- Florida's baseball team won two come-from-behind games and is close to clinching an NCAA regional hosting spot this season.
- Florida will host an NCAA Softball Regional as the No. 6 seed, starting Friday against Florida A&M on the SEC Network.
The Front 9 comes at you after a rainy few days that made you think Florida was playing in a baseball regional because of the delays at Condron.
1. Certainly, it was a good weekend for the baseball team with two wins over Kentucky in come-from-behind fashion (although it might be a good idea NOT to have to come from behind all the time). I don’t know if Florida clinched being an NCAA regional host, but the Gators are almost there. Three games at LSU and the SEC Tourney will have something to do with it.
2. The worst part about getting old is that about once a week you are hit with the news that somebody you were close to cosmically has passed away. By that I mean they didn’t know they had a big part in your life even though they did. We lost Ted Turner and Bobby Cox within days of each other.
3. FOMO Game of the week
Actually, there will be at least two and hopefully more. Florida will host an NCAA Softball Regional as the No. 6 overall seed. The Gators will open play with an 11 a.m. game Friday against Florida A&M and you can see that game on the SEC Network. Or, you can go for the whole weekend. Texas State and Georgia Tech are the other two teams coming to Gainesville.
4. A quartet of questions with 13-year NFL veteran, former Gator All-SEC lineman and Alachua County resident Cooper Carlisle
- Why did you move back to North Central Florida after your long playing career in the NFL?
Carlisle: When I retired we just sort of had to pick a place to settle. We really enjoyed our time in Gainesville while in college, and we had a few friends who had come back to raise their families. Turned out it has been a great place to raise ours. - How did a guy from McComb, Miss., end up playing for the Gators?
Carlisle: We talk about this all the time because I really had no reason to end up here. My parents both went to Ole Miss, my uncle played at Texas, and my high school girlfriend went to Alabama. But somehow assistant coach Bob Sanders found me in McComb. I loved the brand of football they were playing at the time. The program sold itself. - How does an NFL offensive lineman end up with 11 fumble recoveries?
Carlisle: I’m really not sure how that happens. I suppose right place at the right time. Hopefully I was not the cause of all of these fumbles. - Are you prouder of 133 NFL starts or the 1996 National Championship?
Carlisle: Tough question. I think football is the ultimate team game, so I would have to put the national championship really high on the list of things I am proud of, football wise.
5. Five games Florida must win to have a shot at the College Football Playoff
- At Ole Miss: The Rebels were a playoff team last year and it would mean a win over two Heisman contenders.
- Oklahoma: Another playoff team from a year ago.
- South Carolina: The Gamecocks are kind of an X-Factor team this season.
- At Missouri: Florida has a history of not playing well in the “other” Columbia.
- Vanderbilt: No Diego Pavia, but this isn’t your father’s Commodores.
6. This will happen this week
Sports talk shows will suddenly realize that the 76-team NCAA basketball tournament is really going to happen this year and will start complaining about the NCAA … again. This has been in the works for a couple of years, but now that it’s official, people will start freaking out over making changes to a spectacular sporting event. Nobody is making you watch the games!
7. Hot take of the week
Florida’s spring ball coaches — Tim Walton and Kevin O’Sullivan — have combined to take their teams to 22 College World Series. This will be one of those rare years when neither one goes. Walton’s pitching staff has imploded like a balloon with too much air, allowing nine runs or more in four straight games. Sully’s team has trailed in more than half of their games and always feel like they are in trouble. There are elite players on both teams, but neither feels like an elite team, and you have to be at that level to get to Oklahoma City or Omaha.
8. Tweet of the Week
From Chris Low (On3.com): “Remember when Nick Saban’s first contract at Alabama in 2007, paying him an average of $4 million per year, left everyone in the sport dazed? Every head coach in the Big Ten and SEC now makes more.”
9. Movie recommendation
We finally watched “Marty Supreme” (waited for it on HBO Max) and it was very intense for a ping pong movie. The acting is superb, but it is rated R, mostly for language. And violence. In a ping pong movie!