Pat Dooley’s Back Nine: Gator Nation Should Be In Great Mood

The Back Nine comes at you in a Christmas mood because of everything my wife does for the holidays and because it’s been a pretty good last few days around here.

10. Let us start with a Merry Christmas for everybody who reads The Back Nine or listens to my podcast or to Jeff and I on the radio. When I retired four years ago, I hadn’t lost the energy to work and certainly not my love for writing. I just wanted to get out of a crumbling situation (as did almost everyone else). Thankfully, enough of you followed me over here to WRUF.com and for that, I thank you. Every day when I start to write I look at the gift from my brother Tim — framed final column for The Gainesville Sun and the headline “A farewell to my best friends.” But the truth is, your bestest friends stick with you. Have a great holiday season to all of you, even the ones who don’t read this.

11. Certainly, you should all be in a great mood after this weekend (unless you had money on Tennessee). Florida closed out with a win against a Tulane team that is better than it looked Friday. It turned out the Wave’s four-star backup quarterback was not as good as Florida’s. DJ Lagway wasn’t always sharp, but he was the best quarterback on the field. And Florida’s defense was outstanding. Again.

12. I mean, the Gators gave up only 52 points during their four-game winning streak to end the season and 16 of those points were scored after the last two of those games were already decided. And don’t forget how many Gator starters were out with injuries during that winning streak. It is going to make this offseason a lot more relaxing knowing what is coming back for next year.

13. The funny thing is that I have been telling people for months that next year’s schedule is going to be tougher than this year’s, because you only have six home games and have to play at LSU, at Ole Miss, at Miami and at Texas A&M. Then the announcers were waxing poetically about how Florida is going to be a team to watch next year with all of this talent coming back until they flashed the schedule. I thought Andre Ware was going to have a heart attack. It’s the SEC, man. We ready.

14. The internet was certainly chirping about the playoffs and how the networks need to change things up drastically and eliminate the games on campuses and the byes. The average margin of victory was 19.3 points and one reason is they sent four teams to four of the toughest places to play in the country. We begged for more and we’re still complaining. Which is why it will be a 16-team playoff in 2026 after the two-year deal is over. I live for college football and have to say I didn’t watch anywhere near as much as I thought I would. All the results felt, as Thanos would say, inevitable.

15. The Gators went on a roll to end the season and it looks like Dr. Football is on one of his own. After going 4-1 (I picked Clemson to cover) on The Picks, maybe I should retire again. It’s 42-33-1 for the year, but there are bowl games this weekend while we take eight days to get ready for the next round of the playoffs:

• Hoo-boy, it’s Georgia Tech vs. Vandy in what should be called the Egghead Bowl. But it’s the dreaded Birmingham Bowl and I’ll take the Fightin’ Diego Pavias to win (or lose by less than three points).
• Arkansas is favored by two against Texas Tech in the Liberty Bowl and I would think the Hogs aren’t bringing that big boar Tusk VI to a city where they love their pork shoulder. Gimme the Raiders.
• USC is playing Texas A&M in the Las Vegas Bowl and the Agriculturalists are favored by 3.5 points. Give me Mike Elko and A&M.
• Those games are on Friday and on Saturday we have the Granddaddy of them all, the Pop-Tarts Bowl. Miami is favored by three against Iowa State and Miami should cover if Miami shows up.
• The other Saturday game I want to see is BYU vs. Coach Prime. Not surprisingly, it’s in Prime Time on ABC. I’ll take the Buffs.

16. You know, I have to stop waiting until the end to talk about Gator basketball. It’s like I’m burying the lead. The Gators put on a show for the fans Saturday afternoon against North Florida. Amazingly, their NET Ranking went up two spots to No. 4 in the country after it went down a spot after UF beat North Carolina. I know it’s garbage in, garbage out, but that makes no sense. Here’s where you tell me to stop worrying about it and enjoy watching these guys play some hoops.

17. Certainly we feel for the family of Rickey Henderson, who passed away over the weekend. I was never a big fan, but you have to admire a guy who can steal 1,406 bases and obliterate the previous record and also hitting 297 homers. And 81 of them came as a leadoff hitter. Maybe he was the greatest. I mean, he said he was and there isn’t a lot to refute it unless you want to count some of the roid-heads.

18. The Christmas party season has started, but I am weary of listening to the same Christmas songs over and over every year. So, I’ll stick with my playlist:

• “This Life Ain’t Easy” by Jonah Kagen. This is a great song, but there is a better one that has a curse word in it. The College GameDay boys may be allowed to have potty mouths, but we are not here at WRUF.com. Except that one time …
• “All In My Head” by The Linda Lindas.
• And for an old one (check your calendars because it turned 30 this year), “Loser” by Beck. Soy un perdedor.

WRUF.com sports columnist Pat Dooley can be heard on “The Tailgate” along with Jeff Cardozo from 4-6 p.m. Monday-Friday on 98.1-FM/AM-850 WRUF.