Sorry, y’all, I missed you last week – I was in Cancun. It was beautiful. But we are back at it!
We are right in the heart of spring sports and, holy cow, the Gators are killing it across the board, sans basketball. The softball team looks like one the best teams of all time at 26-0 currently. The baseball team is hitting on all cylinders. And, finally, the gymnastics, track and field (men and women), lacrosse and tennis teams are all one of the top ranked programs in the nation.
Let’s look over the past week.
Six Days Away from Spring Practice
We are only six days away from the start of spring practice (March 16) and as we all know – practice will be closed. It is an interesting issue because many people across Gator Nation applauded the move by Coach Jim McElwain to close practice, yet, many of those same people raked former head coach Will Muschamp over the coals for his choice to close practice.
Listen, I am no proponent of open spring practice – I opined on that here (https://www.gatorcountry.com/feature/open-spring-practice-yawn/) – its boring and you don’t learn much. But it is interesting to see the reaction of folks.
The idea that spring practice being closed is now glorified by many now, shows just how much political capital Jim McElwain has already earned with the fan base in just the first few months.
What is a Quality Control Coach?
There has been much discussion about the addition of a number of quality control coaches at Florida this year. So far, Florida has hired six quality control coaches for next season, two more than the Gators had last season – however, every new quality control coach that Florida has hired has been exponentially more experienced than last year’s group.
Because of the renewed focus on quality control coaches, the question has often been asked, “what does a quality control coach do?”
The answer is somewhat nebulous and the NCAA does not even define the role in their exceptionally long 434-page Division 1 Manual.
Responsibilities of the quality control coach are usually defined loosely as breaking down game film, breaking down recruiting film, analyzing statistics, gathering trends, organizing practice plans, developing recruiting relationships with schools (not players), and other administrative roles, such as compliance.
Basically, the role is a catch-all of almost everything that is administrative and monotonous about being a football coach, giving usually young coaches the opportunity to learn and grow as coaches.
Here are two job descriptions that you can look at – California and Miami.
If you read both, you will see a few things:
- Editing playbooks with XOS (a software platform)
- Breakdown game film (their team, their opponents, the NFL, and high school prospects)
- Statistical breakdowns
- Poster design
- Practice scripts
- Campus tours
- Assist coaches in basically everything
All in all, quality control coaches have been around college football for a while, but we are now starting to see them grow both in number and in quality of coach. Next season, Florida has a former offensive coordinator at Oregon State with 15 previous NFL years of experience and a former Special Teams Coordinator at Cincinnati on their staff.
I hope this helped clarify a few things.
Terry Jackson No Longer Listed on Gatorzone…
Up until recently, one mainstay from the Urban Meyer days was the inclusion of Terry Jackson as the Director of Player/Community Relations. As of today (when I checked), Jackson was no longer listed. I am not sure what the future for Jackson holds, but he was an exceptionally nice guy and great Gator.
Immediate QB Back-Up
If the Gators are looking for a transfer QB to come to UF and immediately provide depth, the best option, in my opinion, would be Daxx Garman from Oklahoma State. Gorman, who has originally enrolled at Arizona, played one season at Oklahoma State after sitting out on transfer rules his redshirt freshman year and sat the bench his redshirt sophomore year, he threw for 2,041 yards with 12 touchdowns and 12 interceptions on 55% passing in nine games. While these numbers aren’t amazing, they are both better game by game than both Treon Harris and Jeff Driskel last year (obviously not accounting for Will Grier).
Garman is a pocket passer, standing at 6-foot-2, 205-pounds, and has a solid arm. He is no Heisman trophy winner, but if the Gators need a short term solution to provide depth and competition in Coach Jim McElwain’s new offense, Garman would be the answer.
Must Read Articles of the Week
- Chris Megerian | Inmates writing their own obits reveal regrets, failed dreams
- Maia Szalavitz | The Drug Lord With a Social Mission
- Christopher Budd | Why the Clinton email server story matters — and why it may be worse than you think
- Mary Norris | Confessions of a Comma Queen
Song of the Week
As you know, I am a big Chris Janson fan. I love the guy as a musician.
Here he is performing is latest single, “Buy Me a Boat.”