.” The love doesn't make the hard conversations cease to exist, but it makes them necessary and somewhat easier. So when Grantham made the switch from Dean to Wilson later in the season, both men focused on their new positions without public spectacle. It also didn’t take long for Wilson to validate much of what Dean explained as the difficulty with the spot. “It’s more complex than just playing outside corner. You have to read more keys and you got to be more involved with things that are going on. Playing outside corner, you are on your own most of the time doing your own thing.” Trey Dean is bigger than Wilson, yet Wilson has slightly more physicality. It could bring about penalties when playing the more finesse position of corner, but it’s served him well at STAR. After making the permanent switch three quarters into the season, Wilson’s average tackles per game increased from 2.2 to four. As for Dean—Wilson and others tried to be the loudest voice he heard amidst an onslaught of negativity, as head coach Dan Mullen explains. “These guys are young guys, and there’s lots of pressure put on them. And they put a lot of pressure on themselves. It’s one of those things of just making sure [Trey’s] focus is where it needs to be to continue to improve and to continue to gain confidence and go play.” "Thing are going to happen in this game,” Wilson says he told his teammate. “You’re not always going to play perfect. Everybody knows that. Whenever you get your opportunities to get in the play, wherever you are — nickel, outside — just do what got to do and make some plays.” Adds safety Donovan Stiner, “it’s really tough especially because he’s a young player playing STAR, which is one of the hardest positions on defense because of all the roles he has to play playing STAR. He’s a young player. He’s still growing. He’s getting better and I know he’s working hard.” So what’s next? Marco Wilson announced he will put off the NFL Draft for another year and return to Florida while fellow corner C.J. Henderson elected to enter the draft. Freshman Kaiir Elam was used outside when Wilson moved inside and Dean was used in flexible situations. Wilson told GatorBait Magazine before the Orange Bowl that he wants NFL teams to see him as a corner, but he will also return as the incumbent at STAR. Amari Burney should also get a significant look. Elam will likely start at corner as a sophomore. Three of the four safeties will return (Donovan Stiner, Shawn Davis and Brad Stewart). This leaves coaches options with which to utilize Trey Dean. He knows the experiment at STAR wasn’t what would be considered wildly successful. He also knows that will only help him. “The overall adversity, it’s gonna help me. Cause playing STAR allowed me to really understand the defense so now I know corner and STAR so if I were to move to safety, I already know what the STAR’s doing, I know what the corner’s doing so I kinda know where I need—ok I know what the quarterback’s seeing cause I know these spots gonna be covered if I jump this route.” Dean played safety in high school meaning his versatility coupled with the competitiveness that made him so valuable in 2018 will ensure he stays on the field. “When you look at Trey, Trey’s a very competitive guy, very passionate guy,” comments Grantham. “He’s a guy that we were able to win 10 games with as an outside player. This year we’re actually *7-2 with him as inside player. We’ve won seven games with him this year. We’ll continue to work and develop him and kinda get him in the right spot.” *at the time of comment When asked what position he’d prefer to play next season, Dean offers a Cheshire grin, not quite wanting to commit himself to a decision that’s technically not his to make. “I could do both, whatever my team want me to do. Like my coaches say, I’m the most versatile DB out there so you know like I could do a lot, I’m capable of doing a lot of things.” But still, he has hopes. “Ok I’m gonna narrow it down. I’m gonna say corner or safety. I ain’t even gonna say STAR. I’m gonna say corner or safety. “Most likely they’ll move me to corner or safety but probably doing like different packages. So like in, in base I’ll go to safety you know just to have another somebody roam the field just to make plays…I most likely will be free safety so I’ll be roaming.” Trey Dean is well aware of how this season unfolded, in both perception and reality. Now it’s over and he’s moving on with some hard earned lessons. “I’m gonna always trust in God, trust in my trainer and trust in my coaches, continue to get better each and every day. I think next year, this year coming up is gonna be a big year for me.”

FLORIDA RECRUITING CLASS OF 2016: A LOOK BACK What’s in a recruiting ranking? Not much if you go by the quarterbacks in Super Bowl 54. Super Bowl MVP Patrick Mahomes of Kansas City was a 3-star recruit for Texas Tech in 2014 while San Francisco’s Jimmy Garoppolo was a 2-star in 2010 who went to D1AA Eastern Illinois. Overall, the Chiefs had only three starters who were 5-star recruits while the 49ers had only one. Monday, Max Olson of The Athletic re-evaluated the recruiting classes of 2016. Florida’s recruiting class of 25 players, the second class brought in by Jim McElwain, earned a 12th-place ranking from 247Sports and a 14th-place ranking from Rivals. The only 5-star recruit – by Rivals – was Antonneous Clayton, an edge rusher from Vienna, Georgia who picked the Gators over Auburn. Of greater interest than Clayton was 4-star quarterback Feleipe Franks, who the Gators flipped from LSU. Per Olson’s evaluation, that Florida recruiting class was the third best nationally, trailing only Clemson and Alabama. Olson bases his rankings on who does the best job of developing talent, giving five points for All-America/top 50 draft pick; four points for multiyear starter/all-conference; three points for one-year starter/key reserve; two points for career backup; and zero points for left the program/no contributions. Florida’s strong ranking from Olson tells us that McElwain did have a good eye for talent, although the bulk of development came the past two years from Dan Mullen, who took over after McElwain was fired. Here is a look at Florida’s 25 recruits in 2016: 2020 Seniors (7): Jeremiah Moon, LB, 4-star; Rick Wells, WR, 4-star; Brett Heggie, OG/C, 3-star; Quincy Lenton, S, 3-star; Stone Forsythe, OT, 3-star; Christopher McWilliams, CB, 3-star; Kyle Trask QB, 3-star/2-star Rivals. Comment: Of the seven remaining seniors, Trask probably has the biggest upside, amazing since he was the least regarded of the 25 2016 recruits. Moon, Heggie and Forsythe can play themselves into draft contention with an outstanding 2020. Graduated (9): Tyrie Cleveland, WR, 4-star; Freddie Swain, WR, 4-star; Mark Thompson, RB, 4-star; Josh Hammond, WR, 4-star; Jaewon Taylor, S, 3-star; David Reese, LB, 3-star; Dre Massey, WR, 3-star/4-star Rivals; Lamical Perine, RB, 3-star/4-star Rivals; Joseph Putu, CB, 3-star/2-star Rivals. Comment: Cleveland, Swain, Hammond, Reese and Perine should find themselves on NFL rosters next fall. Thompson just finished his second year in the NFL. Left early for the NFL (5): Chauncey Gardner-Johnson, CB, 4-star; Jawaan Taylor, OT, 3-star; Vosean Joseph, LB, 3-star; Eddy Pineiro, PK, 3-star; Jachai Polite, LB/DE, 3-star. Comment: Pineiro was draft eligible after the 2017 season. Everyone expected Gardner-Johnson to leave early while Taylor, Joseph and Polite surprised everyone with their development that led to being selected in the draft. Transferred out/dismissed (4): Feleipe Franks, QB, 4-star; Antonneous Clayton, DE, 4-star/5-star Rivals; McArthur Burnett, CB, 3-star; Jordan Smith, DE, 4-star. Comment: Franks had one strong season in 2018 but transferred to Arkansas after a 2019 season that was cut short by injury. Clayton transferred to Georgia Tech where he will be a fifth-year senior in 2020. CUT THE HEAD OFF THE SNAKE Al McGuire described his theory of defense as “cut the head off the snake.” Translated that means take out the other team’s best player and you seriously enhance your chances of winning. For Florida (13-8, 5-3 SEC) to come away with a second straight win Wednesday night at the O-Dome, cutting the head off the snake means doing whatever is necessary to disrupt Georgia (12-9, 2-6 SEC) super freshman Anthony Edwards (6-5, 225), without question the most physical, powerful guard in the Southeastern Conference. Edwards is coming off a 29-point, 15-rebound game in Georgia’s 63-48 win over Texas A&M Saturday night. Edwards (19.3 points, 5.2 rebounds) is a volume shooter who can get streaky hot so you can’t afford to give him too much room to launch from the outside because despite the low percentages (40.8% overall, 29.5% from the three-point line). Where he’s most dangerous is taking it to the rack where he uses his physical strength to muscle up against big guys. He’s as dangerous an and-one guy as there is anywhere in the country. Scottie Lewis is probably going to get the initial assignment of dealing with Edwards. He doesn’t have anything close to Edwards’ physical strength, but he has the quickness to cut off Edwards on the drive and force him to pull up and shoot. Lewis is capable of defending Edwards at a high level, but if he gets in foul trouble or when he’s on the bench for a rest, what does Mike White do to keep Edwards from heating up and taking over the game? A second issue for White is getting Kerry Blackshear Jr. untracked. Blackshear has scored only 54 points in the last five games and is coming off a six-point, seven-rebound game against Vanderbilt. He’s only 17-45 from the field in the last five games and 15-26 from the foul line. Some of Blackshear’s issues have everything to do with opponents doing their own cut the head off the snake defense by doubling down on Blackshear every time he gets the ball in the post. He’s taking a lot of physical pounding but not getting many calls. These are issues he has to work through because for the Gators to win enough games to make the NCAA Tournament, Blackshear is going to have to come out of his funk. So watch for those two things tomorrow night: (1) Florida finding a way to neutralize Anthony Edwards and (2) getting Kerry Blackshear Jr. the basketball in scoring position to help him break out of his mini-slump. SEC BASKETBALL Tonight’s games #11 Auburn (19-2, 6-2 SEC) at Arkansas (16-5, 4-4 SEC), SEC Network Tennessee (12-9, 4-4 SEC) at Alabama (12-9, 4-4 SEC), ESPNU Mississippi State (14-7, 5-3 SEC) at #15 Kentucky (16-5, 6-2 SEC), ESPN Missouri (10-11, 2-6 SEC) at Texas A&M (10-10, 4-4 SEC), SEC Network Wednesday’s games Georgia (12-0, 2-6 SEC) at FLORIDA (13-8, 5-3 SEC), ESPNU South Carolina (13-8, 5-3 SEC) at Ole Miss (10-11, 1-7 SEC), SEC Network #18 LSU (17-4, 8-0 SEC) at Vanderbilt (8-13, 0-8 SEC), SEC Network CONFABULATING ON A TUESDAY (1) Just to prove that the more football changes, the more it stays the same, the play that set up Kansas City’s first half touchdown – a 4-yard gain by Damien Williams on fourth-and-one at the San Francisco five – was run out of the Notre Dame Box Formation. Chiefs offensive coordinator Eric Bienemy says he got the thought of the four-man backfield in which everyone shifts before the snap from watching film of the 1948 Rose Bowl game in which Michigan beat Southern Cal, 49-0. Michigan was running the Notre Dame Box with a few tweaks to incorporate more passing. (2) Patrick Mahomes is 24 years old, already with an NFL MVP and Super Bowl MVP. The Kansas City Chiefs are planning to give him a new contract in this offseason. It will be the upset of the century if he isn’t the highest paid player in the history of the NFL. (3) Until he wins a Super Bowl, San Francisco 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan is going to be remembered for two of the biggest collapses in the history of the big game. He was the offensive coordinator of the Atlanta Falcons who went conservative in the third quarter of the 2016 Super Bowl with the Falcons leading the New England Patriots 28-3. The Falcons lost in overtime 34-28. The 49ers were up 10 (20-10) on the Kansas City Chiefs with 8:53 to go in the game only to lose 31-20. (4) For the record, the NCAA has sent out a Notice of Allegations due to the basketball corruption scandal to these give schools: North Carolina State, Kansas, Oklahoma State, Southern Cal and TCU. Creighton may or may not have gotten an NOA but is certainly under investigation along with LSU, Auburn, South Carolina, Louisville, Arizona, Miami, Seton Hall, Maryland, Kentucky and Alabama. (5) There have been five players in NFL history who won the Super Bowl MVP multiple times: Tom Brady, New England (4), Joe Montana, San Francisco (3), Bart Starr, Green Bay (2), Terry Bradshaw, Pittsburgh (2) and Eli Manning, New York Giants (2). (6) The SEC West just got a bit more interesting for 2020. Stanford grad transfer quarterback KJ Costello announced on Instagram that he’s heading to Mississippi State where he will be throwing the ball all over the yard for Mike Leach. Costello was second team All-Pac-12 in 2018 when he threw for 3,540 yards and 29 touchdowns. Due to injuries he played in only five games in 2019, throwing for 1,038 yards and six touchdowns. GOOD QUOTES FOR TUESDAY In light of revelations that the NCAA might have to deal with widespread football corruption in addition to the basketball scandal that includes a true blueblood like Kansas, I’m reminded of a great quote by the late, great Jerry Tarkanian: “The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they’re going to give Cleveland State another year of probation.” From Sports Illustrated, Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Sammy Watkins on quarterback Patrick Mahomes, MVP of Super Bowl 54: “That’s the golden child, man. My job is easy. My job is to run routes and be in the right place, and let Pat do everything.” From Michael Rosenberg of Sports Illustrated with his take on the future for Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes: “Three years after he turned pro, Mahomes has an NFL MVP award, a Super Bowl win and a Super Bowl MVP. No other quarterback in history accomplished so much, so soon. Mahomes not gets to play the rest of his career without anybody asking when he will win the Super Bowl. He will probably win a second before anybody can cask when he will win a second … We are going to watch Mahomes the way we watched Tom Brady and Peyton Manning for all those years. He will be appointment television, year after year, except Mahomes is just a more visually appealing player. Some things will change. His receivers won’t always be this good. He probably won’t always be quote so gracious with the media. Stardom changes everybody at least a little, and Mahomes is going to be the biggest star in the NFL.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: Jim Harbaugh’s contract at Michigan is set to expire after the 2021 season. It’s rather interesting that there is no talk of a contract extension … The Boston Red Sox are expected to trade Mookie Betts prior to spring training with all indications that the Los Angeles Dodgers will be his landing spot, quite possibly with lefty David Price part of the deal … Former Clemson QB Chase Brice has transferred to Duke. He graduated from Clemson in two years so he’s immediately eligible and has two years eligibility remaining … With KJ Costello announcing for Mississippi State, that leaves Boston College’s Anthony Brown as the top grad transfer quarterback still available. Brown is a New Jersey native so there is speculation he’ll transfer to Rutgers, where new HBC Greg Schiano landed Sean Gleason as his offensive coordinator. Gleason was the OC at Oklahoma State last year … Sixteen of the teams in the Associated Press Top 25 Basketball Poll have between four and six losses. I can’t remember a first poll in February with so many teams with that many losses ... Kansas City Chiefs defensive lineman Derrick Nnadi has paid the adoption fees for 91 dogs at a Kansas City animal shelter and will continue to pay for all those dogs until they are adopted. As of Monday afternoon, 20 of those dogs had a home.

NSD IS WEDNESDAY: ANY SURPRISES IN STORE FOR UF? For the most part, Dan Mullen already knows what to expect on National Signing Day. Barring an upset of epic proportions, Mullen will get signed LOIs from wide receivers Justin Shorter, Xzavier Henderson and safety Avantae Williams. It’s not sure at this point whether or not wide receiver Leonard Manuel or safety/wide receiver Marc Britt will sign since both have some academic work to take care of, but they’re committed to Florida and it won’t be a surprise one way or the other. Tight end Damarcus Beckwith also seems destined to sign with UF. The only potential surprises involve running backs Jahmyr Gibbs and Ashaad Clayton and center/guard Sedric Van Pran. The experts at the recruiting services seem to think Gibbs sticks with his Georgia Tech commitment and Van Pran will remain with Georgia. Clayton is committed to Colorado but he has been shopping for a new school. Will Mullen be content with the addition of Lorenzo Lingard (Miami transfer already enrolled) and forego a high school running back? Or will he add Clayton to the class in the event he can’t flip Gibbs? As for Van Pran, it will be interesting to see what, if any, influence Josh Braun might have had. Braun was committed to Georgia but flipped to Florida (and enrolled early) after Sam Pittman left Athens to become the HBC at Arkansas. A final question: Since Mullen can bring in 30 (five count back toward 2019), will he hold a scholarship or two for a graduate or other transfer in May? A FLAWED WIN FOR SURE BUT IT BEATS THE ALTERNATIVE Was Florida’s 61-56 win over Vanderbilt Saturday night in Nashville a game for the ages? Not even close. The Gators (13-8, 5-3 SEC) had multiple chances to blow the game wide open and found a way to give up most of an 18-point lead in the final minutes to make it white knuckles at the end, but UF prevailed to break a three-game losing streak. This was the fourth straight game the Gators have had a nice lead only to blow it. At least in this one, they held on to win but this is an ongoing problem that if it isn’t solved soon is going to cost the Gators some games they should win going away. I’m not sure where the problem originates but there is something that causes the Gators to hit a wall when they have a good lead. It’s a mental thing, not physical. To the Gators’ credit, they played the best defensive game they’ve played since the win over Auburn, holding Vanderbilt to 37.8% shooting overall and 27.3% from the three-point line. They forced 17 turnovers. Those are a serious improvement. Offensively, Keyontae Johnson and Noah Locke carried the day. Johnson was the steady presence throughout the game (finished with 20 points, 7-11 shooting including 2-3 from three, seven rebounds and two steals) and Locke heated up late to finish with 17 points on 5-8 from the three-point line. On the negative side, the Gators spent way too much time jacking up shots from the outside. It’s ridiculous that they were outscored 22-18 in the paint and outrebounded 37-28 by a Vandy team that has very little inside presence. It was a flawed win, no doubt about it, but it certainly beat the alternative. SEC BASKETBALL Saturday scores FLORIDA (13-8, 5-3 SEC) 61, Vanderbilt (8-13, 0-8 SEC) 56 #17 Auburn (19-2, 6-2 SEC) 75, #13 Kentucky (16-5, 6-2 SEC) 66 #22 LSU (17-4, 8-0 SEC) 73, Ole Miss (10-11, 1-7 SEC) 63 Georgia (12-9, 2-6 SEC) 63, Texas A&M (10-10, 4-4 SEC) 48 Mississippi State (14-7, 5-3 SEC) 86, Tennessee (12-9, 4-4 SEC) 73 South Carolina (13-8, 5-3 SEC) 76, Missouri (10-11, 2-6 SEC) 54 Arkansas (16-5, 4-4 SEC) 82, Alabama (12-9, 4-4 SEC) 78 Tuesday’s games #17 Auburn (19-2, 6-2, SEC) at Arkansas (16-5, 4-4 SEC), SEC Network Tennessee (12-9, 4-4 SEC) at Alabama (12-9, 4-4 SEC), ESPNU Mississippi State (14-7, 5-3 SEC) at #13 Kentucky (16-5, 6-2 SEC), ESPN Missouri (10-11, 2-6 SEC) at Texas A&M (10-10, 4-4 SEC), SEC Network Wednesday’s games Georgia (12-9, 2-6 SEC) at FLORIDA (13-8, 5-3 SEC), ESPNU South Carolina (13-8, 5-3 SEC) at Ole Miss (10-11, 1-7 SEC), SEC Network #22 LSU (17-4, 8-0 SEC) at Vanderbilt (8-13, 0-8 SEC), SEC Network MONDAY MEANDERING (1) With 8:53 left in Super Bowl 54 Sunday evening, the San Francisco 49ers held a 20-10 lead over the Kansas City Chiefs, which means Patrick Mahomes had the 49ers right where he wanted them. In the final 8:53 Mahomes put on a clinic, hitting 9-12 for 130 yards and two touchdowns on consecutive scoring drives for a 24-20 lead. When the Chiefs got a defensive stop to take over on downs at the SF 42, it took only two plays for Damien Williams to seal the game with a 38-yard TD run. Kansas City’s 31-20 win over the 49ers not only sealed Mahomes as the future of the NFL but it also gave Andy Reid the only thing missing on his impressive coaching resume, a Super Bowl ring. Reid is one of the nicest and best respected coaches in any sport so for him to finally get the Super Bowl win is a crowning achievement. It’s not often the good guys win, but Reid is one of the really good guys. So is Mahomes. (2) Barrett Sallee of CBSSports.com went through all the recruiting rankings from high school of the starters for both the 49ers and the Chiefs to determine that the Chiefs starters held a 2.64-2.43 advantage in the star rankings. A couple of interesting observations. Jimmy Garoppolo was a 2-star recruit (went to Eastern Illinois) out of high school while Patrick Mahomes was a 3-star recruit. The Chiefs had only three starters who were 5-star recruits out of high school – wide receiver Sammy Watkins, corner Kendall Fuller and defensive tackle Chris Jones (signed with Dan Mullen at Mississippi State) and two 4-stars (DT Derrick Nnadi and S Tyrann Mathieu). The 49ers had only one 4-star recruit on offense (RT Mike McGlinchey) but had one 5-star on defense (DE Arik Armstead) and four who were 4-stars (DTs DeForest Buckner and Sheldon Day, LBs Kwon Alexander and Fred Warner). It should be noted that Nick Bosa (49ers DE) was a 5-star out of high school but listed as a second teamer on the depth chart. (3) A few years ago while he was still living among the civilized here in Gainesville, old friend Larry Vettel and I talked at length about the need to reform the transfer rules in the NCAA. We both liked the implementation of the graduate transfer rule, particularly since it gave the Gators All-American corner Ryan Smith, a vital piece of Florida’s defensive puzzle in the 2006 run to the national championship. Larry suggested that the NCAA give a one-year exemption so that any player in any sport could transfer one time without having to sit out. I thought that was a great idea although I would limit it to kids who choose to leave after their true freshman or redshirt freshman years. As the years have passed since that conversation, I’ve found myself trending more and more to Larry’s version, which would allow a one-time exemption. Some might say that creates a level of free agency, but I think it would eliminate the hypocrisy of the current system where kids who can afford good lawyers get immediate eligibility when they put their names in the transfer portal. The NCAA is scheduled to take up a Big Ten proposal that would grant the one-year exemption. If it’s passed it will go into effect in 2021. (4) The more I watch college basketball this season, the more I’m convinced one of the traditional powers like Duke, Kentucky or Kansas won’t win the national championship. Baylor is easily the best team I’ve seen all year. The Bears are 19-1 and only one team has scored 70 on them all season. After Baylor, the three best teams I’ve seen are Gonzaga, Dayton and San Diego State. When healthy, the Zags can score on anybody. Dayton has the best player in the country in Obi Toppin. Having seen San Diego State come from 10 down at the half to beat Utah State 80-66 Saturday night, I believe the Aztecs (23-0) are Final Four capable. (5) The Oklahoma City Thunder have won seven of their last eight games to move to 30-20 on the season and seventh place in the NBA Western Conference playoff standings. Without a doubt, this is the best coaching job Billy Donovan has done in his five NBA seasons. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Paul George are all playing somewhere else, leaving Donovan with a roster that has one established star in Chris Paul and a lot of moving parts that fit well together. Over the next seven drafts the Thunder have 13 first round picks and six second rounders. They’ll have three first rounders in the 2020 Draft, two first rounders in 2021 and two more in each of the 2022, 2023 and 2024 drafts. This should tell you exactly why Billy Donovan isn’t going to be returning to college basketball. If the Thunder make good draft decisions, Donovan should have a loaded roster that can compete for NBA championships for several years into the future. GOOD QUOTES FOR MONDAY From Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic on a Big Ten proposal to the NCAA that would allow every athlete in every sport to transfer one time without having to sit out a year (currently only football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and hockey require sitting a year): “The current transfer ecosystem is confusing both to athletes and coaches due to the lack of transparency surrounding the waiver process, and it’s also taxing on both NCAA staff and school compliance departments … Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told CBS Sports that changing the rule would streamline the process; if 65 percent of immediately eligibility waiver requests are being granted, he said, why not just make it 100 percent and eliminate the need for the waiver process at all?” Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated on how government informant Marty Blazer, a key figure in the college basketball corruption trials, might have a big say in the NCAA punishing basketball programs/coaches implicated as well as some football programs: “Blazer’s information could also spill over to college football. In the 2019 trial of (Christian) Dawkins and (Merle) Code, Blazer testified that he paid football players from seven different schools in violation of NCAA rules. Blazer testified that he made payments of anywhere from hundreds to several thousands of dollars to players at Alabama, Michigan, North Carolina, Northwestern, Notre Dame and Pittsburgh … Although the payments to football players that Blazer alleged on the witness stand would predate the NCAA’s four-year statute of limitations, one expert on enforcement cases told Sports Illustrated that the NCAA has the latitude to waive that statute if it has proof of the egregious violations.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: I don’t know about you, but I found Demi Lovato’s rendition of the National Anthem absolutely inspiring. She made it all about the song instead of trying to draw all the attention to herself. Wow! What a voice … Would someone tell me if the Super Bowl halftime show was any good? I’ve made it a habit of skipping halftime. It’s always 15 minutes of my life I can’t ever get back … During a fight for a loose ball Saturday night, Houston guard DeJon Jarreau bit Cincinnati’s Keith Williams. Kelvin Sampson denied it Saturday night but says he saw more video on Sunday, convincing him he was wrong. Uh-huh. Kelvin Sampson never met a rule he couldn’t break. Sorry if I don’t accept his explanation … The best Super Bowl commercial was the one for Jeep Gladiator with Bill Murray that was a takeoff on his role in the movie “Groundhog Day.”

And stop trying to convince us that 75 other CFB players were better than Tim Tebow. By: Buddy Martin This being a new decade in a fairly new century and the 150th year of college football, many media outlets felt compelled to declare best-ever teams and players. And I get it. I even participated in three parts of the seven-part series “Saturdays In The South” in which I reflected on the backstory of players and teams at Florida. I never ranked the Gator players or Gator teams, although I probably would have if asked. I’m done reading and talking about these “GOAT” references, however, and I’m coming around to the way of thinking by my good friend Terry Bradshaw, who says: “You really can’t compare players from different eras.” And he brings up the name of Otto Graham, who won seven NFL Championships before the league adopted Lamar Hunt’s nickname “Super Bowl,” but is never even mentioned among greatest NFL quarterbacks. Let’s stop right here and remember that without mid-course narrative correction, the future and current crop of talkers, writers and story tellers could be unintentionally distorting history and passing along half-hearted opinions disguised as authentic. We all think we know greatness when we see it, but the arrogance of self-importance skews the reality of what it was, what it is, and what it should be. The purpose of the mission should be clarity and context for the future. That is, if they wrote it down somewhere for somebody to find one day. Pretty soon, at the current rate of media mortality, we’ll be going back to chiseled stone and papyrus. With all due respect to my media friends, many of them long-suffering and hard-working for peon’s wages, we need to pull up a chair and find a new way of having conversations about distinguishing The Greatest from the Flavor of the Moment. Or not. Only part of the fractured journalism/media contingent that has survived the Hedge Fund Media Slaughterhouse, back when journalists’ lives mattered and they cared very deeply about getting it right, is still hanging on to the modicum of credibility. They are the last bastion of the colony where integrity is still valued and words are your bond. That narrative is weakening, however, and the parameters for comparing teams and athletes is being skewed. The vehicles of communication are decimated or crippled. Newspapers, magazines and radio stations and networks are dying or on the endangered species list. I’m not a “Get Off My Lawn!” guy trying to discredit other generations, but this “Greatest of All” stuff has got to stop. I’m not going to diss ESPN’s Top 150 Player list, because I know people like my friend Ivan Maisel, a fine college football scholar, played a major role in it. I didn’t vote in it, but several of my friends did, including Tony Barnhart and Paul Finebaum. Tony said we shouldn’t take it seriously. Paul really couldn’t remember who he voted for. Here’s the Top 11: 1. Jim Brown (RB, Syracuse, 1954-56) 2. Herschel Walker (RB, Georgia, 1980-82) 3. Bo Jackson (RB, Auburn, 1982-85) 4. Archie Griffin (RB, Ohio State, 1972-75) 5. Jim Thorpe (RB, Carlisle, 1907-12) 6. Red Grange (RB, Illinois, 1923-25) 7. Earl Campbell (RB, Texas, 1974-77) 8. Dick Butkus (LB, Illinois, 1962-64) 9. Barry Sanders (RB, Oklahoma State, 1986-88) 10. Gale Sayers (RB, Kansas, 1962-64) 11. Roger Staubach (QB, Navy, 1962-64) I could argue that Jim Brown may have been the greatest NFL player I ever saw, he was NOT the best college player. Brown didn’t even go to Syracuse on a football scholarship – he was a lacrosse star – but became an All-American in football. And I really am not qualified to comment on No. 5. Jim Thorpe or No. 6 Red Grange, because contrary to popular opinion, I was not around back then. You can call me a Florida homer with orange and blue glasses, but I never saw a list of greatest players without Tim Tebow among the Top 15 that was credible. Finebaum says Tebow was the best college player he ever saw and I’m inclined to agree, without disrespecting those Top Five on the ESPN list. Tebow, by the way, finished at 76th’ on the ESPN Top 150, six spots ahead of fellow Gator Emmitt Smith, and 15 ahead of Steve Spurrier. Sounds a little low. I guess what I’m saying is that I disagree with the old apples-and-oranges comparison and the don’t like the process. So why do we do it? We have this measuring stick mentality as sports fans. We want to compare everything to gauge magnitude of historical significance. That is the very essence of sports: Who can run the fastest or the farthest? (Although the Good Book points out that the race doesn’t always go to the swiftest.) Who can strike out the most batters, give up the fewest hits and runs, score the most points, most yards, most home runs? Who can take the fewest strokes, jump the highest, skate the fastest, lift the most weight, punch the hardest or give up the fewest goals or points or runs or yards? Finally, which team can do it best against top competition on the most consistent basis as precisely the right time, under pressure when it counts the most? Ultimately somebody will want to judge it, rank it, rate it, opine about it and convince us why it was The Greatest of All Time. Who and What is the Greatest of All Time? I am sick and tired of the so-called GOATS term. The designation is pure poppycock based on bias. Please stop telling us who we should honor and trying to convince that you are smarter than us, or that you had an Uncle Looie in Brooklyn who saw everything, knows everything and told you so. You saw this athlete or this team at the time in this era and he or she were The Greatest of All Time. That’s all we need to hear from you. Save your lists for your Facebook Page. If we value it we’ll let you know.

HOW ONE COACH HANDLED A TEAM THAT WOULD PLAY DEFENSE It was March of 2008 and the Florida Gators, one year removed from the second of their back-to-back national championships, were heading to the National Invitation Tournament. The Gators had lost four in a row including eight of their last 11 games. Their 80-69 first round exit loss to Alabama at the SEC Tournament was particularly frustrating for Billy Donovan who watched as the Gators were dominated in every way possible. This was a Florida team that was often brilliant offensively but could go into unexplained funks. Donovan didn’t have a problem with that. As a shooter from his own college days at Providence he fully understood that there are days when the ball just won’t go in the basket and then there are days when anything you throw up can’t miss. Defense? Well, that was where Donovan and his coaching staff (Larry Shyatt, Rob Lanier, Lewis Preston) had their issues. On more than one occasion, Donovan let it be known that he was growing weary of this “we can just outscore them” mentality. He wanted a team committed to making stops and there was no commitment and sometimes a complete lack of effort. Some of the problems, Donovan admitted, had to do with youth and inexperience. The top six scorers from the previous two national championship teams were gone leaving Walter Hodge (junior backup, 5.7 points per game), Marreese Speights (sophomore, 4.1 points per game), Dan Werner (sophomore, 1.8 points per game) and Jonathan Mitchell (sophomore, 1.4 points per game) to carry the torch along with five freshmen (Nick Calathes, Chandler Parsons, Alex Tyus, Jai Lucas and Adam Allen). The Gators were one of the 10 least experienced and youngest teams in the country. Distressed over multiple attempts to get the attention of the team and to get at least something more than a half-hearted effort to play some defense, Donovan resorted to drastic measures after the Alabama loss. When the Gators showed up at the practice facility on Monday to prep for a first round NIT game with San Diego State on Wednesday night, they found themselves locked out. Not only were they locked out of the practice gym, they were also forbidden to wear their usual practice uniforms and would have to do their own laundry. Practices would be held in the practice gym at the O-Dome or else in old Alligator Alley. Donovan attributed the lack of defensive effort to complacency and feelings of entitlement. “They got a facility that the administration has invested a lot in,” Donovan explained. “It’s one of the best in the country. They’ve got a massage therapist to make sure they’re okay after games. They’ve got a private plane that they take to games. The meals that they eat … all those things, these guys came here and went right to the penthouse.” Translation: You guys have it good and all I’m asking from you is a commitment to play some defense. Donovan’s ploy was a real wakeup call because in three NIT games that got UF to the tournament final four in New York, the Gators gave up 49 to San Diego State, 54 to Creighton and 57 to James Harden and Arizona State (Harden was held to 18). The Gators won those three games by an average of 22 points. Once in New York, the Gators had one of those couldn’t throw it in the ocean from the end of the pier nights shooting (28-71 overall, 2-12 from three, 8-21 from the foul line) so they lost in the semifinals to UMass. The Gators never would have gotten to New York in the first place if Donovan hadn’t essentially grabbed them by the lapels and shook them until he had their undivided attention. UF made it back to the NCAA Tournament in 2008-09 and in the four years after that made the Elite Eight three straight times and then the Final Four. In remembering what happened back in March of 2008, I’m reminded of the situation Mike White finds himself in this season. He has a very young team that lacks the commitment to play good defense. Oh, they play hard in stretches as we saw in the almost miracle comeback against LSU, the first 10 minutes of the Baylor game and the first 15 minutes against Mississippi State, but then they lose focus and intensity. That leads to long stretches when not only do they fail to get defensive stops but the offense takes a powder, too. This is a young and inexperienced team for sure but even young and inexperienced teams have to come to that crossroads when they make a decision to turn things around. Sometimes the answer is one of those grab the by the lapels and shake them moments like Donovan had in March of 2008. It’s not so late in the season that the Gators can’t find their way enough to make the NCAA field, but if White can’t convince them that it’s time to get serious about playing good defense for 40 minutes, then it’s going to be an NIT season, which would be a shame considering the amount of talent he has. But, all the talent in the world can’t win if there isn’t a collective mindset to at least play functional defense. BARTON SIMMONS OF CBSSPORTS.COM ABOUT UF NSD CHANCES “Credit Dan Mullen. Late in the game for both the early signing period and National Signing Day, the Gators have been battling for some big names. They came up short in December but have a chance to make some noise once again in January. The biggest name, and probably the biggest long shot, is Georgia Tech commit Jahmyr Gibbs. A senior season riser, Gibbs is taking an official visit to Tech this weekend but Mullen continues to push hard and for good reason as Gibbs is special. Florida could also land a big in-state target in Top100 safety Avantae Williams as well as Alabama four-star athlete Damarcus Beckwith. If it really wants to get greedy, perhaps Florida can flip Top100 offensive lineman Sedrick Van Pran from Georgia, but now we’re talking dream scenarios.” A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THING TO BASTE: FRIDAY EDITION (1) The Southeastern Conference has distributed $651 million in revenue for the fiscal year that ended August 31, 2019. That works out to something like $44.6 million per school. That’s a lot of money but it’s going to pale by comparison to what is distributed after the CBS contract expires after the 2023 season. CBS pays the league $55 million a year, but the new contract – expected to be with ESPN/ABC – will pay at least $330 million a year so each SEC school will see a revenue bump of at least $20 million more per year. In the last fiscal year, the Big Ten paid $54 million per school while the Big 12 paid out $34.7 million. The Pac-12 and ACC doled out $29.5 million per school. The new SEC television deal will vault the SEC past the Big Ten and dwarf the other three power conferences. (2) Now that Manny Diaz has brought Ed Reed to help right the ship at Miami (Reed will have the title of chief of staff), the next move apparently will be to add Lamar Thomas as the wide receivers coach per Manny Navarro of The Athletic. The additions of Reed and Thomas are expected to help The U do a better job of keeping the top players from South Florida from signing elsewhere. (3) Okay, I’ve avoided the Super Bowl for most of the week so now it’s time to offer a few thoughts. First, I think this might be one of the better games we’ve seen in awhile. Las Vegas must think so, too, since Kansas City is a mere 1.5-point favorite over the San Francisco 49ers with an over/under of 54.5 points. Las Vegas obviously thinks this will be a game when both teams put points on the board and that’s good for TV ratings. Defense might win games, but points score in the ratings. It’s a whole lot easier to watch a game when the offenses have a good day than when the defenses dominate. I think San Francisco has a better defense, but I’m not sure that’s going to matter against Kansas City’s offense. I think the difference-makers in this game will be KC quarterback Patrick Mahomes, tight end Travis Kelce and wide receiver Tyreek Hill. For San Francisco to win this game I think the 49ers are going to have to run the ball to play keepaway from the KC offense. I believe it will be a close call, but I’ll go with the Kansas City Chiefs to win their first Super Bowl in 50 years and for Andy Reid to finally get the championship ring that has eluded him. GOOD QUOTES FOR FRIDAY Mike Sando of The Athletic on the NFL’s abysmal record of hiring minority coaches, GMs and executives: “The NFL’s 32 teams have roughly 70 percent African-American players and 34 percent minority assistant coaches, but only three black head coaches, two African-American general managers and zero African-American team presidents … Twenty-six times over the past 10 hiring cycles (2011-2020), NFL teams chose head coaches with a decade or less experience in the league. The coach was white 25 times. Seventeen of those 26 candidates had never been a college head coach. Eleven had less than 15 seasons’ combined experience at the college and NFL levels. Thirty of the 33 youngest head coaches hired over the past 10 hiring cycles were white, including by the Cleveland Browns, New York Giants and Carolina Panthers this year.” From Reuters, Tua Tagovailoa, speaking on Super Bowl radio row in Miami, on how Nick Saban is quite different from what you see on the field: “People get this outlook on Coach Saban as someone who is always hard, mean. That’s on the field. That’s when the switch is on. Switch is off as soon as he’s off the field. This man will joke with you as if he didn’t just yell at you two minutes ago. He’s a really personable person off the field. For his staff, his players, he loves them. He just wants what’s best for the organization.” RANDOM THOUGHTS: A rather insane stat about The U from 1983-2003, which brought five national championships under four different coaches (Howard Schnellenberger, 1983; Jimmy Johnson, 1987; Dennis Erickson, 1989, 1991; Larry Coker, 2001). The Hurricanes produced 42 first round picks, 32 Pro Bowlers and six Hall of Famers … USA Gymnastics has offered a $215 million settlement to sexual assault victims of former team doctor Larry Nassar. Nassar was also the team doctor at Michigan State, which has paid out $500 million to more than 300 of his victims … Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones arrived in Miami aboard his 357-foot yacht … University of Utah wide receiver Terrell Perriman has been accused of kidnapping and raping a 17-year-old girl in Salt Lake City … The NFL might loosen its strict marijuana policy. NFL Players Association director DeMaurice Smith and commissioner Roger have been mulling over a memo that has “significant modifications” to the current policy.

There will come a time, perhaps sooner rather than later, when Todd Grantham moves on to a new job. The Florida Gators defensive coordinator flirted with the NFL last season when the Cincinnati Bengels were in need of a DC, before electing to return to Florida. More recently multiple reports revealed Grantham was in discussion for the Mississippi State head coaching job before it eventually went to Mike Leach. And when Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports revealed Virginia Tech head coach Justin Fuente was speaking with Baylor officials about the open Bears job, it wasn’t a far stretch to wonder if Grantham would return to Virginia Tech, where he played in college and began his coaching career? Grantham has spoken on more than one occasion about his desire to stay at Florida with the defense he’s building under head coach Dan Mullen. But to be the man in charge is the ultimate goal for many in the profession. Fuente stayed at Tech, but the conversation arose once again on what sort of domino effect would come from Grantham moving on to a new job. When that time does come, Mullen will likely be tasked with replacing more than just the coordinator position. Some head coaches, like Nick Saban revealed in a recent HBO documentary, ask that when coaches accept new jobs that they refrain from taking a load of position coaches and support staff members with them. Mullen has a different school of thought. Well, as long as it’s not a lateral move. “For our guys, they get the opportunity to go be a head coach, one, I encourage them. We do everything we can to help put them in that situation to become a head coach. And then I certainly hope if it’s an advancement for somebody on our staff that they take people with them and it would advance their careers.” Knowing that this situation is on the horizon means Dan Mullen has a window of time to convince one of his most promising coaches that Florida and this staff is where he belongs. Much of Christian Robinson’s coaching career has been in relation to Grantham. Robinson played linebacker for Grantham at the University of Georgia before joining the staff as a graduate assistant. After a year in the same role at Ole Miss, Grantham brought Robinson on as a G.A. at Mississippi State. When Grantham followed Mullen to Gainesville, he made a case for Robinson to do the same, something that Mullen admits concerned him at first given his age (Robinson was in his late 20’s at the time). “I said, ‘Great.’ And I know Christian’s worked for it, but I want to sit down and meet with him. Just talk to him then about my standards and expectations,” recalls Mullen. His age though has quickly proven to be an advantage, not a deterrent. “One thing I think you see with Christian too, to me, is despite being young, he’s a very mature guy in a lot of ways. I look at a guy in similar ways. I was 32 years old and I was the offensive coordinator here at the University of Florida. That’s a pretty young guy at that position. But I was with a guy that trusted me and with a guy that would help mentor me and say ‘Hey, here’s some things and decisions you need to do along the way, and here’s some things you’ve done well and poorly.’ I want to try to help Christian the same way, and I think he has a maturity about him that makes him a good coach. I think having played in the defense helps him to coach it. Having played in the league, looks at the guys and says ‘I’ve made those plays. I’ve done it.’ They can relate to him well. And being a young guy certainly doesn’t hurt in recruiting.” Doesn’t hurt is somewhat of an understatement. Since being hired full time as the linebackers coach, Robinson has helped sign Lloyd Summerall III, Mohamoud Diabate and Ty’Ron Hopper in the 2019 class, along with 5-star Derek Wingo in the still unfinished 2020 class. He’s also been able to make an impact with those players that were in place before his arrival. In 2018, he coached Vosean Joseph to a career-high 93 tackles, nine tackles-for-loss, four sacks, five pass breakups and one fumble recovered last season. Joseph was drafted in the 5th round of the NFL Draft to the Buffalo Bills. “I never had somebody in my corner so hard as him,” said Joseph of Robinson this past spring. “He just kept pushing us every day. He a great leader, like I wanna look at him as like a dad role just by teaching us different things and just making us become better men." And David Reese II finished his senior season with 94 tackles, six and a half for loss. Reese has played under multiple defensive coordinators and is credited by his teammates as being “the professor” of the group who knows the defense inside and out. Reese credits Robinson for that. “He taught me everything I know. He’s like a facilitator. He’s a great coach. He’s a guy I feel personable, and he’s been in my shoes. So we like to do things together and if I mess up on something he’ll tell me right away—and I’m a coachable guy. I just look to get what their vision is and put it out here on the field.” The unit as a whole accounted for 371 tackles this season (45% of the defensive stat) and remained strong even as freshmen and sophomores like Amari Burney and Mohamoud Diabate were rotated through multiple positions. So much of Robinson’s quick ascension had to do with his aptitude for the game being well beyond his years while his actual age created an instant connection with recruits and players. If this is the difference he can make in just two years as a full time coach, the ceiling is high and he, like Mullen at the time, could easily find himself in a coordinator position within a couple of years. The time will eventually come when Todd Grantham says goodbye to Gainesville and takes a step up on the coaching ladder. If history is any indication, he will want to bring Christian Robinson along. At that point, Robinson could write any obscene number on a Post-it note, walk into Dan Mullen’s office, slap it on the desk and say “let’s talk.” Because the future of the Florida Gators and the future of Christian Robinson’s coaching career could find themselves intertwined.