College Football
Chief-less Noles
By: Alex Mathis
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
It looks like the Jimbo Fisher and Florida State relationship has come to an end.
Jimbo Fisher took over for the legend Bobby Bowden in 2010. Jimbo has been pretty successful while being the head man in charge. His record was 83-23 with a national championship to his name.
He has turned a program that was somewhat struggling into a program that is in the top 25 every year and a program that has a top 10 recruiting class yearly.
So, what happened? There are a lot of rumors going around Tallahassee the last few days. Those rumors range from problems with administration, booster members, and also assistant changes.
Whatever the reason is, Jimbo Fisher will be in College Station next year coaching the Texas A&M Aggies.
This breakup has not been a pretty one. Coaches, players, and recruits have been out of the loop.
Florida State will always be Florida State. A program that is expected to compete for an ACC Championship. A program that is expected to compete for a National Title every year as well. The next head coach will have to come in and expect to achieve these same goals.
At this time there have been a few names that have been thrown around for potential replacements for Jimbo Fisher.
The name that you will hear in every conversation is Oregon’s Willie Taggert. Coach Taggert has proven that he can turn programs around and recruit at the highest level.
He was able to turn around a struggling Western Kentucky football team, a struggling University of South Florida team, and a struggling Oregon football team.
Coach Taggert is from Florida and has several connections when it comes to recruiting in Florida. Taggert is supposedly at the top of the list for FSU. Fisher and Taggert both share the same agent.
Surprisingly, another name being thrown around is the once Texas A&M coach, Kevin Sumlin. This one be an interesting move if it were to happen.
Coach Sumlin is a good coach. The expectations at Texas A&M maybe were a little high for him. His Aggies played in the SEC West. It is hard to compete with Alabama, Auburn, and LSU every year. Maybe a change of scenery would benefit Coach Sumlin.
The last name that is floating around is Bob Stoops. Coach Stoops stepped down at Oklahoma this year.
Coach Stoops is a proven winner. He is also a proven recruiter. Maybe Coach Stoops was tired of being in Norman and is looking for a new challenge. Tallahassee could be that challenge for Coach Stoops.
At the end of the day, the Florida State job is a good job. The team is loaded with talent and can compete each year for a championship. Florida State is also a school that recruits tend to gravitate to. Whomever comes in to be the next head coach has to salvage a diminishing recruiting class.
The next coach will have to build a staff quickly in order to get on the road and prove to recruits that Florida State is still Florida State.
Tennessee Rocky Flop
By: Kipp Branch
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Earlier this month Tennessee fired Butch Jones in the middle of a dumpster fire season, where the Vols finished 4-8 and 0-8 in the SEC.
Tennessee is a proud football program with over 800 wins and 13 SEC championships. Anyone in their right mind should want to take this job right?
Athletic Director John Currie needed to nail this coaching hire in the worst way possible after botching the Greg Schiano debacle from over the past weekend.
So, every morning I wake up now looking in the news at who the new Tennessee coach will be.
Regardless of who accepts the job, the public-relations damage has been done. And Tennessee is a school that recently settled a Title IX lawsuit regarding several counts of sexual misconduct by football players. It is not a place that needed more negative press.
Now you hear Tennessee is looking at Mike Leach from Washington State. Mike Leach to Knoxville would make the UT Weekly Press Conference during football season a definite landing spot for the football junkies of the world.
Leach is gold with the press. Plus, his offense would cause headaches for SEC Defensive Coordinators.
During a Tennessee football game in the future on CBS could the AFLAC question be: How many head coaches turned down the Tennessee job?
After UT botched the Schiano hire let’s get a count of who turned down the Vols:
John Gruden was never coming to start with. Used car sales should be going through the roof in Knoxville because those people will buy anything.
Dan Mullen picked Florida. Matt Campbell stayed at Iowa State. Tennessee offered Mike ” I am a man” Gundy $42 million, but he chose to stay at Oklahoma State. Dave Doeren of NC State said no. Jeff Brohm of Purdue said no. Who else turned them down?
Former coach Lane Kiffin trolls the Vols everyday on Twitter.
How about throwing $15 million a year at Nick Saban? He is not busy on Saturday; fly him up and pitch him during the SEC Championship game.
How about me, UT? I will take the job for $150k a year plus moving expenses. I am a championship coach.
My resume: Championships 3: Brunswick Fatboy Fantasy Football League 2009, 2010, 2011.
Playoffs: 7: 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016
Radio Show: I mop the floor every Saturday morning with Jason Bishop when the topic of college football is raised. Like taking candy from a baby on college football picks.
John Currie, call me, I will take your job in Knoxville. Protesters in Knoxville won’t bother me. I will buy them coffee on the way to the office daily.
I will even let Jason Bishop host “This week in Vol Football with Head Coach Kipp Branch”.
Championship football would back in Knoxville instead of burning couches, dumpster fires, and 0-8 in the SEC.
My, how the mighty have fallen. Hurry back Tennessee. On second thought I don’t want the job either.
Rocky Top is indeed Rocky Flop at this day and time.
Just bring back Phil Fulmer if you ever want to beat Alabama again.
AAC To Become Power Conference?
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I’ve always loved college football more than professional for a number of reasons.
One of the biggest is because they play much harder. Losing one game can derail the entire season. Unfortunately, college football has always had its share of flaws.
Previously it was almost unheard of for the best teams to play in the national championship. The BCS guaranteed the top two teams would meet but many times it seemed like that was not the case.
Now we have a playoff with four teams coming from the five ‘power’ conferences. I think we need to rethink that because there are some pretty good teams in the ‘Group of Five’ that will never make the playoffs.
Specifically, I think the American Athletic Conference should be added to make the ‘Power Six’ conferences.
You may remember the former Big East, which is the current AAC. During the BCS era they were one of the power conferences. The heavyweight teams like Miami, Virginia Tech, Syracuse and Boston College left the conference.
The second tier institutions like Louisville, West Virginia, Pitt and Rutgers followed suit. As a result, they were very weak because of that and the conference champion would routinely be blown out in the BCS bowl game.
Over the last few years the conference has vastly improved. With schools in Florida, Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania they have a great recruiting base. They are producing NFL talent which casual fans might not be aware of.
One example of that is Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Blake Bortles. He was picked 3rd overall in the 2014 draft. He led a very good Central Florida team to a 12-1 record in 2013. The Knights beat No. 8 Louisville in the inaugural AAC Championship and No. 5 Baylor in the Fiesta Bowl.
Houston is another program that has had recent success. They were 13-1 in 2011 as members of Conference USA. They beat UCLA and Penn State that year. They finished with that same record in 2015. The Cougars beat Louisville and Vanderbilt during the regular season and No. 9 Florida State in the Peach Bowl. They started the following 2016 season with a victory over No. 5 Oklahoma.
One of the best success stories has to be Temple. The Owls were a charter member of the Big East in 1991 but they were expelled from the league following the 2004 season. They rejoined the conference in 2012 and finally had success. They beat Penn State in 2015 and won the conference championship last year.
Memphis has produced NFL talent like Paxton Lynch, Dontari Poe, Stephen Gostkowski, Akeem Davis and DeAngelo Wiliams.
They shared the conference title in 2014 and in 2015 they upset No. 13 Ole Miss. The Tigers are currently 9-1 including a win over UCLA. They are guaranteed to win the West division and play in the AAC Championship.
UCF (10-0) faces South Florida (9-1) this week and the winner wins the East and advances to the conference championship.
The best thing any of these teams can hope for is a spot in one of the New Year’s Six bowl games. The playoffs should be expanded to at least 6 teams and if that happens the AAC champion should automatically get a playoff spot.
Georgia To Dominate SEC East For Years To Come
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Timing is everything.
I met my wife at an impromptu party my roommates and I had in Chapel Hill over 17 years ago. We were originally supposed to hang out with another group of friends, but just didn’t want to, so we decided to have people over to our apartment, instead.
Had that not taken place I never would have met my wife and would be 37 years old, probably living in my parents’ basement, still believing BASEketball is the perfect date movie.
The reason I mention this- besides never passing up an opportunity for a BASEketball reference- is the timing is set up perfectly for Georgia to dominate the SEC East over the next few football seasons.
Part of the reason is Georgia has set themselves up nicely for the future. They’ve got a good coach in Kirby Smart and strong recruiting classes coming in.
The other reason, and this is where the whole “timing” things comes in, is the level of competition they’ll be facing within their own division.
If people have referred to the SEC East these past 3-4 seasons as being a dumpster fire, the next 2-3 years will be a flaming inferno of mediocrity. You might as well start putting together those Poseidon gifs right now; you’ll be able to use them.
I like some of the progress being made at schools like Vanderbilt, Missouri, South Carolina, and Kentucky. But, with all due respect to those four programs, unless something drastic we’re to change over the next year or two, neither of those schools should be able to compete with Georgia on the field.
And let’s be honest, Georgia’s path to the SEC East dominance won’t be because they’re able to consistently beat those four teams I just mentioned. Their success will be based on the outcome of their matchups against Florida and Tennessee.
They say if a quarterback drafted in the first round becomes a bust it can set a franchise back three or four years. I believe Florida and Tennessee are about to find out the same thing can be said for coaches too.
(You could argue, and correctly I might add, that after coaches like Ron Zook and Derek Dooley, both programs are well aware that fact.)
Let’s start with Tennessee. I know just about every Vols fan is salivating at the possibility of Jon Gruden returning to Knoxville. I guess it could happen, but so could me winning a Pulitzer for my article on Lane Kiffin’s tweets.
Just because it can happen, doesn’t mean it will, or even that it should. Whoever takes over in Tennessee, success won’t happen overnight.
Florida is basically in the same boat as Tennessee, they’re just not taking on quite as much water as he Volunteers.
There is some talent in Gainesville, and with the right coach- all indications point to Chip Kelly, as of now- it may only take a year or two before they are back where they believe they belong.
Since Spurrier left in 2001, they’ve pretty much struck out with everyone they’ve brought in, with the exception of Urban Meyer. Granted, Meyer’s hiring almost outweighs the other three coaching disasters, but not completely. I just can’t shake the feeling that Florida will somehow screw this up.
Either way, the bottom line is this: the next 2-3 years are set up perfectly for Georgia to dominate the SEC East. Coaching and talent will play a huge role, but like with most things in life, timing is everything.
It’s Getting Hot In Here
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There are about two weeks remaining in the college football regular season.
The coaches on the hot seat are getting closer to finding out their fate.
Going in to the Georgia game Gus Malzahn’s job was in jeopardy. He was 0-6 against UGA and Alabama since 2013. Auburn trounced the #1 Bulldogs 40-17 and secured his job in the process.
There were some other coaches that were not fortunate enough to make it that far. Florida’s Jim McCelwain was the most surprising coach to lose his job. He won the SEC East in his first two seasons. Getting off to a slow start in year three didn’t seem like the kiss of death. He got canned after getting blown out against Georgia. Despite the 3-4 record this season, he had a 44-28 record in Gainesville.
Tennessee’s Butch Jones is also a victim to bite the dust. He recruited well in Knoxville and raised expectations, which was his downfall.
The Vols won 9 games in 2015 and 2016 but fans expected more wins. Bad losses cost him this year. They were demolished 41-0 at home by Georgia, which was the second game during a four game losing streak. The nail in the coffin was the 50-17 drubbing at the hands of Mizzou. The Tigers are a mediocre team with a 5-5 record so this was unacceptable.
There are a couple of other SEC coaches that will probably be gone at the end of the season.
Bret Bielema has been at Arkansas since 2013. His best season was in 2015 when the Razorbacks finished 8-5 including a win in the Liberty Bowl. I can understand never beating Alabama but he’s 0-5 against Texas A&M. That stat alone should be enough to give him the axe. He’s 29-32 since arriving in Fayetteville, which isn’t worthy of his $4.1 million dollar salary.
His nemesis is also hoping to make it to the end of the season. Kevin Sumlin looked like a great fit for Texas A&M when he was hired in 2012.
He led Houston to an 11-1 record in 2011 and he had a high scoring offense. Everything was magical his first season in College Station. His team upset top ranked Alabama on the road and his quarterback Johnny Manziel won the Heisman. The Aggies won 11 games including a Cotton Bowl win over Oklahoma.
Since then things have gotten progressively worse. From 2014-2016 the team started at least 5-0 and ended with three consecutive 8-5 records.
Three quarterbacks have also transferred so they have not been able to maintain consistency on offense. He’s winless against LSU, so I anticipate another loss to the Tigers in the season finale.
He’s also 1-5 against Bama. When a coach has losing records against teams they have to play every year that’s a bad sign. I think his fate was sealed after the opening week collapse against UCLA. A&M blew a 31-3 lead and lost 45-44. He’s 50-25, which seems good on the surface.
Larry Fedora might be done in Chapel Hill with the season he’s having. He was also named their head coach in 2012 and they have been pretty inconsistent.
His best year was 2015, going 11-3 and winning the ACC Coastal. The Tar Heels are 2-8 in 2017 so they will not play in a bowl game. He’s 2-4 against archrival Duke and his overall record is 42-33.
The Smart Richt Move
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
There aren’t too many instances in today’s society that are win/win situations.
This is especially true in sports where the entire objective is for there to be a winner and a loser.
I mean, whole articles are written about who got the better end of a trade, or who the winners/losers are of a particular draft. Every now and again, when the moons align with Endor, and the flux capacitor reaches 1.21 jigawatts, you have a situation that plays out well for both parties involved.
Case in point: when Kirby Smart replaced Mark Richt as Georgia’s football coach. To say I was critical of the Smart hire is a bit of an understatement. The phrase “Congratulations Georgia, you just hired the Romeo Crennel of college football” may have been thrown around.
But seriously, who’s keeping track, right?
It’s not that I believe Richt shouldn’t have been let go; it’s that when you consider how the administration and fan base viewed themselves on a national level, Georgia could’ve gotten a bigger name coach.
You could argue now that they still could’ve gotten a bigger coach, but almost two years in, it’s hard to argue they could’ve found a better fit.
Smart has exceeded expectations, both on the field and in recruiting.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I thought Smart would take the same nosedive trajectory Butch Jones just took; I figured he would have some semblance of success. The level of success and how quickly Georgia has attained it is what I didn’t expect.
As for Mark Richt, I’m not sure even he could have imagined his release from Georgia turning out as well as it has. He’s coaching his Alma Mater, and is only a few wins away from an undefeated season, earning his Hurricanes a spot in playoffs.
Again, much like Smart and Georgia, I don’t think anyone is surprised that Richt is getting the best out of his players; he did a tremendous job during his tenure at Georgia.
But anyone who says they saw this type of season coming for Richt’s team, is about as trustworthy as Rick Pitino standing in a Foot Locker with a big briefcase.
One storyline that could be very interesting concerning both of these schools and I realize I’m shifting gears here a little, is the future of Jacob Eason.
At this point, unless an injury occurs to Jake Fromm, there is no way Eason takes another meaningful snap for the Bulldogs. With his bags probably already packed and one foot out the door, does Eason try to reconnect with the coach who originally recruited him to Athens? You’d have to imagine there is some mutual interest there?
Obviously, I don’t have any ties to the Georgia program, so I have no idea what if this is realistic or not, but if so will Smart allow him to transfer there, or will he block it like he did with AJ Turman?
Like I said, I’m completely in the dark on this, but it does add a little more intrigue to the whole situation.
Anyways, my point is in a profession where there is so much turnover and negativity, it’s nice to see an occasion where both parties actually benefit from a separation.
Of course, if Miami happens to make the playoffs over Georgia; well, I guess all good feelings must come to an end at some point.
Survival Saturday
By: Kenneth Harrison Jr.
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We have several heavyweight matchups taking place in Week 11 of the college football season.
Games like #12 Washington vs. #21 Stanford and #11 Oklahoma State vs. #15 Iowa State are on the backburner. Let’s look at some of the marquee matchups.
#1 Georgia at #14 Auburn: So, the Dawgs are 9-0 for the first time since Herschel Walker was on campus (1982). They have an embarrassment of riches at running back with Nick Chubb, Sony Michel and D’andre Swift.
True freshman quarterback Jake Fromm has that ‘it’ factor and he made Georgia fans forget all about Jacob Eason.
The defense has been stellar ranking fourth in the nation in total defense, only giving up 254 yards per game.
Auburn looks like they finally found their stride on offense. The last time the Tigers were really explosive was 2013.
Baylor transfer quarterback Jarrett Stidham received a lot of hype to before the season began. He struggled initially but he looks more comfortable running Gus Malzahn’s offense. He’s also able to rely on the power running of Kerryon Johnson. Auburn is also exceptional on defense, ranking 14th nationally in total D.
Fromm went on the road and played well in Knoxville in front of over 100,000 fans but the Vols are terrible. I think playing a good team in front of 87,451 screaming fans might cause him to make freshman mistakes. I give the edge to War Eagle.
#3 Notre Dame at #10 Miami: It’s crazy to think undefeated Miami (8-0) is only ranked tenth. They have had some luck on their side against Florida State and Georgia Tech. They are coming off of a 28-10 win against #13 Virginia Tech so their confidence is high.
The Fighting Irish are thirteenth in total offense. Quarterback Brandon Wimbush is a good runner and he’s improved his passing game.
RB Josh Adams has rushed for nearly 1,200 yards and averages 8.7 yards per carry. I think this will be a close game but Notre Dame should win.
#5 Oklahoma vs. #8 TCU: Both teams have one loss. The only chance the Big 12 has to make the college football playoff is for one of these teams to win out. The Sooners are led by Heisman frontrunner, quarterback Baker Mayfield.
The offense is clicking, coming off of a 62-52 win over in-state rival Oklahoma State. That’s also alarming that the defense gave up so many points. They’ve looked bad since the Ohio State game.
Both teams lost to the Iowa State and you know the Cyclones aren’t a great team. That tells me they both lack focus.
I think the Horned Frogs are a more complete team. TCU is sixth in total D and Oklahoma is 87th. That’s going to cost them against a good team like TCU.
#2 Alabama at #16 Mississippi State: The Bulldogs looked like contenders at the beginning of the season. They had a blowout win against LSU and we didn’t know the Tigers were overrated at the time.
Then Georgia and Auburn blew them out in consecutive weeks. Miss State is on a four game winning streak.
The Crimson Tide get to play with a chip on their shoulder after being demoted to number two.
They rank second in defense and 17th in total offense. They’re the most complete team in the nation. Mississippi State has shown that they can’t compete with elite SEC teams so this will be another bad loss.
Who’s In….Over Georgia?
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
At this point in the season it is almost a foregone conclusion that Alabama and Georgia will meet up not only for the SEC Championship title game, but will enter that game as the first and second ranked teams in college football.
If that scenario were to play out obviously the winner would make it to the playoffs. The more interesting topic to me is would a 1-loss SEC runner-up make it too?
There are probably about 20 different hypothetical outcomes, but for this purpose I’ll go ahead and put Oklahoma in the playoffs (wins out including Big XII championship) and Alabama. (No disrespect to Georgia who could easily win the SEC, but it’s easier to go over scenarios for one SEC team as opposed to two, and as of today I personally think Alabama is the better team).
So, with two teams already in the playoff picture, who are some of the other teams Georgia would be contending with.
Wisconsin– It would be hard on paper to leave out an undefeated Big Ten champion, if that’s what ends up happening. However, I don’t think the Badgers are very good and their best win will be against,ultimately, a 3 loss Ohio State team.
Regardless of what the committee does, you can’t convince me they are better than Georgia.
Clemson– If the Tigers were to win out and take the ACC crown, they’re in no matter what. Defending champs, conference champs, impressive resumé, only 1 loss; there’s no way the committee will keep them out.
Another loss though, and I don’t see how they make it.
Miami- I haven’t thought all that much of the Hurricanes throughout the season, but if they were to win out that would include victories over Virginia Tech, Notre Dame, and Clemson.
Hard to put Georgia in over Miami if that were take place. (On a side note, if Miami made it in over Georgia what’s the over/under on the amount time elapsed before a video of Mark Richt urinating in a stuffed Uga goes viral?)
Notre Dame- The Fighting Irish are really the wild card here.
If they were to win out, it would include a victory over Miami, essentially knocking out the Hurricanes.
It would also leave them tied with Georgia, leading to the question, “What do you value more, head to head or overall strength of schedule?”
If you’re a Bulldog fan, you’re going to say head to head, as you should. If you’re a Notre Dame fan, it’s overall strength of schedule. And while it’s not completely an apples to apples comparison, it is worth mentioning that last year, when it came down to OSU and PSU, the commute went in favor of Ohio State’s overall schedule instead of Penn State’s victory over the Buckeyes.
As I mentioned above there are plenty of other scenarios that could play out over the next few makes, making what I just wrote entirely obsolete.
Regardless, here’s the point I’m trying to make: In the last few years, you could argue that a one loss, SEC runner up was deserving of making the playoffs because of the conference’s overall strength.
Ironically, the one year it may come to fruition, the one year where the two best teams in college football could possibly reside within the SEC, is the one year that the conference’s lack of overall strength may be what keeps it from happening.
McElwain Chomped
By: JJ Lanier
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
When does a 22-12 overall record, with two division titles and conference championship appearances, not warrant you being able to finish out your third year as head coach?
Apparently when you’re Jim McElwain and you’re the head coach of the Florida Gators.
It’s been a strange tenure for the sea animal loving, former Gator football coach. What started out with all the bombast in aplomb you would expect in a Florida Gator head football coaching hire, it ended with a resounding thud, similar to that of a shark flopping around on the boat.
So, why did something that started out with so much promise and so abruptly? Oh, let me count the ways.
For starters, if you’re going to speak rhapsodic about how great of a quarterback coach you are you better be able to back it up. Essentially, running off the one halfway decent quarterback you had in Will Grier, leaving what seem to be a bunch of Les Miles rejects to run your team, isn’t exactly the best way to back up your claim.
And look, I know that in today’s political climate it’s nothing to hear someone in our government make some outlandish statements and not be held accountable whenever their accusations turn out to be false.
But, considering that most of America cares more about who their football head coaches are as opposed to who is running our country, if you are going to say that you’re an offense of genius you had better be able to prove it.
Secondly, if there’s any team within the SEC that expects you to put points on the board, it’s Florida. When McElwain was hired, almost three years ago, I wrote that Florida fans would rather score 40 points and lose, than score 14 and win.
That may be a bit of an exaggeration on my part, but not by much. If the Gators were one of the best offensive teams in the country, they would have fired Defensive Coordinator, Randy Shannon (who is now the interim coach) and McElwain would still have his job, despite the next reason I’m about to mention.
The theme of this article has been all about accountability and backing up what you say. So, with that in mind, when you say you and your family are receiving death threats, but don’t meet with administration to address those accusations, you’d be better believe you’ve lost all credibility.
When you take into account everything that has happened over the last year- the shark picture, difficulties at quarterback, an inept offense, death threat fiasco- there really isn’t any way you can justify McElwain keeping his job. I’m not normally in favor of a coach losing his job mid-season, but this decision was pretty inevitable.
The question now is, “Where do the Gators go from here”? I like Randy Shannon, but he’s definitely not the answer. Florida is a great enough job to get a big name, but I’m not sure there’s anyone out there they would be interested in.
Plus, bringing in a splashy name hasn’t exactly been the Florida way. (Steve Spurrier and Urban Meyer didn’t carry the cache they do now when they arrived in Gainesville).
As for McElwain, it may take him a while to overcome this; specifically the death threat debacle.
Bill Parcells once famously said that “You are what your record says you are”. I bet if you asked Jim McElwain that question today, he’d have a different opinion.
Florida Gators: Undermanned Underdogs
By: TJ Hartnett
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Florida Gators are 3-3 this season after losing consecutive games at home against Texas A&M and LSU.
Despite winning the SEC East the last two years, they have effectively erased their chances at a threepeat after the being on the wrong side of the 19-17 game against A&M.
More than a few eyebrows have been raised at the state of the team, some being pointed at head coach Jim McElwain. I wonder, however, if it is fair to blame him for the losses, or should he instead be praised for leading a bad team to a .500 record so far?
Their loss to the Aggies was only a loss within the last minute of the game, after several big plays led to fourth-quarter field goals. The collapse could certainly be attributed to the fact that nearly a quarter of their roster was unavailable.
Florida is stretched very thin. There are nine players, including key receiver Antonio Calloway and key rusher Jordan Scarlett, that are suspended pending a felony investigation into a credit card fraud scheme. That isn’t funny per se, but it is almost amusingly indicative of Florida’s cluster of a season.
There are also tons of injuries, including a season-ender to QB Luke Del Rio that has forced redshirt freshman Feleipe Franks into the lineup (despite the availability of Malik Zaire).
Franks has plenty of room for improvement. Although he had a huge run, he missed open receivers and showed little feel for managing a game. Franks completed 17 of 26 passes for 129 yards with 2 interceptions and 5 sacks.
His longest completion against the league’s 12th-ranked passing unit was an impromptu flip to Malik Davis, that the running back turned into a 20-yard gain during Florida’s opening drive.
So maybe Florida should be commended for even being in games? McElwain insists there are no free passes.
Still, the lengthy injury list includes the team’s leading tackler (safety Marcell Harris) from 2016 as well as dynamic receiver Kadarius Toney, deep threat Tyrie Cleveland, safety Nick Washington, defensive end Jabari Zuniga, guard Brett Heggie, linebacker Jeremiah Moon and running back Mark Thompson.
Defensive end Jordan Sherit, a fifth-year senior, joined them on the sideline in the fourth quarter with a hip injury that McElwain said will require surgery. With and without Sherit, the Aggies piled up 127 yards on 27 plays in the final frame.
But Florida’s ongoing issues seemingly go deeper than manpower. McElwain spent seven months raving about his offensive line, even calling it the “true strength” of his team, and the unit has been mediocre at best.
And the guy who once claimed he could win with his dog at quarterback has an offense that has managed four touchdown passes in six games, and that includes an improbable 63-yarder on the final play to beat Tennessee and two in which Kentucky failed to cover receivers.
Meanwhile, the quarterback McElwain encouraged to transfer following his suspension for using performance-enhancing drugs in 2015, West Virginia’s Will Grier, has 21 touchdown passes. The Gators are 16-11 since Grier’s suspension, with three of those wins coming against seemingly overmatched opponents in payday games.
Here’s the most telling part for McElwain and Florida: It could be worse. If not for those defensive gaffes by Tennessee and Kentucky, the Gators could be 1-5 heading into their bye week and entering a rivalry game against third-ranked Georgia as huge underdogs.
Undermanned underdogs.
