Billy Napier has landed 17 class of 2026 commitments just since June 1 (Photo by Chris Spears) A few thoughts to jump start your Sunday morning:   Billy Napier’s hot streak continued Saturday when he landed a commitment from gigantic tight end Heze Kent (6-6, 320, Brunswick, GA). He’s a 4-star whom the Gators won over despite best efforts from Miami, Florida State and Texas among others.   The size would seem to tell you Kent will shift to offensive or defensive tackle once he suits up in a college uniform. The stats might suggest otherwise. Kent caught 41 passes for 983 yards and eight touchdowns last year. Not many tight ends no matter the size average 23.97 yards per catch.   Kent is Florida’s 18 th commitment for the recruiting class of 2026. He is the 17 th Napier has landed since June 1. Combined with the addition Friday of 4-star edge rusher KJ Ford (6-3, 245, Duncanville, TX), Napier and the Gators have moved up to No. 12 at the On3.com composite. The Gators are No. 14 at 247Sports. Florida has 13  4-star recruits and five 3-stars.   The Gators could be landing commitments from a pair of 4-star receivers in the days ahead. The Gators are the leaders to haul in Davian Groce (6-1, 190, Frisco, TX Lone Star) and Somourian Wingo (6-2, 180, St. Augustine, FL). Among the teams the Gators are battling for Groce are Baylor (assistant coach Dallas Baker), Oklahoma and Houston. For Wingo, the Gators’ chief competition comes from South Carolina, Miami and Alabama.   4-star recruits: CB CJ Bronaugh (6-1, 170, Windermere, FL); DL Kendall Guervil (6-5, 315, Fort Myers, FL); DE KJ Ford (6-3, 245, Duncanville, TX); TE Heze Kent (6-6, 320, Brunswick, GA); WR Marquez Daniel (6-5, 200, Tuskegee, AL Booker T. Washington); WR Justin Williams (5-11, 190, Gainesville, FL Buchholz); LB Malik Morris (6-1, 230, Lakeland, FL); QB Will Griffin (6-3, 230, Tampa, FL Jesuit); DL JaReylan McCoy (6-6, 250, Tupelo, MS); RB Carsyn Baker (6-1, 200, Fairburn, GA Langston Hughes); S Kaiden Hall (6-3, 200, Milton, FL); CB CJ Hester (6-1, 175, Cocoa, FL); OT Chancellor Campbell (6-8, 310, St. Petersburg, FL Lakewood)   3-star recruits: OG Desmond Green (6-5, 350, Saint Stephen, SC Timberland); OG G’Nivre Carr (6-4, 325, Ocala, FL/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy); OT Tyler Chukuyem (6-6, 295, Douglasville, GA South Paulding); TE Kekua Aumuna (6-6, 257, Kahuku, HI/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy); OT Javarii Luckas (6-5, 305, Belle Glade, FL)     THE SWAMP RATED TOUGHEST SEC STADIUM BY USA TODAY   The rankings and my conclusions. 1. FLORIDA Ben Hill Griffin Stadium: When The Swamp is rocking there is not a louder place to play in America. All last year, but especially at the end against LSU and Ole Miss, we had a revival of the old time Swamp when it was the most feared place to play anywhere in America. Adding Tom Petty after “We Are the Boys” was a stroke of genius. Even visiting fans sing along. The “Only Gators Get Out Alive” video when UF takes the field is classic.   2. LSU Tiger Stadium: Night games are a beast. Day games not so much. When it is a big game at night, the fans will start rolling into Baton Rouge on Wednesday night, Thursday midday at the latest. Then the drinking starts. When they stop drinking and go to bed (or pass out) Friday night, they have time to get roaring drunk again (and mean) before the game. Day games, especially nooners, don’t get near the same reaction. A night game with greased fans can scare the bejabbers out of opponents when the truck that hauls the live Tiger around the stadium makes its entrance.   3. TENNESSEE Neyland Stadium: Vol fans can be so fickle. When they’re good this place is incredibly loud and you have to endure hearing Rocky Top played what seems to be a thousand times. The only people who like that song are UT fans. Everybody else hates it. When the Vols are average or below, the place can be a tomb midway through the third quarter. The Tennessee T when the Vols take the field a couple of minutes before kickoff is one of the SEC’s great traditions.   4. ALABAMA Bryant-Denny Stadium: When they crank up “Sweet Home Alabama” the place is a zoo. When “Dixieland Delight” is played people froth at the mouth. Because it’s Alabama and because they’ve won a zillion national championships there is a feeling of entitlement among the fans. They were in shock a year ago when the Tide lost four games, most in a season since 2007.   5. GEORGIA Sanford Stadium: It’s a lot like Tennessee in that it’s a loud and intimidating place to play when Georgia is really good, which is the last nine years. Georgia fans have a well deserved reputation as some of the most obnoxious in the entire country.   6. SOUTH CAROLINA Williams-Brice Stadium: “Sandstorm” turns the place into an asylum. When they play “2001” before the Gamecocks take the field, it’s one of the more impressive entrances in the country. Tailgating South Carolina fans are some of the nicest in the country. Once inside the stadium, they can get rather nasty.   7. TEXAS A&M Kyle Field: Not sure how Kyle Field got ranked this high. Sure, it’s the largest stadium in the SEC and the fans can make the stands feel like they’re about to fall apart when the Aggies get on a roll, but yell leaders with those funky hand signals instead of cheerleaders with bare midrifts? The Aggie band at halftime should be experienced by every football fan before he/she croaks. I’ve spent a lifetime trying to figure out what “Hullabaloo caneck caneck” means or how/why they lock arms and scream “Chig-gar-roo-garem! Chig-gar-roo-gar-rem”during the Aggie War Hymn.   8. AUBURN Jordan-Hare Stadium: Should be ranked above Georgia. When the Eagle circles the stadium their fans go nuts and they stay loud from bell to bell. Auburn fans are polite and they do know their football. They save their energy for screaming during the game. Why do they insist on wearing a tie when it’s 99 degrees in the shade? And why is Jordan pronounced Jerdon? Things I will never understand. This used to be one of the most enjoyable road trips for Florida and Auburn fans until the SEC put an end to the rivalry with expansion.   9. OKLAHOMA Gaylord Family Stadium: This place was considered intimidating back when the Sooners were in the Big 12. Well, they’re in the SEC now and their ball yard is the ninth – that might be a stretch – toughest place to play. Welcome to the big time Sooners. They had a losing record first year in the SEC and that didn’t help matters. If they win and if they see what it’s like elsewhere in the league, they might make this a tougher place to play.   10. TEXAS Darrell K. Royal Stadium: This should be a very intimidating place to play. It isn’t. Bevo is one big cow. That’s for sure. The crowd is 100,000-plus. That also for sure. The problem is the fans don’t seem to know that in the SEC the homefolks are expected to lose their minds and voices on Saturdays. They will start the season ranked No. 1 in the country. Maybe that will encourage fans to leave their inhibitions back on Sixth Street.   11. MISSOURI Faurot Field: Mizzou has been in the SEC since 2012 and this place still doesn’t have the feeling of an SEC venue. They’re in the process of upgrading the stadium, which they hope will encourage the fans to make this a place nobody wants to play. Nobody wants to go to Mizzou after November 1 because it has the worst weather in the Southeastern Conference.   12. MISSISSIPPI STATE Davis-Wade Stadium: If you’re driving in from the east you can see Davis-Wade Stadium 30 miles away. That’s how flat the countryside is in eastern Mississippi. Fans can yell and scream all they want to, but because the Bulldogs don’t win a lot of football games, nobody takes them seriously at all.  Should be ranked 14 th , at best.   13. ARKANSAS Donald W. Reynolds Razorback Stadium: In one end zone they have this giant cage which is inhabited by the biggest boar hog you’ll ever want to see up close and personal. The hog isn’t the least bit intimidating. He’s so big that if slaughtered he could feed an entire community in rural Arkansas for about 10 days. A live hog that intimidates no one sort of tells the tale of Arkansas football. The last time the Hogs were relevant was 2006 when Houston Nutt was the coach. They’ve made the stadium larger so when Arkansas fans call the pigs, it can be deafening, but that doesn’t seem to help the team at all.   14. OLE MISS Vaught-Hemingway Stadium: Any trip to Oxford on gameday requires a stroll through The Grove where very polite people might ask you to come dine with them pregame or afterward. Ole Miss is winning now that Lane Kiffin is the head coach. If fans fear a trip to Oxford it’s because Lane’s offenses apply all sorts of pressure to opponents. The crowd yells a bit but it’s not very intimidating. It’s almost as if they have to endure the football so they can get back to The Grove and resume eating and drinking.   15. KENTUCKY Kroger Field: The biggest buzz at Kroger Field prior to mid-October is when they announce tickets on sale for Midnight Madness. This was, is and will always be a basketball first school. In one respect, it’s what keeps Mark Stoops gainfully employed. Kentucky faithful are so concerned about basketball that they don’t mind 6-6 regular seasons.   16. VANDERBILT First Bank Stadium: Give the Vandy folks credit. They’re trying to make this a tough place to play, but it’s Vandy and nobody worries that much when the Commodores lose another one. The stadium is being upgraded which will make the fan experience for visiting teams much better. They could make this the Taj Mahal of 40,000-seat stadiums and it would still be the worst venue in the Southeastern Conference. No Vandy tailgate would be complete without chardonnay, a nice selection of cheeses and a veggie tray.   ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT   The powers that be within the NCAA basketball ranks met last week in Savannah to discuss expansion of the tournament, the one thing the NCAA consistently gets right. Fortunately, the meetings dismissed without doing something stupid, which would be to abandon the current format in favor of one in which 72 or 76 teams would have a shot at winning the national championship.   It sounds good on paper. Inclusivity lets all the little guys have their day in the sunshine by giving them a chance to get on the same court with a team like Florida or Duke in the first round of the tournament. We all know how that works out. Since the tournament expanded to 64 teams back in the 1980s and then four play-in games were added a few years ago, only two No. 16 seeds have advanced to the second round – UMBC back in 2018 shocked Virginia and in 2023 Fairleigh Dickinson beat Purdue.   Expanding by four or eight teams will only shuffle the deck. Some teams doomed for a No. 16 seed will be bumped up a notch and won’t have the indignity of a play-in game in Dayton.   So why are they even talking about expansion? Well, there was this committee back in 2023 that suggested that NCAA tournaments in all sports should include 25 percent of all the schools in Division I that play that particular sport.   There we go again with that fabulous NCAA idea that we have to be more inclusive.   The fact is there is no need to be more inclusive. NCAA tournaments should be all about the best teams competing to win a national championship. That’s what we got this past season in basketball when Auburn, Duke, Houston and Florida met in San Antonio for as good a Final Four as we’ve had in decades. Four No. 1 seeds made it to the Alamodome because they were the four best teams in the country. When Florida beat Houston, the Gators proved on the court that they were the best.   And that’s the way it should be. Expansion will only allow CBS to add two or four more play-in games and make more money. It won’t make the tournament better.   It is probably too late to expand the tournament for 2026 but you can wager a few bucks that the NCAA will decide to expand a year from now, and who’s to stop them from making it an 80 or 96 team tournament?   Bet the ranch that Charlie Baker and the idiots in Indianapolis won’t.

QB DJ Lagway and an O-line led by Jake Slaughter are why Billy Napier's job if fairly safe this year (Photo by Chris Spears) A few thoughts to jump start your Saturday morning:   Here is a coach-by-coach look at who’s seat is hot and whose is not in the SEC.   Kalen DeBoer, Alabama: He went 9-4 last year. After 17 years of Saban, 16 of which produced at least 10 wins, last year is thought of as a disaster. They won’t fire him if he doesn’t get to 10 wins, but he will be on thin ice for 2026.   Sam Pittman, Arkansas: Three winning seasons in the last four but fans and boosters want more. A 7-6 season might not save his job. The fans and boosters want championships and with all those gozillionaires in the state, they think they can go out and buy someone who can get the job done.   Hugh Freeze, Auburn: Four straight losing seasons, the last two under Freeze have the fan base wondering if Auburn is about to become the next Mississippi State or Vandy in the SEC. A 7-6 season might not save Freeze but 8-5 would. The fan base would be happy with a new coach right now. The heat is ratcheted up several notches.   BILLY NAPIER, FLORIDA: Most preseason publications say Billy is still on the hot seat despite last year’s vote of confidence from Scott Stricklin and the ensuing four-game winning streak at the end of the year. Eight wins last year only whet the appetite of Florida fans who remember what it was like from 1990-2009. Napier finally has a roster that is capable of competing at a high level in the SEC, but more important, he’s got a quarterback (DJ Lagway), an offensive line (C Jake Slaughter is a first team All-American), skill people who can flat out fly and a defense that’s good enough to win games.   Kirby Smart, Georgia: He’s been in Athens nine years with two national championships. He’s as untouchable as any coach in the country.   Mark Stoops, Kentucky: Just two years ago Stoops was thought to be untouchable, but the fans were spoiled by that 10-win season in 2021. After that, trips to the Music City Bowl don’t seem so special. A second straight losing season won’t get him fired last year but it will make his seat blowtorch hot.   Brian Kelly, LSU: For the most part, he beats all the teams he’s supposed to beat but loses the games he desperately needs to win. Three years and no SEC Championship Game or trip to the playoff is wearing quite thin on a fan base that expects more out of a coach in his fourth year on a $10 million a year contract. They won’t fire him if he doesn’t make the playoff, but the fan base is going to turn on him if he doesn’t.   Jeff Lebby, Mississippi State: They’re rather testy at MSU. They fired Joe Moorhead after two seasons. They fired Zach Arnett after one. Lebby inherited a rotten situation and he needs at least four years to make it work. If he lasts three it will be a minor miracle.   Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri: The concern at Missouri is can they keep Eli? He has won 21 games in the last two years without 5-star talent. It’s a tough place to recruit. There is no SEC feel to the program and it has the worst weather in the league. They will be fortunate to keep him another year.   Brent Venables, Oklahoma: Everybody loves him, hence the problem. Just because he’s nice doesn’t exempt him from winning 10 or more games. He will call the defense himself. Defense won’t be a problem. If Washington State transfer QB John Mateer doesn’t deliver on offense, Venables will get the hook.   Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss: As long as Lake Kiffin wins 9-10 games a year and avoids getting sentenced to a year or so in the NCAA pokey, he’s in business. He’s won at least 10 games three of the last four years which is unheard of. The folks who sip their bourbon in The Grove are ecstatic. You see, at Ole Miss, an SEC title would be good but not necessary as long as he’s winning.   Shane Beamer, South Carolina: Right now they love him but that’s because he won nine games last year. Now that he’s raised expectations so high, there will be a lot of upset folks if the Gamecocks don’t meet or exceed 9-4. Odds that the Gamecocks can win nine this year are off the charts, but then again they were last year, too, and look what he did.   Steve Sarkisian, Texas: Right now they love Steve Sarkisian. He won 13 games a year ago and will start the 2025 season ranked No. 1. What happens if and when he doesn’t make the College Football Playoff? Remember, this is the place that ran off Mack Brown because he only won 25 games in his last three years on the job in Austin. His seat isn’t blowtorch hot. Yet.    Mike Elko, Texas A&M: They keep thinking if they only spend enough money they can win the SEC and make the playoffs. Just because only God and the Longhorns have more money doesn’t mean the Aggies will bring home the big trophy any time soon. Mike Elko is in no danger of getting pink slipped this year but if he doesn’t do better than 8-5 buzzards will be circling in College Station. Clark Lea, Vanderbilt: Clark Lea did the unthinkable a year ago when he went 7-6 after being picked to finish last. He will be picked to finish last again this year and he might do it, but that doesn’t mean he will be canned. Patience is one of Vandy’s long suits. No other school in the SEC can tolerate losing the way Commodore fans do. Firing is such a tacky thing so as long as Clark keeps the Commodoes competitive he’s got a job. And who knows? Maybe he can win in back-to-back years. Wouldn’t that be a hoot.   NAPIER STAYS HOT, LANDS 4-STAR EDGE KJ FORD   June turned to July, but Billy Napier’s hot streak on the football recruiting trail continues. Friday, Napier and the Gators landed 4-star defensive edge rusher KJ Ford (6-3, 245, Duncanville, TX), who chose Florida over Alabama, Ohio State, Texas A&M and Southern Cal among others.   Ford’s commitment could be just the start of an outstanding weekend for the Gators. Expected to announce their commitments this weekend are tight end Heze Kent (6-6, 310, Bradenton, FL) and linebacker Duyon Forkpa Jr. (6-2, 225, Hoschton, GA/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy).   Ford is Florida’s 17 th commitment for the recruiting class of 2026 and the 12 th 4-star.   4-star recruits: CB CJ Bronaugh (6-1, 170, Windermere, FL); DL Kendall Guervil (6-5, 315, Fort Myers, FL); DE KJ Ford (6-3, 245, Duncanville, TX); WR Marquez Daniel (6-5, 200, Tuskegee, AL Booker T. Washington); WR Justin Williams (5-11, 190, Gainesville, FL Buchholz); LB Malik Morris (6-1, 230, Lakeland, FL); QB Will Griffin (6-3, 230, Tampa, FL Jesuit); DL JaReylan McCoy (6-6, 250, Tupelo, MS); RB Carsyn Baker (6-1, 200, Fairburn, GA Langston Hughes); S Kaiden Hall (6-3, 200, Milton, FL); CB CJ Hester (6-1, 175, Cocoa, FL); OT Chancellor Campbell (6-8, 310, St. Petersburg, FL Lakewood)   3-star recruits: OG Desmond Green (6-5, 350, Saint Stephen, SC Timberland); OG G’Nivre Carr (6-4, 325, Ocala, FL/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy); OT Tyler Chukuyem (6-6, 295, Douglasville, GA South Paulding); TE Kekua Aumuna (6-6, 257, Kahuku, HI/Bradenton, FL IMG Academy); OT Javarii Luckas (6-5, 305, Belle Glade, FL)   UF BASKETBALL: CLAYTON, MARTIN AND RICHARD STAND OUT Walter Clayton Jr., Utah: Clayton had his best offensive game in a loss to Charlotte, scoring 21 points while hitting 8-17 overall from the field including 4-10 from the 3-point line. Clayton had six rebounds, three assists and one blocked shot. Sunday night, Clayton and the Jazz will go against Will Richard and Golden State.   Alijah Martin, Toronto: Making his summer league debut with the Raptors, Martin was rock solid in a 116-72 win over Chicago. Martin went 6-12 overall from the field, 2-4 from the 3-point line and 2-2 from the foul line. Martin’s supplemented his 16-point effort with five rebounds, five assists and five steals. Sunday the Raptors will play the Orlando Magic.   Colin Castleton, Toronto: In 17 minutes against the Bulls, Castleton scored five points on 2-6 shooting from the field that included a 1-2 effort from the 3-point line. Castleton had a game-high eight rebounds to go with a steal and a blocked shot.   Will Richard, Golden State: Richard played 23 minutes in a loss to Portland, scoring 12 points to go with four rebounds, three assists, three steals and a blocked shot. Richard was 5-9 from the field, 0-3 from the 3-point line and 2-2 from the foul line.   Zyon Pullin, Memphis: Pullin played 24 minutes in a 92-78 loss to Boston, scoring five points to go with two rebounds and four assists. Saturday night the Grizzlies play Portland.   Phlandrous Fleming Jr., Memphis: In 15 minutes against Boston, Fleming scored three points, grabbed three rebounds and handed out one assist.   ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT   The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, has decided to show the world it has regrown some teeth. Yes, the NCAA has a new enforcement arm and job No. 1 is to stop people from spending excessive amounts of money to build a College Football Playoff-type roster. Ohio State, last year, spent more than $40 million on its national championship roster. Spending is supposed to drop way down now that the NCAA has agreed to what amounts to a $20.5 million salary cap per school for ALL sports, not just football.   To make sure everybody is keeping it between the rails, there is a new enforcement division that is supposed to make everybody quake in their boots. NIL has a clearinghouse that is supposed to keep boosters from getting into a bidding war for what is perceived as the next great quarterback.   Reel in that spending boys and girls! That’s what it’s supposed to do.   Are you buying it? Neither am I.   As long as we’ve had college sports, we’ve had cheating. NIL just means now it’s legal. The NCAA may think it’s going to shut down big spending, but it will just go back to paying players under the table, just like the old days.   There used to be $100 handshakes. They will be replaced by the $1000 handshake. We’ve gone back to the future.

It's always meant more, but these says maybe more than ever.

Defensive coordinator Ron Roberts has to have a big year for the Gators to be good in 2025 (Photo by Chris Spears) A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday afternoon:   As we close in on SEC Media Days, the prelude to the 2025 college football season, here is a look at all 16 SEC teams and what has to go right if they are to avoid a disastrous season.   ALABAMA: The big question at Alabama centers around new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. He was brilliant with Michael Penix at Washington. Can he do the same for Ty Simpson, a former 5-star recruit who has thrown only 50 passes, none for touchdowns, in his career? Alabama has one of the two best wide receivers in the country in Ryan Williams. He’s a game changer but Simpson has to get the ball to him. Can Grubb do for Simpson what he did for Penix. If he can’t Alabama will struggle.   ARKANSAS: The Razorbacks have a very good QB in Taylon Green, but all the experienced receivers are somewhere else. There is also that teensy matter of who’s going to give time for Green to throw the football? The O-line will have four new starters. Hog fans will tell you the newbies can’t be worse than the departures. The problems are two-fold. If Arkansas can’t find consistent receivers and decent O-linemen who can block it will be a very long season.   AUBURN: Quarterback is an issue but the hope is that Jackson Arnold is a better fit in a Hugh Freeze offense than he was at Oklahoma. The real question for Auburn is going to be that front seven defensively where there are a lot of new faces for coordinator DJ Durkin to work with. Durkin has a stud in DE Keldrick Faulk, but six other newbies have to get the job done and he’s got to find someone other than Faulk who can rush the passer. If Auburn can’t improve on last year’s 28 sacks, the Tigers will be very vulnerable defensively.   Florida's defense swarmed against FSU at the end of the 2024 regular season (Photo by Chris Spears) FLORIDA: Don’t worry about Billy Napier’s offense. It’s going to be explosive and very balanced. Florida’s skill people are as good as there are in the SEC starting with DJ Lagway, running backs Jadan Baugh and Ja’Kobi Jackson, and receivers Dallas Wilson, J. Michael Sturdivant, Tre Wilson and Vernell Brown III. The O-line could be as good as there is in the country. Where the Gators have to be good is on defense where the question is can Ron Roberts have an entire season like he had the last four games of 2024? With Roberts in the booth the defense came on at the end to play like it belonged in the SEC. Roberts has to have an outstanding year calling the defense or the Gators will have trouble.    GEORGIA: Kirby Smart says Gunner Stockton is the best QB Georgia has had in his nine years and that includes Stetson Bennett who won a couple of national championships. That seems like a reach for people who saw Stockton in the loss to Notre Dame in the playoff semifinals last year. If Georgia simply needs a game manager, Stockton might be adequate. If they need more, the Bulldogs are likely to be in deepest and darkest.     KENTUCKY: A year ago, Kentucky thought it had the stud QB who was going to take them to a 10-win season in former 5-star Brock Vandagriff, who transferred in from Georgia. Vandagriff stunk and so did Kentucky’s offense (No. 114 nationally). Vandagriff elected to retire from football and the best the Wildcats could do is Zach Calzada, now in his 7 th year of college football, this time via D1AA Incarnate Word. He won’t have the benefit of stud receivers Dane Key and Barrion Brown. The thought in Kentucky is that Calzada can’t be worse than Vandagriff but if he can’t at least play at the same level, the Wildcats are in trouble.   LSU: The natives are getting restless. Three years and zero appearances in either the SEC Championship Game or the College Football Playoff are not what was expected when AD Scott Woodward lured Brian Kelly from Notre Dame with a 10-year, $100 million contract. Despite four offensive linemen drafted by the NFL, LSU couldn’t run the ball last year (No. 107 nationally) and as the Florida game proved, really wasn’t that adept in pass protection (six sacks allowed). If the O-line can’t run block to give the Tigers some offensive balance, they’ll be in trouble.   MISSISSIPPI STATE: Where to begin? Year two of the Jeff Lebby era has as many questions as last year. This is a program that is undergoing a complete makeover and it might take an entire season to see progress on either side of the ball. The front seven on defense lacks experience and depth. If there is no early progress, the Bulldogs are going to be in more trouble than they are already.   MISSOURI: Eli Drinkwitz, who keeps surprising us by winning without high profile recruits, lost all his starting skill people so there will be plenty of new faces. He replaced quarterback Brady Cook with former Penn State backup Beau Pribula and his 2-headed monster at running back with Louisiana-Monroe’s Ahmad Hardy. Pribula is a dual threat guy who was stuck behind a 3-year starter. As a freshman, Hardy ran for 1,351 yards and 13 TDs. For Mizzou to be an upper echelon team in the SEC, these guys can’t have a mediocre season.   OKLAHOMA: The offense sucked last year (113 th nationally). The O-line couldn’t block anybody and the running game was non-existent. A lot of fingers point to Washington State QB John Mateer as the answer to the offensive woes. He’s certainly an improvement over Jackson Arnold, who struggled, but the guy who holds the key is California transfer running back Jaydn Ott. Ott ran for more than 2,200 yards and 20 TDs in his first two years at Cal. Injured much of last year, he averaged only 3.3 yards a carry. If Ott isn’t recovered and back to his pre-injury form and the O-line has another season like 2024, Brent Venables and the Sooners are in deepest and darkest.   OLE MISS: Nobody works the portal like Lane Kiffin, who has 30 new faces to work with this season. Three new transfers from the portal will start on the O-line and three in the secondary. The Rebels have had success with transfers on the O-line so that’s less of a concern than the secondary. Ole Miss ranked 12 th in the SEC in pass defense a year ago. If the newbies on the back end aren’t any better than last year, then the Rebels will be in trouble.   SOUTH CAROLINA: The new offensive coordinator is Mike Shula, who hasn’t had a good year running an offense since he was working with Cam Newton more than 10 years ago with the Carolina Panthers. Shula has a Newton-like QB to work with in LaNorris Sellers, a strong runner with a big arm. Can Shula take Sellers to the next level. If he can the Gamecocks could be really good. If not, the season could go in the tank.   TENNESSEE: When Nico Iamaleava was shown the door after demanding more NIL money, the Vols went into a scramble mode and came up with former App State QB Joey Aguilar in the portal. A year ago he threw 14 interceptions which is a concern. UT quarterbacks have thrown only 18 interceptions combined in the last four years. If Aguilar can’t cut down on the picks, then the Vols are going to struggle.   TEXAS: On paper the Longhorns are the nation’s most complete team, which is why nearly everyone has them No. 1 going into the season but there are questions such as will Arch Manning live up to the hype that comes with being a Manning and who’s going to catch the football. The thought is that Manning will be a star but only if his receivers are good enough to loosen opposing secondaries. The Longhorns had 176 pass plays of at least 10 yards a year ago, 80 of which went for more than 20 yards. The new receivers have to be good enough to back the safeties up or the Longhorns will have difficulty.   TEXAS A&M: The Aggies started strong and fizzled at the end a year ago when they were absolutely loaded. The Aggies were next to last in the SEC giving up long plays on the ground, near the bottom in explosive plays by their runners. The defensive front has been retooled and it has to be better against the run. The Aggies hope Le’Veon Moss can be the answer to an explosive running game. If the Aggies aren’t better defending the run and running the ball, they will have problems meeting expectations.    VANDERBILT: The Commodores shocked the world with a 7-6 record last year. Seven starters return on a defense that should be at least middle of the pack in the SEC. For the offense to be good, Clark Lea has to find some continuity and chemistry on the O-line where he’s replacing four starters with transfers. Can the O-line give QB Diego Pavia time to work his magic? He was sacked only 18 times all last year. Better yet, can they run block? For Vandy to avoid a losing season, the O-line is going to have to get the job done.   UF BASKETBALL: CLAYTON SEC MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR Walter Clayton Jr., who was a consensus All-American and the Most Outstanding Player in the NCAA Tournament for the national champion Gators, was named SEC Athlete of the Year. He’s Florida’s first SEC Male Athlete of the Year since Grant Holloway in 2019. Florida had the SEC Female Athlete of the Year in Trinity Thomas (2023) and Parker Valby (2024). All-time the Gators have had 17 SEC athletes of the year.   SUMMER LEAGUE UPDATES Walter Clayton Jr., Utah Jazz: In an all too familiar scenario, Walt hit a 27-foot 3-pointer with 2:31 to go to put the Jazz up for good (82-80) in an 86-82 win over Oklahoma City. Walt scored 20 points, hitting 4-10 of his 3-pointers and 6-6 from the foul line. He also had four assists, one rebound, one steal and one blocked shot.   Speaking to an NBA sideline reporter post game, Clayton said he’s starting to feel comfortable and adjust to the aggressiveness and physicality of the pro game. Speaking of his team, Clayton said, “We’re young, I feel like we’re unselfish. We just play fast. It’s a good group of guys and we’re gonna be able to get stuff done.”   Will Richard, Golden State: Richard again started for the Warriors, playing 20 minutes in a 93-79 loss to Miami. Richard hit 6-16 of his shots, finishing with 12 points and five rebounds.   Phlandrous Fleming Jr., Memphis: Fleming got the start in the Grizzlies 91-90 loss to Philadelphia. He finished with nine points, two rebounds, two assists and three steals.   Osayo Osifo, San Antonio: Osifo, who spent the 2020-21 season at UF playing for Mike White, came off the bench to play 19 minutes for the Spurs in their 89-88 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Osifo scored six points and led the Spurs with seven rebounds.   UF BASEBALL: CAGLIANONE GOES DEEP Breaking out of a lengthy slump, Jac Caglianone launched a 1-1 changeup 421 feet to dead center field off Pittsburgh’s Max Keller for his third Major League Baseball home run. Caglianone is hitting only .148 (17-115), but he’s making good contact (only 26 strikeouts) and has played very well in right field.   ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT   Hal Mumme is alive. Yes, that Hal Mumme, the same one who invented what is now known as the Air Raid offense, the one whose coaching tree includes the likes of Mike Leach, Lincoln Riley, Dana Holgorsen, Kliff Kingsbury, Neal Brown, Sonny Dykes, Josh Heupel, Guy Morris, Chris Hatcher, Art Briles, Will Muschamp and Kirby Smart.   Hal is the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Centenary College in Shreveport, Louisiana, which hasn’t been relevant in anything since the days of Robert Parrish in basketball and Hal Sutton in golf. Light years ago. Centenary plays NCAA Division III football (non-scholarship) in a league that includes such notables as Texas Lutheran (Vern Lundquist’s alma mater), College of the Ozarks and Concordia.   I didn’t know they play football at Centenary.   Back to the top. We tend to forget that Hal first became relevant at Valdosta State where his coaching staff included Leach and Holgorsen. He left there after the 1996 season but Chris Hatcher, who was his QB, became head coach at VSU in 2000. Hatcher hired Muschamp and Smart, who went on to coach for Nick Saban.   Until you look at his coaching tree, you don’t begin to realize the influence Hal Mumme has had on the college game.

Trouble is, our memories blur and we confuse our eras

It has taken three years, but Florida finally has an SEC-capable roster (Photo by Chris Spears) A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:   Three years, 19 wins, 19 losses. That’s Florida’s football record under Billy Napier from 2022-24.  If you add in Dan Mullen’s last season as Florida’s head coach, the Gators are 25-26 the last four seasons, the worst stretch of Florida football since 1978-81. That 19-26-1 record included the 4-7 of Douglas Adair Dickey’s final season on the job and the 0-10-1 of Charley Pell’s first year. After that, the Gators didn’t endure another losing season until the injury-filled 4-8 of Will Muschamp’s third year on the job in 2013.   Things were so bad when Charley Pell took over that it took a total makeover. The roster Pell inherited wasn’t anything close to an SEC roster. It took Charley until 1983 to put together a roster capable of competing with anyone in the country. Twenty-eight Gators who played in the 1983 Auburn game went on to make an NFL roster. If that’s not evidence of a rebuild, nothing is.   It's worth mentioning what Charley Pell had to go through. Now, don’t get hung up on the NCAA thing. This was the era of “if you ain’t cheating then you ain’t winning” in the Southeastern Conference. The same schools that voted to strip the Gators of the 1984 SEC championship were among the worst offenders. Wilber Marshall once told me that what was going on at Florida was Romper Room compared to the other schools in the league.   Pell was 12-21-1 in his first three years on the Florida job. Over the next four years before the sanctions kicked in, the Gators were 35-8-3. The 1983-85 Gators looked like an NFL roster. Florida State and Miami wouldn’t have gone on their record-setting runs had Florida not been hit with some of the most severe sanctions in college football history. It is remarkable that the Gators went 26-21 from 1986-89 considering they were reduced to 12 scholarships for the 1985 and 1986 seasons.   Billy Napier didn’t inherit a team that was decimated by sanctions, but he did inherit a roster that had way too many holes in it. It has taken him three full years and four recruiting classes to get the Gators to a point where the roster looks SEC capable. This 2025 Florida team is the first one of the Napier era that has the size, depth and speed of a top tier SEC team.   Over the weekend, a longtime friend of mine who doesn’t include Billy Napier on his Christmas card list, called the 19 losses of the last three seasons “a total embarrassment. We’re Florida. We deserve a better coach than that.”   He was astonished when I pointed out that 13 of Florida’s 19 losses in the first three years were against teams that won at least 10 wins. You could look it up. Among last year’s five losses, Miami and Tennessee each won 10 games while Georgia won 11 and Texas 13. The year before, Georgia (13), LSU (10), Missouri (10) and Florida State (13). In 2022, Tennessee (11), LSU (10), Georgia (15), Florida State (10) and Oregon State (10).   It's not an excuse to point out all the losses to teams that won 10 games. It’s also not an excuse to point out how few Gators left over from the Mullen era were drafted. Maybe Napier could have won more games had he gone wholesale into the transfer portal, but there is no proof that anyone other than Lane Kiffin has figured out how to sustain success with a revolving door of transfers.   Napier has build a culture and a foundation for prolonged success. Look at how recruiting has turned around in the last two years and how nobody on the planet had a better June than the Gators.   The 2025 schedule is brutal, just like last year, but with a couple of exceptions, most every schedule in the SEC is conducive to at least 2-3 losses. A couple of years ago, this schedule would have spelled doom. This year, it’s a challenge, but it’s manageable. The Gators are capable of winning nine or ten games this year. If you’re a gambler, put some of your disposable cash on the Gators. You won’t regret it.   The good times aren’t necessarily here yet, but they aren’t that far off. GATORS IN THE NBA SUMMER LEAGUE Walter Clayton Jr., Utah: In his Friday night debut, Clayton played 25 minutes in a 93-89 win over Philadelphia. Clayton hit 3-8 shots (2-6 on 3-points), 1-2 from the foul line, grabbed three rebounds and handed out six assists. He turned the ball over twice and had a steal.   Will Richard, Golden State: In 25 minutes during a 90-88 loss to San Antonio, Richard scored 16 points while hitting 3-10 overall from the field (2-8 from the 3-point line) and 8-8 from the foul line. He had four rebounds, one assist and two steals.   Zyon Pullin, Memphis: Pullin played 21 minutes in a 92-80 win over Oklahoma City, scoring eight points (1-9 shooting, 0-1 from the 3-point line, 6-6 from the foul line) with three rebounds and five assists.   Phlandrous Fleming Jr., Memphis: Against the Thunder, Fleming played 15 minutes, scoring seven points (3-5 overall, 1-1 from the 3-point line) with three rebounds, one assist and two steals.     UF BASEBALL: HOW THE ROSTER IS STARTING TO SHAPE UP   Pre-MLB Draft Aaron Watson (RHP, Jacksonville Trinity Christian): Was committed to Virginia, but when the UVA coach took the Mississippi State job he signed with Florida. He’s not ranked in the top 500 draft prospects by Baseball America, but he’s No. 45 by MLB.com .  If he goes first two rounds, it will be tough for him to turn the money down.   Baseball America pre-MLB Draft prospect ratings 83. Jordan Yost (SS, Tampa Sickles): Expected to go first three rounds, but good chance he’s a Gator if he’s not in the first round. MLB.com ranks him No. 50.   131. Luke Heyman (C, JR): Power hitter (41 career HR) who was hitting .301 before he fractured his forearm when hit by a pitch at the SEC Tournament. Should go first five rounds, but has the option to return.   159. Colby Shelton (SS, JR): Was hitting .377 when he injured his wrist and didn’t return. Projects more as a 2B at the next level. He’s not coming back. No. 142 by MLB.com .   201. Jake Clemente (RHP, RSO): Found a niche as a reliever (2-1, 3.46 ERA, 7 saves). Big strikeout numbers (77 in 54-2/3 innings) should get him drafted first five rounds. No. 189 by MLB.com .   205. Nick Partridge (3B/1B, Mulberry HS): Big power potential yet makes consistent contact. Needs to fill out. College would be a better option. No. 195 by MLB.com .   218. Brody Donay (C/1B, JR): Hit .303 with 18 HR (career 44). Huge power potential but probably projects to 1B at the next level. He’s not coming back. No. 248 by MLB.com .   262. Cade Kurland (2B, JR): Missed most of the season after shoulder surgery for a dislocated shoulder. Hit 34 HR in 144 college games. May come back if he doesn’t get a deal he likes.   270. Blake Cyr (OF/INF, JR): Disappointing year at the plate (.254, 9 HR, 36 RBI). Could use another year but would have no leverage. If he goes first 10 rounds figure he’s a goner.   283. Bobby Boser (3B/OF): Excellent senior season (.336, 18 HR, 67 RBI; 49 career HR) after transferring from South Florida. He will get drafted but he has no leverage since he has no college eligibility so somewhere after seventh round is almost a certainty. No. 188 by MLB.com .   331. Cooper Moss (RHP, Panama City Arnold): Big guy (6-3, 220) who throws low to mid 90s. Probable to UF if he doesn’t go first 10 rounds.   349. Jackson Hoyt (LHP, Brooksville Nature Coast): Throws low 90s with good command. Great student so he’s probable to UF, but lefties who can throw hard and throw strikes sometimes go surprisingly high in the draft.   427. Pierce Coppola (LHP, RJR): When he’s healthy he can be really, really good, but staying healthy has always been his problem. Needs an injury-free year at UF but if he gets drafted top ten rounds figure he goes.   Incoming Gators from the portal Ethan Surowiec (IF, from Ole Miss): Hitting .427 (7 HR, 36 RBI) with Duluth in the Northwoods League. Three years of eligibility. Projects at 3B for UF.   Jaden Bastian (OF, from Jacksonville University): Outstanding CF with gap-to-gap coverage in the outfield. Hit .302 (11 HR, 33 RBI) and stole 36 bases for the Dolphins. Two years of eligibility.   Sam Miller (SS, from Columbia): Ivy League Player of the Year. Hit .338 (16 HR, 57 RBI; career 340, 31 HR, 117 RBI). One year of eligibility remaining.   Ricky Reeth (RHP, from Notre Dame): Windermere (West Orange HS) native. Had one start, the rest of his appearances in relief (48 innings, 3-2 record, 4.31 ERA, 3 saves). Two years eligibility.   Russell Sandefer (RHP, from UCF): Six starts and 12 relief appearances in 2025 (2-3 record, 3.38 ERA, 49 strikeouts in 50-2/3 innings; career 7-5, 3.36 ERA). Two years of eligibility.   Cooper Walls (RHP, from Hawaii): Big West Conference Freshman Pitcher of the Year. Went 3-3 (3.73 ERA, 13 starts, 45 strikeouts in 60-1/3 innings). Three years eligibility.   Karson Bowen (C, from TCU): Second team All-Big 12. Hit .333 (4 HR, 28 RBI; career .308, 16 HR, 112 RBI).   Cole Stanford (C, from Lenoir-Rhyne): All-South Atlantic Conference 1 st team. Hit .393 (20 HR, 56 RBI; career .338, 39 HR, 135 RBI). Career 76 walks, 65 strikeouts. LR finished tied for third at NCAA DII championship. One year of eligibility.   AJ Malzone (C, from Wabash Community College): Freshman with three years eligibility (.332, 8 HR, 42 RBI).   ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT   Delaware and Missouri State are officially members of Conference USA. Didn’t hear about that last week? Don’t feel bad. Bet you didn’t notice that Texas State is moving from the Sun Belt to the re-organized Pac-12 either.   Delaware is the same school that gave us Joe Flacco and Rich Gannon. It has great history in both Division II and D1AA where it has won six national championships. Delaware’s greatest coach was the late Davey Nelson who collaborated with General Bob Neyland to lead a rules change in college football that led to single platoon football from 1953-63. Capacity at Delaware Stadium is 23,000.   Missouri State never won any national championships at either the DII or D1AA levels. Maybe their greatest claim to fame is Bobby Petrino spent three years there trying to rehab his coaching career before Sam Pittman brought him in to coordinate the offense at Arkansas. The Bears play in a 17,500-seat stadium.     Delaware and Missouri State will compete in Conference USA with Florida International, Jacksonville State, Kennesaw State, Liberty, Louisiana Tech, Middle Tennessee, New Mexico State, Sam Houston State, UTEP and Western Kentucky. UTEP will be in Conference USA this year but moves to the Pac-12 in 2025 along with Texas State when the league starts playing football again next year. Louisiana Tech will be bolting Conference USA for the Sun Belt next year.   Texas State, which back-to-back DII national championships for Jim Wacker in 1981-82, went to D1AA and then to Division I in 2012. The Bobcats joined the Sun Belt Conference in 2013, but they haven’t come close to winning the conference championship. Bobcat Stadium seats 30,000.   The new Pac-12 will have Washington State, Oregon State, Fresno State, San Diego State, Boise State, Utah State, Colorado State, Texas State and UTEP playing football with Gonzaga, Cal Poly, Cal State-Bakersfield and Little Rock playing basketball and the other sports.   What does all this shuffling tell us? Well, first and foremost that Division I football is being crowded with teams that have two chances of winning a national championship – no way and now how. The NCAA, in its infinite wisdom, is powerless to stop the movement. Of course, the NCAA is basically powerless to do anything at all.   There is an answer. It’s time for college football to (a) become autonomous and (b) for there to be two divisions. We could call them the Haves and the Have Nots, but while true, that wouldn’t be politically correct. Currently we have four power conferences, plus Notre Dame. There are perhaps 10-12 teams among the Group of Five that would have a chance competing in the new Division I. Let the others in Division I form the new Group of Five. There are D1AA schools such as North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Montana that are certainly capable of competing with the bottom half of the current Division I. Put them in the new Group of Five and give them their own playoff.   It would work. It makes sense, but that might be the biggest reason we’ll never see it.

A healthy DJ Lagway is the key for Florida to get to 10 wins in 2025 (Photo by Chris Spears) Buckle your seatbelts folks. College football practice begins in a month, the 2025 season in 56 days. If you thought life in the SEC was a teensy bit cannibalistic a year ago, then wait until this season. The league is so tough, so balanced that it’s hard to imagine any team in the league running the table. For the first time in history, the SEC Championship Game might feature two teams each with two or more losses.   A 10-win season will almost certainly get an SEC team in the College Football Playoff. Even 9-3 will be in the hunt. That’s how good the league is. Here is a team-by-team look with the biggest obstacles for each team to get to the elusive 10-win total.   ALABAMA Head coach: Kalen DeBoer (9-4 in 2024; 110-16 career)   There is winning and there is winning at Alabama. Kalen DeBoer has won everywhere he’s coached, but he’s 9-4 at Alabama. His Bama debut produced the first season with fewer than 10 wins since Nick Saban’s first year on the job way back in 2007. Another 4-loss season will put him squarely on the hot seat.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: The quarterback situation. Ty Simpson, who has thrown 50 passes, none for touchdowns in his career, will be the starter. He could be riding the pine if he craters on the road at Georgia September 27. Freshman Keelon Russell is waiting in the wings.   The call: 9-3 regular season.   ARKANSAS Head Coach: Sam Pittman (7-6 in 2024, 30-31 career at Arkansas)   Everybody loves Sam Pittman, which is why firing him would be such a painful thing. He staved off walking the plank in 2024 by going 7-6. There are only so many 7-6 seasons all those gozillionaire boosters will tolerate. He’s squarely on the hot seat.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Start with a brutal schedule that includes roadies to Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU and Texas; homers with Notre Dame, Texas A&M and Missouri. Eight new starters on defense, brand new receivers and only two returning starters on the O-line.   The call: 4-8 regular season.   AUBURN Head coach: Hugh Freeze (5-7 in 2024, 11-14 career at Auburn; 114-61 career)   Hugh has folks asking what the hell were we thinking when we paid Gus Malzahn all that money to go coach somewhere else? Consecutive losing seasons doesn’t get it at Auburn, which constantly lives in the shadow of big brother Alabama, which has won five national championships since Auburn’s last one in 2010. An 8-win season won’t calm the hysteria in the fan base but it will buy him time. A losing season and they’ll can him.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Quarterback Jackson Arnold. He’s a former 5-star recruit who transferred in from Oklahoma where he averaged only 5.8 yards per pass attempt last year. Those back-to-back home games with Georgia (October 11) and Missouri (October 18). Lose both of those and the season is teetering on the brink.   The call: 8-4 regular season.   First team All-America center Jake Slaughter is one reason the Gators could win 9-10 games (Photo by Chris Spears) FLORIDA Head coach: Billy Napier (8-5 in 2024, 19-19 career at Florida; 59-31 career)   Billy Napier heads into 2025 with the Southeastern Conference’s longest winning streak (4 games). He finally got the fans off his back with last year’s 8-5 record. This year he has the potential to light up scoreboards with an offense that could prove to be the best in the SEC. QB DJ Lagway will be operating behind an offensive line led by Jake Slaughter that could be one of the three best in the country.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Lagway’s health. Word is the shoulder is just peachy but what if it isn’t? What if he misses games or if the shoulder affects his velocity or touch? If he stays healthy, the Gators could be formidable even with a brutal schedule. Circle roadies at LSU and Miami in early September. An 0-2 start in must win games could signal tough sledding ahead.   The call: 9-3 regular season.   GEORGIA Head coach: Kirby Smart (11-3, 105-19 career at Georgia)   Kirby has led Georgia to the best 9-year stretch in school history and has more national titles (2) than coaching legends Wally Butts and Vince Dooley. He consistently outrecruits everyone in the SEC so the only obstacle to continued success is the silly notion that he would leave Georgia and $11 million a year for the pros.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Quarterback Gunner Stockton and the lack of a consistent running game. Stockton has one career start under his belt (CFP loss to Notre Dame) and has never proven he can get it done over the course of a season. Georgia has to run the ball better than last year (124 yards per game) or else the offense will stink no matter who the quarterback is. Alabama and Texas are home games.   The call: 10-2 regular season.   KENTUCKY Head coach: Mark Stoops (4-8 in 2024, 77-73 career at Kentucky)   Stoops is the winningest coach in UK history, but since going 10-3 in 2021, Kentucky is 18-20. Unless he does something unthinkable such as go winless in 2025, he’s in no danger of being fired, but the natives are restless. They miss those exotic bowl trips to places like Nashville and Memphis.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Last year’s offense ranked 114 th nationally. This year’s offense promises to be worse with 7 th -year transfer QB Zach Calzada taking over. Way too many transfers on the roster overall, but especially on defense.   The call: 3-9 regular season.   LSU Head coach: Brian Kelly (9-4 in 2024, 29-11 career at LSU; 292-107-2 career)   Brian Kelly was hired to win national championships. He’s lost 11 games in three seasons at LSU, seven with the best QB in college football (Jayden Daniels) since Joe Burrow. Another season with three or four losses will not go over well with the fan base but this will only be the fourth season of a 10-year contract that pays $10 million a year.   Biggest obstacles to a 10-win season: Four starters are gone from the offensive line that leaked like a sieve against Florida. QB Garrett Nussmeier still hears the footsteps. Way too many transfers (18) will factor in the rotation on both sides of the ball. The running game (No. 107 nationally a year ago) isn’t going to be much better. Roadie to Clemson and homer with Florida in the first three games.   The call: 8-4 regular season.   MISSISSIPPI STATE Head coach: Jeff Lebby (2-10 in 2024)   You’re defined in life by the decisions you make. Choosing Mississippi State for his first head coaching assignment will go down as a bad decision on the part of Jeff Lebby. He will need an offensive coordinator gig at a really top tier school to rehab his career after another year or two in Starkville.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Where do we begin? The offense was bad last year and will be bad again. The defense (125 th nationally last year) will be worse. There is a 4-game stretch of Tennessee, Texas A&M, Florida and Texas.   The call: 3-9 regular season.   MISSOURI Head coach: Eli Drinkwitz (10-3 in 2024, 38-24 career at Missouri; 50-25 career)   How long will Mizzou be able to hold onto Drinkwitz? He’s winning at a place where winning is very tough and in the toughest conference in America, doing it without a plethora of high profile recruits. He’s got a schedule that’s going to be worth at least nine wins. Someone will be dangling big bucks to lure him away. Count on it.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Drinkwitz loves Penn State transfer QB Beau Pribula but who’s going to catch the football? Luther Burden and Theo Wease are going to be catching balls in the NFL.   The call: 9-3 regular season.   OKLAHOMA Head coach: Brent Venables (6-7 in 2024, 22-17 career at Oklahoma)   Venables’ buns are warm and toasty after last year’s 6-7 disaster that saw an exodus of players and an influx of transfers. Venables did lure Washington State QB John Mateer. If he’s as good as he was at Wazzoo, the Sooners will be good and Venables will be safe for at least one more year.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: The O-line gave up 50 sacks last year and that was with a running QB. If they can’t block any better than last year, it will neutralize Mateer’s ability to make the offense explosive. The running backs need to remember that it’s not nice to fumble the football. The last six games are brutal.   The call: 7-5 regular season.   OLE MISS Head coach: Lane Kiffin (10-3 in 2024, 44-18 career at Ole Miss; 105-52 career)   Lane Kiffin has turned Ole Miss into Transfer U. It’s a revolving door but Lane seems to be able to fit the pieces together to make it work. He has 39 wins over the last four seasons, three of which produced 10 or more wins.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Four new starters on the O-line. If they can mesh, then Ole Miss will be top tier offensively in the SEC. The only tough road game is at Georgia, who the Rebels hosed in Oxford last year. QB Austin Simmons has to prove he can get it done over a full season.   The call: 9-3 regular season.   SOUTH CAROLINA Head coach: Shane Beamer (9-4 in 2024, 29-22 career at South Carolina)   Just when you think South Carolina will have a season in the tank, Shane Beamer wins nine games. He’s a master over-achiever who is going to have to pull rabbits out of the hat this year to make up for heavy losses on the defensive side of the ball. As long as he can have bowl-eligible seasons, he’s got a job at South Carolina.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Three new interior O-linemen will have to play well to protect QB LaNorris Sellers. The Gamecocks lost all but one of their front seven starters. Only one surefire win on the schedule.   The call: 6-6 regular season.   TENNESSEE Head coach: Josh Heupel (10-3 in 2024, 37-15 career at Tennessee; 65-23 career)   When Nico Iamaleava was asked to leave due to his contract demands Tennessee’s outlook for 2025 nosedived. Now Josh Heupel has to win with App State transfer (via UCLA) Joey Aguilar, who completes a lot of passes to the other team. The fans will give Heupel a mulligan this year.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Aguilar for one thing, an O-line that is replacing four starters is another. Georgia is game three, at Alabama game seven, at Florida game 11.   The call: 8-4 regular season.   TEXAS Head coach: Steve Sarkisian (13-3 in 2024, 38-17 career at Texas; 84-52 career)   Arch Madness has taken over Austin. This will be Arch Manning’s third year under Steve Sarkisian, which is why the Longhorns will open the season No. 1. Only God has more money than the Longhorns so Sark can spend as much as he needs to get the players he needs to win big.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Four new starters on the O-line and too many unproven wide receivers. Can Manning live up to the hype? Road games at Ohio State, Florida and Georgia.   The call: 10-2 regular season.   TEXAS A&M Head coach: Mike Elko (8-5 in 2024; 24-14 career)   The Aggies lost four of their last five games so that’s a huge concern for the fan base. This is only the second year for Elko, so he’s not in bad shape to start the 2025 season. Let him lose five games while Texas makes the playoff and the heat will ratchet up. Only God and the Longhorns have more money than the Aggies so Elko should be able to recruit at a very high pace. If he lasts.   Biggest obstacles to 10 or more wins: Somebody has to catch the football or else everyone will load up the box. The Aggies need to figure out how to stop the run. Notre Dame, Florida, LSU and Missouri are on the schedule.   The call: 7-5 regular season.   VANDERBILT Head coach: Clark Lea (7-6 in 2024, 16-33 career at Vanderbilt)   To Vandy fans, wins are measured like dog years as in one Vandy win is like seven at Alabama. As long as Clark Lea can take the Commodores to a bowl game every four years he will be gainfully employed. Alums who tailgate on chardonnay and grapes don’t have the highest of expectations.   Obstacles to 10 or more wins: If the four new starters on the O-line can’t protect QB Diego Pavia, then the Commodores are in deepest and darkest. There is a 4-game stretch of LSU, Alabama, Missouri and Texas. That alone guarantees the Dores won't win 10.   The call: 6-6 regular season.

Francis Beard Jr., US Navy, circa 1945 Indulge me today. I know this is a sports site and I write about sports, but it’s early morning on the Fourth of July so I’m flooded with memories. I hope you don’t mind.   Growing up in the 1950s, the Fourth usually meant Kingsley Lake where my father’s parents lived. My grandfather (Frank Beard) was the civilian engineer in charge at Camp Blanding during World War II. Camp Blanding, in case you didn’t know, trained more men for combat in Europe than any other base. After the war, when several hundred military bases were decommissioned in Florida, he was hired by the state to dispose of surplus property, everything from jeeps to boots to typewriters to pith helmets. I mention pith helmets because my grandfather loved working in his yard there at Kingsley Lake in khaki military surplus shorts and T-shirts, surplus socks and boots, topped off by a pith helmet to shade him from the sun.   I was the only kid on my block growing up in Sanford who had a pith helmet, by the way.   On one of those memorable Fourth of Julys, while waiting for everyone to take a turn churning the homemade peach ice cream and for the watermelon to chill in an aluminum tub packed with ice, my grandfather started talking about his days in the Army during World War I. He was stationed at Fort Jackson in South Carolina when the United States sent its first troops to France. While at Fort Jackson he was allowed to ride his Army issue motorcycle up to Florence where he would woo the lovely Minnie Hill as long as he was back at the post at reveille.   Frank Beard, circa 1918 Deployed to France, he rode his motorcycle to the trenches on the front lines to deliver orders from the generals miles to the rear. It was dangerous work but somehow he survived despite being gassed on one trip to the front. Arriving back in the States in the spring of 1919, he married Minnie Hill. They had a daughter (my Aunt Myldred) and my dad (Francis Beard Jr.).   I might have been seven or eight years old at the time, but I remember seeing my grandfather cry for the first time as he recalled the stench of death from decomposing bodies and body parts scattered from the explosions.   “The smell …,” he said, pausing. “I can close my eyes right now and I can smell death. You never forget it.”   Tears ran down his cheeks.   At Blanding during World War II he watched as thousands upon thousands of young men did their basic training before being shipped off to Europe. On that Fourth of July, he wondered out loud how many kids who had rushed through basic at Blanding never came home.   “I can’t imagine anything worse than war,” he said that Fourth of July. “But some things you have to fight for. This country is worth fighting for. If the country needed me, I’d sign up again.”   *** My father (Francis Beard Jr.) was a 16-year-old freshman at the University of Florida when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor. He continued to study at UF until he was 18 at which time he enlisted in the Navy. Boot camp was in Orlando. Because during high school he had worked for a pharmacist, he was assigned as a pharmacist mate/medic on the USS Chemung, a cimmarron class tanker that was launched in 1939 by Standard Oil. The Navy acquired the Chemung a few months before World War II broke out. From pre-war until the end, the Chemung was part of five Atlantic convoys to Europe and five to North Africa.   While my dad was on the Chemung, it was a gas station and hospital ship in the English Channel on D-Day. Landing craft would pull up to drop off wounded and take on more gas so they could ferry more troops to the Normandy beaches. He remembered body parts and dead bodies floating in the water. On the way back to Norfolk, the Chemung took a torpedo but because Mr. Rockefeller of Standard Oil double hulled his tankers, it didn’t sink. Back in Norfolk, my dad took the train back to Gainesville where he met my mother, Carleta Van Sickle, whose First Baptist Church Sunday School teacher was the lovely Minnie Hill Beard. He went back to Norfolk, did another convoy and upon returning to the States, took another train to Gainesville, this time where he married my mom in June of 1945. The honeymoon was short because the Chemung was ordered to the Pacific theater. They passed through the Panama Canal, steamed to Okinawa where were part of the occupation. In October they sailed back to the US, this time via Singapore and around the Horn of Africa. He left the Navy after the war, became an accountant and had two kids, my sister Donna and me. Francis and Carleta, June 1945 Back in the 1950s we lived in Sanford which had a major Naval Air Station. In our Lake Boulevard neighborhood, probably half the homes were occupied by pilots who flew A3D and A4J fighters. Most of my close friends at Lake Mary Elementary School were sons and daughters of pilots and mechanics who spent half the year on a carrier, half on dry land.   We had only three channels of television in those days, so entertainment was often in the form of entire families getting in the car to spend an evening at the house of friends. Sometimes three or four families got together. Inevitably, the men would sit around the table drinking coffee, smoking cigarettes and talking about World War II. The women would be off together. The boys would hang around the table where the men were so we could hear the stories about World War II.   Everybody had their own story, but I paid particular attention to those told by my father. He deeply admired the men who had served on destroyers, whose job it was to protect the convoys from marauding U-Boat wolfpacks. Although it had been years since it happened, my dad recalled the sweat that poured off him as he watched the torpedo speeding toward the hull of the Chemung.   “Men who cussed like sailors prayed out loud, asking God to forgive them,” my dad recalled. “We all knew we were going to die … then thud. Boom. It blew a hole in the first hull, but we didn’t sink because of the double hull.”   On another get together, this one at the home of some friends from our church, one of the men had survived D-Day. He talked about hitting the beach and seeing the German machine guns mow down wave after wave of Americans and yet, he, somehow, was spared.   “The Channel was red with blood,” he said. “People getting shot and blown to bits all around me. I guess I was lucky, but I feel guilty. Men much braver than I died.”   He cried that night. So did my dad and the other men at the table.   “Would you do it all again?” I remember my dad asking.   Everybody said yes and for the exact same reason: The United States is worth any sacrifice to live here. We don’t look for a fight, but we won’t back down from one because our country is worth it.   *** Dom and Carleta Underwood, circa 1990 My parents divorced in 1969. They both married again. My mom married a Marine and with him came my younger brother Gregory. They married July 1, 1972. Dom Underwood passed away back on November 20. Until the day he died, he greeted every fellow Marine with Semper Fi.   He was what they used to say in those recruiting commercials: The few, the proud, the Marines.   When I came back from teaching at a university in Korea in 1988, my stepfather had a medical condition that didn’t allow him to drive for a year, so I became the chauffer. We traveled nine states together. Quite often he would fly home on weekends while I stayed the weekend in a hotel. On those weekends I explored, learning that Ponca City, Oklahoma is not the end of the earth, but there are signs that will get you there in 20 minutes. I learned that when you cross the Colorado River in Austin you are in Bubbaland where you can tell if the food is any good by the number of pickup trucks parked outside the restaurants and honky tonks. By accident I discovered there was a 4-star Chinese restaurant in the French Quarter tucked away in a little alley off Bourbon Street.   During that year, Dom and I talked a lot about his three tours of Vietnam. He was in Da Nang when Tet broke out. “You never forget the sound of an incoming mortar,” he said of the attack on the Marine base. “I still hear them coming in my sleep.”  A couple of months later his tank battalion took part in Operation Pegasus when it broke through the siege of Khe Sanh.   When he returned from Vietnam to the United States, he remembered being spit on by Americans who screamed “baby killer” and harassed him and other Marines in the San Francisco airport.   “Were there mistakes made in Vietnam?” he asked me one day as we drove from Gainesville to Raleigh where he had appointments at Glaxo in the Research Triangle Park. Before I could answer, he said, “Sure. Plenty of them, but were we wrong in light of what happened after the war there and in Cambodia? I don’t think so. Our mistake was that we weren’t in it to win it. The lesson of Vietnam is don’t fight a war you don’t intend to win.”   I asked about all the dead and wounded of the Vietnam war and he grew quiet, took a couple of deep breaths, then replied, “We lost a lot of our best and brightest young people because we were there without a plan to win.”   Could we have won, I asked?   “If we had committed to winning? Yes. In about three months it would have been over,” he said. “Too much blood was shed because our leaders in America were all about prolonging the war to help the military-industrial complex. We kept the war going for years so the people who make money off war could make a profit.”   But would you do it all over again?   “Absolutely,” he said. “The thing that I love about America is our young people put their lives on the line for people and countries they don’t even know. We’ve always done it. We always will. That’s why we’re Americans.”   And that is why the Fourth of July is special to me. It is about American independence dating all the way back to 1776 when a ragtag army of volunteers beat the greatest army in the world. It is about all the men and women throughout our nearly 250 years of history who were willing to give their lives to preserve the freedoms of which no other country on earth can boast. It is about people who would do it all over again if that is what it took. I've traveled the world to 62 different countries and I've lived in several of them. Some of my friends say I'm the most obvious American wherever I've been. I love this country and I so appreciate what brave people have been doing since July 4, 1776 to make sure I live in freedom. Today, if you encounter someone who has served, take a moment and say thanks from the bottom of your heart.   Happy Fourth of July.

Tyreak Sapp was brilliant in Florida's 27-16 win over LSU last season (Photo by Chris Spears) A few thoughts to jump start your Wednesday morning:   In the early hours of Tuesday morning, the SEC Network aired Florida’s 27-16 win over LSU from last November. That was the Gators’ great awakening game. After beating LSU, which simultaneously knocked the Tigers from contention for the SEC Championship Game and the College Football Playoff, the Gators went on to win their next three games. In going 4-0 to finish the season at 8-5, Billy Napier went from the coach most likely to be working as someone’s analyst in 2025 to one with a team that legitimately has a shot at the College Football Playoff.   The win over LSU provided plenty of clues why the Gators of 2025 are going to be the real deal even with a schedule that on paper is as brutal as last year. Lest we forget, three of Florida’s five 2024 losses were against teams that made the College Football Playoff and the five teams that beat UF had a combined record of 52-17.   Here are a few clues:   1. Healthy DJ Lagway: Florida was leading Georgia when DJ went down with a hamstring injury. A lot of people with When he came back against LSU, he was only 80-85 percent according to Napier. People who know say his shoulder issues are behind him and he will be 100 percent to start the 2025 season. If he’s healthy, the Gators will have one of the top four quarterbacks in college football.   On Florida’s first scoring drive in the first quarter, Lagway made two NFL caliber throws. One was a 34-yard completion to Chimere Dike on third and seven. The coverage was tight but Lagway put the ball where only Dike could catch it. Two plays later he hooked up with Elijhah Badger at the LSU one, another perfectly thrown ball that Badger caught and turned into the game’s opening TD. In the fourth quarter, Lagway and Badger hooked up on a 36-yard pass that led to the go-ahead TD. Again, the coverage was tight but Lagway made the kind of throw that you expect of NFL quarterbacks, not an 18-year-old college freshman.   LSU did its best to confuse Lagway and only a couple of times did he seem to be a lost ball in the tall grass. On 95 percent of the plays, Lagway made the right read or was poised enough to move in the pocket while avoiding the rush to find a passing lane. There is a reason most freshman quarterbacks struggle and this is it. Pocket presence is everything. The feet have to move instinctively to open lanes while keeping the head up and looking downfield. It is a skill that most college quarterbacks take two or three years to master.   2. The O-line: LSU did not sack Lagway the entire game despite resorting to exotic blitz packages on most pass plays in the second half. Lagway is to be praised for his pocket presence, but the O-line was absolutely in a zone from start to finish. The play that best illustrates what the O-line could do was the  55-yard touchdown run by Jadan Baugh that put the game away with 3:48 to go. On the play, left tackle Austin Barber gets out quickly to take out the edge. This clears the way for tight end Hayden Hansen to get a free lane to the safety.  Left guard Knijeah Harris pulls, gets to the second level and takes out a linebacker. Center Jake Slaughter keeps the running lane clear by taking out the nose tackle. Over on the right side, Bryce Lovett, in at right guard, seals off the tackle. Baugh only had one man to beat, which he did easily on his sprint to the end zone.   Florida averaged 6.6 yards per running play against the Tigers. Lagway averaged 8.7 yards per pass attempt.   Barber, Harris and Slaughter (first team All-America) are back intact for 2025. Lovett has moved out to right tackle where he had an impressive spring. Damieon George Jr. had a good game at right guard and finished the season one of the top ranked run-blocking guards in the country. Florida’s five O-linemen might be as good or better than any O-line in the country.   3. The pass rush was relentless: Coming into the game, LSU’s offensive line was touted as the best in the country. The Tigers had given up only six sacks all season when the Gators spent the day harassing Garrett Nussmeier. Nussmeier went down six times for 44 yards in losses. Officially, the Gators were credited with six quarterback hurries but Nussmeier was rattled into at least five bad throws because he was seeing ghosts.   That’s what the creeper defense is supposed to do. When executed properly, it makes opposing quarterbacks see pass rushers who aren’t there while pressure comes from blind sides. When Ron Roberts went to the booth and replaced Austin Armstrong as the defensive play caller, the Florida defense suddenly got so much better. LSU was the game when it all came together.   In this game, Caleb Banks had a sack, two forced fumbles and three quarterback hurries. He could have gone to the NFL, but chose to come back. With the kind of pressure he can provide from a had in the dirt position, it opens things up for speed rushers like George Gumbs and Tyreak Sapp.   During the LSU game, Roberts kept moving Gumbs and Sapp all over the place. Gumbs wound up with a sack in which he ran down Nussmeier at the sideline after a 15-yard sprint through traffic. Sapp had four tackles for loss and a sack, which came when he lined up over the left guard.   Florida’s pressure allowed the secondary to get the job done against one of the fastest receiveing corps in the country. LSU averaged only 5.5 yards per pass attempt. Anything less than 6.5 per attempt is outstanding.   Nineteen of Florida’s 39 sacks came in the final four games. The Gators improved by 17 sacks over the 2023 season.   The LSU game was just the start of an impressive finish to 2024. Florida has the pieces returning and some new young talent to win a lot of football games in 2025. Can the Gators challenge for the SEC championship and make the playoff?   A year ago that answer would have been no. This year? It’s entirely possible.   ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT   The late, great Bill Veeck, who at one time or another owned the St. Louis Browns, Cleveland Indians and Chicago White Sox, once said, “I don’t mind the high price of stardom. I just don’t like the high price of mediocrity.”   As much as he didn’t mind paying his stars, I think even Bill Veeck would have grabbed his chest and hollered, “It’s the big one!” had he seen the contract extension Shai Gilgeous-Alexander just signed with the Oklahoma City Thunder. He signed on for four more years for a mere $285 million. If we go simply by regular season games, that’s  roughly $868,902.44 per game. Figure that’s $48 per fan if he plays every single regular season game and the crowds average 18,000.   Nice work if you can get it. SGA is a star and after a season in which he was the NBA scoring leader, regular season MVP and MVP of the playoffs, the Thunder think he’s worth the investment. The NBA will have a salary cap of a little more than $154 million per team next year, so SGA will eat up half the salary cap of the Thunder. In the NBA a team is allowed to have 15 players under contract and another three on 2-way contracts (NBA/G-League), so even the guys who ride the pine are rather well paid. For a 2024-25 rookie, minimum wage was $1,157,153.   Former Gator Tre Mann, who spent most of the past season injured, just signed on for three more years with the Charlotte Hornets for $24 million. Former Gator Dorian Finney-Smith left the Lakers for a 4-year, $53 million deal with the Houston Rockets. Toronto just extended the contract of center Jakob Poeltl, who averaged 14.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game. He gets $104 million over the next four years. Not bad for someone who only an NBA diehard or a Toronto Ruptures fan knows.   The NFL has a salary cap of $279.2 million for 2025. That is spread among 53 roster players during the course of the season, so the average player makes $5,264,154.72. An undrafted rookie has a minimum wage of $600,000. The stars get paid very well, but so do the scrubeenies. Additionally, each team can carry 16 practice squad players who can be elevated to the 53-man roster in the event of an injury. They make $13,000 a week, so a player who stays on the practice squad for the 17-game regular season makes $221,000.     There is no salary cap in baseball although teams that exceed $241 million in salaries. The New York Yankees have a $289.3 million payroll for 2025. The Yankees are allowed to carry 26 on their roster until September 1 when they can expand to 28. Minimum wage for a rookie is $760,000. Obviously, the stars make much more than that. Shohei Ohtani of the Los Angeles Lakers signed a 10-year deal worth $700 million. He’s going to squeeze by on $2 million a year and take the rest after his contract expires. The Mets pay Juan Soto $765 million over 15 years. Aaron Judge of the Yankees is a relative bargain at $40 million a year.   The stars in the three major professional sports are very well paid. Bill Veeck always knew that it’s the stars who bring people to the stadiums, so while his mouth might go dry at the high price of an SGA or Patrick Mahomes or Juan Soto, he would understand that it’s the cost of doing business. What would cause him to stagger, clutch his chest and proclaim readiness to meet his maker is the price you have to pay for the guys who ride the pine or the starting second baseman who hits .233 and regularly whiffs or hits into an inning-ending double play with runners in scoring position.   I had a conversation with a friend of mine Tuesday afternoon. He complained that he can’t afford to take his wife and kids to see the Orlando Magic play anymore. “We used to be season ticket holders but no more,” he told me. “Now we might get to four or five games a year. Tickets, parking … have you seen the cost of a skinny weenie and a beer these days? You could feed a family of eight in Nicaragua for a month for what it costs a family of four to go to a game by the time you pay for everything.”   My friend wondered out loud where it will all end. “If you keep paying people these outrageous salaries and keep raising the prices, at some point people won’t come to the games anymore. When that happens do you think some team will go bankrupt?”   Nope and here’s why. The people who own the teams are typically worth billions. They don’t mind if their team loses money because it’s a tax writeoff and if they run into hard times, they can always sell the team for a profit. The late Jerry Buss, for example, bought the Los Angeles Lakers for $67.5 million in 1979. His daughter, who inherited the team when he died, is finalizing a deal to sell the Lakers for $10 billion.   The new owner will pay his stars top dollar. That’s what you do when you have a legendary NBA franchise that hasn’t won a championship in five years. He will pay and so will everyone else who is trying to keep up with him. The stars will make even more money and the guys who sit the bench will get paid a ton.   Somewhere in heaven Bill Veeck and Red Foxx are clutching their chests.

Walter Clayton Jr. (1) was introduced to fans in Salt Lake City Sunday (Photo by Chris Spears) At a press conference in which he and fellow Utah Jazz draftees were introduced Sunday, a local reporter suggested the new nickname “Walt Lake City.” Responding modestly, Walter Clayton Jr. answered, “We’ve got a little bit more work to put in before we start that.”   The answer was typical Walt. When singled out for high praise, it’s almost always an aw shucks response. Clayton has a game made for life in the big cities that make up the NBA but a personality better suited for home town Lake Wales. How about Walt Lake Wales? He would much rather talk about the team and how it takes everyone from the head coach all the way down to the manager handing out clean, dry towels to win basketball games.   It isn’t false modesty. That’s just the way Walter Clayton Jr. is off the court. Off the court he seems uncomfortable being the center of attention. On the court he’s a baby faced assassin whose legendary 3-pointers have the effect of an 11-inch stiletto plunged over and again in the heart.  Just ask Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee, who he beat up in the SEC Tournament in Nashville. Just ask UConn, Texas Tech and Auburn, who he burned at the stake with one bomb after another from behind the arc.   Or Houston, whose championship dreams he put to rest with a brilliant defensive play as the final seconds ticked off the Alamodome clock in San Antonio. Whenever big plays are needed to effect the outcome of a game, Walter Clayton Jr. delivers. As modest as he seems off the court, on the court he plays with supreme confidence.   If there is one player taken in the first round of the NBA Draft who doesn’t doubt for even a nanosecond his own abilities, it is Walter Clayton Jr. Supreme self-confidence probably doesn’t do him justice. There is this old adage about shooters that in their mind the only bad shot is the one they didn’t take. Walt truly believes every shot he takes is going in.   Unlike some unconscious gunners, Walter Clayton Jr. seems to know when to take a shot and when to give the ball up to someone else. That’s one of the reasons the Utah Jazz took him with the 18th pick in the first round of last Wednesday’s NBA Draft.   Wrote Adam Finkelstein of CBS Sports, who gave the Jazz an A- grade for trading up with the Washington Wizards to take Clayton at No. 18 in the first round: “ He is an elite shooter. When you're talking about perimeter role players in the NBA, that's the most important criteria. He is one of the very best shooters in this draft and has the versatility to play both on and off the ball. He has the body type to defend and the physical strength to be a more competitive defender in the NBA than what we saw for most of his college career. ”   In handing out post-draft grades, Cameron Salerno of CBS Sports wrote, “As for Walter Clayton Jr., I couldn't love the potential fit more. There is some concern about the log jam of young talent Utah has, but Clayton is a plug-and-play scorer at the next level. The Jazz walked away with an upside swing and the best guard in college basketball. Not bad. ”   Calling Clayton the best guard in college basketball isn’t a reach on the part of Salerno. Clayton proved it in leading the Gators to 12 straight wins at the end of the season – the  three final regular season games that earned the Gators the No. 2 overall seed in the SEC Tournament, three at the SEC Tournament in Nashville (Missouri, Alabama and Tennessee) and six in the NCAA Tournament (Norfolk State, UConn, Maryland, Texas Tech, Auburn and Houston) .   At the outset of the SEC Tournament, Clayton was considered a very late NBA first round/early second round prospect. As he led the Gators to come from behind wins over UConn (NCAA second round), Texas Tech (Elite Eight), Auburn (semifinals) and Houston (championship game) Clayton made it next to impossible for the NBA to avoid taking him in the first round.   Prior to the Wednesday draft, many experts had Clayton going in the bottom fourth of the first round, most likely to the Orlando Magic, but on draft night Utah didn’t want to wait around three places to see if Walt would still be there. So they made a trade with Washington to move up from No. 21 to No. 18 to take Clayton.   Wrote Sam Vecenie of The Athletic, “Utah likely felt like it had to jump the Heat at No. 20 for Clayton after rumors swirled that Miami was interested in him. Clayton was lethal at Florida as the Gators won the 2025 national title. He’s an underrated athlete in terms of explosiveness and balance.”    When taken by Utah on Wednesday, it seemed that Clayton was joining a crowded backcourt, but the Jazz showed just how much confidence they have in their rookie Sunday by trading starting point guard Collin Sexton and a second round pick in the 2030 draft to the Charlotte Hornets in exchange for center Jusuf Nurkic. Sexton averaged 18.4 points and 4.2 assists per game last season. Nurkic, a 7-0, 260-pound 10-year NBA veteran, averaged 8.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. He is expected to be the primary backup for 7-1 Walker Kessler, who averaged 11.1 points and 12.2 rebounds per game.   Sexton is probably just the first move to clear space in the Jazz backcourt. Almost certain to be shipped out is Jordan Clarkson, an 11-year vet who played only 37 games in an injury-filled season. Likely on the block is Isaiah Collier, who spent most of his rookie season coming off the bench as the backup to Sexton and Clarkson.   With Sexton gone, the Jazz expect to turn the reins of the offense over to Clayton, who averaged 18.3 points, 3.7 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game for the NCAA champion Gators. In the nine games of the SEC and NCAA tournaments, Clayton was the Most Outstanding Player at each level as he averaged 20.1 points, 3.4 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game. During that 9-game stretch, Clayton hit 33-72 of his 3-pointers, 45.8 percent.