Thoughts of the Day: March 25, 2022
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
GOURAIGE: TWO O-LINE COACHES IS BETTER THAN ONE One of the major changes Billy Napier brought to the Florida coaching staff was hiring two offensive line coaches, Rob Sale and Darnell Stapleton. Sale, who worked with Napier at Louisiana for three years, was the O-line coach for the New York Giants last year. Stapleton, who started in a Super Bowl for the Pittsburgh Steelers, was one of the O-line coaches at Louisiana last year.
The two-coach approach worked very well for Napier in his four years at Louisiana where the Rajin Cajuns ran a fairly balanced attack. It’s a concept that worked quite well when the Gators won two national championships in three years (2006 and 2008) with Steve Addazio and John Hevesy.
Senior left tackle Richard Gouraige likes the idea because it gives the offensive linemen more coaching and more detail work.
“It’s better getting it from two guys instead of one, to see what they see and stuff like that,” Gouraige said earlier in the week. “Like my hand position, my feet and everything. It’s just elevating our game. Like I say, two is better than one.”
Hevesy was Florida’s only offensive line coach the last four years. The Gators had some success running the ball in 2018 and they did a good job in pass protection in 2020, but there was never a lot of consistency and false start penalties were a plague. Sale and Stapleton insist on more discipline and they are constantly preaching about taking care of the little things.
Another advantage of two coaches is more work gets done in the same amount of time.
“I feel like having two coaches is very helpful for inside guys one day – like the guards get one coach one day and the other coach the tackles,” Gouraige said. “They’re very flexible so everybody is getting a lot of work in a short period of time. Every minute counts.”
Gouraige has been very impressed with the two Louisiana transfers. Gouraige says O’Cyrus Torrence, a two-time All-Sun Belt performer, “can definitely help us win games.” As for the 6-8, 360-pound Waites, Gouraige says, “He’s going to be a great player” while adding, “I never felt so small around another person.” Gouraige is listed at 6-5, 320.
GATORS FACE LSU IN TOP 25 MATCHUP
Hunter Barco (4-1, 1.72 ERA) will get the baseball tonight when the 6th-ranked Gators (16-5, 2-1 SEC) play host to No. 15 LSU (15-6, 1-2 SEC) at the Florida Ballpark (7 p.m., SEC Network+). Opponents are hitting only .153 off Barco, who ranks second in the SEC in strikeouts (44 in 31-1/3 innings). LSU will send righty Blake Money (2-0, 2.86 ERA) to the mound against the Gators.
Florida opened SEC play last weekend by taking two of three on the road at Alabama. The Gators hit 10 home runs during that series, two by Jud Fabian, who hit another two on Tuesday to lead the Gators to a 3-2 non-conference win over Bethune-Cookman. Fabian leads the SEC in home runs with 10 (25 RBI) and is second in walks (21). Wyatt Langford leads UF in hitting (.385) and is tied for third in the SEC in home runs (8). As a team, the Gators rank 5th in the SEC in hitting (.309) and second in home runs (43).
Brandon Sproat (3-1, 3.33 ERA) is Florida’s expected starter for Saturday’s game.
SEC Baseball Thursday’s score: No. 4 Vanderbilt (19-2, 4-0 SEC) 10, South Carolina (10-11, 0-4 SEC) 0
Friday’s games: No. 21 LSU (15-6, 1-2 SEC) at NO. 8 FLORIDA (16-5); No. 17 Georgia (17-4, 2-1 SEC) at Kentucky (15-7, 0-3 SEC); No. 4 Vanderbilt (19-2, 4-0 SEC) at South Carolina (10-11, 0-4 SEC); No. 3 Arkansas (16-3, 3-0 SEC) at Missouri (12-6, 0-3 SEC); Alabama at Mississippi State; Auburn (15-6, 1-2 SEC) at Texas A&M (13-7, 2-1 SEC); No. 5 Tennessee (20-1, 3-0 SEC) at No. 1 Ole Miss (16-4, 2-1 SEC)
UF SOFTBALL: BLUE-OUT AT KSP FOR MATCHUP WITH TENNESSEE
It will be a blue-out at Katie Seashole Pressly Stadium tonight when the 6th-ranked Gators (26-3, 4-2 SEC) face 15th-ranked Tennessee (20-8, 3-2 SEC) in the first game of their 3-game weekend series (6 p.m., SEC Network+). This is the top SEC softball matchup of the weekend. The Gators trail first place Auburn (26-2, 5-1 SEC) by one game while the Vols trail Auburn by 1.5 games.
The Gators will probably go with a rotation of Elizabeth Hightower (8-0, 1.47 ERA) tonight with Natalie Lugo (5-2, 1.19 ERA) on Saturday and Lexie Delbrey (9-1, 1.72 ERA) on Sunday. Tennessee’s ace is Erin Edmoundson (13-1, 1.53 ERA). The Gators lead the SEC in team ERA at 1.61.
As a team, the Gators are third in the SEC in hitting (.352), led by Kendra Falby (.456, 3 HR, 18 RBI, 22-24 stolen bases) and Skylar Wallace (.432, 4 HR, 31 RBI, 22-23 stolen bases). The Gators rank next to last in the SEC in home runs (23) but they’re second in runs scored (205) and first in stolen bases (73).
NCAA SWIMMING: GATORS REMAIN IN SECOND PLACE Two days into the NCAA Swimming and Diving Championships in Atlanta, the Gators remain in second place with 159 points, 21 behind Texas and one ahead of third place California. For the second straight night, a Florida relay team captured a championship as Adam Chaney, Eric Friese, Will Davis and Kieran Smith set a new UF school record to win the 200 freestyle relay with a time of 1:14.11. The Gators fell just .03 from the NCAA record.
Seventeen Gators will be swimming Friday including six in the 500 freestyle and five in the 200 freestyle.
FOUR GATOR GYMNASTS CLAIM ALL-AMERICAN HONORS
Trinity Thomas is the only gymnast in the country to earn first team Women’s Collegiate Gymnastics Association All-America honors on vault, bars, beam and floor exercise. She is one of four Gators to earn regular season All-America. Nya Reed earned first team floor All-America and second team vault. Megan Skaggs earned first team all-around honors and freshman Leanne Wong made first team on bars, second team all-around, beam and floor.
SWEET 16
Thursday’s scores
West Regional: 4 Arkansas (28-8) 74, 1 Gonzaga (28-4) 68; 2 Duke (31-6) 78, 3 Texas Tech (27-10) 73 South Regional: 2 Villanova (29-7) 63, 11 Michigan (19-15) 55; 3 Houston (32-5) 72, 1 Arizona (33-3) 60
Friday’s games
East Regional 15 St. Peter’s (21-11) vs. 3 Purdue: Saint Peter’s is a terrific story but now the Peacocks have to contend with Purdue’s size and point guard Jaden Ivey. The Peacocks have to shoot from the 3-point line like they did against Kentucky (9-17) if they want to win this one. I like: Purdue
8 North Carolina (26-9) vs. 4 UCLA (27-7): In their two first weekend wins, North Carolina had 51 assists on 62 made baskets, which is phenomenal. Can UCLA contain Armando Bacot (32 points, 26 rebounds in two NCAA game) and Brady Manek (54 points, 16 rebounds)? UNC plays spotty defense. UCLA has to have a great shooting game from Johnny Juzang and Jaime Jaquez Jr. to win this one. I like: North Carolina Midwest Regional 4 Providence (27-5) vs. 1 Kansas (30-6): Providence has allowed 57 and 51 points in two NCAA games. For the Friars to beat Kansas, they’ll have to hold the Jayhawks to fewer than 60. Remy Martin has awakened from his season-long slumber to score 20 and 15 in the two Kansas wins. If he’s controlling the ball from the point, Providence will have troubles. I like: Kansas 11 Iowa State (22-12) vs. 10 Miami (25-10): Miami has no size but their 4-guard lineup does play ferocious defense and the Hurricanes have only turned the ball over seven times in two games. Iowa State’s two NCAA wins are by a combined nine points. The Cyclones thrive in white knucklers. I like: Iowa State
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: Several members of Congress are planning to host a virtual summit next week with athletes and advocates next week in an attempt to create momentum for NCAA reform. If ever there was a call for the football playing schools to secede from the NCAA this is it. If there is one organization in the entire country more inept than the NCAA it is the Congress.
The NCAA hasn’t lacked for opportunities to bring about significant and needed changes, but instead of devoting time and effort to get something meaningful done, it has instead chosen to fight lawsuits in the courts where it has lost every single major case. The NCAA vs. Alston, which brought about NIL is the perfect example. The NCAA fought it all the way to the Supreme Court rather than sit down with schools and athletes to come up with a plan that would work. And, once the NCAA got its butt kicked by the Supremes, it chose to take its issues up with Congress, which is convinced it knows how to spend our money better than we do.
I don’t think anything good can come from Congress getting involved in reforming the NCAA just as I don’t think there is anything good that can come from the football schools remaining under the NCAA umbrella. I’m convinced the NCAA is beyond reform and I’m not the only one who thinks that way.
Back in 2013, when talking about issues with the NCAA, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby stated: “I think we all have a sense that transformative changed needs to happen. I don’t know that we can keep doing what we’re doing. It’s bad grammar but a good concept. If we always do what we’ve always done, we’ll always get what we’ve always go. That’s kind of where we’re at.”
Bowlsby went on to say, “I don’t see secession from the NCAA as a viable leverage point, except as a last resort.”
Well, it’s nine years later and the only thing that has changed is now the NCAA wants to compound its own inability to govern college sports by bringing in the Congress. The time for a last resort is now.
Football is the economic engine that drives all of college sports. There is no way that schools with $100 million (or more) budgets should be held to the same standards as the Kent States and New Mexico States of the world yet through its arcane rules and regulations, that’s what the NCAA tries to do. Why, for example, should Florida and the rest of the SEC schools, which distributed more than $56 million from media contracts have to abide by the same scholarship restrictions as schools with $30 million budgets for the entire athletic program? But, that’s what we have and it will only get worse if the Congress gets involved to any extent.
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