College Football
Airing It Out
By: Steve Norris
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
You don’t have to be a Georgia fan to understand the effect that Todd Monken has had on Georgia’s offense the last three years.
Monken recently was named Offensive Coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens, ending his time in Athens, GA.
Monken created a balanced and creative offense that kept defenses guessing and got the ball to multiple playmakers throughout games. It’s was a thing of beauty to watch and as a Georgia fan, I hate to see Monken go to Baltimore, because watching Georgia’s offense in the past hasn’t always been a treat.
Georgia has historically been known as a running team and for good reason. UGA is known as “Tailback U’, mostly due to the incredibly talented running backs that have come through in the last few decades. Everyone knows about Herschel Walker, Garrison Hearst, Todd Gurley, and Nick Chubb, just to name a few.
However, when it comes to passing the ball, Georgia fans have had to hold their collective breath a lot over the years. When Georgia’s quarterback has had to air it out a lot in games, it usually hasn’t ended well.
I decided to check out the website sicemdawgs.com and found this category: Most Passing Attempts by a UGA Quarterback in a Game.
Here’s the Top Ten results:
Tied at 10th are Aaron Murray and Quincy Carter with 49.
Murray’s was against Auburn in 2013 and Carter against Florida in 1998. Both were losses. Georgia was pounded by the Gators 38-7 and every Georgia fan remembers how that 2013 Auburn game ended. A 43-38 loss where Murray deserved better.
Tied at 7th are Eric Zeier twice and Jake Fromm with 51 attempts.
Zeier’s were against South Carolina (a 24-21 win) and Kentucky (a 34-30 win) in 1994. Fromms’ was an ugly 20-17 overtime loss to South Carolina in 2019 that the Fromm-haters in the Georgia fan base have never been able to get over. While Fromm didn’t play well that day, that loss was a team effort.
At 6th is Zeier again (see a pattern here?) with 53 passing attempts against Auburn at home in 1993. Another ugly home loss (42-28) where Georgia’s defense failed to show up and give our quarterback any help.
At 5th is Zeier again with 54 in an awful Homecoming loss to Vanderbilt in 1994. I was there covering the game that day for 13WMAZ (Macon). It’s probably the worst, most “mailed in” game I’ve ever seen from a Georgia squad.
Tied for 3rd with 55 passing attempts in a game are Quincy Carter and Jacob Eason.
Carter’s performance was in 1999 at Georgia Tech. Another inexplicable loss that could have been easily avoided had Head Coach Jim Donnan just kicked a field goal at Tech’s one-yard-line in overtime.
Instead, he ran Jasper Sanks, who fumbled and Tech recovered. Had there been replay at the time, it would have shown that Sanks was down. Unfortunately for Dawg fans, Tech would hold Georgia scoreless on their next possession and then kick a field goal to win 51-48.
It’s still the last time Georgia Tech has beaten Georgia at Grant Field. Jacob Eason’s 55-attempt performance was in 2016 at Missouri. Eason’s final pass was a 4th Down touchdown completion to Isaiah McKenzie to give the Dawgs a last-minute victory 28-27.
In 2nd place is Cory Phillips with 62 passing attempts against Georgia Tech at home in 2000.
This was a 27-15 loss that sealed Jim Donnan’s fate as head coach. He was fired the next week.
Phillips was 36 of 62 passing, while throwing for 413 yards, yet Georgia only managed 15 points for the game. What’s more frustrating is that all 11 starters for Georgia on defense that year went on to play in the NFL in some capacity.
Which brings us to the game with the most passing attempts ever. The 1993 Cocktail Party. Better known to old school Georgia fans as “The Timeout Game”.
Eric Zeier put the ball in the air a whopping 65 times that game in a 33-26 loss. The field was a mess as it had rained for what seemed like forever.
With five seconds left in the game, Zeier hit Jerry Jerman for what looked like a touchdown and the opportunity to go for two and win the game.
Instead, the referees claimed that Florida defensive back Anthony Lott had called a timeout before the ball had snapped (replay showed he didn’t but it didn’t matter).
The Dawgs would fail to score afterward and suffered yet another heartbreaking loss to Steve Spurrier and the hated Gators.
Georgia went 3-8 in those 11 games, with the three wins coming by four points or less.
Yet, despite two straight national championships, I still hear some Georgia fans complaining that we need a quarterback with an NFL-type arm who can throw the ball around the yard on a regular basis.
Relax, my fellow Dawg fans. Monken and Stetson Bennett have proven that a strong running game along with a quarterback who understands and can run the system is all Georgia needs to be successful.
Kickoff
By: Garrison Ryfun
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
At the end of the first transfer period, two teams stand at the top of the transfer portal recruiting rankings according to 247Sports: LSU and Florida State.
Florida State and LSU started the season last year in a Sunday night thriller that ended with an extra point blocked by FSU.
Since that 24-23 win, both teams went on to have great regular seasons and both wound up winning a bowl sponsored by Cheez-It in Orlando. (LSU winning the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and FSU winning the Cheez-It Bowl).
In an exciting week 1 rematch to start the 2023 season, both teams will pick up where they left off – in Orlando, at Camping World Stadium.
This neutral site matchup is sure to be another classic opening weekend game, with the winner having a great resume-building win for the final four-team playoff in 2023.
But how did these teams, who started the year unranked in 2022, become likely two preseason top ten teams? Good coaching and the transfer portal.
Names like Jayden Daniels for LSU or Jared Verse for FSU, both helped elevate the ceiling of the programs they transferred into in 2022.
Now heading into the 2023 season, with Florida State and LSU sitting on top of the transfer recruiting rankings let’s see who they brought in through the portal:
LSU:
Aaron Anderson (WR) from Alabama
Paris Shand (Edge) from Arizona
Jalen Lee (DL) from Florida
Bradyn Swinson (Edge) from Oregon
Denver Harris (CB) from Texas A&M
Jordan Jefferson (DL) from West Virginia
Zy Alexander (CB) from Southeastern Lousiana
Darian Chestnut (CB) from Syracuse
Jakailin Johnson (CB) from Ohio State
Ovie Oghofu (LB) from Texas
Omar Speights (LB) from Oregon State
LSU went hard after defensive lineman and cornerbacks, grabbing four of each during this cycle to help shore up holes. They also were able to grab a stud linebacker in Omar Speights to have in tandem with rising star Harold Perkins.
FSU:
Darrell Jackson (DL) from Miami (Fl)
Jaheim Bell (TE) from South Carolina
Kyle Morelock (TE) from Shorter University
Casey Roddick (IOL) from Colorado
Jeremiah Byers (OT) from UTEP
Keiondre Jones (IOL) from Auburn
Braden Fiske (DL) from Western Michigan
Fentrell Cypress (CB) from Virginia
Gilber Edmond (DE) from South Carolina
Tyler Keltner (K) from ETSU
FSU looked to add the lines of scrimmage, adding three offensive and three defensive linemen to their roster.
They were also able to plug a big hole at tight end, by bringing in two athletic college standouts.
They were able to secure the commitment from a transfer kicker, creating a competition there this offseason.
Finally, the biggest get for their class was likely Fentrell Cypress, a shutdown corner from Virginia – a piece the Noles have been missing since 2021.
In an age when questions are being asked about the sustainability of transfer portal recruiting, and whether or not it’s possible to win a championship with schools taking ten or more transfers a year – Florida State and LSU, teams using this newer model, will likely start the 2023 season in a top ten matchup that can have serious playoff implications.
Revamping NIL In Florida
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Less than three years after Florida enacted a law to help athletes and universities get a head start in the profitable NIL space, now the legislature is ramping up efforts to make sure those groups don’t get left behind.
When the State House and Senate convene next week for a two-week session, one of the main topics tackled will be revamping Florida’s existing NIL law.
“In 2020, Florida was proactive in creating legislation which governs how college athletes can be compensated for use of their names, images and likenesses,” House Speaker Paul Renner wrote in a Friday memo to House members and staff.
“However, the recent enactment of NCAA regulations regarding athlete compensation has put many states with such laws at a disadvantage, causing a need for Florida to revisit our current law. We recognize the need to address this issue in a timely manner so our collegiate teams can remain competitive.”
The 2020 Florida law made it permissible for college athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness, but it prohibited coaches, staff and other representatives of universities from being part of the process.
That became an issue when the NCAA subsequently ruled that all athletes could earn money from NIL deals as long as they followed their state laws, which meant those in Florida and a handful of other states would actually be at a disadvantage.
Several states promptly repealed their state laws once that happened, but two bills in Florida stalled during the 2022 session.
The new House legislation will be referred to the Education and Employment Committee, according to Renner’s memo. The Senate version will go to the Post-Secondary Education Committee.
Virtually, all college coaches claim it has led to widespread tampering and even more illegal recruiting than usual, and many programs worry about the effect it is having on locker room chemistry.
At the same time, people also believe it is long overdue that college athletes have the right to earn money through marketing agreements and other above-board business opportunities.
The proposal by Rep. Chip LaMarca, R-Lighthouse Point, would align Florida law with those in other states with schools that compete with Florida universities, which generated $1.1 billion dollars in revenue last year, according to a House analysis.
This Bill would allow schools to set up space on campus for NIL entities to meet athletes and for university employees to introduce athletes to companies willing to pay them to use their name and likeness.
When the NCAA issued new NIL guidelines last October to allow schools to have a more active role in connecting athletes with NIL entities, Florida schools — such as the University of Florida, University of Central Florida and Florida State University — suddenly found themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
The Bill specifically states that a school is not required to identify or facilitate NIL opportunities for students, or that an NIL deal qualifies a student as a university employee.
Also, they amended the proposal shielding schools and coaches from liability related to damages resulting from routine decisions — like benching a player — because schools have sovereign immunity.
The proposal has two more committee stops before it is introduced to the House floor.
As always, the unintended consequences could be problematic. On its face, it’s much better they are in charge of managing the brand and not relying on outside or non-auditable parties.
You have to assume that this will lead to some sort of mutually agreed salary cap by conferences at some point down the road.
I believe this will have universities explaining why they are not using new TV revenues and other income sources to pony up for 5 stars, rather than asking their alumni/booster base to take on the additional burden of NIL.
Shuffling The Deck
By: Garrison Ryfun
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
With the ACC going division-less in 2023, the championship will now be played by the top two teams in the conference, instead of the winners of each division.
Since the conference is going division-less, teams will now play what is described as a 3-5-5 schedule.
This means that from at least 2023 to 2026, ACC teams will have three primary opponents and a rotation of the other ten teams in the conference.
The ACC guarantees that through this new scheduling format, each team will have a home and away game against all 13 other teams in this four-year window.
Though not all that common, this will prevent a championship game played by a 7-5 or 6-6 winner of either the Coastal or Atlantic division.
Once again, the divisions will not exist anymore but every team will be locked into three specific opponents.
Here are the primary opponents for each team in the ACC:
Boston College: Miami (FL), Pittsburgh, and Syracuse
Clemson: Florida State, Georgia Tech, and NC State
Duke: North Carolina, NC State, and Wake Forest
Florida State: Clemson, Miami, and Syracuse
Georgia Tech: Clemson, Louisville, and Wake Forest
Louisville: Georgia Tech, Miami (FL), and Virginia
Miami (FL): Boston College, Florida State, and Louisville
North Carolina: Duke, North Carolina, and Virginia
NC State: Clemson, Duke, and North Carolina
Pittsburgh: Boston College, Syracuse, and Virginia Tech
Syracuse: Boston College, Florida State, and Pittsburgh
Virginia: Louisville, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech: Pittsburgh, Virginia, and Wake Forest
Wake Forest: Duke, Georgia Tech, and Virginia Tech
Notre Dame, though not an official member of the conference for football, will still play their contractually obligated five ACC opponents under this new system.
This move just makes sense for the health of the conference.
In the upcoming age of super conferences, with Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC and USC and UCLA making their move to the Big Ten, having the two best teams in your conference title game will only help with national perception for the top of your conference.
It will already be hard enough to convince teams like Florida State and Clemson to not look elsewhere during this era. Super conferences will only create more revenue, especially in the television space for their member teams.
This is a step forward, albeit small, for the conference, and could give fans some fun in-season rematches in the championship game for years to come.
The biggest problem the ACC has left is figuring out how to navigate college football in this upcoming era.
Convincing Notre Dame, whose contract with NBC expires in 2025, and another high-profile team to join the conference is the next big step the ACC has to take to remain relevant in the football space.
Checking All The Boxes
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Kirby Smart, arguably, is the most popular man in the state of Georgia currently.
The Georgia Bulldogs just won the 2022 National Championship to back up the one they won in 2021.
In seven full seasons in Athens, Smart has led his Dawgs to an 81-15 overall record with two SEC titles to go along with the national titles.
Many UGA fans are saying the 2023 team could be better than the current National Champions. I’m thinking how do you get better than 15-0 and a 65-7 rout in the title game?
It is called recruiting. Kirby Smart and Nick Saban are the best recruiters in college football. Year after year of top three recruiting classes allows a program to stockpile talent.
To Smart’s credit he recruits athletes that respond to hard coaching. Players get coached up hard at UGA. The results are stockpiling also.
Fifteen players were drafted by the NFL in 2022, which included 5 first rounders on the defensive side of the ball. Early projections for 2023 predict that UGA could have as many as 10 players drafted.
If Jalen Carter is the first player selected by the Chicago Bears, then UGA could have players in back-to-back drafts selected as the number one overall pick. Travon Walker was first overall by Jacksonville in 2022.
Kirby Smart develops his football players and gets them ready for the next level or ready for life.
It starts with practice. Nobody works harder than the Georgia Bulldogs under Kirby Smart. His teams are prepared physically and mentally for any opponent they face. The foundation of that is demanding work.
When you have four- and five-star talent that is willing to work and be pushed constantly you see the results start mounting. Look at the practice leading up to the TCU game.
Gunner Stockton took off the non-contact jersey at QB and replicated Max Duggan for TCU and took live hits from the best defense in the country to get them ready for TCU.
Kirby said this about his QB room after the title game:
“We got one that took a black (non-contact) jersey off and took hits all week so he could be Max (Duggan). “Gunner Stockton said, ‘Coach, take my shirt off. I’ll take the hits.’ ”
That is called total 100% buy-in folks. The is what Kirby demands and his roster year in and year old responds to it.
Kirby is already creating a narrative for the 2023 season: “The disease that creeps into your program is called entitlement. I’ve seen it firsthand,” Smart said. “If you can stomp it out with leadership, then you can stay hungry. And we have a saying around our place: We eat off the floor. And if you’re willing to eat off the floor, you can be special.”
Talking about leading by example just 48 hours after returning from the west coast title Kirby and staff were dropping in via helicopter on high schools all over the state of Georgia, and then heading out all over the country recruiting national recruits.
Kirby has turned UGA into a national brand now, and UGA has become a pipeline to the NFL. These are glorious times UGA fans. Enjoy this run while it lasts.
UGA has 13-14 starters returning for the 2023 season with a recruiting class that was ranked #2 nationally coming in.
Georgia signed seven of the top 20 recruits in the state of Florida. Florida signed none.
Kirby Smart is checking all the boxes in Athens, Georgia.
War Chief
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Most Florida State fans and media expected to see improvement from the FSU football team in 2022; few could have honestly predicted that the Seminoles would go 10-3 with wins over the likes of Florida, Miami, LSU and Oklahoma after their lackluster 2021.
Coming into the 2022 season, it would be Jordan Travis’ first year as a full-time starter but his third year in the system. On top of that, it would be Travis’ first opportunity to be the unquestioned leader of the Seminoles’ offense, which comes with large potential upside.
Travis not only emerged as Florida State’s best starting quarterback since Jameis Winston, but one of the very best in the country.
In leading the Seminoles to a 10-3 record, Travis completed 226 of 353 passes (64.0 percent) for 3,214 yards and 24 touchdowns with five interceptions. He also rushed for 417 yards and five touchdowns and even hauled in a touchdown catch.
Travis was named second-team All-ACC. He showed great improvement as a passer and appeared completely confident in his third season in Norvell’s offense.
Since the Seminoles didn’t have a proven backup, some worried that the season could be derailed at any moment.
Fortunately for FSU, backup QB Tate Rodemaker showed great composure and led the Seminoles to a 35-31 win over Louisville.
Rodemaker’s stellar performance in a hostile environment, along with Travis’ ability to rebound quickly from injury is what alleviated most of those concerns.
After Travis’s start against Boston College, it turned out he would remain healthy for the rest of the year, and play in all 13 games.
Based on Travis’ performance and Rodemaker’s improvement as a redshirt sophomore, the Seminoles discovered one of the best quarterback situations in college football by the end of the season.
Travis didn’t waste much time in announcing that he would return and he already is appearing on some early Heisman predictions. Rodemaker and AJ Duffy are also expected to be back, and the Seminoles also will bring in freshman Brock Glenn, a four-star prospect from Memphis.
Travis not only led Florida State to its first 10-win season since 2016, but according to Pro Football Focus, he was the best Power 5 quarterback in the nation.
The way Jordan Travis played in the second half of this season, and with the moves the Seminoles are making in player retention and in the transfer takes, I think Florida State is poised to take another big step next season.
The Barn Sign
By: Steve Norris
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Ross Smith had seen enough…and decided to let the world know about it.
It was Saturday, October 28th, 2000. Smith’s beloved Georgia Bulldogs had just suffered another frustrating loss to Steve Spurrier and the Florida Gators. It was the Dawgs’ 10th loss to the Gators in 11 games dating back to 1990, and Dawg fans were getting tired of it.
“We were angry that (Head Coach) Jim Donnan had decided to play Quincy Carter at quarterback over Cory Phillips.” Ross Smith, cousins and friends wanted people to know about it.
The week before, Carter was out due to injury, so Cory Phillips stepped in and led the Dawgs to a road victory over the Kentucky Wildcats, throwing for 400 yards and four touchdown passes.
“We thought for sure that Phillips had earned the chance to play against Florida,” said Smith. “Instead, Donnan went with Carter, who went out and threw three interceptions and looked horrible in yet another loss (to Florida).”
And that’s how The Barn Sign was born.
That night, Smith bought some red, white, and black paint and brought the dilapidated former corner store to life with its first message to Dawg fans everywhere: “TO HELL WITH CARTER…PHILLIPS FOR PRESIDENT”
“It was an election year, so going with “President” made sense to me,” said Smith.
The “barn” doesn’t actually belong to Smith. It is owned by his first cousins, James and Jonathan Hitchcock, who live on and operate the farm across the street.
It was originally a corner store from the mid-50’s to the late 70’s, according to Smith.
“There was a family that ran it and lived in a small room on the side of the building,” said Smith. “I’m not sure how they did it all those years. The room they lived in wasn’t as big as my truck and there’s never been any running water.”
After the first message in 2000, Smith began changing the sign a few times a year.
“I would change it at the end of the season, on National Signing Day (which was in February then), two weeks before the season to get Dawg fans pumped up, and then after the Florida game.
If we lost the Florida game, I would put up a message ribbing Gator fans, and if we’d won, I’d just put up the score. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to put the score up very much the first ten years or so,” Smith said laughingly.
Around 2010, the building began to rot in some places due to water leaks when it rained. Smith came home from a trip one day and noticed the building was leaning badly. “I just figured that was it. I was done painting The Barn Sign,” said Smith.
What he didn’t realize was how popular the sign had truly become. “People were sending me messages on Facebook asking me when I was going to fix the sign and paint it again,” said Smith. “I was fresh out of college and didn’t have a lot of money. I told the fans that if they wanted the sign back up, I needed them to donate money to help me pay for it.
I figured I needed around $1500 to make repairs, so I set up a PayPal account and raised $1700 in ten days. In fact, I had to turn the account off because money was coming in so fast.” Smith said.
Once the sign was repaired, its popularity began to grow exponentially. Smith has been interviewed by ESPN along with other large newspapers.
The Barn Sign Facebook page is approaching 55,000 “likes” while Smith’s daily page posts attract a lot of traffic.
Even while I was interviewing Smith in front of the sign, located on Highway 15 between Tennille and Wrightsville, around 15-20 people parked on the highway next to the sign to get a glimpse and take pictures in front of the iconic building. Of course, the current sign has a lot to do with that. Today it reads:
21-22 BACK-TO-BACK NATIONAL CHAMPIONS.
For Smith and all Georgia fans, it’s truly the best message ever and a “sign” that like Georgia football, The Barn Sign has a lot of great years ahead of it.
SEC Stocks
Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The 2022 College Football season is in the books. Kirby Smart and UGA have won back-to-back National Titles. My annual SEC Football stock report is upon us again.
Stock Keys:
Buy
Sell
Hold
Georgia: The best college football stock on the planet. CEO Kirby Smart has developed a winning organizational culture.
401K plan is the best in the business, and the best employees are recruited year in and year out.
The executive management team is the best in the business and well compensated.
This organization is built for any market and will flourish even during down economic times. Blue blood stock that will make you tons of money. The long-term future of this stock is through the roof. Advice: Buy it all.
Alabama: Over a 10-year period this stock has been the most consistent producer of wealth.
CEO Nick Saban is still the king of CEO’s.
Maybe the stock dipped slightly in 2022, but the long-term future is bright.
Top rated employer with the most talented work force make this stock very attractive.
The CEO training program is the best I the country. The executive management team has become a little complacent over the past 12 months and that has been addressed by the CEO.
This stock will always make you a ton of money. Advice: Buy as much as you can.
Tennessee: This historically producing stock crashed over the past 15 years.
However, in 2022 this stock hit a 20-year high. CEO Josh Huepel has been a breath of fresh air after a string of poor CEO’s dating back to 2008.
If you held on to this stock during the bleak years, then you are a wise investor. This stock will continue to rise to get back to the glory years of the Clinton Presidency.
When the Big Orange stock is producing the SEC portfolio is second to none. Advice: Buy
LSU: After reaching an all-time high in 2019 this blue blood stock crashed over the past two years prompting the board of directors to hire a new CEO in Brian Kelly for 2022.
The early returns have been great. Stock has performed much better than expected.
Changes were made in the human resources department resulting in an influx of topflight employees for 2023 and beyond.
This corporation has invested properly for long-term growth once again. Advice: Buy
Mississippi State: This stock made a huge turnaround over the past 24 months. The tragic loss of beloved CEO Mike Leach has made things difficult over the past month.
Leach leaves behind a great foundation that is positioned for continued growth, and his legacy will live on. Rest easy Pirate. Advice: Buy
South Carolina: This stock made a remarkable turnaround late in calendar year 2022 and recovered from some tough early losses by performing well against superior brands Tennessee and Clemson.
Energetic CEO in Shane Beamer has the stockholders optimistic but not totally convinced to invest great sums of money.
This corporation has excited its stockholders before, and returns have not matched investment. Watch this stock closely in 2023. Advice: Hold for now.
Ole Miss: Aggressive CEO Kiffin takes too many chances and this has become a roller-coaster stock. Exciting to watch but for investors nerve-wracking. This is a high anxiety stock. Advice: Hold and never become emotionally invested in stock.
Florida: This stock should be a solid producer. New CEO Billy Napier inherited a horrible organizational culture.
Mass firings have taken place. Lazy employees have bailed for the transfer portal employment agency.
It will take some time to fix this mess. 401K plan is depleted and new hires are backing out causing this once proud organization to take massive public relations hits.
Advice: Sell it all until the board of directors allows CEO Napier to completely blow up this rotten culture.
Auburn, Texas A&M, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Vanderbilt: These poorly run or non-productive organizations are not worth the ink to write about.
Advice: Sell them off quickly. Watch Auburn and Texas A&M for future reinvestment.
Sometimes
By: Joe Delaney
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
SOMETIMES it just all comes together…… For the 2022 Georgia Bulldogs that was the case.
They started the 2022 season ranked third in most polls. While the Dawgs consistently played winning football throughout the year, they set the stage for a great season beginning on September 3 with a 49-3 pasting of the Oregon Ducks at the Benz in Atlanta.
There’s an old saying “Ducks on the Pond”. Well, the Georgia offense and defense just sat on the bank and picked em off one by one. The country then knew that the Dawgs weren’t back……. they had never left.
With all the talent that had gone off to the NFL, the Dawgs had simply reloaded and Dan Lanning and the Ducks got in the way and got blasted.
From there, it was like Amtrack blowing through Nahunta…… Saturdays throughout the fall the Dawgs would show up. The warning lights would go off, the gates would go down and that Red and Black bullet train would blow through at 60 mph running over anything in its path.
Then, whoosh they were gone. The gates went back up the warning lights went off and all that was left for South Carolina, Auburn, Florida, Tennessee, Tech and the others was a big L……. Only once in the season did the train even slow down. That was in Missouri and all it taught those Dawgs was to keep going and going FAST.
By the end of the regular season the entire country knew who was number ONE and the Dawgs did too.
It showed again in the SEC championship game when Georgia rolled LSU to the tune of 50-30. BUT……. that great Georgia defense gave up 500 yards passing in the game.
Forget that most of those yards were gotten after the game had been decided. Could the train get derailed in the playoffs?
Well, the one team that could match up talent wise with the Bulldogs got to take their shot on December 31st in the Peach Bowl at the Benz.
Ohio State had talent and a great future NFL quarterback in C. J. Stroud. Combine that with great overall team speed and a chip on their shoulder from getting their butts handed to them by hated rival Michigan and the Buckeyes came in and played flawlessly.
They almost derailed the Athens Express. After Stetson Bennett led the Dawgs back out of a 14-point hole in the fourth quarter, the Dawgs held a slim one-point lead 42-41 scoring with under a minute to play.
From there, the Buckeyes and Mr. Stroud went to work. With a combination of passing and Stroud’s scrambling, the Nuts drove down the field and lined up for a game winning field goal with seconds left. Looked like the train was about to run outta track.
BUT SOMETIMES things just go your way and a duck hooked 50-yard field goal attempt later the Dawgs were headed to Cali and another shot at the Natty.
Everyone knows what happened next. The Dawgs ran all over TCU like they were a Frog on the train track. It was ugly, fast and ruthless. The largest blowout in the CFP ever, 65-7 and it wasn’t that close. The starters were eating chicken wings on the sideline in the fourth quarter.
So back to Athens with another Natty in hand. Time for curtain calls and happy endings…….
BUT SOMETIMES……. This life doesn’t go the way we feel it should. At 2:45 am on Sunday January 15th, mere hours after thousands of Dawgs rejoiced in the streets of Athens with the team, coaches, and staff, 2 players and 2 support staff were involved in a terrible accident in Athens.
It claimed the life of Chandler LeCroy a recruiting staffer and OL Devin Willock. It left Victoria Bowles in serious condition and our own Warren McClendon with less than serious injuries.
The joy throughout the Bulldog Nation quickly turned to sorrow with everyone associated with the program stunned by the turn of events. It was just horrible.
Dawgs everywhere will relish and savor this run with Kirby and the Dawgs but there will always be an asterisk placed on the championship parade of 2023.
Two wonderful young people taken too soon. A stark reminder of what is really important to us all.
SOMETIMES……. It just doesn’t seem fair. Rest in Peace Devin and Chandler.
Rome Wasn’t Built In A Day
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
With Florida’s season over and the early signees on board for 2023, Florida Gators’ coach Billy Napier has officially turned the page on his first year with the Gators.
Following Florida’s regular season finale at Florida State, a recruiting drought went into effect on Nov. 28. A flood of transfers and bowl opt-outs soon followed.
Sixteen of UF’s 22 outgoing transfers announced they were leaving after the FSU game, although a handful of players stayed with the team through the bowl. The Gators also had four key starters skip the Las Vegas Bowl after declaring for the NFL Draft.
To complicate matters more for Napier and his assistant coaches, Florida’s selection for the Dec. 17 bowl meant the trip would take away from their in-home visits before signing day. Two days after the contact period opened on Dec. 2, UF was matched up with Oregon State.
With the team flying out on Dec. 13, Napier managed to make 30 different stops on the recruiting trail over a five-day stretch. The contact period ended on the day Florida returned from the bowl game, so he had to fit in enough in-home visits and trips to high schools before traveling to Las Vegas.
During the first week of the contact period, Napier likely made more recruiting stops than any coach in the country.
The juggling act of bowl practices, portal exits and recruiting visits created a challenging and hectic month for Napier and his staff to close out 2022.
The Gators ended the year on a low note, dropping their third straight game with a depleted roster. Despite the lopsided loss to Oregon State and UF’s 6-7 record, Napier still expressed that his team made progress over the course of the season.
Despite the losses on the field and the portal, Napier and his staff scored some big wins on the recruiting trail. UF inked a top 10 class on signing day, with 15 blue chips.
Quarterback signee Jaden Rashada has not enrolled at the University of Florida for the spring semester. Rumors are he has requested to be released from his National Letter of Intent.
With 80 percent of the class holding a four-star rating or higher, it marked Florida’s best blue-chip ratio since Urban Meyer’s No. 1-ranked recruiting class in 2010.
Prospects from Florida also comprised 70 percent of the Gators’ class for the fourth time since 2000. Most importantly, Napier and his staff got a feel for the recruiting landscape along with a better understanding of how to navigate the new and ever-evolving NIL market.
The Gators not only flipped some of their top signees such as Rashada (Miami), Dijon Johnson (Ohio State) and Roderick Kearney (Florida State), but down the stretch they also prevented Alabama, FSU and Michigan from poaching pledges Kelby Collins, Andy Jean and Aaron Gates respectively.
As Florida prepares to welcome 20 mid-year enrollees to campus and begin Phase 1 of the offseason program, Napier reflects on his first year at UF and what the future holds for 2023.
It created the silly narrative of questioning whether Napier is the savior that many of these same fans made him out to be when he was introduced as the head coach in December.
So, consider this a recommendation not just to UF supporters, but all those irrational college football fans with knee-jerk reactions to many recruiting developments involving their program: relax and take a deep breath. Rome was not built in a day, and neither were your delusions.
Napier and the rest of the program needs time to get there. Who knows if he’s going to be a transformative coach? Time will tell if Billy Napier will be the SEC’s next big thing, or if he will end up a small flash in a big pan. He clearly inherited a so-so roster from Mullen, so this recruiting bounce back is a good sign.
An uphill summit is never climbed immediately. The same goes for consistently recruiting top-10 national classes.
While UGA repeats as national champions, Napier has challenged UF’s players and staff to stay focused on what winning looks like to improve the team’s long-term trajectory.
Gator fans, let’s not kick sanity to the curb or kill the Billy Napier honeymoon after his first year. Quit the mental gymnastics, and enjoy the ride
