I bought my wife a new upright freezer for her anniversary/Christmas present. She's a great chef, and a food hoarder to boot. You can't shoe horn another morsel into our existing one right now. It was scheduled to be delivered between 8-12 this morning, and it's now knocking on 1 pms door. I got up early just to direct traffic when they got here. I'm still a hostage to these eff-sticks, and I have things I need to do today, Jackasses! ordered this a month ago.

I’m having a hard time deciding who I want to win the national championship. I almost always root for the SEC over other conferences in bowl games. Especially when the SEC pairs up vs. the Big Ten and ACC. This is mainly because of the OOC teams I hate the most- Ohio State, Michigan, FSU, Miami, Clemson, and all their cocky fans. I even was rooting for Georgia to beat Ohio State in the playoffs a few years ago. However, I am also sick of Georgia winning national championships and being playoff contenders. They are a huge rival so it would be nice to see them lose in the round of 8. But would a Poodle loss really help the gators in recruiting? Or does the SEC media hype that comes with all the success in the playoffs and bowl games even more important to recruiting and the fate of the Gator program? Or with NIL and the transfer portal does it really matter anymore, because you can turn around your roster and team in 1 or 2 years if you have the NIL funding.

lt’s amazing the pride, loyalty and enthusiasm that is shared with almost all fans when it comes to the SEC. You would think I would always cheer against Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Tennessee Texas Ole Miss, and Texas A&M because if they struggle on the field it makes it easier to win those head to head recruiting battles with these elite players from both high school and the transfer portal. But I still find myself cheering for the SEC in almost every single bowl or playoff game. When I speak with fans from other conferences like Ohio State, Michigan, Clemson, etc., they don’t understand our loyalty to other SEC teams. Hey can’t fathom ever cheering for their rivals in any game. I’ll never forget watching a Sugar bowl win many years ago under Steve Spurrier, and leaving the Superdome in Louisiana, all these LSU fans that were there in attendance were shouting…SEC! SEC! SEC! I guess my question is, who should I cheer for? And does a playoff loss by all 3 SEC playoff teams really hurt the Gators more due to the possible loss of conference prestige, or would it help the Gators more to see Kirby get embarrassed on national TV and lose some of that media hype.

If the people of Texas are willing to spend this kind of money on HS football, do you really think they won't outspend everybody else to win in CFB?

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Why you may ask ?

Because my Marine son is home for the holidays on his 2 week leave from The Corps.

So it's gonna be a great Christmas/New Year's holiday/celebration here at the Ghost household.

Hoping everybody also has a great Christmas/New Year's holiday.

As a dolphins fan, this is Fuching embarrassing.

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at beginning of season so well done there. When I'm wrong I'm wrong. Happens alot so no problem here admitting it haha. As far as CFB as a whole I still see alot of trouble ahead with NIL, portal, players opting out of post season, etc... hope I'm wrong. But that's for another day, it's Christmas Eve and here's Soo-jin.

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The portal has absolutely changed college football. This time last season we had maybe four or five commits by now. Today we have a kicker, and that's all after all the visits to date. Some of these kids have two sports agents representing them, and are negotiating at every turn. Once again some teams are all in on getting better at nomatter the cost,and some are still trying to figure it out. This to me is a challenge for some teams, because you have to pay your current starting players not to leave, and try and convince players to come in and sit the bench, or compete with no guarantees of starting. That's the challenge I believe we are in, trying to get better while staying consistent.

That's the only way this get's fixed IMO.

I'm surprised this has not been discussed.

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Game Haiku:
The mission was clear
Win Streak 4, empty bench, Check
Onto '25

Praises:
> Gator Victory was never in doubt (& by Q3 - Halley's bet)... allowed every who played a role in '24 to be rewarded for their contribution via blood, sweat & tears to get playing time.

> Glad to see Napier reward Big Dez at the end. Dez is one of the few players (in this day of the portal) who actually started and ended his career in the Orange and Blue - for all those players - Thank you for your dedication, your love and understanding of what it means to be a Florida Gator.

> Granted with Tulane a shell of themselves - it was still exciting to see the defensive depth shut Tulane down and held them scoreless for 59+min. Bodes well for next year

> DJ for how he protected his body/hamstring and not have an ego to challenge for those first downs (which if the stakes were higher he would've easily committed and made the first).

> Offensive game plan to get DJ throwing to the RB... It's a start in his further progression.

> Smack with 4 no doubt FG's - kept Florida's advantage growing when offense bogged down in 1st half.

> Celebration of Rubio's TD by the team at the end... that's culture and a positive to Billy foundation being in place after year 3.

> Great job by D forcing Turnovers and negative plays

> Glad to see Napier continuing to score at the end and keep covering the spread - Gator fans love it and maybe if he's aware that donations may increase with the sharing of winnings - it will help reinforce the full play for 60 minutes of no mercy - which our 2 most successful coaches were known for.

Postulates:
> First time in Billy's tenure - lots of positive momentum heading into the off-season:
* 4 game win streak
* Top 10 Recruting Class (with Wilson expected to flip and potentially some other final pieces)
* Key players returning - including 4/5 of starting O line, starting interior DL, DJ with quality experience gained at QB, RB juggernaut headed by Baugh and a D where youth have gained experience to see continued improvement heading into next fall.
* Increase in donations - which will help keep roster and potentially attract priority portal entrants

> ever since bye week - the Defense has improved tremendously. Major props on their side.... I know change is coming.. here's hoping (maybe Bateman?) the changes will keep the simplicity where the Gators can think less and just let their natural athleticism and abilities shine through.


> Did they forget the mat in Gainesville? Twice special teams had less than 11 men and a TO was needed.

> Hoping the new OC will cure the following scenario - Gators get an explosive play (especially into the red zone) and somehow a delay of game or TO needing to be called results. It should be the opposite... with the opposition staggered, go up tempo, get lined up and snap the ball. No one is fooled with starting in one formation and resetting to another formation and then sending a motion. To much wasted time and the ability for the D to reset.

> Speaking of fooling no one - the fake jet sweep. If you never give it to the jet sweeper, the D can tee off with one less blocker defending it.

> Excited to see DJ's continued progression this offseason - especially with footwork and balance, as well as reading progression and short/intermediate throws. Yesterday's game showed the progress made from January and the road still ahead.

> Were there issues with the headsets? Looked like 2 TO's on Offense were due to not communicating play via headset.

> Speaking of TO's - hope 2025 improves where TO's are called for clock management strategy instead of poor organizational management

> Watching the game on TV - the production was D+ .... between a lack of replays, booth announcers who were unprepared and flat out guessing on play outcomes... ugly

> Also with a C performance were the MAC officiating crew. As a former official, call the obvious, call what impacts the play and do as much preventive officiating as possible. Contrary to game chat - they were not one sided for the Gators or Tulane - it's just the flags they chose to throw or not throw were inconsistent. Since everyone can tell me what they missed on Tulane... here's a couple of examples where Florida benefited: An easy example on a play that is being replayed the most was Dez's first down run. #68 clearly false starts; there were other "holds" called/not called at the point of attack for both sides. Slaughter got away with one not called on a big run for instance earlier in the 3rd quarter. Being a 1st team AA has its privileges