Updated 10:20 a.m. ET Saturday: Isaias is now a post-tropical cyclone with 35 mph winds, about 25 miles south-southwest of Montgomery, Ala., moving north at 14 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center's 4 a.m. CDT advisory. All storm surge and tropical storm warnings have been discontinued. Florida and South Carolina remain on for 12:45 p.m. ET. Hurricane Isaias is forecast to come ashore far to the west of Gainesville, but it is rearranging the college football schedule across the Southeast. One game has been canceled and at least six have moved. Florida and South Carolina are still on for 12:45 p.m. ET Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, with a good chance of rain at kickoff. What the forecast says for The Swamp The National Weather Service office in Jacksonville, in its Saturday morning forecast, has showers and thunderstorms likely in Gainesville after 2 p.m., with a 70 percent chance of rain for the day. The high is near 87 degrees, with a south wind of 8 to 12 mph and gusts as high as 29 mph. The hourly forecast has the chance of rain at 33 percent at noon and 43 percent at 1 p.m., then 70 percent at 2 p.m. and 74 percent at 3 p.m. Gainesville sits outside the hurricane and tropical storm warning areas in the National Hurricane Center's Friday morning advisory. Isaias, a Category 3 storm with 120 mph winds, was forecast to make landfall Friday evening along the western Florida Panhandle and Alabama coast. The center said much of the rest of the Southeast should see 2 to 5 inches of rain through the weekend. Games changed by the storm CBS Sports and FBSchedules.com, as of Friday afternoon, list these changes: Canceled: Northeastern State at West Florida in Pensacola. The school made the call for safety and does not expect a makeup date. Moved up: Florida A&M at Alabama State went from Saturday to Friday at noon ET. Rice at East Carolina moved from 4 p.m. to 1 p.m. ET Saturday. Davidson at Presbyterian, ETSU at The Citadel and South Carolina State at Charleston Southern all kick at noon ET Saturday. Moved back: Southern at Prairie View A&M moved one hour later, to 4 p.m. ET. Still on: Georgia at Alabama remains scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday in Tuscaloosa on ABC, according to the SEC's schedule Saturday morning. Notes for Gators fans Florida is in the clear on the schedule. The 12:45 p.m. ET kickoff is the same time ESPN lists. With storms likely, plan for rain gear. We will update this story if kickoff, weather or any other schedule change moves before the game.

By Brenden Martin Florida (4-1, No. 16) and South Carolina kick off Homecoming at 12:45 p.m. Saturday at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium on the SEC Network. The game is scheduled as planned. Moisture from Hurricane Isaias is headed toward North Florida, and the National Weather Service is forecasting a wet afternoon. All forecast details below are from the National Weather Service's Saturday morning update. Conditions can change, so check the live forecast and radar on the GatorBait front page. The forecast, hour by hour The NWS Jacksonville office puts the chance of rain in Gainesville at 31 percent at 11 a.m., 33 percent at noon and 43 percent at 1 p.m. Saturday. That window includes kickoff. At 2 p.m., about 75 minutes into the game, the chance jumps to 70 percent, then 74 percent at 3 p.m. and 71 percent at 4 p.m., with showers and thunderstorms likely. The NWS expects a quarter to half an inch of new rain Saturday. Temperatures run 83 degrees at noon and 85 from 1 to 4 p.m. Winds are out of the south around 12 mph, with gusts as high as 29 mph. Where Isaias stands Isaias is now a post-tropical cyclone over central Alabama with 35 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center's 4 a.m. CDT advisory Saturday. It is moving north at 14 mph and is forecast to dissipate Sunday. All storm surge and tropical storm warnings have been discontinued. The flash flooding threat continues to the west, across southern Alabama, the Florida Panhandle and Big Bend, and southwest Georgia. The NWS alerts feed showed no watches or warnings for Gainesville Saturday morning. If lightning strikes Under the SEC Severe Weather Policy, as quoted by the UAA in 2024, game officials are notified when lightning is within 15 miles of the stadium. Play is delayed or suspended if lightning is within 8 miles. Play can resume after 30 minutes with no strikes inside 8 miles, and every new strike resets the clock. A 10-minute warm-up may follow. UAA game day policy says fans may leave the stadium to seek shelter in a severe weather delay and will be readmitted at the restart with their ticket stubs. Instructions come over the GatorVision boards and public address system. Getting in All gates open at 10:45 a.m., two hours before kickoff. All concessions are 50 percent off from 10:45 to 11:45 a.m. Express Entry, which lets fans enter with their face instead of their phone, is available at Gates 1, 4, 7, 8, 12 and 16. Umbrellas are on the UAA's prohibited items list for football. The clear bag policy allows a clear bag no larger than 12 by 6 by 12 inches, a one-gallon clear resealable bag or a clutch no larger than 4.5 by 6.5 inches. Seat cushions are allowed if they are no larger than 16 inches, with no pockets or back. There is no bag check at the gates. Fans with a prohibited bag must return it to their vehicle.

By Brenden Martin No. 16 Florida hosts South Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 10, at 12:45 p.m. ET. The Gators are a double-digit favorite, and Saturday afternoon's weather could matter for the total. The line As of Saturday morning, DraftKings lists Florida at minus-10.5, South Carolina at plus-10.5 and a total of 59.5, with moneylines of minus-470 for the Gators and plus-360 for the Gamecocks, according to ESPN. Earlier in the week, FanDuel listed Florida at minus-11.5 with a total of 58.5, and the Post and Courier also had the Gators as 11.5-point favorites. Lines vary by book and move up to kickoff. numberFire's model gives Florida a 72.2% chance to win, according to FanDuel's research page. Florida's numbers Florida averages 46.2 points per game through five games and has allowed 27.2, according to ESPN box scores. The Gators' only loss is the 45-17 defeat at Missouri on Oct. 3. South Carolina's situation South Carolina is 0-3 in the SEC, and coach Shane Beamer has lost eight straight league games, the Post and Courier reported. The Gamecocks lost to Kentucky in overtime after blowing a double-digit lead, according to the newspaper. It said quarterback LaNorris Sellers played well against Kentucky but made notable errors, and it argued running back Matt Fuller should get more carries. The Post and Courier also wrote that calls for a coaching change grew after the Kentucky loss but that a move this week is very unlikely. Predictions The Post and Courier's David Cloninger picks Florida 42, South Carolina 24. Weather The National Weather Service hourly forecast for Gainesville, updated Saturday morning, gives a 33% chance of rain at noon and 43% at 1 p.m., then 70% at 2 p.m. and 74% at 3 p.m., with showers and thunderstorms likely through the afternoon. Temperatures sit in the mid-80s with a south wind near 12 mph. The live forecast and radar are at the top of the GatorBait front page. Betting lines are reported for information only. Lines move, so check a sportsbook for current numbers. Watch: The Buddy Martin Show on YouTube

While speaking in rather glowing terms about the development of freshman big man Jones Lay Friday morning at the Florida basketball complex, the NCAA got caught in Todd Golden's crosshairs. In the nanosecond that followed, Golden gave in to temptation. Rather than bite his tongue and remain silent about the issue of fifth-year eligibility for athletes across the country, Golden squeezed off a verbal between-the-eyes shot at the NCAA, which continues its Don Quixote-like charge up the legal hill in courtrooms across the country. "The NCAA's argument that allowing [class of] 22s that are enrolled in school right now to play, them arguing that it would disrupt all these student athletes and that guys and gals would be getting cut off teams, it's just BS," Golden said. "It's not true. Now, that conversation back in May maybe had some legs to it, but where we are right now, it's just unequivocally false." To backtrack just a tad, the NCAA Division I Council unanimously voted to adopt a five-year window for athletic eligibility that went into effect Aug. 1, 2026. The clock begins ticking on this five-year window of eligibility from the date of high school graduation. What left the door cracked for the lawsuits that followed was the exclusion of a fifth year for athletes who graduated in 2022 while granting a fifth year to all those in subsequent graduating classes. Judges across the country have ruled against the NCAA for the unfairness of denying last year's fourth-year seniors a fifth year while granting the extra year to those whose graduation was 2023 and after. Golden spent six months going through the process of getting Denzel Aberdeen eligible, an ordeal that could have and should have been avoided if the NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, had applied a measure of common sense into the equation. Aberdeen, who spent three years at Florida prior to transferring to Kentucky for the 2025-26 season, went into the transfer portal in April, chose to return to UF for one last chance at championship glory, and filed for a waiver to play a fifth season. Aberdeen did everything by the book and it should have been a no-brainer to grant the fifth year since he played fewer than 41 minutes in the 2022-23 season and is on track to become the first person in his family history to earn a college degree. Should have been a no-brainer, but nothing is simple when it comes to the NCAA, which selectively enforces its own rules. While denying Aberdeen's waiver application back on May 29, the NCAA was busy approving a seventh season for Franck Kepnang, who spent two seasons at Oregon State and four at Washington before transferring to Kentucky. That left Aberdeen the only choice of hiring an attorney to take on the NCAA in court. A little more than a week ago in an Alachua County courtroom, Judge George Wright delivered an airtight injunction that will withstand appeal, granting Aberdeen his fifth year. All along, the NCAA has been arguing that allowing a fifth year to last year's fourth-year seniors would cause irreparable harm to the game because it would deny scholarships to 2026 high school grads and coaches would cut underclassmen on scholarship to add fifth-year players to their rosters. "There's no examples of that and the reality, which people are now starting to realize, is the displacement's going to happen next year," Golden said. "All these guys that are in college right now are going to have another year next year. So do you think that it's going to affect the freshmen from the '26 high school class, which they were arguing, or the '27 high school class?" All the proof necessary to back Golden's assessment of the situation has been provided by Villanova coach Kevin Willard, who stated at Big East Conference Media Day that he will not be signing any freshmen for the 2027 recruiting class. "Why? Because every single student athlete in college this year will be able to play next year," Golden explained, adding that the NCAA continuing to use displacement as the foundation of its legal strategy is "a misguided argument. It's not factually accurate." The NCAA has had some victories in court cases, getting stays of temporary restraining orders in appellate courts. In most of those cases, the stay of the TRO was issued because the athletes chose to fight on the basis of antitrust laws. Aberdeen won because the NCAA failed to put things in writing. Athletes who had their TRO stayed in appellate courts could come back at the NCAA by using the same argument that got Aberdeen his injunction. "I think this case specifically is the best factual case for any student athlete, men or women, that are trying to get what they deserve, which is a fifth year, just like everybody else," Golden said. "They're not looking and saying, well, this kid's at 80% of progress towards a degree. That's what we expect a fifth-year student athlete to be. He was in the portal, transferred properly… They don't want him to play because they don't think 22s should be able to play. It's absurd. But he has the best factual case, so we feel really comfortable about where we're at and I think his legal team did a wonderful job of explaining that. And I think the NCAA is going to have a really hard time explaining why he shouldn't be able to play basketball this year." Aberdeen fitting in with Boogie Fland and growth while at Kentucky "I think him and Boogie complement each other incredibly well," Golden said. "…Kentucky got better last year when Denzel started playing on the ball primarily. I thought he did a really good job, kind of assuming that role under tough circumstances. Making that switch in the middle of conference play is not easy, and he did a really good job. And he had to shoulder a heavier load. I think he grew a lot that way, and so now coming back here, he'll start off the ball to start games, but he'll be our backup point guard, and we feel really good about the way he can command the team that way. So I think it was really, that experience I think was really beneficial for his growth as a player." Scrimmage against North Florida notes A closed-door scrimmage against North Florida allowed Golden to see the Gators going against someone other than themselves. The result was an outstanding first half, played mostly by starters Aberdeen, Boogie Fland, Tommy Haugh, Alex Condon and Rueben Chinyelu, with off-the-bench contributions by Urban Klavzar, Isaiah Brown, AJ Brown and Viktor Mikic. The second half, played exclusively by non-starters, wasn't nearly as productive as the first half. Golden said that Mikic, a third-year player whose minutes have been limited in years one and two, "has a chance to carve out a little role." Golden said Mikic is proving to be "a really good low post operator." Mikic, Arturas Butajevis and Jones Lay will be the primary backups for Haugh, Condon and Chinyelu. Domen Petrovic, a Slovenian import, is being seen as more of a perimeter player "because he shoots it so well and he's 6-8, 6-9 and can really let it fly from the perimeter." The Gators should be a better three-point shooting team with Klavzar, Petrovic, Aberdeen and AJ Brown. Brown, the older brother of Isaiah Brown, took a redshirt last season after transferring to UF from Ohio University. His shoulder fully recovered from a surgical procedure which kept him off the court last year, AJ Brown has had good practices lately and is factoring in the reserve rotation. "The gravity that AJ provides on the court showed up on Wednesday night [against UNF]," Golden said. "And, you know, some of our best players really benefit by floor spacers, right? Like Condo is a playmaking frontcourt player. Rueben is a great low post scorer that's now turning into a really good playmaker from down there also. And when you have other guys on the floor that the other team is afraid to leave, it provides, you know, a much easier path for those guys. And I think that's… we call it gravity. Like that's the type of gravity that AJ and Domen can provide for us on the perimeter." Regarding Jones Lay, Golden said, "He's been a little under the weather, so he didn't play as much the other night in the second half as we would have liked. But he has all the makings of what we hoped he would. He's got great makeup. He's a great dude. He's an incredible athlete, you know, for a seven-footer. He runs really well, explosive and he has good basketball IQ." Watch: The Buddy Martin Show on YouTube

Adversity and football go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other, not in this game. Everybody gets knocked down. It's how teams react after taking a punch to the gut or a fist to the face that separates the good teams from the bad ones. And, even though it's just midyear and there is plenty of football to be played, it's never too early to have a game that separates contenders from pretenders. So what are the Florida Gators (4-1, 2-1 SEC)? Are they contenders? Those mwins over Auburn and Ole Miss had the whole wide world thinking so. Why some folks were daring to think the Gators could challenge for the national championship after those back-to-back showings. Or are the Gators pretenders? That loss to Missouri was dog's butt ugly. Florida left CoMo looking like a team that might struggle to get to seven wins, not like one that could make the College Football Playoff and win a game or two. South Carolina (2-3, 0-3 SEC) comes to Gainesville Saturday (12:45 p.m., SEC Network) in desperate need of a win to save head ball coach Shane Beamer from being skewered and rotisseried over an oakwood fire. The Gamecocks are likely to show up hair on fire and ready to spring an upset over the nation's No. 16 team. How Florida responds will tell us a lot about what to expect the second half of the season. The Gamecocks' problems have everything to do with fourth quarters. They play well the first three quarters and then fade off into the sunset once the clock starts ticking on the fourth quarter. Finishing games has been a South Carolina problem ever since Beamer became the head coach and it is why the South Carolina faithful are thinking it might be time to pull the plug. That would hurt badly because everybody loves Shane Beamer. They just don't think he's good enough to win championships. But, is anyone good enough to win championships at South Carolina? Steve Spurrier had a four-year stretch in which he won 41 games at South Carolina but even he couldn't win the SEC. The only conference championship in South Carolina history dates back to 1970 when Paul Dietzel led the Gamecocks to the ACC title with Tommy Suggs at QB. There have been more misses than hits since then and none of the hits have resulted in championships. Meanwhile, there is Florida. How do the Gators respond? Do they bounce back by playing ferociously, like a team with plenty to prove? Or, do they slog through a game that is expected to be played in wet, windy conditions like a team that was exposed by Missouri? There is a lot of talk that Mizzou gave the world a blueprint for how to stop Buster Faulkner's offense. Are you buying that? It did indeed look like the Tigers saw hints in the way the Gators call their plays because there was nowhere to run and nowhere to throw the ball. The same team that was so unstoppable against Ole Miss was rendered helpless and hopeless. Was it an aberration, just one of those games when one team put it all together and dominated, or a sign of things to come? The thought here is it was a case of Missouri giving a peak performance at home against a young Florida team that still has things to figure out. With Texas in Austin looming next week and Georgia after that, the Gators are every bit as desperate to win this as South Carolina. Taking a two-game losing streak into games against the nation's No. 1 and No. 2 teams is a formula for a lovely stay in Birmingham or Shreveport in December, places where if you lose your bowl game you're required to stay an extra week as punishment. This is a chance to make a statement about handling adversity, one that will have a ripple effect on some recruiting decisions. Winning this one is every bit as much about righting the ship this season as it is for having the talent to win big in the future. The Soothsayer forecasts an exceptional Florida response. The Sayer Says Sooth!:Buster Faulkner will go with a throw early approach to get the lead and then pound away in the fourth quarter with Jadan Baugh and Duke Clark. Expect big things from Vernell Brown III and a much better effort throwing the ball from Aaron Philo. The Gators are 12.5-point favorites. They will win by at least two touchdowns, maybe more. THE SEC SOOTHSAYER No. 1 Texas (4-0, 1-0 SEC) vs. Oklahoma (2-2, 0-1 SEC) in Dallas:Since halftime of the Ohio State game, the Texas defense has allowed only one offensive touchdown. The Longhorns don't need much offense to win games, not with Will Muschamp calling the shots for that defense. Oklahoma has a fine defense, too, but the problem isn't the defense. It's the offense, which has turned the ball over 10 times so far. Can the Sooners play error-free? Doubtful. Highly doubtful. Oklahoma is good enough defensively to keep it close, but it lacks the firepower to win. When the dust settles after this one, Brent Venables is going to have to make decisions about his quarterback and his offensive coordinator. Midseason changes are never good but sometimes entirely necessary.The Sayer Says Sooth!:The Texas defense will win this game. Now, if Arch Manning shows up and has a good game against what might be the best defense he's going to see all year, folks might start believing the Longhorns have what it takes to win a national title. Texas will win, the only question is by how much? No. 2 Georgia (5-0, 3-0 SEC) at No. 6 Alabama (5-0, 3-0 SEC):Hurricane Isaias is going to have a big say in the outcome of the nation's marquee game. Much depends on where the hurricane makes landfall. As of Friday morning there are no plans to reschedule the game but that is subject to change if the eye of the storm passes directly over Tuscaloosa. Current forecasts call for plenty of rain and seriously windy conditions. So who does a slippery, muddy field and winds that affect the passing and kicking games favor the most? There is a lot of sentiment in favor of Georgia, which many experts claim is the nation's most complete team, but this is the first good team the Bulldogs have faced? When bitten Alabama bites back. Does Keelon Russell have the poise to deal with the weather and the Georgia defense? Can Gunner Stockton complete enough passes in bad conditions to keep the Bama defense honest? If this game were played in Athens, Georgia would be favored by 10 or more points. In Tuscaloosa it's Alabama a shaky 1.5-point favorite. As painful as it is to admit it, Georgia seems like the better team here because Stockton just doesn't make mistakes.The Sayer Says Sooth!:White knuckles and chest clutching. Both teams better hope it doesn't come down to a field goal to win because of the sloppy field and wind. Georgia has better mudders and gets the win. No. 9 Ole Miss (3-1, 1-1 SEC) at Vanderbilt (3-2, 0-2 SEC):Ole Miss has had a week to recover from the Florida debacle. Good news for the Rebel faithful. Bad news for Vandy. This isn't the Vandy of old that would just roll over and die at the thought of dealing with a QB like Trinidad Chambliss, but the Commodores don't have the personnel to make this competitive for more than a half. At the half it might be close. By game's end it won't be. Chambliss needs a huge game here to reassert himself as a Heisman fave and the Ole Miss defense needs to show up and play four quarters of decent football. The Rebels are 9.5-point favorites. It won't be that close.The Sayer Says Sooth!:Does Ole Miss sit Kewan Lacy to save him for next week's game with Mizzou or risk another injury to his sore shoulder by playing him? That's probably the biggest question for this game. Either way, Ole Miss moves to 4-1 and reignites the playoff chatter. No. 10 LSU (4-1, 1-1 SEC) at Kentucky (4-0, 2-1 SEC):This feels a lot like it did three weeks ago when Alabama came to Lexington. Oh, but the Big Blue Nation was thumping its chest and thinking an upset was brewing that day only to be put in its place by the Crimson Tide. On the heels of last week's startling comeback win to beat South Carolina, UK is feeling it has the stuff that upsets are made of with LSU coming to town. By the end of the first quarter the giddiness will be gone and a hard charging reality will have set in among the UK faithful. When Kentucky can dominate the lines of scrimmage it can knock off teams like LSU. Until then, it's take your beating like a man. LSU leads the nation in sacks and the offense is starting to find its happy place. As long as Sam Leavitt remembers to complete passes to his team instead of the guys whose jerseys don't match the one he's wearing, LSU isn't going to have much trouble.The Sayer Says Sooth!:The national perception is that Lane Kiffin is college football's arch-villain, but he's also a pretty darn good football coach. He's got a team that is really starting to figure things out as Kentucky is about to find out. Kentucky goes into this game thinking upset. It will leave this one a lost ball in the tall grass. Texas A&M (3-2, 1-2 SEC) at No. 14 Missouri (4-1, 1-1 SEC):Missouri likes to think it got the 800-pound gorilla off its back last week when the Tigers not only took down a top ten team, but did it in such convincing fashion. One reason the Tigers blew the doors off the then No. 8 Gators had to do with the venue. Missouri at home is indeed a Tiger. Missouri on the road has a habit of turning into Garfield. Eli Drinkwitz is 36-9 overall in Columbia since becoming the head coach at Mizzou, 22-4 since 2023. The big question for Saturday's close encounter with the Aggies has to do with Drinkwitz getting his team's feet back on the ground after beating the Gators by 28. Five Missouri defenders including stud linebacker Robert Woodyard are listed as questionable for the game and over on offense, left tackle Cayden Green could miss the game. In College Station it would be easy to like the Aggies to win this one, but even beat up, Missouri is formidable at home. If the Tigers keep Austin Simmons upright, he will have a big day throwing the ball. The Aggies have only five sacks all year. If they can't get to Simmons they won't win this one.The Sayer Says Sooth!:The Aggies haven't been the same since Miami did a number on them in last year's College Football Playoff first round, a game that exposed Marcel Reed's many flaws. When the Mizzou defense gets through with him the Aggie faithful will be calling for a QB change. Mizzou with the win and it won't be close. No. 15 Tennessee (4-1, 1-1 SEC) at Arkansas (2-3, 0-2 SEC):The Vols haven't been the same offensively since they got a healthy dose of Will Muschamp's defense a couple of weeks ago. Things went from bad to worse last week although Tennessee did eke out a win over Auburn. In doing so, freshman QB Faizon Brandon was banished to the bench in favor of George MacIntyre, who will get the start against Arkansas, which is coming off a blowout loss to the Aggies. MacIntyre is a game manager type who isn't flashy but doesn't make many mistakes. The single most important thing he can do against the Razorbacks is get confident and comfortable because big, bad Bama comes to Knoxville next week. The only way Arkansas stays in this game is if Ron Roberts can dial up a run defense and make MacIntyre win it with his arm. There are two chances that is going to happen: No way and no how.The Sayer Says Sooth!:Unless someone spikes the Vols Gatorade cooler with Trazodone, this one will get ugly in a hurry. No matter the final margin, Tennessee is not nearly as good as Vol fans would like us to believe.

Photo Courtesy of UAA Just under a two-touchdown favorite, an upset alert and a forecast only a Gator could love. By Buddy Martin gatorbaitmedia.com Florida is an 11.5-point favorite over South Carolina in The Rebound Bowl, which ought to make homecoming a pleasant occasion for renewing old friendships, applauding old heroes and wondering why your old parking spot now requires a second mortgage. Provided Florida understands the difference between hosting a celebration and participating in one. South Carolina has not been invited down to admire the decorations. Instead, the Gators seem to be on upset alert. Only in college football can you be favored by 12.5 and still feel obligated to check the back door. The betting line says Florida should handle this. The little voice in the back of the Gator fan’s head says the betting line won’t be sitting beside him if things go sideways. That voice has attended a few games, too. The weather forecast doesn’t look particularly good. The football forecast could be splendid. There are plenty of inducements. All gates for Saturday's homecoming football game between Florida and South Carolina will open two hours before kickoff at 10:45 a.m., the University Athletic Association has announced. Also, all concessions in the stadium will be 50-percent off from 10:45-11:45 a.m. Which almost brings it back to normal! This will be the 500th game in The Swamp. Five hundred. That is a lot of Saturdays, a lot of sweat, a lot of bad officiating witnessed exclusively by the home crowd. A lot of young men growing old in photographs while the people who watched them insist they remember every play. And some of them do. At the end of the first quarter, Steve Spurrier will have two minutes to acknowledge members of his 1996 national championship team and his 1966 teammates — the ones still here to answer the roll call. There is your homecoming. Not the souvenir shirt. Not the hospitality tent. Not somebody explaining how much better everything was when he was an undergraduate and somebody else was paying. Those men. The youngsters who helped build something before anybody knew what it would become. The champions who finally delivered what generations of Florida fans had been accused of imagining. Spurrier connects them. The quarterback who won Florida’s first Heisman Trophy in 1966 became the coach who brought home its first national championship 30 years later. That is not merely a résumé. That is a considerable portion of the family history. Two minutes will hardly cover it. “I won’t have time to say much,” Spurrier told me. He did want to thank Jeremy Foley, his staff, school president Kent Fuchs and the UAA board of directors and board of trustees. Of course, Spurrier has always been capable of accomplishing quite a bit before the other fellow gets organized. He has called having the field named for him “the greatest honor I ever received” — even better than winning the Heisman Trophy. When the naming was announced, his public statement called it “the biggest, most special honor I have ever received.” Think about that. The Heisman made him the best player in the country. The name on the field made him part of the address. Long after the last person who saw him play has gone, some father will explain that name to some child walking into the stadium for the first time. And if the father gets carried away, they may miss kickoff. Spurrier didn’t merely win here. He changed what people expected here. Six SEC championships and that national title will do that to a place. So will a 122-27-1 coaching record, with only 7 losses in 89 appearances as a player or coach on the field that was named after him. Before him, Florida fans could turn next year into a religious observance. He made this year worth discussing. Now he will stand on the field bearing his name and recognize men from two teams separated by 30 years, joined by a lifetime of orange and blue. Even a cynic ought to take his hat off for that. Then Florida needs to get back to work. Nostalgia is wonderful. It cannot pick up a blitz. A 12.5 spread is an opinion, not a restraining order. It does not keep South Carolina out of the end zone. It does not prevent a dropped pass, a foolish penalty or the sort of turnover that makes 90,000 people suddenly remember an urgent reason to sit down. The Gators can make this a splendid football afternoon. They can give the returning champions something to applaud besides one another. But they ought to approach it with the understanding that homecoming opponents have a deplorable habit of wanting to win. Nobody ever arrived in Gainesville saying, “We’re just happy to help with the anniversary.” And South Carolina has its own chapter in the Spurrier story. The man being celebrated once coached the Gamecocks to their first victory in The Swamp and an SEC East championship. Sentiment has never been much of a defensive scheme. So honor the old Gators. Listen to the Head Ball Coach. Remember what those teams accomplished, and what it took. Then make the visitors uncomfortable. The skies may open. The ponchos may come out. The expensive shoes may lose an argument with the weather. None of that has to spoil homecoming. Rain is manageable. Having to explain how a big favorite lost the 500th game in its own Swamp would be a considerably longer afternoon.

The morning after in Gainesville felt like a fog. Missouri 45, Florida 17 — a thorough beating in Columbia that nobody saw coming from a 4-0 team fresh off knocking off Ole Miss. But it's homecoming week in The Swamp, and South Carolina is limping into town in even worse shape. The Gamecocks just watched Kentucky go for two and convert, and they're still winless in the SEC. Two stung teams. One bounce-back. That's why Wednesday night's Buddy Martin Show dubbed Saturday "the Bounce Back Bowl." Oh — and one more reason to be in your seat early: Steve Spurrier takes the field after the first quarter to honor the 500th game in The Swamp, introducing the 1966 team he played on and the 1996 national championship team he coached. Fitting for homecoming. "One of these teams is going to win it, Tony — and I don't know which one" "It's the bounce back bowl — one of these teams is going to win it, Tony, and I don't know which one," Buddy said. Vegas keeps moving on this one: "I can't believe Florida was a 14-point favorite and now it's dropped to 12 and a half." The line kept moving after the show. By Thursday night, ESPN listed Florida as an 11.5-point favorite, with the total at 59.5 (DraftKings). Tony Barnhart ("Mr. College Football") made his call anyway: "The Gators will have a nice bounce back against South Carolina. I'm worried about our boy Shane Beamer — I don't know that he's going to make it out of this whole situation." Sumrall's Big-Win Lesson Barnhart pointed to the real lesson of the week: Jon Sumrall learned that "the toughest thing to manage in the Southeastern Conference as a head coach is a big win... the whole world is telling you how good you are." Florida didn't lose because the Gators were reading their press clippings — Sumrall killed that talk the Sunday after Ole Miss, telling his team that win was over, period, and that you can get humble in a hurry around here. But Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz did his homework, and his postgame comment was the one that stung the most: "There's film out there now on these guys... we kind of knew what was happening." Ali Peek Wilbur's autopsy of the tape was blunt. So much miscommunication up front — linemen going to the wrong gap, two guys blocking the same defender while someone else ran through completely untouched. Missouri's offense looks enough like Florida's that its defense had essentially seen the whole thing in practice all week. And the defense? The big watch item Saturday is whether it can tackle at all. Nine explosive plays in the third quarter alone accounted for 67 percent of Missouri QB Austin Simmons' yardage — against four, five, and six rushers alike. No pressure, no matter how many came. Sumrall's own diagnosis: "If it's just one thing it would be easier to fix, but it's a multitude of things." Faulkner's Tendency Rule Nobody on the panel is panicking about Buster Faulkner's play-calling, though. Buddy reminded everyone of the offensive coordinator's own rule: "Faulkner had a rule... if we run a play one time and it works, we throw it out — that's pretty hard to get a tendency from." Georgia-Alabama: The Other Game That Matters Barnhart has watched Alabama get better every single week, and he made his pick: the Crimson Tide quarterback has "superstar written all over" him, and he sees "a 24-21 kind of game" — with Alabama winning it, setting up a rematch with Georgia in the SEC Championship Game. Scouting the Gamecocks: Sellers and Harbor Don't sleep on South Carolina's roster. Loren Meadows flagged receiver Nick Harbor — the 6-foot-8 freak sitting at the top of The Athletic's "freaks list" — and quarterback LaNorris Sellers, who remains the ultimate X-factor: "When LaNorris Sellers is going, he's like the best version of what Anthony Richardson was, essentially." But the Gamecocks haven't won a conference game and have blown big leads multiple times this season. When Buddy put the money question to Ali — "If you said you can have four and a half points in South Carolina, you had to make a choice with your money, what would you do?" — she didn't blink: "I'd put my money on Florida." The Sky Is Not Falling Here's the perspective check the whole panel kept coming back to: "I don't think the sky is falling," Ali said. "The sky is literally falling outside," she laughed at the Gainesville rain, "but I don't think the sky is falling in the way that I think some people do." Every goal Florida set is still on the table — including, mathematically, the playoff. Ali's preseason pick still stands: 9-3, with the losses coming to Texas and Georgia. Buddy couldn't find more than seven and a half wins back in August. And Sumrall? His message after Missouri was the kind Loren Meadows said Florida fans have been waiting years to hear: you've "got to bow up like men... get back to the fundamentals, because that's all you can lean on." As Meadows put it, "you can tell so much more about a team in a loss than a win." Saturday at The Swamp. Homecoming. Somebody's bouncing back. Watch the Show Watch the full show here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFqwdeIf2MY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_Em-EG9uQc (Segment: "Who Wins the Bounce Back Bowl" — Bounce Back Bowl framing, line movement, and Barnhart's Florida pick) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxDauro0GRw (Segment: "The Sky Is Not Falling" — Ali's money on Florida, why every goal is still on the table, and Sumrall's "bow up like men" response. Barnhart's 24-21 Alabama pick closes the Bounce Back Bowl segment above.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAXOhc6VW-4 (Segment: "Fixing Florida's O-Line and Defense" — the Missouri autopsy, Drinkwitz's film comment, and what has to change Saturday) --- Catch The Buddy Martin Show live every weeknight at 9 PM ET: https://youtube.com/@TheBuddyMartinShow/live More Gator coverage at gatorbaitmedia.com

By Brenden Martin No. 16 Florida in the AP poll hosts South Carolina on Saturday, Oct. 10, in Homecoming. The Gators (4-1) are 2-1 in the SEC after a 45-17 loss at Missouri on Oct. 3. South Carolina is 0-3 in league play. Kickoff is 12:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. The series Florida leads the series 31-10-3, according to South Carolina's game notes and the SEC's Week 6 release. The notes say the first meeting was a 6-6 tie on Oct. 21, 1911, and Saturday is the 45th. They list the Gators at 17-2 in Gainesville, where South Carolina's last win was 23-20 in overtime on Nov. 15, 2014. Florida holds an 8-6 edge in the last 14 meetings, according to the notes. The last meeting was Florida 41, South Carolina 39, on Oct. 14, 2023, in Columbia. The notes say the Gators scored two touchdowns in the final 4:40 to erase a 10-point fourth-quarter deficit, and Graham Mertz hit Ricky Pearsall for a 21-yard touchdown with 47 seconds left. Florida also won 38-6 in The Swamp on Nov. 12, 2022, according to the notes. South Carolina's notes list the 2023 game as the most recent meeting, so the Gators have won the last two. Homecoming Week 6 is Florida's 2026 Homecoming game, according to Florida's game notes. Last season the Gators beat Mississippi State 23-21 for their seventh straight Homecoming win. Florida's notes put the Gators at 31-5 in their last 36 Homecoming games and 73-26-2 all-time. The standings In the SEC's Week 6 release, Alabama and Georgia are both 3-0 in league play, and Texas is 1-0. Florida, Kentucky and Mississippi State are each 2-1. Florida has scored 113 points and allowed 112 in conference games. Its two conference wins are 44-39 at Auburn on Sept. 19 and 52-28 over Ole Miss on Sept. 26. The conference loss came at Missouri, which is 1-1 in the SEC. Overall, Florida is 4-1 and 3-0 at home, according to the release. The Gators average 46.2 points a game and allow 27.2, by GatorBait's calculation from the release's 231 points scored and 136 allowed. Around the league The SEC has seven league games Saturday, including Florida's, according to the release. All times are Eastern. Texas A&M is at Missouri at noon, South Carolina is at Florida at 12:45 p.m., Ole Miss is at Vanderbilt and Texas plays Oklahoma at 3:30 p.m., Tennessee is at Arkansas at 4:15 p.m., LSU is at Kentucky at 7 p.m. and Georgia is at Alabama at 7:30 p.m. Auburn and Mississippi State are on open dates. Two of those games touch Florida's schedule. The Gators are at Texas on Oct. 17 and play Georgia on Oct. 31, according to the release. Kentucky, tied with Florida at 2-1, hosts the Gators on Nov. 14. What a win would mean Start with arithmetic, not a forecast. A win Saturday would give Florida three SEC wins, a total only Alabama and Georgia have now. It would move the Gators from .667 to .750 in league play. South Carolina is 0-3, the only SEC team with three conference losses. No other team has more than two. The standings do not say how Saturday goes. They say Florida is 2-1, behind two 3-0 teams, in the same bracket as Kentucky and Mississippi State.

By Brenden Martin South Carolina comes to Gainesville 0-3 in the SEC, and two of those losses were decided by a combined eight points. No. 16 Florida in the AP poll (4-1, 2-1 SEC) hosts the Gamecocks (2-3) Saturday at 12:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network. The record is a poor guide to how South Carolina has played. The margins Mississippi State beat South Carolina 41-34 on Sept. 19. Alabama won 49-18 on Sept. 26, and that one was not close. Kentucky followed on Oct. 3 with a 35-34 overtime win at Williams-Brice Stadium. South Carolina's game notes say the Gamecocks led Kentucky 17-0 before the Wildcats scored 10 points late in the first half. In overtime, LaNorris Sellers threw a 5-yard touchdown pass to Maurice Brown II for a 34-27 lead. Kentucky scored and converted a two-point try to win. According to ESPN's box score, South Carolina outgained Kentucky 458 yards to 394. The notes say two lost fumbles led to 10 Kentucky points. Turnovers The turnover trouble is not limited to Kentucky. According to South Carolina's game notes, the Gamecocks have eight giveaways (four interceptions and four lost fumbles) against two takeaways, a turnover margin of minus 6, or minus 1.2 a game. Opponents have scored 34 points off South Carolina turnovers, and South Carolina has scored 14 off theirs. The notes list South Carolina at 1-3 when it commits more turnovers than its opponent, and No. 130 nationally in turnovers gained. South Carolina's flip card shows Sellers at 92 of 152 for 1,059 yards, eight touchdowns and four interceptions. Last season, according to the notes, South Carolina forced 22 turnovers, which led the SEC. This season it has two in five games. Pass defense The notes call South Carolina's run defense stout and rank its pass efficiency defense No. 125 in FBS. Opponents are 100 of 152 (65.8%) for 1,156 yards and 13 touchdowns against two interceptions, according to the notes. By GatorBait's calculation from ESPN's box scores, Mississippi State, Alabama and Kentucky combined to complete 68 of 95 passes for 895 yards. Florida's numbers By GatorBait's calculation from ESPN's box scores, the Gators average 46.2 points and 274.8 passing yards a game. They allow 27.2 points and 266.6 passing yards a game. Aaron Philo has completed 84 of 121 passes for 1,114 yards, eight touchdowns and two interceptions, according to ESPN's box scores. Florida lost 45-17 at Missouri on Oct. 3, according to ESPN. South Carolina ranks No. 125 in pass efficiency defense and has given up 13 touchdown passes against two interceptions. The Gators gave up 45 points at Missouri, so the Florida defense has its own work to do. What the record misses The 0-3 mark does not tell the whole story. Two of the three losses were one-score games, and South Carolina was a two-point try from beating Kentucky. It was also beaten by 31 at Alabama. Turnovers and pass defense are the two numbers to watch Saturday.

By Brenden Martin No. 16 Florida in the AP poll faces the SEC's top rushing offense Saturday at 12:45 p.m. ET on SEC Network. South Carolina averages 256.0 rushing yards a game, No. 1 in the SEC and No. 7 nationally, according to South Carolina's game notes. Florida comes in after a game on Oct. 3 in which it allowed 220 rushing yards and gained 42. What happened at Missouri Missouri rushed 36 times for 220 yards, 6.1 a carry, in a 45-17 win, according to ESPN's box score. Jamal Roberts had 24 carries for 211 yards, three touchdowns and an 80-yard run. ESPN's box score shows Florida with 25 rushing attempts for 42 yards, 1.7 a carry. Jadan Baugh had 12 carries for 13 yards. Florida's first four opponents rushed for 412 yards on 120 carries, 3.4 a carry, according to ESPN's box scores: Florida Atlantic 120, Campbell 62, Auburn 102 and Ole Miss 128. Missouri was the exception at 6.1. With that game included, South Carolina's game notes list Florida's opponents at 126.4 rushing yards a game and 4.1 a carry. By GatorBait's calculation from the box scores, Missouri's 220 yards are 220 of the 632 Florida has allowed on the ground this season. Two runners South Carolina's game notes show Matt Fuller with 71 carries for 433 yards, 6.1 a carry and five touchdowns. Quarterback LaNorris Sellers has 391 rushing yards and leads the SEC at 7.4 a carry, No. 6 nationally. By GatorBait's calculation from those figures, the two account for 824 of South Carolina's 1,280 rushing yards, about 64%. The notes also say Fuller has scored a rushing touchdown in all five games. South Carolina has four games of 200 or more rushing yards, according to the game notes, one of nine FBS teams to do that this season. ESPN's box scores show 216 yards on 40 carries at Alabama, whose run defense entered No. 5 nationally at 53.0 yards a game, according to the notes. Against Kentucky on Oct. 3, South Carolina ran 37 times for 232 yards, and Sellers had 147 of them on 17 carries. The notes list the Gamecocks at 6.5 yards a carry, No. 2 nationally behind only UCLA. Florida's side South Carolina's game notes list Florida at 216.4 rushing yards a game and 5.4 a carry this season. By GatorBait's calculation from ESPN's box scores, the Gators ran for 1,040 yards on 177 carries, 5.9 a carry, in their first four games. Then came the 42 yards at Missouri, where ESPN shows Eric Singleton Jr. at minus-7 yards on one carry and Aaron Philo at 3 yards on seven. Time of possession is one more number to watch. South Carolina's game notes list Florida at 32:55 a game this season and South Carolina at 29:16. At Missouri, ESPN's box score has Florida with the ball for 28:20 and the Tigers for 31:40. South Carolina's opponents average 100.4 rushing yards a game, according to the game notes. Florida will want to show Missouri was an exception on defense, and that its own 5.4 a carry looks like the earlier games and not the Missouri one.

By Brenden Martin Saturday's Homecoming game between Florida and South Carolina is sold out, the university announced Thursday. It is the 22nd straight sellout at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium. Kickoff is 12:45 p.m. The streak is the longest for the Gators since they sold out 138 consecutive games from 1989 to 2011. Florida's ticket office announced last month that student season tickets were sold out. Single-game tickets remain on sale only for home games against Oklahoma on Nov. 7 and Vanderbilt on Nov. 21. Ticketmaster.com is the only authorized seller of Florida Gators verified resale tickets. The Gators also learned Thursday that former receiver Chris Doering is their representative in the SEC's 2026 Football Legends class. The league named 16 former players and coaches, one for each school. South Carolina's honoree is receiver Sidney Rice. Doering, a Gainesville native, played at Florida from 1991 to 1995. He finished with 149 catches for more than 2,000 yards and 31 touchdown receptions, a program record. As a senior in 1995, he caught 70 passes for 1,045 yards and 17 touchdowns and was a Second-Team AP All-American. He helped Florida win SEC titles from 1993 to 1995 and played 10 NFL seasons. The class will be honored during the SEC's "Weekend of Champions" on Dec. 4-5 in Atlanta. The SEC Legends Celebration is Dec. 4 at the College Football Hall of Fame, and the group will be recognized before the SEC Championship Game on Dec. 5 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

By Buddy Martin / GatorBaitMedia.com Every once in a while, somebody comes back through the door and reminds you just how fast time moves. Laura Rutledge did that for me this week. Most of America knows her now as Laura Rutledge of ESPN — host of NFL Live, a Saturday college football fixture and one of the most recognizable people in sports television. Around here, there is another chapter to the story. Before she was Laura Rutledge, she was Laura McKeeman, a University of Florida student trying to figure out where she belonged in this business and willing to take just about every rep she could get. And, yes, Brenden will remind me — and he is right — that he spotted her first. He brought her into the fold, got her involved in recruiting shows and gave her some of those early opportunities. I had the good fortune to watch the reps pile up and to put her in front of a camera at a time when doing live video on the internet still felt like we were building the airplane while flying it. A FLIP PHONE AND AN IFB The best story Laura told on The Buddy Martin Show might be the one that explains her whole career in about four minutes. She was a senior at Florida when Fox Sports Florida called and gave her a shot around the Tampa Bay Rays. Her previous internship work had been about as glamorous as most internships are: copying DVDs, helping behind the scenes and writing for the website. Then suddenly she was being asked to handle live pregame and postgame television. Opening Day arrives and somebody tells her to put in her IFB. One problem: Laura had no idea what an IFB was. So she pulled out a flip phone and Googled it. That is not a punch line at her expense. That is the lesson. She did not fake knowing. She figured it out, asked questions, went live and came back the next day for another rep. WATCH: Laura remembers the early live-TV learning curve, Brenden Martin and the road from Gainesville to the big stage. THE REPS BEFORE THE SPOTLIGHT There was another story I had almost forgotten until she told it again. Laura took a 5 a.m. shift at WRUF. On one of her first sports reports, she forgot to hit the button that actually put her on the air and delivered part of the thing to nobody. Dead air. Welcome to broadcasting. You learn quickly in this business that embarrassment can either make you hide or make you better. Laura chose better. She talked about those early days as part of the foundation. The shows were live, unscripted and sometimes held together by enthusiasm and extension cords, but that was exactly the point. You learned to listen. You learned to recover. You learned what to do when the next question or the next technical problem was not in the script. That skill still shows up every time she is standing on a sideline with the country watching. THE PART YOUNG BROADCASTERS SHOULD HEAR When I asked her what she would tell somebody trying to get into the business now, her answer was better than anything you are going to find in a television handbook: do not trade away who you are to get ahead. Be authentic. Work harder than the next person. Stay grateful. That sounds simple until you get around television, social media and the constant pressure to become whatever somebody thinks will get the next click. Laura's point was that the long game matters more. AND THEN WE TALKED FOOTBALL This was not just a reunion show. Laura also gave us the view from where she works now. She walked us through the sideline confusion involving Steve Sarkisian and Holly Rowe, explaining how a camera problem created a delay that viewers could not see and why she felt it was important for the broadcast crew to own the production issue instead of leaving a coach to wear it. We talked Arch Manning, the pressure of those big games and the strange weekly commute between NFL Live and a college football sideline. Then we got to what everybody around Gainesville wants to talk about this week: Florida at Auburn. Laura liked what she has seen from Florida's offense, the running game and the improvement up front, but she also knows exactly what Jordan-Hare can do to a football game. When we put a number on the season, she landed at at least seven wins for the Gators and hoped they would push beyond it. The conversation bounced from Florida-Auburn to Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss, then back home to ESPN's “14 Days in Gainesville” and the memories of Steve Spurrier's first season during one of the darkest stretches this community ever endured. Carlton Reese and Ali Peek Wilbur joined us, and for a while it felt less like an interview than one of those old newsroom conversations that just happened to have cameras on it. COMING BACK HOME Before she left, Laura told us she will be back in Gainesville for Gator Growl and homecoming. That felt right. Careers get big. Networks get bigger. Schedules get ridiculous. But every so often somebody circles back to the place where the reps started and tells the story again. The young woman who once had to Google “IFB” now spends most of her life wearing one. Funny how this business works. And it was mighty good to have her back. TONIGHT ON GATORBAIT TV The Buddy Martin Show is live tonight at 9 PM Eastern. Watch from the new Buddy Martin Show page on GatorBaitMedia.com and stay with us for the latest Florida–Auburn coverage.