Pat Dooley’s Back Nine: Florida Football Has Playoff Roster

The Back Nine comes at you after a glorious weekend of Gainesville weather, other than the fact I experienced my first hailstorm. Those things are loud.

10. Let’s start with the spring game, which was certainly way more entertaining than I thought it would be. I don’t know that Florida has had a better combination of running backs and wide receivers since the 1996 national champions. Dallas Wilson caught 10 passes for 195 yards in his debut. “That’s what a five-star looks like,” Coach Billy Napier said. Ja’Kobi Jackson set a spring game record with 198 yards rushing. And I really like Duke Clark. There is little doubt Napier has a playoff roster. The question will be who gets them the ball?

11. Because all DJ Lagway did was hand the ball off. He’s supposed to start throwing in June, but what if it is a lingering problem? I know Harrison Bailey is way better than he was when he started his first game for Tennessee in the COVID season and was sacked five times, but anybody who is considering Florida a dark horse for the playoffs is doing so because they know Lagway is special and Florida has surrounded him with other special players. Stay tuned.

12. Let us also point out that the offense’s success was helped out by the number of Gator defenders who were not available. But it was a nice show on a perfect day in Gainesville. And Myles Graham played his tail off at linebacker and that’s good news for the fall.

13. Let’s move on to the halftime celebration and I thought Florida did a great job with it (other than the fans booing the athletic director). We had people wondering why it wasn’t done across the street, but would you rather have 50,000 people cheering for you or 10,000? It was nice that people who couldn’t be at Flavet on Tuesday were able to make it to cheer for what might be the most beloved team of all time. Then again, when I was thinking about ranking the six nattys in football and basketball, I stopped. It’s like your children … or The Beatles. They are all equally important and you love them all.

14. On to baseball, where Florida did what it needed to do against a team that still is winless in the SEC. The sweep doesn’t solve the problem, it just makes it easier to solve. Florida needs to keep it going in the mid-weeks and win a bunch of series, because I think the magic number is 12 SEC wins to make the NCAA Tournament. Florida right now is 35^thin RPI (dropping two spots after a sweep) and just needs to take the series this week at Mississippi State to make me feel better. It feels like the pitching issue is borderline solved. Is that even a legit expression?

15. One would think that a softball team scoring 28 runs in a three-game series would sweep, but Ole Miss has a big inning against Keagan Rothrock (including a grand salami) and took the third game against the mighty Gators. Florida is still in the race, 2½ games behind Texas A&M in a jumbled SEC race. Next up is one of those Thursday-Saturday series at home against Alabama.

16. Florida’s gymnastics team is raring to go at the NCAAs in Fort Worth and it’s going to be interesting and intense. I told my friends from Pensacola – David and Angie Sapp – that I don’t want to feel my heart beating too fast or sweat dripping down my face while watching the Gators do anything for a while. But I’ll be all-on Thursday afternoon when the Gators take the podium at 4:30 p.m. on ESPN 2. Interesting that four SEC teams are on one side and only one on the other. Florida is starting out against Alabama, Missouri and Oklahoma. LSU, Utah, UCLA and Michigan State are the other competing teams at The Big Tumble.

17. I guess I should say something about the big story of the weekend which was Tennessee cutting ties with a guy who clearly didn’t want to be there. Nico Iamaleavin’ (sorry, couldn’t resist) isn’t the first college quarterback to demand more NIL money and who knows how many times it has happened with other players behind the scenes? His family better hope he makes it, because he may be getting the bag, but it comes with a lot of baggage.

18. It feels like we are all trying to get our lives back in order after spending so much time watching basketball. At least I am. I also came up with this playlist:

• “I Want You (Fever)” by Momma.
• “Gold Rush” by Lucius.
• And for an old one, “Rockin’ In The Free World” by Neil Young.

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.