There are some twitter rumors suggesting Napier has reached out to Tom Herman for OC and Brent Venables for DC with the goal to make him the highest paid DC in CFB. Jason, is there any truth to this? If so, that would be an incredible turn of events!

Damn I hope that isn't the matchup.

I decided to look at the numbers from Napier's time in Louisiana. It is well known what he did at Alabama and Clemson somewhat, signing the likes of Cam Robinson, Calvin Ridley, Jerry Jeudy, Tajh Boyd, Hootie Jones, Cam Simms, Trevon Diggs, and many others, but I wanted to focus on what he has done as a head coach.

In the 16 years before Napier was at Louisiana, their average national recruiting ranking was 99th, their average Sun Belt rank was 4th, and their average recruit rating was 77. In Napier's four classes from 2018 to 2021, the average national ranking was 83rd, the SBC ranking was 2nd, and the average recruit rating was 82.07.

Something else that should be noted is that Louisiana was on sanctions when Napier took over. Those sanctions were coming to an end but had included a reduction of 11 scholarships, two years of probation that ended in January 2018, and recruiting limitations. Napier overcame all of that to sign a transition class that was only six spots below their previous national average and an average recruit rating three points higher than their previous average.

After that initial transition class, Napier went on to sign three straight number one recruiting classes in the Sun Belt. The average national rank of those classes was 76th, 23 spots higher than their previous coach's national average. The average recruit ranking improved each year from 81.81 to 82.93 to 83.53, for an average of 82.76. That is 5.76 points higher than their previous average. And, of course, that #1 SBC average was three spots higher than their last conference average of 4th in the SBC.

Digging a little deeper into the recruiting, Napier is responsible for signing, or currently having committed 32 of the top 50 recruits in Louisiana recruiting history going back to 2002, which also includes 13 of their top 20 recruits and their top recruit overall during that timeframe.

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He’s on our MLL but not the redzone so I’m assuming it’s a no

never mind

He wanted NO PART of the S.E.C. where 13/14 teams are Bowl Eligible and 6 teams are ranked including #’s 1, 3 and 9. The Big 12 had an Easy Road for him with 4 teams with losing records BUT, The PAC. 12 is a JOKE! 6 teams with a LOSING RECORD, Oregon is 10-2, Utah is 9-3 and EVERBODY ELSE had 4 or mor losses including the 6 teams with 7 or more losses. More $$$, Easier schedule and Conference,

Smart Man and a CHICKEN!

And burning those recruits on his team and he was about to sign. I here the 4 who left Oklahoma’s 2022 Class May follow him to S.C.

Thoughts of the Day: December 2, 2021​

A few thoughts to jump start your Thursday morning:

GATORS ARE ROAD KILL AT OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma set the tone in the first five minutes Wednesday night when they turned the Florida Gators (6-1) over six times. From that difficult start, the 14th-ranked Gators never seemed to get in synch for protracted periods of time as they dropped their first game of the season to the Sooners, 74-67, in Norman.



“It was really tough early and definitely out of character in the first five minutes,” Florida coach Mike White said. “Credit the way they came out playing with a high level of aggression and intensity. They definitely threw the first few punches of the game.”



Oklahoma parlayed that good defensive start into 13 Florida turnovers that were converted into 16 points. But it was more than just the turnovers. Oklahoma put tremendous pressure on Florida shooters with a very aggressive and effective game plan that saw the Sooner consistently knock the Gators out of their comfort zone shooting – “fighting for every inch on the court” is how White described it – particularly from the three-point line.



The Gators missed all nine of their three-pointers in the first half and finished the game only 4-24. Only a couple of long threes late in the game by Tyree Appleby kept the Gators within striking distance. The Sooner defense was so disruptive that the Gators never could get into any kind of passing rhythm. On rare occasions when there were open shots, they tended to be rushed. Too many times when shots were contested, the Gators were guilty of not making an extra pass.

“We have to do a better job of attacking some of those close outs,” White said. “We have to pass up some of those that aren’t great shots. We’ve got to get more on the interior with some of our cutting. We’ve done a pretty good job of that to this point. We didn’t get many easy ones tonight. Offensive rebound kickouts. I thought we had scenarios where we had it in the paint whether it was a cut or an offensive rebound or a post touch where we probably dribbled it one or two many times as they converged and put bodies in there. If you play better from two and make some decisions where you finish at the rim a couple more times it maybe opens up a little bit more from three. It all works together.”



Phlandrous Fleming Jr. came off the bench to lead the Gators with 17 points to go with six rebounds, one assist and two steals. Colin Castleton had 14 points, 11 rebounds, four blocked shots and a steal. Appleby and Brandon McKissic each scored 11.



Florida’s defense, which had been the calling card all season, had way too many lapses as the Sooners shot 49.1 percent from the field. When Castleton and Anthony Duruji got into foul trouble early on, it opened up the paint for Tanner Groves, who hit 8-11 shots and finished the night with 20 points and Jaydon Hill, whose thunderous dunk near the end of the game punctuated an 18-point night.



Next up for the Gators is a Monday evening game with Texas Southern at the O-Dome.





SEC BASKETBALL Wednesday’s scores: Oklahoma (7-1) 74, No. 14 FLORIDA (6-1) 67; No. 10 Arkansas (7-0) 97, Central Arkansas (1-7) 60; Georgia (3-5) 82, No. 18 Memphis (5-2) 79; No. 21 Auburn (6-1) 85, UCF (4-2) 68; Coastal Carolina (3-2) 80, South Carolina (5-2) 56; LSU (8-0) 66, Ohio (5-2) 51

Thursday’s games: Missouri (4-3) at Liberty (3-3); Lamar (1-6) at Mississippi State (5-1)



NAPIER ON HIS COMMITMENT TO COACH THE FUN BELT TITLE GAME Stand up guy. That’s about the best way to describe new Florida football coach Billy Napier. When Scott Stricklin began negotiations to bring Napier from the University of Louisiana, one thing that could not be negotiated was the Sun Belt Conference Championship Game, which the Ragin Cajuns (11-1) play Saturday against Appalachian State (10-2), a team they’ve already blown out once (41-13) this season.



“There was no question regarding coaching in the championship game,” The Daily Advertiser reported on Monday. “I mean, that was non-negotiable.

“It’s also important for everyone to realize the commitment we have made to the players here and the staff here to really kind take a singular focus on trying to do the best job we could for this team … in our preparation this week. So there was never a doubt that we were going to coach in the game,” adding, “and … then when we’re done here Saturday we’ll move forward and start working on the challenges that are ahead of us.”

Louisiana is expected to play in the New Orleans Bowl. Athletic director Bryan Maggard has left the door open for Napier to possibly coach the Ragin Cajuns in that game.

KHRIS BOGLE IN THE TRANSFER PORTAL

EDGE rusher Khris Bogle became the third Gator to put his name in the NCAA transfer portal Wednesday, joining defensive lineman Dante Zanders and offensive line Gerald Mincey. Bogle spent most of the season backing up Brenton Cox Jr., but still finished the season with 22 tackles including three for loss, 1.5 sacks and two quarterback hurries.





A NAME TO REMEMBER FOR NAPIER’S COACHING STAFF Des Kitchings, the running backs coach for the Atlanta Falcons and a college teammate of Billy Napier at Furman is likely to join the Florida staff. Kitchings was a wide receiver/kick returner at Furman. He caught 118 passes for 1,972 yards and 12 touchdowns in his career. His senior season in 1999 saw Kitchings catch 48 passes for 911 yards and five touchdowns. He ran back 16 kickoffs for 527 yards (32.9 per return) and three touchdowns. Kitchings was drafted in the seventh round by the Kansas City Chiefs.



Kitchings began his coaching career at Furman, where he was the special teams coordinator and tight ends coach from 2004-07. He coached running backs and special teams at Vandy in 2008-09, and served as the offensive coordinator in 2010. He coached running backs at Air Force in 2011 and then spent the next eight years at North Carolina State where he coached running backs and was the co-offensive coordinator in 2019. Kitchings coached running backs at South Carolina in 2020 before joining the Falcons staff.



Kitchings could join the Florida staff as the running backs, tight ends or wide receivers and could very well be the special teams coordinator. During his collegiate days at Furman Kitchings was one of the most dangerous kickoff returners in Division I-AA.



SAY WHAT?

Brian Kelly has won everywhere he’s coached. He left Notre Dame as the winningest coach in school history, played for the national championship in 2012 and made the College Football Playoff twice. He never won a national championship at Notre Dame, a place where any year the Irish don’t win the big one is considered a disappointment.



Now he’s the coach at LSU where his deal is 10 years for $95 million in straight salary with a yearly retention bonus of $500,000 and easily attained incentives that will pay him another $500,000.



Check out these remarks at Kelly’s initial press conference at LSU.



“I came down here because I wanted to be with the best. The resources here are outstanding. It starts with the alignment, excellence, the standard of expectations. You’re looked at in terms of champions here, and I want that. I want to be under the bright lights. I want to be on the Broadway stage.”



Say what? LSU has high expectations, yes, but other than Alabama, there is no place in all of college football where championships are expected more than Notre Dame. While it is true that LSU has won three national championships since the last one by Notre Dame (1988) and the Tigers have four in their history, Notre Dame has 11 that it claims and another 11 that one organization or another awarded.



Championships are expected at LSU, but Brian Kelly may discover that the pathway to a championship is a lot easier at Notre Dame, where there is no cutthroat SEC schedule nor is there a conference championship game.



But, if he doesn’t win any championships, he’ll be comforted by the $10 million a year he’ll be raking in.



FOOTBALL IN THE SEC

Alabama (11-1, 7-1 SEC): Georgia is a 6.5-point favorite to win the SEC Championship Game. Brett McMurphy tweeted that this is only the sixth time since 2008 that Nick Saban has been an underdog. He’s won four of the previous five, the only loss to Florida in the 2008 SEC Championship Game.

Georgia (12-0, 8-0 SEC): Georgia gave up 300 or more passing yards only once this season (to Tennessee, 332). In the SEC Championship Game, the Bulldogs will be facing Alabama quarterback Bryce Young, who has thrown for at least 300 yards in seven consecutive games.

LSU (6-6, 3-5 SEC): Tommy Rees, Brian Kelly’s offensive coordinator at Notre Dame, has turned down an offer to work for Kelly at LSU as has Irish strength and conditioning coordinator Matt Balis. Also saying no to Kelly is Ohio State running backs coach Tony Alford.

Mississippi State (7-5, 4-4 SEC): At an awards ceremony, HBC Mike Leach tripped and nearly fell. Leach told WLBT television, “I reacted as I’d seen my players react. In that split second I thought to myself, ‘What would my players have done in that situation?’ and then immediately it mobilized and I was fine. I tell you what that shows. If you spend time with great people who are doing great things some of it will rub off on you because that was better than I deserve because a lot of people would’ve eaten it in that situation, but not me! I was blessed by the people that I get to deal with every day.”

Ole Miss (10-2, 6-2 SEC): Tight end DaMarcus Thomas, who had one catch for six yards this season, has put his name in the transfer portal.

Tennessee (7-5, 4-4 SEC): Defensive back Alontae Taylor is opting out of Tennessee’s bowl game to focus on preparing for the NFL Draft. Taylor finished the season with 60 tackles, six pass breakups and two interceptions, one that he returned 56 yards for a TD against Kentucky.

Texas A&M (8-4, 4-4 SEC): Defensive tackle Marvin Leal, who is ranked as the No. 12 prospect and No. 1 defensive tackle on Mel Kiper’s Big Board, has announced he will be leaving for the NFL. Leal didn’t say whether or not he will play in the Aggies’ bowl game. Leal had 58 tackles and 8.5 sacks in 2021.



MORE FOOTBALL STUFF Notre Dame is expected to promote defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman to head coach today per Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com. Freeman, 35, has been at Notre Dame only one season after serving from 2017-20 as Luke Fickell’s defensive coordinator at Cincinnati.



New Mexico athletic director Eddie Nunez has pulled his name out of the running to become the AD at Miami.



Florida State is in the market for a new athletic director to replace David Coburn, who announced he is retiring.



Oklahoma is going to pay Bob Stoops $325,000 to coach the Sooners in their bowl game.



New Virginia Tech coach Brent Pry, the former DC at Penn State, has hired Savannah State head coach Shawn Quinn. Quinn has coached in the SEC at LSU and Tennessee.



ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: We still don’t have an agreement to expand the College Football Playoff to 12 teams. The conference commissioners met Wednesday and left without an agreement. Everybody, it seems, wants expansion but the “alliance” of the Big Ten, ACC and Pac-12 seem to be hanging things up on automatic bids and possibly just an eight-team model. It’s amazing that these people are in positions of power. The sooner they can agree to a 12-team model, the sooner they can get negotiations going with networks. There are four years left of the four-team model. Greg Sankey says he’s quite content with four and why shouldn’t he be. What the SEC is going to be making whether it’s eight or 12 teams will dwarf what the other leagues can distribute and it will be substantially more once Texas and Oklahoma join the league. Sankey can afford to wait it out. These other clowns can’t.

Gators Athletics Ranks High in Recent Graduation Success Rates

GAINESVILLE, Fla. - University of Florida student-athletes are achieving their goal of becoming UF graduates.

The Graduation Success Rates (GSR) published Thursday shows UF equaled its all-time high with 92 percent of Gators student-athletes completing their degrees in the latest cycle. The Gators' latest number is above NCAA Division I's overall GSR of 90 percent.

The GSR of 12 Gator teams are above or equal the national average for their sport - men's & women's basketball, football, men's & women's golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, soccer, softball, women's tennis, men's track & field/cross country and volleyball. Florida equaled its all-time high with seven teams posting a perfect 100 GSR: men's basketball, men's & women's golf, gymnastics, lacrosse, women's tennis and volleyball.

Earlier this fall, UF ascended to No. 5 in the public institutions ranking on US News and World Reports annual list. The combined grade point average for all Gator student-athletes for the 2020-21 academic year was 3.16 and 1205 student-athletes earned bachelor or master degrees in the last academic year.

The most recent Graduation Success Rates are based on the four entering freshmen classes in Division I from 2011-12 to 2014-15.

University of Florida
Teams

UF Graduation
Success Rate

Overall DI National Average

Baseball

75

86

Men's Basketball

100

84

Women's Basketball

92

92

Men's Cross Country & Track

89

84

Women's Cross Country & Track

86

91

Football

93

80

Men's Golf

100

91

Women's Golf

100

96

Gymnastics

100

97

Lacrosse

100

97

Soccer

96

95

Softball

95

93

Men's Swimming

83

91

Women's Swimming

92

96

Men's Tennis

88

93

Women's Tennis

100

96

Volleyball

100

94

Overall Athletics Program

92% - Florida's Overall GSR

90% - Overall Division I GSR

I changed a name as ANYONE CAN DO out of respect for the best dog I ever had. A American Foxhound pound pup and 12 years old. I’d really change it knowing it’s out in the open you stalkers. What do you care? Are your lives that pathetic?

Most if you are ignored so it’s futile to post about me!

Futile? Google it!

Four-star guard Judah Mintz reopened his recruitment yesterday afternoon dealing Pittsburgh and Jeff Capel a huge blow on The first day of the signing period.

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Florida was involved previously with Darris Nichols spearheading the Mintz recruitment.

I expect the Gators to reach out to Mintz or someone associated with him (AAU Coach or Parent) today to see if there is mutual interest.

IIRC, Mintz picked Pitt after visiting them and two other schools. He never tripped to Florida however.

Mintz is a hard playing, high scoring guard, whose shooting range is improving. He's a consist jump shooter but can score at all three levels. Mintz has good quickness and he is a very good defender. Got some dog in him, Mintz does.

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#ColoradoState coach Steve Addazio is out, sources tell me and
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We're in Bond's top 3...still hope

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Do they allow for the committed players to take another OV if they have used up their allotted 5 since its a new coach? Are there any other exceptions? Just curious if Napier gets any help from the rules

He and his guardian are on campus currently.....
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BREAKING: Longtime UF booster, Keanu Kargar, has pledged $45 million to the Gators athletic program. He has requested $35 million be used for football.

Saw it on Twitter..

We appear to have had Bogle and now Summerall enter the transfer portal. That doesn't mean they will definitely leave, but if they enter the portal it is probably more likely than not that they are gone. I'm betting those two won't be the only ones and we will see more defections. We previously had two other leave as well -- Kimbrough and a defensive end.

One thing to consider about portal defections is how it will affect the overall roster and open up spots for transfers into the program. The 85 total scholarship limit per year still remains -- so each scholly player leaving opens up another one of the 85 total we have available. (Or at least I think the limit will be 85 for 2022 unless the COVID "free year" rule affects the 85 limit.) However, there is also the rule which limits each team to 25 new counters per year.

What happens if you lose a substantial number of players to the portal and have already hit or are close to the 25 initial counters for the year? To help make up possible transfer defections, the 25 "new signees per year" limit has therefore been changed for the 2022 signing class. The NCAA passed a rule, initially in effect for just the 2022 signing class but maybe made permanent if it works out well, that allows up to 7 transfers into your program that don't count against your initial counters for that year. So for each guy we lose to the portal, up to 7, we get a "free" transfer that doesn't count toward the 25 total signing limit for the year.

This rule might open up a substantial number of extra new slots for Napier to take more transfers into the program. I forget how many scholarships we have to give this year before we hit the 85 cap -- I think maybe we had 22 or 23 available for 2022 before these two guys entered the portal? And maybe the number of transfer portal free counters is increased to 4 already because we lost Kimbrough and another defensive end? We could still run into the 85 limit problem and not get up to 7 transfers, but as long as we stay at or below the 85 we could potentially take up to 32 total combined transfers and new signees (new signees still limited to 25) if we have 7 guys transfer out. This could prove to be important if some players just aren't good fits for Napier's offense and whatever defense we play under the new DC.

I'm pretty sure that is how the rule will work this year. I've linked to an article in The Athletic addressing it. Somebody correct me if I've got this wrong.

DC- Belk
DL/Special Teams- Charlie Partridge
LB- C. Rob
CB- Corey Bell
S- T. Rob

Talk about locking down the state and owning most of south georgia! The guys above can recruit and coach!

Questions, Comments, or Concerns now is the time. I will circle back throughout the day tomorrow and answer any questions you have. Out for the night......

Never mind

Last summer the NCAA passed some legislation that allows for schools to have an extra seven counters available for up to seven players who transferred after December 15. Does that only apply to players who enter the portal after Dec that date or players who sign after that date?