By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:
CAMP NAPIER: WINDING DOWN THE SPRING
The Gators held their second spring scrimmage in gusting winds at The Swamp Saturday morning. In many ways it was a two steps forward, one step backward day because Billy Napier liked the energy, the effort and the physicality but there was a plague of penalties, which obviously irked the head coach, particularly since the Gators had a nearly penalty-free scrimmage a week earlier.
“I think the first way you win is you don’t beat yourself,” Napier said, later pointing out that the Gators finished among the nation’s worst (119th) in penalties. “You completely control the things that have nothing to do with the opponent. We’re talking about undisciplined penalties, we’re talking about taking care of the ball, we’re talking about mental errors. From a coaching perspective, we’re talking about positioning the players to have success, having a really sound concept, making sure that when we watch the tape we have the answers to the test. That’s where you start when you’re building a football team. We’ve always taken great pride in not giving the other team anything. They’ve got to earn every single thing that they get. When you talk about penalties, typically, you’re going to have some technical fouls in a game but the undisciplined ones, you want to eliminate completely. We had too many today. Our goal is to play and be under one penalty in every 30 plays. I can probably say that typically in the past we’ve done that.”
RICHARD TRANSFERS IN, FUDGE MAY COMMIT
Todd Golden’s roster re-make has begun with the commitment of former Belmont combo guard Will Richard (6-5, 190), who averaged 12 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game last year. Richard has three years of eligibility remaining.
The Gators may be in line for a commitment from Alex Fudge (6-8, 190), who spent his freshman year at LSU but prepped at Robert E. Lee in Jacksonville. Fudge could be committing as early as today. The Gators are also in very good shape with Terry Roberts (6-3, 200, from Bradley), Johni Broome (6-10, 240, from Morehead State and from Tampa Catholic) and Noah Carter (6-6, 230, from Northern Iowa).
UF BASEBALL: GATORS TAKE SERIES WITH NO. 2 ARKANSAS
Kevin O’Sullivan still has to figure out middle relief and find a third starter, but the Gators (21-11, 5-7 SEC) put enough pitching together over the weekend to take two out of three from 2nd-ranked Arkansas (23-7, 8-4 SEC) to prove better times might be ahead. The Gators have two solid starters in Hunter Barco (5-2, 2.23 ERA) and Brandon Sproat (4-3, 4.23 ERA) plus an emerging closer in Blake Purnell (3-2, 1.19 ERA, 3 saves). When O’Sullivan finds a third weekend starter and middle relief that can combine to give 3-4 innings per game, he will have the pitching it’s going to take to move up in the SEC standings. Currently, Florida is three full games behind second place Georgia (8-4 SEC), seven behind first place Tennessee (12-0).
After struggling Thursday night against Arkansas ace Connor Noland, the Gators lit up the next two starters they saw. Florida is going to hit and hit with power. The Gators currently rank second in the SEC and fifth nationally in home runs (61). Jud Fabian (13) is tied for the SEC lead and tied for second nationally in home runs and Wyatt Langford (12) is tied for fifth.
The Gators will face Florida State Tuesday night in Tallahassee and will be off to Nashville to face Vanderbilt (22-9, 5-7 SEC) for an SEC series starting Friday.
UF MEN’S TENNIS WINS SEC CHAMPIONSHIP
With their 6-1 win over 27th-ranked Auburn (17-7, 5-5 SEC) Sunday afternoon, the No. 1-ranked Gators (19-2, 11-0 SEC) won their third consecutive Southeastern Conference championship and the third team championship (gymnastics, men’s swimming are the others) this year. Florida has won at least one SEC title for 44 consecutive years, the longest streak in the conference. Florida’s 254 SEC championships are by far the most in league history.
On Friday, the Gators took out Alabama (7-18, 0-10 SEC) in Tuscaloosa, 6-1.
The Gators have won 14 consecutive matches. They close out the regular season next Sunday when they host Texas A&M (20-10, 7-3 SEC).
UF SOFTBALL: GATORS DROP TWO TO ALABAMA
Bailey Dowling hit a 9th-inning home run off Natalie Lugo to lead 5th-ranked Alabama (33-5, 10-4 SEC) to a 2-1 win over the 8th-ranked Gators (30-9, 7-7 SEC), wasting a brilliant effort by freshman Lexie Delbrey, who gave up only two hits and one run in six innings. The win assured Alabama of winning the weekend series. The two teams face off this evening (7 p.m., SEC Network) at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium.
Delbrey held Alabama hitless for five innings before yielding a pair of hits and a single run in the top of the sixth. In the bottom half of the inning, Skylar Wallace hit her fifth homer of the season to center field to tie the game. Cheyenne Lindsey singled to lead off the bottom of the seventh, advancing to third on a pair of groundouts but the Gators couldn’t get her home with the game-winner.
Lugo (7-4, 1.80 ERA) pitched scoreless seventh and eighth innings in relief of Delbrey but Dowling led off the ninth with the home run.
Other spring sports: The 15th-ranked Gators (17-5, 9-3 SEC) saw their 9-match winning streak ended by 13th-ranked Auburn (18-4, 9-2 SEC) Sunday afternoon, 6-1. The loss drops the Gators into fourth place in the SEC women’s tennis standings. On Friday, the Gators blanked Alabama (14-9, 4-7 SEC), 4-0. The Gators will end the regular season next Saturday at home against South Carolina (13-8, 8-4 SEC) … The 10th-ranked Gators (9-4, 2-0 AAC) blasted Old Dominion, 22-6, Saturday to improve to 2-0 in American Athletic Conference lacrosse play. Freshman Emily LoPinto had four goals as 14 different Gators scored. The Gators go on the road to face Vanderbilt in an AAC game next Saturday.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Alabama: Keon Ellis, who led Alabama in rebounding and made the All-SEC Defensive team, is headed to the NBA Draft … Nick Saban was upset with too many penalties and turnovers in Saturday’s second scrimmage of the spring.
Arkansas: Chris Lykes, who is generously listed at 5-7, has declared for the NBA Draft, which raises one question and one question only: why?
Auburn: The Tigers’ defensive front looked to be the weak link in Saturday’s A-Day spring game.
Georgia: The Bulldogs are losing a pair of former 5-star recruits to the transfer portal. Moving on out are 2019 center Clay Webb and 2021 tackle Amarius Mims. Webb was the No. 26 player overall in the country in 2019 while Mims was the No. 8 … With the transfer of forward Jonathan Ned, nine players have departed Georgia since Mike White was named the new basketball coach.
Kentucky: Virginia Tech transfer Tavion Robinson and early entry freshman Dane Key were the stars among the wide receivers at Kentucky’s spring game Saturday.
LSU: Safety Pit Cage is transferring to Texas-San Antonio … Corner Jarrick Bernard-Converse will miss the rest of the spring with a foot fracture.
Mississippi State: Former UMass punter George Georgopoulos, who averaged 44.7 per punt last year, has transferred to Mississippi State … Point guard Dashawn Davis, who averaged 10.9 points, 3.1 rebounds and 5.5 assists last year, has transferred from Oregon State to Mississippi State.
Ole Miss: Placekicker Jonathan Cruz, who hit 5-6 of his field goals from beyond 50 yards in 2021, is transferring from Charlotte to Ole Miss. Cruz is 41-57 in his career kicking field goals, 16-25 from beyond 40 yards.
Tennessee: Freshman Brandon Huntley-Hatfield, a former 5-star forward recruit, is transferring out. He averaged 3.9 points and 2.9 rebounds per game last season.
Texas A&M: The Aggies concluded spring practice with no clearcut winner of the No. 1 quarterback job between returnee Haynes King, LSU transfer Max Johnson and freshman Connor Weigman … Offensive MVP of the spring game was wide receiver Evan Stewart.
Vanderbilt: Linebacker/safety De’Rickey Wright is withdrawing his name from the transfer portal.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Speaking to ESPN’s Chris Low, Dabo Swinney foresees a day in the not too distant future when college football will have “a complete blowup … especially in football, and there needs to be.” What Dabo sees happening is for the power schools to break away, form their own division and leave everybody else in the tall grass on the side of the road.
The reason for Dabo’s gloom and doom forecast has everything to do with the NCAA and its decades-long attempt to create an athletic utopia where everyone is equal. Dabo points out that “Alabama has different problems than Middle Tennessee, but we’re trying to make them all the same and it’s just not.” Translation: The haves have, the have nots have not and nothing you can do will change that. Alabama plays in the Southeastern Conference, sells out its 100,000-seat stadium and rakes in zillions while Middle Tennessee, which didn’t draw more than 15,805 for a home game last year, toils in Conference USA, which looks like it was run over by the train that wiped out David Allen Coe’s mama the day she got out of prison. And yet, Alabama and everybody else in the SEC has the same number of scholarships, abides by the same rules, and can only recruit the same number of players as Middle Tennessee.
There are pointy-headed geeks who once scored a TD in a two-hand touch game against a sorority that would tell you it’s not fair for Bama to have such advantages. Those guys run the NCAA. They think it’s wonderful preposition that a biological male who hasn’t been snipped and clipped can run around a women’s locker room with his participles dangling then go out and swim for an NCAA championship against biological women. They can’t tell you why it isn’t fair for Alabama, the rest of the SEC and the power conference schools to be forced to play by the same rules that govern Middle Tennessee State, Rice and everyone else that claims to be Division I but can’t put 25,000 people in the stands on a regular basis.
Dabo predicts 40 or 50 teams will make up a brand new division with its own set of rules for recruiting and scholarship limits. I’m not sure anyone is ready to see 19-29 teams from the power leagues lopped off (in 2025 69 teams: SEC 16, Big Ten 14, ACC 14, Big 12 12, Pac-12 12 plus Notre Dame) to form something that looks way too much like the NFL. Even if they end up adding a sixth power conference to accommodate the likes of Boise State, Fresno State, Navy, Army and Air Force, I think there will be a serious reduction from the current 130 teams in a Division I that expands to 133 next year with the additions of Sam Houston State, Jacksonville State and James Madison.
If we talk about too drastic a reduction and limiting the power schools from only playing the power schools – which is indeed being discussed – then you can bet the farm that there will be lawsuits galore against what will be perceived rightly as a monopoly. Lawsuits aren’t the answer, so perhaps the best way to deal with it is to hold two national championship events – a Power Five playoff and a Group of Five playoff – with the power conferences agreeing to allow crossover games between the two divisions and to agree to give up a chunk of TV revenue so that the Group of Five playoff can distribute a couple million bucks to each of its members.
That way the haves can have their national champ and the have nots can have a national champ that doesn’t have to put a phony sign on its stadium like the one at UCF claiming the 2017 national title.
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