The Back Nine comes at you with the sudden realization that we’re inside four weeks until the start of the college football season. Who needs a long summer?
10. It’s a fine line and Dan Mullen hopes his Florida football team understands which side of it to be on. We’re talking about enjoying yourself on the football field and Mullen on Monday was talking about how Feleipe Franks had to learn how to have fun instead of being so uptight. “I’d tell him, ‘You don’t have to be so uptight. It’s just a game,’ ” Mullen said. It wasn’t until this spring that Mullen saw a guy who was having fun being the Florida quarterback, but that came with knowledge and maturity. “Going into spring ball, he was a lot more relaxed,” Mullen said. “Knowing what you’re doing has a lot to do with that.” Look, I’ve seen some Florida teams that had a blast that weren’t very good. It goes back to the old saying that you want football to be important to your players rather than guys who just want to be football players. There’s a right time for everything. Nothing bothers me more than a player celebrating a touchdown when his team is getting blown out or doing a dance because of a big hit even though the opponent just picked up a crucial first down. Now, get off my lawn and turn that music down. “There’s a big difference between having fun, being confident, and being silly and goofy as a team,” Mullen said. “As you grow and mature, guys learn that difference. They should have fun embracing the game and playing hard. The best way to be is to be confident and relaxed and having fun.” Of course, nothing is more fun than winning.
11. The vibe out of camp and throughout the summer has been that we had better not sleep on Malik Davis. The redshirt sophomore is coming off his second season-ending knee injury in two years, but told The Back Nine last week he is better than ever. “It was hard,” he said of playing only three games last season. “But it made me love the game even more. It made me work 10 times harder.” Davis was impressive as a freshman (526 yards on 79 carries) before a serious knee injury knocked him out against Georgia. He was showing signs of being a pass catching option out of the backfield in 2018 before another knee injury ended his season. “It was devastating,” he said, “because it was the second time. I was pretty upset but I couldn’t feel sorry for myself.” Instead, he threw himself into getting better. “Every day, all day,” he said. “But it’s a mental thing more than anything. As long as you attack the rehab, you’ll be fine.” You can’t help but find yourself rooting for Davis.
12. One area where the number of transfers could hurt Florida is on special teams where a lot of freshmen and redshirt freshmen are going to be counted on to cover kicks. Evan McPherson, Florida’s sophomore placekicker, knows some of the responsibility falls to him this year. “Coach Mullen has talked to me about increasing the touchback percentage this year,” McPherson said. “Last year, we had the No. 1 kickoff coverage team so I wasn’t worried about hitting it out of the end zone. This year, he’s talked to me about it, so I’ve been working on driving it a little bit more.” With the help of strength coach Nick Savage. “Coach Savage has definitely helped me improve my leg strength a lot since I’ve been here,” McPherson said.
13. We always hear about Gators taking care of Gators. Well, here’s an opportunity for the Gator Nation to really step up. Former UF linebacker Neiron Ball is in bad shape after suffering a ruptured blood vessel in his brain and his family has started a GoFundMe account to help get him into a rehab center. He can only communicate with his eyes and needs special care. Neiron missed a season at Florida while dealing with his rare medical condition and one of my favorite interviews was sitting down with him and having him educate me about what was going on in his brain back when he was a player. To think of him as a quadrapeligic with no parents to help makes me want to cry. It shouldn’t be that hard for Gator fans to raise $50,000 (and it’s off to a good start) for the care of one of their own, one of the real good guys. Please, help Neiron Ball.
14. The Pac-12 last week floated the possibility of starting games at 9 a.m. as a way to give more people (which translates to voters) an opportunity to see their teams. Of course, this caused an uproar from people who feel like it’s unfair to ask student-athletes to get up at 5 a.m. to prepare for a game. Another plus of playing the games that early would be to allow fans to get home at a reasonable hour. Yada, yada, yada. The only reason this is being discussed is because Fox is launching its own version of GameDay and they want to be able to go right from the show to a game. Any responsible voter (see: Dooley, Pat) stays up to watch those late games or at least records them. It’s about TV and it’s always about TV and what it wants. Never forget that.
15. I guess, technically, football season begins Thursday with the unwatchable Pro Football Hall of Fame game between Denver and Atlanta (for those of you with a problem, the Falcons are favored by one and the over/under is 34.5). I think this is going to be a fascinating season with so much player movement (I mean, not like college football, but that’s another story). I certainly prefer college football to the pros, but at least we know it won’t be Alabama-Clemson in the Super Bowl. I’m waiting a couple of weeks to make my predictions. There’s only one thing I know for sure. Stay away from the Raiders. Those teams on Hard Knocks the last three years have a combined 16-31-1 record. But it should be must-see TV with Jon Gruden involved.
16. I’m taking the Brooks Koepka approach to golf. Show up 50 minutes before my tee time, hit a few balls, roll a few putts and go out and dominate. The guy is scary good, but we’ve seen players look unbeatable before only to stumble a bit. I’m just not sure Koepka cares enough to let pressure bother him. He’s a different cat.
17. The Tweet of the Week comes from Super 70s Sports, if only because it made me feel nostalgic — “This week in 1997, Greg Maddux tosses a 76-pitch complete game. I believe this is also known as ‘4 innings’ to most current starting pitchers.” Baseball is such a different game now, but there was nothing like being a Braves fan in the 1990s and watching the man my dad called “The Surgeon” go to work.
18. I leave you with this playlist before I talk a few final vacation days. One programming note, there will be a Dooley Noted podcast on Thursday of this week and then it starts again on a weekly basis on Tuesday next week. Football season is coming down fast.
• “I Buried a Bone” by Blind Pilot.
• “Alligator” by Of Monsters and Men.
• “Forgive Me Friend” by Smith and Thell.
• “Oh Mexico” by Jeremy Zucker.
• And for an oldie, “Mainline Florida” by Eric Clapton
— Contact Pat Dooley at 352-374-5053 or at pat.dooley@gvillesun.com. And follow at Twitter.com/Pat_Dooley.
PAC-12: Do away with different time zones, or quit whining.
Instead of Pac-12, maybe they should be named the Moon Belt. Then the zombies will increase their Neilson ratings, if they don’t eat each other first. Those damn Donners!
Them aren’t the only cannibals, Phil — I have it on good authority that UGA fans consume human flesh in some secret ritual to Kirby Smart once a year.
6, I think Leg Humper fans consumed some of Kirby’s brains. Why else does he go for it on 4th and 11 from midfield in a tie game against Bammer?
Two Georgia rednecks won UGA tickets for a home game at the 50-yard line. Pregame, the cheerleaders run out UGA VII to midfield. UGA squats, turns around and begins licking his balls.
The first redneck says, “Son, I’d sure love to do that!”
His friend says, “Boy, that dog’ll bite you!”
Earl and Bubba!
Doc, I’m curious. Have you ever been stationed on the left coast?
Actually back in my pre-health care days, 85-86, I was in a platform instructor position which entailed a lot of back and forth to Ft Ord for weeks at a time to certify the Light Fighters concept for the old 7th Infantry. Then when it came time for schooling, damned if they didn’t send me right back to California in 87-90 for that! Ft Ord was one thing, but those follow on years were replete with militant vegitarians, peace protestors, and people hell bent on saving the speckled trapizoidal grasshopper. And that was just the faculty! I took refuge in teaching ROTC in my spare time, and obviously didn’t go native. I had fun tho, in the GatorEd sense of the word. Why do you ask?
Just curious. I suspected you must have been stationed out there for a portion of your illustrious and lengthy military career.
Lengthy, yes. Illustrious? Considering that toward the end of it, I no doubt had a better chance of becoming a nun than a brigadier general. But nice of you to say, Sly — you’re a gentleman and a scholar!
You’re too modest my friend.
“It’s a fine line and Dan Mullen hopes his Florida football team understands which side of it to be on.”
*sigh
I can’t keep reading after that but hey, got a pair of eyeballs on the advertisements and that’s all that matters.
I think it was tongue-in-cheek, TJ. But don’t step on your tongue looking at all those ads! 😜
Perhaps.
I read some more. I really, really hope Davis can have some luck the rest of his UF career and all that promise we saw out of him translates to a NFL career.
Now, get off my lawn and turn that music down!!
😂 Say, were you GrumpyGator in a previous life?
I hope so too!
When it comes to writing — yeah, I can be quite grumpy.
I teach an “Army Writing” class (among others). The standards in NCOES schools are approaching your average college campus. Poor NCO will be walking up to me with an MFR and, “I can see five mistakes from 10 feet away. Go back and do it again.”
I swear I’m not proud of it. I just can’t help it. I end up having to apply a curve at the end of the rotation because the other classes apparently don’t grade as strictly.
FF is not a BIG ? this year in can he get the job done, maybe a small ? in has he made the next step in his development. If so (I think he will surprise some) our offense will be much improved. IF (a big IF) the injury bug doesn’t plague us this year we’ll will know by game three what our season is going to look like. I know game three is a depleted UK but I think there is some redemption to be had. And they will be coming at us since they stopped the streak. But we are focused on UM and we need to be. They have had a nasty habit of beating us and we can’t let Manny start his tenure as HC with a win over us. He is not only a new HC he is a first time HC. But he does have the team behind him as they knew him as DC. His acclimation period will be shorter.
PAC12 does anyone care what happens out there? Like everything west coast they flashed in the news and have faded to oblivion. ESPN is high on the Utes. There are ties to CDM there other than that???
6 you mention the adds? I get the strangest adds on this sight.
Well, I don’t get any pop-ups, thankfully, but the on-site ads for lingerie featuring scantily clad young heffers of the fe-person type are….uh…..shall we say, hard to ignore? I think that’s what TJ was talking about.
wasn’t sure if I was the only one with those adds.
Just watched some video from the LSU game on OL highlights over on the Fansided sight. FF interception that killed the drive. (I was at the game) but the OL was doing quite well there.
You gotta ignore them. If you ever click on one they are going to keep coming and they are going to get progressively raunchier…
Thanks, Pat, for updating us on Neiron. Here’s hoping Gator Nation lends a hand.
Neiron Ball we got your back. Thank you for being a Gator. I remember an interview he did about his condition. Seize the day young man. Hope you get well.
Classy post 65…agreed and salute Mr. Ball.
There was more on this on SB Nation. Sad that his parents are gone. He has a sister and a Great Aunt and hopefully Gator Nation.
https://www.alligatorarmy.com/2019/7/31/20748729/neiron-ball-gofundme-fundraising-medical-care-florida-gators
If a picture ever screamed “I have having fun” it isn’t the one they piked for this article!
“AM having fun’
#14. Wanna be seen westcoasters?…get up early! What else can you do. It only has be be for 2 or 3 games each week, not all of them. Another option, maybe a 10am game will be better. Think of the new traditions…mimosas and bloody Mary’s and breakfast sandwiches, and extra partying after the game. Figure it out. Oh, yeah, the only ad I got was for a new drug to end an opioid addiction…it’s not fair.
That drug has been around for years, Brewski, and it works better for fibromyalgia than it does for addiction. Only cure for that is to drop the 82nd and a few SF teams on Mexico.
I’m waiting for Albert to post about all the whining going on out there on the West coast — ought to be a classic. But I like your idea about Bloody Marys before, during, and after the game!
G-6: …and I like the way you think too particularly about the 82nd and the SF’s.
Death from above. Not sure they still use that slogan. In the modern PC world.
Last I heard it still was, 65. They have resisted all the PC nonsense to do away with their “toxic masculinity” so far; I just wish the rest of the Army outside the Delta/SF/Ranger community would do the same. But they and the 101st are still the only self inserting assets in the structure, so that’s got to count for something. The 160th SOAR up at Campbell is still the same, at least — their motto still being “Death Waits In The Dark”. Back to the Gator’s teamwork strategies tho, I think we’re going to see the full benefits of both that philosophy and Savage’s S&C program come to full fruition very soon. GO GATORS — BRING ON THE CHOMP!
USC fans are insufferable pr*cks.
The PAC 12: IT JUST MEANS LESS! Or at least less than it does in God’s conference (although I am not religious it seems appropriate). Oregon has made both the BCS championship game and the CFP in the past ten years so maybe the PAC-12 just needs to concentrate schools producing higher caliber teams that complaining about lack of exposure.
I will say that ever since moving to SoCal in ’95 I have gotten up early for the east coast games. Before I got married I would be in Baja Sharkeez in Manhattan Beach promptly at 9 am. Steak and egg fajitas and Cadillac margaritas on the rocks with salt. THAT my friends is a real breakfast of champions!
The only down side was being pretty much in the bag by early afternoon. But my undergrad game day experience which included pancakes with Jim Beam syrup and Gator cup screwdrivers, followed by a fifth of whatever in a ziplock bag at the game, followed by a BBQ/kegger, followed by a short nap, followed by a frat parties, followed by an Asher Special at Skeeter’s at about 4 am, helped me to power through and watch the local games that were worthy of attention.
Don’t slag too badly on my neighbors; they’re nice, just not football-crazed lunatics.
LOL! The ole ziplock bag days…
Classic shyte from Albert, Smith! (the coiner of that spelling, at least as I recall, being none other than you) 🤣
In my Atlanta days….I was cool with several Bay area cats….they LOVED SEC football and state of Florida games in particular. They advised that they did just that…they would be hanging out Friday and decide which house to hook up breakfast and check out the 9-10 am games. It can be a tradition as you say Brewski.
I love college football so I watch their games to the wee hours on Saturdays…oh well Pac 12ers…