Pat Dooley’s Back Nine: Olympics Are Just Different

The Back Nine comes at you after a weekend of watching sports and hunkering down for another storm.

10. Sorry, but my goosebumps have goosebumps after watching a Gator set a world record in what they are saying has been a slow pool. (How is water slow?) Bobby Finke won his second straight gold medal in the 1,500 and the only individual gold for the men and I was definitely into it. Seeing the emotion from Florida coach Anthony Nesty when Finke won was special. Maybe I need to go to more Florida swimming and diving meets.

11. I know this much, after watching the Olympics all weekend, I want Florida to get Summer McIntosh after her “Summer of Summer” performance winning three golds for Canada. She trains in Sarasota and her mom Jill Horstead swan for Randy Reese at Florida. I hate to say it, but I was consumed with that thought all weekend.

12. The win for Scottie Scheffler was also a display of emotions when he was crying during the national anthem. His 62 to win gold was another example of Scheff being the best player in the world and the best iron player maybe ever. And Novak Djokovic losing it after winning the gold medal in two tennis tiebreakers was also a good illustration of how different the Olympics are from any other event.

13. I say this all the time, that no good news can come out of fall camp. Coaches tend to talk about how players are focused and bought in but you won’t know until the season starts. What we do know is that running back Montrell Johnson Jr. had a knee scoped and will miss some time. The hope is that he will be healthy for the opener against Miami. But the point is that you don’t want any more bad news. Forget the coach-speak and only worry about injuries.

14. So, Kentucky used ineligible players in 2021 and ’22 and is going on probation and will have to vacate wins from those seasons? Does that mean we can shave a loss off Billy Napier’s record? I don’t think it works that way. It may not count for the Wildcats, but those games still happened.

15. I have to be honest – I am starting to get that queasy feeling in my stomach, because we are not that far away from the first games of the season. Part of me can’t wait to see what Florida puts on the field against Miami. Part of me is worried about what it might look like. Napier has kind of pushed all of his chips to the middle of the table with all of the changes that have been made and him saying this is his best team at UF. We are about to find out if we were – as Tom Petty sang – “raised on promises” or if this is a legit team.

16. There was this story on the CBS Sports website about the players with the most to prove and almost all of those players were from the SEC and Big Ten. I think that will be the narrative, especially in September, that those two conferences will dominate everything, including the College Football Playoffs. Which is just fine with me. The interesting thing to me (looking way down the road) will be to see if the committee moves teams around seed-wise to avoid rematches.

17. OK, I am getting way ahead of myself. But if I were betting – and I don’t gamble even though the networks pound us all unmercifully with gambling temptations – here are the 12 teams I would have in the playoffs:

SEC – Georgia, Alabama, Ole Miss, Texas.

Big Ten-ish – Ohio State, Penn State, Oregon, Nebraska.

The rest – FSU, Utah, Liberty, SMU.

This is, of course, subject to change, like, tomorrow.

18. I am going to resist the temptation to do any hurricane or rain songs on today’s playlist. Too cliché:

• “Flowers” by Real Estate.
• “Hater’s Anthem” by Infinity Song.

• And for an old one, “I’m A Boy” by The Who. No cheap shots here about Olympic boxing.

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.