Speaker 1: The Florida Football Insiders podcast is brought to you by
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Speaker 3: A look at college football news, analysis and insight from
around the Sunshine Stage. This is Florida Football Insiders, a
part of the College Gridiron Coast to Coast podcast network,
and here's your host, Jason Cowers.
Speaker 1: Welcome in Florida Football Insiders podcast.
Speaker 4: Hard to believe. We have reached week twelve the college
football season. College basketball seasons underway.
Speaker 1: A bad, bad week in the state of Florida for
both the college and the NFL teams. Of the one, two, three, four,
seven of the ten Division one in NFL teams playing
football in the state of Florida, the Florida teams went
one and nine, only to be salvaged by the Monday
night victory of the Miami Dolphins out in Los Angeles.
Hard to believe all seven all six college teams that
played Saturday, so actually one in eight. The six college
teams that played Saturday all lost. The only team that
didn't lose was FIU, who was on a buy and
then of the NFL team's bucks, Jags lose and the
Dolphins win, so one and eight combined record for the
state of Florida in the in the world of football
on the on the weekend, hard to believe so, but
appreciate you finding us on the Florida Football Insiders podcast,
part of the College Great Iron Coast to Coast podcast network,
got a good episode for you. We're gonna go to
Gainesville and we're gonna talk to Kevin Brockway, who covers
the Gators. We're gonna talk Gators deciding to keep Billy Napier,
and just as important, we're gonna get into the burgeoning
scandal involving the Todd Golden and the basketball coach, So
definitely want to stay tuned for them. That's gonna be
some great insight that Kevin's gonna provide concerning the Todd
Golden situation up in Gainesville, kind of what went into
the decision to keep Billy Napier in the future of
the Florida football program and the basketball program as well.
So you'll you'll thoroughly enjoy that interview, even if you're
not a Gator fan. You'll get some good insight into
the Florida into the administration's decision not to suspend Todd
Golden to keep Billy Napier and the like. So you'll
you'll enjoy that. But before we get to that, let's
do a little recap around the state of Florida.
Speaker 4: Again.
Speaker 1: I told you it was not a great week in
football history for the state of Florida. But let's go
through the results. The biggest result, obviously was Miami getting
stunned up in Atlanta at Georgia Tech, a fall twenty
eight to twenty three, fall to ninety one. On the year,
cam Ward throws for three forty eight and three touchdowns.
Just again, you saw this coming for weeks now. Miami
had been living on the edge of a potential upset
Virginia Tech cal other games earlier in the year where
they just went down to the wire pretty much every
week in most all these games. They finally get burned
at Georgia Tech. Haines King plays well for Tech. Say
what you want. Though Miami had the ball with two
minutes to go, they could have won the game. Cam
Ward had the ball with strip sacked and fumbled on
a long scramble play, which ended up ending the opportunity
for Miami to keep their undefeated season. Be interesting to see.
The college football rankings just came out on Wednesday, so
give me one second here, But again, the Caines still
control their own destiny here. They are still very much
where they need to be as far as if they
went out, they're gonna be in the college football playoff.
Speaker 4: Let me see here.
Speaker 1: Miami has dropped from three to four in the rankings,
but they are still in one of the by spots
after the college football rankings came out on Tuesday night,
so they're still again, still control their own destiny.
Speaker 4: Three games left in the year.
Speaker 1: They're gonna have a bye week this week, and then
they're gonna have wake Forest at home.
Speaker 4: But again, if you're Miami, you've lived on the edge.
Speaker 1: It's a loss is probably a good thing for these guys,
to be honest with you. Hopefully they will refocus as
they head into their bye week, get healthy for the
stretch drive here for the last three games. But again,
if you excuse me, two games and then you'll have
the ACC championship game, you cannot afford another slip up,
another loss, and I think Miami's out. I don't think
they're making it with two losses, so they can still
they could have, they could have afforded a slip up.
Hopefully they will get their their defense and order. The
offense is good enough, they just need to get that
defense in order a little bit there. So Miami was
the big stunner there, losing at Georgia Tech. USF, they
lose at They lose at home to Navy twenty eight
to seven. The Navy that the great year of Navy continues.
Byron Brown still out for the USF Bulls. Not sure
what's going on there with that injury situation, but he
not play again. USF will head into a bye week
as well at four and five, and then they got
a couple more games to wrap up their years. So
again just a little disappointing out of USF with especially
with no Byron Brown.
Speaker 4: But again Navy is a really.
Speaker 1: Good football team and they continue their winning ways over
South Florida twenty eight to seven Florida State and embarrassing
fifty two to three loss in South Bend in Notre Dame.
Speaker 4: Just the disaster continues. One to nine. Big news out.
Speaker 1: Of Tallahassee on Monday, they removed both offensive and defensive
coordinators on the staff and the wide receiver coach as well.
Ron Dugan's the former Seminole wide receiver was let go.
So not surprising if you're listening to my listening to
this podcast last week, I thought some major changes were
coming on the coaching staff, and I was I was correct.
They're out in front of it, getting out in front
of it early. Uh so they can obviously go out
and hire some o the people on the front end
here be ahead of the game as far as the
hiring process. But Florida State just is a disaster at
one and nine, just zero energy. The talent level is
just not very good. The quarterback play has been horrific.
Even with the guys that Norvelle recruited, which are his guys.
That's that's to me, that's the alarming part is his
quarterbacks have shown little to nothing. And both those guys,
you know, Glenn has been there a couple of years,
the other the other kids are freshman, so we'll give
him a little bit of a break, but especially Glenn,
and obviously we've seen what dj U has put on
the field as far as production wise, as year has
just not been good. So I'm very concerned about the
Florida State offense and the player development that's going on
up there. But again one in nine, two games to go,
you got Charleston Southern. They're gonna be off this week
as well, Florida State. You got Charleston Southern, then the
Gators to end the year. So more calamity if you're
up in Tallahassee there. So the Gators coming off the
announcement that Billy Napier will return for a fourth year,
they head to Texas, they get their their their their
heads bashed in forty nine to seventeen by the Longhorns.
You kind of saw this one coming. No Dj Lagway
playing the third string quarterback, playing Texas coming off of
a bye week, you had a feeling this was gonna
potentially be ugly, and it was. Texas thoroughly dominated the game.
Quinn Ewers played really well. I think five touchdown passes
just something you probably saw coming after the hard fought,
heartbreaking loss to Georgia. The week before, the Gators will
come home, will play Lsues coming off a loss. This
is an opportunity I think for the Gators.
Speaker 4: Again, we don't know Dj.
Speaker 1: Lagways has I would not expect Dj Lagway to be playing.
Why would you play DJ Lagway at this point and
risk further injury. I would not play him another down
this year, especially now that you know Billy Napier's coming back.
Speaker 4: But LSU comes to town.
Speaker 1: This is they got LSU, Ole Miss, and then Florida
State gotta win two out of those three to get
Bowl eligible.
Speaker 4: I still think it'll be a tall order.
Speaker 1: To do that, but LSU's probably the better option to
beat than Old Misses given what Old miss did to
Georgia last week. So if you're gonna win a game, Billy,
this is the one you gotta try to win.
Speaker 4: Obviously, you're still probably gonna be playing your third string quarterback.
I get it.
Speaker 1: But LSU is your opportunity I think to potentially get
Bowl eligible because again you got Florida State at the
end that you can probably win that game, but you
never know when that in that kind of game. But
Florida State again falls to four and five and again
home to LSU. This weekend Saturday three thirty in Gainesville,
UCF falls to.
Speaker 4: Four and six.
Speaker 1: They fall at Arizona State thirty five thirty one. Very
entertaining game. I watched a decent amount of that game.
Back and forth game again, it seems like they found
a quarterback. Quarterbacks got them moving a little bit. R. J.
Harvey is still playing well, but again Malasan falls to
four and six and the Knights. They will have a
bye week this week as well, with two games to
go there. Fau falls to two and seven. They lose
on Thursday night last week at East Carolina they get
blown out forty nine to fourteen. They will be on
the road this week at Temple. They fall to two
and seven and FIU, who was off last week. At
three and six, they head to Jacksonville State to see
rich Rod and the game Cocks up there in Jacksonville, Alabama.
Not far from where I used to live, but Jacksonville
State has had a really good year with rich Rod
sou Mike McIntyre and company head up to Jacksonville, Alabama
at three and six to face the game Cocks of
Jacksonville State.
Speaker 4: So there's your college recap again.
Speaker 1: Everybody loses in the state of Florida on the college side,
except for.
Speaker 4: FIU, who was off to the NFL. You have. Let's
highlight the winner first. Let's highlight the Dolphins. Nice job.
Speaker 1: Going out to Los Angeles on Monday night, they moved
to three and six. They beat the Rams twenty three
to fifteen, hold the Rams out of the end zone
to five field goals. The defense played really well. The
offense was good, not great. With two in this third
week back, Tyreek Hill scores. They score on their opening drive,
so you know, nice, nice response. Miami's not out of
it in the ANFC. They got a chance here. If
they could go nine and eight, they would have to
go six and two down the stretch. Their schedule is manageable,
they could potentially. I think they're still in it for
the for the seventh wildcard spot in the AFC. I
think the offense is getting a little bit better every
week with two of coming back. The defense is playing better,
So I think this is gonna be a live team
here the next month. If they can go on a
run here the next month and win three to four
in a row, I think Miami has still has an
outside chance for that seventh seed in the AFC, because
that seventh seed is gonna probably come down to Miami Cincinnati.
You're gonna have a team at nine and eight. It's
gonna make it in the AFC, so I think Miami
has a shot here if they can put a little
streak together to get a little role here. I think
Miami's got a chance. With the schedule, They've got to
get to nine and eight on the year. Jacksonville falls
to two and eight. They lose that home to Minnesota.
Remember no Trevor Lawrence. Mac Jones starts defensive game. They
lose twelve seven to Minnesota. A lot of turnovers in
this game for both teams, but the Jags are just
in free fall again. I think this is obviously probably
gonna be the end of the line for Doug Peterson.
Don't know the status of Trevor Lawrence again for this
week with the shoulder injury. There's no need to rush
him back. If you're gonna lose, you might as well
keep losing to improve your draft stock. Mac Jones eh not,
you know, not not great in his debut with the Jags.
They will head to Detroit this week again, Detroit coming
off a dramatic win on Monday. On Sunday night in
Houston again the doll I forgot to mention, the Dolphins
will be home to Las Vegas again, a very winnable
game but Vegas is coming off a bye, so be
careful there there. But the Jags will head to Detroit,
probably another beat down up in the Motor City with
how well that Detroit Lions team. Last team want to
hit on is Tampa Bay Buccaneers lose a heartbreaker heading
into their by to the forty nine Ers twenty three
twenty fall to four and six. I mean, just a
terrible two terrible losses and heartbreaking losses in a row.
Coming off the Monday night heartbreaker in Kansas City, you
lose at home to San Francisco. Moody kicks a game
winning field goal in the last play of the game
after he missed three field goals. The Bucks have first
and goal at the seven at the two minute warning
to win the game, and they three did not like
the three play calls on that sequence to end up
having to kick a field goal to tie the game.
Speaker 4: That was not a did not.
Speaker 1: Love that play sequence at all for the Bucks. And
then at the end there obviously Purty's gonna drive him
down the field, get him in the field goal range.
Todd bowles three timeouts in his pocket, doesn't call a
timeout in the last play of the game to even
ice the kicker at all, who's already missed three kicks.
You saw the little scuffle on the sideline between Debo
and the snapper and the kicker during the game after
the third miss. Why Todd Bowles doesn't call time out
there on the last play of the game and takes
three timeouts into the locker room with him, I have
no idea he doesn't. Moody makes the fourth kick. The
Bucks will lose twenty three to twenty head to their
bye week again, look at the Bucks schedule. I know,
at four and six you think it doesn't look good,
But if you look at the Bucks schedule, they've got
Carolina twice, the Giants, the Raiders, the Cowboys, the Saints,
six teams they will be favored, favored against absolutely and
then one game at the Chargers, which is a which
is a toss up game, probably will be an underdog,
but a winnable game. Mike Evans is supposed to be
back after the bye again. The defense has just not
been very good. They've got to figure out a way
to at least be average.
Speaker 4: They've not.
Speaker 1: They actually didn't play terrible against San Francisco. They held
them to twenty three which is pretty good. But they've
got to figure out way to get some more turnovers
and some more sacks. This whether schematics, personnel, whatever, They've
got to figure out a way to be better on defense.
Because the offense, I think is gonna be good enough.
With their schedule, they should easily. They should go one,
five and two at the absolute worst. Nine and eight
ought to be nine and eight, absolute worst in the NFC.
Will that be good enough to get to get the
six or seven seed. We'll see six and one will
get them in. If they go six and one, they're
ten and seven, they're gonna make the playoffs again. Carolina twice, Raiders,
New Orleans, Dallas, the Giants six games you have to win.
If you're the Buccaneers, you have to win these games.
And I would expect them to have a good effort
after the bye. Get healthy again, Evans comes back. That
changes a lot on offense, the dynamic and the coverages.
But Bucks gotta go on a run here at four
and six. Tough, tough loss the last two weeks at
Kansas City home to San Francisco, two games they could
have won, they lose them both.
Speaker 4: Coaching was not.
Speaker 1: The best game management not the best. That's again my
biggest complaint with Todd Bowles has been the game management
component of things has not been good, good enough and
in costing his team.
Speaker 4: Opportunity news to win football game.
Speaker 1: So all right, Florida Football Insiders Podcast, appreciate you finding
us at on x at JPO Sports is my Twitter handle.
Reach out love to hear from you. If you haven't
already done so, subscribe, rate and review Kevin Brockway coming
up from the Gainesville Sun here in just a minute.
Remember check out the Powers on Sports podcast. Check out
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show Tuesdays and Thursday mornings eight to ten am Eastern time.
Pressbox Radio dot com. You can listen to it live
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check that out as well. And if you're in the
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So appreciate you find us on the Florida Football Insiders podcast.
Shout out to my guy Steve Carney and his congress
in his military service on Veterans Day. Shout out to
all the veterans, Thank you for your service. Celebrating Veterans
Day this week. Steve Carney is kind of our quarterback
of our podcast feed. He's the one that gets the
podcast up for you every week. So shout out to you,
Steve Carney, into my guy TJ. Reeves as well. So again,
the military academies are doing great. Army undefeated, Navy still
doing very well. Potentially could have an Army Navy American
Conference championship game and then the following week play again,
so we'll see how that unfolds because Army is now undefeated.
But they do have to go to Notre Dame here
in a couple of weeks, which will be awesome to
see that drama of that game. So again, appreciate you
finding us Florida Football Insiders Podcast. Enjoy Kevin Brockway Gainesville
Sun talking all things Billy Napier and Todd Golden. I
know a lot of us, me included, have been affected
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Speaker 2: All Right, welcome back to the podcast. Appreciate you finding us.
Now we're gonna head up to Gainesville.
Speaker 1: We had a lot We've had a lot of news
coming out of Gainesville, both on the football side and
now the basketball side, with what's going on with coach
Todd Golden and no pet of person who's right there
in the middle of it, writing about it, covering it, UH,
sourcing it and all the all the rest. Kevin Brockway,
Gainesville Sun regular here on the podcast.
Speaker 4: Kevin.
Speaker 2: Welcome back, sir.
Speaker 5: It's good to be back with you. Thanks for having
me on.
Speaker 1: All right, so an adventurous couple of weeks up in Gainesville,
for sure. Let's start off with let's start off with
the Todd Golden situation. Obviously, this kind of the news
kind of broke, you know, middle of last week about
the you know, the allegations and that stuff with the
student newspaper, UH, with reporting that. How did how does
it in a city like Gainesville, a little tight knit
community college town, how does that stuff get? I mean,
did was there any whiff of this coming down the
pipe before the the before the student newspaper broke it?
Speaker 2: How does that kind of stuff work in your world?
Speaker 5: Well, we had heard some rumblings in the spring, and
then we heard it was resolved, and then obviously some
things percolated up until last week. I can't get into
too much the specifics of my reporting, but I can
tell you that you know, it was an on and
off situation throughout the fall that you know, you started
to hear some things here and there. But that being said,
you know, I think going forward, you know, obviously very
troubling allegations, but allegations, and you know, there's there's a
chance for due process. I think Florida, you know, obviously
not suspending him. That's a little hard to read. There
is a Title nine policy right now that basically says
that you know, that prohibits schools from you know, handing
out on fair you know, penalties for those of the
rights of the accused. So that could possibly be a reason,
although I couldn't get Florida necessarily confirm that as a reason.
But he is still coaching, and we you know, we
we addressed the situation where the Monday night he stood
by his statement, which is that he you know, was
engaging in a defamation lawyer, and you know, offered a
few you know, the question that I asked really was,
you know, what's your message to women fans, And you know,
his response was basically, you know, keep supporting us, let
do process play out. We did a fans story as well,
and it seemed like the fan reaction was mixed. They
seem to want to know more, and they're not really
going to know more until the investigation is complete. So
I think that's kind of where we are at this point.
Speaker 1: From the just again from the fan in me looking
at the situation again, I'm not in it at all,
don't have any vested interest in any any any any
of it.
Speaker 2: So a couple of things that were surprising.
Speaker 1: One, you didn't hear Todman Golden come out and say categorically,
I did not do this, this is not I'm not
involved in this at any level.
Speaker 2: That was not said.
Speaker 1: And regardless of what a lawyer wants you to say,
if you're one hundred percent innocent, you would say that
if you were the head basketball coach, I would think,
or a high profile figure in a situation like this,
with the allegations that are coming out about what they
you know, we're being alleged.
Speaker 2: So that's number one to me.
Speaker 1: You didn't hear Todd Golden say that, and I thought
that was a little bit odd as well.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I do think that him by you know, his
social media statement on Saturday, which he stood by, you know,
retaining a engaging in the defamation lawyer, I think somewhat
says that, but you know, maybe not to the strength
that people want to hear.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: The next thing is, I would say what.
Speaker 1: Again another part just again from me from my point
of view as a fan. I was shocked that they
allowed him to coach Monday night against Grambling. I mean,
I know there's due process, but they could have put
him unpaid, administrator leave or whatever. I'm shocked that, you
know that he walked out there was the coach on
Monday night.
Speaker 5: Again. Yeah, and I thought that that might have been
due to the Title nine policy, the change in Title
nine policy where maybe they couldn't spend okay because of
that rule providing more rights for the accused. And if
you look it up, it came in at twenty twenty. Now,
they still could have suspended him if they felt that
he was a threat to someone's health or safety. Sure
that under that rule, but it sets the bar pretty high.
So I mean that's a possibility. But again I couldn't
get Florida confirm it. But you know, listen, you know
Florida also has a slogan, you know, on its walls,
the Championship Experience with Integrity. So I do think, you know,
I could see both sides of it, And I could
see some fans are saying, like, hey, why not you know,
until this thing plays out? Why I put them on
paid administrative leave because of how it reflects on the program.
I mean, there are two sides of it, and I
could see both sides of it.
Speaker 1: From Scott Strickland's perspective. Is this a very dangerous line
he's toting here because if this blows up in his
face and Todd Golden is you know, if it turns
out that Todd Golden is guilty of something to this
degree and they have to remove and Scott Strickland kind
of didn't jump out on the forefront of is this
potentially a problem for Scott Strickland moving forward as well?
Speaker 5: Well, you would have to think, with everything else that's
going on, it probably is. And I think that, you know,
I would say that, you know, but I think they
think and I don't know if they've done any kind
of internal investigation on this. Maybe they have, maybe they haven't,
and if they have, maybe they feel confident that the
allegations are not truthful. They're certainly going all in on it,
and of course, you know, not to mention Todd's success
as a basketball coach, the fact that he has the
program on an upper trajectory. It made the nca Tournament
last year. You know you would you would wonder if
this was coming off two n I t years if
it would be different as well. But I do think
that certainly, Uh you know, it's I think for Scott, Yeah,
a little nervous because and and also because, like I said,
Todd Golden has probably been one of his best hires
if you look at it, certainly with the way the
way the situation that Billy is going down, and if
if this scandal persists, and and if these allegations are
found to be true, it's gonna be another black mark
on Scott's resume.
Speaker 1: And and then and then well then we'll transition to
back to football. Because there's a line here, very coincidental.
I don't know if it was coincidental, if it was intentional.
Last Thursday is when the when the when the note
came out about Billy Napier coming back, which create a
little stability. I'm sure Again, who knows if there's any
correlation to this, but just funny how the next day
is when the Todd Golden stuff really hit the media. Hard.
He thought that there might have been a was there
any was there any lean to keeping Billy Napier because
of maybe what was going on with Todd Golden or
those two completely separate decisions.
Speaker 5: I think there were separate decisions, but I think it
was more because of the result on Saturday, the Texas game.
I think they knew that was coming, you know, because
they're they're playing their third string quarterback and then kind
of playing a game with DJ Lagway. But I think
people close to the program really knew that. You know, listen,
there's a Grade one, two three hamstring with with DJ Lagway.
I mean, I was followed by my people that you know,
he's probably not going to be back until Florida State.
So you know, you're going into that game with the
third string quarterback, you're really hanged up. I think they
knew that that result was going to be ugly, and
they wanted to get out in the forefront of that
because you're coming off a game in Georgia where you know, listen,
Florida gave put forth a good effort, and you're doing
it for recruiting too, especially moving up on December fourth,
You're trying to create some stability that way, and look Scott,
you know again in that situation too. You know he
he doesn't. I think he's holding on to the fact
that that Billy Napier can turn things around. I mean,
they have invested a lot in that freshman and sophomore class,
and he would be worried that if you got rid
of the coach, that would all blow up and including
losing DJ Lagway, who listen, when he's healthy, has shown
signs of promise as a quarterback. I mean really, you know,
an impressive way to throw the deep ball. But you know,
my concern going forward to DJ Lagway is now he's
got a track record or history of being injury prone.
So you know, like can you count on him for
a full season next year? That's gonna be one of
the questions with this regime if he comes back as well,
but can you count them as a dual threat quarterback
and you know, get a you know, you know, injury
s hamstring again or do something. You know, can he
make it their season? But it's gonna be it's gonna
be interesting and to see, you know, going forward on
the football side, how they handle this. And obviously you've
got two straight ranked teams in Florida State, which is
obviously another program really in dire straits. But I think that,
you know, if there's any chance of them making a
Bowl game, I think they're gonna have to beat LSU.
I don't see him being o miss he at the
end of the season. You get to six wins maybe.
Speaker 1: And I made the argument last week in the last
couple of weeks that if Napier wasn't retained, I thought
DJ Lagway could be the most coveted free agent in
the country in the transfer portal theoretically because of what
he's shown in his limited time that he has played.
Speaker 5: Oh for sure. Yeah no. And I know that there
there are rumblings and a certain program down south that's losing.
Cam Ward would have when Texas Texas A and M
would probably go after back to his home state where
he's near Willis, Texas. So I think that all that
goes into play. Yeah no, I agree with you. So
I think that's that was another reason why they decided
to give Billy no all right, look four years a
full recruiting cycle. It's fair, yep. But I really do
have to question uh, Billy and his staff recruiting and
that the track record in the last two years is
he's shown that he can't build the he can't build
a roster that would stands the rigors of the SEC.
Guys are getting injured all the time, and uh, you know,
like I said, you know that the physicality of this league,
you gotta have guys that are durable, and and that
has not shown to be the case the last couple
of years.
Speaker 1: Is there any chance if things were to get really
ugly the next three weeks, and let's say you lose
to Florida State as well, is there any chance they
changed their mind? Scott's trickling in the administration or is
that or is that pretty much? We think it's he's
He's gonna survive no matter what happens.
Speaker 5: Based on everything I'm hearing my sources, he's all in
on Billy regardless. I mean, I think the view of
the rest of the season is basically a wash because
of all the injuries and because of you know, the
hand he's been dealt, and and you know, of losing
your top two quarterbacks, Yeah that they're gonna you know,
uh press forward in twenty twenty five and and you know,
uh be pretty intentional with nil and in the transfer
portal market and try to build the rest best roster.
They can't.
Speaker 1: And in the Billy's credit, give him credit up to
last week obviously with the third until you got to
the third stree court, they were super competitive Tennessee Georgia.
Speaker 2: I mean they they probably that Georgia game, they probably
I would say, gonna win the game.
Speaker 1: But that game goes to the wire in that in
Jacksonville with lagways in the game, if not, Florida wins
the game because they were.
Speaker 2: Beating Georgia pretty good there for the first two quarters.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know, obviously that game changes when when
Aiden Warner has to come into play. But but to
his credit, he's galvanized that team and they've continued to
play hard for him. Whether they're talented enough, whether he's
coaching them up enough, that's a different question. But the
effort level, you can't you can't dispute the effort level, right.
Speaker 5: Yeah, No, the one thing, Yeah, Billy has lots of
locker room, I can tell you that. And in talking
to players and even parents around the program, they believe
in him with regards to what he's trying to build.
But that being said, that's you know, only you know
it results or results. I mean, and he's two and
fourteen against ranked teams and uh, you know his only
one win against Arrival and that was Tennessee last year.
I mean, the results are going to have to pick
up and he will be honest, the seats going into
year four for sure.
Speaker 1: Do you anticipate any coaching changes O C D C
kind of situation or do you think that's good He's
going to try to stabilize there and just keep keep development.
Speaker 4: How do you how do you see the coaching staff?
Speaker 5: I think they'll be I think they'll be changes, but
we will see. You know, something I wrote about yesterday
was the OC situation and whether I think a lot
of people are wondering whether you know this fourth year
came with conditions that he had to get no C.
But you know we heard that last year too, and
we heard Willie Korn's name floated from Liberty and nothing
came of it, and Billy held on to the plays.
And you know the reason why was basically he talked
about his his chemistry, Mergs the offense could really take off. Well,
you know, Merch had an injury aroundage year it didn't
work out, but you know, next year he might say
the same thing. Look, I've got this chemistry with Lagway.
Look at what we did when Lagway was in there.
So I think Billy has proven that he really wants
to hold on into play calling and that's going to
be an interesting fight. And I don't think necessarily that
it's a done deal that he's going to give it up.
And that could have happened. Yeah, it could happen, But
I don't think that this you know, message you know,
the message board rumor mill that you know, it's a
it's a foregone conclusion, isn't accurate.
Speaker 1: Last two questions, I'll get you out of here. What's
the sentiment around Gainsville with the fans, the public? You know,
you're out in the grocery store and restaurants. What do
you get is the sense of they they make the
decision to bring Billy back. What's kind of the sentiment?
Speaker 4: Uh?
Speaker 2: And in the public opinion.
Speaker 5: Yeah, some frustration and bewilderment and some that are saying, oh, well,
you know, they did look pretty good, uh with Lagway.
You know in terms of you know, Whending was healthy
and maybe give them time it's it's pretty mixed. I
would say, you know, fifty to fifty in regards to that,
but there is a still a large contingent that doesn't
think Billy is up for the job. And uh, like,
like I said, we're gonna continue to see how it
plays out. It's gonna be uh, it'll be an interesting
fourth year to stay the least, but he is definitely
gonna be uh under the gun to uh have a
have a wedding and a productive season.
Speaker 2: And here and here's the other part that people don't realize.
Speaker 1: The you have to weigh would you rather if you're
gonna if you're gonna buy Billy nape you're out. It's
gonna cost you probably twenty million bucks something like that
something in that neighborhood.
Speaker 2: Would you rather invest that money in nil.
Speaker 1: To some degree for a year or would you rather
pay Billy Napier not to be the coach and then
have to do that? And so there's a there's some
financial decisions and way that you have to make if
you're the university as well, that's part of this equation
as well.
Speaker 4: How is it to get give the.
Speaker 2: Audience a little sense of just the strength of the
NIL program at Florida compared to some other places.
Speaker 5: It's getting there, but is it as good as the heavyweights?
That's what I've always wondered, you know. I mean, Ohio
State has set the bar right at twenty million, right,
so I think that, uh, it's in better shape than
it was a few years ago. But it's always, like
I said, it's always in comparison to the rest of
the SEC, you know, and is it is it where
it needs to be to compete in that conference? And
I would say that it's there's there's probably you know,
like I said, there's there's probably some.
Speaker 2: There's room to grow. There's room to.
Speaker 5: Grow there, there's some progress there, but it's still is
ongoing progress. And you know, you've got to like, you know,
you've got they they've really got to work on particular
this offseason, uh, you know, upgrading the talents turned there
and upgrading the depth. Really, I think that's the thing.
Speaker 1: And do you think the NI L is a is
a director reflection of the coach, meaning if they had
a high flying, you know, Lane Kiffin kind of guy
that NIL would exploit, would be as plentiful as it
need to be.
Speaker 4: Or do you think it's just.
Speaker 2: A not a booster booster problem.
Speaker 5: I think it's a combination both. I mean, I think
it's hard for some of the boosters to get behind
the program. I think it's a cultural uh situation too,
because this was always a program the last twenty years
that prided itself on compliance. You know, they were right.
So I think even getting uh you know, and I've
talked to some people involved in that al in Florida.
Even even convincing or getting people to realize, hey, this
is the way to go now is uh has been
a little bit of a paradigm shift, and some you know,
boosters haven't warmed up to it as much as others.
Speaker 1: All Right, last question on basketball, and you're out of here.
Where does Florida go from here? Let's say Todd Golden
stays the coach. How do you think that this whole
thing is going to affect the program? And just give
us a quick little synopsis of the Gators as they've
played a couple of games now again a lot of
a lot of expectation, a lot of hope this year.
Give us a quick little update on the Gator roster. Yeah.
Speaker 5: No, I think Todd did a pretty good job in
the transfer portal. Again, I look at these guys Sam
Alexis and Rubin Shinielu and Elijah Martin, and they've all
been productive in different aspects. To the first three games
the season, I think the roster is a little more athletic,
a little bit of a better defensive roscar, and then offensively,
I think it's different guys different nights. Walter Clayton running
the point will be interesting to see through the course
of the season. You know, he you know, certainly when
when you look at the guy like Zion Pullhen last
year he was one of the you know, steadiest point
guards that you know, they've ever had in terms of
assistant turnover ratio. You know, Walter, I think if he
gets pressured a little bit, it's going to be interesting
to see, you know, But if he can keep the
turnovers at a minimum, and you know, he brings that
that weapon is a scoring point guard. You know, score
twenty nine in the season opener against USF, which is
really something. You know, they haven't you know, hit a
bunch of threes yet. They've been kind of on the perimeter.
They've you know, but they're still beating teams by fifteen
or twenty points. So I think that's a pretty good
sign because I think Perimeter, why, sooner or later this
team is really going to break out and you know,
have one of those games where they hit ten or
fifteen threes and you know, maybe they're saving it for
that game up in North Carolina in December. That'd be something.
Speaker 1: All Right, We'll find Kevin Brockway, Gainesville Son all over
all over social media.
Speaker 2: Check you know, if you want to read about the
Todd gold situation.
Speaker 1: He's done some great writing there and obviously we'll continue
to cover the Gators well. Kevin Brockway Gainesville Sun. Find
him on give me that, give me that that Twitter handle, that.
Speaker 2: X handle one more time.
Speaker 5: Yeah at Kevin Brockway g one and you can find
my work on Gainesville dot com and getersports dot com.
Speaker 1: Yeah, does a great job covering the Gators. And he'll
be all over these these two big stories that are
unfolding up there in Gainesville, obviously the billion apier return
and then the Todd Golden situation that's ongoing here with
with the administration of the university. So Kevin, appreciate the
great work. Enjoy Uh you got what LSU coming to
town correct Saturday.
Speaker 5: Yes, what time is that game? Three ABC, three thirty ABC.
Speaker 1: Again you're getting You're getting the LSU team reeling off
the Alabama blowout, So be interesting to see what kind
of crowd we have in Gainesville as well, see if
Gators can get one step closer to Bowl eligibility.
Speaker 5: And don't forget Garrett nsmyer Ls's quarterback Cleay Dear if
you hold sign Gainesville, it's kind of a homecoming for
him and his dad. You know, Doug was under Jim mcawain.
Speaker 2: So that's true.
Speaker 1: That is a that's a great point there too. So
enjoy the game, Kevin. We'll talk real soon. Man.
Speaker 5: I appreciate it all right, thank you.
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