Georgia Memories
By: Joe Delaney
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Well, here we are with the latest installment pf the “World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party”.
This year’s edition has twist and turns as is usual in this heated rivalry.
Gone is Billy Napier and the Gators are in disarray. The Dawgs are ranked #5 and should win easily right? Not so fast………….
When you look at the history of the rivalry it makes you realize how scary a game this is for the Dawgs.
The Gators have absolutely nothing to lose and that makes them very dangerous. The Dawgs better be ready to play because this IS the biggest game for Florida and stranger things have happened.
Let’s look at a few of the great games, notes and players in Georgia Florida history through the Bulldogs eyes.
Let’s start at the beginning. Did you know the two schools can’t even agree on how many games have been played?
Florida says that the 1904 game doesn’t count because that was the University of Florida Lake City. Well Georgia won the game 52-0 played in Macon. The great UGA historian Dan Magill remarked many years later, “that’s where Florida was back then. We can’t help it if they got run out of Lake City.” Now that’s how you start a rivalry!
Who can forget the 1975 game and the amazing Larry Munson. Yes it’s the Appleby to Washington game with Larry being ……well Larry!
With 3:10 left in the fourth quarter Vince Dooley calls an end around pass. Larry takes it from there………“and Washington caught it thinking of Montreal and the Olympics and ran out of his shoes right down the middle 80 yards!” Georgia goes on to win 10-7.
A year later it was Florida leading the Dawgs 27-20 in the third quarter. Head Coach Doug Dickey has a brain fart of epic proportions and goes for it on 4th and 1 from his own TWENTY NINE yard line. Florida gets stuffed and Georgia goes on to win 41-27. The play and the game are always remembered as “fourth and dumb”.
Ah yes, 1980. No column on the Georgia/Florida game is done without it. A strong dose of Herschel and a shot of Buck and Lindsay! The great Larry Munson ends the call of Buck and Lindsay with “man is their gonna be some property destroyed tonight! I gave up….you did too….out of it…..out of it and gone. Miracle!” Nuff said.
In 2007 it was the “Gator Stomp”. Georgia’s Knowshon Moreno dives into the endzone for a first quarter touchdown and the ENTIRE Georgia team runs on the field. Georgia goes on the sack Heisman winner Tim Tebow 6 times in the 42-30 Georgia win.
And who can forget the “evil genius” aka Steve Spurrier. Ole Stevie went 11-1 against the Dawgs in his Tenure as Head Coach of the Gators.
He was a brilliant coach and probably loved beating the Dawgs more than anything. His “fun and gun” offenses had some of basics of what offenses run today.
So why did Spurrier have such a distain for Red and Black? It goes back to 1966.
Dooley’s Dawgs roll into the old Gator Bowl to face the Heisman winner Spurrier and the Gators. Well, the Dawgs intercept Spurrier 3 times and he was constantly harassed by Bill Stanfield, the Georgia great.
In the funniest quote I’ve ever seen the good old country boy Stanfield would say, “holding pigs for my dad to castrate was quite a challenge. I can’t say that it helped me prepare for football, but it sure did remind me an awful lot of sacking Steve Spurrier”!
Yeah its Georgia Florida. The old boys from Florida have their share of golden memories also. That’s what makes it so great. For many it’s the biggest game of the year.
No matter what the records are. Its Georgia Florida, a great big slice of Americana. Strap em up Dawgs and don’t forget that injured Gators are dangerous.
You Ain’t From Round Here
By: Michael Spiers
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
I need to preface this opinion piece by sharing that I’m a Louisiana boy.
It’s where I was born, where I went to college, and I have been a fan of the LSU Tigers since I was big enough to pick up a ball.
I could tell from day one that Brian Kelly just didn’t fit at LSU.
Folks in Louisiana can smell when someone’s not genuine, and from that first awkward “fam-uh-lee” speech, it was clear he wasn’t one of us.
He came to the bayou from Notre Dame, a polished outsider with a big reputation, but he never seemed to understand that LSU football isn’t just a job. It’s a way of life.
In Louisiana LSU football is part religion, part family reunion, and part street parade.
When Saturday rolls around, the whole state moves to the rhythm of Tiger Stadium.
We like our coaches with a little grit, a little edge, and a whole lot of heart.
Nick Saban had the drive, Les Miles had the magic, and Ed Orgeron sounded like the bayou itself.
Brian Kelly, on the other hand, always felt like he was reading off a script written by someone else.
Now, to be fair, the man could coach. He won plenty of games at Notre Dame and came to Baton Rouge with a plan. But plans don’t win you over in Louisiana.
Passion does. And that was the problem. Kelly treated LSU like a business venture. He ran it like a CEO, not like a coach trying to rally a community that bleeds purple and gold.
He fired longtime strength coach Tommy Moffitt, a guy everyone respected and trusted. He shuffled assistants like playing cards. He even complained about NIL money instead of figuring out how to make it work.
In the SEC, that’s like bringing a butter knife to a crawfish boil. You’re already behind.
At first, things looked promising. His first season brought a win over Alabama and a trip to the SEC Championship Game. Then Jayden Daniels won the Heisman, and folks thought maybe Kelly had turned the corner. But cracks started showing fast.
The defense was a mess one year, the offense sputtered the next. Players didn’t seem inspired. You could see it in the way they played, talented but not tough. LSU teams are supposed to hit you in the mouth.
Kelly’s Tigers looked more like they were trying to make it to Monday.
And that’s when the politics kicked in, because in Louisiana, everything eventually turns political.
After that home loss to Texas A&M, the governor himself, Jeff Landry, was reportedly in on the decision to fire Kelly. Let me tell you, when the governor’s mansion gets involved in a coaching decision, you know it’s serious.
Boosters and board members started calling around, figuring out who’d chip in to pay that monster buyout. Fifty-three million dollars is a lot of money, but this is LSU. They were never going to let pride take another beating.
Behind closed doors, word is Kelly had lost the locker room. Players thought he was checked out.
He wasn’t recruiting like the other big dogs in the SEC, and he was spending more time on the golf course than in living rooms convincing mamas to let their sons play for him.
If you ask me, that’s the real work of a head coach. Building relationships, not spreadsheets.
At the end of the day, Brian Kelly got fired because he never made LSU feel like home. He tried to lead with his head in a place that runs on heart.
You can’t fake the accent, you can’t fake the culture, and you sure can’t fake belonging. LSU fans want someone who loves this program the way they do, loud, proud, and a little rough around the edges.
Kelly never got that. And in Louisiana, when the fit isn’t right, it’s only a matter of time before the door locks you out.
Let’s Play Here
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For over nine decades, the annual clash between the Georgia Bulldogs and Florida Gators has been more than a football game; it’s a cultural phenomenon.
Hosted almost exclusively in Jacksonville since 1933, this SEC rivalry draws over 80,000 rabid fans to EverBank Stadium, injecting an estimated $50 million into the local economy each year through hotel stays, bar tabs, and Bulldog-Gator-fueled revelry along the St. Johns River.
But as EverBank Stadium, the 30-year-old home of the Jacksonville Jaguars, faced obsolescence, whispers grew about relocating the game permanently to campus sites or other neutral venues.
Enter the “Stadium of the Future.”
A renovation project that’s not just revitalizing an aging sports facility but safeguarding Jacksonville’s cherished tradition, the $1.4 billion project was approved unanimously by NFL owners in October 2024.
The overhaul began in February 2025 and is slated for completion by the 2028 season.
Funded roughly equally by the city and Jaguars owner Shad Khan, the project commits the team to a 30-year lease, dispelling relocation fears.
Construction will disrupt play. Jaguars games will run at reduced capacity in 2026 before the team relocates temporarily to either Orlando or Gainesville in 2027 but crucially, it spares the 2025 Florida-Georgia matchup.
More importantly, the upgrades are engineered to lure the rivalry back post-renovation, ensuring its return from 2028 to 2031 under a freshly inked four-year extension announced in November 2024.
At the heart of this strategy is expanded capacity tailored for college football’s biggest bashes. EverBank’s current setup holds 67,838 for Jaguars games but swells to over 82,000 for the Cocktail Party with temporary seating.
The renovated stadium drops to a sleek 63,000 permanent seats for NFL action—optimizing sightlines and revenue but boasts expandable configurations up to 71,500, with potential for 70,000-plus in special-event mode.
This isn’t arbitrary; university athletic directors from Florida and Georgia collaborated directly on the design, insisting on features that accommodate the game’s unique chaos: massive tailgate zones, riverfront access for yachts, and reinforced structures for the influx of RVs and vendors that turn Jacksonville into the epicenter of college football.
The upgrades go far beyond seating. A groundbreaking protective canopy will shade fans from Florida’s brutal sun and afternoon thunderstorms, creating a climate-controlled bowl that feels premium without enclosing the open-air vibe.
Wider elevated concourses will ease the pre-game crush, while new seating tiers offer everything from field-level suites to sky-high club seats.
Enhanced digital tech, including upgraded lighting, massive video boards, and seamless Wi-Fi, ensures modern amenities like instant replays and app-based concessions, appealing to younger demographics in an era of streaming and NIL deals.
The current deal nets each university $5-5.5 million annually, but post-2028, payouts jump to at least $10 million per school, plus travel stipends ($350,000 for Georgia, $60,000 for Florida).
Unlike before, Jacksonville retains all ticket, concession, and merchandise revenue, making the game profitable for the city while sweetening the pot for the schools.
During the interim, $1.5 million per university in 2026 and 2027 covers relocation to Atlanta’s Mercedes-Benz Stadium and Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium—neutral sites that preserve the game’s off-campus ethos but lack Jax’s intimate, party-hard charm.
Skeptics might point to college football’s seismic shifts; conference realignments, playoff expansions, and revenue chases that moved the Red River Rivalry fully on-site.
Georgia coach Kirby Smart once floated playing at Sanford Stadium for recruiting perks, but the mutual $10 million guarantee and Jacksonville’s proven track record quashed that. The city’s deep ties, from co-sponsoring RV lots to hosting fan fests, create an unmatched ecosystem.
By 2028, when the Gators and Bulldogs return, EverBank won’t just be renovated, it’ll be reborn as a multipurpose marvel, drawing concerts, WrestleMania, and more while prioritizing this annual October ritual.
The upgrades don’t merely fix a leaky roof; they fortify a legacy, ensuring Jacksonville remains the beating heart of college football’s wildest weekend.
In a sport chasing the next billion, sometimes the best play is doubling down on tradition.
Fool’s Gold
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As the college football season progresses, more coaches will get fired.
For example, Brian Kelly was just fired at LSU. The #20 Tigers lost at home to #3 Texas A&M on Saturday, 49-25.
Kelly was 34-14 in his tenure at LSU, which was a little over three years. This is a prestigious position that is now available. We know that Penn State, UCLA, Arkansas and Florida are also looking for a new head coach.
A name that we keep hearing anytime a high-profile position opens up is Lane Kiffin.
As you know, he’s currently at Ole Miss. He just led the #8 Rebels to a road win over #13 Oklahoma, 34-26. They have moved up one spot in this week’s AP Poll.
He has been linked to the Florida job and he addressed his team about that before the game.
“I just mentioned it to them [Friday], Kiffin said. “That’s a product of having a program with a lot of players and coaches doing a really good job. I probably wouldn’t even have mentioned it, because they’ve been through this every year. Probably four years in a row, but we have so many new guys. I just told them, ‘Hey guys, that’s what happens around here because we win games and people like the style that we play in. ‘That’s all a compliment to the players.”
He’s now going to be mentioned for the LSU job but I want to know, is he actually a good fit for these positions?
Kiffin has a checkered past up to this point. He was a head coach for the Oakland Raiders from 2007-08 and he had a 5-15 record. He was fired after a 1-3 start during his second season.
He took over as the head coach at Tennessee in 2009 and went 7-6 in his lone season with the Vols.
Kiffin was an assistant coach at USC from 2002-06. He left Tennessee in January of 2010 for the USC job. Clearly this was a dream job for him at a blue-blood program. The Trojans had recent success during the 2000’s, winning national championships under Pete Carroll.
This should have been a great job for Kiffin but he underperformed. His overall record was 28-15 and he was fired five games into the 2013 season.
His best season was 2011 and his team finished 10-2. Going into the 2012 season the Trojans were ranked #1 in both polls. They finished 7-6.
He accepted the offensive coordinator job at Alabama on January 10, 2014. He held that position for the Crimson Tide from 2014-16.
He accepted the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic and was relieved of his duties as OC in January 2017. Alabama made the College Football Playoffs but they did not want him coaching after he accepted that position.
In three seasons at FAU Kiffin went 26-13. He had a losing record in his second season but he won at least ten games in his first and third season.
He’s been the head coach at Ole Miss since 2020 and his record is 51-19. Kiffin has three 10-win-or-more seasons with Ole Miss.
Kiffin has been around for a long time and he’s had varying degrees of success. I think he will leave Ole Miss for a better job but there are so many to choose from now. It will be interesting to see where he ends up.
The Finish Line
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
We have made our way to the final week of the high school football season. For some there are still a lot of undecided seedings and playoff berths to be determined in this final week and for others the season will close on Halloween Night.
The Brunswick High Pirates will be moving onto the playoffs, just what seed still needs to be determined. The Pirates are 7-2 overall and 6-1 in region play.
Brunswick will host the South Effingham Mustangs this week at Glynn County Stadium. The Mustangs were eliminated from the playoffs last week after they went down to
The Statesboro Blue Devils last week 27-17.
For South Effingham it is a chance to finish at .500 and for Brunswick there is still potential to claim a region title and a #1 seed for the GHSA playoffs.
The Pirates need to beat South Effingham and a little help from the Effingham Rebels, who play Statesboro at Womack Field in Statesboro.
If Effingham can knock off the Blue Devils coupled with a Pirates win, the Rebels would claim a #2 seed and the Pirates would claim the Region Title. Otherwise, BHS would be #2 seed and Effingham would be the #3 seed with Statesboro as your Region Champ.
If BHS were to lose to South Effingham and Effingham wins, the Rebels would be your Region Champs.
The Frederica Knights went 7-3 in the regular season and 3-0 in the region.
The Knights downed the St. Andrews Lions last week 49-16 to finish the regular season.
Frederica will receive a 1st round bye in the GISA playoffs but will have to begin on the road taking on the Valwood Valiants in Valdosta.
Valwood earned a #4 seed and Frederica was the #5 seed.
The Knights fell to Valwood earlier in the season 33-14 at home on St. Simons Island.
The Glynn Academy Red Terrors are currently 5-4 and 4-3 in region play.
The Red Terrors fell to Effingham last week 45-42 in a game that the Terrors made a frantic comeback almost pulling off a miracle. Glynn trailed 45-20 heading into the 4th quarter and scored 21 unanswered points to close the game and simply ran out of time to finish the comeback.
The Terrors will close the season against the Greenbriar Wolfpack. Win or lose Glynn will be in the playoffs as the #4 seed from Region 1-5A. Greenbriar is 2-7.
The MCA Buccaneers are 5-4 and 4-3 in region play. The Bucs took care of business last week beating the Savannah Blue Jackets 35-20 last week.
Currently the Bucs are sitting as the #3 seed in Region 3-A D2. MCA will take on the Portal Panthers needing a win to maintain playoff hopes.
A Buccaneer win coupled with a loss for either Bryan County or Jenkins County would punch a playoff ticket for McIntosh County. If MCA and Jenkins County win and Bryan County loses the Bucs would be a #4 seed. If MCA and Bryan County win and Jenkins County loses then MCA would be a #3 seed.
Bryan County plays Metter at Metter and Jenkins County goes to Savannah.
If all three lose then it would create a four-way tie breaker between MCA, Jenkins county Metter and Bryan County for the #3 and #4 seeds. If all three win then it would be a three-way tie breaker for the #3 and #4 seeds.
The Camden County Wildcats are 5-4 on the season and 0-4 Region 1-6A.
The Wildcats had their playoff hopes ended last week at the hands of the Colquitt County Packers, losing 45-28.
Camden started the season undefeated at 5-0 but have since gone winless in region play.
The Wildcats will play the Tift County Blue Devils looking to finish above .500 at 6-4. Tift is also winless in the region at 0-4 and is 3-6 overall. They will play the game in Tifton.
Let’s Agree To Disagree
By: Colin Lacy
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The annual rivalry between the Georgia Bulldogs and the Florida Gators is unquestionably one of (some would argue the single best) best rivalries in college football.
That is one of the very few things that the two teams and fanbases can agree on.
They don’t agree on the name. If you’re dawned in red and black, it’s the Georgia/Florida game. If you’re dressed head to toe in orange and royal blue, it’s the Florida/Georgia game. They certainly don’t agree on who the better team or players are and heck, they don’t even agree on when the first game is!
In the history books in Athens, Georgia recognizes the first matchup with Florida took place in Macon, Georgia way back in 1904. Georgia ended up with the victory with a final score of 52-0.
The only problem was that contest wasn’t against what we know as the Florida program. The 1904 meeting saw the Dawgs square off against the “University of Florida Blue and White” that was based out of Lake City, FL (about 45 miles north of Gainesville) and had been known as in the years prior as Florida Agriculture College. This institution was one of four predecessors to the modern-day University of Florida in Gainesville.
The current University of Florida was officially established in 1905 and created a football team beginning in 1906 (almost 2 years after what Georgia claims as the first meeting). The current Florida Gators athletics records don’t include games played by predecessor institutions.
Georgia, however, is adamant that the game counts. Georgia historian and former tennis coach Dan Magill told author of the book “I Love Georgia/I Hate Florida,” Patrick Garbin that “That’s where Florida was back then. We can’t help it if they got run out of Lake City.”
While Florida doesn’t claim the first game in the series against Georgia, the University of Florida does claim traces back to the 1850s on their UF website:
“The University of Florida traces its beginnings to 1853 when the state-funded East Florida Seminary acquired the private Kingsbury Academy in Ocala. After the Civil War, the seminary was moved to Gainesville. It was consolidated with the state’s land-grant Florida Agricultural College, then in Lake City, to become the University of Florida in 1905 and the Gainesville site for the campus was chosen in 1906. Classes began on September 26, 1906, for 102 students.”
The first mutually agreed upon contest took place in Jacksonville on a mid-October afternoon in 1915. The result wasn’t quite as lopsided but resulted in a Georgia convincing win over Florida 37-0.
It took thirteen years for Florida to notch their first victory in the budding rivalry, defeating Georgia 26-6 in 1928.
The two teams have met every year since 1926 aside from the 1943 season when Florida didn’t field of team due to World War II
Although the first mutually agreed game was in Jacksonville, it wasn’t until 1933 when the city became the official home for the game and has been the home for all but two (1994 and 1995) since that 1933 meeting.
So, when the stadium is divided and the 104th meeting (or 103rd depending on which camp you’re in) kicks off, remember the history runs deep. The history of passion, football and not agreeing on anything…not even when the hate started.
Another Conquest
By: Jeff Doke
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
For the first time since 2022, the Frederica Academy Knights are Region Champions in the GIAA AAAA/AAA Region 2.
After convincing back-to-back wins against long-time rivals Bulloch Academy and Pinewood Christian Academy, Coach Brandon Derrick’s Knights have secured the region crown regardless of the outcome of their final region game against St. Andrews this Friday night.
Opening region play against the Gators on October 9th, the Knights were looking to even some scores against their most heated rivals.
With their 2024 shutout victory in Statesboro, Bulloch Academy tied the all-time record between the two schools at 6 wins apiece and handed the Knights their first shut-out loss since the 2020 State Championship game loss to John Milledge Academy.
This year would be a different story. The Knights would take a 7-3 lead into the halftime locker room before opening things up in the second half, closing the night with a 35-20 victory.
The highlight play of the night was arguably the 90-yard halfback option passing touchdown to WR Braxton Sykes from RB Jaylen Baldwin. Baldwin also had both a rushing touchdown and receiving touchdown on the night.
Frederica followed up the 2025 region debut with a matchup against another long-time adversary, Pinewood Christian Academy.
The Knights had battled back against the Patriots to a 7-7 tie in the all-time matchup after starting 0-5 in the early days of the rivalry.
For the second week in a row, Coach Derrick’s team would break the all-time tie and extend their winning streak to four games against the boys from Bellville, notching their second region win to the tune of 28-14.
While Jaylen Baldwin once again had two touchdowns on the night, the play of the game – if not the season – came in the 2nd quarter when 6’7” 225 lb. Sophomore TE JC Wessel caught a 4th down pass on the 10 yard line and carried four Pinewood defenders from there into the endzone.
Region play wraps up for Frederica on October 24 with a trip to Savannah to take on St. Andrews.
The Lions – currently playing at Daffin Park next to Historic Greyson Stadium due to field upgrades at their Wilmington Island campus – come into the matchup with a 3-6 record but winless in region play.
St Andrews has never beaten Frederica, with the 7-0 loss in 2020 the only match that was within three scores.
To be bluntly realistic, the chances that coach Derrick’s squad doesn’t end the week with an undefeated Region Championship are very, very low.
That being said, the outlook for the playoffs is promising, but less than perfect. The GIAA uses MaxPreps rankings to seed their playoff brackets.
This puts Frederica at the #5 position in the Division, just behind Valwood and ahead of Tiftarea Academy.
If this ranking stays the same after this weekend’s matches, it means Frederica will get a 1st Round bye but will not get a home playoff game.
One thing that may affect the ranking is the final decision in regard to the weather-shortened 14-7 loss to West Nassau High in Week 2.
Lightning in the area suspended play with about a minute left in the 1st quarter and never resumed.
If the two coaches can agree to wipe the “game” from the site, it might be enough to vault Frederica into the #4 seed, however the head-to-head loss against Valwood in Week 3 will more than likely complicate the matter.
More than likely, if the seeding does not change, the Knights will be making a 2nd round road trip to either Westfield or Valwood.
The Knights are 2-0 all-time versus Westfield (two lopsided wins in 2018 & 2019) but are currently on a five-game losing streak to Valwood after going 4-5 against the Valiants in their first nine matchups.
The Likely Candidates
By: Robert Craft
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
Dear Scott Stricklin and all associated with the search for Florida’s fifth football coach since 2011: Stop messing around. Go get Lane Kiffin. Or at least try to. And if you fail, go get Eli Drinkwitz.
Try and keep trying until you hire a proven winner at the power-conference level.
Adopt the mindset of your rivals, like the team you’re about to play. Think, if you were Georgia, who would you not want Florida to hire? And then do everything you can to hire that person.
You’ve tried the other routes. When Urban Meyer left, you went with the hotshot assistant who knew the SEC. But Will Muschamp just wasn’t made out to be a head coach.
Then you tried the former SEC assistant who had won at a lower level. But Jim McElwain wasn’t a winning fit.
Then you went with Dan Mullen, who had been a Florida assistant and won at Mississippi State — seven out of nine winning seasons, and had worked for Stricklin there.
But as it turned out, Mullen’s lukewarm approach to recruiting in the name of systemic growth and talent development, while successful at Mississippi State, did not mesh at Florida.
And so, then you went in another direction, and hired Billy Napier, a recruiting maven from his SEC days, who had won as a Sun Belt head coach. But while he did upgrade the talent level, the head coaching didn’t translate to the SEC.
And so now here you are. It’s time to stop messing around.
Kiffin may not want to leave Ole Miss. Or may not want to take Florida. He’s doing well where he is, where he has administrative and financial support to build a roster. He may wonder why four straight coaches have failed in Gainesville.
But he’s also ambitious. He came of age when Steve Spurrier brought Florida to the forefront of college football. He was a rising assistant when Meyer won a couple of national titles there — then battled Meyer in his one season at Tennessee.
Should Florida be wary of Kiffin? Maybe, but for all his quirks, he’s proving he knows how to win in the portal/NIL era. He still knows how to run an offense. He would bring attention to the Gators and make them must-see football again. Make him say no.
And if he does, turn to Drinkwitz, who also likes to talk, is also an offensive-minded coach who knows how to build a roster in this era. And who is also winning in the SEC.
Ah, you may say, wouldn’t that just be going the Mullen route again? Drinkwitz is 44-25 overall and 24-21 in the SEC, versus Mullen going 69-46 overall and 33-39 in the SEC.
It can be argued that it’s much harder to win at Mississippi State than at Missouri. You could even discount Drinkwitz’s one-year stint at Appalachian State (12-1), given he took over a strong program.
The counter-argument is that Drinkwitz is a stronger recruiter. He has leveraged NIL to bring talent to Missouri. His last two high school classes ranked 20th in the nation. He kept five-star receiver Luther Burden at home in the 2022 high school class. He’s managed the portal, bringing in quarterback Beau Pribula (Penn State) and edge rusher Damon Wilson (Georgia) this past offseason. There’s real resourcefulness in his systems.
Give him Florida’s tradition and resources, and he should at least be able to recruit at Napier’s level. And the evidence is that Drinkwitz could outcoach him.
Missouri has had two straight 10-win seasons and is 6-1 this year. It has the SEC’s second-ranked defense, doing quite fine two years after LSU hired away its defensive coordinator.
Of course, Drinkwitz may also like where he is. So, what happens if you strike out with him?
Then maybe you go the Jon Sumrall (Tulane) route. Or you try to find the next Kirby Smart or Dan Lanning. Maybe that’s Will Stein, the 36-year-old Oregon offensive coordinator.
But Florida, you’ve tried those routes before. And your athletic director has struck out twice on hires now.
After taking chances with your past exes, It’s time for a sure thing in hiring a winning head coach. It’s time to do your best to make a sitting, successful power-conference coach say yes to bringing Florida back to glory.
Kiffin should be the first call. Drinkwitz should be the next. And there are some other names out there who deserve at least some back-channel talk.
You are Florida. Maybe it’s asking too much to return to the dominant days of Spurrier and Meyer, but nobody’s getting back to that level of dominance, at least not in the SEC in 2025.
What you can do at Florida is consistent contention for the College Football Playoff.
For all their failures, Muschamp, McElwain and Mullen each had at least one 10-win season in Gainesville. It was sustaining consistent winning seasons that ended up being the problem. And the longer you go without hiring the right guy, the more people forget the Spurrier and Meyer glory days. The harder it’ll get to reclaim them.
This is a huge hire, Florida. No more time for gambles and budget-friendly staff. Good professionals hire good professionals. Go get yourself the guy who you know — and who your rivals know — will win.
Chomped
By: Kenneth Harrison
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
The Florida Gators won a close game against Mississippi State recently, 23-21.
They improved to 3-4 and are going went bye week before they play #5 Georgia on November 1st.
They fired head coach Billy Napier after the win, which was somewhat surprising.
Firing Napier was inevitable, I’m just surprised it came after a win. The #13 Gators did lose to South Florida at home in Week 2. I thought he would get fired during the season after that unless Florida went on a winning streak.
They followed that up with road loses to #3 LSU and #4 Miami. They did upset #9 Texas at home on October 4th. The next week they lost at #5 Texas A&M, 34-17.
Napier went 22-23 in four seasons at Florida, including 12-16 in SEC play. He was 5-17 against ranked opponents, including 0-14 away from home.
He is the play caller and he would not give that up, despite calls to do so. His record against rivals Georgia, Florida State, Miami, LSU and Tennessee is 3-12.
Napier is the first full-time coach at Florida to finish his tenure with a losing record since Raymond Wolf (1946 to ’49). He was hired in 2021 after going 40-12 in four seasons at Louisiana.
“Making this decision during the open date provides our team valuable time to regroup, refocus, and prepare for the challenges ahead. The timing also allows us to conduct a thoughtful, thorough, and well-informed search for our next head coach. We remain fully committed to utilizing every resource available to identify the right leader to guide Gators Football into the future,” athletic director Scott Stricklin said in a statement.
“I will conduct the search with a high degree of confidentiality to protect the privacy of those involved. The search will focus on the hiring of an elite football coach who will embody the standard we have at the University of Florida, and we will continue to provide all of the necessary resources for that coach, his staff and the players to be successful.”
Florida owes Napier roughly $21 million, with half of that buyout due within 30 days.
The rest will be spread over three annual installments beginning next summer, meaning that, since the Gators are still paying former coach Dan Mullen, they will be paying three head coaches for the second time in seven years once they hire Napier’s replacement. They did the same with Will Muschamp, Jim McElwain and Mullen in 2018.
Receivers coach Billy Gonzales was named interim head coach for Florida’s remaining five games. Georgia was already favored to win the annual Georgia/Florida game but I think they have a bigger advantage after this.
Florida is dealing with losing their head coach and trying to stay focused. They were not looking like a team that could get to six wins and a bowl game before Napier was fired. I doubt they will get better now.
“The standards and expectations for Gators football are to win championships — not simply to compete. We exist to win and will not settle for less. UF has never been more invested in the success of this football program — elite facilities, robust NIL opportunities and comprehensive support for our student athletes and staff — than we are today,” Strickland said.
Currently the Penn State and UCLA head coaching jobs are also open. I’m sure other high-profile positions will also come available later in the season. It will be interesting to see who UF hires as their next head ball coach.
Dragons Slayed
By: Jason Bishop
TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services
As the High School Football season marches on the playoff picture begins to become clearer with teams around southeast Georgia.
Over on St. Simons Island the Frederica Academy Knights claimed another region championship. The Knights hosted Pinewood Christian Academy on Friday night and down the Patriots 28-14.
The win took the Knights to 6-3 overall and 2-0 in the region and clinched another Region Championship for Coach Brandon Derrick and his Knights of Frederica.
Frederica will trek up to Savannah to take on St. Andrews in the season finale with a possible 1st Round bye on the line.
The Brunswick High Pirates are currently the #2 seed in Region 1-5A with the #1 seed still a possibility. The Pirates are hoping either the South Effingham Mustangs or Effingham Rebels can upend the Statesboro Blue Devils in one of the last two games of the season which would allow Brunswick to claim the #1 seed.
Brunswick is 7-2 overall and 6-1 in region play. The Pirates will rest up on a bye this week before they play and will get ready to take South Effingham in the season finale.
The MCA Buccaneers went into Friday’s game against the Metter Tigers in a ‘must win’ situation to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The Bucs did just that. Coach Bradley Warren’s Buccaneers went on the road to Metter and beat the Tigers 18-8.
The win pulls the Bucs to .500 at 4-4 overall and 3-3 in the region.
MCA’s defense has only allowed 15 points in the last 3 games.
The Bucs still have the Savannah Blue Jackets and the Portal Panthers on the docket. If they win both of those games the Bucs would be in as a #4 seed holding the tie breaker over both Bryan County and Metter.
The Glynn Academy Red Terrors are currently the #4 seed in Region 1-5A and have a big matchup this week against the Effingham Rebels. Effingham is currently the #3 team in the region.
This is a must win for the Red Terrors. A Glynn win would almost assure Glynn of a playoff berth at least as #3 seed. A Red Terror loss puts them on the outside looking in and Glynn would need a lot of help to get into the playoffs in the final week.
The Red Terrors are 5-3 overall in 2025 and 4-2 in the region. A #2 seed is still not out of reach for Terrors either with a little help. If Glynn Academy wins out and Statesboro drops another game the #2 seed would belong to the Red Terrors.
The Camden County Wildcats will be taking on the Colquitt County Packers and are coming off of a much-needed bye. After a 5-0 start the Camden County Wildcats have dropped 3 straight, all region games.
With losses to Valdosta, Lowndes and Richmond Hill Camden has to win in the Hog Pen in Moultrie to have a chance to make the playoffs.
For the Wildcats the path to the playoffs is a little complicated. Camden must beat both Colquitt and Tift in the final two and have Richmond Hill beat Colquitt in the season finale. This would give Camden the #4 seed. A loss to Colquitt or Tift would eliminate Camden from postseason play.
The Wildcats are currently 5-3 on the season and 0-3 in region play.
