Guess someone stole his "moment". Good for him.

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Here are mine by sport:

MNF: Dandy Don, #16 and Cosell

CFB: Franklin and Gottfried and Jackson and Broyles. I do greatly enjoy McDonough and Blackledge too.

Tennis: Enberg, Collins and McEnroe

Golf: Hicks, Miller and Koch. I like Faldo and Nantz too but the NBC combo (Hicks, Miller and Koch) before Miller retired was unbeatable IMO.

Baseball: Joe Buck and McCarver were my favorites. For Bravo's telecasts loved Ernie Johnson and Pete Van Wieren

By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Tuesday morning:
THE PORTAL GIVETH AND THE PORTAL TAKETH AWAY
If you’re keeping score, Billy Napier and the Florida Gators have taken a 4-3 lead in the transfer portal with a decision due today from linebacker Mohamoud Diabate. Diabate is from Auburn and no one would be surprised if he elects to finish out his college football career playing for the hometown team, but there is also a chance he will decide that a revamped Florida defensive staff that will be long on NFL experience is a better option.

It’s 4-3 because the losses of wide receiver Jacob Copeland (Maryland), offensive lineman Gerald Mincey (Tennessee) and Khris Bogle (Michigan State) have been countered by the additions of former Ohio State QB Jack Miller III and Trenton Brown-sized Louisiana offensive tackle Kamryn Waites (6-8, 358), and the about face of edge rusher Lloyd Summerall III and D-lineman Dante Zanders, who pulled their names out of the portal.

Adding Diabate, who has 157 tackles, 6.0 sacks, 13.5 tackles for loss and an interception to show for his time at UF, would be a real recruiting coup for Napier, who just last week got good news that linebacker Ventrell Miller and his 168 career tackles (7.5 sacks, 14 tackles for loss and a pick six) is coming back. For a defense that had too many games the last two years in which it played dazed and confused, a pair of experienced linebackers is a nice place to begin the rebuild.

There will be more transfers, some leaving and some newbies who are going to find Napier’s fresh new approach appealing. Napier is not going to take the old wait and see approach. While preaching patience, he is planning to win next season and to do that it will take transfers. Maybe a bunch of them.

Here is what the roster looks like as of January 3:

QUARTERBACKS (4)
Anthony Richardson (6-4, 235, SO), Jack Miller III (6-4, 210, SO/Transfer from Ohio State), Carlos Del Rio-Wilson (6-2, 225, RFR), Jalen Kitna (6-4, 210, RFR)
Gone (1): Emory Jones (6-2, 211, Transfer)

RUNNING BACKS (3)
NayQuan Wright (5-9, 196, JR), Lorenzo Lingard (6-0, 203, RJR), Demarkcus Bowman (5-10, 193, SO)
Gone (2): Dameon Pierce (5-10, 215, Graduate), Malik Davis (5-10, 207, Graduate)

WIDE RECEIVERS (7)
Justin Shorter (6-5, 228, SR), Trent Whittemore (6-4, 211, RSO), Ja’Markis Weston (6-3, 215, RSO), Xzavier Henderson (6-3, 195, SO), Ja’Quavion Fraziars (6-3, 220, SO), Marcus Burke (6-4, 187, RFR), Daejon Reynolds (6-2, 205, RFR)
Gone (3): Jacob Copeland (6-0, 202, RJR, Transferred to Maryland), Rick Wells (6-1, 200, Graduate), Jordan Pouncey (6-1, 208, Graduate)

TIGHT ENDS (5)
Keon Zipperer (6-3, 242, JR), Jonathan Odom (6-5, 240, RFR), Gage Wilcox (6-4, 230, RFR), Nick Elksnis (6-6, 243, RFR)
Signed: Tony Livingston (6-5, 225)
Gone: Kemore Gamble (6-4, 243, Graduate)

OFFENSIVE LINEMEN (14)
Richard Gouraige (6-5, 312, RJR), Ethan White (6-5, 319, JR), Kingsley Eguakun (6-4, 303, RSO), Josh Braun (6-6, 342, SO), Michael Tarquin (6-5, 302, RSO), Riley Simonds (6-3, 303, RSO), Will Harrod (6-5, 325, RSO), Richie Leonard (6-2, 310, SO), Austin Barber (6-6, 312, RFR), Yousef Mugharbil (6-4, 318, RFR) Jake Slaughter (6-5, 303, RFR), Kamryn Waites (6-8, 358, RFR/Transfer from Louisiana)
Signed (2): David Conner (6-5, 295); Christian Williams (6-4, 319)
Gone (3): Jean Delance (6-5, 307, Graduate); Stewart Reese (6-6, 345, Graduate); Gerald Mincey (6-6, 320, Transferred to Tennessee)

DEFENSIVE LINEMEN (13)
Griffin McDowell (6-4, 297, RJR), Dante Zanders (6-5, 291, RJR), Gervon Dexter (6-6, 303, SO), Princely Umanmeielen (6-4, 260, SO), Jaelin Humphries (6-3, 328, RSO), Desmond Watson (6-5, 390, SO), Jalen Lee (6-2, 305, SO), Lamar Goods (6-2, 332, RFR), Justus Boone (6-4, 252, RFR), Chris Thomas Jr. (6-5, 314, RFR), Tyreak Sapp (6-3, 251, RFR)
Signed (2): Chris McClellan (6-3, 305); Jamari Lyons (6-4, 298)
Gone (4): Antonio Valentino (6-3, 312, Graduate), Daquan Newkirk (6-2, 308, Graduate), Tyrone Truesdell (6-2, 326, GR), Zachary Carter (6-4, 285, Graduate)

LINEBACKERS/EDGE (10)
Ventrell Miller (6-1, 226, SR), Brenton Cox Jr. (6-4, 253, RJR), David Reese (6-2, 230, RJR), Diwun Black (6-3, 228, JR), Ty’Ron Hopper (6-2, 228, RSO), Lloyd Summerall III (6-5, 247, RSO), Derek Wingo (6-1, 224, SO), Antuan Powell (6-2, 255, RFR), Chief Borders (6-4, 241, RFR), Scooby Williams (6-2, 230, RFR)
Gone (5): Jeremiah Moon (6-5, 245, Graduate), Amari Burney (6-2, 239, Graduate), Lacedrick Brunson (6-2, 229, Graduate), Mohamoud Diabate (6-3, 227, Transfer), Khris Bogle (6-4, 240, transfer to Michigan State)

SECONDARY (16)
Jadarrius Perkins (6-1, 182, JR), Jaydon Hill (6-0, 182, RSO), Avery Helm (6-1, 180, SO), Jason Marshall Jr. (6-0, 191, SO), Rashad Torrence II (6-0, 205, SO), Tre’Vez Johnson (5-11, 192, SO), Kamar Wilcoxson (6-1, 200, SO), Donovan McMillon (6-1, 197, SO), Mordecai McDaniel (6-1, 191, SO), Fenley Graham Jr. (5-9, 171, SO), Ethan Pouncey (6-1, 175, SO), Jordan Young (6-0, 185, RFR), Corey Collier Jr. (6-1, 180, RFR), Dakota Mitchell (5-11, 182, RFR)
Signed (2): Kamari Wilson (6-0, 201), Devin Moore (6-3, 190)
Gone (2): Trey Dean III (6-3, 206, Graduate); * Kaiir Elam (6-2, 196, NFL)
* Hasn’t declared for the NFL or hired an agent so he can return

SPECIAL TEAMS (4)
Long snappers (2): Marco Ortiz (6-4, 233, RJR), Rocco Underwood (6-3, 229, RFR)
Punter (1): Jeremy Crawshaw (6-4, 193, SO)
Signed (1): Trey Smack (6-1, 200)

DOING THE QUARTERBACK SHUFFLE
When we last saw Caleb Williams, he was throwing for 242 yards and three TDs to lead Oklahoma to a 47-32 win over Oregon in the Alamo Bowl. Monday, he announced he has put his name in the transfer portal, which created immediate speculation that he will transfer to Southern Cal to join former OU head ball coach Lincoln Riley.

As a true freshman last season, Williams took over for ineffective Spencer Rattler to lead Oklahoma to a stirring comeback win over Texas and then went 5-2 the rest of the way. He finished the season with 1,912 passing yards and 21 TDPs while running for 435 yards and six touchdowns. Rattler, who began 2021 as the odds-on favorite to win the Heisman Trophy, has since transferred to South Carolina.

The move raised plenty of eyebrows. Tweeted Fox Sports analyst Joel Klatt, a former starting quarterback at Colorado, “Caleb Williams is a free agent ‘exploring my options.’ Also ‘who will pay the most?’ Every player is now a free agent every single year! I have always argued that players should enjoy more autonomy over their careers than what they have in the past … This is our new reality and it is not necessarily a bad thing.”

With Williams in the portal, former UCF quarterback Dillon Gabriel, who was set to transfer to UCLA, withdrew his commitment and immediately committed to Oklahoma, where he will be reunited with Jeff Lebby, who was his offensive coordinator at UCF. Lebby spent the 2021 season calling the plays at Ole Miss for Matt Corral. At OU, where he will be working for Jeff Venables, Lebby will be the highest paid offensive coordinator in the country at $2.1 million.

McKenzie Milton, who was a brilliant quarterback at UCF before a horrendous knee injury that nearly cost him his life and later his leg, took to Twitter to announce, “OU just got better at [quarterback].” At UCF, Gabriel threw for 8,041 yards and 70 touchdowns with just 14 interceptions.

Back to Williams. With all this speculation that Williams will transfer to Southern Cal to play for Riley, it should be noted that Riley inherits Jaxson Dart and Miller Moss, a pair of rising sophomores with pro arms who were 4-star recruits with plenty of big time offers coming out of high school. Brandon Huffman of 247Sports speculated that UCLA could be a serious player to land Williams.

SEC FOOTBALL
Tuesday’s game: LSU (6-6) vs. Kansas State (7-5) in the Texas Bowl

SEC BASKETBALL
Tuesday’s games: No. 9 Auburn 12-1, 1-0 SEC) at South Carolina (9-3, 0-0 SEC); No. 16 Kentucky (11-2, 1-0 SEC) at No. 21 LSU (12-1, 0-1 SEC); Texas A&M (11-2, 0-0 SEC) at Georgia (5-8, 0-0 SEC); Vanderbilt (8-4) at Arkansas (10-3)
Wednesday’s games: No. 15 Alabama (10-3, 1-0 SEC) at FLORIDA (9-3, 0-0 SEC); Ole Miss (8-4, 0-0 SEC) at No. 18 Tennessee (9-3, 0-1 SEC); Mississippi State (10-3, 1-0 SEC) at Missouri (6-7, 0-1 SEC), Postponed

The Associated Press Top 25 poll: 1. Baylor 13-0; 2. Duke 11-1; 3. Purdue 12-1; 4. Gonzaga 11-2; 5. UCLA 8-1; 6. Kansas 11-1; 7. Southern Cal 12-0; 8. Arizona 11-1; 9. Auburn 12-1; 10. Michigan State 12-2; 11. Iowa State 12-1; 12. Houston 12-2; 13. Ohio State 9-2; 14. Texas 11-2; 15. Alabama 10-3; 16. (Tie) Providence 13-1 and Kentucky 11-2; 18. Tennessee 9-3; 19. Villanova 9-4; 20. Colorado State 10-0; 21. LSU 12-1; 22. Xavier 11-2; 23. Wisconsin 10-2; 24. Seton Hall 9-3; 25. Texas Tech 10-2

The Coaches Top 25 poll: 1. Baylor 13-0; 2. Duke 11-1; 3. Purdue 12-1; 4. Gonzaga 11-2; 5. UCLA 8-1; 6. Kansas 11-1; 7. Arizona 11-1; 8. Southern Cal 12-0; 9. Auburn 12-1; 10. Michigan State 12-2; 11. Iowa State 12-1; 13. Kentucky 11-2; 14. Houston 12-2; 15. Villanova 9-4; 16. Texas 11-2; 17. Providence 13-1; 18. Tennessee 9-3; 19. Colorado State 10-0; 20. Alabama 10-3; 21. LSU 12-1; 22. Seton Hall 9-3; 23. Wisconsin 10-2; 24. Xavier 11-2; 25. Texas Tech 10-2

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Lincoln Riley, who coached two Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks (Baker Mayfield and Kyler Murray) at Oklahoma and had a third on the podium (Jalen Hurts) in New York, flirted with LSU, which was offering more than $12 million a year, used his agent to let Scott Stricklin know he would entertain an offer from Florida to replace Dan Mullen, and then took a mega deal to go to Southern Cal, sold himself to the highest bidder. Who can blame him? Southern Cal offers unlimited use of a private jet, the beach at Malibu and Beverly Hills mansions and no tornadoes, not to mention the fact Riley will have an easier time making the College Football Playoff in the weak Pac-12 than he ever would in the SEC where Oklahoma is heading?

This is the reality in which we live today. Coaches take the money and run, leaving behind players and a ton of empty promises. I don’t blame a coach for taking a better deal, particularly since he’ll get fired if he doesn’t win big enough to satisfy the deep pocket alums who think they run the athletic program (see Gus Malzahn who will have to squeeze by on the $21.8 million Auburn paid to send him on his merry way).

Since a coach can pack up and leave on a moment’s notice, tweeting farewells to the kids left behind (see Brian Kelly), then kids have the right to transfer out. A lot of folks think the transfer portal will be the death of college football as we know it but football will adjust. We thought the same thing when scholarships were reduced to 105 and then to 85, which is where they are now, and it didn’t kill the sport. NIL is far more dangerous than the portal, but it’s the world we live in and college football will find a way to adjust.

So, what’s good for the coach should be – and is – good for the players although they don’t get $12 million buyouts when they leave the building.

So some of you guys have asked me on the boards or in PMs about how all the money in the system works. For some reason, I agreed to make a post even though I knew it would be a time sink since there are so many ways that funds and other enticements are injected into the system and distributed. The whole ecosystem is rather complex and intertwined, so I'll go with a few generalizations. Since this is just going to be a bunch of random thoughts, let this first post be a primer and if you have any other questions or prompts, I'll be able to expound and elucidate.

One of the first myths to dispel is that people are randomly showing up on a doorstep with a duffel bag full of cash and a LOI for the recruit. Instead, smaller payments and gifts are made over time to build up a relationship with the recruit. Needless to say, the recruit is generally getting money from multiple sources and generally ends up with the school/handler/whoever that they end up feeling most comfortable with. With the new NIL rules, this also includes showing the recruit they will have access to "network" guys that can further their careers and bank accounts through being well-connected in certain industries.


At this stage of life, there are plenty of people trying to get into a recruit's circle which include Uncle Bob, wannabe agents, financial planners, super fans, "managers," and other low level guys with varying motives that I think of as street urchins.

Let's break these down into a few groups that are all trying to benefit in some way:
1) Super Fans: These are what you would think of as the traditional booster or the old boys club that simply loves their school and wants to support their team in any way possible. These guys are best described by that article on SBNation, although the methods have evolved: https://www.bannersociety.com/2014/4/10/20703758/bag-man-paying-college-football-players

2) Hanger-ons: These are the types that want to benefit off the athlete simply for being around early in their life. This will include guys like Uncle Bob and other people who "grew up" with the recruit. Think Entourage, but at a lower level.

3) Wanna-Be's / Street Urchins: This group includes the outsiders who actively want to manage the athlete's career in some fashion. This can also include the Uncle Bobs, but generally refer to wannabe agents and financial managers who are hoping to snag their first big client (think Maverick Carter).

4) Professionals: These are the real agents/agencies and big brands/corporations.


All of these guys are intertwined in some way, but the most "action" comes from the guys in categories 3 and 4. This all starts in the kid's Freshman year if he shows some promise on their 7-on-7 or AAU team. The coaches of these youth teams hold (varying) degrees of power and influence over where a recruit may attend college.

If an AAU team wants to go play at a tourney at Disney WWOS but can't afford the travel expense. The first guys the coach calls and mentions their hardship to are the Wanna-Be's who will generally toss them a few thousand bucks to cover the expenses. Need jerseys? They might call their Nike rep.

They see this as relationship building so the coach might influence their guy to sign with them in the future. Some of this money gets pocketed by the coach while some of it gets filtered down to the players' families. If they've been in the game for awhile, they probably also have connections with real agents and big brands/corporations. The real risk is that there are tons of street urchins out there that pretend to have influence over recruits and attempt to sell that access to the wanna-be's and professionals. They're the stereotypical guy that plays Xbox with recruits to try and befriend them so they can insert themselves into their financial situations.

Now another misconception with the big agents and brands is that they want to steer them to a certain school. Contrary to belief, these brands don't care if a kid goes to a specific school. Mostly they're interested in them going to a place that will get them to the NFL as quickly as possible to increase their ROI while lowering their risk. For an agent, that extra year the player might stay in school gives others extra time to get in their ear and sway their decision to sign with them when they are entering finally entering the draft.

The money also doesn't stop when the player signs their LOI. There are upkeep payments because most of the time these recruits are from impoverished areas and are just scraping by even while on scholarship. This is where you see things pop up like Laremy Tunsil texting Barney Farrar about paying for a utility bill.

This might be a taboo to post and could get me in trouble, but some of the contributors to the financial system are also assistant coaches and other staffers themselves. They don't do the payments directly and instead run them through the "network" guys. Why? It helps them build that "great recruiter" persona and can help them earn raises and have better job security. Do all of them do it? No, but they all know it's going on.

Another example of how recruits and current players are taken care of:

1) If a player/recruit wants to go on a beach trip. Whoever is funding the trip will send the money to their cousin/friend/whoever is on the trip with them instead of the athlete themselves who then books the hotels in their own names and has the spending money. The other ancillary benefits might show themselves if players are hypothetically in Vegas over the Summer on a holiday weekend and know a big spender from their school/area is dropping $30,000 on a table to see Tiesto. The guy might like some of the players and let them hang around for free.

2) A player wants to take his girl out to dinner in the big city, but doesn't have money? Someone will Venmo a manager/promoter/whoever at a restaurant/club and that venue then comps the meal/alcohol with only a token $20 charge for 3 beers rang up on the player's debit card.

3) A player needs more money and is definitely being drafted high? Some agent or brand will arrange a "marketing advance"

By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Monday morning:
“To be the man, you gotta beat the man!” – Richard Morgan Fliehr, AKA Ric Flair
We’re getting a rematch of the SEC Championship Game in one week in Indianapolis, which is a rather weird place to hold a national championship game in that it’s (a) Alabama and Georgia from the SEC; and (b) Indy is a great place for the national championship in basketball, but football? The last time a football team from the state of Indiana was relevant was Notre Dame in 1988. Oh sure, Notre Dame makes the College Football Playoff every so often but goes home with a loss and a participation trophy. Indianapolis is the heart of Big Ten country. The Big Ten is about as relevant as Notre Dame when it comes to the playoff.

Alabama and Georgia are the two best teams in the country which is why they’ll play again. Alabama blew the doors off Georgia back on December 4. Somehow that didn’t convince enough people that Nick Saban has his team in beast mode, which he always does this time of year, because Georgia is favored to win the national championship game. Go figure on that one. Nick will call it rat poison. Count on it.

Alabama got to the championship game by turning Cincinnati’s previously perfect season into another ho-hum semifinal, the kind of which we always see when the southern teams play the northern teams in the playoff. The southern teams dominate the line of scrimmage, which is what Alabama did to Cincinnati, crushing the hopes of everyone who either believes in Cinderella stories or that a Group of Five team will one day dream the impossible dream and play for a real national championship, not the kind they dreamed up down at UCF. Later in the evening, Georgia’s O-line, manhandled by Alabama three weeks earlier, manhandled Michigan on both lines of scrimmage. Jim Harbaugh can put a necktie on those Michigan Men but they’re still just pigs from the Big Ten wearing a cool necktie. Isn’t that always the case for the Big Ten? Lots of hype, but when it comes down to crunch time, my friends in Texas would say, “All hat, no cattle.”

The semifinals were on New Year’s Eve. If we’re going to have a national championship game a week to 10 days after the semifinals, then at least have the decency to play the games on New Year’s Day. That way, at least we could watch the traditional bowl games with a sense of anticipation for the usual semifinal blowouts later in the day.

Because the bowls mean less and less, the playoff does need expanding to 12 teams. We might always wind up with two teams from the SEC or one from the SEC and Clemson in the championship game but at least there will be a chance in the first round for a Cincinnati or a team from the Fun Belt to get a win over one of their Power Five brethren to inject a measure of hope that for one year, at least, the clock may not strike midnight.

An expanded playoff is one of the bigger reasons why Texas and Oklahoma are bolting the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. It has been 16 years since the last Big 12 team (Texas, 2005) won a national championship. Since the advent of a four-team playoff, no Big 12 team has made it to the championship game and only four times in eight years as a Big 12 team even made the final four. The SEC, meanwhile, has had at least one team in the final four all eight years, two teams in the final four twice (2017, 2021), at least one team in the national championship game seven times and two teams in the national championship game twice (2017, 2021). Since Alabama and Georgia are in this year’s national championship game, it means the SEC will have had five of the eight national champs since the playoff system replaced the BCS.

Under the four-team playoff format, Texas and Oklahoma are aware that the only assurance they have of making the playoff from the Big 12 is to go unbeaten. When the playoff expands, teams with two losses will have a chance to make it in. There are better odds for multiple two-loss teams from the SEC than two-loss teams from the Big 12 although this year would have proven the exception if the playoff had been 12 teams.

The four-team format favors the SEC, which is guaranteed to have its 12th national champion in the last 16 years and the third in a row. As Stewart Mandel of The Athletic pointed out, either an SEC or ACC team (FSU 2013, Clemson 2016 and 2018) has won the national championship every year since 2006, the only exception 2014 when Ohio State beat Oregon in the first College Football Playoff championship game.

Digest that for a moment and then you can start connecting a few dots.

Now you know why ESPN is willing to pay six times what CBS has been paying for exclusive rights to the Southeastern Conference following the 2023 football season. At $63 million per team per year, the SEC will be the tall hog at the college sports trough, but when Texas and Oklahoma join the league the lowball estimates are that every team in the league will get another $9 million while most economists say the impact will be $80 million. Per team. Per year.

Texas and Oklahoma add value to the ESPN television package which is why the network is likely to collaborate with the SEC, Notre Dame and the Big 12 for a deal that will send Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC as early as 2023 in exchange for support that will ensure the Big 12 will remain in business as a Power Five conference with an ESPN exclusive TV deal. There is a ripple effect to all this, which is to snuff out the attempt by the so-called “alliance” to roadblock playoff expansion.

The “alliance” is the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC, whose commissioners don’t like it that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey has been, is and will always be the smartest guy in the room. They’ve stonewalled the playoff expansion process, but the only thing they have accomplished is to prove why Sankey is perfectly fine if the playoff remains at four teams. The two best teams are in the SEC and they’ll play for the national championship. Michigan was wiped out by Georgia and the Pac-12 and ACC were excluded. They would have made a lot more money this year in a 12-team playoff in which five of their teams would have been in the bracket. If there had been a 12-team playoff this year it would have looked like this:

Six highest ranked conference champions: 1. Alabama (SEC), 2. Michigan (Big Ten), 4. Cincinnati (American), 7. Baylor (Big 12), 11. Utah (Pac-12) and 12. Pittsburgh (ACC)

Six highest ranked at-large teams: 3. Georgia (SEC); 5. Notre Dame (Independent); 6. Ohio State (Big Ten); 8. Ole Miss (SEC); 9. Oklahoma State (Big 12) and 10. Michigan State (Big Ten)

The breakdown would be: SEC (3), Big Ten (3), Big 12 (2), American (1), Independent (1), Pac-12 (1) and ACC (1).

As it stands, the SEC will make a lot of money off the playoff this year. The Big Ten will get one semifinalist share and the Pac-12 and ACC will get shut out. The Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 need a 12-team playoff in the worst way.

The silly boys in the “alliance” should also take a look at the recruiting rankings. The SEC dominates because it’s the best conference and the league can be counted on to produce national champions. If the “alliance” wants to catch up to the SEC and be THE MAN then it needs to beat the man and the place for that to begin is to (a) expand the playoffs to make their schools more attractive and (b) recruit at the level of the SEC.

Maybe they’ll figure that out someday.

HOW WILL COVID AFFECT UF IN BASKETBALL THIS WEEK?
A COVID-19 outbreak at UF forced the postponement of the Gators’ SEC opener at Ole Miss last week. The Gators (9-3, 0-0) are scheduled to host 19th-ranked Alabama (10-3, 1-0 SEC) Wednesday night at the O-Dome, but there has been no update from the Florida camp since the postponement. Has the entire team been cleared to play and practice? If not the entire team, how many will be able to dress out and play Wednesday? And, how many practice days were affected by the outbreak?

Alabama is coming off a huge win over then No. 14 Tennessee plus the Crimson Tide has an earlier win over Gonzaga. A Florida team at less than full strength or one that hasn’t gotten in enough practice days will be at a serious disadvantage.

SEC BASKETBALL
Tuesday’s games: No. 11 Auburn (12-1, 1-0 SEC) at South Carolina (9-3, 0-0 SEC); No. 18 Kentucky (11-2, 1-0 SEC) at No. 16 LSU (12-1, 0-1 SEC); Texas A&M (11-2, 0-0 SEC) at Georgia 5-8, 0-0 SEC); Vanderbilt (8-4, 0-0 SEC) at Arkansas (10-3, 0-1 SEC)

Wednesday’s games: No. 19 Alabama (10-3, 1-0 SEC) at FLORIDA (9-3, 0-0 SEC); Ole Miss (8-4, 0-0 SEC) at No. 14 Tennessee (9-3, 0-1 SEC); Mississippi State (10-3, 1-0 SEC) at Missouri (6-7, 0-1 SEC)

ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: If you grew up in the 1950s and 1960s, then you probably remember that commercial whose theme was “It’s what’s up front that counts.” Well, that can be applied to Alabama and Georgia. If you watched the College Football Playoff semifinal games, then you saw how Alabama pushed Cincinnati around on both lines of scrimmage and how Georgia turned Michigan’s vaunted D-line into non-factors. Seeing how Alabama and Georgia dominated the lines of scrimmage only showed the enormity of the job facing Billy Napier.

I am convinced Florida will have good enough people at the skill positions to win next year. Napier scored big when he got Ohio State transfer QB Jack Miller III to come in and compete with Anthony Richardson. I think the Gators have good talent at running back and need to add a little more speed at the receiver positions but overall they will rank in the top third of the SEC at the skill positions.

What concerns me is who will block for them and on the other side of the ball, who will stop the other team from imposing its will on the Gators? Going back to 2010, the Gators haven’t had a single season with a truly physically dominant offensive line. Will Muschamp recruited the defensive line extremely well but when his recruits all moved on to the NFL, Jim McElwain didn’t replace them and Dan Mullen’s recruiting was always deficient when it came to bringing in the people who could neutralize an opponent’s offensive line.

Napier has his work cut out for him. I’m convinced the offensive line will be upgraded in the coaching department with Rob Sale and Darnell Stapleton but can they elevate the talent that is already on hand to play at a high enough level? I’m convinced UF will bring in good high school talent but that takes awhile to develop. Are there good enough people in the transfer portal and can Napier convince them to come to Gainesville? Good coaching will help the D-line, but so can the transfer portal if there are enough wide bodies with talent who want to transfer to Florida.

I’m the eternal optimist but I am also a realist. Billy Napier is the right man for this job but until UF loads up on talented, big guys who can dominate the line of scrimmage, the Gators will be playing from behind.

TOS reporting more than 20 players have tested positive

Where do you think he goes?

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. - Florida head football coach Billy Napier announced Monday that Bird Sherrill will serve on his staff as director of college personnel.



A native of Mooresville, Ala., Sherrill heads to Gainesville after spending the last six seasons (2016-2021) with the Detroit Lions.



Sherrill first joined the Lions in 2016 and spent his first two seasons (2016-17) in Detroit as a scouting assistant. Most recently, he served as a scout (2018-2021) with the franchise.



In his role with the Lions, he assisted with several player personnel projects, including evaluation and production of scouting reports, annual draft prep and free agency acquisitions.



As Florida's director of college personnel, Sherrill will focus on the evaluation of transfer portal and JUCO players.

A 2016 graduate of the University of Alabama, started his career as a recruiting specialist with the Tide in 2013 as a student, and was part of Alabama's 2014 and 2015 SEC Championship squads, as well as the 2015 National Championship team.

I see the Noles and Vols are pushing for him, any interest on our part?

I know for a fact they were hard after Joe Brady and I am pretty sure a few other names were ahead of this guy

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They just lost to Cincinatti as 7.5 point favorites


can they even afford to fire him?

funny that his team was unbeaten and they are still calling for his head.

Question for @JasonHigdon or anyone else, is there a way we could get a list of which guys in the portal we've actually offered? I know we've seen the staff follow a lot of guys on Twitter, but it's not exactly clear who the real targets are. From what I've seen, the only portal offers so far have been Jack Miller (committed), Jared Verse (likely headed elsewhere), and Jacob Cowing (seems to have some interest), is there anyone else that's received an offer yet?

6'8" 370 pound offensive tackle from the University of Louisiana transfers to Florida. He's a freshman with all four years of eligibility.

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because they are too good? The writer of the article below thinks so.

"Saban and ’Bama are doing their jobs, but it would be nice if they weren’t so good at it."


Don't think he is the only one to share that opinion. I have seen so many people voice the same perspective. They complain about how its another rematch between bama and the dawgs and cry how its boring......yet not a single word from anybody about the real solution. Get better. It can be done, just ask Clemson.

Instead of complaining about how youre tired of seeing saban vs kirby part 57.....how about complaining about how these other teams keep failing to step up.

In truth, lots of people have a "participation trophy" mentality.
They dont want want the best teams to be in the championship. As I saw today, it was mentioned they want bama to play UGA in the semifinal so other teams can appear in the championship. They don't want Ali vs Frazier.....They want Ali vs Bob Foster.

To the good guys on On3 and TOS. Good enough for the gator mod from TOS as well as prob the most respected writer from TOS to both put
crystal balls for the good guys. Sorry if it has already been discussed.

Luther Burden, 5* WR headed to Mizzou, was literally BEGGING to be recruited hard by UF and, IMO, we likely would have gotten him....but we essentially did not even make ANY effort lol

The way this staff is going after safeties it has me wondering if they plan on running the 3-2-6 system whether as their base defense like Arkansas or just situationally against pass happy teams.

I went and watched some ULL film and I did see Toney seem to experiment with this defense occasionally this season so it is definitely something they are aware of.

The reason the safety recruiting caused me to wonder about the use of this system because it uses 3 safeties- 2 free safeties and 1 SS

Here is a decent video explaining the defense and it's advantages

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