- Florida won in Austin against a star-studded Texas team with a first-time starting quarterback by regaining a crucial competitive "edge" they had been lacking.
- The College Football Playoff announced a handshake agreement to expand to 24 teams, aiming to create more exciting games and on-campus playoff contests.
The Front 9 comes at you after what might have been the greatest day in college football history.
1. I think we are all still trying to figure out how Florida won in Austin against a team with more five-stars than the NFL while the Gators were playing a quarterback making his first career start. I’ll tell you how. I have talked about what has been lacking around here for a few years and that is an “edge”. It came back at Texas, and we saw players making plays Saturday who we wondered whether or not were still on the roster. That’s the thing about “the edge”. You can’t only sharpen “the edge” when it is convenient or easy. It’s a daily process.
2. For those of you scoring at home, that should wrap it up for the Mannings vs. the Gators. Even if Arch comes back for his senior year, the ‘Horns are not on Florida’s schedule next season. Personally, I don’t count the freshman season loss for Peyton because he only played at the end of a 31-0 debacle. So, the Mannings went 2-5 against the Gators. Dang that Eli.
3. FOMO game of the week
Let’s see, Florida football is off. So are the Jags. But Friday night on Fox is the opener of the 122nd World Series (no, I have not seen them all). Try to enjoy because we don’t know when we will see MLB back because of a possible lockout by the owners next year.
4. Four questions with Florida’s all-time leader in receiving yards for a season, Travis McGriff
- Bigger accomplishment — your one touchdown run in 1997 or Arena League Rookie of the year in 2003?
McGriff: Arena League Rookie of the Year. - Were you surprised that your single-season receiving record survived three more seasons of Steve Spurrier?
McGriff: Not really surprised. I knew it would be hard to break but as long as coach Spurrier was around, I thought someone would always have a shot at it. - Does your son Keil eventually want to wear No. 3 at Clemson?
McGriff: I’m not sure actually. He’s wearing #25 as a Freshman right now which was dad’s number (Lee McGriff) at Florida and my brother’s number (Britt) at UCF so that is pretty cool. He wore #7 in high school so if that became available, he might jump on that. We will have to wait and see. - If you could relive one moment as a player, what would it be?
McGriff: It would actually be my final high school football game at P.K. Yonge. It was the state semifinal against Baker and we lost (didn’t play well at all). If we win that game, we go to the state championship game in the SWAMP in 1993 which we would have WON BIG. We were ranked #1 most of the year in our classification and had a great team … myself, Terry Jackson, Robert Baker (Auburn) and a bunch of other really good high school players.
5. Five improbable stats from Florida’s win over Texas
- The Gators had a season-low five plays of more than 10 yards … and still won.
- Florida had no plays of at least 20 yards … and still won.
- UF trailed 17-3 for 11:09 of the second quarter … and still won.
- The Gators targeted Dallas Wilson nine times and were only able to get him the ball three times … and still won.
- Texas had one penalty to Florida’s seven … and you know the rest.
6. It Just Means More Report
- Clear playoff path: Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ole Miss.
- Likely need to win out: Florida, LSU, Alabama, Texas.
- Starting portal research: Vanderbilt, Texas A&M.
7. Hot take of the week
Speaking of the College Football Playoff, the big news of the weekend was the handshake agreement to expand to 24 teams. Of course, that allowed every talking head an opportunity to blast the money grab and claim that fans don’t want it. Well, I want it. I think it will result in more weekends like we just had because it will mean more great games. Schools will be more comfortable scheduling teams that aren’t in the FCS and have a pulse. Plus we will have more playoff games and — while there will be bad ones — it will mean more on-campus playoff games. I think it’s great and if the CFP can be this popular in the Era of NIL, the Portal and coaching salaries reaching the GNP of Sweden, we will be just fine.
8. Tweet of the week
From the great Dan Wolken at Yahoo Sports: “I’ve been doing this a long time, with a long archive of columns from years where I felt like the SEC was overrated and years where I thought they were clearly the best. Not an SEC homer. But right now, the league is crazy tough.” What he said.
9. Remote drop of the week
So, the whole idea of this every week is to be honest about actually stopping when a movie is on and watching it (unless there are commercials). I did that on Thursday night with “The Post” mainly because no movie captures the feeling of being a newspaper better (although we hear there is a sequel called “The Mainstreet Daily News.”)