By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
TRINITY TO THE RESCUE
It is almost as if Trinity Thomas can will the Gators to victory. Case in point the NCAA semifinals in Fort Worth Thursday night. After the Gators had to eat three sub-9.80 scores on vault for a 49.2375 team total, which left UF in third place in the evening rotation, Thomas almost took over the entire meet. Auburn was killing it on floor and beam and Michigan got off to a 49.4875 on floor but Thomas got a rally started with a nearly flawless 9.975 on bars and this was after waiting a 10-minute delay while a faulty bars apparatus was fixed.
The big score by Thomas, which earned her the national championship on bars, boosted the Gators to a 49.475, which still left them solidly behind Auburn, 99.050-98.7125. Florida picked up percentage points on the balance beam with Thomas scoring a 9.9375 aided by a 9.9125 by Megan Skaggs and 9.900s by Sloan Blakely and Leah Clapper. Auburn, meanwhile, stumbled a bit on vault – 49.350 – but still led 148.400-148.225 heading into the last event.
Auburn scored well on bars – 49.4375 – but with Thomas scoring her 11th perfect 10 of the season and fifth since the NCAA Championships began with regional action, the Gators made a statement with a 49.750, the best score on any rotation in either the afternoon or evening as the Gators won the semifinal 197.9750-197.8375 over Auburn.
The perfect 10 gave Thomas both the floor and NCAA all-around championships. Her 38.8125 easily outdistanced Auburn’s Sunisa Lee, who finished with a 39.675. Skaggs finished third in the all-around at 39.6625 and Leanne Wong finished fourth at 39.625.
Both Florida and Auburn advanced to Saturday’s NCAA championships where they will face off with Oklahoma and Utah. This is the 18th time the Gators have advanced to the NCAA team final. Florida won the NCAA championship in 2013-14-15.
ORANGE AND BLUE SUPERLATIVES
Billy Napier on why the Blue team won 34-0
“The Orange team turned the ball over, right? The Orange team had more penalties, right? The Blue team took care of the ball and played with poise and discipline. We're going to look at this tape and it's going to be a microcosm of every football game we play next fall. So you've got to take care of the ball and you've got to play the situations really well. Fundamentally you've got to be sound in what you do. Blue team made some explosive plays. They were aggressive, and they finished possessions, which the Orange team didn't. We missed a field goal and then a turnover in the red area. So that game's different if the Orange team executes and scores touchdowns in the red area, doesn't turn the ball over. These are simple things, but they're hard to do consistently."
Individual stats
Anthony Richardson: 18-24 passing for 207 yards and two touchdowns; 6-22 rushing for one TD.
Montrell Johnson: 15-62 rushing for one TD; 1-2 receiving
Dante Zanders: 5-56 receiving
Noah Keeter: 3-53 receiving
Demarkcus Bowman: 17-61 rushing; 4-18 receiving
Ja’Quavion Fraziars: 5-53 receiving
Trent Whittemore: 3-36 receiving
Keon Zipperer: 2-33 receiving
Justin Shorter: 3-27 receiving
Jack Miller III: 13-23, 121 passing, 1 interception
Amari Burney: 11 tackles, 1 pass breakup
Ventrell Miller: 7 tackles, 1 sack
Trey Dean III: 5 tackles
Mordecai McDaniel: 8 tackles
Jalen Kimber: 6 tackles, 1 interception, 2 pass breakups
Jordan Young: 6 tackles
Diwun Black: 3 tackles, 2 pass breakups
Billy Napier on Richardson: “He’s a product of his work. He’s learning a new system. Standing behind him back there, it wasn’t too big for him. He communicated well and the ball went where it was supposed to go.”
Billy Napier on Zanders: “I mean he’s been the story of the spring … I mean the guy’s 6-5 ¼, he’s 260 pounds, he’s loose, he can transition, he’s got good ball skills … I mean he’s a God-send. Not only did he make the move [from D-line to tight end], that guy running out there is going to make a lot of plays for us.”
Montrell Johnson on SEC speed: “Like I said, I was very under recruited guy. I feel like I can play with those guys. I’m gonna say it felt the same as the Sun Belt. It’s a difference but I felt very comfortable out there. Very confident. I’m gonna keep grinding and getting better.”
Noah Keeter on the transition from linebacker to tight end: "Honestly I thought it would be a lot harder, but I was lucky. I transitioned before spring break, so over spring break I was able to study the whole break and kind of figure out the offense on my own. And I've been meeting with coach Darlington and coach Peagler pretty much every day trying to figure it out. It's definitely tight end heavy. We're pretty much run through the tight end, so you've got to know pass plays, pass combos and run combos with blocking, but I've been able to pick it up pretty fast."
Billy Napier on Diwun Black: “Even when he’s wrong a little bit, he can make it right and oftentimes makes plays. He is productive on a consistent basis … During Identity Program I wrote his name down multiple days where he’s probably the gold standard when it came to effort in the program. The guy’s bought in.”
UF BASEBALL: GATORS FACE VANDY IN NASHVILLE
The Gators (21-12, 5-7 SEC) will try to climb back above .500 in SEC play tonight when they square off with Vanderbilt (23-9, 5-7 SEC) in Nashville. The two teams are tied not only in the SEC East standings but also for 17th nationally in the USA Today Coaches Top 25 Poll.
Florida has won five of the previous six series with the Commodores. The last time the Gators lost a weekend series to Vandy was 2018 when the Commodores got a sweep.
The Gators will send lefty ace Hunter Barco to the mount to face Vanderbilt right hander Chris McElvain (4-2, 3.59 ERA).
UF SOFTBALL: GATORS 7, OLE MISS 4
Kendra Falby and Skylar Wallace each delivered a 2-run double in the top of the fifth inning Thursday night in Oxford, highlighting a 5-run explosion that helped the Gators (32-9, 9-7 SEC) take a 7-4 win over Ole Miss (29-12, 5-8 SEC) in the first game of the 3-game series.
The Gators scored their runs in bunches. In the third inning, Charla Echols broke open a scoreless game with a two-run double that drove home Falby and Wallace, then in the fifth, the Gators pushed five runs across for a 7-0 lead. The Rebels rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth off Elizabeth Hightower (11-4, 2.78 ERA), but Natalie Lugo came on to pitch the seventh to pick up her second save of the season.
Wallace raised her batting average to .442 with a 3-hit night. She also added her SEC-leading 35th stolen base. Falby, Echols and Katie Kistler each had two hits.
The Gators will face Ole Miss at 2 p.m. today. The game was moved up to early afternoon because of inclement weather expected in Oxford later in the day.
UF WOMEN’S GOLF: GATORS IN FOURTH AT SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 10th-ranked Gators were +11 for the day Thursday in Birmingham as they dropped two spots to fourth place through two days of the SEC Women’s Golf Championships. The Gators are 12-over for the tournament, exactly 12 shots behind 20th-ranked Auburn, 11 behind 3rd-ranked South Carolina and eight behind 14th-ranked LSU.
Marina Escobar Dominga, who had an opening round 67, was 6-over Thursday but she continues to be Florida’s low scorer at 145. Maise Fuller shot even par 72 for Florida’s low score of the day.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Arkansas: Stanley Umude, second on the team in scoring at 11.9 and a 37.1 percent 3-point shooter, is hiring an agent and declaring for the NBA.
Georgia: Tight end Brock Bowers, who made All-America last year as a true freshman, has landed a hefty NIL deal with Zaxby’s.
LSU: Tight end Nick Stortz, who medically retired from football during the 2021 season, is apparently healthy again because he’s back on the roster.
Missouri: New basketball coach Dennis Gates has hired Dickey Nutt, brother of former Arkansas and Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt, as an assistant coach. Nutt had a 279-304 record as a head coach at Arkansas State and Southeast Missouri State.
South Carolina: Tim Buckley, who spent the last three years as an assistant at UNLV, has completed the staff for new South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Nobody is going to rank the Florida Gators in their all-too-early top 25s, at least not until Billy Napier does his roster makeover in the next couple of weeks. There is every good chance 15-20 players are currently listed on the Florida roster won’t be here in a couple of weeks. Some of them have already seen the light and they will be hellbent to get their names in the NCAA transfer portal even before they schedule their exit interview with Napier. Others will go into that meeting hoping and praying they don’t hear these words: “You are never going to see the field here at Florida. Perhaps you should think about putting your name in the portal.”
No kid wants to hear those words, but this is the college football world in which we are living and it’s not going to change. Now that players have their free agency, they aren’t going to give it up. There should be some tweaks made to the process for sure. I’ve advocated several times that for a kid should not be granted immediate eligibility when he transfers unless he has a 2.5 GPA. That’s not that difficult to achieve. Secondly, a kid should not be allowed immediate eligibility if he is under suspension when he enters the portal. Finally, a true freshman should have to spend one year on campus before he is allowed to transfer. That prevents an impetuous, spur of the moment decision based more on anger or upset than common sense.
Those changes won’t prevent anyone from transferring out, but they might slow down the flow even by a slight trickle and that’s something we need.
We also need some way to reel in NIL. I’m not advocating eliminating it completely because that just isn’t going to happen, but we need some rules, regulations, guidelines and structure to it because kids are using the portal to shop for NIL deals. That in itself isn’t a terrible idea, but people who have far more insight into this than I say kids are creating NIL inflation by not being truthful about NIL deals. Do we need some sort of registry so there can be a record of NIL deals? That’s a bit drastic but how else are we going to stop kids from gaming the system by lying about NIL deals they may or may not have received?
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
TRINITY TO THE RESCUE
It is almost as if Trinity Thomas can will the Gators to victory. Case in point the NCAA semifinals in Fort Worth Thursday night. After the Gators had to eat three sub-9.80 scores on vault for a 49.2375 team total, which left UF in third place in the evening rotation, Thomas almost took over the entire meet. Auburn was killing it on floor and beam and Michigan got off to a 49.4875 on floor but Thomas got a rally started with a nearly flawless 9.975 on bars and this was after waiting a 10-minute delay while a faulty bars apparatus was fixed.
The big score by Thomas, which earned her the national championship on bars, boosted the Gators to a 49.475, which still left them solidly behind Auburn, 99.050-98.7125. Florida picked up percentage points on the balance beam with Thomas scoring a 9.9375 aided by a 9.9125 by Megan Skaggs and 9.900s by Sloan Blakely and Leah Clapper. Auburn, meanwhile, stumbled a bit on vault – 49.350 – but still led 148.400-148.225 heading into the last event.
Auburn scored well on bars – 49.4375 – but with Thomas scoring her 11th perfect 10 of the season and fifth since the NCAA Championships began with regional action, the Gators made a statement with a 49.750, the best score on any rotation in either the afternoon or evening as the Gators won the semifinal 197.9750-197.8375 over Auburn.
The perfect 10 gave Thomas both the floor and NCAA all-around championships. Her 38.8125 easily outdistanced Auburn’s Sunisa Lee, who finished with a 39.675. Skaggs finished third in the all-around at 39.6625 and Leanne Wong finished fourth at 39.625.
Both Florida and Auburn advanced to Saturday’s NCAA championships where they will face off with Oklahoma and Utah. This is the 18th time the Gators have advanced to the NCAA team final. Florida won the NCAA championship in 2013-14-15.
ORANGE AND BLUE SUPERLATIVES
Billy Napier on why the Blue team won 34-0
“The Orange team turned the ball over, right? The Orange team had more penalties, right? The Blue team took care of the ball and played with poise and discipline. We're going to look at this tape and it's going to be a microcosm of every football game we play next fall. So you've got to take care of the ball and you've got to play the situations really well. Fundamentally you've got to be sound in what you do. Blue team made some explosive plays. They were aggressive, and they finished possessions, which the Orange team didn't. We missed a field goal and then a turnover in the red area. So that game's different if the Orange team executes and scores touchdowns in the red area, doesn't turn the ball over. These are simple things, but they're hard to do consistently."
Individual stats
Anthony Richardson: 18-24 passing for 207 yards and two touchdowns; 6-22 rushing for one TD.
Montrell Johnson: 15-62 rushing for one TD; 1-2 receiving
Dante Zanders: 5-56 receiving
Noah Keeter: 3-53 receiving
Demarkcus Bowman: 17-61 rushing; 4-18 receiving
Ja’Quavion Fraziars: 5-53 receiving
Trent Whittemore: 3-36 receiving
Keon Zipperer: 2-33 receiving
Justin Shorter: 3-27 receiving
Jack Miller III: 13-23, 121 passing, 1 interception
Amari Burney: 11 tackles, 1 pass breakup
Ventrell Miller: 7 tackles, 1 sack
Trey Dean III: 5 tackles
Mordecai McDaniel: 8 tackles
Jalen Kimber: 6 tackles, 1 interception, 2 pass breakups
Jordan Young: 6 tackles
Diwun Black: 3 tackles, 2 pass breakups
Billy Napier on Richardson: “He’s a product of his work. He’s learning a new system. Standing behind him back there, it wasn’t too big for him. He communicated well and the ball went where it was supposed to go.”
Billy Napier on Zanders: “I mean he’s been the story of the spring … I mean the guy’s 6-5 ¼, he’s 260 pounds, he’s loose, he can transition, he’s got good ball skills … I mean he’s a God-send. Not only did he make the move [from D-line to tight end], that guy running out there is going to make a lot of plays for us.”
Montrell Johnson on SEC speed: “Like I said, I was very under recruited guy. I feel like I can play with those guys. I’m gonna say it felt the same as the Sun Belt. It’s a difference but I felt very comfortable out there. Very confident. I’m gonna keep grinding and getting better.”
Noah Keeter on the transition from linebacker to tight end: "Honestly I thought it would be a lot harder, but I was lucky. I transitioned before spring break, so over spring break I was able to study the whole break and kind of figure out the offense on my own. And I've been meeting with coach Darlington and coach Peagler pretty much every day trying to figure it out. It's definitely tight end heavy. We're pretty much run through the tight end, so you've got to know pass plays, pass combos and run combos with blocking, but I've been able to pick it up pretty fast."
Billy Napier on Diwun Black: “Even when he’s wrong a little bit, he can make it right and oftentimes makes plays. He is productive on a consistent basis … During Identity Program I wrote his name down multiple days where he’s probably the gold standard when it came to effort in the program. The guy’s bought in.”
UF BASEBALL: GATORS FACE VANDY IN NASHVILLE
The Gators (21-12, 5-7 SEC) will try to climb back above .500 in SEC play tonight when they square off with Vanderbilt (23-9, 5-7 SEC) in Nashville. The two teams are tied not only in the SEC East standings but also for 17th nationally in the USA Today Coaches Top 25 Poll.
Florida has won five of the previous six series with the Commodores. The last time the Gators lost a weekend series to Vandy was 2018 when the Commodores got a sweep.
The Gators will send lefty ace Hunter Barco to the mount to face Vanderbilt right hander Chris McElvain (4-2, 3.59 ERA).
UF SOFTBALL: GATORS 7, OLE MISS 4
Kendra Falby and Skylar Wallace each delivered a 2-run double in the top of the fifth inning Thursday night in Oxford, highlighting a 5-run explosion that helped the Gators (32-9, 9-7 SEC) take a 7-4 win over Ole Miss (29-12, 5-8 SEC) in the first game of the 3-game series.
The Gators scored their runs in bunches. In the third inning, Charla Echols broke open a scoreless game with a two-run double that drove home Falby and Wallace, then in the fifth, the Gators pushed five runs across for a 7-0 lead. The Rebels rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth off Elizabeth Hightower (11-4, 2.78 ERA), but Natalie Lugo came on to pitch the seventh to pick up her second save of the season.
Wallace raised her batting average to .442 with a 3-hit night. She also added her SEC-leading 35th stolen base. Falby, Echols and Katie Kistler each had two hits.
The Gators will face Ole Miss at 2 p.m. today. The game was moved up to early afternoon because of inclement weather expected in Oxford later in the day.
UF WOMEN’S GOLF: GATORS IN FOURTH AT SEC CHAMPIONSHIPS
The 10th-ranked Gators were +11 for the day Thursday in Birmingham as they dropped two spots to fourth place through two days of the SEC Women’s Golf Championships. The Gators are 12-over for the tournament, exactly 12 shots behind 20th-ranked Auburn, 11 behind 3rd-ranked South Carolina and eight behind 14th-ranked LSU.
Marina Escobar Dominga, who had an opening round 67, was 6-over Thursday but she continues to be Florida’s low scorer at 145. Maise Fuller shot even par 72 for Florida’s low score of the day.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Arkansas: Stanley Umude, second on the team in scoring at 11.9 and a 37.1 percent 3-point shooter, is hiring an agent and declaring for the NBA.
Georgia: Tight end Brock Bowers, who made All-America last year as a true freshman, has landed a hefty NIL deal with Zaxby’s.
LSU: Tight end Nick Stortz, who medically retired from football during the 2021 season, is apparently healthy again because he’s back on the roster.
Missouri: New basketball coach Dennis Gates has hired Dickey Nutt, brother of former Arkansas and Ole Miss coach Houston Nutt, as an assistant coach. Nutt had a 279-304 record as a head coach at Arkansas State and Southeast Missouri State.
South Carolina: Tim Buckley, who spent the last three years as an assistant at UNLV, has completed the staff for new South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Nobody is going to rank the Florida Gators in their all-too-early top 25s, at least not until Billy Napier does his roster makeover in the next couple of weeks. There is every good chance 15-20 players are currently listed on the Florida roster won’t be here in a couple of weeks. Some of them have already seen the light and they will be hellbent to get their names in the NCAA transfer portal even before they schedule their exit interview with Napier. Others will go into that meeting hoping and praying they don’t hear these words: “You are never going to see the field here at Florida. Perhaps you should think about putting your name in the portal.”
No kid wants to hear those words, but this is the college football world in which we are living and it’s not going to change. Now that players have their free agency, they aren’t going to give it up. There should be some tweaks made to the process for sure. I’ve advocated several times that for a kid should not be granted immediate eligibility when he transfers unless he has a 2.5 GPA. That’s not that difficult to achieve. Secondly, a kid should not be allowed immediate eligibility if he is under suspension when he enters the portal. Finally, a true freshman should have to spend one year on campus before he is allowed to transfer. That prevents an impetuous, spur of the moment decision based more on anger or upset than common sense.
Those changes won’t prevent anyone from transferring out, but they might slow down the flow even by a slight trickle and that’s something we need.
We also need some way to reel in NIL. I’m not advocating eliminating it completely because that just isn’t going to happen, but we need some rules, regulations, guidelines and structure to it because kids are using the portal to shop for NIL deals. That in itself isn’t a terrible idea, but people who have far more insight into this than I say kids are creating NIL inflation by not being truthful about NIL deals. Do we need some sort of registry so there can be a record of NIL deals? That’s a bit drastic but how else are we going to stop kids from gaming the system by lying about NIL deals they may or may not have received?
