By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
NAPIER PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY; MONTRELL JOHNSON IS A GATOR
Billy Napier will hold a press conference this morning, presumably to discuss his coaching staff, which should be all but completed. There is a chance UF will still have a vacancy on the D-line but that could be because the targeted coach – Los Angeles Rams’ Eric Henderson – has a playoff game to coach Monday night vs. the Arizona Cardinals. Henderson, a Georgia Tech grad, prepped at Edna Karr in New Orleans, where new UF running backs coach Jabbar Juluke won a Louisiana state championship as the head coach in 2012.
Napier will certainly be asked about transfers Jack Miller III, Kamryn Waites and Montrell Johnson but it’s entirely possible there will be others announced since today is the last day for enrolling in the spring semester. Offensive lineman O’Cyrus Torrence, for example, didn’t enter the transfer portal with the intent of sitting out the spring. Most expectations have Torrence choosing Florida as his transfer destination.
Johnson is a very good pickup since he has three seasons of eligibility remaining. Playing for Napier at Louisiana, Johnson had an extraordinary true freshman season in 2021 when he ran for 838 yards (5.17 per carry) and 12 touchdowns. Johnson, who The Athletic rated as the No. 25 player in the transfer portal at the time of his commitment, was a 3-star running back out of De La Salle in New Orleans coming out of high school. He had offers from Tennessee and Vanderbilt in the SEC, Colorado and Arizona from the Pac-12. Johnson will join a very strong Florida running backs room that features Nay’Quan Wright and former 5-star recruits Lorenzo Lingard and Demarkcus Bowman.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL NEWS
Alabama: Declaring for the NFL are wide receiver Jameson Williams and left tackle Evan Neal. Neal is a first rounder for sure. Williams tore his ACL in the national championship game against Georgia. Early reports are that he shouldn’t lose even a step off his reported 4.3 speed if the surgery is successful … Linebacker Shane Lee, a 2019 4-star recruit who made the All-SEC Freshman Team, is in the transfer portal. Lee was a diminishing return in his Alabama career. He had 95 tackles in three seasons, 86 of them in 2019. Another linebacker in the portal is Jaylen Moody, a 2018 recruit who had a pick six in 2021 ... Tight end Cameron Latu is expected to announce he’s returning for 2022. Latu caught a touchdown pass in the national championship game with Georgia.
Arkansas: Basketball coach Eric Musselman will miss at least two games after undergoing rotator cuff surgery. Assistant coach Keith Smart will direct the team in Musselman’s absence.
Auburn: Defensive back Eric Reed Jr. has had a change of heart and has removed his name from the NCAA transfer portal. He put his name in the portal earlier in the week … The Tigers will hold their A-Day spring game on April 9.
Georgia: Former 3-star recruit Latavious Brini, a 2017 defensive back signee, announced he plans to play somewhere other than Georgia in 2022. Brini had 38 tackles and eight pass breakups in 2021.
Kentucky: Freshman shooting guard Shaedon Sharpe (6-5, 185), who decided to skip the rest of his senior basketball season to enroll at UK, will wear No. 21 and should be dressed out when the Wildcats play host to Tennessee Saturday afternoon … Wide receiver Tre’von Morgan, who transferred to Kentucky from Michigan State in 2021, is on the move again. He didn’t make a single catch in 2021.
LSU: Running back Noah Cain, a Baton Rouge native who spent three seasons at Penn State where he had a best season of 443 yards and eight touchdowns in 2019 and 806 yards for his career, is transferring to LSU … Former Arkansas DB Greg Brooks, who had 48 tackles and an interception in 2021, is joining former Razorback Joe Foucha in transferring to LSU … Right guard Chassenn Hines, who has played in 17 games the past two seasons, is in the portal.
Mississippi State: Redshirt freshman placekicker Nolan McCord, who scored 50 points on 9-16 field goals and 23-23 extra points in 2021, is in the portal.
Missouri: Cornerbacks coach Aaron Fletcher is leaving to coach the corners for Herm Edwards at Arizona State.
Ole Miss: Former 4-star running back Henry Parrish, who chose Ole Miss over Florida in 2020, is in the portal. In 2021, Parrish ran for 551 yards and three touchdowns while catching 21 passes for 173 yards. Parrish is thought to be transferring to Miami, where his 2021 position coach Kevin Smith is the new RB coach … Lane Kiffin’s younger brother Chris, who coached the D-line for the Cleveland Browns the last two years, is about to be hired at Ole Miss as the co-defensive coordinator along with Chris Partridge. Also joining the Ole Miss staff will be Marquel Blackwell, formerly the running backs coach at Houston.
South Carolina: Sterling Mitchell, who spent 2021 as an assistant D-line coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars, is expected to join the South Carolina staff where he is expected to coach linebackers.
Texas A&M: Defensive back Demanni Richardson, who was in on 65 tackles in 2021, will return for the 2022 season.
Tennessee: Tight end Trinity Bell (6-7, 265), a former 3-star recruit who Florida recruited in 2020, is in the portal.
SEC Basketball
Saturday’s games: FLORIDA (9-6, 0-3 SEC) at South Carolina (10-5, 1-2 SEC); No. 22 Tennessee (11-4, 2-2 SEC) at No. 18 Kentucky (13-3, 3-1 SEC); Arkansas (11-5, 1-3 SEC) at No. 12 LSU (15-1, 3-1 SEC); Texas A&M (14-2, 3-0 SEC) at Missouri (7-8, 1-2 SEC); No. 24 Alabama (11-5, 2-2 SEC) at Mississippi State (11-4, 2-1 SEC); Vanderbilt (9-6, 1-2 SEC) at Georgia (5-11, 0-3 SEC); No. 4 Auburn (15-1, 4-0 SEC) at Ole Miss (9-6, 1-2 SEC)
MATT HAYES WROTE IT …
Discussing the bad television number of the College Football Playoff championship game (second worst ever) and the long-range implications for all of college football, Hayes, writing in Saturday Down South, offered the following gems:
* “The SEC doesn’t’ need any change in the structure of the Playoff. It is dominating the postseason and set to make more money than any other conference when its new ESPN deal begins in two years.
“The SEC will stay at 4 teams, go to 8 teams (all at-large selections) or go all the way to 12 teams (6 highest ranked conference champions as automatic qualifiers, 6 at-large).”
* “The Big Ten has somehow convinced its two Alliance partners – the Pac-12 and ACC – that it’s a poor pauper chasing the mean SEC, just like them. The Big Ten makes more television money than any other conference and wants a Playoff expansion that consists of A5 conference champion guarantees.
“This, of course, is nonsensical because it exposes universities to potential antitrust collusion lawsuits from, say, a Group of 5 conference (because everyone who has ever sued big-time college sports has won).”
* The ACC, which without Clemson may as well be the defunct Big East, wants – are you ready for this? – an 8-team format with automatic A5 qualifiers. It claims wear and tear on college athletes is the reason (a legitimate question), but the reality is it’s a power play on Notre Dame.
“The fewer at-large spots in any Playoff format, the less chance for Notre Dame to reach the Playoff. Translation: Join the ACC, our champion gets an automatic spot!”
* The Pac-12 and Big 12 are open to everything because the Pac-12 and Big 12 are smart and desperate. There’s something to be said for knowing your place in the room.”
* “The Group of 5 conferences will go along with whatever the Power 5 conferences decide because the option is to go along or watch them break off and form their own Playoff. Again, knowing your place in the room.”
In conclusion, Hayes writes, “They can’t afford another season of bad television numbers. They can’t afford to not figure out their differences over the next month (the 12-team format is the smartest move) and potentially lose hundreds of millions in television dollars with that mistake.”
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: For years, Charley Pell has been vilified as one of the worst cheaters in the history of college football. Florida went on such a bad probation for the 109 NCAA violations that cost the Gators two years of being on television with no bowl game, two SEC championships (1984 stripped, 1985 ineligible even though UF had the best record) and such a reduction in scholarships (12 each for two years) that it opened the door for Miami and Florida State to establish their dynasties. Among Florida’s heinous crimes, Dale Dorminey never returned T-shirts and shorts that were given to him when Eastern Airlines lost his luggage on his official visit, and assistant coach Dwight “Hoss” Adams bought him a pack of Juicy Fruit and a Sprite at the Gainesville Airport when his return flight to Pensacola was delayed. Oh, there were a few violations of a more serious nature, but the bulk were the nickel and dime variety. On more than one occasion, the late Hoss Adams told me that rather than see his assistant coaches go down in flames, Charley fell on the sword for everybody.
“Say what you want about Charley Pell, but I’ll tell you fact: He was a good man who took all the blame since it happened on his watch,” Hoss told me. “The NCAA was out to get Charley any way it could. What we got nailed for wasn’t even a tenth of some of the other stuff that was going on in the SEC at the same time or at Miami or at FSU.”
During that same era, Auburn, Georgia (twice), Ole Miss, Tennessee, LSU, Florida State, Miami, Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Southern Cal all went on probation, but nobody other than SMU, which turned cheating into an art form, got hit as hard as Florida.
It’s worth mentioning Charley Pell because today’s NIL rules make the things that were going on at Florida during the Pell Era perfectly legal. Yet, the NCAA chose to do destroy him. It’s also worth mentioning that Florida fired Charley Pell and he never coached again. Georgia didn’t fire Vince Dooley. FSU never fired Bobby Bowden. Miami never fired Jimmy Johnson. I could go on and on.
When I think of what happened to Charley Pell, I’m reminded of the words of Al Pacino in the movie “Scent of a Woman” … “If I were the man I was five years ago, I’d take a flamethrower to this place!” Someone needs to take a flamethrower to the NCAA. It won’t bring Charley Pell back from the grave but by golly it would be righteous.
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