By Franz Beard
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
EMORY JONES TRANSFERS TO ARIZONA STATE
Former Gator quarterback Emory Jones has found a new home at Arizona State, where he will be the likely replacement for Jayden Daniels, who transferred to LSU. At Arizona State, Emory will find an offense that fits his skill set quite well. Last season Daniels threw for 2,380 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 10 touchdowns (10 interceptions) while running for 710 yards (5.14 per carry) and six touchdowns. Daniels started 29 games in three seasons at ASU.
Jones spent three seasons as a backup before getting his chance to be the starter in 2021. In 13 games, Jones threw for 2,734 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 19 touchdowns (13 interceptions) while running for 758 yards (5.3 per carry) and four touchdowns. He finished his Florida career with 3,347 passing yards (7.7 per attempt) and 26 touchdown passes (14 picks) while running for 1,273 yards (5.4 per carry) and 10 touchdowns.
Arizona State may turn out to be the best fit that Jones could have found because the offense is so similar to what he ran at Florida and he will be playing in a league that doesn’t have the dominating defenses that he ran into in the Southeastern Conference (only four Pac-12 defenses were ranked ahead of the Gators).
Jones is a Georgia native whose closest game to his home state in 2022 will be a September 10 road trip to Oklahoma State.
GOLDEN AND THE TRANSFER PORTAL
It has been a busy week for Florida basketball coach Todd Golden, who welcomed a pair of transfer portal visitors from St. Bonaventure (Kyle Lofton and Osun Ossiniyi) in the transfer portal and is expected to host one of the top scoring guards in the portal from Missouri State (Isaiah Mosley) in a matter of days.
First, the kids from St. Bonaventure. Point guard Kyle Lofton (6-3, 185), who averaged 12.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and a whopping 5.9 assists per game last year and big man Osun Ossiniyi (6-10, 220), who averaged 11.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocked shots per game, visited the Gators. Both Lofton and Ossinyi played four years at St. Bonaventure and have a COVID year at their disposal.
For his career, Lofton has scored 1,613 points (13.9 per game) and has averaged 3.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. He has a 5.2 to 2.4 assist to turnover ratio. Ossinyi has scored 1,100 points while averaging 9.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots per game. He is a career 59.5 percent shooter who has taken three (count ‘em) three-pointers and made one. Total. Arizona, Tennessee, Purdue, Rutgers, and Seton Hall are also in the mix but Florida is thought to be in very good shape here.
The Missouri State shooter is Isaiah Mosley (6-5, 201), who averaged 20.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists last year while shooting 50.4 percent overall from the field and 42.7 percent from the 3-point line. He hit 90.2 percent of his free throws and is a career 87.4 percent shooter from the foul line.
Mosley, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining, has scored 1,434 points in his career at Mizzou State (15.9 per game) while averaging 5.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. He is a career 49.8 percent shooter and a 41 percent 3-point shooter. Mosley is being recruited by Kansas, Duke, Texas Tech, Mississippi State, Louisville and Texas among others but Florida is thought to be one of his three choices.
The Gators remain in good shape for Washington State big man Efo Abogidi (6-10, 225), who averaged 8.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots per game, and San Francisco point guard Khalil Shabazz (6-1, 170), who averaged 13.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists for Todd Golden last season. Abogidi is being pursued by Marquette, Texas, Texas A&M, Arizona, Houston and Wake Forest among others.
UF BASEBALL: GATORS TRAVEL TO MISSSISSIPPI STATE
This might be the oh what might have been series for both the Gators (26-18, 8-13 SEC) and Mississippi State (25-20, 9-12 SEC). Both the Gators and the Bulldogs, last year’s NCAA champs, were expected to be among this season’s elite teams left by veteran aces. Both teams are in a struggle to make the NCAA Tournament, however, in part because Florida lefty Hunter Barco and MSU righthander Landon Sims are on the shelf and facing Tommy John surgery. Pitching will be a major concern for both teams starting tonight when they face off in a critical SEC series in Starkville.
The Gators find themselves in fifth place in the SEC East, a game behind South Carolina (23-20, 9-12 SEC) and two behind Vanderbilt (29-14, 10-11 SEC). Mississippi State is tied for fifth with Alabama (25-20, 9-12 SEC) in the SEC West, three games behind Auburn (31-14, 12-9 SEC), Texas A&M (28-15, 12-9 SEC) and LSU (30-14, 12-9 SEC), which are tied for second.
Without Barco (5-2, 2.50 ERA, 69 strikeouts in 50-1/3 innings) the already young Florida pitching staff has had to go with sophomore Brandon Sproat (5-4, 4.39 ERA) as its Friday starter with Brandon Neely (2-0, 3.35 ERA) taking over the Saturday slot. As of Thursday, Florida hadn’t named a Sunday starter for the Bulldogs.
Sims, the bullpen hero for Mississippi State’s run to the 2021 national championship, had a 1.15 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 15-2/3 innings before he was shut down for the season. The Bulldogs are expected to start Brandon Smith (3-3, 3.75 ERA) Friday, Preston Johnson (3-3, 5.52 ERA) Saturday and Cade Smith (4-2, 4.20 ERA) on Sunday.
Florida comes into the game on the heels of an 18-3 non-conference win over South Florida in which the Gators hit six home runs, three by Jud Fabian (.279, 19 HR, 47 RBI).
UF SOFTBALL: GATORS HOST A PAIR OF NON-CONFERNCE DOUBLEHEADERS
The SEC portion of Florida’s softball schedule is complete so all the Gators (38-14, 13-11 SEC) can do is wait to see where they will be seeded for next week’s SEC Tournament in Gainesville. The Gators could finish as high as third in the final SEC regular season standings or drop to seventh depending on what seven other teams do.
In the meantime, the Gators will be hosting a couple of non-conference doubleheaders tonight and Saturday. They face Mercer (24-23) of the Southern Conference at 5 p.m. and Florida Gulf Coast (16-31) of the Atlantic Sun Conference at 7:30 and then Saturday they will close out the regular season with FGC at noon and Mercer at 2:30 p.m.
This will likely be a weekend for Tim Walton to get all his pitchers ready for the SEC Tournament. Lexie Delbrey (12-2, 2.27 ERA) definitely needs the work and both Rylee Trlicek (1-1, 2.15 ERA) and Haley Pittman (2-0, 3.71 ERA) could use some innings whether as starters or in relief. Elizabeth Hightower (12-7, 2.51 ERA) will probably get one start and Natalie Lugo (9-4, 2.15 ERA) might be used mostly as a closer.
FLORIDA LACROSSE: GATORS PLAY FOR AAC CHAMPIONSHIP
The 8th-ranked and top-seeded Gators (14-4) earned their way into the American Athletic Conference championship game with an 18-7 win over 4th-seeded East Carolina (9-9) Thursday behind four goals each by Emma LoPinto and Maggi Hall. Next up for the Gators is 3rd-seeded Vanderbilt (11-6), an 11-10 overtime winner over Temple in the other AAC semifinal.
Should the Gators stop Vanderbilt, whom they beat 16-8 during the regular season, it will be their ninth straight conference tournament championship and their third in the AAC.
UF TENNIS: MEN/WOMEN HOST NCAA FIRST, SECOND ROUNDS
The Florida men’s quest to repeat as NCAA champs begins at 5 p.m. today when the Gators (23-2) take on fourth-seeded New Orleans in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Ring Tennis Complex on campus. Should the Gators win their opening round match, they’ll face the winner of 29th-ranked Miami and 45th-ranked South Florida Saturday at 5 p.m.
The Florida women, meanwhile, are the 15th overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and the host of a regional that features South Alabama, Florida State and Florida International. The Gators (19-6) take on South Alabama Saturday at 2 p.m. If they win, they face the FSU-FIU winner at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Alabama: Louisville coach Scott Satterfield has implied that Alabama may have tampered with wide receiver Tyler Hall before landing him as a transfer. “I think it’s not only him, it’s happened before here,” Satterfield said. “Last year we had a few guys that jumped into the portal and the next day they’re announcing where they’re going. You can look at that and know that something went on before they were in the portal.”
Auburn: Former Auburn offensive coordinator Al Borges, who directed the offense in 2004 when the Tigers went 13-0 but didn’t have a chance to play for the national championship, thinks Auburn should be given a title that was vacated when Southern Cal went on probation for Reggie Bush. In the national championship game, Southern Cal beat Oklahoma 55-19. Borges said, “Did Reggie Bush’s playing for USC, is that the difference in 55-19, I don’t know. Maybe it is, but I doubt it. So we should be the national champions. I see no rational reason why we shouldn’t be. But you know, my version is a little slanted. To leave the 2004 championship vacated when there should have been, when there is a champion, I think is absurd. But I don’t make that call.”
LSU: KJ Williams (6-10, 245), who averaged 18 points and 8.4 rebounds last season for Matt McMahon at Murray State, has followed his old coach to LSU.
Missouri: Former Jacksonville State defensive end DJ Coleman (6-6, 245), a second team D1AA All-American, has transferred to Mizzou. He had 55 tackles including 5.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks last season.
South Carolina: Jermaine Couisnard, who averaged 12 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game last season is transferring to Oregon.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Athletic is reporting that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff were in Washington Thursday to lobby for Federal legislation to regulate Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). In a Thursday night statement, Sankey said, "As we have observed activity emerge that is very different from original ideas around Name, Image and Likeness, it is important we continue to pursue a national NIL structure to support the thousands of opportunities made available for young people through intercollegiate athletics programs across the country."
Translation: This thing is so out of control, the NCAA is absolutely clueless and we’re so desperate that we’ll even turn to Congress for help.
Just how bad is it? One athletic director told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, “We all know what is going on at some places, and it’s now the wild, Wild West. It’s out of control, and it’s been getting dramatically worse by the week, by the day, it seems.”
One Power Five head coach told Feldman, “Do we really want to get into this world where we’re gonna induce kids that are 16 or 17 or 19 to choose their program and leave their high school or their college for what turns out to be a donor’s dollar?”
What we have here is what the Brits would call a sticky wicket. On one hand, coaches aren’t exactly upset if one of their collectives offers a kid a deal that brings him to their school. They might truly believe that NIL is out of control, but they aren’t going to complain when NIL gets them their guy. They are, however, completely upset and it is totally out of control when that same kid gets a better deal to go somewhere else.
We do need some rules and some regulations to deal with NIL for a host of reasons, among them how many 17 or 18-year-old kids are really equipped to make a decision that involves more money than he has ever seen and also because there is no way to be sure the kid is the one who is really going to benefit from the big deal.
For now, however, we have a mess that is only going to get worse until someone comes up with answers that nobody seems to have at the moment.
A few thoughts to jump start your Friday morning:
EMORY JONES TRANSFERS TO ARIZONA STATE
Former Gator quarterback Emory Jones has found a new home at Arizona State, where he will be the likely replacement for Jayden Daniels, who transferred to LSU. At Arizona State, Emory will find an offense that fits his skill set quite well. Last season Daniels threw for 2,380 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 10 touchdowns (10 interceptions) while running for 710 yards (5.14 per carry) and six touchdowns. Daniels started 29 games in three seasons at ASU.
Jones spent three seasons as a backup before getting his chance to be the starter in 2021. In 13 games, Jones threw for 2,734 yards (7.9 per attempt) and 19 touchdowns (13 interceptions) while running for 758 yards (5.3 per carry) and four touchdowns. He finished his Florida career with 3,347 passing yards (7.7 per attempt) and 26 touchdown passes (14 picks) while running for 1,273 yards (5.4 per carry) and 10 touchdowns.
Arizona State may turn out to be the best fit that Jones could have found because the offense is so similar to what he ran at Florida and he will be playing in a league that doesn’t have the dominating defenses that he ran into in the Southeastern Conference (only four Pac-12 defenses were ranked ahead of the Gators).
Jones is a Georgia native whose closest game to his home state in 2022 will be a September 10 road trip to Oklahoma State.
GOLDEN AND THE TRANSFER PORTAL
It has been a busy week for Florida basketball coach Todd Golden, who welcomed a pair of transfer portal visitors from St. Bonaventure (Kyle Lofton and Osun Ossiniyi) in the transfer portal and is expected to host one of the top scoring guards in the portal from Missouri State (Isaiah Mosley) in a matter of days.
First, the kids from St. Bonaventure. Point guard Kyle Lofton (6-3, 185), who averaged 12.8 points, 3.5 rebounds and a whopping 5.9 assists per game last year and big man Osun Ossiniyi (6-10, 220), who averaged 11.3 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocked shots per game, visited the Gators. Both Lofton and Ossinyi played four years at St. Bonaventure and have a COVID year at their disposal.
For his career, Lofton has scored 1,613 points (13.9 per game) and has averaged 3.0 rebounds and 5.2 assists per game. He has a 5.2 to 2.4 assist to turnover ratio. Ossinyi has scored 1,100 points while averaging 9.9 points, 8.1 rebounds and 2.7 blocked shots per game. He is a career 59.5 percent shooter who has taken three (count ‘em) three-pointers and made one. Total. Arizona, Tennessee, Purdue, Rutgers, and Seton Hall are also in the mix but Florida is thought to be in very good shape here.
The Missouri State shooter is Isaiah Mosley (6-5, 201), who averaged 20.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists last year while shooting 50.4 percent overall from the field and 42.7 percent from the 3-point line. He hit 90.2 percent of his free throws and is a career 87.4 percent shooter from the foul line.
Mosley, who has two seasons of eligibility remaining, has scored 1,434 points in his career at Mizzou State (15.9 per game) while averaging 5.3 rebounds and 2.1 assists per game. He is a career 49.8 percent shooter and a 41 percent 3-point shooter. Mosley is being recruited by Kansas, Duke, Texas Tech, Mississippi State, Louisville and Texas among others but Florida is thought to be one of his three choices.
The Gators remain in good shape for Washington State big man Efo Abogidi (6-10, 225), who averaged 8.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 1.8 blocked shots per game, and San Francisco point guard Khalil Shabazz (6-1, 170), who averaged 13.7 points, 3.1 rebounds and 2.1 assists for Todd Golden last season. Abogidi is being pursued by Marquette, Texas, Texas A&M, Arizona, Houston and Wake Forest among others.
UF BASEBALL: GATORS TRAVEL TO MISSSISSIPPI STATE
This might be the oh what might have been series for both the Gators (26-18, 8-13 SEC) and Mississippi State (25-20, 9-12 SEC). Both the Gators and the Bulldogs, last year’s NCAA champs, were expected to be among this season’s elite teams left by veteran aces. Both teams are in a struggle to make the NCAA Tournament, however, in part because Florida lefty Hunter Barco and MSU righthander Landon Sims are on the shelf and facing Tommy John surgery. Pitching will be a major concern for both teams starting tonight when they face off in a critical SEC series in Starkville.
The Gators find themselves in fifth place in the SEC East, a game behind South Carolina (23-20, 9-12 SEC) and two behind Vanderbilt (29-14, 10-11 SEC). Mississippi State is tied for fifth with Alabama (25-20, 9-12 SEC) in the SEC West, three games behind Auburn (31-14, 12-9 SEC), Texas A&M (28-15, 12-9 SEC) and LSU (30-14, 12-9 SEC), which are tied for second.
Without Barco (5-2, 2.50 ERA, 69 strikeouts in 50-1/3 innings) the already young Florida pitching staff has had to go with sophomore Brandon Sproat (5-4, 4.39 ERA) as its Friday starter with Brandon Neely (2-0, 3.35 ERA) taking over the Saturday slot. As of Thursday, Florida hadn’t named a Sunday starter for the Bulldogs.
Sims, the bullpen hero for Mississippi State’s run to the 2021 national championship, had a 1.15 ERA with 27 strikeouts in 15-2/3 innings before he was shut down for the season. The Bulldogs are expected to start Brandon Smith (3-3, 3.75 ERA) Friday, Preston Johnson (3-3, 5.52 ERA) Saturday and Cade Smith (4-2, 4.20 ERA) on Sunday.
Florida comes into the game on the heels of an 18-3 non-conference win over South Florida in which the Gators hit six home runs, three by Jud Fabian (.279, 19 HR, 47 RBI).
UF SOFTBALL: GATORS HOST A PAIR OF NON-CONFERNCE DOUBLEHEADERS
The SEC portion of Florida’s softball schedule is complete so all the Gators (38-14, 13-11 SEC) can do is wait to see where they will be seeded for next week’s SEC Tournament in Gainesville. The Gators could finish as high as third in the final SEC regular season standings or drop to seventh depending on what seven other teams do.
In the meantime, the Gators will be hosting a couple of non-conference doubleheaders tonight and Saturday. They face Mercer (24-23) of the Southern Conference at 5 p.m. and Florida Gulf Coast (16-31) of the Atlantic Sun Conference at 7:30 and then Saturday they will close out the regular season with FGC at noon and Mercer at 2:30 p.m.
This will likely be a weekend for Tim Walton to get all his pitchers ready for the SEC Tournament. Lexie Delbrey (12-2, 2.27 ERA) definitely needs the work and both Rylee Trlicek (1-1, 2.15 ERA) and Haley Pittman (2-0, 3.71 ERA) could use some innings whether as starters or in relief. Elizabeth Hightower (12-7, 2.51 ERA) will probably get one start and Natalie Lugo (9-4, 2.15 ERA) might be used mostly as a closer.
FLORIDA LACROSSE: GATORS PLAY FOR AAC CHAMPIONSHIP
The 8th-ranked and top-seeded Gators (14-4) earned their way into the American Athletic Conference championship game with an 18-7 win over 4th-seeded East Carolina (9-9) Thursday behind four goals each by Emma LoPinto and Maggi Hall. Next up for the Gators is 3rd-seeded Vanderbilt (11-6), an 11-10 overtime winner over Temple in the other AAC semifinal.
Should the Gators stop Vanderbilt, whom they beat 16-8 during the regular season, it will be their ninth straight conference tournament championship and their third in the AAC.
UF TENNIS: MEN/WOMEN HOST NCAA FIRST, SECOND ROUNDS
The Florida men’s quest to repeat as NCAA champs begins at 5 p.m. today when the Gators (23-2) take on fourth-seeded New Orleans in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at the Ring Tennis Complex on campus. Should the Gators win their opening round match, they’ll face the winner of 29th-ranked Miami and 45th-ranked South Florida Saturday at 5 p.m.
The Florida women, meanwhile, are the 15th overall seed in the NCAA Tournament and the host of a regional that features South Alabama, Florida State and Florida International. The Gators (19-6) take on South Alabama Saturday at 2 p.m. If they win, they face the FSU-FIU winner at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
SEC FOOTBALL/BASKETBALL
Alabama: Louisville coach Scott Satterfield has implied that Alabama may have tampered with wide receiver Tyler Hall before landing him as a transfer. “I think it’s not only him, it’s happened before here,” Satterfield said. “Last year we had a few guys that jumped into the portal and the next day they’re announcing where they’re going. You can look at that and know that something went on before they were in the portal.”
Auburn: Former Auburn offensive coordinator Al Borges, who directed the offense in 2004 when the Tigers went 13-0 but didn’t have a chance to play for the national championship, thinks Auburn should be given a title that was vacated when Southern Cal went on probation for Reggie Bush. In the national championship game, Southern Cal beat Oklahoma 55-19. Borges said, “Did Reggie Bush’s playing for USC, is that the difference in 55-19, I don’t know. Maybe it is, but I doubt it. So we should be the national champions. I see no rational reason why we shouldn’t be. But you know, my version is a little slanted. To leave the 2004 championship vacated when there should have been, when there is a champion, I think is absurd. But I don’t make that call.”
LSU: KJ Williams (6-10, 245), who averaged 18 points and 8.4 rebounds last season for Matt McMahon at Murray State, has followed his old coach to LSU.
Missouri: Former Jacksonville State defensive end DJ Coleman (6-6, 245), a second team D1AA All-American, has transferred to Mizzou. He had 55 tackles including 5.5 tackles for loss and 3.5 sacks last season.
South Carolina: Jermaine Couisnard, who averaged 12 points, 2.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game last season is transferring to Oregon.
ONE FINAL PITHY THOUGHT: The Athletic is reporting that SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Pac-12 commissioner George Kliavkoff were in Washington Thursday to lobby for Federal legislation to regulate Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). In a Thursday night statement, Sankey said, "As we have observed activity emerge that is very different from original ideas around Name, Image and Likeness, it is important we continue to pursue a national NIL structure to support the thousands of opportunities made available for young people through intercollegiate athletics programs across the country."
Translation: This thing is so out of control, the NCAA is absolutely clueless and we’re so desperate that we’ll even turn to Congress for help.
Just how bad is it? One athletic director told Bruce Feldman of The Athletic, “We all know what is going on at some places, and it’s now the wild, Wild West. It’s out of control, and it’s been getting dramatically worse by the week, by the day, it seems.”
One Power Five head coach told Feldman, “Do we really want to get into this world where we’re gonna induce kids that are 16 or 17 or 19 to choose their program and leave their high school or their college for what turns out to be a donor’s dollar?”
What we have here is what the Brits would call a sticky wicket. On one hand, coaches aren’t exactly upset if one of their collectives offers a kid a deal that brings him to their school. They might truly believe that NIL is out of control, but they aren’t going to complain when NIL gets them their guy. They are, however, completely upset and it is totally out of control when that same kid gets a better deal to go somewhere else.
We do need some rules and some regulations to deal with NIL for a host of reasons, among them how many 17 or 18-year-old kids are really equipped to make a decision that involves more money than he has ever seen and also because there is no way to be sure the kid is the one who is really going to benefit from the big deal.
For now, however, we have a mess that is only going to get worse until someone comes up with answers that nobody seems to have at the moment.
